Chicago-based Coyote Logistics opening Ann Arbor office with $1M state incentive

Chicago-based logistics and transportation provider Coyote Logistics will open an Ann Arbor office with more than 100 employees thanks to a $1 million incentive from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Coyote's new 9,000-square-foot office will be in the 777 Building at the corner of Eisenhower Parkway and State Street. According to an MEDC memo, the company plans to hire 35 to 45 employees annually for a total of 125 new jobs in the next three years.

MEDC spokeswoman Kathy Fagan said that the grant Coyote will receive from the state is a performance-based grant directly tied to job creation numbers. Payments will occur proportionally to the number of jobs created and will result in up to $1 million of incentives if the office has at least 120 new positions.

According to a news release, Coyote also plans to invest $1.2 million into the new location that will support the company’s Chicago headquarters. Ann Arbor was chosen for the company’s offices over competing sites in Texas, California and Colorado. The company already operates satellite offices in six other U.S. cities including Atlanta, Memphis and San Diego.

There are no Ann Arbor jobs listed on the Coyote website yet, but current openings include positions in information technology, sales, operations and marketing. Vice president of communications Jodi Navta said the office will include a mix of jobs with a primary focus on creating relationships with customers in the shipping world.

“We are a third-party logistics company meaning that we are the ‘middle-man’ between shippers who need to move things and the carriers that take them,” she said.

“The shippers that we help coordinate movement of freight for include everyone from a mom-and-pop grocer up to a Fortune 500 company. And that’s the same on the carrier side, everything from an owner-operator to the big names you see on the highways.”

Navta said the company chose to open its new office in Ann Arbor because of close company ties to the area and the ease of attracting talented employees to work in the city.

“We recruit a lot of our employees from Big 10 schools and schools in Michigan,” she said.

“Our CEO went to the University of Michigan for undergrad and his MBA and having an Ann Arbor office is a great opportunity for us to recruit employees who want to stay in the area after school or move back to Ann Arbor to raise a family close to their hometowns.”

Ann Arbor SPARK worked with the MEDC and Coyote on the incentives process, and according to the news release, SPARK and the city of Ann Arbor will offer financial support to assist with the company’s recruitment efforts. It's not yet clear what the incentives will be.

“Coyote Logistics is the latest example of a company attracted to the Ann Arbor region because of the talent that’s here, and another CEO choosing to expand into the city they fell in love with while in college,” SPARK president and CEO Paul Krutko said.

According to Coyote’s website, it arranges transportation for more than 3,000 loads per day across North America.

The company’s new office will put employees in close proximity to global shipping services company Con-Way Inc., Ann Arbor’s only Fortune 500 company, which reported annual revenues of $5.58 billion in 2012.

The logistics community in Ann Arbor also includes supply chain software startup LLamasoft, which was named AnnArbor.com’s Deals of the Year technology winner in 2012 after expanding its downtown footprint and attracting Nike as a client and investor.

According to its program guidelines, Michigan Business Development Program grants are awarded to companies that are seeking to locate or expand and are deciding between Michigan and other sites in competing states. Barracuda Networks was awarded a similar incentive package in 2012 for up to $1.2 million when it announced the relocation of its Ann Arbor offices to the former Borders headquarters in downtown Ann Arbor.

Funds for the Michigan Business Development Program grant come from the Michigan Strategic Fund, which was created to promote economic development and job growth in Michigan. The MSF also houses the state’s 21st Century Jobs Fund and the Michigan Community Revitalization Program.

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