Mark Sanchez: It is now open. It's finally here. Years of planning, if not decades. The deal was cut many years ago under Governor Snyder and the Canadians. It got built $4.6 billion, 1.5-mile span across the Detroit River along what is one of the largest, if not the largest, or busiest trade corridors in the world, coming from the industrial Midwest all the way to Montreal.
There are a lot of companies out here in West Michigan, suppliers that ship products and components to those auto factories in Ontario. This is a story we did last week here at Crain's Grand Rapids Business after the bridge opened talking to some folks including Birgit Klohs, she used to run The Right Place Inc. here in Grand Rapids. She served on the authority that oversaw construction of the Gordie Howe Bridge. And she talked about infrastructure. This is going to make, create a new connection, a new border crossing and it's going to help trade and it's going to help businesses all along that corridor and help because the Ambassador Bridge that crosses the Detroit River, you get occasionally, if not often, backups and delays on that bridge.
Now think about you're one of these auto suppliers here in West Michigan that's building and shipping components to those auto plants for GM Stellantis plants in Ontario. You operate in a just-in-time model. You need to get those parts at that plant at this time. If you're facing an hour or two delay at the border, that really throws your whole logistics and your transportation into kind of a problem.
So, one of the insights that was offered here in the story was Mike Wall. He's with Mobility Global here in Grand Rapids. He's an auto analyst. He says this really can alleviate some of the pain points for those auto suppliers here in West Michigan that often face delays at the Ambassador Bridge crossing the border from Detroit to Windsor. The new bridge gives a little more predictability for the suppliers as they're shipping those components to those plants in Ontario.
They're working on a just-in-time delivery schedule. They can now have a little more predictability, maybe a little more expectation in their production schedule and their shipping schedule. So that's just one benefit. Yes, it's not here, it's in Detroit, but there's a bigger, broader benefit. And this is why so many people for so long fought the battle and pushed to get this bridge built to alleviate those delays crossing the border. And there's a lot of commerce and a lot of trade that goes back and forth between Detroit and Windsor every single day.
Patrick Center: Can you put that into perspective for anybody who's not familiar with the size and the scope of the exports?
Mark Sanchez: Well, there's the U.S. Trade Representative office that says in 2025, Michigan companies, just Michigan based companies exported $21.2 billion in goods alone to Canada. That's 36% of the state's total goods exported that year. That's a big number. That's a lot of jobs. That's a lot of revenue for companies based here in Michigan.
And you know, it's not just Michigan companies. When I talked to Bergus, she was explaining that you get companies, manufacturers, large and small from all over the industrial Midwest using that border. Even some of those auto suppliers now based in the Southern States, down in the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi, they're running that I-75 corridor. If they're shipping, they're selling to those OEMs in Canada, they're running those parts up the I-75 corridor into Detroit, crossing that to Detroit Windsor border. So, there's a lot of trade that goes across that border. And again, last year it was $21.2 billion just from Michigan alone.
Patrick Center: So, you see the magnitude of these exports, West Michigan auto suppliers are now reshoring after years of investments and you're seeing a lot of that being a reaction to tariffs.
Mark Sanchez: Tariffs and demands for domestic content. And this came to us, a story I wrote the other day, this came to us for an event we held in conjunction with the Advanced Manufacturing Expo here in Grand Rapids. And one of our speakers, again, was Mike Wall at Mobility Global in Grand Rapids. And he talked about that your domestic automakers are looking at…put in requirements for domestic content on autos.
That means how much of that content on that truck, minivan, SUV, sedan, how much of that content was built in the U.S. So, he's kind of telling suppliers, get ready for this, it's coming. And it is, the point he made, if you've been a supplier, you've been told 10,15 years or more, go to Mexico, go to China, go where you have the lower cost labor markets. If you're building commodity components, it's better. Well, now there's an expectation coming down the pike that you now have to bring that production back to the U.S. because there's going to be some content requirements.
And that was kind of maybe warning he put out there at this event last week. You've got that capacity. If you're an auto supplier, tier one, tier two, tier three, and you've got some flexibility in your production capacity to absorb that, bringing that work back, you're in good shape. If you don't have that flexibility, boy, there's going to be a capital investment you're going to have to make in order to keep that business.
So, you're right, it's an interesting dynamic that for so many years there was movement of production to lower cost labor markets in the world. And now, especially since the pandemic, we've seen this push to bring some of that work back. And now there's some consideration or at least expectation among the automakers in the U.S. to start implementing some content requirements for the suppliers based here.
Patrick Center: We're talking with Crain's Grand Rapids Business staff writer Mark Sanchez. U of M Health, it's beginning to make a really big investment in the Lansing area.
Mark Sanchez: Yeah, U of M Health of course here in Grand Rapids acquired the old Metro Health many years ago and has been in town for a while now. And then three years ago, almost three and half, acquired Sparrow Health in Lansing. The legacy health system there.
And Sparrow was in tough shape financially, but U of M's come in, has helped stabilize the finances and gotten Sparrow Health operating back in the black. And as we say in a story here the other day, is pouring a ton of capital into that Lansing market, $286.2 million so far in just the last couple of years.
This includes a $62 million expansion and renovation of the hospital up in St. John's, north of Lansing. There are other projects. It's a $60 million Lansing surgery center that's going up. There's a $32 million outpatient campus in Grand Ledge, west of Lansing. There's an outpatient clinic and there's about an $80 million behavioral health hospital that breaks ground this week that's going up in Lansing.
So, you've seen U of M go into that Lansing market, and I say when, boy, when folks are making these kinds of investments, we want to give that a little attention and that's the story we did this week that you could read at crainsgrandrapids.com. And it's a big investment. And of course, U of M Health is one of the big health systems now in Michigan where we've got Corewell, U of M, McLaren, Trinity, Henry Ford basically control much of the market here in Michigan between those top five. But right now, what we're seeing is U of M, for a number of years, has been on this path to become much more of a statewide health system, as we saw when it made that investment in Grand Rapids years ago. And now it's making some big capital investments in that Lansing area in the Mid-Michigan market.
Patrick Center: Crain's Grand Rapids Business staff writer Mark Sanchez, thank you so much.
Mark Sanchez: Thank you, Patrick.