Doug Smith: Year in Review

Certainly 2007 has been a most difficult year for Michigan and many of its families, due in large part to the tremendous restructuring occurring in the auto industry in North America and its impact on Michigan. The impact has been severe. Layoffs throughout Michigan and Oakland County have resulted in unprecedented foreclosures and migration out of the state by some who have called Michigan home for generations.
But this same auto industry that is now retooling has provided us with the resources to rebound. The industry has blessed this area – Oakland County specifically – with a wealth of technology, expert engineering and science talent that is second to none in the world. The historic labor contracts by the Big Three automakers have set the base for moving forward and Cerberus Capital Management’s purchase of Chrysler has provided a new and exciting structure for one of the Big Three to compete in the future.

Helpful to solving the foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies is a federal effort to reduce interest rates and freeze rates on some sub-prime loans.

Overlooked in the rush to report the negative in Michigan have been clear indicators that resurgence in the state’s economy may be at hand. Oakland County’s Business Development Team has worked on several projects that point towards such a recovery:

• Media Genesis and its expansion in Troy
• Azure Dynamics and REB in Oak Park
• Commercial Acceptance Corporation has attracted several hundred jobs to Southfield
• Tesla Motors in Rochester Hills
• Garden Fresh in Ferndale
• Troy has seen a major expansion of Behr and the Bank of New York, and the attraction of SECO Tools.

Each of these company attractions and expansions sets the base for the Michigan recovery. It will come from a restructured auto industry and a supplier base that uses technology from the auto industry and applies it across almost every sector of the economy from wind energy to military to aerospace to appliance and medical device manufacturing. And we have given up none of the natural resources we find so dear – from our 55 square miles of lakes, rivers and streams in Oakland County to our 140 miles of trails and 13 county parks.

As we enter 2008 we must realize there are residents locally and across the state who are having trouble with their mortgages. I encourage those in trouble to contact their financial institutions early or one of our public housing counselors at 1-888-350-0900 ext. 85402. Do it now.

Oakland County’s Business Development Team, through our Emerging Sectors® program or overseas trips, will continue to work with Automation Alley and The Detroit Regional Chamber to ensure that foreign firms looking to expand into North America will have Oakland County and Michigan first on their list.

Life is cyclical. We are at or near the bottom of what has been a long and difficult road and there are still some challenges ahead. But 2008 will see not only the resurgence of the companies that have survived thus far, but renewed interest from equity firms and investors outside of the area taking advantage of our historically low real estate prices. Many of these will purchase properties and invest heavily recognizing the great future this state has in the next three-to-five years and help us survive the coming months.

I wish all of you a prosperous 2008. Let’s all reach out and help our neighbors in any way we can during this New Year.