The Michigan Economic Development Corporation sues North Branch company to stop use of Pure Michigan trademark

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation is asking a judge to stop a Lapeer County real estate company from using its Pure Michigan trademark in a federal lawsuit filed in Detroit.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday, Nov. 21, in Detroit U.S. District Court after the state claims Pure Michigan Real Estate Inc. began operating in North Branch earlier this year.

The company made several requests between Feb. 15 and Sept. 3 to collaborate with the MEDC and use the Pure Michigan trademark, but the MEDC denies the requests for collaboration and has not licensed or authorized the company to use the Pure Michigan name, according to the lawsuit.

Mark Gillim, a representative with Pure Michigan Real Estate said that his company reached out to the MEDC for assistance after it submitted its articles of incorporation to the state in February. He said he received a cease and desist letter seven months later from the MEDC.

State records show that Pure Michigan Real Estate was registered as a real estate broker company in March. Gillim said the goal of the company is to become a statewide real estate agency focusing on personal protection planning and community restoration.

"These type of actions by a state-funded organization cause great concern," Gillim said in an email to The Flint Journal. "If there was a problem moving forward with our name and website the State of Michigan / MEDC should have addressed that before misleading us and providing a corporate ID, broker licenses, information and support."

Gillim is not a registered real estate agent, according to state records. However, his father, Gary Gillim, is a registered real estate agent and is listed in state records as an employee of the company. Gary Gillim could not be reached for comment.

The MEDC claims it never gave permission for the company to use the Pure Michigan trademark in its business name. The company has also registered a website with the Pure Michigan name as well as a Facebook page.


"The overwhelming success of Pure Michigan campaigns has brought positive attention to Michigan since its inception in 2006, said MEDC's communication director Michael Shore. "MEDC has never authorized any business to use Pure Michigan in its name."



However, a state business listing search reveals dozens of corporations using the Pure Michigan name. Federal court records do not show any similar federal lawsuit filed against those businesses.
"They're picking winners and losers," Gillim said of the MEDC.

Shore declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, citing the pending litigation.

The MEDC claims that it began using the Pure Michigan campaign to promote tourism within the state as early as May 2006. Print and broadcast advertising using the Pure Michigan trademark has been deployed extensively in the state and nationwide by the MEDC, according to the lawsuit.

Shore said that the MEDC encourages businesses to use the Pure Michigan logo but the lawsuit claims the business' name is likely to cause confusion or deception that the real estate services offered by the business were authorized by the MEDC when in fact they were not.

"We encourage the use of the Pure Michigan logo by Michigan businesses and welcome their use of the Pure Michigan logo in their marketing efforts," Shore said. "Currently, there are more than 450 approved uses of the Pure Michigan logo for Michigan businesses across a broad range of industries and sectors."

The MEDC is asking the court to force the company to stop using the Pure Michigan name, turn over its Internet domain and Facebook page, surrender any profits it made from using the Pure Michigan trademark and other unspecified damages.

The business has not yet filed its response to the lawsuit, but Gillim said the business is researching its response to the allegations.

"Our company was established through the proper regulatory departments in the state of Michigan, now we have a non-regulatory arm of the government creating confusion and misleading the public," Gillim said.

Troy, Michigan could condemn property for new transit center if Grand Sakwa rejects $500K offer

Troy, Michigan is considering condemning property occupied by its newly built transit center if a deal to buy the land can’t be reached after the state Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal by the city.

The City of Troy built a Transit Center on land, that has been ruled by a court of law, they don't own.

Troy Transit Center

The city of Troy has offered to buy the land for $550,000, one of few options left in its legal fight with developer Grand Sakwa Properties.

A state Supreme Court issued a ruling Tuesday declining to hear the case involving the city and the Farmington Hills-based Grand Sakwa, which donated the land to the city with the condition the city secure funding for the transit center by 2010.

A court ruling in May said the city failed to meet that June 2010 deadline, so ownership of the land reverted to Grand Sakwa. The city sued to retain rights to the land, which was resolved in the state Supreme Court decision.

The $6.3 million multi-modal transit center sits on the border between Troy and Birmingham in the back of a shopping center developed by Grand Sakwa.

Former Troy Mayor, Janice Daniels

On Monday, the Troy City Council voted to offer Grand Sakwa $550,000 for the property, Grigg Bluhm said. If the offer isn’t accepted, the city could vote to authorize condemnation of the property, she said.

Troy partnered with Birmingham on the transit project in 2000 when Grand Sakwa donated the land with the conditions.

The center, which figured in the recall of former Mayor Janice Daniels last year, was funded by a federal grant.

The transit center became one of the most controversial issues during Daniels' one-year stint as mayor. She led a majority on the City Council that rejected $8.4 million in federal funding for the project in late 2011; a slimmed-down version of the project won council approval in January 2012.

The 28,000-square-foot facility replaces the Amtrak station off Michigan Avenue. Birmingham, which has a free-standing bus enclosure at the Amtrak rail station, left the project in April 2011 after talks to buy land next to the CN Railway tracks failed.

Taxpayer Money Spent On Transit Center On Land That The City Of Troy, Michigan Does Not Own

Officials in Troy, Michigan will be discussing their next course of action after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the city doesn’t own land where a new transit center is being built and the Michigan Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

The court  ruled in favor of developer Grand Sakwa Properties, saying the city failed get the project funded within the 10-year deadline set when the developer donated the land for the project.

According to court documents, Grand Sakwa Properties donated 2.7-acres of the total 77-acres it owns near Maple and Coolidge to the city on the condition that Troy would develop the land for use as a transportation center. Per their agreement, the city of Troy had 10 years from June 22, 2001 to secure funding for the center, which according to the lawsuit never happened.

Former Troy Michigan Mayor
Janice Daniels

“The next steps are unclear, because the City of Troy built this transit center on a parcel of land it does not own now and has never owned,” Grand/Sakwa Properties spokesman Mort Meisner told The MBNG News. 

One option would have the city paying for the property. Another option allows the city to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

The 2,000-square-foot transit center was billed as a hub for new high-speed Amtrak trains. Groundbreaking for the project was held last November.

The transit center was at the center of a recall vote against then-mayor Janice Daniels, who was outspokenly against the project. 

Stores open early on Thanksgiving but shoppers in no rush

Some early U.S. shoppers headed to stores on Thanksgiving Day in search of discounted holiday gifts on a day long reserved for American families to bond over turkey and football.

Kmart, Old Navy and Lord & Taylor were some of the stores that opened their doors on Thursday morning, as each company did last year. Macy's Inc and a slew of other stores are opening later on Thanksgiving for the first time ever in a bare-knuckle brawl for a bigger slice of holiday sales.

With six fewer shopping days this year than in 2012, retailers who reap nearly half of annual profits during the winter holiday season are nibbling away at the Thanksgiving holiday. But early visits to the stores by Reuters showed sparse crowds - a sign that not all U.S. shoppers are keen to open their wallets so quickly.

A Walmart store in Woodbridge, New Jersey, was virtually empty at 2:30 p.m., with store associates outnumbering shoppers.


The National Retail Federation expects up to 140 million shoppers to hit U.S. stores over the Thanksgiving weekend, slightly more than the 139 million who turned out last year.

But many forecasters expect overall sales growth to be tepid in a season plagued by shaky consumer confidence and given that there are few fashion must-haves.

Many consumers were also shopping online on Thursday. A report by IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark at 3 p.m. Eastern Time showed overall Thanksgiving online sales up 9.4 percent in 2013 over the same period last year.

"Thanksgiving is the fastest growing day for e-commerce during the holiday season," said Andrew Lipsman, comScore's vice president of marketing and insights. "There is a broader cultural norm where people feel it's OK to shop on Thanksgiving."

Nilka Gomez, 38, a stay-at-home mom who lives in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York, decided to cut back on spending this season to about $500 from $2,000 last year after losing her job.

"There will be no electronics this year," said Gomez, adding that she also plans to visit a Wal-Mart store on Thanksgiving.

Some say retailers' fortunes depend a lot more on wealthier shoppers who have benefited from rising share and home prices this year.

"There are two sides to the story. If you look at households with over $100,000 of income, those folks are going to spend twice as much as people of incomes under $100,000," said FTI Consulting's Steve Coulombe.

Harshad Shah, a 70-year-old real estate investor based in New York, is one of them.

"We are more upbeat this year," said Shah, while shopping at Lord & Taylor in Manhattan with his granddaughter Eva Luskey on Thursday. "There is a general sense that the economy is better. You see the stock market is doing better. Hopefully your stock portfolio is making a few more bucks."

With "Black Friday" deals being offered before Thanksgiving tables were even set on Thursday, some were criticizing the retail industry's approach. Critics circulated online petitions, and a handful of franchise owners said they had defied corporate orders by keeping their stores closed.

Target Corp, Best Buy Co Inc and Toys R Us are opening earlier on Thursday than they did last year. Many Wal-Mart Stores Inc U.S. locations will be open all day, with Thanksgiving specials offered beginning at 6 p.m.

Department store chains Kohl's Corp, J.C. Penney Co Inc, Macy's all announced earlier this year they would open on Thanksgiving Day for the first time ever.

"The ones that are opening earlier are going to get more sales, but in the end, I don't think the overall pie gets any bigger. It's just a share gain," said Brian Yarbrough, a retail analyst with Edward Jones.

He also estimates that overall sales for November and December will be up 2.8 percent. That is more conservative than the 3.9 percent jump forecast by the National Retail Federation. The profit on those extra sales will depend on whether the eye-catching doorbuster sale prices are margin-squeezing loss leaders, analysts said.

At Macy's flagship store in New York City, five hundred employees will be working on Thanksgiving Day. The store, one of the Big Apple's most visited tourist sites, will be open for 26 straight hours, starting on Thursday at 8 p.m. EST.

A worker at Kmart in Manhattan said she had volunteered to work in order to earn extra money. Kmart workers are getting time and a half for the hours they week on Thanksgiving, Sears spokesman Howard Riefs said.


Black Friday is still is predicted by ShopperTrak to be this year's biggest day of the season for sales and traffic.

State Supreme Court denies Troy transit center appeal; city to offer Grand/Sakwa $550,000 for land

Troy officials expect to present an offer today to reacquire the city's transit center site from Farmington Hills-based Grand/Sakwa Properties LLC for $550,000 after the Michigan Supreme Court turned away its latest appeal in the long-running land dispute.

The high court this week denied Troy's application for leave to appeal a May decision that the 2.7 acres of the transit center property had reverted from city ownership to Grand/Sakwa. 

Monday night, the Troy City Council authorized City Attorney Lori Grigg Bluhm to offer $550,000 after obtaining appraisals on the site — and to pursue condemnation should the developer reject that offer. Bluhm said today the city expects to present the offer today, but the company would likely need some time to review and respond to it.

ary Sakwa, co-founder and managing partner of Grand/Sakwa, did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Alan Greene, partner at Dykema Gossett PLLC and attorney for Grand/Sakwa, also could not be immediately reached.

At issue is an agreement for Grand/Sakwa to transfer title in 2001 on 2.7 acres near Maple Road and Coolidge Highway, where most of the transit center construction has been taking place. 

The terms of that sale called for the land to revert to Grand/Sakwa in 10 years if the city hadn't funded a transit center project by then; the city and company had conflicting definitions in court of what that term meant once the deadline came.

Bluhm said the city obtained permission from the Federal Transit Administration earlier today to add the acquisition cost to its budget for the transit center. The FTA previously authorized $1.6 million in funding toward the transit center cost.

"We're about ready to go forward (with the offer). As of just a few minutes ago, today, we've got permission to go ahead with submitting that expense, since all federal funding for the project comes on a reimbursement basis," she said.

The city hopes to get a response from Grand/Sakwa by early December, Bluhm said. Grand/Sakwa agreed to sell a portion of its 77-acre development for $1 more than a decade ago to develop the transit center, which broke ground last November. 

Troy and neighboring Birmingham had secured several funding commitments from federal and other sources for the center, with a preliminary estimated cost of about $8.5 million, which the City Council reduced in 2012 to about $6.4 million. 

Birmingham withdrew from the project in 2011. Grand/Sakwa contended that the project didn't reach full funding in time, as the consent judgment requires, and sought to revert the property. 

A three-judge appellate panel overturned the Circuit Court and ruled in Grand/Sakwa's favor last May, prompting Troy to ask the Supreme Court to review it, but the high court is not legally obligated to hear the case.

Mark Miller, director of economic and community development for Troy, and Bluhm both said the transit center construction was substantially completed earlier this year except for a minor "punch list" of modifications. But the city is still finalizing a lease agreement for the National Railroad Passenger Corp., or Amtrak, to service the transit center.

Heidelberg Project "House Of Soul" Gone

Another piece of Detroit’s famed Heidelberg Project has been destroyed.

Fire completely ravaged the “House of Soul” on Elba Street Tuesday morning.

The house is located about a block away from the project’s main area on Heidelberg Street, near Mt. Elliot Street and Mack Avenue on the city’s east side.

Reports from the scene state that the "House of Soul" which was covered in old vinyl albums, is completely gone — burned down to nothing but cinders.


A cause of the fire remains under investigation, although arson is suspected.

Michigan Business Networking Group 2013 Fall Networking Mixer

The Michigan Business Networking Group is hosting its next Networking Mixer on Wednesday, November 13th at Dick O' Dows in Birmingham (160 West Maple Rd) from 7 to 9 PM. On behalf of the Michigan Business Networking Group, we would like to extend you and your team an invitation to this event. This event starts with networking from 7pm to 7:30 followed by a Whiskey / Scotch Tasting with an educational history lesson on the evolution of Whiskey and Scotch. 

Due to the limitation of pours, we must limit this event to the first 50 paid attendees. Also included will be appetizers and a qualified group of business owners and professionals to network with. 

The event is cancer fundraiser for Susan Tabar and 100% of the proceeds will go to cover medical / health expenses that are not covered by her insurance. ONLY THE FIRST 50 TICKET HOLDERS CAN GET IN. ORDER YOUR TICKET BY: Clicking here to purchase your tickets to this exclusive event.
 Come and join all of us to help raise money for our friend Susan who is battling Multiple-Myeloma Cancer and a rare blood disorder called Amyloidosis. Susan’s best option was a stem-cell transplant that she prepared 7 months for with chemo only to be denied by her insurance a week before her stem cell transplant procedure. Her treatment was scheduled for May and she has been in limbo since. We are trying to raise funds for Susan to get alternative treatments to save her life and quality of life. These alternative treatments are also not covered by insurance 

IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND, PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO THIS WORTHY CAUSE FOR OUR DEAR FRIEND, SUSAN. 

Mail to: Susan Tabar c/o MICHIGAN BUSINESS NETWORKING GROUP PO Box 406 Birmingham, MI 48012

The Michigan Business Networking Group Website