West Michigan Economy Articles

[Cabot]

I think you may be looking at the wrong numbers.

If you take a look at page 18 under Startup Portfolio. Over the next decade 159 Biopharma startups are expected with 7 reaching the IPO stage.

As we all know one successful IPO can change an entire region just look at Austin and Dell.

[GaryP]

I think you may be looking at the wrong numbers.

If you take a look at page 18 under Startup Portfolio. Over the next decade 159 Biopharma startups are expected with 7 reaching the IPO stage.

As we all know one successful IPO can change an entire region just look at Austin and Dell.

[Rizzo]

Plus it didn't take into account the 11 or so new billionaires in town from the Wolverine oil strike…

[Cabot]

In regards to GVSU taking a look at mechatronics. There were high ups from GVSu at the presentation so maybe.

In regards to taking action on the steps outlines in the document. Yes some "next steps" have been outlined and are being taken right now.

All the decision makers in the area were at the presentation and have the information on hand, we paid to have this study done I expect people will take it seriously.

[suydam]

Plus it didn

[Nitro]

#410 - Ronda Stryker, Kalamazoo, 51 ($1.9B)

#428 - Jon Stryker, Kalamazoo, 47 ($1.8B)

[GaryP]

Are there really 11 new billionaires in town?

Forbes richest Americans for 2006 only lists 8 billionaires in all of Michigan:

Of particular note: Only Kalamazoo's 2 Stryker kids are under seventy. Even for the mega rich, accumulating a $1B wealth is clearly a life's work (or Michigan's got no up-and-coming ultra-rich).

Here's the list with their hometown, age, ranking in the list of World's Richest People and wealth:

#194 - Bill Davidson, Detroit, 83 ($3.5B)

#200 - Richard DeVos, GR, 80 ($3.4B)

#382 - Roger Penske, Detroit, 69 ($2.0B)

#410 - Ronda Stryker, Kalamazoo, 51 ($1.9B)

#428 - Jon Stryker, Kalamazoo, 47 ($1.8B)

#486 - Bill Pulte, Detroit, 76 ($1.6B)

#645 - Alfred Taubman, Detroit, 82 ($1.2B)

#698 - Bill Ford Sr., Detroit, 81 ($1.1B)

If there were really 11 new billionaires in Grand Rapids that'd be the biggest news in this town in 100 years.

[GRDadof3]

http://www.rightplace.org/cmsFiles/resourc...%20version).pdf

Above is a link to the report if anyone is interested.

I was at the presentation yesterday and was impressed. It was good to see our local media reporting on some real news.

I also recently toured MedBio, great facility growing company reinvesting in the center of the city.

If there are other question I will do my best to answer.

[jas49503]

I think you may be looking at the wrong numbers.

If you take a look at page 18 under Startup Portfolio. Over the next decade 159 Biopharma startups are expected with 7 reaching the IPO stage.

As we all know one successful IPO can change an entire region just look at Austin and Dell.

[Rizzo]

If biotechnology takes off in more than what it is now then local manufacturing is going to go places. GR's manufacturing is already producing medical products, in some cases having a majority of the global market share. I'm thinking of that manufacturing outfit producing surgical/medical tubing.

If Medical Mile is producing a physical product I see no other place to make it. Especially, when its in development stages and outsourcing the rapid prototyping phase could prove beneficial for the local industries. Ironically, local manufacturing is going to remain integral to get us out of the slump.

I don't know if this has been discussed, but WZZM13 ran this boasting piece about Medical Mile being a place that may cure Parkinson's disease. Medical Mile also has been alluded to that it would be a center for the cure of cancer. However, unrealistic these statements are, how will Grand Rapids change if Medical Mile is the birth place of these cures?

[gvsusean]

If biotechnology takes off in more than what it is now then local manufacturing is going to go places. GR's manufacturing is already producing medical products, in some cases having a majority of the global market share. I'm thinking of that manufacturing outfit producing surgical/medical tubing.

If Medical Mile is producing a physical product I see no other place to make it. Especially, when its in development stages and outsourcing the rapid prototyping phase could prove beneficial for the local industries. Ironically, local manufacturing is going to remain integral to get us out of the slump.

I don't know if this has been discussed, but WZZM13 ran this boasting piece about Medical Mile being a place that may cure Parkinson's disease. Medical Mile also has been alluded to that it would be a center for the cure of cancer. However, unrealistic these statements are, how will Grand Rapids change if Medical Mile is the birth place of these cures?

[Veloise]

Hmmm.......Anyone else thinking Kalamazoo Promise?? I wonder.

[GRDadof3]

It sounds like the GM stamping plant in Wyoming is going to be spared, and possibly lines added, in the latest GM-UAW pact. Similar stamping plants in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis probably won't survive the cuts, according to WOODTV.

For those who aren't familiar, the Wyoming plant had $250 Million in stamping machine upgrades a few years ago.

Here's the Press article about it:

http://www.mlive.com/business/grpress/inde....xml&coll=6

[tamias6]

Glad to hear that the Wyoming GM plant has a future. A closure of that place would make the Lear plant closure here in Walker look like chump change when it comes to negative economic impact.

[GRDadof3]

Another West Michigan aerospace company to expand, add 160 jobs

This time for Borisch Manufacturing, which makes circuit card assemblies, wire harnesses, and other wiring assemblies for the military and commercial aerospace industries.

[Yankee Fan]

Although this is SW Michigan, Whirlpool, being our largest Fortune 500 Company, is currently hiring over 100 permanent folks and has roughly 70 long term contract openings. Perm jobs range in salary from 65-150K + bonus. Pretty good gig no matter where you live.

[GRDadof3]

American Seating to pour $4 - $8 Million into their 9th Street campus, create jobs

Not for residential, like the buildings South of here, but for 2 new manufacturing lines, moving production here from Canada.

The 9th Street campus is the sprawling mix of historic brick factories and large metal sided buildings bordered by Broadway, 9th and Seward. I really hope they clean up the Seward side, which is a big dirt parking lot and a mishmash of semi trailers scattered around.

[jas49503]

American Seating to pour $4 - $8 Million into their 9th Street campus, create jobs

Not for residential, like the buildings South of here, but for 2 new manufacturing lines, moving production here from Canada.

[Raildudes dad]

American Seating to pour $4 - $8 Million into their 9th Street campus, create jobs

Not for residential, like the buildings South of here, but for 2 new manufacturing lines, moving production here from Canada.

The 9th Street campus is the sprawling mix of historic brick factories and large metal sided buildings bordered by Broadway, 9th and Seward. I really hope they clean up the Seward side, which is a big dirt parking lot and a mishmash of semi trailers scattered around.

[GRDadof3]

That "big dirt parking lot" was the site of their foundry. They made all their stadium seating castings there. My dad worked at AMSECO as a die maker then supervisor from 1941 to 1982 (18 months in the Navy during WWII after about 2 years "assigned" to the Bendix war plant in South Bend). I would spend Saturday mornings, 2nd shift quick visits with him as a kid. Knew most of the plant north of 9th like my own backyard .

[GRDadof3]

It looks like GE Aviation (formerly Smiths Aerospace) is ramping up to be in Michigan for a while:

Company hopes to develop aerospace engineers

HOUGHTON -- GE Aviation, new owner of the former Smiths Aerospace in Cascade Township, will open a development center near Michigan Technological University in January, part of a program to develop engineers for aerospace programs.

It's too bad they couldn't have found a partner in the Grand Rapids area for this program (GVSU or another school start an aerospace engineering program).

[GRDadof3]

Monarch Hydraulics bought by Swiss Company

'We want to grow the business'

Posted by Chris Knape {sodEmoji.{sodEmoji.|}} The Grand Rapids Press December 08, 2007 00:49AM

Categories: Business, Top Stories

Courtesy photoCheck out gallery of Monarch Hydraulics photos.

GRAND RAPIDS -- Monarch Hydraulics Inc., Michigan's oldest family-owned company, is being sold to a Swiss industrial giant that promises to preserve and grow local jobs.

Bucher Industries, of Switzerland, (pronounced Boo-Kur) said it plans to combine Monarch's mobile hydraulic business, which sells 95 percent of its products in North America, with its own hydraulics business, which sells primarily in Europe.

They state that Bucher, which is the largest hydraulics manufacturer in Europe, wants to bring some of its European product lines to Grand Rapids, so they think they will be adding jobs. Let's hope. As the article mentions, we've all seen what has happened when an international publicly owned company has bought a local privately owned company (Rapistan for instance).

[GRDadof3]

Auto parts manufacturer breaking into the production of medical devices

Kentwood - One West Michigan company is using the downsizing of the auto industry as a way to launch a new type of manufacturing in Kentwood.

Autocam has been manufacturing fuel injectors and power steering units for nearly 25 years. Right now employees are pumping out nearly a million parts a day. From diesel parts, to power steering, to brake components, it takes highly skilled laborers to keep up with that type of production.

Now those same employees will be making joint replacements and specially designed surgical equipment.

Wow, within a year from the idea they have created a new healthcare division and are shipping parts to new customers. I've heard that medical device making is "low hanging fruit" for area manufacturers, but jeesh. Hope more are thinking of following suit.

[joeDowntown]

I think this could help save manufacturing (although I am exagerating the need to be saved a bit). Medical along with some of the Eco-friendly manufacturing we're hearing about seems like a good deal to me. I hope more manufacturers are able to make the transition and diversify.

Joe

Auto parts manufacturer breaking into the production of medical devices

Kentwood - One West Michigan company is using the downsizing of the auto industry as a way to launch a new type of manufacturing in Kentwood.

Autocam has been manufacturing fuel injectors and power steering units for nearly 25 years. Right now employees are pumping out nearly a million parts a day. From diesel parts, to power steering, to brake components, it takes highly skilled laborers to keep up with that type of production.

Now those same employees will be making joint replacements and specially designed surgical equipment.

Wow, within a year from the idea they have created a new healthcare division and are shipping parts to new customers. I've heard that medical device making is "low hanging fruit" for area manufacturers, but jeesh. Hope more are thinking of following suit.

[fotoman311]

Small Brews Show They're Not Weak Beer

wsj.com

Last fall, Larry Bell yanked the beers made by his small Michigan brewery out of Chicago, where they enjoyed a loyal following, rather than see the rights to market them there sold to another distributor. He worried that his specialty beers would get lost among the distributor's mass-market brands.

"I didn't feel that they were the right fit for us," says Mr. Bell, who founded his brewery, now based in Comstock, Mich., in 1985. Last week, Mr. Bell quietly re-entered the Illinois market with a new brand, even though he expects to be sued by his former distributor, National Wine & Spirits Inc. Mr. Bell found two distributors, Central Beverage Co. and Schamberger Brothers Inc., in the Chicago area willing to take on his new Kalamazoo Royal Amber Ale despite the possibility they'll be sued, too.

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