High-tech boost seen for region as U-M buys Pfizer property

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 | Source: The Ann Arbor News

The big news to break in Ann Arbor over the holidays was the University of Michigan's purchase of the Pfizer property.

Excerpt:

Ann Arbor was presented Thursday with a compelling vision of a bustling science and medical research facility that will jolt the local economy with 2,000 jobs over the next decade, prompt an influx of complementary new businesses and reestablish the region as one of Michigan's vibrant, high-tech leaders.

That was the message that came with the announcement by the University of Michigan that it is buying the northeast Ann Arbor property of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which stunned the city two years ago by announcing it was leaving town.

U-M said it will purchase the sprawling, 177-acre complex of 30 laboratory and office buildings for $108 million.

After finalizing the purchase over the next five months, U-M said it will turn the site off Plymouth Road into a new type of research campus, where specialists in different medical and science disciplines work together on emerging technologies. Some existing departments may move to the facility - some of the labs can be used as is, without retrofitting - while other new initiatives are being developed to take advantage of the newly available space, officials said.

Read the rest of the story here and more extensive coverage of it here, here, here and here.