Mark Sanchez: Of course, the thing that conjures up in my little mind here is, you know, we're approaching the holiday season, so I've been singing this little jingle. Microsoft is coming to town. Maybe. What we've reported is Microsoft Corporation has acquired now two large sites here in West Michigan, totaling nearly 600 acres for a potential data center. It bought 272-acres in Dorr Township in Allegan County. And that's on top of a 316-acre site Microsoft purchased in Kent County. And those two sites are about 12 miles apart. And apparently Microsoft's looking at both of these locations for data center projects as part of the company's ongoing search for development opportunities in Michigan. Businesses today have so much data. It's data storage, cloud storage, just all that IT function that goes through data centers and you want an offsite center to store your data in case you ever have a catastrophe at your workplace. So, we're just seeing just the steady, steady growth of these data centers over the last several years. Remember many years ago, there's an outfit that bought the old Steelcase Pyramid on the southeast side of town for a data center. So, there's an awful lot of data generated and stored in the world these days and companies need these offsite storage centers to store their data.
In Allegan County, Microsoft worked with the Lakeshore Advantage and that could spur some development along that US-131 corridor there in Dorr Township in Allegan County. So, Microsoft's not saying a whole lot other than to acknowledge yes, we're looking at something and we could have more details coming up in the coming weeks. But right now, we do know based on the property records that Microsoft has bought two large tracts of land and there's a consideration about some data centers popping up in this area for Microsoft. And that would kind of fit into The Right Place Inc.’s strategy to help build the tech sector and build tech employment in this region. There are some folks who will point out, you know, these data centers don't really generate a whole lot of jobs directly. But you also have to consider for these rural townships, that's a pretty good chunk of tax base. They're creating these data centers to have a lot of equipment in them and they're high value. So that's some tax base as well for these townships and these rural communities. So, we'll have to wait and see exactly what Microsoft does. But again, just to repeat it, we do know they're looking at this area of Michigan and they have purchased a couple of large tracts of land.
Patrick Center: Microsoft is looking forward. So too are other businesses. We're expecting mergers and acquisitions activity to likely pick up during the next year.
Mark Sanchez: Yeah, this comes to us, there's an annual survey the law firm Dykema Gossett does every year, and mergers and acquisitions have been kind of slow the last couple of years. When interest rates started going up in 2022, that kind of put a little damper on the industry. But now we're seeing the prediction at least out of the Dykema survey of C-suite executives, bankers and private equity pros who are in the space. They're looking at an increased better or better marketplace next year. Dykema's survey showed 70% of the folks responding to this annual survey said they expect to see the market strengthening over the next 12 months, and just 9% expect it weakening. That's certainly better than a year ago in the top three areas where you can see some activity, our health care, financial services, and energy. But bottom line, you know, in September the Fed lowered rates began to bring interest rates down. The Fed meets again next week, the day after the election for two days. And there's a big expectation that we'll see at least another quarter point reduction here this month and maybe another quarter point reduction in interest rates at the December meeting. All that's going to be good for the M&A market. Deal value rose to $535 billion here in 2024. That's up to 30% from the same period in 2023. So, we're already seeing some strengthening of the mergers and acquisition market across the country. And if the interest rates continue coming down as they're widely expected to do, boy, that's going to be more fuel for that market.
Patrick Center: We're talking with Crain’s Grand Rapids Business staff writer, Mark Sanchez. You've written a piece on the Van Andel family and its foundation pledging its largest gift in Pine Rest's 114-year history.
Mark Sanchez: Yeah. Over the last couple of years, we've written a lot about Pine Rest building this pediatric center. It's called the Pediatric Center for Behavioral Health for kids and adolescents and teens who have a mental illness or a mental health issue. And last week, the Van Andel Family Foundation announced an $8 million gift to support development of the pediatric center that's under construction at Pine Rest Clinic or Pine Rest's campus off 68th Street. This is the largest philanthropic gift in Pine Rest's 114-year history. And it's a big contribution that really puts Pine Rest pretty close to that goal of raising a pretty big chunk of money, $98 million to build this facility through philanthropy. The state has contributed almost $65 million to this in budget appropriations over the last few years, and the rest has come from donations. So now there's about $4 million to go in raising that entire sum for Pine Rest. And this really gives Pine Rest some momentum, this $8 million from the Van Andel Family Foundation, as it now opens up that public phase of the capital campaign to get that final $4 million toward that ultimate goal.
Patrick Center: When do we expect completion of the project and its grand opening?
Mark Sanchez: It's really looking at the spring of 2026 to have the new pediatric center open out there. And it'll really join in some of the other aspects of that campus. In the southern part of that campus, we should note that Pine Rest is going to rename as the David and Carol Van Andel family foundation Healing Campus. That part of the campus also includes the Jay and Betty Van Andel Center for inpatient hospitalization. And then there's the Van Andel Cook Center for Dementia and Geriatric Behavioral Health. So, Pine Rest in recognition of this gift, as well as the Van Andel families of $14 million, they've gifted to Pine Rest over the last three decades, they're doing that renaming in kind of recognition of those gifts and those contributions.
Patrick Center: Crain’s Grand Rapids, staff writer Mark Sanchez. Thank you so much.
Mark Sanchez: Thank you, Patrick.