The Michigan Defense Center (MDC), an agency of the
Michigan Economic Development Corporation, opened in Sterling Heights this week and made official Macomb County's position as the state's top destination for defense dollars.
The new center will operate at Velocity, a business incubator and central location for economic development efforts in homeland security, defense, advanced manufacturing and other industries. It also provides loans and guidance, work and meeting space and more to start-ups. It is a collaboration between Macomb County, Oakland University and Sterling Heights.
The MDC's Sterling Heights office opens as the state releases a study that found that in the last decade, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded nearly $42 million to businesses in Michigan, 63 percent of that going to Macomb County businesses. MDC also has a Lansing office.
“Macomb County is the heart of our defense industry so it makes sense that this is the new home of our state’s defense center,” Michael A. Finney, president and CEO, Michigan Economic Development Corp., says in a statement announcing the opening. “This is a sector that is ripe for economic gardening opportunities, and we will continue to work with our partners to grow Michigan businesses and new jobs.”
The Michigan Defense Center is an agency of the MEDC, created as a public act to attract new defense and homeland security investment in Michigan and to provide supply chains for defense industry buyers as well as augment research and development resources in universities and federal laboratories, among other objectives.
Source: Maria Zardis, manager special projects and outreach, Macomb County Department of Planning and Economic Development
Writer: Kim North Shine
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