REO Town : Innovation & Job News

East Lansing-based Kincaid Building Group has added a name to its flag, although the players are the same.

Soon after Ryan Kincaid started the building and development company, Ryan Henry joined his boyhood friend. Now, the company name reflects their partnership:  Kincaid Henry Building Group.

In business five years, the company posted a 420 percent increase in gross revenue in 2008 over the previous year and Henry expects 2009 to look good as well. Kincaid Henry can no longer be called a start-up.

Henry projects the company will hire another project manager and an assistant project manager later this year, taking its employee base to nine to handle the growth he foresees.

“We have some very neat private development projects coming up in a few months that I can’t talk about yet,” he teases. And he will not give hints.

Big projects in 2008 included the relocation of Career Quest Learning Center into a 50-year-old rehabbed building, DBI’s renovation, the expansion of the Riverwalk Theatre and the repurposing of Cedar Street School into the Old Town Medical Arts Building.

Kincaid Henry’s new marketing plan features a revamped website, complete with video describing a few past projects.

“We’ve taken on some projects others wouldn’t do, because they didn’t know how to figure the costs,” Henry says. Opening an old building can bring unpleasant surprises requiring experience and commitment to thinking green.

The company specializes in “brown on green” development, using government brownfield incentives that apply to contaminated sites, and turning them into productive urban projects.

“There is nothing more green than re-using an old building,” Henry says.

Source: Ryan Henry, Kincaid Henry Building Group

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here. 

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie

As the Lansing State Journal started to lose staff and its corresponding entertainment zine, Noise, was relegated to a shell of its former self, Brian Breen started developing nuvu Lansing.

Nuvu is a monthly promotional publication that includes information and articles about events, music and entertainment in the region.

“The good thing about the Noise staff was that they were all local,” Breen says. “You’d see them out and about at different events. I felt that there was going to be a need for this type of information to be promoted in Lansing.”

In 2008, Breen started Brevin Cyber Media, but wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the company. Earlier this year, Brevin Cyber launched nuvu, which is run by a six-person volunteer crew.

Breen works full time for Canada Dry Bottling Company, but hopes to give nuvu more of his attention in 2010.

“Ideally I’d like to publish every two weeks,” he says. “I’d like to have a paid staff and would like to eventually work part time on this and part time on the other job I have.”

Breen is looking for more writers and will revamp his site in January or February 2010.

To subscribe to nuvu, click here.

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.

Photographer Terri Shaver is using her art to help local families through the grieving process.

Shaver is the founder of The Oldham Project, a nonprofit photography effort that ensures families take family portraits before a loved one dies.

“Everyone talks about having a family portrait done, but they never make the time to do it,” she says. “Not until someone in the family passes away that they say, ‘I wish we would have done that.’”

Hospice of Lansing and Ele’s Place refer families to Shaver who photographs them in their homes or in her studio.

“The response has been so positive from those agencies,” she says.

Before starting The Oldham Project, Shaver volunteered with the Denver-based non-profit Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep where she photographed still born babies and babies that died while at the hospital.

“It occurred to me that there was nothing in place like that for older people or even for children,” she says. Shaver says she wants to make the experience as pleasant and as easy for the families as possible, which is why she is willing to travel to take the photos and does not charge for her services.  

Source: Terri Shaver, The Oldham Project

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.

The Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) released a 10- year regional strategic plan that outlines a plan to improve the region by attracting and retaining talent, supporting business and entrepreneurship and creating a sense of place, among other things.

LEAP started working with the Michigan State University (MSU) Land Policy Institute on the assessment in January, first gathering and analyzing economic trends from across the country. Capital region assets were then assessed and compared to more than 50 other regions.

“This really came from the beginning of LEAP,” says Denyse Ferguson, LEAP president and CEO. “The idea was to get all of the different players in the region working together toward specific strategic objectives.”

The “Greater Lansing Next,” plan illustrates specific strategies for making the region more friendly to businesses and entrepreneurs; creating attractive live-and-work spaces; enhancing core assets; and strengthening regional cooperation.

“We will take all of the research and will work with self-selected leaders in each of the strategic priority areas and sector areas,” she says, adding that anyone is invited to participate in carrying out the plan.

Source: Denyse Ferguson, LEAP

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.

Lansing-based Great Lakes Capital Fund (GLCF) will likely allocate at least $5 million to one or more Capital region projects before the end of the year, says Aaron Seybert, fund specialist.
 
The money comes from $28 million dispersed from the U. S. Department of Treasury’s New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) program and must be used for job creation and retention.

The GLCF, or "Cap Fund" as it is known locally, covers four states — Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin — and will fund at least one project in each state.
 
“We want to be careful to be supporting sustainable jobs—not just 500 construction jobs and then they’re done,” Seybert says. Projects will focus on the sustainable energy industry and other emerging New Economy jobs, he says.

The competition is stiff, with $1.5 billion in projects vying for the $28 million available.
 
Potential candidates for the Capital region include developer Gene Townsend’s mixed-use project on Ottawa Street, west of the capitol building; rehabilitation of some commercial buildings around Lansing’s Stadium District; or the creation of a film production center with sound stage.
 
One proposal for an Ingham County location is for a start-up car company that would make high efficiency vehicles with internal combustion engines, although the investors are looking at a number of sites, Seybert says.

The NMTC fund accrues from tax incentives to induce private investors to invest in businesses and real estate development projects located in low-income and rural communities.

A portion of the $28 million will go to rural areas, such as parts of Williamston or St. Johns, he says.

Source: Aaron Seybert, Great Lakes Capital Fund

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

Lansing-based Prima Civitas is using its second $200,000 Mott Foundation grant to continue three programs designed to foster entrepreneurship in the region.

The grant funds three specific areas that fall under the Moving Ideas to Market (MI2M) initiative. The first, IGNITE (not to get confused with IgniteLansing!), focuses on integrating entrepreneurship into the K-12 education system.

“It also looks at components (projects) that are fun that can get kids interested in entrepreneurship,” says Holly Hetzner, special projects administrator and legal affairs specialist for Prima Civitas.

The second piece, EnGen, works toward creating entrepreneurial opportunities for college students.

“We’re building a network that universities can use to collaborate and feel free to talk about the programs going on in their host communities,” she says.

The last component, Jumpstart is “for everyone else.”

“This is for everyone who is not a child or a college student and wants to learn how to pitch before a venture capitalist,” she says.

All three of the teams are comprised of 20-25 volunteers. A MI2M conference is being held during Global Entrepreneurship Week starting at 9:30 a.m., Nov. 17 at the Lexington Hotel in Lansing. The event is open to the public and will feature each group. To RSVP by Nov. 13, click here.

Source: Holly Hetzner, Prima Civitas Foundation

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.

The Arts Council of Greater Lansing has given $30,000 in grants to nine groups, ranging from the Earl Nelson Singers Company that will perform Negro spirituals, to the Meridian Community Band which will produce a Grand Sousa Concert. (Check here to see the entire list.)

The largest sum, $7,000, went to Reach Studio Art Center in Lansing’s REO Town.
The center got two grants: $3,000 to support free, after school drop-in art sessions and $4,000 to fund a collaborative effort with Michigan State University’s (MSU) Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH), says Alice Brinkman, founding director.

The program, called Patterns of Place, has already begun with visits from Guillermo Delgado, a visiting artist teaching at MSU this term. He brings 19 students to the art center as he teaches them to work with the inner city children. The children, ages seven to 12 years, are making books featuring different art techniques that various MSU artists teach them.
 
The first session was on printmaking. Others will be on poetry, painting, photography and collage.

Since nearby Moores River School closed, Lansing School District is helping get students to the art center from a broader neighborhood.

“It’s so important that these kids have good role models,” says Brinkman.

And for the art, Brinkman says there are few places where a child makes a decision about what is right or wrong.

“There’s only one right answer to a math question," she says. "Through art, the child takes a leadership role in creative problem solving. At the end, they have something uniquely theirs.”

Source: Alice Brinkman, Reach Studio Art Center

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here. 

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie

Next year, adventurous types who are sick of standard 5k races, half marathons and triathlons will face a new challenge: Dirty Feat.

Dirty Feat is an adventure race that’s popular in other cities, but new to the Capital region. Essentially, teams of two get 10 hours to run, walk, canoe, navigate and whatever other type of physical activity (light shoplifting and trespassing) is necessary to reach the finish line.

“It’s mildly legal and mildly illegal at the same time,” says Jeff Smith with the City of East Lansing.

The purpose of the event is to have fun, stay in shape and get residents to see the community differently. Dirty Feat is unique because anything goes. There’s no real set route and participants have to navigate their way to the finish line, getting there by any means possible.

“The more we looked into it, the more we saw this was in the arena of the creative community,” Smith says. “They tend to be individuals who have a hint of education behind them who want to stay fit and want to have risk, and these two are colliding in a hurry.”

Dirty Feat participants don’t know the course before the race and have to use navigational tools to find the finish line. Smith and Tim Schmitt, also with the City of East Lasing, did the Kalamazoo MetroTrek race this summer.

They biked 25 miles and canoed 1.5 miles, but didn’t finish due in large part to navigational challenges.

“You can make it as large or as small as you want,” Schmitt says. “It all depends on how well you know the area and we didn’t know Kalamazoo from Istanbul.”

The first Capital region Dirty Feat race is tentatively set for June 26, 2010, and will probably be six to eight hours.

“As economic catalysts, we need to provide a third place in the community,” Smith says. “Not everyone wants to come home and just watch TV.”

Source: Jeff Smith, City of East Lansing

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.

A diverse group of organizations, municipalities, artists and community members recently released the “Cultural Economic Development Plan for Greater Lansing's Urban Center,” a blueprint of the area’s cultural assets designed to enhance cultural economic development in the Capital region.

The development plan includes four generalized goals for cultural economic development including building a leadership community for the creative sector that can implement an action plan; cultivating creative entrepreneurship; identify financing; and developing a Michigan Avenue center for creative business arts.

“Some of these things bode well with progressive changes,” says Chris VanWyk with CiesaDesign.

In a sense, the group did what the City of Lansing is doing with its master plan — bringing the region's creative entities to the table and laying out a map for future growth and enhancement.

“This really is about pulling all of the reins and going in the same direction,” says Kent Love, with the Wharton Center. 

The plan is in its infancy, but the goals are set and those involved expect the plan to change and morph as they move forward.

“We want the creative sector to have access to economic tools that other sectors have access to,” says Leslie Donaldson, executive director of the Arts Council of Greater Lansing.

The assessment shows that the Capital region has a younger population than most cities of similar size and a creative workforce slightly greater than that of other cities. Nine percent of the Capital region’s workforce works in the creative sector compared to seven percent in other cities.

The cities of Lansing and East Lansing, Michigan State University, the Arts Council of Greater Lansing, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) and the State of Michigan worked on the plan, hosting several focus groups, compiling an online survey and contributing months of time and energy to assessing the area’s cultural assets.

For more details concerning the plan, click here.

Source: Chris VanWyk, CiesaDesign 

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.

The inaugural Lansing Fall Film Exhibition (LFFE) is set to launch from 8 to 11 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26 at Celebration Cinema in Lansing.

LFFE Founder and Director Autumn “Bri” Lloyd says this is the first 90 minute Michigan and Lansing-based film exhibition in the Capital region.

“We just came up with this idea because there’s so many filmmakers between here and Detroit and they’re trying to get their foot in the door, and it would be nice to showcase Michigan filmmakers,” she says.

The Capital region has other film fests that draw on local talent, but also include international talent.

So far, Lloyd’s nailed down an underwriter and received four entries that include an eight-minute science fiction short and an 18-minute comedy/drama. Each submission must be less than 20 minutes. Lloyd says she still needs about 40-50 minutes of film and is hoping to fill all 270 seats at Celebration Cinema by the time the festival opens.

“One of my friends said we need to make Lansing weird, that we need to make it more like Austin,” she says. “Austin has a huge film festival and this is just one step closer to making Lansing weird.”

Lloyd is working with local t-shirt printers and other local suppliers to keep the project as home grown as possible.

Source: Bri Lloyd, LFFE

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.

Calling all Capital region employers: time is short to enroll in Job Shadow Day 2009. The deadline is Feb. 20 to sign up to do your part to introduce college and university students to what you do all day, and hopefully pique the interest of the creative class in the Capital region’s growth as a cultural and entertainment destination.

Job Shadow Day is Tuesday, March 10.

The program is a collaboration of the Career Services Network at Michigan State University, Lansing’s Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), and Capital Area Michigan Works. In its first effort, 135 students visited 25 businesses.

Job Shadow Day is just one offering of the LEDC in its efforts to engage university students, recent graduates and young entrepreneurial visionaries.

Networking mixers have been organized and the Entertainment Express Trolley does its part, running back and forth between East Lansing and Lansing. Launched more than two years ago, the trolley runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, racking up 10,000 riders so far, and averaging 21 per weekend, according to the LEDC.

Contact Andrea Ragan here, or click the city's Web site to learn more.

Source: LEDC

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

So you want to cut those high heating bills with some alternative energy gizmos, letting the sun or the wind take some of the load? You’ve been eyeing a solar heating system, or even a windmill? The state may be able to help.

Under an enhanced Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) program, homeowners and landlords can now get help financing alternative energy improvements to their properties.

“MSHDA has always provided low-interest loans to Michigan residents for a variety of traditional energy saving home improvements,” says Keith Molin, executive director. But now the agency has added a way to allow Capital region homeowners to be better stewards of the earth’s resources while reducing monthly energy costs, he says.

Income-eligible homeowners may now borrow up to $50,000 to make the improvements through MSHDA’s Property Improvement Program. Items covered by the expanded program include geothermal furnaces, indoor fireplaces, permanently installed radiators, and solar rooms permanently installed for use as a sunroom or family room.

Landlords with eligible rent limits can borrow up to $100,000 or $25,000 per rental unit, and eligible homeowners may have household incomes of up to $74,500 depending on the location of the home. Those interested can get help from designated lenders or community agents.

The PIP lender list includes Huntington National Bank in Ingham and Clinton Counties. Community agents may also be called for assistance: Teresa Frassetto at the City of Lansing Development Office, 517-483-4056; Steven Wagner at the City of St. Johns, 989-224-8944; or Brian Reed at the City of Eaton Rapids, 517-663-8118.

Source: Keith Molin, MSHDA

Gretchen Cochran, Innovations & Jobs editor, may be contacted here.

Buckueroux recently retired from Michigan State University's (MSU) School of Journalism and now focuses on sustainable farming. But one of her first interviews was with two members of the Church of Latter Day Saints that she saw making calls on a local street.

Castanier left the Michigan Department of Economic Development (MEDC) five years ago, and has positioned himself as a literary journalist, offering daily posts and regular podcasts on his MittenLit.com blog. In the latest show, Castanier interviews Gary Hoppenstand of MSU’s Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Popular Culture about Poe’s impact on the modern detective novel.

A section of the show included The Clementine's, who anchor a discussion about the challenge of finding fresh fruit here in winter.

Included in the site are Twitter updates on local news, archived program podcasts and blogs.

Source: Bill Castanier, "Wednesday's at One with Bonnie and Bill"

Gretchen Cochran is the Innovations and Jobs editor. Contact her here.

The Arts Council of Greater Lansing has roughly $25,000 in grant money to hand out to local artists.

“This is the first program that we’ve developed from the sale of the Center of the Arts,” says Arts Council of Greater Lansing Executive Director Leslie Donaldson. “We’re taking the interest that we get off the sale each year to grant individual artists funding.”

The Arts Council of Greater Lansing recently sold the building to the city. Donaldson says the amount of interest earned on the building will change each year, but she hopes that eventually, the Arts Council of Greater Lansing will be able to disperse $40,000 a year.

Individual grants of $1,000 each will be granted to qualifying artists. To apply for a grant, artists need to be members of the Art Council, a $25 membership. Artists in Ingham, Eaton, Clinton and Shiawassee Counties are eligible. All mediums are accepted. Artists can apply as emerging or established artists. Emerging artists have to have less than a five-year history of art shows and sales.

“I’m pretty excited about the program,” Donaldson says. “Not only is this the first ever individual artist program that will hopefully help them professionally, but it also provides an education component that we’re seeking to expand.”

The application deadline is Jan. 30.

Source: Leslie Donaldson, Arts Council of Greater Lansing

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.