In The News

New Domino’s CEO cements vision for international expansion

By Newsroom

●

March 24, 2010

Everyone is excited about Domino's ex-CEO coming to the University of Michigan. But the people at the Ann Arbor-based pizza business are getting excited about the firm's new CEO who is flying a bit under the radar.Excerpt:It's somehow fitting that J. Patrick Doyle, president and new CEO of Ann Arbor based Domino's Pizza, spent his first days on the job last week in India and Saudi Arabia.On Thursday, he opened Domino's 300th outlet in India and its 65th new location there this year, making India the pizza-delivery chain's fastest-growing market."In the next three to five years, our sales outside the U.S. will surpass our sales here," Doyle, 46, said Thursday in his first extensive interview since taking the reins from David Brandon.Read the rest of the story here.

Latest in In The News

Ann Arbor violin expert validates $18M fiddle’s worth

By Newsroom

●

General

●

March 24, 2010

Need an expert in ground breaking scientific research? Go to Ann Arbor. Need an expert on the latest medical breakthrough? Go to Ann Arbor. Need an expert on a one-of-a-kind violin? Yep, you know where to go.Excerpt:Last year, violin-maker Joseph Curtin of Ann Arbor, Mich., came to Chicago to measure its acoustical qualities."Geoff let me play it a little. It is the best violin I have ever had under my chin," said Curtin, agreeing with Yehudi Menuhin and other great violinists who have picked it up.Read the rest of the story here.

WSJ describes economy through Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Saline

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

March 17, 2010

How the economy is recovering, or at least trying to, can be easily illustrated through the stories of businesses in Ann Arbor, Saline and Ypsilanti.Excerpt:YPSILANTI, Mich.—Thomas Harrison, chief executive of Michigan Ladder Co., has a plan that would contribute to the U.S. economic recovery: Expand the 108-year-old company, adding at least 20 jobs in the process. His chances of getting the loan of $300,000 or more he needs to do so, though, depend in part on what happens to folks like home builder James Haeussler.Both are customers of the same community bank, the Bank of Ann Arbor. Mr. Haeussler is struggling to repay $8.3 million he and a partner borrowed to build a residential community in nearby Saline, Mich. In this economic environment, the bank doesn't want to take a chance on what it sees as a risky new loan to Mr. Harrison."In a world where Jim Haeussler makes it, Tom Harrison will make it," says Timothy Marshall, the bank's president. "But it's not prudent to do both loans at this point in time. We're in a more risk-averse mode."Read the rest of the story here.

The Village cashes in on co-op to condo switch in Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

March 17, 2010

There's a new condo project in Ann Arbor, but it's not new construction. The Villages are making the leap from co-operative living to condominiums to help create more value in their living area.Excerpt:Buyers seeking a condominium in Ann Arbor can turn to one of the city’s vintage communities to find a new option on the market.The Village - long-known as Pittsfield Village - completed the conversion of its 422 units from cooperative to condominium in late 2009.Now owners and buyers will see the market set the price for the homes - which are again called Pittsfield Village after the transition."Over the next 18 months to 24 months, the Village is going to create its own value," said Hilary Ward, a Realtor with the Charles Reinhart Co. who has several listings in the community.Read the rest of the story here.

NY Times review praises novel about spiteful U-M academic

By Newsroom

●

Economic Development

●

March 17, 2010

The new book "Next" goes from Ann Arbor to Austin and takes a few daring twists and turns along the way according to one The New York Times book editor.Excerpt:Kevin Quinn, the protagonist of James Hynes’s “Next,” is first seen on an airplane that is making its descent into Austin, Tex. He’s wondering whether one of those shoulder-launched missiles with the same name as a cocktail — a Stinger — will hit the plane, which itself reminds him of a can of chips. “A Pringles can with wings, packed full of defenseless Pringles,” is what Kevin sees.Some of Kevin’s paranoia is prompted by news reports of terrorist attacks. But most of it comes from the same wellspring of anxiety that led Virginia Woolf, in a 1915 diary entry cited by Mr. Hynes, to be jolted by the sound of a bursting tire into envisioning an attack from the sky. Woolf’s diary added that alongside our instinct to exaggerate such fears is our real if misplaced confidence that peril will leave us unscathed.As Kevin frets his way through the single day on which “Next” takes place, he envisions many different threats. But the true stealth attack in “Next” is the one launched at the reader by Mr. Hynes. This is a book that begins innocently and is careful not to tip its hand, even though there’s something very unusual at work. The title signals nothing. The cover art depicts an empty sky. Blurbs on the back allow four very different writers to skip the hosannas and cut to the chase. They find roundabout ways to say that “Next” took nerve to write, is much more potent than it may initially appear and has an ending that beggars description. That ending will not be given away here.Mr. Hynes encrypts so much foreshadowing into “Next” that there might as well be none at all. Little jabs are everywhere. Kevin’s fantasy life is activated by a surreptitious one-day trip from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Austin for a job interview. He is one of those spiteful academics about whom Mr. Hynes has written so well in earlier novels, “all of them as amiable and collegial as scorpions.”Read the rest of the story here.

EMU prof helps preserve Michigan’s only rock paintings

By Newsroom

●

Economic Development

●

March 17, 2010

Eastern Michigan University is taking historic preservation to a whole new level by trying to figure out a way to save Michigan's only early man rock paintings.Excerpt:YPSILANTI - Eastern Michigan University Chemistry Professor Ruth Ann Armitage recently traded in her Nicaraguan spelunking helmet for a trash bag with arm holes in it.The 55-gallon trash bag was a good way to keep dry while hiking a rocky beach in cold, rainy weather on the shoreline of Big Bay de Noc on Lake Michigan in northern Michigan.“The rock paintings there are the only ones in the state of Michigan. They’re thought to be connected to the Ojibwe,” said Armitage, who took a student and went in search of the paintings.Read the rest of the story here.

Terumo capitalizes on MEDC tax credits in Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

March 17, 2010

Many Ann Arbor-based companies receive state tax breaks to create jobs, but few are taking advantage of them as effectively as the rapidly growing, Tree Town-based Terumo.Excerpt:To those searching for snippets of some of the good things going on out there, I offer up Terumo.You may not have heard of Terumo, but lots of surgical patients have. Terumo products are used in cardiac and vascular surgeries in more than 1,000 cases a day worldwide.Capitalizing on the growth in the medical device market, the Ann Arbor company, which includes Terumo Cardiovascular Systems and Terumo Heart, won a $1-million tax credit from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority almost two years ago to keep operations here and bring in more jobs -- which it has done. The two firms together employ 500 people in Ann Arbor and are the 24th-largest company in Washtenaw County.Read the rest of the story here.

Forbes ranks U-M as a top college sports town

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

March 17, 2010

There are many who see Ann Arbor as not only one of the top college sports towns in America, but the only one. Add Forbes magazine to that list.Excerpt:Ann Arbor, Mich., home to the University of Michigan, is a great choice. The town of 114,000 has it all: a top-notch public school system, a low crime rate and very affordable housing (the median price for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2,200-square-foot is $148,000). Museums and good restaurants abound. And even though its high-profile football and basketball teams have struggled as of late, the school's other teams--like golf, rowing and softball--have excelled, so much so that Michigan finished fifth overall in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup last year, a ranking by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics of schools based on their performance in every sport.With its excellent mix of livability and sports, Ann Arbor leads our annual ranking of the Top College Sports Towns, besting Chapel Hill, N.C. (home of the University of North Carolina), and Norman, Okla. (home of the University of Oklahoma).Read the rest of the story here.

Ypsilanti biz helps IdeaPaint become reality

By Newsroom

●

Entrepreneurship

●

March 10, 2010

When only family and friends believed in IdeaPaint, a promising Massachussetts-based start-up, Ypsilanti's CAS-MI Laboratories gave them a shot at the big time.Excerpt:The young entrepreneurs refused to believe it. "Our joke was, if we could put a man on the moon, we can make dry-erase paint," says Newman, 25.Then they found CAS-MI Laboratories in Ypsilanti, Mich., where the scientists were willing to give their plan a shot and even cover some of the development costs.With the help of $1 million from family, friends and a few angel investors, the group spent the next four years fine-tuning their recipe.Read the rest of the story here.

U-M continues to build, no matter what

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

March 10, 2010

Continual growth for the foreseeable future is the name of the game at the University of Michigan, which makes it a point to keep building up its campus and curriculum even if its local peers are not.Excerpt:The University of Michigan and Michigan State University are separated by 60 miles and a few billion dollars. Both are public universities. Both have fiercely loyal alumni and are a few thousand apart in numbers of students. Yet MSU is enacting painful program cuts and layoffs, while U-M is adding staff and is in the midst of one of the biggest building booms in school history. The budget gap between the two schools has ballooned to almost a half-billion dollars per year and is growing.Read the rest of the story here.