Tribal economic development firm diversifying with two new consultancies

Tribal economic development firm diversifying with two new consultancies
Migizi Economic Development Co.’s headquarters in Mount Pleasant.

MOUNT PLEASANT — The economic development subsidiary of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan has launched two new consulting firms that aim to further diversify the tribe’s holdings and also support similar strategies for other tribes and non-tribally owned businesses.

Migizi Economic Development Co., a Mount Pleasant-based wholly owned governmental subdivision of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe, recently announced the formation of Migizi Energy Services and Migizi Business Services.

Migizi executives say the new companies not only grow the tribe’s revenue potential, but also present an opportunity to support other tribes’ economic diversification efforts. As well, the business services consulting firm aims to help non-tribally owned companies gain a foothold in Indian Country and help them do business with tribes.

“Our board of directors and Tribal Council have requested that we diversify the tribe’s holdings through any means possible, especially in Indian Country,” said Migizi Economic Development Co. CEO Robert Juckniess. “As we got into looking at the different ways we could diversify, we had specific expertise in energy and business services. We decided to leverage that expertise by offering our services to other tribes.”

Diversifying holdings means branching out from casino gaming, which typically provides steady revenue but, as the COVID-19 pandemic showed, is subject to massive disruption.

“Casino gaming is a big portion of tribal economies, and it’s been growing for 30-plus years,” said Kevin Blaser, Migizi’s business development and energy operations manager who will lead Migizi Energy Services. “But now, particularly with the pandemic and shutdown of a lot of gaming facilities, tribes realize that the primary revenue channel is sometimes at risk. A well-diversified economy mitigates a lot of those risks.”

The two consulting firms grow Migizi Economic Development Co.’s portfolio of companies, which includes a property management holding company, a federal contracting entity, pharmacy, waterpark and hotel, and multiple convenience stores.

 

Energy and biz services

As the new business names suggest, the consulting firms will focus on both emerging and longstanding areas of economic growth for tribes.

Migizi Energy Services will leverage growing tribal interest in the energy space. Across the country, tribes are exploring the business potential within the energy industry, including by forming tribal utility authorities that could develop their own clean energy projects or buy power at wholesale prices. Most recently, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians received $100,000 in federal funding to support a study on creating a tribal utility authority.

The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe in recent years established its own utility and built a power substation on tribal land in the eastern Lower Peninsula. The project was both an exercise in sovereignty as well as an economic development strategy. Migizi officials say the tribal utility opens the potential to attract large commercial and industrial customers to tribal land with the incentive of cheaper power.

Migizi officials will use this experience to consult with other tribes in the energy space. Blaser said energy, in particular, is an industry that’s ripe for collaboration between tribes.

“We can work with other tribes and take some of the heavy lifting from them and help them meet their energy independence and sovereignty goals faster, then they can take it over if they want,” Blaser said.

Meanwhile, the business services firm will specialize in consulting on waterpark and hotel management, strategic plan development, convenience and retail store design, human resources, due diligence and federal contracting strategy.

Juckniess and Blaser emphasized that the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe brings experience in these sectors to share with other tribes.

“We’re real practitioners,” Blaser said. “We’re not reading about advice we heard from someone else, regurgitating to the tribe and hope it works. We’re bringing real solutions that we’ve implemented and tried.”

 

Competition, non-tribal entities

Juckniess said a common challenge experienced within the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe as well as other tribes is the expectation of maintaining the same level of profitability that comes with casino gaming.

“When you start to diversify, you’re going to find very few businesses that have that same level of profitability,” he said. “The challenge is to overcome the notion of: ‘Let’s do something else to generate money like gaming can.’”

Blaser added: “They’re not zero-sum games. Another reason for doing this is to create strategic partnerships with other tribes. We’re not competing, we’re going into business together.”

Another obstacle is the perceived competition among tribes, typically based on geography. Juckniess said the key to overcoming this barrier is to offer “value-added” services to other tribes. In the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe’s case, that might mean showing another tribe how to develop, build and take advantage of an electricity substation.

Meanwhile, Migizi’s new consulting firms also will work to help non-tribally owned businesses break into Indian Country to expand their customer base.

“There’s a lot of companies out there that don’t understand the benefits of working with tribes — they don’t know how the process works,” Blaser said. “From a cultural and process standpoint, we can help them navigate that. We can help them bring projects to Indian Country that can benefit everyone. Those are important pieces to the puzzle.”