Navitas Advanced Solutions Group, a subsidiary of Navitas Systems, plans to invest $9.3 million into a new facility to manufacture battery storage technology in Ann Arbor, creating 125 new jobs.
Navitas Systems, which is based in Illinois, bought the government contract business from
A123 Systems early this year and spun it off into Navitas Advanced Solutions Group. The company has since hired half a dozen people and now has a staff of 37 employees and one intern. Those sorts of roots played a major role in decision to invest further in Ann Arbor.
"Twenty five of 37 people were already in Ann Arbor," says Les Alexander, general manager of Navitas Advances Solutions Group. "We already have an established presence here. We have been here since 1996 (when the company was called TJ Technologies)."
Navitas Advances Solutions Group is currently working on some military and commercial products that are expected to hit production in the latter half of 2014. That should trigger the hiring for this current investment.
"The bulk of that hiring (the 125 jobs) will be done in 2014 and 2015," Alexander says.
Navitas Systems received a $1 million Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant from the
Michigan Economic Development Corp. It will also receive a property tax abatement.
Source: Les Alexander, general manager of Navitas Advances Solutions Group
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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