The fund has made its third investment in RPM Ventures II, one of the nation’s leaders in IT investing. The $4 million investment will help RPM invest in applications where information technology can add productivity, safety or efficiency to industrial companies. The fund may soon make a fourth investment. For more information about the fund, click here.

Detroit Renaissance and the Michigan Business Leadership Council (MBLC) completed the first-ever survey of 60 of Michigan’s most prominent CEO’s to ascertain their projections for Michigan’s and the US economy. The CEO’s represent a cross-section of industries across Michigan and are in a unique position to assess the direction of the economy. The survey indicates that Michigan will continue to lag the nation’s economic performance as the CEO’s project the national economy will hit bottom and begin to improve in the next 6 months, while Michigan’s economy will continue to get worse.

Click here to read a summary of the report.
Click here to read the press release.

Thanks to U.S. House representatives Kilpatrick and Conyers and our two U.S. Senators Levin and Stabenow, Detroit Renaissance is in line to receive as much as $200k to fund the Creative Industries Business Accelerator in Detroit. If the federal funds are approved this fall, we may be able to proceed with opening an accelerator in downtown Detroit, hiring a director and providing the networking, training and business services envisioned when the plan was unveiled last year. This would be another project accomplished under our Road to Renaissance plan.

A recent EPIC-MRA poll mirrored many results from Detroit Renaissance's poll on the public's support for budget cuts and major reform as the path to balance the State budget. But, the EPIC-MRA poll indicated far more support for a graduated income tax and less support for cutting business taxes than our poll. The differences are due to the way the questions were asked, with the new poll down-laying what a graduated income tax would mean and dramatizing how business would avoid paying their fair share of taxes. We issued a press release identifying similarities and differences in the poll results.

The State Senate has proposed and is passing out of committees nearly $1B in budget cuts and reforms to close the projected FY10 budget deficit. Nearly three-fourths of the cuts come from the Departments of Community Health and Human Services. While the cuts they made were extensive and may be unpleasant, we appreciate their recognition that Michigan is in financial crisis. We issued a press release praising the Senate for making the tough budget decisions neessary to move Michigan forward.

We submitted a plan to the state legislature that lays out $800 million in annual savings over 10 years with short and long term action items. We are continuing to push for budget reforms. The Detroit News will be featuring a State Budget Reform scorecard Renaissance develops on their editorial page every few weeks to remind people how much, or little, progress is being made adopting reforms to close the budget deficit. The first scorecard will appear in a few weeks.

The 2008 Detroit Regional Business Attraction and Expansion Successes Report contains documented information submitted by the Economic Development Coalition of Southeast Michigan (EDCSEM). The coalition is comprised of 13 economic development agencies in the region and works to promote regional solutions that accelerate economic growth. During the period of January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008, EDCSEM member agencies engaged in a total of 183 new projects representing over $1 billion in investment to the region. The total number of jobs created and retained in 2008 was projected to be 19,688 as a result of these investments. In addition, the region's business accelerators provided business development support to nearly 1200 companies. Click here for a copy of the report.

Michigan business groups have joined with others to form a Corrections Coalition to urge Lansing to reduce corrections spending. The Governor and Department of Corrections made some difficult cost reduction decisions to close three prisons and five camps this year.  With the reality of a budget deficit approaching $2 billion, much more must be done to bring the cost of prisons in line with state resources. The Corrections Coalition believes these reductions represent a good start in what should be a much longer and far-reaching program of reforms and cost cuts in the Department of Corrections budget. However, the group submitted a joint letter to Governor Granholm and the Michigan legislature congratulating them on the important step they made toward cutting the corrections budget.

Renaissance Venture Capital Fund
Detroit Renaissance’s “Road to Renaissance” initiative concluded that a critical need for the region was to grow its entrepreneurial capacity, including obtaining additional venture capital in the region.  Detroit Renaissance worked with individuals form Ann Arbor and Oakland County to establish a venture capital fund of funds aimed at investment in Michigan.
The Renaissance Venture Capital Fund (RVCF) has made investment commitments to two Michigan-based venture capital funds, Ann Arbor-based Arboretum Ventures (specializing in investments in healthcare and medical devices) and Kalamazoo-based TGap Ventures (specializing in investments in IT, healthcare and services).  A third investment commitment is in its final stages.  The RVCF has received proposals from three dozen venture capital firms from around the nation that are planning to actively work in Michigan and are seeking investment from the RVCF.
 
NEI Kauffman
New Economy Initiative (NEI) announced an aggressive three-year economic recovery program that will help minority automotive suppliers transition to new industries and rapidly grow entrepreneurship in the region. The program will be located at TechTown, a business incubator established by Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health System, and General Motors. NEI has partnered with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to provide entrepreneurship counsel and proven programs to help spur entrepreneurial activity. The core pieces of the initiative are the proven Kauffman programs FastTrac(R) and Urban Entrepreneurship Partnership (UEP). It is estimated that 800 individuals will enter the initiative’s Detroit FastTrac(R) program annually, creating 400 new start-ups per year over three years. Approximately 150 minority suppliers will be trained, coached and mentored over three years through the UEP. Read more here.

The Detroit News Hub (formerly the DNews Bureau) launched its web site.  Marge Sorge, the Hub’s Director, has already intercepted and guided many out-of-town journalists doing stories on Detroit and begun to interject a more balanced view of our region.  The web site is set up to be a portal for journalists interested in writing on the region that provides them easy access to data, contacts and newsworthy information with minimal “spin.”  You can check out the site at:  www.thedetroithub.com