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The Chinese Fall In Love With An Old Great Lakes Manufacturi
Deadline Detroit | 2014-01-06 17:23
First came a deal between the Toledo Museum of Art and the Chinese for glass panels. It was kind of embarrassing, because in its industrial heyday, Toledo was known as The Glass City.
But in the seven years since the museum project, Timothy Williams reports in The New York Times that ties between Toledo and China have grown numerous:
*Chinese companies have paid more than $10 million in cash for two local hotels, a restaurant complex and a 69-acre waterfront property.
*Mayor Michael P. Bell has taken four trips to China in four years in search of investors. His business cards are double-sided, in English and Chinese.
*Huaqiao University, one of the largest higher-education institutions in China, recently signed an agreement to open a branch in Toledo.
*There have also been preliminary talks between local officials and a Chinese company about an arrangement in which industrial tools would be produced in China, shipped for assembly in Toledo and labeled “made in the U.S.A.,” which would allow them to be sold at a premium.
*Toledo has also reached a deal for rarely seen Chinese antiques to be shown at the museum next year, and there are plans for the city to host a Chinese technology trade fair at its convention center. More than 100 Toledo businesspeople have traveled to China in recent years, and hundreds of Chinese investors have been welcomed in return, treated to special performances by Toledo Symphony Orchestra members.
"For little old Podunk, Ohio, it’s been pretty phenomenal what we’ve been able to do,” Dean Monske, president and chief executive of the Regional Growth Partnership, told Williams.
Detroit, about a 45-minute drive north of Toledo, has seen the beginnings of Chinese investment.
A Chinese company named Dongdu International this year paid a total of $13.6 million for the old Detroit Free Press Building and the David Stott Building.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, Chinese companies have invested about $1 billion in Michigan, according to Gov. Rick Snyder, 95 percent of which is related to the auto industry. Michigan companies exported 22 percent more goods and materials to China in 2012 than in the previous year.
But in the seven years since the museum project, Timothy Williams reports in The New York Times that ties between Toledo and China have grown numerous:
*Chinese companies have paid more than $10 million in cash for two local hotels, a restaurant complex and a 69-acre waterfront property.
*Mayor Michael P. Bell has taken four trips to China in four years in search of investors. His business cards are double-sided, in English and Chinese.
*Huaqiao University, one of the largest higher-education institutions in China, recently signed an agreement to open a branch in Toledo.
*There have also been preliminary talks between local officials and a Chinese company about an arrangement in which industrial tools would be produced in China, shipped for assembly in Toledo and labeled “made in the U.S.A.,” which would allow them to be sold at a premium.
*Toledo has also reached a deal for rarely seen Chinese antiques to be shown at the museum next year, and there are plans for the city to host a Chinese technology trade fair at its convention center. More than 100 Toledo businesspeople have traveled to China in recent years, and hundreds of Chinese investors have been welcomed in return, treated to special performances by Toledo Symphony Orchestra members.
"For little old Podunk, Ohio, it’s been pretty phenomenal what we’ve been able to do,” Dean Monske, president and chief executive of the Regional Growth Partnership, told Williams.
Detroit, about a 45-minute drive north of Toledo, has seen the beginnings of Chinese investment.
A Chinese company named Dongdu International this year paid a total of $13.6 million for the old Detroit Free Press Building and the David Stott Building.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, Chinese companies have invested about $1 billion in Michigan, according to Gov. Rick Snyder, 95 percent of which is related to the auto industry. Michigan companies exported 22 percent more goods and materials to China in 2012 than in the previous year.
