Saline

Saline Lectronics invests $1.1 million in equipment to target two new sectors

By Newsroom

●

October 22, 2008

Saline Lectronics is growing, and growing, and growing and growing… Excerpt: Boosted by the weak dollar and manufacturers' need to get complex electrical parts quickly, Saline Lectronics has invested $1.1 million in new manufacturing equipment to accelerate its movement into two new sectors. Saline Lectronics received a tax abatement from the city of Saline to install new technology designed to "continue quality improvement," said CEO Mario Sciberras. Sciberras said the new technology would allow his company to more efficiently target the aerospace and medical industries. The 80-person contract manufacturer specializes in producing customized electrical circuit boards. Sciberras has said his company is benefiting from the weak dollar and clients' reluctance to request overseas orders that take weeks to arrive. The new investment will require the addition of about a dozen workers, Sciberras said. "It is specifically to continue to help us be perfect in our manufacturing. What this new line does is count all the material as you're manufacturing and tracks for quantity, so it knows exactly what's been put on the board in assembly," he said. "It provides real-time production feedback." Read the rest of the story here and another one about the Saline-based firm here.

Saline residents hope to create town square with Henne Field renovation

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

October 15, 2008

Most older cities boast some sort of town square, a green space or commons in the city's center that serves as a gathering point for locals, such as Ann Arbor's Diag, Detroit's Campus Martius or Plymouth's Kellogg Park.Saline doesn't have a green space of similar caliber, but a group of local residents are trying to change that. The Friends of Henne Field are working to turn the 8-acre park near downtown into the suburb's town square. The 60-year-old park is 1.5 blocks from Michigan Avenue, Saline's main drag. It's bordered by Bennett, McKay, North Ann Arbor and Harris. Those streets have traditionally encompassed three baseball fields, some grass and trees.The Friends of Henne Field are quarterbacking an effort to redesign and revitalize the park. The $1.3 million project, which just began, will create two little league baseball parks, a performance pavilion, walking trails, work-out stations, benches, historic-looking streetlights and a small sledding hill. The entire project is expected to take two years to complete, however parts of the park will reopen next summer or fall. Local officials expect the project to have at least two significant impacts on the community. (1) They see it as a way to bolster community interaction by creating a centralized gathering place and (2) the hope it will spur more development in Saline's downtown."It's the basis of building our downtown in a north/south direction as opposed to the east/west along Michigan Avenue," says David Rhoads, treasurer of the Friends of Henne Field.The project is being paid for 0.8 mills CARES millage and an assortment of grants and donations the Friends of Henne Field have assembled.The field was given to the Saline Area Schools in 1948. It's named after Edward Henne, the son-in-law of the man who established the first telephone system in Saline.Source: David Rhoads, treasurer of the Friends of Henne FieldWriter: Jon Zemke

Owners of landmark Saline building turn to new marketing approach

By Newsroom

●

Economic Development

●

October 8, 2008

One of downtown Saline's landmark buildings is up for sale and the current owners are looking for new ways to move it. Excerpt: Owners of a landmark building on Michigan Avenue in downtown Saline hope a new marketing approach will lead them to a buyer for the former site of the Saline Cafe after nearly four years. Ann Beach, daughter of Herb and Joyce Gaudet, who operated the cafe and the adjacent Kelly's 107 bar from the mid-1980s until the end of 2004, has enlisted the help of Swisher Commercial's Tony Caprarese. Read the rest of the story here.

Saline City Council hires marketing firm for downtown

By Newsroom

●

Economic Development

●

October 1, 2008

Saline residents know how cool their downtown is, but now the city is working to spread the word.Excerpt:The city of Saline hired Phire Branding Co. of Ann Arbor to create a new marketing campaign to help bring more shoppers and new merchants downtown and to research how to best attract this traffic.The Business Development Association, an advisory committee to the Economic Development Corp. for the city of Saline, vetted eight proposals from firms and narrowed the list to three before inviting Phire to present its ideas at Monday's City Council meeting.Jim Hume, a principal and creative director for Phire, told council members that his company found, in preliminary research, that not many people know what to think about Saline."Believe it or not, that's an opportunity," he said.Read the rest of the story here.

Saline-based Latitude Consulting Group demonstrates strength of IT industry in SE Michigan

By Newsroom

●

Economic Development

●

September 24, 2008

Latitude is growing, giving the small-town of Saline some big IT punch.Excerpt:Latitude Consulting Group, one of the area's fastest growing IT firms, is leveraging its consulting expertise to generate software solutions marketed to a broader base of clients. The Saline-based firm is seeking to use knowledge gained from specific consulting situations to offer technology to a market starving for specialized IT solutions.Latitude President Jeff Walter said his company's new strategy of identifying generalized software opportunities stemming from specific consulting relationships would foster growth and a new business model of sorts."At the end of the day, our core competency is we are very, very good at developing technical solutions to business problems," Walter said. "Our future is to build a technology service firm."Read the rest of the story here and the story Concentrate wrote about the firm in early June here.

Saline’s Pro-face turns industrial into high-tech, plans to add 10-20

By Newsroom

●

General

●

September 24, 2008

Pro-face of America is the type of industrial-based firm Michigan wishes it had more of. The Saline-based company creates touch-screen computers for factories. It's similar to ATM technology but for factory robots and machines. "It's basically a PC screen but much more capable," says Gary Labadie, marketing manager with Pro-face of America.Over the last couple years applications for this technology have expanded, creating a boom for the 30-plus-year-old company, formerly known as Xycom. Pro-face has added dozens of jobs recently, growing its sales department from nine to 40 people and doubling its marketing department to six people.The company has done particularly well selling their product around the world, especially in Asia. It is now focusing on greater North American penentration. Labadie expects growth from this market to result in the addition of another 10-20 people within the next year or two.Source: Gary Labadie, marketing manager with Pro-face of AmericaWriter: Jon Zemke

Saline’s Pair of Docs sees high tech as Michigan’s economic turnaround

By Newsroom

●

Entrepreneurship

●

September 24, 2008

Looking at Michigan's economic future is sort of a glass half full/half empty experience as of late... except in the case of the people behind one Saline company.Gerry Roston, co-founder of Pair of Docs Consulting, definitely sees the state's glass, especially in the Ann Arbor, as half full and filling quickly."There is a lot of talk of doom and gloom in the state," says Roston. "For those of us involved with the tech start-ups … there is a lot going on. It's hard to imagine that something good isn’t going to happen soon. Something has to pop."Pair of Docs is was founded in 1999 by Roston and his wife, Lorraine Thompson, with a focus on improving business and organizational management for tech start-ups. The two PhDs (Pair of Docs, get it?) are heavily involved with Michigan's efforts to turn its brawn-based economy into a brain-based one. They have worked with the likes of Ann Arbor SPARK and the state's 21st Century Jobs Fund. Roston also serves on the advisory board for Michigan's 21st Century Emerging Technologies Fund. The Salime firm started out with the couple, which often work on separate projects, and will probably stay that way for the foreseeable future. Roston expects to expand as his firm's consulting reputation grows. As he sees it, there should be plenty of that kind of work in Michigan's future.Source: Gerry Roston, co-founder of Pair of Docs ConsultingWriter: Jon Zemke