Hi, I'm Jeff Rea your host for Economic Outlook.

Thanks for joining us each week as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives with a panel of experts.

Mno-Bmadsen is the economic development arm of the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi, created to diversify the tribe's financial interest and invest in companies that help grow the tribe's portfolio.

This week, we'll learn more about the work they're doing to drive economic activity in the region.

Mno-Bmadsen is an arm of the Pokagon band of the Potawatomi that helps advance economic self-sufficiency and build wealth that will help positively impact the next seven generations of the tribe.

They've been involved in several key projects across the region.

Today, we're taking a closer look at their work and getting a glimpse on what's on the horizon for this important organization.

Joining me for that conversation is Julio Martinez, the CEO at Mno-Bmadsen.

Julio, welcome.

Thank you.

Hey, we're glad to have you back.

Thank you for being here.

Maybe just a quick reminder to start.

Tell us a little bit about, what Mno-Bmadsen is.

So Mno_Bmadsen is the non-gaming investment arm of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.

We make that distinction away from the word economic development, which is common, and it is a type of economic development because tribes typically do, economic development within the tribal government, as opposed to what we do, which is just core investment.

Private equity style investments.

So that's kind of the distinction on who we are versus, typical economic development at the tribe.

Great.

And so tell us the origins, Mno-Bmadsen means what?

Right.

And I wasn't the part of the naming because I'm not I'm not tribal, but, Mno in in the Potawatomi language means good roughly.

And Bmadsen or Bmadzewen means direction, path or direction.

So our tagline is the good path to good business.

So that's that's kind of the origin.

It's kind of a tongue twister for, for people to say that.

Yeah.

It's it's over the years trying to learn how to say that.

No, it was, but I was curious.

So thank you about helping understand the origin.

So, so the organization has been around for a little while, and, talk to us, kind of give us a high level overview of kind of some of the things that the organization has been involved in over the last, what, 12, 13 years?

Something like this.

Right.

Probably started actually investing.

About 12 years ago at the very beginning.

It was just, convenience store.

That's by the Dowagiac casino.

A C store called Bent Tree.

And, then we, started up, a first architecture firm, Seven Generations Architecture engineering.

It was originally located in Benton Harbor.

But really wasn't until, the acquisition of Da Dodd, which was, 2015, that we started, to expand acquisitions, and expand the portfolio to grow, to where it is today.

And we continue to grow.

So, so talk about the those portfolio.

Then you mentioned a couple of the key companies, but but how many companies or what kind of industries or ultimately are you invested in.

So right now the portfolio has what we call verticals.

Investment verticals.

We have a vertical in professional services, which for us, our architects and engineers, and there's probably six operating companies and a number of other companies that that are specific purpose vehicle companies.

For specific, primarily federal contracting.

Our next vertical is kind of professional services, but is morphing is the acquisition of Cressy commercial real estate here local?

So we, acquired 51% and controlling interest in 2023.

After the first quarter of 23.

And, that's also professional services to do brokerage and property management.

We've added some element of construction there, which we wanted to which complements our architecture engineers.

So this is the kind of synergistic effect.

We have our construction Hvac mechanical company, the largest in our portfolio, our largest company, D.A.

Dodd headquartered in Rolling Prairie here in Indiana.

But, we have a couple of locations, which we added one location, last year in 24 with an acquisition in, in, Mishawaka and then one in Lafayette, Indiana, that we also just added a new building and expanded their.

Then we have three manufacturing companies.

Excuse me.

Almost left them off.

That and another partnership called Mno-Drek.

Drek are our partners.

And then we have a number of real estate holdings that that's kind of how we met the Cressy ownership team which invested with us.

And we invested with them at the Hotel Elkhart and, Benton Harbor flats, and we have a couple of other real estate holdings in the portfolio.

Yeah.

So quite an impressive, portfolio in a lot of different industries.

So as we mentioned in the opening, this, seven generations idea help us understand that a little bit better, right?

To the tribe.

When they put Mno together, it was with the understanding that we were, investing for seven generations.

And over the years, I've learned a little more about how how that looks.

Is it three generations back and three generations forward?

Just keeping in mind the past and the future.

In any case, for the investment side, it's a model we call the patient investor model.

So we are not transactional on our operating companies.

We buy them, we grow them.

it it allows us to do things that are really important instead of trying to transact these companies, we we do the opposite.

We we we buy them.

We grow them organically, organically, invest in them and expand them.

And we like to keep the workforce so we don't come in and chop people and fire them.

We try to keep the workforce.

It's there.

We try to grow, the reach, and that long runway is gives us, time to, invest and grow in different directions so we can withstand the dips.

We don't have, you know, shareholders yelling.

You know, we need profit today.

We're profitable across the portfolio.

But dropping to the bottom line, every dollar is not our focus necessarily.

We want to take that long slope upward.

And, and investing for the, for the rest of the tribal generations.

So over time, we've acquired look forward a little bit still in this mode of growing and diversifying opportunities.

What is it that, and I'm not asking you to look in the crystal ball, but but but talk about the future and when, when minnow might be involved in acquiring other companies.

Well, we're continuously looking, so we source code, we call that sourcing.

And we're looking in the professional services sector, which we've grown tremendously.

We're looking to add architects, engineers, primarily engineers.

So any firms bigger than a more engineers, we've done a lot of work.

And where we see we win work, we have to subcontracted out.

We look to acquire and expand there.

So we have the work capacity.

Contracts now we we need more self performing work.

So that obviously drives more, profit margin.

So we're looking there.

We, we're always looking to add to the portfolio, across the whole portfolio.

And then, you know, we try to look out and into the future and figure out what we would call a new platform, which is an additional vertical outside of the current.

But that complements.

And one thing we've looked at and talked about a lot is the utility sector, which is, I believe, ripe for growth.

I mean, our the you know, utilities are pre post-World War two infrastructure and and the power demand is becoming so great with AI and all the new things coming online.

So that would nicely fit with our engineering potentially.

And maybe some of the construction services.

So so we're constantly looking to expand the portfolio and that's by acquisition.

But again I'll mention organic growth because it's important to us.

Some of the investment is organic.

So that's spending money on our existing companies to do different things like but we talked about briefly at D.A.

Dodd expanding into sheet metal, which wasn't their core competency.

So that's an investment of people and equipment and so forth that then let some self perform that and as well as prefabricated piping, which is, which is a big deal, which creates great efficiencies, which is done in Lafayette, Indiana, which where we had some expansion as well.

So those don't aren't the shiny things that, the acquisition ribbon cutting kind of thing, but it's the hard work that continues to grow the companies.

Yeah, is exciting to see.

And obviously many of those companies are familiar and doing some great work in the community.

So appreciate you diving in a little bit.

We're going to take a quick break from our conversation.

We're going to go out into the field.

We'll be right back.

I am downtown Mishawaka, Indiana.

I am joined today by a good friend of the show, Chris Fielding.

Chris, thanks for being back with us.

Thank you for having me.

As always, while we're a little bit of a unique space for our interviews, our viewers, I hope, can see we are not only in one of your construction zones.

This also happens to be your headquarters.

Absolutely.

So tell us a little bit about this building.

This is the old Mishawaka Police Department.

For those of our viewers who haven't heard the news, it's also now Cressy's headquarters.

How did that come to be?

The city had the opportunity to buy the Liberty Mutual building when they vacated the downtown, which freed this building up.

For us, as community builders, we always look to solve some solve problems, for municipalities and address things that are needed in the community.

So for us, it was a logical opportunity to go from being a tenant in another space to owning our own building.

Also saving the city $285,000 from tearing it down.

So we spent the last year and a half turning it into our corporate headquarters.

And as you can see, we have a few spaces available for some other tenants to join us right here in the beautiful Central Park riverfront.

Yeah.

I mean, for, you know, I don't know that our viewers and our cameras are doing a great job of catching the view, but it is spectacular.

The Saint Joe River is such a big part of our community.

Wines right through here.

So great choice.

Smart choice.

That choice of changing your headquarter locations came with a change in ownership for Cressy Commercial.

But before we get to that little tidbit, because that's really the star of the show today.

Is your corporate ownership in partnership with Mno-Bmadsen But, tell us a little bit about Cressy Commercial, because so many of our viewers are probably familiar with Cressy and Everett, but Cressy commercial is a little different.

Yes, very different.

So Cressy and Everett was actually started in 1948 by Ed Everett and George Cressy senior, ran that for many years, developing projects in the community like winding Brook and others.

Cressy commercial real Estate really separated from Cressy and Everett, who we still have wonderful relationships with in about 1980 as the evolution of University Park Mall was developed in partnership between the founders of Cressy Commercial Real Estate and the DeBartolo Group.

That then led to all the development on Main Street and Edison Lakes Corporate Park.

And we were a tenant, long term tenant in Edison Lakes Park, Corporate Park for 25 years.

So, the opportunity to not move downtown, followed the trend, and have our own space that we own and redevelop another community asset was very intriguing for us.

So your company is, while we say crazy commercial, and a big part of it is commercial real estate services in Mishawaka and other communities like Mishawaka.

There are other parts of the business, such as property management.

And, you were telling me before we went on air, there were some others.

Correct.

But what what about Mno-Bmadsen?

Your other business lines made that partnership so important.

Mno-Bmadsen as an extension of the Potawatomi band.

They have so many different needs.

And for Cressy, having a burgeoning construction company and Hvac division, a plumbing company, all licensed, they have so many real estate needs, whether they're providing clinics or, daycares or schools or housing for the elders in the tribe.

It was a natural extension for us and our values align.

We're on our 78th year, fourth generation coming up, and the tribe thinks long term.

They think seven generations ahead.

So our values really align that.

You don't necessarily always do things that are about the money.

Sometimes it's just for the benefit of others.

And it may be that the benefit of our next generation that comes into the company.

So for us, it was a natural relationship, as you know, because you've done our interview, we're also already partnered with Minerva monson and Julio Martinez in the City Center project that you did a show on in Benton Harbor.

Also the Hotel Elkhart and downtown Elkhart, two historical transformations, both that won awards.

So for us, this was just a continued partnership.

Yeah.

And when we're talking about the tribe and we talk about their impact on our community, we have done episodes at their other, you know, businesses, including the casino and the casino project.

And one of the things that always strikes us and I think strikes me here is that, the, the they are so good about reinvesting in our community because they are members of our community.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So all right.

Well, as you look to what's next for Cressy Commercial and that partnership, we were talking before we went on air.

You're actually doing national projects, etc., aren't you?

Absolutely.

That you couldn't have done without that partnership?

No.

So, next for Cressy Commercial Real Estate, we just acquired an office in Indianapolis.

So we now extend all the way from Bloomington to southwestern Michigan, pretty much state line to state line, Ohio to Illinois.

So we're providing brokerage and construction and maintenance and management services all over central and northern Indiana.

We're also partnering with our company that we've taken a minority stake in a service disabled veteran company out of Virginia.

So we're doing projects for the federal government doing.

We have a cemetery expansion project going in Oklahoma.

Nebraska.

we're really expanding our horizons, much of that.

You know, the the tribe and their businesses are so good at this.

They're experts in providing a top level service, and they're extension through, you know, whether it be D.A.

Dodd, seventh gen, any PBC out of Chicago, steelhead engineering.

These are just now we are now a part of a family of integrated companies.

And in a time where you have such inflation in construction costs and labor, when you can vertically integrate and provide most of your services in-house, it makes you that much more competitive.

Yeah.

Well, good job.

Congratulations.

Good luck with the space.

Smart move, I think, on all fronts.

Thank you guys for tuning in.

I think this has been another example of how our local family of companies and businesses going as far back as hundreds of years, stay committed to our area and utilizing resources and partnerships to help further our economic goals.

Thank you.

George, back in the studio, continue our conversation with Julio Martinez, a CF CEO at Mno-Bmadsen.

Julio, thanks for sticking around to continuing this great conversation.

So, Julio, you know, like you've talked a little bit about this investment side and kind of, growing the portfolio of the Pokagon Band and stuff.

But but I also think of the Pokagon Band is, you know, like important contributors are to talk about the this pathway piece.

Opportunities for folks in the tribe to work in some of these companies.

Yeah, that's a great question and a really important part of our strategies for all these companies.

We seek to, find and place, citizens that are that, have the, the, the great skill set in order to be part of these companies.

Ultimately, our goal is to have these companies run by Pokagon citizens, if at all possible.

So we have a program that was started a while back, called pathways, actually, that creates a pathway for if a tribal citizen is interested in a particular career, we'll help them.

Will we provide internships, paid internships if they're already in college?

And as we grow, the portfolio is becoming even more important.

So when we go to different cities for conferences or things, we they're poking citizens across the country.

So it's a unique place.

We try to, find the citizens that are out there, and attract them.

I think as we get bigger, we're getting more eyes on on the companies that the tribe has and and more interest from outside remote work is helped.

So even if they're remote, sometimes they can work, especially in professional services, architects and engineers.

It's fairly easy to collaborate, even if they're remote.

And we've won projects across the country.

So that all that adds to the, the, the ability to attract tribal citizens that have moved away, and found employment elsewhere, attract them back to the tribe and, and help them find a place within our companies.

So that's a that's a big part of what we do.

Sure.

Sure.

It off air like a success story.

Recent intern.

Right.

Do you mind sharing it now?

I won't use her name, but, so she's, She's, She's a Pokagon citizen that was in engineering school, and, found out about our companies.

And for her senior year, internship, she came, down here and worked at one of our companies, the steel and engineering company in Kalamazoo, and loved it.

Love the area, too.

So she she didn't live in the area.

But she came back.

Love the area.

And upon her graduation, we made a job offer to her, and she's accepted.

So she'll be starting here fairly soon.

And one of our companies.

A great success story.

So our hope is she'll continue to grow professionally and start taking some leadership roles.

Actually, the steelhead engineering is run by a Pokagon citizen, which we found at a career center.

We didn't know he was working somewhere else.

And, and we were able to recruit him.

Another great story.

Thank you for sharing that.

Hopefully I want to shift a little bit, but you mentioned sort of yeah.

Like I think of your work probably initially a little more regional kind of Michigan, Indiana ish, but your tentacles are kind of spread a little bit across the country.

Just talk about sort of growing out beyond sort of the Midwest here.

Right.

And it the strategies that have developed at the operating companies have led to that.

So it's it's not we purposely looked for it.

But as we win contracts across the country and are looking for contracts across the country in different phases, even at at Cressy Commercial, we have, like I said, a construction division that's that's growing.

We, we, we partnered with a service, disabled, veteran owned small business and we've won some projects with them that are across the country or VA projects, So we're looking to push into geographies, that are closer to tribes, maybe the southwest or the Pacific Northwest, where there were different tribal organizations, or more.

We also have a, an architect, an engineering firm in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is also obviously Oklahoma's a big, tribal state.

And so, yeah, we're spreading geographically as as business calls.

Right.

And so let's come back locally.

So because as you're growing nationally, you're also involved in some pretty important stuff here locally.

So you mentioned like D.A.

Dodd and some others talk a little about some of the maybe the work on important projects that people might know of here, that or maybe just even clients.

Right, right.

So so D.A.

Dodd here locally, you know, mostly Indiana, a little bit into Michigan, but mostly Indiana, headquartered in Rolling Prairie, Indiana.

We just acquired a company, OJS Building Solutions, last year, which was both an acquisition and an organic growth opportunity.

D.A.

Dodd's won the big AWS, project, along with a lot of others.

So it's a big project.

They do continuing work for a long time with Notre Dame, even prior to our acquiring D.A.

Dodd But we've expanded, our work at Notre Dame and Indiana University and Dodd goes down, all the way to Lafayette, Indiana.

So we just acquired a new building.

They're a bigger building.

Their facility, they were outgrowing, they're they do prefabricated piping, which is really important.

And they pre fabricate there for the entire, region that we work in.

And they do a lot of work at Purdue University.

So, we're really busy across and doing projects, in the area.

So while the architects and engineers are more visible across the country, the other, companies are here in Indiana and in Michigan.

You know, it's exciting, especially when you think of like AWS and Notre Dame and some of those.

We've talked about a lot of those projects here, and I know that sort of you're on the ground working, doing some of those things I think is great.

Let's just talk from employer standpoint for a second.

So you own these companies when we're sitting here with other employer and that you not you own this minnow owns these and you obviously.

But finding attracting top talent to these companies is is is perhaps the greatest challenge.

They're all, faces.

Talk to them a little bit about just sort of culture working at a minnow company, you know, kind of the, make the pitch to those folks watching this.

Why, they ought to come work at one of these minnow companies.

Yeah, you're right, it there's it's that two faced because it's not only attracting it's keeping.

Yeah.

Right.

So for the for those who might want to come work for our companies, I'm basically they're coming from somewhere else.

Right.

So we, I think what makes it special and we talk about this and we integrate the tribal culture into it.

So we do something called enculturation continuously at our companies.

We go visit, I go with, one of my staff members, and I go over the portfolio and the opportunities so they realize they're part of a bigger organization than just the company they work with.

And we're all a family, and it benefits the tribal nation.

And then we talk about what that means, where the tribes come from in the region.

And it's a it's a great, it's a great way to tell people that when you come work for our companies, if it's an arc, if you're an architect or engineer or if you're a real estate professional, or if you're a plumber or pipefitter, you're part of a bigger organization with a tribe and a tribal culture.

That it's different again, back to where long patient investors were not just turn and burn.

Is this similar to do other tribes across the country have a Mno- Bmadsen, is this unique, to what the tribes do?

It's also a great question.

So I've been working for tribes right out of college, and you can see I'm a kind of older guy.

I'm about to turn 60, so I've spent a lot of time all the way from pre casinos, which really change the landscape in the tribes abilities even to, to do other businesses.

Because of the, the casino, addition.

And this is becoming the new, strategy for tribes and economic development and investing and doing what what Mno-Bmadsen and I believe, of course, I'm I'm partial here.

I believe Mno is doing it better than almost all of the tribes that I've seen.

But it is the new thing.

And other tribes are doing things like.

Like we're doing, going away and diversifying away from a single revenue stream, realizing that that that can be it can be impaired.

Yeah.

Well, let's touch quick on and two past projects but but two that help transform kind of communities.

So for example, Mno was involved at Hotel Elkhart, for example, which was, gosh, a building that had long been how do we make this happen?

And without Mno's partnership that might still be sitting empty today or in Benton Harbor at like the City Center Lofts or some of those talk about just maybe those investments that you did historically and and what attracted you to those?

Yeah, we were important.

All of those both of those investments, have deep ties to the tribe as well.

So all this is ancestral lands to the tribe.

And when we can do something that's a profitable venture, that partners with the community and showcases where the tribe, you know, originated from.

And it still has deep ties to.

It's important.

So Hotel Elkhart was, you know, both of them, both of those projects, and City Center lofts, started and then the pandemic hit.

So they were incredibly challenging projects.

But it's beautiful.

Hotel Elkhart is beautiful.

I remember opening it and, Rod Robertson, the mayor there and all was great and got a lot of support from the city of Elkhart.

So that was important for us.

So having the cities help us is really important to make the project successful.

We had people coming in from Elkhart saying, you know, I had my my wedding here at the ballroom.

I had, you know, so and so so it was it's fulfilling.

So it's an investment, and also a tangible investment, which is a different thing.

So when I'm telling a story to tribal citizens, I'm talking about architects, engineers all over the country.

They don't they can't see and touch them.

They can see and touch and stay at Hotel Elkhart.

And the same thing with in Benton Harbor at City Center Lofts.

So the Cornerstone Alliance helped us greatly there.

The nonprofit, which I'm on the board for Cornerstone Alliance, they did a great job in helping us do that.

We just right next to them, we took that building that was, again, dilapidated, but an important part of the kind of, resurgence of that area they're trying to do in that, that art district in Benton Harbor.

So it was it was an important part.

A lot of our tribal citizens, lived in both of those areas.

Yeah, great.

Terrific.

It really down to our last minute or so, just, you know, kind of final word.

Maybe recap a little bit of of Mno and and kind of what's, what's on the horizon for the future.

Yeah.

We're we're excited, you know, the portfolio, it's it's kind of a, you know, it's creating its own inertia as it gets bigger, expanding.

You know, it's, it's hard to find people.

We've been adding people slowly.

We added a communications piece, which has helped greatly get the news out and inform the tribal citizens, of what we're doing.

Better inform them.

We as I mentioned, we're looking at different areas, potentially to expand the portfolio.

So we we grow organically by our existing businesses and then looking for other opportunities.

So we're out there looking great.

Julio Martinez CEO Mno-Bmadsen.

Julio.

Thanks again for being here.

Glad you're here.

So thank you.

Thank you I really appreciate it.

That's it for our show today.

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