NEWSPAPER
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Crams ••
Execs brainstorm in 'committee' sessions
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catalog attracts fu rriers
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Project extends downtown westward
PAGE 16 WEEK OF JULY 1 - 7, 1985 VOLUME 1 0 NO. 22
12-screen theatre set for Canton
LATE NEWS Lloyds Bank will open branch in Detroit Lloyds Bank International Ltd. of England is expected to become the first foreign bank to open a branch in Detroit. The state Financial Institutions Bureau will probably approve the Lloyds application to open a branch in the Renaissance Center in July or early August, said Joseph Petterson, assistant director of the bureau's Bank and Trust Division. Under a state law passed last year that permitted foreign banks to open in Michigan, the Lloyds branch will not be able to accept deposits or offer trust services. Other than these exceptions, it may offer the same services permitted state chartered banks.
BY KATHY JACKSON CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
DWIGHT CENDROWSKI
Southfield hospital buys facility in Milford Providence Hospital in Southfield has purchased Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital's outpatient care center in Milford for $850,000. The sale of the one-story Milford Health Care Center requires the approval of the Michigan Department of Public Health. Approval is considered a formality, according to a Providence spokeswoman. She said her hospital will manage the facility until the health department approves the sale.
Rev. Robert Humitz, director of the Pastoral Telecommunications Center of the Archdiocese of Detroit, discusses equipment with Michael Strong, the center's program and production manager.
Detroit Archdiocese launches TV network BY AMY BODWIN CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
Millender Center to get supper club this fall A supper club featuring a fine dining restaurant and a parquet dance floor will open in November See LATE NEWS, PAGE 2
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There is a new television network in Detroit that will reach more than a half million people in a six-county area, and it plans to do so without accepting a penny of advertising or corporate sponsorship. Moving the Roman Catholic church into the high-tech arena, the Archdiocese of Detroit has already spent $1.2 million on a telecommunications and
One of the nation's largest movie theatre companies plans to build the Detroit-area's first 12-screen theatre complex in Canton Township. AMC Entertainment Inc. of Kansas City will be the anchor of a 180,000-square-foot development at Ford and Haggerty roads and 1-275, a site owned by the Southfield-based real estate firm Schostak Brothers & Co. Inc. The 1-275 corridor is developing rapidly in the far western suburbs. Construction is scheduled to begin on the theatres in about 90 days. David Nicholson, director of the township's Economic Growth and Planning Department, said he did not know when construction would begin on the rest of the Schostak development. He said it would include retail outlets, a restaurant, and perhaps a health spa. Carrie Stanley, engineer for AMC, said the theatre complex will be about 49,000 square feet and cost from $2.7 million to $3 million to build. The largest theatre will seat 380 patrons; the smallest, 210. See THEATRE , PAGE 22
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video programming network that will have two-way capability. "This isn't like a new roof," said Jay Berman, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Detroit. "Microwave technology, satellite uplinking and downlinking that's new for the church." By transmitting religious and educational programming to 38 local cable companies and 27 teleconference sites See NETWORK, PAGE 21
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GM may help Perceptron triple sales BY BRADFORD WERNLE CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
A $5 million machine vision purchase order from General Motors Corp., which an analyst calls the largest in the history of the youthful "robot eye" industry, has put a Farmington Hills company on track toward tripling its sales in 1985. The GM order calls for installation of $5 million worth of machine vision systems and equipment designed by Perceptron Inc. in three GM Truck and Bus Division plants, according to Perceptron President and CEO Dwight Carlson. The plants are in Pontiac, Ft. Wayne, Ind. , and Oshawa, Onto The machines will perform three-di-
mensional measurement of sheet metal in the assembly of boxes, doors and cabs of GMC and Chevrolet pickup trucks. Perceptron designs machine vision systems for automatic measurement of automobile components on the assembly line. The systems monitor the assembly line process and tell manufacturers when something starts to go out ofline, so irregularities can be corrected. Perceptron has had previous contracts with GM, Chrysler Corp. and other durable goods manufacturers, both automotive and non-automotive. Carlson would not list the privately-held company's 1984 sales. An investment analyst estimated the figure at $5.5 million. Carlson said the
company is on target for a public offering after calendar year 1985. He said the GM order means enough orders are booked to triple sales in 1985. Richard Edwards, an analyst for the San Francisco-based investment banking firm Robertson, Colman & Stephens, predicted that "Perceptron will be one of four companies that will have vision sales in excess of $10 million for 1985." Edwards said the order is the largest pure machine vision order yet. He said the contract demonstrates that "GM will continue to buy from companies it has not invested in . GM has funds in five machine vision comSee PERCEPTRON, PAGE 21
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RICK LI EDER
Hickman, Williams & Co. President Lee Allen says his firm is seeking expanded markets through a joint venture to process low-ash coal used in silicon chips. Story, Page 3 ~