More than $40 million is being invested in the renovation of buildings -- big and small -- along the three blocks of West Alexandrine between Woodward Avenue and Third Street. It's here where some of the city's newest marquee business have set up shop and where the changing face of Midtown Detroit is most acutely visible.
Batch Brewing Co., Detroit's first nanobrewery, has found a home in the former Porter Street Station, a quirky Corktown building with a boxcar attached to it.
Jim Geary set out to change a neighborhood in Detroit. He began with homes in the Woodbridge neighborhood, but things really started to swell when he finished rehabbing a commercial building and opened the Woodbridge Pub, the new center for community in the neighborhood.
Jim Richter wears more than one hat in Metro Detroit's entrepreneurial ecosystem, and he regularly throws those hats into the regional economy's growing defense sector. Richter is the CEO of Gravikor, a Delphi spin-out that is working to commercialize welding technology that is both lighter and stronger than traditional welding. It aims to take this technology to refurbishing military vehicles, such as the Humvee. These sorts of military vehicles are constantly overweight, which causes everything from lower fuel economy to increased wear and tear on parts. The Ann Arbor-based startup's technology is promising to make these Humvees lighter and give them the ability to add or subtract armor easily. Richter is also the president of the Michigan Research Institute. The non-profit research incubator, which is based in Ann Arbor, works to help bring more cutting-edge technology into the marketplace. Often that means creating startups that help create more jobs. The defense and aerospace sectors are both areas the Michigan Research Institute has helped create new, local businesses in. Richter answered a handful of questions about Metro Detroit's growing defense sector means to the local economy and where the best opportunities for it are.
GraviKor, Plex and Patriot Services are firms that are expanding business in the defense and aerospace industry sectors. In this Model D and Metromode Special Edition, Jon Zemke shows us how this business gets done in Metro Detroit.
Growing up in the metro area, Joe McClure spent much of his childhood making pickles using a family recipe, passed on for generations. He tells Jon Zemke why education and the Detroit brand are critical to the success of his business in this special edition Q&A.
There is a new generation of manufacturers emerging in Detroit. Watches, bicycles, pickles and other environmentally friendly processes and products are being created. Jon Zemke takes a closer look at Shinola, McClure's and Fusion Coolant Systems in this Model D special edition.
In the last few years, there has been a visible influx of creatively based, high growth businesses opening in, moving to or setting up an office in the greater downtown Detroit area. Jon Zemke tracks the exciting progress in this special report.
He knows as much about fast companies and creative talent as anyone in town, so Jon Zemke gave Matt Clayson a call for a quick Q&A about "Gazelles" jumping into the local entrepreneurial landscape. Take it away, guys.
We asked innovation & jobs editor Jon Zemke to come up with some key initial takeaways from last week's Detroit Future City framework launch. There will be more in the months ahead as the project moves from idea to execution phase.
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