Redefining Atlantic City: Mike Binder's Blueprint for Innovation and Resilience

On the eve of Thanksgiving, we're joined by a special guest, Mike Binder, an entrepreneur in the sign and specialty construction business, for a spirited discussion about gratitude, innovation, and making a difference. As the mastermind behind the design and construction of Citizens Bank Park's home run bell, Mike brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his industry to the table. Today, he shares with us about his latest project, the revitalization of a 143-acre property at Bader Field in Atlantic City, a massive undertaking that has been six years in the making.

Mike's vision for the Renaissance at Bader Field project is nothing short of ambitious. He imagines it as a beacon for motorsports and innovation, with an emphasis on sustainability and resilience. In our chat, he elaborates on the project’s centerpiece, a 2.44-mile motor course encircled by 1,500 advanced technology residences designed to withstand extreme weather conditions. However, the project is more than just about construction. With a heart for the community, Mike ponders on how the project can positively impact Atlantic City, discussing issues like poverty and homelessness that he hopes to address.

Looking into the future, Mike shares his dream of transforming Atlantic City into an education and technology hub, underscoring the paramount importance of embracing AI in enhancing individual value as employees. Water, or more specifically, water reclamation, is a major point of our discussion, with Mike gleaning insights from his work in Israel and stressing the urgent need for technological and educational solutions to solve water problems on a global scale. To wrap up our enlightening conversation, we delve into the realms of entrepreneurship, the thrill of taking risks, and ways to stay motivated and passionate about one's work.

About Mike Binder:
Mike Binder is the Chief Operating Officer of Deem Enterprises, and a serial entrepreneur with a strong social conscience.

Connect with Mike:
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/michael-binder-306b1015 

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Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

Entrepreneur, author and financial consultant, Marc Bernstein helps high-performing entrepreneurial business owners create a vision for the future and follow through on their goals and intentions. Ang Onorato is a business growth strategist who blend psychology and business together to create conscious leaders and business owners who impact the world. Founders Forum is a radio show podcast sharing the real stories behind entrepreneurship as founders discover more about themselves, while providing valuable lessons and some fun and entertainment for you. Now here's Marc and Ang.

Marc Bernstein: 0:35

Good morning America. How are you? This is Marc Bernstein. Ange is on break for this show and it is the day before Thanksgiving 2023. You may be listening to it later than that on podcast, but we're live in Philadelphia.

Marc Bernstein: 0:50

I have a special guest, someone I'm really excited to speak to this morning, mike Binder. And Mike, I'll talk to you about this. We always start with a little theme, and mine today's gratitude, appropriately with Thanksgiving in the air. And what happened was this I woke up a little sour this morning. I don't usually do that. I usually wake up positive, energetic, ready to go, but a few issues I was dealing with and a little sour.

Marc Bernstein: 1:16

And I got in line at my local Starbucks. I wanted to get something on the way into the radio station and the lady in front of me was ordering for an awful long time and I found myself like complaining, like what is she doing? And I might have even been vocal about it. She might have even seen it. I didn't mean for her to. Anyway, I got up to the window and I'm thinking I was going to take a while.

Marc Bernstein: 1:38

I got to pay. I was paying cash and the woman in the window says no need to pay. The lady in front paid for your breakfast, for you. So I just got a big smile on my face and realized that she was spreading some cheer, probably for the holiday or maybe to calm my sour mood if she saw it and I was very my attitude went from whatever I was Agita to gratitude. Immediately I did some of my mental work that I do in the car on the way here and I was actually listening to the station WWDB and they're playing some happy holiday music and I was just in a very spirited mood and it's just, it's amazing how your thoughts and attitude can change on a dime, mike any thoughts about gratitude from your perspective. I know you have a lot to be grateful for.

Mike Binder: 2:30

I sure do. I mean I got six kids, eight grandkids, great wife, four dogs. I'm a happy guy, except I have a cold.

Marc Bernstein: 2:44

Yeah, but well, that's going around, but it's a lot to be thankful for. Your family will all be together for Thanksgiving, I take it. No, they're in.

Marc Bernstein: 2:53

Florida or California, you know all over the place Mine too, mine too, but they'll be home for the other holidays in December, so we'll see them then. So my guests this morning, as I've already said, is Mike Binder. Mike has a very interesting background. He came from the sign and specialty construction business and still consults on jobs like that. But, among other things, if you're in Philadelphia, the bell that rings for home runs at Citizens Bank Park.

Marc Bernstein: 3:21

That was Mike's design and construction and he's done some very interesting landmarks around this city and around the country. He got out of that business officially a number of years ago and since then he's done a number of things. I won't list all the companies, but all related to innovation is kind of the theme we were talking about. And a current company that he heads is called e-squared home and I bring that up because it's going to be relevant to the conversation we're going to have today. And he's a partner in Deem Enterprises and they are doing something very interesting in Atlantic City that many people may not know about and I guess not everything can be spoken about because they're still in the approval process. But, mike, why don't you tell us a little bit about that project and what's going on there?

Mike Binder: 4:10

Well, it's a transformative project that is occurring on Bader Field. Bader Field is 143 acres. It's the largest, I believe, or one of the largest pieces of undeveloped coastal property on the Atlantic Seaboard. There are an abandoned baseball field, an abandoned skating arena and a fire station currently on the site and we have looked at that project In particular. I've looked at it for about six years. We have about 350 professionals of varying disciplines that are working on it collectively now.

Marc Bernstein: 5:10

Mike, what will that look like in your vision when it's completed?

Mike Binder: 5:14

Well, it will be the destination on the East Coast for not only motorsports but for innovation, and we are bringing to that project some things that really have not been done from a developmental perspective. We are going to be putting in a hydrogen microgrid which basically will have a byproduct of water as it produces energy, and there's a tremendous amount of interest and incentives relative to hydrogen right now because it's really the fuel of the future. It's safe, it's again, the byproduct is water.

Marc Bernstein: 6:12

So, instead of traditional fossil fuels which have methane and carbon emissions will be net zero carbon, at the completion of our project We'll have I just want to ask so, due to my work in the non-profit area, I'm involved with innovation and familiar with hydrogen cells, particularly in regard to cars. You shared with me a story about that yesterday, driving in a hydrogen car. Sure what happened afterwards?

Mike Binder: 6:48

Well, it's interesting because everybody thinks that the big car manufacturers are moving toward electrification, which is true to some extent, but the ultimate goal is to get to the hydrogen fuel cell. I was in a hydrogen fuel cell car in California. I think we went about 80 miles. We came back and the guy had a little spigot at the bottom of the car. He opened it up and put a jar underneath it and water came out. And then he drank the water and I thought to myself this is the way to really get rid of just an enormous amount of pollution. It was very, very impressive.

Marc Bernstein: 7:38

It resolves the problem of the lithium battery to a large extent.

Mike Binder: 7:42

Well, the lithium battery has a couple of issues. One is that if it catches on fire, it's very difficult to put out, but it's also a rare earth mineral. So we're relying on a lot of different countries for that rare earth, and even though battery efficiency is getting better and better and better, it's not, to me, the panacea.

Marc Bernstein: 8:10

So back to the Renaissance at Bader Field. So what does that look like when complete?

Mike Binder: 8:16

We were just starting to get into it. So the centerpiece of it We'll be about 2.44 mile motor course, the we want to take Bader Field and on the low end, southeast end we want to raise it about seven feet above established grade because it was the first airport commercial airport in the US, so it's very flat. At the high end we want to be about 35 feet above established grade and part of the purpose in doing that is to create a topography that's rolling. But it also has a secondary consideration, which is the noise mitigation. So we don't want to do anything that's going to disturb any established neighborhoods. So the motor course itself is surrounded by about 1500 residences of varying types and we'll have somewhere between 8 and 10,000 geothermal wells. We'll have solar somewhere around 12 megawatts, we'll have battery backup storage and one of the things we're very excited about, which you had mentioned earlier, which was kind of the hallmark of the East squared home, is the building envelope technology. We'll be using the material called FRP systems, which this is where East squared home comes into play.

Mike Binder: 9:59

Yeah, this was the kind of the the East squared home was the genesis of our thinking. So the building envelopes are constructed to withstand about 190 mile an hour wind loads, about 250 mile impact resistance and I don't know if you've ever been in a hurricane, but there is debris flying everywhere and what we want to build as a home that is virtually indestructible. In addition, traditional construction may give you an insulative factor of R13, R14, R15. We're going to be north of R40. So the net result is it will take much less energy to heat and cool these dwellings, in addition to the resiliency of them.

Marc Bernstein: 10:54

And they. By the way, it's built right on the coastline, I understand. So it's, I mean it's gonna. It will be something, be a model for the world really.

Mike Binder: 11:03

That's really the thinking behind it. Einstein said doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Yeah, when you see coastal construction, it's traditional construction and you only have to look at hurricane and to understand that it's certainly not sustainable and it's certainly not resilience.

Marc Bernstein: 11:32

It's amazing to me they're rebuilding Santa bells, an example, and only to be destroyed again in the future. From what I can tell right, I mean maybe it's a little higher level of.

Mike Binder: 11:43

Well, what you're seeing, Marc, in Florida, and you're gonna see it along the coastal areas everywhere is that insurance companies are pulling out. They're tired of ensuring dwellings that they have to pay the freight to rebuild them every four, five, six years, so they're just pulling out. I mean all state farmers, state farm, just an array of other insurers are pulling out of these areas. And we're so confident of our technology we're actually gonna establish a captive insurance company where we ensure the dwellings ourselves.

Marc Bernstein: 12:31

Mike, one of the things that fascinates me about this we were just talking about this this morning is the impact. Everyone knows that Atlantic City is not what everyone hoped it would be. There's still poverty there, there's still a lot of homeless people, there are issues and it's bordering on towns that are very wealthy because of you know, vacation properties, et cetera, and it appears that this is designed also to have a positive impact on Atlantic City and it surrounds. Can you talk about that for a little bit?

Mike Binder: 13:03

Yeah, I started in Atlantic City back with Resorts International. I had worked on that casino and subsequently I'd worked on, I think, four other casinos, or actually five other casinos. So I've been around Atlantic City and I've seen what the casino industry has meant and there's been positives and negatives. Well, one of the negatives has been that you know the casinos and their business model want you to stay in their building, and I understand that, but there hasn't been a whole lot invested in the community. So we believe that what this is going to do is herald a change in housing, a change in people investing in Atlantic City, because what people don't realize is that Atlantic City has a little bit of an identity problem and it's actually getting very, very interesting as a city.

Mike Binder: 14:08

There's a lot of really good things going on there. They've got a great city council, they've got an incredible mayor and finally, right, yeah, finally, finally, and you know, the state is starting to understand that Atlantic City is really kind of the crown jewel of the shoreline in terms of commercial endeavors.

Marc Bernstein: 14:33

What should be the crown jewel of New Jersey, like it was many, many years ago.

Mike Binder: 14:38

Well, it's the second largest casino destination in the country, it's first in sports book, it's first in e-gaming. So Atlantic City has so much to offer and it's starting to get known. I mean, atlantic City had 27 million visitors this year and we have 98 digital screens on the boardwalk where we're actually counting people. So we balance our advertising pitch with empirical data and people are amazed at the amount of people that are coming to Atlantic City.

Marc Bernstein: 15:20

And you and I are both old enough to remember Atlantic City as children and its glory days in terms of a shore destination. With that, Mike, we're going to take a quick commercial break and we will be right back with Mike Bender on Founders Forum.

Announcer: 15:37

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Marc Bernstein: 16:41

We are back on Founders Forum with our guest today, mike Binder of Deem Enterprises. So, mike, we're talking about hopefully not only the Renaissance at Bader Field but hopefully the Renaissance of Atlantic City as well. You mentioned to me earlier they're also part of your overall proposal and I still on the proposal stage. I understand would be to help lower taxes in Atlantic City, to promote business and to promote living there, etc.

Mike Binder: 17:11

Yeah, we'll lower the property taxes from the current rate, which I believe is 3.91, to somewhere around 1.91, which will make it very attractive for developers to come in and start to develop areas in Atlantic City. You're starting to see that now and, by the way, you're a resident, or at least a part-time resident. Yeah, I live part-time in Chelsea Heights, which is four blocks from Bader Field.

Marc Bernstein: 17:42

Excellent. So will you be moving to Bader Field when it's complete?

Mike Binder: 17:45

Oh, I don't know who knows. Maybe We'll see what happens.

Marc Bernstein: 17:49

I'm still around. See what happens you have we talked about. I'm going to do things a little out of order from what we usually do. Well, actually, I want to ask you something first. We like to ask people on the show about their future vision, and you certainly have a lot of vision for the future. So if this were 10 years from now, mike, and we're looking back, so the year is towards the end of 2033. And you're looking back on the last 10 years, what would you like to have happen? That in your life, professionally, in terms of what you're doing, developing family, because there's a lot there personally, professionally, financially, any of that what would your vision look like for that 10-year period? In other words, if you're looking back to make that the successful 10 years you envision, what would that look like?

Mike Binder: 18:39

Well, I'm a fishin' auto of kind of doing things anecdotally and I like the notion of if you give a man a fish, he eats for the day. If you teach him how to fish, he eats forever. We want to turn Atlantic City and the environs into a legion of fishermen because there's going to be so much opportunity educationally and technically in this place and I think that's what we're going to be looking at in this project. That will be a skunkworks for people that can learn these new technology and, as I said earlier to you, technology changes so rapidly and people that think they have it solved today in a year, two years, three years, that technology could become obsolete and I want to make sure that people follow that path where they're emerging with technology as technology emerges, and there's no greater legacy in my mind to create this environment for learning. I was a former teacher when I first got out of college, as well as a golf pro. Glad you mentioned that. I wanted to bring that up as well.

Mike Binder: 20:14

I'm terrible now, but I've always believed that you know you can impact people by giving them knowledge, and you know the quest for knowledge is I think it's universal. So if there was any legacy that I would want to consider, it would be that I was part of the, the team that was spurring education and getting people excited about the future instead of afraid of it.

Marc Bernstein: 20:53

On the show we've been talking a lot about. We've had a couple of guests specializing in AI and you know I work with manufacturers and the manufacturers are concerned for their employees, that you know there's a big concern that AI will replace people and what. These experts, as far as they can see the future, because it's really hard for anyone to see the future right now. They can have visions of it, but it's hard to determine what exactly it's going to be. But they say look, if you, if you get your arms around AI, you're gonna be a valuable employee because it's not gonna replace you. You're gonna need to learn how to work with it and if you need to learn how to work with it, your value will be increased as an employee. Do you agree with that statement number one, and do you see AI as a big part of that education and where things are going?

Mike Binder: 21:38

Well, I again. I like to do these anecdotal things. I like it too. I had personal experience with AI back before it was called AI. At my company we had bought a computerized routing system which replaced the hand routing that our guys were doing. So the first four months of this machinery being delivered, it became a storage table. Nobody wanted to use it and then, as they started to get acclimated to how it worked and the the preciseness and the consistency of the product, as well as lowering times for us to be competitive on other other projects, they began to embrace it and I would imagine it became experts. Over time they became experts and they became. I remember when one of the machines went down, it was like everybody was forlorn Because they didn't really want that to happen, obviously. So I think that people are. If you look around, you see all different forms of AI. I mean, you see it in your coffee maker. You know, I woke up this morning and six o'clock and I had a pot of coffee.

Marc Bernstein: 23:11

Just recently occurred to me that everything we're dealing with is everything that's smart is using AI. That's exactly it. So it's pretty amazing that we think it's a new thing, but it's been around for a while and we not that we take it for granted, but it's already there and if we want to become masters of our destinations, I guess we need to embrace it.

Mike Binder: 23:38

That's the whole key.

Marc Bernstein: 23:40

I mean, if you're afraid of it, you may as well move to the middle of the woods and the Montana mountains and you know I want to get to more about your legacy, but before that, tell me what you read, because you're an interesting guy. You've got a lot of things of interest that are forward looking. I'm interested in what you read.

Mike Binder: 24:00

Well, you know, I'm very interested in water reclamation, because once you run out of water there's no good answer for life. So I'm interested in why we've gotten ourself into the position we're in, where we have droughts everywhere in areas that get, you know, six, seven, eight feet of water, and it's because they're poorly managed. So I'm interested in how water can be reused. You know, you look at Bermuda there's no fresh water on the island. They get all the water off their roofs and they go into cisterns. So and we talked about the water problems in Florida it's legion. I mean the answer is to have these little canals that border the streets that are mosquito pits. I mean there's all these unintended consequences On the other hand.

Marc Bernstein: 25:03

So I do a lot of work with technology in Israel, and in Israel they may be mainly because they had to. They have figured out how to reclaim and use water in California, as you mentioned, has to, so they're getting their arms around.

Mike Binder: 25:19

And look at what's going on too, and throughout the Middle East, I mean in Qatar and Dubai and I mean they're doing some incredible things with sustainability and you know we need to be more focused on that. Plus, I read a lot about material sciences and you know how one thing impacts on the other. It's like the building envelope how does that impact on the diminishment of costs for heating and cooling? I mean, it's something people don't think about.

Marc Bernstein: 25:53

So the common theme is basically technology. Is what you're reading about?

Mike Binder: 25:57

It sounds like yeah well, technology and sports.

Marc Bernstein: 26:00

Okay, there you go, good, good, you have something that's fun. Well, it's all fun really, but it's Well, sports is more fun, Right, right I understand what you mentioned your legacy in terms of, I guess, civilization, because that's really what you're building but you have eight grandchildren. Is there anything you'd like to see happen for their generation?

Mike Binder: 26:19

I'd like to see them inherit a world that makes sense to them. You know, and it's funny we were visiting my grandkids in California not too long ago and we're sitting around the dinner table and instead of having a conversation, they were all on their phones, right.

Announcer: 26:39

And I said what?

Mike Binder: 26:39

are you doing Right? You know.

Marc Bernstein: 26:41

So I'm gonna think these days yeah. One last question. We have a minute left. What advice, Mike, would you give to your younger self if you were looking back?

Mike Binder: 26:53

I tell myself not to be so stupid, I tell myself not to think that I had all the answers and you know, we all get off the path. The older you get, the less you know, kind of thing. Yeah, well, you all get off the path, Marc, and you know it's hard to stay on the path, but you know, if you're true to your conscience, it's where you should go.

Marc Bernstein: 27:17

Excellent. Well, with that, I think we're about finished with our show today. Mike Bender, I'd love. Thanks so much for being here today. It's been a great conversation, gets my juices going and I like to thank all of you for being here with us today on Founders Forum. Have a great Thanksgiving if you're listening to this live on the radio, and we'll look forward to seeing you next week on Founders Forum.

Announcer: 27:40

Thank you. We hope you enjoyed your time on Founders Forum today and you found value to take with you throughout your day. Join us again next week for another episode of Founders.