Someday Ferndale will erect a statue to Chris Johnston. Or better yet, replace the police officer in Woodward Avenue's Crow's Nest with his likeness. Entrepreneur, bar owner, restaurateur, rocker and driving force behind downtown's resurgence, only one question remains: When does he sleep?
Building new might be a tall order right now, but Urbane Apartments is building a big reputation by taking on a number of small renovation projects.It’s latest offering is Urbane on Main, which is on Main Street just north of 12 Mile Road and downtown Royal Oak. The 32-unit model apartment will open next week, with 18 ready for rental. The Royal Oak-based company invested an average of $26,000 on each unit's upgrade."We have a waiting list," says Eric Brown, co-founder of Urbane Apartments.Urban Apartments focuses on rehabbing old apartment buildings near vibrant downtown areas. It controls 14 buildings in several communities in southeast Oakland County, including Royal Oak, Ferndale, Clawson and Berkley.Urbane on Main (each building is named after the street each it’s on) hasn’t received much love since it was built in the 1960s. Urbane Apartments began renovating the structure composed entirely of one-bedroom apartments last summer. It also renovated the exterior, which often features modern, artistic features. The interiors include bamboo flooring, water-saving faucets and toilets, recycled carpet, granite bar tops and black appliances.For information on Urbane Apartments offerings, call (248) 988-7125.Source: Eric Brown, co-founder of Urbane ApartmentsWriter: Jon Zemke
It takes a lot to make a movie and Ferndale's S3 Entertainment Group is ready to lend a hand.The 3-year-old firm supplies production services and equipment to filmmakers, and has watched its business take off as more and more movies crowd into Michigan to take advantage of the state's tax incentives. Some of its credits include major Hollywood productions like Gran Torrino, the Butterfly Effect 3, WhipIt! and Youth in Revolt."We have provided production support and services to six feature films that have shot in Michigan since April," says Jeff Spilman, managing partner of S3 Entertainment Group.Spilman expects that number to increase rapidly and his business to grow just as fast. It now has seven employees and its subsidiaries employ about 80 more people. That's up from when Spilman and Hollywood producers Marc Sternberg and Jeff Stern started the company.The plans are for the company to grow to 200 employees by handling 15-20 major pictures per year. "We expect to grow exponentially in the next few years," Spilman says.The firm first set up shop in Troy, but moved to Ferndale soon after. Spilman says its open-minded community with a strong arts background made it attractive to him and his partners. He said those same qualities should be echoed throughout the state providing yet another reason for Hollywood to come here."They are coming here because of the incentives," Spilman says. "They're having a great experience because the crews are great and the places to shoot are beautiful."Source: Jeff Spilman, managing partner of S3 Entertainment GroupWriter: Jon Zemke
Detroit City Council has adopted a non-motorized plan for the Motor City that calls for more than 400 miles of bikelanes.
Transportation, like building, like living, is shifting to a greener, cleaner way of doing things. From trains, planes, and automobiles (well, maybe not planes yet), there is an environmentally friendly way of going about it. Some of these points were plotted during the Michigan Clean Transportation Expo last week. Excerpt: Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje also spoke about the city's various green initiatives, which include converting all streetlights to light-emitting diodes (LEDs), green energy targets for city government and the community at large, and increasing use of alternative fuels and electric vehicles for city fleets. He said officials are discussing the possibility of using sensors to dim or completely turn off streetlights to save energy during times when no pedestrians or vehicles are detected on city streets. Read the entire article here.
Michigan is home to some of the best hospitals in the nation. It's a booming industry in a financially strapped state. Oakland County exec, L. Brooks Patterson, wants to harness this growth and turn Michigan's OC into a healthcare Mecca. Excerpt: Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson is betting that health care can be an even greater growth engine for his county, which already has 93,000 jobs in the field in 4,300 facilities. He's trying to harness Oakland's fast-growing hospital systems into a medical branding initiative aimed at capturing more health care investment. Patterned after Automation Alley, the effort would market Oakland County as the place to go if you're looking for treatment, health care jobs, research opportunities or a medical education. "The growth in this industry is phenomenal," Patterson says. "If we leave it alone and do nothing, it will add 30,000 jobs in Oakland over the next 10 years. We think that with a little help, we can push that to 45,000 jobs at a minimum." Read the entire article here.
One of the most visible redevelopment projects in downtown Royal is getting ready to wrap up in November.The people behind the Historic Loft Building (there's an original name) plan to have two of their tenants moved in post Halloween to the structure at the corner of Harrison and Main streets on the south side of downtown. The two business, a medical group and a pharmacy, will occupy most of the ground floor space. The remaining 1,500 square feet on the ground floor is still available.The second and third floors of the 3-story building are being turned into Class A office space. Each floor has 8,600 square feet of space. The space is being built as loft-style office space with exposed brick and utility lines. "It's one of the few loft-style office spaces in the downtown area," says Mason Capitani, leasing agent for the Historic Loft Building.The structure was originally built as a Ford car dealership nearly 100 years ago. It has housed a few other businesses, including as a furniture store most recently. Source: Mason Capitani, leasing agent for the Historic Loft BuildingWriter: Jon Zemke
Work is wrapping up on another apartment building renovation by Urbane Apartments in Royal Oak – Urbane on Farnum. Six of the 16 units in the 1960s-era apartment building will be ready for residents by late October. Work on the exterior of the building is also nearly finished. The apartment building is located on the corner of Farnum and Washington streets. It is across the street from Royal Oak's old Dondero High School and a few blocks north of downtown. It had fallen into disrepair before Urbane invested $400,000 into restoring the building. The structure's 16 units are a mix of large studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. They include a number of modern amenities, such as brand new bamboo floors, recycled carpet, efficient water fixtures, granite bar tops, black appliances, glass French doors, dual shower heads and high-speed wireless Internet. Urbane owns 14 apartment buildings in southeast Oakland County. These buildings are near vibrant downtowns, such as Royal Oak, Ferndale, Clawson and Berkely. For information on Urbane Apartments offerings, call (248) 988-7125. Source: Eric Brown, co-founder of Urbane Apartments Writer: Jon Zemke
EVIEW 360 is evolving in Farmington Hills. The design firm has gone from creating website applications before the dotcom bubble burst in 1999 to designing websites then onto branding. This transformation has caused great growth for the company with revenues increasing from $2 million in 2006 to $4 million last year to an expected $6 million this year. In the last year EVIEW has also added nine people, building its staff to 19 (along with one independent contractor and one intern). The firm has set its sights on a revenue spurt of 30-40 percent next year while adding another 4-5 new people."We've been enjoying quite a bit of growth and we hope to continue at that pace," says Melissa Centra, CEO of EVIEW 360.The company focuses its business on a number of design areas, such as website design, branding, corporate identity, branding environment and corporate environment. Centra sees the firm expanding its branded environment niche as more companies search for better ways to set themselves apart from competitors in a tough economy."That is the area we are choosing to focus on right now," Centra says.Source: Melissa Centra, CEO of EVIEW 360Writer: Jon Zemke
Decisions have been made but details still need to be ironed out for the Lot 9 development in downtown Pontiac.The Pontiac Downtown Development Authority choose the plan from West Investments (headed up by Kyle Westberg, owner of Pontiac-based West Construction) for the 6.7 acre parcel at the northeast corner of Saginaw and Pike streets. The property is currently a surface parking lot at the knot end of the Woodward Avenue loop that surrounds downtown.The development calls for building a 4-story, mixed-use structure. The building will feature ground floor retail space with a yet-to-be-named anchor tenant. Above that will be three floors of residential space. The number of units and whether they will be rentals or for-sale has also not been determined.Sandy McDonald, executive director of the Pontiac Downtown Development Authority, says the units will play a key role in creating a critical mass of residents in a downtown dominated by business space."Both projects were excellent mixed-use developments," McDonald says.The project is far from a done deal, though. The DDA still has to take the project to the mayor’s office for approval and must still iron out other development details with the developer. An update is expected by mid October, which is why details remain scarce."We don’t want to say too much, too fast," McDonald says.Source: Sandy McDonald, executive director of the Pontiac Downtown Development AuthorityWriter: Jon Zemke
Our Partners
We want to know what's on your mind.
