Few things scream “northern Michigan summertime” more than boats and blue waters, so it’s fitting that the region’s lead economic development organization has spent summer 2023 focused heavily on both.

In what Traverse Connect President and CEO Warren Call describes as an extremely busy summer for himself and his team, the organization has been rubbing shoulders with state leaders, securing huge funding from the Michigan legislature, and vying for federal money that could help establish first-of-their-kind tech hubs throughout the Mitten – including right here in Traverse City.

The Ticker sat down with Call – as well as Katherine DeGood, Traverse Connect’s director of marketing and communications – to learn more about this summer’s efforts and what they could mean for the region. 

1. Plans for a new Freshwater Research & Innovation Center are moving right along

2023 has been an extremely promising year for Traverse City’s ambitious Freshwater Research & Innovation Center project (FRIC).

The Ticker  broke the news last July that Traverse Connect – along with Discovery Center & Pier, 20Fathoms, Northwestern Michigan College, and Michigan Technological University – was working on a massive $60 million plan to establish the Grand Traverse region as “the hub for education, research, development, and commercialization of freshwater and marine technologies.”

That project, which would build a brand-new headquarters at Discovery Pier, would include docks for research vessels, state-of-the-art laboratory space, classrooms, a startup incubator, and more.

In June, the FRIC effort scored a huge $15 million allocation in the state budget, which will help cover the first phase of construction. That money followed a smaller $1.6 million earmark from Congress, intended for “engaging an architect in design work and site planning, as well as financial planning.”

According to Call, there might even be more money coming from the state.

“It was $15 million initially [in Michigan's budget],” he explains. “But there’s another $5 million earmarked through the Revitalization and Placemaking (RAP) program, and that would be additional funding for the center.”

DeGood adds that the FRIC team is expecting “to find out soonish” whether that money – or any other additional state funds – could figure into the project. Traverse Connect is also pursuing other grants, including some through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that could help with local efforts.

None of the state money is actually in hand yet – and won’t be until at least October 1, when Michigan’s new fiscal year begins. However, Call says that “because of some earlier fundraising – both philanthropic and the previously received federal money – a lot of the work on the pier side has actually been completed this summer.” The rest of the project, he adds, is “basically in the real estate development planning process,” which means architectural renderings and other construction details could be coming soon.

2. Traverse City is up for federal “tech hub” funding

Another influx of federal cash could also be headed toward FRIC, thanks to a brand-new nationwide contest called the “Regional Technology and Innovation Hub Program.”

That program is part of the CHIPS and Science Act, a $280 billion piece of legislation passed by Congress in 2022 with the primary goal of reinvigorating America’s semiconductor manufacturing industry. The bill also includes $10 billion “to invest in regional innovation and technology hubs across the country,” and the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is using the tech hub contest to decide how and where that money is distributed. The EDA is expected to review tech hub pitches from across the country this fall, ultimately choosing at least 20 finalists to fund with federal dollars.

Per Call, Michigan is working to put together a united front in its bids for tech hub money. In June, a Michigan Innovation Summit held in Detroit offered an opportunity for contenders from different communities to pitch their tech hub concepts to state leaders. Since then, an alliance that includes Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II, the Michigan Infrastructure Office, the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has been working with each potential Michigan tech hub to hone their pitches.

All told, Michigan is putting forth five tech hub pitches to the EDA, four of which come from major cities downstate. There’s a pitch focused on “electrified, software defined mobility” out of Ann Arbor and Detroit, an electrical aviation project based at Kalamazoo’s Western Michigan University, a battery production tech hub proposal from Grand Rapids, and a Michigan State University-backed operation in Lansing that would research the use of synthetic diamonds for industrial applications.

Michigan’s fifth tech hub pitch comes out of Traverse City in the form of the Traverse Connect-led “Discover Blue Consortium.” A state press release describes that proposal as an effort to utilize the area's “natural regional assets, legendary manufacturing heritage, and robust, modern workforce” to “pursue advancements in freshwater innovation, defense and industrial espionage capacity, engineering and technology, and aquatic science.”

If Traverse City is chosen to receive federal tech hub funding, Call says the award would likely be “between $400,000 and $500,000.” 

“It would allow us to build out a strategic plan and begin to staff this industry cluster development,” Call explains. “The money we’re getting from the state, that’s for the [FRIC] facility, for the actual building. This tech hubs funding would be the other side of the coin: They would be funding us to have staff, contractors, consultants, strategic planning around how to how to build out the industry locally.”

3. Northern Michigan is becoming a leader in electric boat technology

Last time The Ticker touched base with Call and DeGood, Traverse Connect was lending a hand in the launch of the Fresh Coast Maritime Challenge. That state-backed program focused specifically on the 10-county northwest Michigan region and ultimately paid out more than half a million dollars to six companies with the goal of establishing “an evolving network of shore-side charging facilities for clean-fueled marine vessels and electric passenger vehicles operating on the Great Lakes.”

According to DeGood, those efforts have already begun to bear fruit. One example: Lilypad Labs, a Michigan startup that builds solar-powered boats, has partnered with Aussie Watersports to offer rentals of their boats on Lake Leelanau – a partnership that will run through September.

“It’s been really nice to see them engaging with the economy regionally, right here in northern Michigan, and they're looking at expanding that next year,” DeGood says of Lilypad.

Another Fresh Coast Maritime Challenge grantee – Aqua superPower, which manufactures fast-chargers for electric boats – received funding to “convene electric boat manufacturers here in the region” for an industry summit of sorts. That event, held last week at the Elk Rapids Marina, drew guests from across the zero-emissions boating sector, ranging from established manufacturers to budding startups that are thinking about setting up shop in northern Michigan. It was, DeGood says, the largest marine industry event ever held in the U.S. that focused specifically on electric boats.

“That event really had the desired effect that we were chasing when we put [the Fresh Coast] grant program together,” Call says. “We got people from California and Florida to come to this thing, and we got some national-level press out of it, too. Getting national and international recognition for our blue economy, that was the whole idea of the Fresh Coast Maritime Challenge. And it’s working.”