Sterling Heights

The (less than) skinny on Detroit Chocolat

By Newsroom

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June 27, 2013

File under "Things That Make You Say Yum." A teacher starts his day, every day, as an up n coming chocolatier. Excerpt: "Chocolate runs in his blood: He’s a fourth-generation chocolatier (the great-grandson of Ervin and Julia Morley of Morley Candy Makers) and he spent a decade working for Morley. Even though he’s a full-time elementary school teacher, Petz was unable to resist the pull of chocolate and in 2010 started Detroit Chocolat in Sterling Heights (to the delight of his mother and his wife whom he calls a “chocolate addict.”)" Read the rest here.

Coupon Wallet helps biz coupons transition to digital

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Entrepreneurship

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June 20, 2013

A new start-up at the Macomb-OU INCubator aims to help businesses make the leap from paper to digital when it comes to the savings they offier. Coupon Wallet is developing a software platform that help small businesses create digital coupons, helping them reach a larger audience. The technology includes managed marketing services and point-of-sale integration. "It's meant to help brands transition out of the paper world and into the digital world," says Christopher Papa, chief marketing officer & partner of Coupon Wallet. The Sterling Heights-based company was spun out of PocketCents Network, which has been advertising online for several years. The Coupon Wallet will focus on enhancing creating digital coupon but also aggregating information that will help users make more constructive business decisions. Coupon Wallet was launched last fall and has grown to team of five employees and three interns. It recently tok up residence at the Macomb-OU INCubator to help help grow the business and leverage the business accelerators numerous assets. "The rent is very cheap and everything is included," Papa says. "There is also being surrounded by professionals." Source: Christopher Papa, chief marketing officer & partner of Coupon Wallet Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

$1 million in redevelopment grants coming to Macomb County

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Community Development

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June 13, 2013

The Environmental Protection Agency is sending $1 million Macomb County's way so that local economic development officials can redevelop brownfield property that may be contaminated. A brownfield is land that can be difficult to redevelop, reuse or expand because of pollution or perceived pollution. The upside is that brownfields let developers use municipal infrastructure that's already in place and also preserve open space. “Brownfield sites create special challenges due to the expense involved with environmental cleanup,” says Stephen Cassin, executive director of Macomb County Planning and Economic Development. “These funds will help put some of our vacant properties back into new use while creating investment and new jobs in our key industrial areas.” Macomb County and one of 240 communities nationwide, and the only county chosen in Michigan, to receive the grant from the EPA's Revolving Loan Fund. In coming weeks and months, county officials will begin to identify and prioritize sites that have the most redevelopment promise. Writer: Kim North Shine Source: Stephen Cassin, executive director, Macomb County Planning and Economic Development

UHY adds nearly 20 jobs in Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights

By Newsroom

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General

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May 9, 2013

UHY, an accounting firm, has traditionally scored its revenue gains from word-of-mouth marketing for most of its 40-plus years of doing business. Now the Farmington Hills-based firm is helping buffet its current growth streak with some more conventional marketing efforts. "We have done a lot of branding over the last couple of years," says Dennis Petri, partner with UHY. "We have done a billboard campaign highlighting some of the principals in the firm." That work has allowed the company to notch significant revenue gains (either high single digits or low double digits) in each of the last few years. Last year it hit 8-percent growth and is on track to do it again in 2013. UHY specializes in providing financial, tax, and business consulting services to mid-sized and larger companies. It has been able to attract a number of new clients in the last year, which has allowed it to hire nearly 20 people in the last year. The company now has 260 employees and more than a dozen interns, most of which are in its Farmington Hills headquarters and its Sterling Heights office. "We have an excellent recruiting program," Petri says. "We have a couple of excellent individuals who do recruiting for us, most of which occurs at college campuses." Source: Dennis Petri, partner with UHY Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

AQABA Technologies leverages Google partnership for growth

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Technology & Innovation

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May 2, 2013

AQABA Technologies is enjoying double-digit growth because of its growing relationship with one of the biggest names in tech, Google. The Sterling Heights-based firm began working with the Google Engage Agency Program last year, which required months of training and flying back and forth between Detroit and Silicon Valley. "We have been landing large contracts and more intricate work because of our relationship with Google," says Ramsey Sweis, president of AQABA Technologies. The 9-year-old tech firm's revenue has been on a steady trajectory since the economic downturn. It went from clocking single-digit revenue gains in 2010 to 40-percent growth in 2011 and 62-percent growth last year. The firm has watched its client list expand to more than 200, which includes not only work from new clients but expanding existing work with old customers. "The key to our longevity is the loyalty of our customers," says Ramsey Sweis, president of AQABA Technologies. That allowed the company to hire three people, expanding its staff to nine employees and two interns. It is currently looking for an account executive and expects to make one more hire later this summer. Source: Ramsey Sweis, president of AQABA Technologies Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Metro Detroit ranks 14th nationally in percentage job growth

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Community Development

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April 25, 2013

In a good comeback story, Metro Detroit is no. 14 in the country in terms of percentage job growth from 2011 to 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. More here.

Post-industrial? Detroit needs a new word

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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April 25, 2013

Detroit's economy is facing forward. Now it just needs some new verbiage. Excerpt: "Former heavy manufacturing hubs around the Great Lakes like Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, and Milwaukee often get roped together under the heading of "post-industrial" (when, that is, we're not otherwise identifying them by their prevalence of rust). The term poses at least two problems, though: Industry still exists in many of these places, and the very notion of defining them by their relationship to the past can hamstring us from planning more thoughtfully for their future. "You've got the 'post-war,' you've got 'post-modern,' you've got 'post-9/11,'" says Paul Kapp, an associate professor in the school of architecture at the University of Illinois and an editor of the book SynergiCity: Reinventing the Postindustrial City. He was speaking Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Planning Association (hosted in what's often considered the post-industrial city of Chicago). "You get to a point," Kapp says, "where you've got to say, 'When does post-something end and you do something new?' I think with 'post-industrial,' we're at that opportunity now. I think it's now time to come up with a new term." More here.

Munetrix triples revenue on sales of software to cities

By Newsroom

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General

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April 25, 2013

Munetrix is starting to gain traction in its market. The 3-year-old tech firm has tripled its sales over the last year and is on track to double its revenue again this year. The Auburn Hills-based start-up is developing a software platform that focuses on making local municipalities (think school districts and cities) more transparent and accessible. The platform incorporates social media, web-based financial tools and database management. The idea is to enable local government to network more effectively and build long-range fiscal roadmaps in a fraction of the time legacy systems require. "It's not just a business intelligence tool that a client installs," says Bob Kittle, president of Munetrix. "It's an open forum that is available to the world." Kittle adds that the software is "built from a citizen's perspective," making it more accessible to everyday people. The price for each customer is set by its population base, so smaller municipalities like Ferndale (a customer) don't pay as much as Wayne County (also a customer). Munetrix now has approximately 750 jurisdictions at low-level subscriptions and more than 140 at premium subscriptions. "It works out well for everybody," Kittle says. Munetrix, which is a client of the Sterling Heights-based Macomb-OU INCubator, currently employs a team of nine staffers and an intern. It recently hired a marketing coordinator and is looking to hire an office manager. Source: Bob Kittle, president of Munetrix Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Atlantic Cities maps Metro Detroit’s creative class

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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April 18, 2013

A great, comprehensive article on how the 7.2-square-mile greater downtown Detroit is growing posher by the minute, it seems, and how and why its deindustrialized metros (and certain Detroit neighborhoods) are landing the creative class. Excerpt: "Two of the top 10 creative class tracts are in Birmingham; two are in Bloomfield Township, and another is in Bloomfield Hills, home to some of the priciest real estate in the U.S. and the Cranbrook educational community. Designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, the architecture critic Paul Goldberger called Cranbrook "one of the greatest campuses ever created anywhere in the world." University of Michigan's Little points out in an email to me: "Cranbrook graduates have added to the cutting edge design and creative communities of Detroit and the nation for decades." Another top creative class tract is in nearby Troy, a sprawling middle-class suburb with excellent public schools, and the site of a high-end mall, the Somerset Collection. Two are in Huntington Woods, a leafy neighborhood that boasts such notable amenities as the public golf course Rackham and the Detroit Zoo. Two more are in the "Grosse Pointes" — Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Park — the communities of choice for many of Detroit's old industrial magnates, whose lakeshores are lined with sprawling Gilded Age mansions." More here.

American Hydrostatics triples Sterling Heights space

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Economic Development

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April 11, 2013

American Hydrostatics has moved to a bigger facility in Sterling Heights, allowing the automotive supplier to continue expanding its staff at an aggressive clip. The 30-year-old business has hired seven people in the last year with most of the hires coming in the control engineering, electrical engineering and skilled trades areas. Its staff now sits at 20 people and the company expects to double its employee base this year thanks to its new home, which is three times as big as its previous home. "We couldn't find a space as big as ours in Troy for the price we're paying in Sterling Heights," says Sri Bramadesam, principal of American Hydrostatics. American Hydrostatics, a minority-owned firm, provides industrial automation, maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) distribution services, controls engineering, field service, maintenance, and engineering services. It recently landed a $1 million investment from Delta Asset Advisors. American Hydrostatics plans to work with local community colleges and technical institutes to find the 20-25 hires it expects to make this year. Bramadesam sees this expansion as an opportunity to replenish the local manufacturing talent pool that was significantly drained in the most recent economic downturn that bankrupted a lot of automotive suppliers like his. "We navigated through it," Bramadesam says. "We emerged much stronger." Source: Sri Bramadesam, principal of American Hydrostatics Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.