Downtown Milan is about to get a big boost in the new year as the first lofts from the East Main Redevelopment project begin to come online. "We're pretty well along," says Dave Snyder, developer of East Main Redevelopment. "We have been at it for six months. We're about a month from the first apartment being ready."

When PriceLocal launched a little more than a year ago it was a spunky, local startup carving out a niche by helping local retailers compete with e-commerce prices. Today it is a significantly bigger startup looking to make grow even more during the holiday shopping season.  

U-M grad Michelle Leach used to design multi-million dollar biomedical devices. Then she realized she wanted her work to have more meaning than an increase in the company's bottom line. So she designed a low cost aquaponics system in hopes of assisting poor farming communities in Central America.

The Campus Inn in downtown Ann Arbor has begun its transition to become the newest member of the Graduate Hotel chain, with a extensive renovation project that starts this week. "The hotel just checked out its last guest (on Monday)," says Ben Gottlieb, vice president of acquisition for AJ Capital Partners, which owns the Graduate Hotels chain. "We are in the process of taking out some of the old furniture fixtures." The Chicago-based investment group bought the 45-year-old hotel in September with the intention of adding it to its Graduate Hotels chain. The 14-story building at the corner of State and Huron comes with 204 hotel rooms and several thousand square feet of flexible space for meetings, events and normal hotel guest amenities. Graduate Hotels plans to keep the structure of the building and the number of hotel rooms the same with its renovation. However, it does plan to modernize the hotel in functionality and design while also making it a more open part of the community. "We are working on something really special," Gottlieb says. "It will really activate the space." The new hotel will feature a more open layout to both patrons and passersby. The idea is to make it more inviting for both hotel guests and neighbors can enjoy its ground floor amenities. "We like to say our lobbies are an extension of ourselves," Gottlieb says. "We like it to be a living room for our communities." The renovation project is expected to take 4.5 months and be open in time for spring commencement at the nearby University of Michigan. The newly redone hotel will also feature a locally-centric food and beverage program designed to foster interaction between hotel guests, Ann Arborites, and the University community. Source: Ben Gottlieb, vice president of acquisition for AJ Capital Partners Writer: Jon Zemke

Homeward Healthcare started this year testing its healthcare technology at Hurley Medical Center in Flint. It's ending this year with a successful pilot program and a few paying customers in its pocket, not to mention ambitions to take its business model national next year. The 2.5-year-old startup has developed a mobile platform that enables clearer communication between hospital staff and patients. It provides a questionnaire to patients to illicit more frank information about their health free from social pressures to say certain things to impress doctors or other medical staff. The idea is to enable medical professionals to deliver better care. "We use an interactive medical platform to provide risk stratification to help prevent patient re-admissions," says Joe Gough, president & CEO of Homeward Healthcare. Homeward Healthcare's pilot program dealt primarily with cardiac patients. Kettering University is about to release a white paper on the results of the program that shows a 47 percent reduction in readmission of patients dealing with congestive heart failure and a 33.4 percent reduction in readmission in patients in general cardiac care. "That translates to 69 fewer readmissions out of 1,000 patients," Gough says. Homeward Healthcare has been able to translate that work into three paying customers, including Hurley Medical Center, Mammoth Hospital in California, and Evolution Hospital in Las Vegas. Homeward Healthcare also has a handful of other hospitals lined up to become customers in the first quarter of 2016. The health systems they are attached to could mean that Homeward Healthcare has customer ceiling of up 600 hospitals. Homeward Healthcare plans to go national with its platform next year. Besides its office in Ann Arbor, it also has offices in Toledo and San Francisco. It employs 18 people, including 11 hires over the last year. Gough expects those numbers to rise as his team works to raise more seed capital. It closed on a $1.5 million Series A a year ago and is currently raising a $1 million bridge round with an eye on closing a Series B by the end of next year. "We opened it (the bridge round) last week," Gough says. "We already have $250,000 in it."

Happy Thanksgiving from the writers, photographers, editors, and programmers at Concentrate! We'll be back Dec. 2nd!

Work crews are putting the final pieces into place for the Heritage Bridge in Ypsilanti, but the new pedestrian bridge is better seen as the final piece of a comprehensive parks system that is raising the quality of life in the city. The Heritage Bridge will span the Huron River, connecting Riverside Park and Water Street. More importantly the bridge will serve as the last major connector in Ypsilanti piece of the Border to Border Trail, a major trail system spanning the width of Washtenaw County. The Heritage Bridge will also serve as the last pedestrian  connector for all of the city’s public parks. "When people choose a place to live and do business, they want it to be attractive," says Beth Ernat, economic development director for the city of Ypsilanti. "This is one of our big amenities for our community." The $1.2 million project is all but done. The main infrastructure of the bridge is finished with working crews spending the next couple of weeks working on the details of the project, such as installing handrails and signage. When it's all said and done it will be a barrier-free avenue for pedestrians, along with the rest of the trails and parks in the city. "We are probably within a month of completing it for the year," Ernat says. She expects people to be able to walk on it by December, and a grand opening for it to be held in the spring. Source: Beth Ernat, economic development director for the city of Ypsilanti Writer: Jon Zemke

The Whole Brain Group has been adding clients by focusing on itself over the last year. The Ann Arbor-based digital marketing agency has moved into a bigger home, beefed up its technical expertise, added staff, and expanded its services. That cleared the way for it to grow its revenue by 20 percent in 2015 and aim for 30 percent growth in 2016. "We are trying to offer a well-rounded set of services," says Marisa Smith, head brainiac at The Whole Brain Group. "A lot of our clients are growing companies that are looking to scale their growth." The Whole Brain Group has added a number of new clients, including a RV dealership in upstate New York, Arborlight (an Ann Arbor-based lighting startup), and Great Lakes Scrip out of Grand Rapids. That new work has allowed The Whole Brain Group to add two new jobs, expanding its staff to 14 people. The firm moved to a new office near Briarwood Mall and plans to stay put for the next few years. "We are going to stay in our same space because there is room to grow," Smith says. The Whole Brain Group also recently achieved platinum partner status with HubSpot, a digital marketing platform used by businesses around the world. The status is the second to top tier for HubSpot, making The Whole Brain Group only one of two in Michigan to achieve it. "We have attained a certain level of expertise and a number of clients who use that software," Smith says. Source: Marisa Smith, head brainiac at The Whole Brain Group Writer: Jon Zemke

Being a professional artist can be a hard row to hoe. Luckily, there are Ann Arbor businesses that see the value in bringing creative folks onto their staff.