Midtown : News

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When Punch Bowl Social opened its gastro diner-meets-rec room last week, it was the highlight of an already-overflowing list of restaurants to hang a shingle in the Motor City over the past year. 

More than a dozen new eateries have opened, with the much-anticipated Antietam, Gold Cash Gold, HopCat Detroit and Selden Standard all debuting in the past two months alone. And more are already announced, including Chartreuse Kitchen, Jolly Pumpkin and Parks and Recreation.

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If there is one thing I’ve learned in my lifetime, it’s that you can’t please everyone.
 
And based on the comments generated from online news stories, there are some people who will never be pleased.

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Detroit innovator Sebastian Jackson of Social Club Grooming Company is one of the featured entrepreneurs on Growing America, a new series on HLN. With the help of MBAs Across America, Jackson explores how to grow a viable business that also contributes to his community.

Watch more here.

 

Inventev scored a win at the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition earlier this month, adding $25,000 in seed capital to its current fundraising efforts.

"It will really help us with analytics so we can continue to match our product to customer needs," says Dave Stenson, founder & CEO of Inventev. "It will also help us with raising financing."

The TechTown-based startup is aiming to raise $5 million to bring its automotive hybrid technology to market. The company is looking to raise two tranches of money, and Stenson expects to close on the first $1.5 million in the first quarter of next year.
Inventev is developing a hybrid-electric system for commercial trucks. The technology is a new transmission architecture that allows electric machines to operate other aspects of the trucks, such as the hydraulic lift. That way the trucks' diesel engines don't need to idle while they dump their loads. The truck would also generate its own electricity so workers could use it as a generator.

"This isn't just a work truck," Stenson says. "This is a truck that is a job-site tool."

That technology won the Advanced Transportation category of the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition, which comes with $25,000 in seed capital. Inventev’s team of five people used the event to sharpen the startup’s business plan and help move the company toward its fundraising goal.

"It's a top-shelf event that is becoming even more well-known and respected in and outside of the state," Stenson says.

Source: Dave Stenson, founder & CEO of Inventev
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Excerpt:

A vacant two-story building in Midtown is undergoing a radical transformation with artfully crafted murals and an award-winning pub and entertainment spot that will serve 130 beers on tap.

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With the announcement of Whole Foods planning to open a store in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, one of the poorest in the city, the conversation once again turns towards the opening of the Whole Foods in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood last year, including the criticisms it was met with and how, in the span of 14 months, the store had already reached its 10-year sales goal. 

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Excerpt:

The epiphany came when Jonathan Lewald was enjoying a projected light installation at the nighttime arts festival Dlectricity.

“Detroit’s coming back, baby,” he turned and yelled to no one in particular, his face flecked with dancing reflections. “This is what we do!”

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When Techonomy’s Chief Program Officer Simone Ross first proposed in late 2011 that we consider doing an entire conference in Detroit, I was a little confused. Detroit? Isn’t Techonomy all about cutting edge, shiny, new, transformative technologies and the things being transformed? Why head to America’s most distressed big city? But Simone convinced me to head there with her before Christmas that year and I, like her, became captivated.

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The city of Detroit has re-issued a slightly modified request for proposals for a Brush Park development first announced at the beginning of 2014. With that RFP long-expired and the city having not selected a plan, a new RFP was recently announced with a November 14 deadline.

The biggest differences between last January's RFP and the new one are a changes in residential density and land use parameters. While the previous RFP capped residential development in Brush Park at 15 to 35 dwelling units per acre, the revised RFP is allowing for larger developments of up to 60 dwelling units per acre.

According to the release, the City of Detroit's Planning and Development Department believes that, "[I]in order to better achieve the neighborhood scale, walkable, mixed-use vision of the future of Brush Park as set forth by P&DD and the Brush Park Citizens District Council, the current Development Plan is undergoing a major modification in order to allow a greater density of residential (up to 60 D.U./Acre) and a greater mix of uses within Brush Park."

The two parcels of land available in this RFP are the same as before. At approximately 7.5 acres, “Parcel A” is made up of four historic structures and 36 vacant lots bounded by Edmund Place (north), Brush Street (east), Adelaide Street (south), and John R (west). At approximately 0.90 acres, “Parcel B” consists of seven vacant properties and is bounded by Alfred (north), Beaubien Street (east), Division Street (south), and Brush (west).

The historic building at 312 Watson, known as “Parcel C” in January's RFP, is not included in this most recent request.

According to the RFP, the P&DD's new goals for the historic Brush Park neighborhood include creating residential density, promoting adaptive re-use, introducing neighborhood scale retail uses, and limiting surface parking lots.

Source: City of Detroit Planning & Development Department
Writer: MJ Galbraith

Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith.

Vazilyn Poinsetta isn’t the stereotypical senior citizen. The Midtown resident retired from a mortgage company a few years ago and decided to do something different. She went back to school and eventually opened her own business.

"I might as well be 70 and get a degree in nutrition instead of waiting around saying woulda, coulda, shoulda," Poinsetta says.

The lifelong Detroiter started classes at Wayne State University soon after retiring. In 2012, she started taking advantage of the entrepreneurial education classes at Blackstone LaunchPad on campus. That inspired her to start AVC Kitchens, which teaches cooking classes in the city.

"They (Blackstone LaunchPad's staff and participants) are just wonderful," Poinsetta says. "I'm not very tech savvy, but I can still ask anyone in the program and they will show me what to do."

AVC Kitchens aims to combine education of cooking and healthy living. Poinsetta hosts cooking classes at Eastern Market and Focus: HOPE, teaching people how to create cost-effective meals with everyday ingredients -- meals that are both affordable and nutritious using ingredients local people can find just about anywhere.

"Not anything that is super expensive," Poinsetta says.

Source: Vazilyn Poinsetta, owner of AVC Kitchens
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

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For generations, Detroit was America’s stronghold. It was the country’s hub for auto manufacturing, where good hard work led to reward; a place where the American dream lived and thrived and was woven into the very fabric of the city.

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Gilda Snowden, a prominent Detroit artist and much-loved professor at the College for Creative Studies for 31 years, died unexpectedly Tuesday morning of heart failure. She was 60.

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Dlectricity, the nighttime festival of light and art, returns to Midtown on Sept. 26 and 27. A Detroit version of the “white nights” that have lit up New York and Paris for years, Dlectricity debuted to tremendous acclaim in 2012 despite miserable weather.

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Excerpt:

In August, a year after I wrote a TIME cover story on Detroit’s bankruptcy, I visited Motown again. This time I found myself reporting on a remarkable economic resurgence that could become a model for other beleaguered American communities. Even as Detroit continues to struggle with blight and decline–more than 70,500 properties were foreclosed on in the past four years, and basic public services like streetlights and running water are still spotty in some areas–its downtown is booming, full of bustling restaurants, luxury lofts, edgy boutiques and newly renovated office buildings.

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ENT Biotech Solutions recently secured $100,000 in seed capital from the Michigan Pre-Seed Fund 2.0, which is part of a $1 million angel round for the TechTown-based startup.

"We are in the process of closing it," says Andrea Roumell Dickson, CEO of ENT Biotech Solutions.

The two-year-old startup is developing the Elasso, a single-use, disposable device designed as a cost-effective too for reducing the tedious nature of adenoid and tonsil surgery. The one-step tool cuts, cauterizes, and removes tissue, combining the advantages of heating and cutting technologies.

ENT Biotech Solutions is currently waiting for a clearance from the FDA to move ahead with commercialization. That clearance could come as soon as this fall.

"As soon as we receive that we have a green light to manufacture. Our tooling is already cut," Roumell Dickson says. "We are able to very rapidly ramp up for production."

Source: Andrea Roumell Dickson, CEO of ENT Biotech Solutions
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.