Macomb County touts Regional Defense & Robotics Strengths in Statewide Push!

Macomb defense and robotics push goes statewide

By Chad Halcom

Macomb County will use a grand to cultivate Michigan's community of defense contractors.

Macomb County has a grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to expand some of its local initiatives courting the defense industry into a statewide effort and to develop a robotics cluster.

County Executive Mark Hackel joined MEDC director Michael Finney and Detroit Regional Chamber COO Tammy Carnrike on Wednesday at the 2013 Mackinac Policy Conference to announce the $231,000 grant as part of MEDC's Collaborative Development Council's Regional Projects program.

The grant will fund several programs to further cultivate Michigan's community of defense contractors, and attract investment from new defense and homeland security companies in the state.

Macomb's Department of Planning and Economic Development is expected to coordinate with the state's Michigan Defense Center to participate in national industry trade shows, launch a new web site and facilitate creation of a robotics cluster. The county will also organize three statewide events to encourage employers to hire veterans.

Planning and Economic Development Director Stephen Cassin said the robotics cluster will be an initiative to attract industrial robotics makers who can serve as suppliers to the defense contractor community to invest locally, to "see if they can help offer efficiencies in scale" to defense manufacturers and add some jobs or economic development in the region.

Hackel said Wednesday that some of the new grant funds also will take some of the county's own local programs to a statewide level, but with greater outside assistance.

"Even locally, we haven't always had a lot of money to focus our attention on what we already have. And here we get to use the resources of the state, and involve Automation Alley and the chamber, to help us look at what we have here and how to help grow and further define it," he said.

More than 1,600 companies in 71 of Michigan's 83 counties have fulfilled contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense valued at more than $4.6 billion in 2011, according to data in the county's grant proposal.

"The first priority of the MEDC Michigan Defense Center is to retain and grow jobs in the defense industry," MEDC Director Sean Carlson said in a statement. "Macomb County is an important regional partner, and we look forward to furthering our relationship through this project."

The county also paid for two promotional billboard displays along I-75 en route to the Mackinac Conference, but Cassin said no funds from the grant went toward those advertising buys.

This promotional billboard featuring the likeness of Mark Hackel was paid for through private sector contributions.

One featuring the county executive's likeness and the phrase "Macomb Making it Regional," was paid for through private sector contributions, and the other, "Macomb Strong on Defense," featuring a tank, was paid out of county economic development funds, Hackel said.

The county and state also are supposed to develop a 60-second promotional video in coordination with the state's Pure Michigan campaign that showcases its defense and homeland security industries.

Hackel said there is no timetable on completing the initiatives funded under the grant, although Cassin said the county hopes to have several complete in time to attend the Association of the United States Armyannual meeting and exposition in Washington, Oct. 21-23.

In other local contractor news, the U.S. Department of Defense announced late Tuesday that Troy-basedUnified Business Technologies Inc. and Detroit-based EMLS-FutureNet JVLLX are added as vendors onto an amended contract with a possible ceiling value of $950 million over five years to provide advisory and assistance services for the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Centers, along with five other companies.

Farmington Hills-based BB&E Consulting Engineers & Professionals LLC was part of the original contract award announcement from the Air Force on April 12.