Meeting Notes for October 14, 2026

| October 19, 2026 | Meeting Notes

The meeting was called to order at 12:25 by president Roy followed with an impassioned inspiration from Jim Irwin focused on “A Rotarian Doesn’t say no!” Jim urged our newest members to get to know fellow club members better by sitting with new people each week and getting involved with club activities. Marlena Studer, accompanied by her husband Steve Ragsdale, then led the group in song with a crowd-pleasing “Michigan Was Made for You and Me.” Guests were introduced and birthdays were celebrated.

Name your Rotarian: This week’s mystery Rotarian was Mary Sutton. The big surprise was that she has a daughter who swam the English Channel.

Announcements:

  • Celebration of Life for Roger Fraser on Saturday, October 17 from 1-4.
  • The Wonderful World of Millie Danielson: A Retrospective Exhibit Sunday, November 18th, at the Ann Arbor Art Center from 3-5.
  • November 4th we are meeting at the Gerald R. Ford Library on North Campus. Sign up here.
  • District 6380 Rotary Foundation Gala is Thursday November 5th from 5:30-9:30.
  • 5th Annual Send Hunger Packing is Saturday, November 14th from 9-12 at Pioneer High School. This community service project is open to the greater community and a $5,000 matching grant has been offered. Register and Donate here.
  • This week’s focus is on the Program Committee. Everyone can offer suggestions for future speakers. Simply go to the website and fill out the online form.

New Members: Barbara Eichmuller and Bob Mull introduced our first two corporate members. In the Not for Profit category is Arbor Hospice and in the For Profit category is Terrafirma, Inc.

  •  Arbor Hospice is a member of the North Star Care Community.
    • Sarah Posa is an Associate Vice Ppresident Program Administrator
    • Kelly Errer is Associate Vice President of Business Development
    • Susan Rink is the Statewide Legacy Giving Director
  • Terrafirma, Inc. is a premier landscape company servicing the Ann Arbor, Brighton, Plymouth, Northville and Irish Hills/Brooklyn areas.
    • Rick Sinkovics is a landscape designer with TerraFirma

Community Allocation Grant Winners

Susan Shipman introduced our first speaker Derek Miller, who is the executive director of Community Action Network, also known as CAN, as in can do. CAN focuses on education, housing stabilization (Bryant neighborhood,) and community building and manages seven different community centers in Washtenaw County where they offer homework help, meals (1.6 million pounds of food last year impacting over 4,000 households) and enriching curriculum opportunities.

Jim Chaconas, Colliers International: Navigating Change in the Ann Arbor Office Market

The Ann Arbor Area real estate market continues to evolve, shaped by hybrid work models, changing workplace needs, and reduced demand for traditional office space. Understanding current market trends and shifting vacancy patterns is essential to developing effective marketing strategies that attract tenants, maximize exposure, and position office properties for leasing success.  Jim has been in the Ann Arbor commercial real estate market for over 30 years, and is known for his straight talk.

The market has gone through struggles, swinging from downtown to Briarwood and back. It is currently swinging back downtown and he is seeing a resilience in the market. Jim has done seven leases in the last six months downtown with businesses remodeling, adding more windows and amenities.

The University has added the new dorms which are a terrific use of the Fingerle Lumber property and nearby older houses, but there are too many high rises going up. There used to be a 2% vacancy and now there is 12% and there are 11,000 new beds coming online. There is a lot of talk about office to apartment conversions. The cost of doing that would make an apartment unaffordable. An example is the DTE building. It was full, but now it’s empty. Conversion cost was about 30% over budget, which makes the apartments unaffordable.

Jim answered questions about challenges downtown.

  • Parking: we need more, not less. Lack of parking is negatively effecting businesses downtown.
  • Bike lanes: Lanes are not used, are inconsistent, and we need infrastructure before bike lanes.
  • Ann Arbor’s future: The City hired a company from, Charlottesville, Virginia, to analyze Ann Arbor, and they were talking about Ann Arbor, Michigan like it was Boulder, Colorado.
  • How do you get a vibrant Ann Arbor: Vote.
  • Can you give us any hope? The good thing about Ann Arbor, we have the University of Michigan. It is a wonderful school and wonderful hospital. That will keep Ann Arbor going.