Right Place lands big business deals, thousands of West Michigan jobs despite tough competition

George Bosnjak says that between the beginning of 2008 and mid 2009, Alabama laid out $614 million in incentives and grants to companies looking to do business there. In comparison, Michigan is legally bound to limit incentives to just $95 million per 12-month period.
 
Bosnjak, business development manager at Right Place, Inc., adds that other states offer free or reduced price land, and many have deal closing funds where the state writes checks directly to the companies just to move there. For instance, Texas has $295 million annually in deal closing funds, Bosnjak says. Michigan has no free land or deal closing funds.
 
Despite the competition, Right Place has landed some big fish for West Michigan this year, including seven that qualified for Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) tax credits. Those seven include high profile deals like Priceline/Booking.com, Farmers/Foremost Insurance and Sequenom.
 
The seven projects are projected to generate over $220 million in investment, more than 4,800 new jobs, retain 233 jobs and generate nearly $182 million in new wages annually.
 
But if the incentives are so much better elsewhere, why do business in Michigan?
 
"The education level of our workforce blows away the level of many of the southern states," Bosnjak says. "Our supply chain supplies components for all different types of companies, if you need it made we can take it from A to Z – wind turbines for example, we can make the whole thing.
 
"The collaboration between business and the public is not seen in other places," he says. "Companies are impressed when the mayors and public officials are on board."
 
"I think the story here is how outrageous the competition is," Bosnjak adds. "Twenty-five states can just write the company a check to come to their area; some are only a million, some are huge. All are willing to use these incentives to steal our jobs."
 
Source: George Bosnjak, Right Place, Inc.
 
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].