MichBio, the state’s trade organization for biosciences companies, opens its MichBio Expo on Wednesday amid hopes of industry leaders that Michigan can attract more investment to the sector.

CEO Stephen Rapundalo of the Ann Arbor-based advocacy group said people often don’t understand that the bioscience industry is about more than just basic biotechnology research and devices.

MichBio president and CEO Stephen Rapundalo

“We cover agriculture sciences and food, nutrition, small biotechnology firms to big industrial biotech industries, renewable fuels and biofuels, and an assortment of medical technologies and new equipment. We also delve all the way over to clinical research, really everything that leads up to healthcare delivery.”

The conference, an annual event that MichBio started running in 2005, has four tracks for participants: devices, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and emerging businesses. Participants in the emerging business category will be able to attend panels and sessions focusing on the legal and financial obstacles that can arise when starting a new company.

Rapundalo said he expects approximately 300 attendees at the conference, which is co-sponsored by Michigan State University, including college students who will be able to hear industry leaders speak about career opportunities in the biosciences sector.

The conference includes an emerging companies showcase in which 10 startups get the opportunity to pitch their ideas to investors.

The bioscience industry in Michigan is concentrated in the southern portion of the state. Rapundalo said two thirds of the companies associated with MichBio are either in the “96 corridor” or south of it, including major hubs in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Washtenaw County and metro Detroit. He also said that most of the association is companies with 100 employees or less.

“We don’t have too many of the big boys here,” he said. “Pfizer is still in Kalamazoo, and you have Stryker, Terumo, and Kellogg, but it drops off after that.”

Rapundalo said the industry has been robust and weathered the storm of the economic downturn fairly well. But his optimism was tempered by the fact that venture capital is still far more difficult to come by in the Midwest than on the coasts.

“We’re still small potatoes compared to the coastal regions,” he said. “There aren’t enough funds active, let alone how much money is available for the amount of development we have going on.”

The conference runs Wednesday and Thursday at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center in East Lansing.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

A proposal submitted to Ann Arbor's Historic District Commission calls for the installation of Walgreens signs.

City of Ann Arbor

Farmington Hills-based Agree Realty Corp. submitted an application this week to Ann Arbor’s Historic District Commission to install Walgreens signs on the former Michigan Book & Supply building.

The two-story, 12,000-square-foot building on the edge of University of Michigan’s Central Campus has been vacant since Michigan Book & Supply closed earlier this year. The building also has a 6,000-square-foot basement that the bookstore used for textbook sales.

Texas-based Hogarth Management owns the building, but Ann Arbor’s First Martin Corporation manages the property.

“The former bookstore located at S. State St. and University is proposed to be renovated into a Walgreens store,” the application says.

“The existing building facade is to remain along with the interior structural elements. New signage is being proposed at this time,” it continues.

Representatives with First Martin Corp. and Walgreens could not be reached for comment, and a representative with Agree Realty declined to comment on the plans.

It appears that Agree Realty, which has an established landlord-tenant relationship with Walgreens stores nationwide, plans to purchase the building and lease to Walgreens. According to city records, a building sale has not yet been finalized.

First Martin's Bob Gates told AnnArbor.com in March that Hogarth had a "strong preference" to lease the entire South State building to a single, non-restaurant user.

The news — which comes a year and a half after CVS Pharmacy opened a store at 209-211 S State. St. — is particularly notable for one of downtown Ann Arbor’s most prominent buildings.

Located in the State Street Historic District, the building at 317 S. State St. was once occupied by discount variety store S.S. Kresge. Michigan Book & Supply’s lease began on July 1, 1989, and the store closed this year when its bankrupt parent company, Nebraska Book Co., filed for bankruptcy protection and closed 40 locations.

The building at 317 S. State, as it looked in the early 1970s when it was an S.S. Kresge store.

Ann Arbor District Library archives

The building has an assessed value of $1,031,500, making its estimated market value about double that.

Based in Illinois, Walgreens is the largest drugstore chain in the country. As of Oct. 30, the company operated 7,944 drugstores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, with plans to grow its store base by approximately 1.5 to 2.5 percent in fiscal 2013, according to its website. The average store size is 14,500 square feet.

Agree Realty has an established relationship with Walgreens — nationwide, its top three tenants are Walgreens, Kmart and CVS. As of Nov. 2, 32 percent of the company’s annualized base rent came from Walgreen Co., according to a quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Agree controls the Ann Arbor property on the corner of Jackson and Maple roads where a Walgreens was constructed in 2010.

The company also owned the former Borders headquarters on Phoenix Drive and a portion of the former flagship Borders store downtown, but lost or sold those properties after Borders liquidated last year.

The CVS store at 209-211 S. State St.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

CVS received city approvals in 2009 to proceed with an $8 million project that preserved the historic facade at 209-211 S. State St., but demolished two houses behind it. Located on two levels, the store is 13,040 square feet.

Ann Arbor’s Historic District Commission is expected to consider the request to install Walgreens signs on the South State Street building at its Nov. 15 meeting.

Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at 734-623-2584 or email her at lizzyalfs@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizzyalfs.

Ken Fischer, University Musical Society

Ann Arbor SPARK CEO Podcasts: Conversations on Economic Opportunity capture the flavor of my one-on-one conversations with over one hundred key economic leaders in the region, including private sector CEOs, elected and appointed public sector leaders, and the executive leadership of key non-profit and academic institutions. The podcast series is designed to not only highlight that expertise, but also make it available to others who could benefit from the wisdom those business leaders can share.

Ann Arbor is a town with a very robust arts community. It is an international cultural center, with a population that embraces the arts and also uses the arts to enhance its standing as a business community. The establishment of Ann Arbor as a cultural center is vital to its establishment as a business center and a worldwide hub of education.

Ken Fischer has been the President of the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan for over 24 years. During our conversation, he emphasizes the positive impact that arts can have on a community, and how they've touched and enhanced the Ann Arbor area.

Mr. Fischer speaks about the keys to success for UMS: leadership and embracing diversity in the arts. He discusses his experience in music and the arts and emphasizes its economic impact on the Ann Arbor community.

Click below to listen to Part 1 & 2 of this exciting conversation with Ken Fischer!

Part One:

Part Two:

Check out more CEO Podcasts: Conversations on Economic Opportunity on the Ann Arbor SPARK website!

Datebook is your source for information about important business events going on in the greater Ann Arbor area.

FEATURED EVENT:

• Tuesday: Marketing Roundtable - SoLoMo: Social, Local, Mobile. 5:40-7 p.m. SPARK Central, 330 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor. Social, Local and Mobile are key in establishing strong visibility in all the search engines. Hear panelists' success stories, learn what you can do and should absolutely not do in your quest for visibility. Free. More info: http://www.annarborusa.org/events/details?e=11305.

Other upcoming events:

• Monday: Meet & Greet Networking Event with the American Society for Quality Ann Arbor Section. 4:30-6:30 p.m. Guy Hollerin's at Holiday Inn, 3600 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor. Free. More info: networking@asq1010.org or http://www.asq1010.org.

• Tuesday: Overcome Overwhelm: How to Create a Brilliant Life in a Burnt-Out World with the American Business Women's Association. 6-8:30 p.m. The Quarter Bistro, 300 S. Maple Road, Ann Arbor. Free. Registration or more info: www.abwa-maia.org.

• Tuesday: E-Marketing: Viral Video Theater, with WCC - Workforce Development. 6-9 p.m. Morris J. Lawrence Building, Room 124, Washtenaw Community College, 4800 E Huron River Drive, Ann Arbor. $45. More info and registration: http://www.wccnet.edu/lifelong-learning.

• Nov. 16: The Search Marketing Workshop. 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eagle Crest Conference Center, 1275 S. Huron St., Ypsilanti. $40. More info and registration: http://searchmarketingworkshop2012.eventbrite.com.

• Send unique, one-time business events to business@annarbor.com. Sign up for the weekly Business Review email newsletter here.

The Hon. Timothy P. Connors of the Washtenaw County Trial Court administered the Cooley Voluntary Pro Bono Pledge to Thomas M. Cooley Law School students, faculty, staff and alumni at Cooley’s Ann Arbor campus on Thursday, Oct. 4.

Cooley law school students, faculty, staff and alumni pledge to support Cooley Law School’s commitment to pro bono legal service.

photos courtesy of Cooley Law School

Judge Timothy P. Connors of the Washtenaw County Circuit Court (foreground) administers the Cooley Voluntary pledge Oct. 4. Pictured with Judge Connors is Melissa Stowe-Lloyd, Cooley Law School's assistant director of the Center for Ethics, Service and Professionalism.

photos courtesy of Cooley Law School

Those who participated pledged their support of Cooley Law School 's commitment to pro bono legal services. The pledge included a commitment to complete at least one pro bono activity during the upcoming year and either continue to do so every year throughout their legal careers or to comply with or exceed the pro bono expectations of their state bar association.

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Terry Jones

• Terry Jones, founder and former CEO of Travelocity, and John Ferndandez, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, will serve as the keynote speakers at the 2012 Accelerate Michigan Competition, a competition for young entrepreneurs sponsored, in part, by Ann Arbor SPARK. The competition takes place Nov. 13-15 at the Westin Book Cadillac in Detroit. A full list of companies chosen as finalists (including several from the greater Ann Arbor area) is available at http://www.acceleratemichigan.org/2012-company-semi-finalist/.

• In related news, Ann Arbor SPARK recently added two to its team, Joseph Licavoli and Jake Elbers. Licavoli fills a new position as manager of the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. Elbers is manager of the SPARK East business incubator. Additionally, current Ann Arbor SPARK team member Valerie Christofferson was promoted to senior business development manager.

• Gold Star Mortgage Financial Group, based in Ann Arbor, has named Ingrid Amberg as its chief compliance officer.

• Charles Reinhart Company Realtors kicked off its 17th annual coat drive Nov. 1, with the goal of collecting more than 1,500 adult and children’s coats to distribute to local agencies throughout Washtenaw County. Through the month of November, Charles Reinhart Company Realtors will collect new and “gently used” winter coats at all of the Charles Reinhart sales offices as well as all Sunday open houses. Capital Cleaners, Chelsea Cleaners and Gold Bond Cleaners have donated their services to professionally clean the coats before they are donated to more than 20 local agencies. For more information about the coat drive, contact Marketing Coordinator Megan Crosbie at 734-669-5906 or mcrosbie@reinhartrealtors.com. Sales office addresses and open house schedules are available at www.ReinhartRealtors.com.

• Researchers at iLabs at University of Michigan-Dearborn’s Center for Innovation Research have recognized Ann Arbor Charter Township, the City of Ann Arbor and the City of Saline as five-star communities for their work to foster entrepreneurial growth and economic development. The three municipalities shared the honor with 25 other communities across the state. The communities were honored at a ceremony at UM-Dearborn in late October.

• The Salvation Army of Washtenaw County will kick off its 2012 Red Kettle Campaign at noon Friday, at Briarwood Mall. The public is invited to attend the celebration, with a miniature Salvation Army gold bell going to the first 100 guests.

• The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research renewed its partnership agreement with Qatar University's Social and Economic Survey Research Institute Nov. 3 in Ann Arbor. The agreement expands on a 2008 partnership to develop SESRI's capacity as a leading social science research organization in Qatar and a key contributor to social science research in the Gulf.

• A total of 1,400 students in eighth through 12th grade, from 35 schools, were introduced to the broad range of career opportunities available in architecture, engineering and construction when they participated in the “JUST BUILD IT!” Construction Career Expo Oct. 31. In addition to trying their hand at the work done in all three of these aspects of the construction industry, the students learned what education and training is needed for these careers. The event was sponsored by the Washtenaw Contractors Association in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Transportation.

• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan recently awarded more than $1 million in grants to support 50 Michigan clinics that help provide health care services to uninsured Michigan residents through its "Strengthening the Safety Net" program. Of this year's applicants, 50 free clinics qualified for noncompetitive grants of $15,000 to be used for continuing existing operations, and eight of those clinics were also awarded competitive grants of up to $50,000 for identifying clear gaps in safety net coverage and outlining plans to address those gaps in a creative and sustainable way. "Strengthening the Safety Net" Noncompetitive Grant Recipients in the greater Ann Arbor area were Shelter Association of Washtenaw County of Ann Arbor; VINA Community Dental Center in Brighton; Chelsea Grace Clinic in Chelsea; Faith Medical Clinic in Pinckney; and Hope Medical Clinic in Ypsilanti. VINA, Faith Medical Clinic and Hope clinic also received 2012-2013 "Strengthening the Safety Net" Competitive Grants.

• Ann Arbor SPARK recently presented its annual FastTrack awards to Washtenaw-based companies that have demonstrated consistent growth. Several of the 2012 FastTrack award recipients were multiple-year winners. FastTrack awards are presented to companies with consistent records of growth. Recipients of 2012 FastTrack awards were required to have revenue of at least $100,000 in 2008, with an annual growth of 20 percent for the following three years. FastTrack award winners represent a range of businesses in the Ann Arbor region. One-year FastTrack winners were Arbormoon Software, specializing in planning, strategy, design and development on smartphones; Estrakon Inc., an advanced LED lighting company; and The Whole Brain Group, a firm with expertise in web design, development, social media, content and pay-per-click advertising. The two-year Fast Track winner was Beal Inc., a demolition company that specializes in historic structures. The three-year FastTrack winner was Beal Properties, a firm specializing in managing and developing commercial and residential real estate. Four-year FastTrack winners were Caelynx LLC, a computer-aided engineering firm, and MedHub Inc., a privately-held company that provides managed IT services for large academic teaching hospitals worldwide. Five-year FastTrack winners were LLamasoft Inc., a provider of supply chain design software and services to large organizations; Online Tech, provider of Midwest data centers; and software company SRT Solutions. The six-year FastTrack winner was ForeSee Results, a provider of customer experience analytics.

Email items for People & Achievements to business@annarbor.com. Sign up for the weekly Business Review email newsletter here.

Another Ann Arbor-based startup has attracted the attention and interest from a major company. Echo360, a Virginia-based innovative education company, announced Wednesday it had acquired University of Michigan spinoff LectureTools.

The acquisition comes on the heels of fellow U-M spinoff company Compendia Biosciences’ purchase by California-based Life Technologies Corp.

LectureTools co-founders (left) Kiran Jagadeesh, Jason Aubree and Perry Samson say their software application improves interactivity in they classroom.

Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com

“We have done a lot with video technology, including using that to flip the way the lecture system works,” chief marketing officer Richard Taylor said.

“Instead of sitting in class and watching a lecture, students can watch the lecture at home, come to class and can actually talk about it and what it means.”

That program is one of many offered by Echo360, and Taylor said that he believes adding LectureTools to the company will allow it to go from blending to “active blending” as tools from the U-M spinoff are used to allow instructors to interact in real time with students using laptop computers, tablets, and cell phones.

Samson is no stranger to startup companies or major acquisitions. He was also a co-founder of Weather Underground, acquired by media giant The Weather Channel earlier this year.

LectureTools has a very close relationship with the university. Not only does it have faculty and alumni founders, but it also participated in programs in the TechArb student venture accelerator as well as the Venture Center housed in the North Campus Research Complex.

The ties run deeper still. When the technology developed by Samson was used to spinoff the company, U-M chose to acquire equity in the company as part of the licensing agreement. With the company’s acquisition on Wednesday, that equity will be converted into revenue for the university.

Taylor said there are no plans to move LectureTools and its five current employees out of Ann Arbor, but there will be expansion efforts in Michigan.

“We don’t have any active hiring efforts right now, but that [hiring] is the plan as the platform integrates into our existing programs,” spokesman Gabriel del Rio said.

“We’re going to need their expertise to help us do that, and since we’re doing it on a big scale, it looks like we’re going to need more help.”

Samson was named head of educational innovation at Echo360 and also will continue his work at U-M.

“All five employees are now with us,” Taylor said. “But we wanted [Samson] to have a title that would embody what he will be doing. We want him to continue innovating for us and coming up with new ideas.”

Echo360’s clients include The University of Virginia, New York University, University College London, and other prominent universities in America and overseas. Ken Nesbit, executive director of the U-M office of Technology Transfer said in a statement his office already has been in conversation with Echo360 about future partnership with the university.

Echo360 is a private company did not disclose terms of the acquisition.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

There was palpable excitement at the TechCrunch Meetup event at the Hockeytown Cafe in Detroit on Wednesday evening. Everyone seemed to feel that the region is on the verge of something very special.

“I’m here, and I’m drinking the Kool-aid,” TechCrunch reporter Colleen Taylor said. "This is exciting."

CEOs and co-founders rub elbows with coders and venture capitalists at TechCrunch's Detroit Meetup.

Ben Freed | AnnArbor.com

“It’s very exciting what’s going on here, but we haven’t quite reached that ‘tipping point’ yet where it all clicks,” Josh Diskin, a senior strategist at app development firm Detroit Labs, said.

While just about everyone could agree with those two sentiments, the question of what needs to be done to reach that “tipping point” was another story. I talked to a range of CEOs, programmers, coders, and reporters attending the event, and found a few trends. Here are the top four ways I heard to transform the region’s potential into a full-blown tech success story.

1. Find or attract more capital

While some argued otherwise, I heard multiple times throughout the night that there simply is not a critical mass of venture capital in the Midwest to support the growth of a strong startup culture.

Another TechCrunch reporter, Jordan Crook, explained to me earlier in the day that even in today’s digitally interconnected world, having a close proximity to major venture capital firms is vitally important.

Crook said that the process of attracting venture capital can happen over a period of months and involves a lot of face-to-face interaction. A venture capitalist investing in a company is creating a relationship that goes beyond simply their belief in the scalability of the product.

“I’ve had people tell me that sometimes it comes down to ‘is this someone who I would really want to take their call?’” she said. “That kind of relationship has to be built in person.”

There have been success stories in the region: Cytopherx attracted a $34 million venture capital round early this year and LLamasoft recently closed a $6 million dollar Series A round that included mostly Midwest capital. However, Thiago Olson and Chris Bartenstein, co-founders of pay-system startup protean, said they’ve been told by multiple people in the payment industry that they only way they’ll attract serious venture capital is by moving to the West Coast.

“We want to stay here in Ann Arbor,” Bartenstein, whose office is currently in the TechBrewery, said. “But there are definitely more funding options out West.”

Fellow TechBrewery resident Dug Song, CEO of Duo Security, disagreed. He said that capital raised by his company and others currently housed in the startup incubator proved that successful companies should be able to raise capital no matter where they are located.

2. Have More Meetups

For some, the three most important factors in growing a startup community are culture, culture, and culture. In previous interviews with West Coast CEOs and venture capitalists visiting Ann Arbor I heard about the gatherings of like-minded techies who get together just to have a beer and talk about what they are working on.

I never really understood what they were talking about until I attended this meetup.

There are smaller-scale meetings in Ann Arbor on a regular basis, “Beer Thirty” on Fridays at the TechBrewery, OpenCoffee at Ann Arbor SPARK, and the A2 New Tech Meetup come to mind, but having a major "happy hour" event for people from across the region is rare.

“We have TechCrunch events in New York that could draw 1,000 people,” TechCrunch reporter Romain Dillet said.

“Here, I saw two people that have been working in the same building as each other meeting at this event.”

Now, Southeast Michigan will never be mistaken for New York City; but greater opportunities for people to meet means more networking, which can lead to more collaboration and mentorship, all of which makes the region’s startup culture that much stronger.

3. Close the gender gap

OK, this one wasn’t actually said by anyone at the event, but I believe that one way Southeast Michigan could set itself apart in the race to be the “next Silicon Valley” would be to make the region a leader in supporting opportunities for women in high tech fields.

It would be generous to say there was one woman for every 10 men in attendance at the event; the number was probably closer to one in 15. Granted, women make up a minority of both engineering and business students at the University of Michigan, but those numbers are closer to one in three or four.

I do not subscribe to the opinion that any one gender is more or less suited to be engineers, coders, programmers, or CEOs. That means that some of the top female talent graduating from local universities is either going elsewhere or not getting involved in the startup world.

Going elsewhere seems unlikely because this is not a problem unique to Michigan. Taylor said she actually thought the female turnout at the event, as well as a previous one in Toronto were unusually high.

I do not profess to have the answer as to why such a large segment of talented engineering and business school graduates are so egregiously under-represented in the startup and innovation sector. I do think that if Michigan could find a way to harness that talent, it would give the region a huge boost.

4. Revitalize Detroit

One TechCrunch reporter told me that just from looking at the infrastructure in the city she thought it would be difficult for a dandelion to survive in Detroit, let alone a startup. A CEO said he lives in metro-Detroit, but located his office in Ann Arbor because clients would have “laughed” at a company with a Detroit address.

While at first blush this might seem like it’s somewhat good news for Ann Arbor, these are not two competing markets. If Michigan is going to have a successful startup community, Detroit must be a part of it.

People at the event were optimistic about the city’s future, if not its present. Diskin, who is originally from New York City, compared it to areas of Brooklyn that are just on the verge of becoming the “it” places to be.

“It’s like the Red Hook neighborhood,” he said. “You might not want to be there right now, but you know it’s going to be the next place you’ll want to go. So it can be worth it to get in early.”

TechCrunch reporters agreed that it would take major investment by the private sector to rebuild the city. The process is starting, with Dan Gilbert, billionaire owner of Quicken Loans, repurposing the new M@dison Building that has already drawn attention from Silicon Valley firms.

Baby steps are nice, but for the region to compete for top talent and top dollars, it’s going to need to invest heavily in itself first.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

It's official: Black Friday isn't just about Friday anymore.

Walmart - the nation's largest retailer - will rollback hours on what used to be a post-Thanksgiving shopping ritual to even earlier on Thanksgiving Day.

According to a report in the Huffington Post, Walmart will start its Black Friday promotions at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, a full two hours earlier than in 2011.

Apparently, the early hours are a sign that retailers are strategizing about spending forecasts: Holiday spending is expected to rise 4.1 percent, according to the National Retail Federation, down from 5.6 percent a year earlier.

Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor already announced its earliest opening time ever: The largest shopping center in Washtenaw County will open at midnight.

Here's how Walmart will be luring shoppers, according to the HuffPo article: The store will be offering video games starting at $10 and home appliances such as a Crock Pot slow cooker and a Mr. Coffee maker for $9.44 each.

Read the Huffington Post report.

Sweetwaters general manager Laurie Vaquera inside the coffee shop's East Washington Street store.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

The owners of Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea signed a lease last week to open in the recently renovated building at 729-735 W. Cross St., across from Eastern Michigan University’s campus.

The shop's general manager, Laurie Vaquera, announced the news to a group of Ann Arbor business owners during a downtown tour Thursday morning.

“We’ve done the University of Michigan thing, so we wanted to try out a different place,” explained Vaquera. “I think Eastern is going to offer its own unique set of students and we’ll be right across the street from them.”

Founded in 1993 by Wei and Lisa Bee, Sweetwaters has three locations in Ann Arbor: one on East Washington Street downtown, one in Kerrytown and one on Plymouth Road. The Kerrytown and Plymouth Road stores are franchises.

Vaquera, who called the Cross Street building “very modern,” said Sweetwaters should be a perfect fit for the space.

The building at 729-735 Cross St., pictured in April, where Sweetwaters plans to open a location in January.

Tom Perkins | AnnArbor.com

Ann Arbor’s O’Neal Construction renovated the building after purchasing it in 2011.

First floor retail tenants include a Subway sandwich shop and Ypsilanti T-shirt Co. shop. Once Sweetwaters opens, there will be one retail space remaining. It is listed for lease with Bob Andrus of Michigan Commercial Realty for an annual $25 per square foot. The building has apartments on the second floor.

“I think, in that area, there are not a bunch of Starbucks, Caribous. We’ll be next to a Subway and there’s a T-shirt shop, I think we’re the next obvious thing,” Vaquera said. “You can come right in and get your coffee, and a lot of kids like to do their studying here. We offer free Wi-Fi and things like that.”

Vaquera will oversee the corporately owned Ypsilanti shop, which she hopes to open at the end of January. She plans to hire at least eight people.

“This has been in the works, and we’ve just been thinking about it. I think we had some feelers out…we’re very excited about it,” she said.

Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at 734-623-2584 or email her at lizzyalfs@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizzyalfs.

A sports business conference in Ann Arbor Friday includes a trio of big names Stephen Ross owner of the the Miami Dolphins and namesake for the University of Michigan Business School; Mike Tirico leader of the Monday Night Football announcing team, and Mark Silverman president of the Big Ten Network.

What's perhaps even more impressive is that the conference was put together by a U-M senior and a recent graduate.

University of Michigan students who have been working to prepare for the Michigan Sports Business Conference at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business include sophomore Liz Nagle of Walled Lake, junior Zach Schwinder of New York, recent graduate Dustin Cairo of New York, senior Chris Hancock of Minnesota, junior Michael Freedman, senior Brandon Rhodes of Grand Rapids, junior Joey Fox of California, and junior Jeremy Ross of Ann Arbor h

Dustin Cairo and Brandon Rhodes have been working to organize the Michigan Sports Business Conference for a year and a half.

“Our target audience is really people like us, undergraduates who want to work in the sports industry,” Cairo said.

“Many people don’t understand that there are different ways to break into the industry. They know you can work for a team or a league, or be an agent, but past that, they don’t understand the different opportunities out there.”

In addition to traditional sports business personalities, the conference will highlight sports branding and marketing executives, including keynote speaker Rohan Oza, the former chief marketing officer for Vitamin Water.

Cairo and Rhodes first met to discuss the possibility of the conference in February of 2011. At the time, both were dual-degree candidates in sports management and business; Cairo was a junior, Rhodes a sophomore.

“The idea was really bigger than us,” Rhodes said.

“Even when we first sat down, we started plotting out five to 10 years down the road, where we wanted this to go. No one else does a conference like this for undergraduates.”

In order to really draw people to the conference, the pair knew they would need to attract top speakers.

“The first thing we did was utilize the power of the “Block M,” Cairo said.

“A lot of these big guys in the industry are Michigan alumni or have connections to Michigan so they were excited to come back and speak. We found that alumni love coming back, and giving back to the students who are here now.”

But even the allure of Michigan and a hardworking group of 30 undergraduates was not enough to put together a conference with as impressive a guest list as this one. Rhodes said Stephen Master, a vice president at The Neilson Company, came up with the idea of putting together an industry board of advisers to help reach out to leaders across the sports business landscape.

“We had a fantastic board of advisers who we were able to bring them a list of people and they could say, ‘oh I’m good friends with him,’ or ‘she went to school with me,’” Rhodes said.

“The industry is so interconnected that they were able to help us get the speakers we wanted and even suggest other people who would make the event that much better.”

Cairo said there are other sports business conferences, including one at Northwestern University and a joint Ivy Sports Symposium that will be held this year at Columbia University. However, those conferences are primarily geared towards graduate students and often have high costs for attendees.

Tickets to the Michigan conference were $20 for undergraduate members of the School of Business Association, $25 for non-members, and $50 for graduate students. The remainder of the event's $25,000 operating budget was covered by fundraising, sponsorships, and $4,000 from the university.

Both Cairo and Rhodes hope to be involved in the sports business industry for a long time.

Cairo graduated in April, and said since then putting together the conference has basically been his full time job. He’s hoping that the connections he’s made will lead to a permanent position in either sports brand consulting or urban revitalization around sports stadiums and arenas.

Rhodes will graduate this spring, and said that he has one job offer on the table and is still pursuing others. He said with the conference coming up he hasn’t been able to give too much thought to career paths, but he is looking at different options in the sports marketing field.

The conference will be held all day Friday at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

Passport Restaurant and Lounge at 3776 S. State St. is missing its distinctive sign as it closes indefinitely for renovations.

Ben Freed | AnnArbor.com

The building housing the restaurant is now closed and the large “Passport” sign on the front of the building is no longer displayed. There have been no updates on the restaurant’s website or Facebook page indicating when a reopening will occur.

The “closed for renovations” announcement was posted on Oct. 15. However, Pittsfield Township supervisor Mandy Grewal said her staff has not received any applications for the permits required for renovations or additions to the location.

Before the closing, a restaurant employee said over the phone that she had not been told when management was planning finish the renovations.

Passport is the venture of Jenny Wu and husband Jin Huang whose first restaurants were Lucky Kitchen Chinese locations in Ann Arbor. The two opened the Passport restaurant in the summer of 2010 as way to take their culinary reach beyond Chinese food.

Before Passport, the building owned by A&Z Investments was home to a branch of Novi-based Cherry Blossom Japanese restaurant, and before that it was home to Ann Arbor’s Chi-Chi’s franchise. The restaurant's doors still have the “Cherry Blossom” glass etchings, while may of the windows still say “Chi-Chi’s.”

Passport serves a fusion of foods from across the globe including Asian, Italian, Mexican, and American. The lounge has also hosted an array of events including salsa dancing, wine tastings, and even belly dance performances.

Passports owners and the operators of A&Z Investments could not be reached for comment for this article.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

A national hair salon franchise plans to join the tenant lineup at the Plymouth Road Plaza under construction on Ann Arbor's north side.

Great Clips franchisee Mike Schoonmaker signed a lease recently for a space in the 21,000-square-foot commercial and office building being developed by Louis Johnson and Jack Edelstein.

Construction is under way on the Plymouth Road Plaza development in Ann Arbor.

Lizzy Alfs | AnnArbor.com

The salon chain — which offers “affordable, quality haircuts,” according to its Web site — will join Starbucks, The Big Salad, DFCU Financial and LaVida Massage when the shopping center opens next year. Great Clips will replace Little Caesars in the center because the pizza shop encountered problems with venting its ovens, Edelstein said.

Johnson and Edelstein broke ground on the Plymouth Road development in early August after first proposing it in 2006. It’s located in front of the Plymouth Road Mall, just east of Nixon Road.

Edelstein said it was the University of Michigan’s purchase of the former Pfizer site and improved economic factors that allowed them to move forward with the project.

“We’ve had a lot of interest,” he said. “I think certainly with the (University of Michigan) moving into the former Pfizer lot, there’s a lot of activity there…I’ve heard through word-of-mouth that traffic has definitely increased.”

The two-story building is being constructed on a portion of the existing mall’s parking lot. The retail space on the first floor will have a drive-through business at each end -- Starbucks and the credit union. Negotiations are under way with an office tenant for the 9,000-square-foot second floor.

Founded in 1982, Minnesota-based Great Clips has more than 3,000 locations in the United States and Canada. According to its Web site, the salon opens in “high-visibility centers” with ample parking.

This will be the seventh Great Clips location in Washtenaw County.

Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at 734-623-2584 or email her at lizzyalfs@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizzyalfs.

Any business no matter what size is at risk of cyber crime. That's according to WC4, the Washtenaw County Cyber Citizenship Coalition, which is hosting a free class Monday, Nov. 12, about protecting businesses from cyber attacks.

Participants will learn what it looks like to get hacked and what to do to make your computers and data less of a target.

"The No. 1 security risk is your own people," said Noël Quiton, co-chair of WC4.

Business owners can get tips on cyber safety at a free class Monday.

"The owner fired the employee and changed the lock on the front door, but didn't change the employee's password, " said Quiton. "The employee then locked the owner out of her own system."

Quiton also cites a recent scam in which local business owners were sent emails that looked like they were from their banks.

"It's what's called a spoof email," said Quiton. "The business owners were told to change their passwords because there was a breach. But they were giving their usernames and passwords to the bad guys."

Quiton says that another topic the class addresses is when and where to access certain websites.

She says, "If you log in on a Wi-Fi network at Starbucks, for example, it's not a good idea to go to your bank's website there because it's simple to collect data over Wi-Fi networks."

The class is called "Cyber Security for Business 101" and is taught by cyber security professionals Joe Eastman, adjunct faculty at Eastern Michigan University, and Jeff Haller, a consultant for Information Assurance. The class begins at 9 a.m. Monday at the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce, 115 W. Huron on the third floor. Parking is available at First and Huron Streets.

To register for the class, go to http://wc4-november.eventbrite.com.

WC4, which includes prosecutors, law enforcement officials and a variety of other members, has the goal to educate people about cybercrime and teach them to protect themselves. WC4 been has been contacted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to get ideas about how to teach cyber safety.

Lisa Carolin is a freelance reporter for AnnArbor.com.

Michelle Spoljaric, of Portland, OR, shops with her daughter Sarah Drew, of Ann Arbor, as they look over a Christmas calendar at Rock Paper Scissors on Main Street.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

National forecasts predict Americans will increase their holiday spending by 4.1 percent this year over last, while three out of four Michigan retailers expect sales increases.

“Michigan retailers are bullish on the holiday season,” said Michigan Retailers Association CEO James Hallan in a statement. “Their forecasts are the most optimistic in more than a decade.”

Holiday sales are expected to reach $586.1 billion this season compared with $563 billion in 2011, according to data from the Nation Retail Federation. While that’s still a slower growth rate than the 5.6 percent experienced from 2010 to 2011, it’s indicative of increasing consumer confidence after the recession.

Locally, many retailers share a similar sentiment about the upcoming shopping season: Bring it on.

“We’re just trying to be as prepared as we can and hoping for a good year,” said Lisa Roberts, owner of downtown Ann Arbor’s Rock Paper Scissors.

“We’re so excited,” she added.

Since competing with big-box stores and online shopping giants can be a challenge, here are four strategies local businesses employ to tackle the holiday season and drive sales:

1) Hire extra workers

For an Ann Arbor-based gourmet food company that rakes in millions of dollars in revenue each year, the holiday season can be overwhelming.

Briarwood Mall plans to hire hundreds of workers for the holiday season, including full-time permanent positions.

AnnArbor.com file photo

“There are two primary places that hire holiday staff: mail order by far has the lion’s share, and in addition to that, our Bakehouse, because of course we’re selling so much through mail order,” said Pat McGraw of Zingerman’s human resources department. (Apply here)

Rock Paper Scissors owner Roberts, who opened her South Main Street store in June, isn’t sure what to expect for her first holiday season downtown — but she’ll be prepared.

“We just hired a bunch more people to try to be able to provide the best customer service we can at Christmas,” she said.

“It sounds like it should be a pretty good year.”

Stores inside Ann Arbor’s Briarwood Mall and the mall's management team also are hiring workers this holiday season, including permanent full-time positions. (Apply here)

“There certainly is a lot more demand this year for hiring than there has been in the past,” said Denise Murray, mall director of marketing and business development.

2) Incorporate technology

In a world where shopping for gifts can be as easy as the click of a button, brick-and-mortar retailers have to incorporate technology to attract customers.

For some local businesses, that means offering online ordering — even if it’s not wildly popular.

“We offer online ordering but we don’t really pursue it,” explained Mark Bishar of Ann Arbor-based Big George’s.

Mark Bishar of Big George's said the company expects a 30 percent sales increase during its year-end sale after Christmas.

AnnArbor.com file photo

Bishar said traffic to the Big George’s website will spike during the holiday season, but a huge majority of sales will come from in-store visits. He’s also expecting an increase in sales this year with Big George’s new West Bloomfield store open.

Murray of Briarwood Mall said shoppers can download an application for iPhone and Android smartphones to help navigate stores, find where they parked and direct them to sales.

3) Participate in holiday events

From photos with Santa Claus to in-store caroling, one effective way to draw customers is to participate in and host holiday events, retailers say.

“I think it’s particularly important for downtown retailers to participate (in holiday events) because we don’t have the dollars behind us like big-box retailers for a Black Friday, or online retailers for Cyber Monday,” said Maura Thomson, executive director of Ann Arbor’s Main Street Area Association.

Thomson and other association leaders organize events to help draw customers to downtown Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. The biggest holiday event for downtown Ann Arbor, Thomson said, is Midnight Madness on Nov. 30. Many stores offer discounts and stay open until midnight while sidewalks are filled with holiday festivities.

In downtown Ypsilanti, shoppers flock to the annual Starlight Shopping Spree and Christmas tree lighting. That event is Nov. 30, as well. Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown Market & Shops also hosts its annual open house on Nov. 11 to kick off the holiday season with live music, face painting, sales and more.

“I think events are really important, and I think that seeing the increased participation shows that retailers realize and understand how important it is, and it does make a difference for their sales,” Thomson said.

A group of kids explores toys and more at Mudpuddles in the Kerrytown District. Ann Arbor's downtown was a big hit with Midnight Madness and Kerrytown District's third annual Kindlefest last year.

AnnArbor.com file photo

"People are thinking outside the box and coming up with ways to make the experience downtown something you're not going to get anywhere else," Thomson said.

4) Roll out holiday inventory earlier than ever

Nationwide, the holiday shopping season is starting earlier than ever before, according to the National Retail Federation. People start looking for gifts and bargains even before Halloween.

For local retailers, that means ordering holiday inventory in October in preparation.

"The one thing we've seen already is people are shopping earlier," Roberts said. "We were being questioned at the beginning of October as to why our Christmas stuff wasn't up yet. It's up now."

The holiday ornaments at Rock Paper Scissors in downtown Ann Arbor are customizable.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

Because it's her first holiday season in downtown Ann Arbor, Roberts is keeping a close eye on her inventory to see what's selling this time of year. That way, she can make constant adjustments for her customers.

Meanwhile, many retailers are offering "doorbuster" deals weeks before Black Friday shopping madness begins in an attempt to attract those early holiday shoppers. At the same time, retailers that participate in Black Friday plan to open their doors at midnight or earlier on Thanksgiving, leaving the days of long 4 a.m. lines behind us.

Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at 734-623-2584 or email her at lizzyalfs@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizzyalfs.

Photo by Billy Alexander

I still remember the day that she came home after an afternoon of "dialing for dollars." Needless to say she was feeling a little bit of frustration — but not for the reasons you might think. The problem she had with cold calling was she couldn't get them off the phone. On average her calls lasted between five and 15 minutes (yes, that's minutes not seconds) and several lasted much longer. Even when she tried to explain to them that the service she was selling couldn't help them, they still wouldn't leave her alone.

I can hear you scratching your head out there on this one. What was she doing?

Well, it turned out that she was calling academic research scientists to see if they were interested in her company's service. Before she called, she would look up their name on the Web to see what papers they had written recently. Then when she called, she introduced herself as "Dr. Elizabeth Peters" (which she is allowed to do, having earned a PhD in molecular biology) which made her a peer. She then did something that most cold-callers don't do.

She asked them what they were working on currently.

This is not something that scientists get asked often, just out of the blue, and they would go to town. They were the experts in their fields and had been given permission to talk about their true love — their research.

So, what does this have to do with networking?

The same steps that she took for cold calling are the steps we can take to strengthen our network. If we know with whom we'll be speaking, then we can find out a little more about them.

Google them. Check out their public profiles on social media sites. Read their website and check out the most recent press releases. We can then present ourselves as peers — business owners, or at least well-connected networkers. Finally, we can just show interest in that other person and what they are doing.

Now, unlike cold-calling, we won't just be hanging up the phone and moving on to the next person. We'll be taking all of this information we've gained to forge a strong relationship, one where we aren't asking for the sale, but rather looking for ways we can serve.

After that, the sales will show up on their own.

Greg Peters, founder of The Reluctant Networker LLC, writes, speaks and coaches about good networking practice. For more tips that can help your connections count, go to www.thereluctantnetworker.com.

Avis Farms tenant Dynics Industrial Computer Solutions has submitted plans to Pittsfield Township’s planning commission for its second expansion of 2012.

The industrial displays and signage company moved to Avis Farms earlier this year from their previous location on Victory Drive. The current expansion proposed would add 4,608 square feet to the 21,418 square-foot building.

The Dynics offices and manufacturing center at Avis Farms

Ben Freed | AnnArbor.com

“The first expansion in May was about 6,500 square feet, but we’ve simply continued growing,” Dynics spokesperson Alfonso Tercero said.

“We’ve seen a big increase in our production of large-format displays that provide signage to universities as well as airports and any other place you have a large number of people trying to find their way around.”

The increase in sales of the large displays has led to rapid growth for Dynics in 2012. The company’s year-over-year revenue has increased by 40 percent, and 13 new hires in 2012 have brought the company to a workforce of approximately 35 people.

Tercero said projections for 2013 are for an additional increase in workforce and another 30 percent increase in revenue.

The increase in production at Dynics has been made possible by higher quality and larger screens being made available for the large display signs.

“Ten years ago, you could not get a screen bigger than maybe 15 inches for what we do,” Tercero said.

“The screens we use are not screens you can just go buy in any big box store. We get industrial graded displays that can be used 24/7. By comparison, the screens you would buy in a retail store are rated for five or six hours of daily operation.”

Dynics purchases the screens and then integrates them with the company’s computers to provide their industrial products.

In addition to universities and airports, Tercero said Dynics has found a niche market with automakers and hopes to continue growing in the Ann Arbor and Southeast Michigan area in the future.

The site plans will be reviewed by the Pittsfield Township Planning Commission at their regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 15.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

Brothers Andy, Abdul and Fred Karkouli, from left, owners of the Zeeb Road Big Boy outside Ann Arbor. With them is manager Nicole Orfin.

file photo

He and his two brothers, Fred and Andy Karkouli, own the Big Boy on Zeeb Road. The restaurant is hosting a week-long fundraiser for victims of the storm, beginning Monday.

Abdul, who has lived in this country for 37 years, speaks passionately about his desire to help out and get involved. “”This is a very important issue. I see the news, and realize we need to volunteer, not wait to be ordered to help. There are people who have lost their lives; there are people who have lost everything, at the least we can feed them.”

Karkouli was born in Syria and is no stranger to how destruction can rip a country apart. “This is what makes this country great — regardless of party, we are American. It’s a big family that we are a part of. We need to work together and help each other. This is how America was built.”

Ten percent of Big Boy’s profits will be donated to storm victims thorough the American Red Cross. The Karkoulis and their staff have been donning Red Cross T-shirts and talking to regular customers, urging them to come and donate or dine in this week. “We hope you have a big appetite to help,” the marketing fliers read.

Karkouli says he’s seen other restaurants donate the proceeds from a few hours, but it was important to him to collect donations for an entire week. “It will not cover all of the loss,” he realizes, but he is hoping their efforts will inspire others to help however they can.

Big Boy manager Nicole Orfin says she feels lucky to be working along with the Karkouli brothers. The cooperative spirit at the restaurant is strong and growing. This weekend, Orfin said the restaurant is expecting a visit from Food Gatherers of Washtenaw.

“Starting this weekend we will be a drop off point for pantry items that will be used right here in the area,” Orfin said. "The food collection will continue through January, at which point the restaurant may decide to continue as a permanent drop off station for donation of perishable goods.

"We really want to be involved in the community. We are so very excited for both events!”

To participate in either campaign, visit Big Boy at 497 North Zeeb Road in Scio Township, during open hours from Nov. 12-19.

The smell of smoked ribs, beef brisket and mashed sweet potatoes will be hitting the State and Packard area next year when a Detroit-based barbecue restaurant opens its doors.

R.U.B. BBQ Pub, with locations in Detroit and Warren, plans to open in the former Packard Pub space at 640 Packard St.

A Detroit-based barbecue restaurant plans to open in the former Packard Pub space at State and Packard.

Lizzy Alfs | AnnArbor.com

“We’re constantly looking for cities that are a little more developed and have high traffic,” said R.U.B.’s regional manager Omar Mitchell. “We’re big fans of being next to stadiums and theaters.”

R.U.B. specializes in “old school” smoked barbecue food, according to its website. Its menu consists of rib tips, sliders, wings, barbecue nachos, fried pickles, grilled corn, mac and cheese, Cajun gumbo, salads and more.

“Not only can you taste the natural smoke flavor, but you can visually see the smoke ring on the outer portions of our meats,” the website says. “We mix our own rubs and sauces from scratch using over 20 different herbs and spices.”

Mitchell said the restaurant will carry more than 50 draft beers and 200 bottled beers, including microbrews from Michigan. It also will be a sports-viewing destination.

“We are excited to be bringing the same great-tasting BBQ you have grown to love to Ann Arbor and to be your premier pregame and postgame destination for all (University of Michigan) games,” the website says.

R.U.B.'s menu has a range of smoked meats and six homemade barbeque sauces.

Photo from R.U.B. BBQ Pub

The building, which also is occupied by a Subway sandwich shop and student apartments, is registered to Ronald Moore of Rdm Holdings Ltd in Saint Clair Shores, Mich.

Mitchell said although restaurants have "come and gone" at the building, R.U.B.’s business model focuses more on the food than Packard Pub, which he expects will create a more loyal following.

“The past restaurant was more bar-driven,” he said. “We’re more restaurant-driven. We’re planning on serving a lot more food and we can deliver food.”

He continued: “In the spring and summer, we have very large smokers, so we can participate in a lot more festivals and outdoor events to supplement our income. We also have our other side of the business, which is our catering company.”

Owned by the Yono family, R.U.B. BBQ was established in 2010 and the three restaurants are corporately owned.

Mitchell, who is spearheading the opening of the Ann Arbor location, said he hopes to open the restaurant within the next 30 to 60 days. The turnkey space only needs some cosmetic changes, he said.

“(This space) was in great condition,” he said. “So that’s why we will be able to open up so quickly.”

Mitchell said he plans to hire about 50 to 60 workers. Email info@rubbbqdetroit.com to apply.

Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at 734-623-2584 or email her at lizzyalfs@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizzyalfs.

"Buy American" - it's been a motto in Metro Detroit for decades.

But how do you do that after the globalization of the auto industry?

A recent report in TheStreet.com took a stab at showing U.S. car-buyers which models contain the most parts from the U.S.

From the story: Even the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration freely admits there's no such thing as a 100% American car.

The results range from somewhat predictable (The Jeep Liberty, at No. 9, does have a patriotic name) to possibly surprising (find out where Toyota - which runs an R&D facility in Ann Arbor - lands on the list).

Read the full list of "10 most American-Made Cars of 2012."