Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor area businesses get a boost from filmmakers

By Newsroom

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October 15, 2008

Six months into the existence of Michigan’s movie incentive package and the dollars are starting to trickle down to businesses in the Ann Arbor area. Excerpt: If Downtown Home & Garden and Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea are any indication, Michigan's generous new film incentive could mean substantial - albeit sporadic - boosts in business for some Ann Arbor area companies. While the movie "Youth in Revolt" was filming in downtown Ann Arbor last summer, the crew spent about $3,000 on French bistro-style furniture, a few dozen sun hats and other items from Downtown Home on South Ashley Street. Sweetwaters sold them rounds of coffee and tea drinks, in addition to pastries, muffins and other quick food items. In addition, more than 100 crew members were given $20 a day to spend on lunch in downtown Ann Arbor, pumping an estimated $8,000 into the cash registers of such places as Cafe Zola and the Fleetwood Diner, according to the Ann Arbor Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. "Those are the direct things," Downtown Home owner Mark Hodesh said about purchases the movie crew made from his store. "There were also people standing around watching, so we had lots of new people in our parking lot. ... Everyone found time to pause in their travels and watch it, marvel at it. It was good for downtown." Read the rest of the story here and how local film students are staying and cashing in on it, too, here.

Bite-Sized Luxury

By Constance Crump

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Entrepreneurship

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October 15, 2008

Okay, so maybe you have to put off plans for buying a new car or upgrading your futon to a leather sofa. Luxury can still be had... in bite-sized morsels. Sweet Gem Confections is yet another example of Ann Arbor's ever-growing foodie culture, offering handmade artisan chocolates that won't stop the banks from failing but just might make the moment they do a little bit sweeter..

Video The Boardwalk Creative Center

By Keith Jefferies

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Environment & Sustainability

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October 15, 2008

The call for creative space in Ann Arbor has been frequent and loud -from cultural organizations feeling the absence of a community arts venue to businesses looking for neutral turf. Enter the Boardwalk Creative Center, which has become a much needed 'third place' for those seeking inspirational room to roam.

Radio Concentrate: Ann Arbor Transit

By Chris McCarus

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Transportation

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October 8, 2008

The City of Ann Arbor is trying to lead the state into mass transit. Officials held an open house recently to tell the public where they plan to go and by when. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus has the story in Concentrate's latest podcast.

MASTERMIND: Jeff Kass

By Shannon McCarthy

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Economic Development

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October 8, 2008

In this world of text messaging, cell phones and email, the population of wordsmiths grows ever smaller. Thank goodness for Jeff Kass. A Pioneer High School teacher, poet and writer, Kass has been using performance poetry to attract Ann Arbor teens to the power of self expression through writing.

Design Sense, Local Logic

By Kim Shine North

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Arts & Culture

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October 8, 2008

Build it and they will come. Proving that the Internet makes all things global, 32-year old entrepreneur Shana Victor has turned her passion for the funky and frivolous into a million dollar local business with a decidely personal touch.

Ann Arbor SPARK gears up for entrepreneurial boot camp

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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October 8, 2008

The applications are in and Ann Arbor SPARK is looking to firm up the commitments to its 14th Entrepreneurial Boot Camp this month.The entrepreneurial boot camp is a unique combination of hands-on learning and one-on-one mentoring facilitated by SPARK. It squeezes three months worth of learning curve into an intensive two-day business planning and preparation event. The point is to help early stage technology businesses refine their business concepts. That will help them attract additional funding and resources. Mobatech, a cell-phone software firm, won the last boot camp. It won a $5,000 initial engagement at the Ann Arbor SPARK Business Accelerator.This fall's boot camp will feature 15 teams made up of two people each. The boot camp will be held between the evening of Oct. 31 and the morning of Nov. 2. For information, click here.Look for Concentrate's first person account of the process later in November!Source: Ann Arbor SPARKWriter: Jon Zemke

Internet2 creates 85 jobs in Ann Arbor, looks to add a few more

By Newsroom

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Education

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October 8, 2008

The laws of supply and demand at their most basic are working in favor of Internet2.The Ann Arbor-based non-profit started with four people a dozen years ago with the simple premise of providing high-performance networks for higher education and research labs. Today it has grown to 85 people and a handful of interns, picking up the slack that traditional companies couldn't provide."It turned out they weren't able to do that because the growth of the Internet was so rapid," says Douglas Van Houweling, CEO of Internet2.The non-profit's revenue has grown 30 percent and it expects to continue to grow at least another 5 percent each year in the near future. It also expects to add a few more employees in that time, too, to help keep up with demand.Van Houweling sees that demand steadily increasing as more and more research labs for the likes of the U.S. Department of Energy (one of its newest clients) and universities jump on its bandwagon. Just another simple case of an Ann Arbor firm taking advantage of supply and demand.Source: Douglas Van Houweling, CEO of Internet2Writer: Jon Zemke

A2 Media Corporation set to create 63 new jobs

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 8, 2008

It's a simple equation: More software development in Ann Arbor means more job development in Tree Town. Now that A2 Media Corporation (aka Icon Creative Technologies Group) is expanding its presence in Ann Arbor, the 18-person company expects to create 63 new jobs within the next 10 years. It's going to do that by investing nearly $2.7 million to relocate and expands its Ann Arbor facility. "A great deal of it will be invested in talent," says Sara Johns, project director for A2 Media Corporation.A2 Media Corporation develops enterprise-level software that allows marketing and communications professionals in the auto, biotech and financial services sector to manage their digital activities. The state of Michigan awarded A2 Media Corporation a $1.26 million tax credit, per the recommendation of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The incentive will be spaced out over 10 years, and is believed to be a key part of A2 Media Corporation choosing Ann Arbor over competing sites in India and Ireland. The company's principals are long-time Ann Arbor-area residents.Source: Sara Johns, project director for A2 Media Corporation and Michigan Economic Development CorporationWriter: Jon Zemke

U-M brings in $27 million in new grants, scholarships

By Newsroom

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Education

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October 8, 2008

The University of Michigan is bringing in a little money for research and a little more for scholarships this week, however, it's all going to add up to a lot of studying.The Judy and Fred Wilpon Family Foundation (Fred Wilpon is the CEO of the New York Mets) donated half of the $10 million received for scholarships at the university's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. U-M President Mary Sue Coleman’s Donor Challenge donated the other half.The Irene and Morris B. Kessler Presidential Scholarship Fund inducted its first class of 15 students at the university this year. The fund hopes to grow the sizes of those classes to as many as 75 people. The need-based scholarships are expected to create the largest scholarship cohort in LSA.That's for the undergraduates. U-M has won a $17 million new contract from the National Institutes of Health. That money will expand U-M's part of the National Children's Study, the largest and longest study conducted of the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the U.S. U-M's portion now exceeds $21 of the $75 million study.U-M's focus in the study is to follow 5,000 women from pre-conception until their child reaches the age of two, considering a wide range of environmental, health and developmental assessments. The idea is to create a better understanding of early childhood issues that may influence infant mortality, obesity, autism, asthma and behavior problems.U-M is working on the Michigan portion of the study with Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Henry Ford Health System and the Michigan Department of Community Health. The study will take place over the next few years.Source: University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke