Earlier this year, Tecumseh Products Company moved its headquarters across Pittsfield Township and into the same building that houses its global technology center.
The Pittsfield Township Board of Trustees will decide at their meeting Wednesday whether to award the company an Industrial Facilities Tax exemption for the build out of the new offices. The company also is requesting to transfer the remainder of an older exemption from the old offices to the new location.
The Tecumseh Products technology center and corporate headquarters in Pittsfield Township.
Lizzy Alfs | AnnArbor.com
“When we originally purchased the facility our intent was to make it our engineering and corporate headquarters,” said Randy Kopke, corporate property and facility manager.
“We had more than the space we needed for the technical center and at this point in time we have been able to build out the offices to have our other teams join the technicians.”
Tecumseh Products, which manufactures compressors for cooling units , operates manufacturing centers in France, India, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the United States. The company employs approximately 7,300 people worldwide.
“This is now our only location in Michigan, we do our U.S. manufacturing in other states,” Kopke said. “We have all 140 Michigan employees in Pittsfield Township.”
If the tax abatements are approved, the company will pay 50 percent of the taxes owed on $1,047,855 of real and personal property that is being moved into the new offices in 2013. The abatement would run 12 years, with the taxes incrementally increasing every year.
The abatement that would be transferred from the previous location applies to $584,603 in personal property. The abatement only has two years remaining and would be in effect until 2015.
Global marketing and communications manager Michael Smith told AnnArbor.com when Tecumseh moved its headquarters to the State Street Business Park the proximity of the corporate staff to the technical experts would help increase innovation at the company.
“We’re really excited about bringing our headquarters to the same building as the technology center,” he said at the time.
“Any time you have sales, marketing, and engineering staff working out of the same space there’s a lot of necessary collaboration that is much easier than it would be if you separated by geography. The ability to have impromptu meetings will make us much more effective.”
Tecumseh Products has had an up-and-down year in 2013. The company’s chairman resigned in January before the corporate headquarters moved to their current location in February. In May the company agreed to pay $7 million in a settlement regarding a price-fixing allegations that also involved Benton Harbor-based Whirlpool Corp.
The company’s stock (NASDAQ: TECUA) started the year at $4.84 per share had has risen to $11.22 per share as of 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon.
Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Get in touch with Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2