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Committee writes workers' comp reforms PAGE 5
.....- You name it, PGF makes it PAGE 22
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Personal finance planning options PAGE 12
WEEK OF MARCH 18 - 24, 1985 VOLUME 1 0 NO. 7
River cable car proposal sparks renewed interest BY JOYCE DAVIS ADAMS CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
LABE WADDELL
Four banks will lend money to businesses in Detroit's Sheltered Market program. Come rica Vice President John Killian (left) and city Finance Director Bella Marshall discussep plans at a workshop last week. Story, Page 4 ~
A proposal to build a cable car system to span the Detroit River has been revived by Detroit city and civic officials. Two private groups are interested in financing the estimated $9 million to $12 million project, according to Leon Atchison, director of Michigan Consolidated Gas Co.'s civic affairs office and a former Young administration official. Enclosed, heated passenger cars holding from two to five people would run between Detroit and Windsor. The system would be patterned after the much-publicized "World's Greatest Gondola" system in New Orleans, which made a big splash during the World's Fair last year. Atchison believes Detroit's would be a more exciting tourist attraction and transportation system. "The one in New Orleans goes, literally, from no place to no place," said Atchison.
He declined to divulge the sites the city is eyeing for fear that the price of land will soar out of reach. "All I'm going to say is that it'll be downtown," he said. Emmett Moten, director of the city's Community and Economic Development Department, said, "We'd love to see this happen because it is part of our efforts at establishing the east-west connection." "Strohs, MichCon, ANR, including the Franklin Street merchants - everybody seems to be very, very enthusiastic about it," Moten said. Alexander Pollock, principal city planner in the Community and Economic Development Department, said the city is "seeing if we can prod the private sector to stimulate some interest." The New Orleans system has 56 two-passenger cars and crosses the Mississippi River in four minutes. The owners of the system, Mississippi Aerial River Transit, MART, built an amusement park See CABLE, PAGE 26
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Enclosed cars could span Detroit River.
Metro draws cargo warehouses
LATE NEWS
BY BRADFORD WERNLE
Olin Corp. to buy Livonia pool plant
CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
Olin Corp. of Stamford, Ct., plans to buy the Chicago-based FMC Corp.'s swimming pool packaging plant in Livonia some time in May. Olin signed an agreement in principle March 4 to buy both the Livonia plant, which employs 100, and FMC's chlorine and caustic soda plant in South Charleston, W. Va., according to Charles Dana, Olin's public relations manager. Olin, with 1984 sales of slightly over $2 billion, primarily manufactures industrial chemicals, as well as ammunition and cellophane products. FMC, which makes chemicals and machinery, posted $3.4 billion in sales in 1984.
Jackson Alliance picks Troy ad agency Simons Michelson Zieve Inc. advertising agency in Troy has been named the advertising agency for the Jackson Alliance for Business Development in Jackson, Mich. The alliance and the ad agency will meet March 19 to plot a media strategy.
Ross Valve will build plant in Georgia Ross Operating Valve Co. of Detroit is planning to build a 34,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in northern Georgia that will employ 75 people. A Ross press release says the manufacturer of pneumatic valves and controls will provide jobs in See LATE NEWS, PAGE 2
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Riding a new wave in the transportation business, the Air Cargo Center near Detroit Metropolitan Airport will add three more warehouse buildings this spring. "Business is thriving in the Metro (airport) area," said Joseph Dresner, president of Southfield-based Highland Industrial Development Co., which owns the center. "In the last burst of business
activity since the recession and the resurgence of the auto industry, that area has been burgeoning." A deregulated and increasingly complex transportation industry has spurred the growth of such cargo centers nationwide. Nat Turnbull, president of Turnbull & Associates Inc., an Orlando, Fla.- based airport planning firm, said, "The airports of today are the seaports of 100 years ago. There's a renewed awakening and emphasis around airports and air-
port properties." _ Sixty companies will have offices in the 18 buildings at the Air Cargo Center, occupying a total of about 550,000 square feet. Most of the buildings are warehouses equipped with loading docks and cargo facilities for trucks. "Companies are searching for zero inventory and greater movement of goods," Dresner said. "What we're discovering is that these companies are growing by See CARGO, PAGE 26
State pulls plug on deal BY JOYCE DAVIS ADAMS CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
The state has pulled out of a complicated financing package aimed at attracting the manufacturing operation of an out-of-state high-tech company to Detroit. But Emmett Moten, director of the city's Community and Economic Development Department, said he still expects to put the package together so that the subsidiary of Precision Magnetics and Ceramics Inc., of Pensacola, Fla., will locate in Detroit. City officials have been wooing the subsidiary, PMC-Detroit Inc., for more than
two years. The company has promised to create 200 jobs initially and 500 within three years. PMC-Detroit would manufacture ceramics and magnetic and electronic products. Of the $6.5 million needed for the project, $5.1 million comes in a package the city compiled from public and private sources. The city's Economic Development Corp. voted last week to invest $200,000 in the company. But the EDC voted without knowing that the state Venture Capital Di- . vision, on Feb. 28, pulled out of an intended See DEAL, PAGE 26
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MOTEN: "Deal is not dead."
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