Investment

Ypsilanti to revamp historic elementary schools into company space

The last pieces of the Schoolpictures.com project in Ypsilanti are starting to fall into place. State bureaucrats are giving the development a thumps up while construction workers hurry to finish the project. The Michigan Economic Growth Authority recently approved $86,800 in tax incentives for the $2.8 million project.Schoolpictures is in the process of taking over the old Ave Maria University campus, which includes two old elementary school buildings. The campus is on Forest Avenue between the campus of Eastern Michigan University and Frog Island Park. It's moving from Pittsfield Township because its growth has been so rapid its old HQ just couldn't accommodate all the new employees.Schoolpictures.com started with seven employees three years ago and has since grown to more than 40. The company's business has more than doubled in that time and it hopes to reach well beyond those numbers in the next five years.Source: Michigan Economic Growth Corporation and the city of YpsilantiWriter: Jon Zemke

Michigan biotech firms turn to services; funding obstacle hurting discovery firms

The down economy appears to be providing opportunity for Ann Arbor's biotech firms.Excerpt:Pressure on the world's major pharmaceutical companies to develop new sources of revenue to replace expiring drug patents promises to be a boon to Michigan's drug discovery sector. Yet at the same time, the global financial crisis and a shortage of funding for local biotech firms is pushing Michigan's life sciences industry further into the services sector, several industry observers said. Pfizer's proposed $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth may trigger a series of mergers and acquisitions in the biotech industry as the industry's major players seek to freshen their drug pipelines with new drugs.Read the rest of the story here.

Atwell-Hicks plans to invest $5 million, hire 131 in Ann Arbor

Wind power projects are blowing into Ann Arbor these days now that Atwell-Hicks plans to invest $5 million to create alternative energy infrastructure.The Michigan Economic Growth Authority recently approved tax incentives that would allow the Ann Arbor-based firm to build production and transmission corridors for wind power and other alternative energy sources. This will be utilized mainly by wind farms.Atwell-Hicks plans to hire 131 over the next seven years for the project. The company is also looking for a location for its new Energy Market Group, which will coordinate activities and design alternative energy projects. Atwell-Hicks was also considering Tennessee as a location for the project, but instead choose to expand its Ann Arbor location. Michigan is giving $1.4 million in tax breaks to the company over seven years. Source: Michigan Economic Development CorpWriter: Jon Zemke

Michigan Difference takes in $3.2 billion for U-M

The Michigan Difference is making quite...er... the difference for the University of Michigan. The endowment fund has so far raised a little more than $3.2 billion. That's more than the university has ever raised before, far surpassing its original goal of $2.5 billion. It's also believed to be most money ever raised by a public university. That puts it on par with Ivy League endowments, which are worth several billion each.U-M started the campaign in 2004 and closed it at the end of last year. About 365,000 people donated to the endowment. That money will go toward student financial aid, new student programs, hire and retain faculty, research and constructing new buildings.The endowment is putting $545 million toward student financial aid, such as 1,969 new endowed scholarships valued at $260 million. It also upped the funding of endowed professorships by 69 percent, and built 22 new structures, including the Ross School of Business, Ford School's Weill Hall and Mott Children's Hospital.Source: University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke

Incept BioSystems attracts $1.25 million investment to Ann Arbor

MEDC's venture capital fairy has touched Ann Arbor again. This time the Michigan Economic Development Corporation is giving $1.25 million to Incept BioSystems.The Ann Arbor-based start-up develops innovative microscale technologies for fertility specialists. That means they develop new technologies to help fight human infertility.It received $3.25 million in venture capital funding in 2007. The award was made possible after a couple of other start-ups withdrew from the 21st Century Jobs Fund program. The companies that are out include Accuri Cytometers, Avidimer Therapeutics and Cielo MedSolutions, all from Ann Arbor. Source: Michigan Economic Development CorporationWriter: Jon Zemke

Who will succeed MEDC’s Epolito? The speculation begins

The race to run the MEDC has two Ann Arborites contending for the position.Excerpt:When James Epolito announced last week he would step down as President and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., two prominent names began to be bandied about as possible replacements — Michael Finney and Rick Snyder.Snyder is a former COO and president of Gateway Computers who helped take that company public before returning to Ann Arbor in 1997 to found Avalon Investments Inc., a venture-capital company with a $100 million fund. In 2000, he co-founded Ardesta L.L.C., another VC firm that invests in micro- and nanotechnologies.In 2005, Snyder co-founded Ann Arbor Spark, an economic-development organization, and serves as its chairman.Read the rest of the story here.

As U-M taketh away, Ann Arbor struggles to keepeth taxes

A debate over taxes in Ann Arbor is underway now that the University of Michigan is taking the former Pfizer property off the rolls. That means up to $3 million less for the city's coffers. Some leaders are considering a local income tax so that people who live in the townships but work in A2 pay their fare share. In-towners would see a corresponding drop in property tax.Excerpt:When it comes to expanding its campus, the University of Michigan usually pursues a strategy that flies under the radar: Every year, it buys one or two small properties, often rental homes near campus that have seen better days.That strategy got overrun in mid-December when the university announced the most dramatic expansion of its campus in 50 years - its pending purchase of the 177-acre Pfizer Inc. property in northeast Ann Arbor.With that purchase, the long-running town-gown debate on whether the tax-exempt university contributes enough to the city's bottom line is being re-energized.The university will face greater pressures to contribute more to defray the city's costs of providing services.And at least one city council member has wasted no time in bringing up an old idea twice rejected by voters over the years - an income tax for everyone who works in the city.Read the rest of the story here.

A rust belt oasis, the University of Michigan is spending billions to grow

The University of Michigan's light is so bright The New York Times has been drawn to its construction boom like a moth to the flame.Excerpt:An army of ironworkers, masons, carpenters and laborers are swarming the campus of the University of Michigan these days, as the university undertakes a construction campaign budgeted at $2.5 billion, ranking it among the largest university building programs in the United States.Nine major buildings for science, medicine, health, art, business, sports, food service and student housing are in various stages of construction here. They encompass nearly three million square feet, at a cost of about $1.66 billion. Five others are in the design stage. This comes after the completion in the last two years of 10 other buildings — for biomedical research, cardiovascular treatment, science, technology, engineering, public health, public policy and drama — covering 1.7 million square feet at a cost of $836.4 million. The square footage in the new and renovated buildings comes to the equivalent of 105 acres."Having the right facilities is crucial to a thriving public research university," said Philip J. Hanlon, vice provost for academic and budgetary affairs at the University of Michigan, where the first building was completed in 1840. "We are producing the work force of the future in the industries of the future. And we are doing that even as the help our state government provides is declining."Read the rest of the story here.

High-tech boost seen for region as U-M buys Pfizer property