Economic Development

Coverage of projects, big and small, and the people who create them, which promote the economic health of a community, including manufacturing, retail, office, and hospitality developments.

Watson Engineering expands Taylor facilities

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Community Development

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September 16, 2010

Local companies are among those receiving Michigan Economic Development Corp funding through the Michigan Economic Growth Authority board, allowing them to expand and relocate so they can stay in Michigan.Among the recipients are a brownfield project in Taylor, for which $221,220 will support the demolition of two vacant commercial structures to make way for a 40,000 square-foot industrial facility to expand operations of Watson Engineering. That project will also include environmental remediation, a new parking lot, storm water management, and landscaping.Michigan brownfield programs provide incentives to invest in property that has been used for industrial, commercial, or residential purposes and to keep that property in productive use or return it to productive use. Brownfield incentives can be used for functionally obsolete, blighted, or contaminated property.Source: Michigan Economic Development CorpWriter: Kristin Lukowski

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Royal Oak develops non-motorized transit plan

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September 16, 2010

Royal Oak residents want to hear from you about how you think it could be easier to bike around the city.An open house is planned for 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Royal Oak Farmer's Market, 316 E. 11 Mile Road. Bicycle boulevards, road diets, and bike lanes are all up for discussion. Specifically, the planners want to know where people bike and walk, where they wish they could bike and walk, and what can be done to improve the transit experience in the city.Todd Scott, a Royal Oak resident and bike activist who says he's been pushing for a non-motorized plan for some time, says he hopes the end product of the meeting is to have a plan that guides the city on what residents want as far as making roads bike-friendly and walkable."How do we encourage people to bike more?" he says. "We don't want to build bike lanes and not have them filled with cyclists. This will be a plan to get that done."Scott says he often hears from people who know about cycling paths in Metro Parks, for example, but don't want to load up the car just to go for a bike ride. "They want to see more in the urban areas," he says. "It's pretty exciting. There's lot of opportunity and potential in Royal Oak."The Active Transportation Alliance is working with the city of Royal Oak to help develop the non-motorized plan; contact Marissa Dolin at marissa@activetrans.org or (312) 427-3325, ext. 292 for more information.Source: Todd Scott, Royal Oak resident and cyclistWriter: Kristin Lukowski

Oakland U prepares to start work on Mt. Clemens campus

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Economic Development

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September 9, 2010

Oakland University is celebrating its new building, and future satellite campus, in downtown Mt. Clemens with a reception to turn over the building's keys.Developers Gebran S. Anton and Stuart Frankel have been vacating the Towne Square Building, 20 South Main Street, after announcing that it would be given to the university to be used as classrooms. The building, valued at about $2 million, was built in 1984. It's two stories, 25,422 square feet, and constructed of brick and glass.The reception will be from 10-11:30 a.m. Sept. 22.Minor renovations will be needed to convert the space from offices to classrooms, and the university is working with Macomb County to utilize Neighborhood Stabilization funding, available through U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants. A total is still being worked out; the final amount could determine if the building will be open in time for summer classes or fall classes.Arthur Mullen, executive director of the Mt. Clemens Downtown Development Authority, used a variety of adjectives to describe how he feels about the university's new building coming to the area: geeked, stoked, thrilled. "We're glowing with excitement," he says. "I think having students in our downtown helps our redevelopment efforts along drastically."He also plans on putting together a residential website for students and other people interested in living there to allow them to explore the houses available within a quick walk of the classroom building. "We want to encourage young adults to move into downtown, and use our downtown," he says.Source: Arthur Mullen, executive director, Mt. Clemens Downtown Development Authority; Oakland UniversityWriter: Kristin Lukowski

Patti Engineering opens new offices, plans to hire 10

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September 9, 2010

Patti Engineering is getting ready to expand its staff at home after growing its footprint across the nation.The Auburn Hills-based company recently opened offices in Massachusetts and Texas over the last year. It is now planning to add to its staff of 34 employees and four interns. If sales continue to rise this year, Patti Engineering expects to hire another 10-11 people over the next year."2010 has been so much better than 2009," says Sam Hoff, CEO of Patti Engineering. "We have been concentrating on marketing and sales."Add partnerships to that list. The control systems integration company has recently been named a Siemens Solution Partner by Siemens Industry. The partnership will allow employees from both firms to work jointly so they can expand market share. "It legitimizes what we have been doing with Siemens for the last five years," Hoss says.Hoff started the company with his wife Patti in 1991 after he left his job and had trouble finding another. A colleague didn't have room for Hoff on his business' staff, but offered to use Hoff's services if he started his own firm. Today that company is Patti Engineering.Source: Sam Hoff, CEO of Patti EngineeringWriter: Jon Zemke

First Step Fund invests in 10 Metro Detroit start-ups

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September 9, 2010

The number of loans from the First Step Fund has now hit double digits and is expected to go higher soon.The TechTown-based microloan fund has made small loans to 10 companies across southeast Michigan. Those companies range from the Jimmy Kicks custom shoe operation in Detroit to Ann Arbor-based grant writing software firm InfoReady. "We have been thrilled with the quality and quantity of applications," says Matthew Naegle, an associate with the First Step Fund.Among the other companies to receive loans so far are Clean Emission Fluids (Detroit), Current Motor Company (Ann Arbor), Launch Learning Group (Detroit), Livio Radio (Ferndale), NextCat (Detroit), Air Movement Systems (Detroit), Coliant Corporation, and Bandals (Rochester Hills). More than half a million dollars in loans have gone to these companies over the summer.Invest Detroit and Ann Arbor SPARK, which runs the Michigan Micro Loan Fund, created the First Step Fund earlier this year. The idea is to create a funding source for local start-ups starving for seed capital. The current credit crisis has resulted in traditional lending institutions cutting back on investment capital.Each loan averages about $50,000 and is either short-term or in the form of a convertible note. Proceeds are usually used to push forward product development or expand inventory. Loan recipients are picked by a board independent of TechTown. Source: Matthew Naegle, an associate with the First Step FundWriter: Jon Zemke

Quantitative Capital Group develops stock trading software

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September 9, 2010

Matt Dahn and Tony Castiglione are two guys who like to play the stock market. They're also two guys who are using their considerable skill creating a start-up, Quantitative Capital Group, that is rooted in stock trading.The two friends have been working on a new piece of software that takes the highs and lows out of the stock market. They're calling it a quantitative trading system, and they believe it will provide a smoother mental ride to trading on the stock market."We have been in different trading floors with different trading teams and we saw a need for technology that takes the emotion out of trading," Dahn says.The duo have just started putting this together at the NextWave small business incubator in Troy earlier this summer. They expect to add a few programmers this fall and finish a prototype within 60 days. They expect to continue growing their start-up within the newly established incubator over the next year."NextWave came along at the right time," Castiglione says. "It's a really good fit."Source: Matt Dahn and Tony Castiglione, co-founders of Quantitative Capital GroupWriter: Jon Zemke

Renaissance Venture Capital Fund raises $50M

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Community Development

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September 9, 2010

The venture capital fund of all funds in Michigan is now fully operational, and it has ties all over Metro Detroit.The Renaissance Venture Capital Fund closed a $50 million investment vehicle earlier this week from a number of local business institutions. The downtown Ann Arbor-based firm, which also has an office in downtown Detroit, plans to invest that money in both local venture capital firms and out-of-state venture capital firms with the intent to invest in local companies. "It's probably going to invest exclusively in other venture capital funds," says Chris Rizik, CEO of the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund and a Northville resident. "We feel we will have more leverage that way."The fund of funds has already invested almost $6 million (for a total commitment of $20 million) in half-a-dozen venture capital firms. Those firms in turn have invested more than $23 million into 12 Michigan companies, creating about 200 new jobs. Those companies have leveraged that investment to receive over $146 million in further venture funding. Renaissance Venture Capital Fund expects its money will touch 100-150 companies, creating hundreds of new jobs rooted in the new economy. It has already disbursed its first profits to investors. The fortunate six venture capital firms include Ann Arbor's Arboretum Ventures and RPM Ventures, along with Kalamazoo-based T-Gap Ventures. Out-of-state firms receiving an allocation include San Francisco-based 5AM Ventures, Houston's DFJ Mercury Ventures, Illinois-based MK Capital, and Florida's Arsenal Ventures. The last two are opening Michigan offices following Renaissance Venture Capital Fund's investment. The Renaissance Venture Capital Fund was put together by the Business Leaders For Michigan and is funded by the likes of DTE Energy, AAA, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and Huntington Bank. Most other funds of funds are supported with public money. Michigan's private model makes it an industry leader and example of how Michigan is breaking new economic ground when it comes to reinventing its economy."That isn't happening anywhere else in the country," Rizik says.He expects his 3-person firm, which is looking at adding interns next summer, to finish disbursing the money over the next year or two. Fundraising for the next investment vehicle, which might also make investments directly into companies, will begin in 2012.Source: Chris Rizik, CEO of Renaissance Venture Capital FundWriter: Jon Zemke

NextWave incubator welcomes start-ups

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September 9, 2010

The start-ups are coming soon to the NextWave incubator in Troy. And they're bringing more than a little creativity to the suburban business-class suburb.The exterior of the small business incubator at 950 Stephenson Highway looks like your typical suburban office building, measuring three stories in height with a big corporate logo on the side (DuPont is on the third floor). The interior is shaping up to be something much different. Office walls are coming down and bright, vibrant colors are going up on whatever walls are left. Stale cubicles are leaving, making room for office furniture that looks like it was taken directly out of a cutting edge, new economy firm in Ann Arbor or Royal Oak. "We want to create a culture here," says Jeff Sloan, director of early stage portfolio at NextWave. "This isn't just a place to work. This is a place to be successful. We believe that creative space fosters creative thinking."Creative is the right word for what Sloan, of StartupNation fame, and his partners are doing at NextWave. They are turning old offices into white-wall rooms where teams can lock themselves in and brainstorm in dry erase marker wherever they want. A small auditorium is being turned into a media center so companies on the verge of making an announcement can invite TV crews for press conferences or one-on-one interviews and broadcast directly from the building, hassle free.NextWave controls two floors of the 80,000-square-foot building. It will host first-stage start-ups just getting on their feet and second-stage firms looking to take the next big step. All of these firms will have access to business mentoring, coaching, networking, and investment resources in exchange for a stake in their firm or technology.So far, seven first-stage companies and five second-stage firms have signed on, with some already moved in. Sloan hopes to finish building out the space by this fall and be at capacity (30 companies) by the end of the year. The incubator is focusing on firms based in the new economy but is open to all ideas."We tried to keep it high-tech but we have seen some great consumer companies that we're going to invite in," Sloan says.Source: Jeff Sloan, director of early stage portfolio at NextWaveWriter: Jon Zemke

Cisco launches local healthcare IT internship program

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September 9, 2010

A number of local colleges are partners with the Cisco Networking Academy to create student internships in healthcare-based IT.The Workforce Retraining Initiative will include eight schools across Michigan, including Oakland Community College, Baker College, Henry Ford Community College, and Washtenaw Community College. Beginning this fall, those colleges will offer a Health Information Networking course and pair students with local IT firms for internships as a way of directing more students toward careers in healthcare IT.Cisco is currently looking for firms to partner with for this project. Among those that have signed up are Netarx. The Auburn Hills-based IT firm has experienced rapid growth in recent years, expanding its staff to more than 200 employees and a handful of interns today. It has dozens of open positions and is looking to expand its internship program.For information on the program, click here or send an email to wri_michigan_info@cisco.com.Source: CiscoWriter: Jon Zemke

RTT lands VC investment from Siemens, adds jobs

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September 9, 2010

Realtime Technology, commonly known as RTT, is picking up a lot of checks these days, and that's a good thing. Revenue up, check. New hires in Royal Oak, check. Venture capital investment from major company, check.That last check comes courtesy of Siemens Venture Capital GmbH, which recently made a capital investment so it can execute the next phase of RTT's growth strategy. RTT specializes in high-end visualization technology. Three-dimensional visualization software and services are utilized in the automotive, aviation, and consumer goods industries. It will now run at the Siemens Team Center to help improve these products."Everything we do these days is moving toward customization," says Peter Stevenson, co-CEO of RTT. "This partnership lends itself toward that."RTT has also watched its revenue pop this year, up 58 percent in the last six months. It's also adding people in its Royal Oak office, where it has 65 employees, six independent contractors, and 3-4 interns. It has made 20 hires over the last year and expect to add 20 more in the next six months.Source: Peter Stevenson, co-CEO of Realtime TechnologyWriter: Jon Zemke