jews d
in
the
Detroit Move
Torgow announces new headquarters
for Chemical Financial Corporation.
Debbie and Mickey Stern
Sterns Support Civic Leadership
Donnell White, Chemical Bank’s director of strategic partnerships and chief diversity officer; Tom Shafer,
president and CEO of Chemical Bank; Mike Duggan, Detroit mayor; Gary Torgow, chairman, Chemical Financial
Corporation; Warren Evans, Wayne County executive; and David Provost, president and CEO, Chemical
Financial Corporation
SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
C
hemical Financial Corporation,
led by Chairman Gary Torgow,
is moving its headquarters to
Downtown Detroit — a city that has not
had a major bank headquarters in more
than a decade.
Torgow announced July 25 that the
company is moving its headquarters
from Midland to Detroit. Chemical
Financial will build a 20-story building
in Detroit’s central business district.
Until its completion, the company will
relocate its headquarters to its existing
location in Downtown Detroit.
Chemical Financial Corporation is
the largest banking company with head-
quarters in Michigan, operating through
its subsidiary bank, Chemical Bank,
which has 212 banking offices mainly in
Michigan, northeast Ohio and northern
Indiana. The publicly traded corporation
(NASDAQ: CHFC) had total assets of
$20.3 billion on June 30, 2018.
“Chemical Bank has a great history of
serving markets throughout Michigan,
and Detroit and Southeastern Michigan
represent our fastest-growing markets,”
Torgow said. “We currently have about
3,500 employees; just under 100 are cur-
rently in Detroit. We anticipate growing
that number to 500 by the time our new
Downtown facility is open.”
The city of Detroit announced that
Chemical Bank will be its new primary
banking partner for managing the city’s
operating deposit accounts. “Chemical
Bank is a great banking partner for the
city’s finances and a great community
partner, now headquartered in the city
28
August 2 • 2018
jn
of Detroit,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan
said at last week’s announcement news
conference.
Chemical Bank, which has been head-
quartered in Midland since its founding
in 1917, merged with Talmer Bank and
Trust in 2016. Talmer had been a partner
in several neighborhood stabilization
projects in Detroit beginning in 2014.
The new Chemical Bank tower
will be designed by Neumann-Smith
Architecture, which has offices in
Southfield and Detroit. The building
will be constructed at the corner of
Woodward Avenue and Elizabeth Street.
Torgow said it is in the design phases
and declined to provide cost estimates
for construction or other details.
In addition to chairing Chemical
Financial Corporation, Torgow is the
founder and chairman of the Sterling
Group, a Michigan-based real estate,
development, investment and manage-
ment company. He is a board member of
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and
the Community Foundation of Southeast
Michigan.
As a Jewish community leader, Torgow
serves on the board of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, is
senior vice president of the Orthodox
Union and president of Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah. He also chairs the steering
committee of Mosaic United, an Israeli-
based nonprofit engaged in outreach to
young Diaspora Jews.
A native Detroiter, Torgow is a gradu-
ate of Wayne State University Law
School. •
Mickey and Debbie Stern of
Orchard Lake have made a $1 mil-
lion commitment to the Gephardt
Institute for Civic and Community
Engagement at Washington
University in St. Louis. The gift will
support the Civic Scholars Program,
a key Gephardt initiative that pre-
pares undergraduate students to be
civic leaders.
The Civic Scholars Program
launched in 2011. Scholars apply
as sophomores and participate in
intensive academic coursework and
leadership training their junior and
senior years and complete a sub-
stantial civic project. Past projects
include the establishment of a pre-
scription drug recycling program,
the delivery of support services to
individuals re-entering the commu-
nity from prison and research into
health disparities among immigrant
populations.
“We believe that the world rests on
charity and charitable deeds,” Mickey
Stern said. “Debbie and I learned at a
young age the significance and joy of
giving to others and serving in one’s
community. We want to share that
experience with our children and
with generations to follow.”
The Sterns have also supported
elementary, middle and high school
education in the Detroit area with
gifts to Yeshiva Beth Yehuda and
Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Southfield.
They also provided funding for high-
er education with gifts for Yeshiva
Gedolah of Greater Detroit and
Michigan State University as well as
support for Chabad at the University
of Michigan and the Jewish Hebrew
Day School of Ann Arbor. •
AJC Honors U-M & Ohio State
AJC, the global Jewish advocacy orga-
nization, honored Jewish students
involved with Hillel at the University
of Michigan and Ohio State University
for their courageous advocacy efforts
against BDS.
The Hillels at the University
of Michigan and the Ohio State
University received the AJC Sharon
Greene Award “for the sustained,
determined and creative work of their
students to defend Israel on campus.”
Curtis and Stacy Lane, members of
AJC’s National Leadership Council,
presented the awards at the AJC
Global Forum in Jerusalem.
“Michigan and Ohio State are nor-
mally archrivals, especially on the
football field. But when it comes to
supporting Israel, the students at
these schools are the closest allies,”
Curtis Lane said.
Joe Goldberg, accepting the award
on behalf of Michigan Hillel, recalled
his experience serving on the campus
student government. “My primary
concern was advancing the welfare of
my fellow students. I knew that BDS
was not in the interest of my constitu-
ents,” said Goldberg, who graduated
this spring.
Goldberg thanked AJC “for standing
by students, for amplifying our voices,
for giving us the tools and the inspi-
ration to stand up for truth on our
campuses.”
Hannah Borow, a rising junior at
Ohio State, accepted the award on
behalf of OSU Hillel.
She recounted how in her first two
years at OSU, two BDS resolutions
were introduced. “We beat the first
one my freshman year by uniting
the campus in favor of dialogue and
engagement, and against the hateful
boycott of the Jewish state.”
But last year the student govern-
ment passed a BDS resolution. “We
amended it to remove all references
to Israel, making it much harder for
them to use the resolution to target
the Jewish state,” she said. •