DETROIT BUSINESS MAIN 07-28-08 a 1 CDB.Qxd
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
DETROIT BUSINESS MAIN 07-28-08 A 1 CDB 7/25/2008 6:52 PM Page 1 ® www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 24, No. 30 JULY 28 – AUGUST 3, 2008 $2 a copy; $59 a year ©Entire contents copyright 2008 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved THIS JUST IN Accreditors Chrysler Financial to end leasing business Aug. 1 Dealers are bracing for more difficulty finding fi- nancing for customers and meeting sales goals follow- ing Chrysler Financial’s deci- tell OCC board sion to get out of the leas- ing business, auto dealers said Friday. Chrysler Financial, the finance arm of Chrysler Holding L.L.C., said it will exit the U.S. leasing busi- to end strife ness Aug. 1. Chrysler L.L.C. is the automotive arm of Chrysler Holding. Dealers will still be able Agency demands improvement to offer leases from banks and other financing BY CHAD HALCOM port, received by the college earli- sources. CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS er this summer after a March visit, Ralph Mahalak Jr., co-own- took the board to task for activity er and sales director at Tension and rivalry on the Oak- that “goes beyond the scope of the Monroe Dodge Chrysler Jeep land Community College board of governing board.” Superstore, said the loss of trustees may be crossing the line It admonished the board to attractive financing rates from colorful local politics to a “learn how to argue, debate and from Chrysler means lease genuine threat to the college’s bot- disagree intellectually.” rates are in for a long-over- tom line. The commission also suggested due increase. For the second time in a decade, a possible connection between “I’m 100 percent confi- the Higher Learning Commission of board leadership and high dent lease payments will NATHAN SKID/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS the North Central Association of Col- turnover in the college’s top job. definitely be going up,” he Bruce Emmons, president of Autokinetics Inc., and Greg Fisher, CEO of leges and Schools cited board lead- OCC, the state’s largest commu- said. “But quite frankly, Fisher Coachworks L.L.C., are building ultralight hybrid buses. Fisher looks ership troubles during an accredi- nity college with 44,149 students, for $480 million in revenue by the seventh year. leases have been too cheap tation review and called for a has had at least six chancellors in for as long as it is. People monitoring report by 2010 to evalu- the past 20 years, three in the shouldn’t be paying the decade before a past HLC review ate the college’s progress toward same for a cell phone as a in 1998 and three more since. improving board-college relation- car.” The college has five campuses: Mahalak said his dealer- ships. ship will try to move leased Hybrids The HLC evaluation team re- See OCC, Page 20 vehicles out the door be- tween now and July 31, of- fering incentives. He plans to stay open until midnight and has ordered a media blitz to attract customers. by Fisher Chrysler co-President Jim HandyLab gets VC of Press told dealers and jour- nalists Friday that Chrysler will try to redirect re- Buses would double mpg sources from leasing into $19.2M for new tool BY BILL SHEA totype nearly complete, is retail offers to reduce pay- CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS searching for a 50,000-square- ments. foot production building in the BY TOM HENDERSON fectious diseases as Group B strep, Major automakers and Six hundred new jobs and $480 area and is awaiting the results CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS gonorrhea, herpes and chlamydia. related lenders have taken million. of a request for a $6 million loan The company large losses when reselling In vehicle manufacturing. from Michigan’s 21st Century Ann Arbor-based HandyLab Inc. began selling leased vehicles. Ford Motor In metro Detroit. Jobs Fund. It currently has has closed on a $19.2 million round the Jaguar two of venture capital, which the com- Co. took a $2.1 billion charge That’s the number offices in Troy. weeks ago and pany will use to ramp up produc- caused by a drop in leased of new jobs and the The company, expects to have vehicle residual value, Au- tion, sales and marketing of its new revenue projection which is introduc- revenue this tomotive News reported. diagnostic tool, completing the com- by Fisher Coach- ing the bus to me- year “of at least Leased vehicles are in- pany’s slow transition from re- several million works L.L.C., a new dia today, wants to cluded in a dealership’s new search to commercialization. dollars, and we company that’s de- begin production by car sales figures; dealers next summer. It has $6 HandyLab’s tool is a $100,000 expect signifi- veloping a 40-foot ultra- pay an automaker for a million in hand from a U.S. De- machine called the Jaguar that cant growth lightweight hybrid bus designed Williams leased vehicle and are then partment of Energy grant and pri- uses urine, plasma and blood sam- over the next repaid. for urban use, which boasts vate investment. The loan is part ples to analyze DNA. It dramatical- couple of years,” said President — Nancy Kaffer twice the fuel efficiency of cur- of the $10 million Fisher needs to ly speeds up the time needed — and CEO Jeff Williams. from two or three days to an hour See This Just In, Page 2 rent hybrids. Fisher, which has its first pro- See Fisher, Page 21 or 90 minutes — to test for such in- See HandyLab, Page 18 How will the bill for CRAIN’S LIST alternative energy be paid? Publicly traded companies, NEWSPAPER Page 9 Page 12 DETROIT BUSINESS MAIN 07-28-08 A 2 CDB 7/25/2008 6:36 PM Page 1 Page 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS July 28, 2008 HIS JUST IN velopment and Wayne State Univer- public statements about troit, which offers tours of De- tion to Web design, the company T sity plan a ribbon-cutting Tues- Chrysler,” said James Cowper, se- troit to the pub- expanded into design in print me- ■ From Page 1 day. Wayne State contributed $14 nior vice president of TAC Trans- lic and to busi- dia and interior design. million toward the project, for- portation. “They didn’t buy it to nesses. Prior to Eview added the Dubai office to Studio One gets tenants merly called South University flip it; they bought it to make it moving to the be close to clients in that area, Village, to erect a 950-space park- thrive.” space, the Centra said. Detroit mixed-use development ing garage at the site. Since the acquisition, nothing group used — Daniel Duggan Studio One has signed leases with As of Aug. 15, construction will has changed in TAC Transporta- home offices. Starter’s Bar and Grill and a Biggby be complete except for individual tion’s operating plan, Cowper “Every city Coffee franchise as tenants in the build-outs of commercial tenants, said. “It’s so new, we haven’t had has a welcome Groups ranked for funding project. Burgler said. any fundamental changes in the center, even startup companies The companies join the other “Those tenants will complete way we operate.” Pierce Podunk, Ind.,” Cowper said TAC Transporta- said co-founder Three Michigan organizations announced tenants in the 30,000- and open on their schedules, with tion has had meetings with Cer- Jeanette Pierce. “So Detroit defi- ranked in the top 100 nationally square-foot retail portion of the probably all of them done in the berus about how it can work with nitely deserves a welcome cen- for the number of startup compa- $36 million development: Radio next five months.” — Chad Halcom other sister companies in the in- ter.” nies they funded in 2007, accord- Shack, Fifth Third Bank and Utrecht vestment group’s portfolio. — Daniel Duggan ing to the MoneyTree report re- Art Supply. “We’re already a large supplier leased by PriceWaterhouse Coopers The project’s developers, Fund buys shares of with Chrysler L.L.C.,” he said. Eview 360 moves, expands and the Washington-based Nation- Grand Rapids-based Prime Devel- Goodwill Group for $146M When asked if the deal could al Venture Capital Association, opment, say they are close to one mean increased business with Farmington Hills-based design based on data provided by Thom- more restaurant lease, which A fund set up by Morgan Stanley Chrysler, Cowper said, “We company Eview 360 has doubled son Reuters. and Cerberus Partners L.P. in June would bring the retail occupancy would have to remain competi- its staff and this year added an of- Ann Arbor Spark, an economic- acquired controlling shares in to 95 percent. The residential por- tive … (but) we would certainly fice in Dubai. development organization, was the Goodwill Group Inc., the parent hope so.” tion of the project includes 124 CEO Melissa Centra said the tied for 65th, having given four company of TAC Worldwide and its market-rate apartments, which — Sherri Begin new companies their first fund- Bloomfield Hills-based TAC Trans- company has moved into in- will be 55 percent leased when it ing in 2007, as part of a pre-seed portation division. creased office space, 4,600 square opens Aug. 15. capital program it administers on The fund purchased $146 mil- Detroit gets welcome center feet, at 39255 Country Club Drive, The five-story building was de- behalf of the state’s 21st Century lion in preferred shares of Good- Detroit tour company Inside De- as part of its expansion.