Founder Alita Kelly wants to create ‘an experience that goes beyond just buying groceries’ for a part of the city that has few healthy food outlets.
Paula Gardner
As Bridge Michigan's senior business reporter, Paula Gardner covers Michigan's business landscape, focusing on topics such as the auto industry, electric vehicles and economic development. She came to Bridge in 2020 after covering business and environment for MLive.com and previously served as editor of the Ann Arbor News and news director of the startup AnnArbor.com.
A metro Detroit native, Paula moved to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan and has called it home for more than 25 years.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Q&A: Michigan’s $28B life sciences industry was under the radar. Until COVID
From drug development to medical devices, the state’s bioscience businesses found themselves in the bull’s-eye when coronavirus overtook the United States, said Stephen Rapundalo of MichBio.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan benefited from COVID stimulus and jobless aid. Now what?
Economic relief programs that helped the state’s businesses and jobless now are on hold as the United States pauses new stimulus talks and the state confronts upheaval that impacts state unemployment benefits.
Posted inMichigan Government
‘Liberate Michigan’: Months of angry rhetoric precede Whitmer kidnap plot
Emotions have boiled over repeatedly this year over coronavirus lockdown orders. Violence has erupted over masks and protests have included guns. And now, a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Posted inBusiness Watch
‘Businesses need clarity,’ MI chamber leaders say of shifting COVID rules
Dozens of executive orders have regulated businesses over the last six months. After a chaotic few days of court rulings and political chess games in Lansing, it’s unclear which of them still apply.
Posted inMichigan Government
Whitmer orders restrictions in Upper Peninsula as coronavirus cases spike
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer requires the U.P. to adhere to the same guidelines as most of the Lower Peninsula. The move comes as cases have exploded in western counties near Wisconsin.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan unemployment benefits expanded to 59 weeks for some workers
The state qualifies for a 20-week benefits extension, but not all workers will receive it. Some also are still waiting for $300-a-week bonus payments due to another fraud investigation.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Small business confidence inches up in Michigan. Will sales follow?
Twenty percent of small businesses “are projecting pretty catastrophic impacts” said Brian Calley, president of the Small Business Association of Michigan.
Posted inBusiness Watch
In ‘dire need,’ 1 in 5 Michigan restaurants may not survive winter
Advocates say more policy help is needed to get the state’s leisure and hospitality employees back to work – and keep hotels and restaurants open.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan business found a niche in COVID. Its second act may prove harder.
Sales for TentCraft in Traverse City reached into the millions as it shifted from tents for concerts and trade shows to building temporary medical units. The company now must gauge how to plan for the future.