A Whirlpool Corp. Refrigeration Product Development Center will bring 180 high-tech research jobs to Benton Harbor over the next two years, company officials say.
The product development center would go into a currently unused
Whirlpool Corp. warehouse known locally as Plant 7 on Riverview Drive. Renovations and equipment for the buiding are expected to cost $18.6 million.
Jobs for the center will be transferred from the company’s Evansville, Ind., operations. Whirlpool’s Jeff Noel says employees will gradually be transitioning to Benton Harbor this year through 2014.
Local officials are cheering the announcement. "These positions will blend nicely with the numerous other highly-skilled, high-tech professionals that staff local positions like Whirlpool cooking, dishwasher and laundry labs, the Cook Plant, LECO as well as the area’s tool and die shops," says Phil Maki, chairman of the
Cornerstone Alliance Board.
And the
City of Benton Harbor says it will encourage the state to offer incentives necessary to secure the deal. City of Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joseph Harris has supplied a letter of support for the project to the state of Michigan indicating the city will offer tax abatements.
"We are especially pleased that the company has developed a strategy to use the Plant 7 facility in order to bring jobs and investment to the community. This is a perfect use for this asset," says Harris.
Noel says the company’s decision to make an $18 million investment in Benton Harbor is a business decision that factors in the support anticipated from the city, state and the local economic development organization, Cornerstone Alliance and which benefits all parties.
Improvements to infrastructure made by the state from roads to the local airport all weighed into Whirlpool’s decision to move its research and development for Refrigeration Product Development to Benton Harbor.
For the project to make business sense for Whirlpool the company has asked for unspecified incentives. What incentives the state many offer and what form they may take is a decision of the Michigan Strategic Fund, which is expected to act on the matter by September.
"The MEDC and the State have a good track record in helping businesses expand," Noel says. "We wouldn’t be making this announcement if we weren’t confident the MEDC would follow through."
The
Michigan Economic Development Corp. through the Michigan Business Development Program offers grants and loans to businesses that provide jobs or demonstrate they are making an investment in the state.
To make recruitment for the product development center easier, Cornerstone Alliance, the economic development organization for the southwestern-most part of the state will make available the services of its First Choice Program.
Noel says Whirlpool has been working with Cornerstone’s First Choice Program for 15 years because it allows the company to get its first choice in candidates for the jobs it wants to fill. The program is designed to introduce prospective employess to the community and eliminate typical objections they may related to relocating to a new community. It also introduces various family members to aspects of the community that could attract them.
Noel also says the Whirlpool’s announcement can be seen as a signal that the area is a major hub for research and development and that the place in to be for high tech is Michigan and Southwest Michigan.
Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave Media
Sources: Jeff Noel, Whirlpool; Jamie Balkin, Cornerstone Alliance
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