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TOM WALSH
Job-creation breaks OK'd today; may supply 6,800 positions

BY TOM WALSH • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • August 19, 2008

Twenty new business locations or expansion projects that promise to create more than 6,800 jobs in Michigan are expected to be granted tax incentives today by the Michigan Economic Growth Authority.
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Gov. Jennifer Granholm said today's batch of MEGA projects marks the second straight record month of job-creation projects using an expanded toolbox of incentives designed to diversify Michigan's economy away from its historic reliance on the automobile industry.

Six of the 20 projects are in Wayne and Oakland counties, ranging from an expansion by Troy-based staffing firm Kelly Services that is expected to create 572 jobs, to a new Van Buren Township facility for Ricardo Inc., a high-tech outfit involved in emissions and battery testing. The 45 new jobs at Ricardo are expected to pay an average of $84,000 a year.

A flurry of job-creating expansions and other activity for two months does not constitute a full-blown rebound for Michigan's still-troubled economy. But Granholm does see it as a response to more robust incentives for attracting business in advanced energy, military and other growing sectors. "And we've had a more aggressive outreach by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to attract different kinds of businesses," she said in an interview Monday.

Here are details of the six projects in Wayne and Oakland counties expected to win MEGA board approval today:

• Testec Inc., a manufacturer of equipment for the aviation industry, plans to move from Livonia to larger quarters in Wixom, investing $5.3 million and creating 27 jobs. The company considered locations in Virginia, Texas and North Carolina.

• Kelly Services is adding 400 jobs to its Kelly Connect operation, which provides call center staffers working from home. Utah was the chief competitor for the Kelly Connect expansion. In addition, the firm is investing $7.8 million to consolidate other operations in a nearby Troy building, adding 172 more jobs.

• Danotek Motion Technologies of Plymouth Township is adding 141 jobs in an expansion.

• Redico Holdings is investing $68 million and creating 206 jobs, and will be awarded a brownfield tax credit to redevelop the site of the former Montgomery Ward store in Dearborn with a mixed-use project that will include medical offices, retail and residential units.

• Ricardo Inc. of Van Buren Township already has a new battery-testing development under way, and is now considering a rolling chassis dynamometer facility for emissions testing. The Van Buren Township site is competing with two German locations of parent firm Ricardo plc for the $12.3-million expansion.

• Plymouth-based Aisin Technical Center of America plans to create 82 jobs with an $8.6-million expansion. Like other Japanese-owned auto companies and suppliers, Aisin located and expanded its research and development activities in the Detroit area. Its new jobs are expected to pay an average of more than $66,000 a year.

Granholm said the 20 projects are spread across the state, including some in Ann Arbor and a $59-million investment by Eberspacher North America of Brighton, a German-owned firm that makes exhaust products to improve vehicle emissions. That ENA project is to create 105 jobs and retain 171 others. She would not provide further specifics.

In July, the MEGA board approved incentives for projects expected to create 3,382 direct new jobs and 3,635 spinoff jobs in those communities. The August projects approved today are expected to create 6,853 direct jobs and 2,642 spinoff jobs.

Contact TOM WALSH at 313-223-4430 or twalsh@freepress.com.