Tuesday, July 5, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com TechArb moves to location in Tally Hall Entrepreneurial incubator's new environment to enhance creativity' By GIACOMO BOLOGNA Daily StaffReporter The University's business incu- bator TechArb will continue on its quest to help students develop into successful entrepreneurs and business owners as it makes the move from McKinley Towne Cen- ter to the basement of a parking garage at The Offices at Liberty Square, formerly known as Tally Hall. Both the Towne Centre and the Tally Hall locations are owned by the Ann Arbor-based real estate company, McKinley, but accord- ing to Thomas Gritter, vice presi- dent and managing director of commercial real estate at McKin- ley, the basement at The Offices at Liberty Square will be cheaper than the Towne Center location. garage, working on the next big ural light is a hard trade-off for TechArb - which is jointly run thing," Neal said. space." by the Center for Entrepreneur- MBA student Ben Blackmer Gillian Henker, a recent Engi- ship at the College of Engineering said TechArb's goal in the office neering graduate and member and the Samuel Zell & Robert H. at McKinley Towne Centre is not of the TechArb venture Design Lurie Institute for Entrepreneur- strictly confined to business ini- Innovations for Infants and Moth- ial Studies at the Ross School of tiatives, but also to promote col- ers Everywhere, said TechArb is Business - houses approximately laboration among students. especially useful for non-business 20 student groups and provides "It's very eclectic and it fosters students. She said engineers often them with an area to work 24 a lot of interaction between the have great ideas, but encounter hours a day with free Internet and groups," said MBA student Ben difficulty when turning them into guidance from entrepreneurs and Blackmer. business models. University faculty. Teams cho- Blackmer and University alum "TechArb has been great in sen for the project are given six Stuart VandenBrink are members giving us that business support," months to work with TechArb and of "Are You A Human?" a company Henker said. utilize their resources. working on alternative methods to While the move from the fourth However, the program is not CAPTCHAs - a program used by floor of the McKinley Towne Cen- exclusive to engineers and busi- many websites to verify users are tre means a loss of windows over- ness majors, according to Doug human rather than computer gen- looking downtown Ann Arbor, Neal, managing director of the erated. Neal predicted even greater entre- Center for Entrepreneurship in However, Paul Davis, a recent preneurial creativity among stu- the College of Engineering. MBA and environmental sci- dents. Neal said he hopes the new ence graduate and a member of Neal said the new space will location will provide more space the TechArb venture ReGenerate serve as an "entrepreneurial hive" to accommodate additional teams, Solutions, LLC, said he thinks the and will provide a designated area adding he hopes to have about 25 move will be a disadvantage for to increase interaction between teams for the next six-month peri- TechArb because fewer windows TechArb, students and other od starting in November. mean less natural light. entrepreneurs. "We're putting entrepreneurs "Light inspires innovation," "You want somewhat of a con- in the perfect habitat, here in the Davis explained. "The loss of nat- trolled chaos," Neal said. 420 Maysard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com BETHANY BIRON ZACHARY YANCER Editor in Chief Business Manager 734-418-411s ext. 1251 734-418-4115 exc1241 bethlbemichigandaiycom 2yaneromichigandailycom CONTACT INFORMATION Newsroom officehours: Su""-hurs.1a.m. - 2a.m. News Tips news@michigandaily.com Corrections corrections@michigandaily.com .etterstothetEditor tothedaitymichigandaily.com PhotoDepartment sphto mihiganaily.om ArtsSection arts@michigandaily.com EditorialPage opinion@michigandaily.com Sports Section sports@michigandalycom Magazine klrckiamichigndalcom Advetsing Phn:746-05 Department display@michigandaily.com Classifieds Phone:734-764-0557 Department classified@michigandaily.com I I EDITORIAL STAFF Mak yurns Managing Editor Retaining the film industry in Michigan BriePrusak ManagingNews Editor bp'"sak*michiga"daily. SENIOR NEWS EDITOR: SarahAlsaden Teddy Papes Editorial Page Editor tedapaes@michigandaiy com SNIO dlEDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS: Will Stephen J. Nesbitt Managing Sports Editor stnesbit@michigandaily.xiom Julia Alix Smith-Eppsteiner Managing Arts Editor julialix@mfchigandaily.com SENIORARTSEDITOR:LeahBurgin Erin Kirkland Managing Photo Editor photo@michigandaily.com ASSISTANTPHOTOEDITOR:TorehanShaan Angela Chil Managing Design Editor designomichigandaiycom I I At event, 'U' officials discuss benefits of film tax incentives for economic growth By KATE HUMMER For the Daily LANSING - In a presenta- tion on Wednesday at the Capitol Building in Lansing, members of the University community dis- cussed the drawbacks to ending Michigan's film incentive pro- gram and considered ways to amend it for the future. Jim Burnstein - Hollywood screenwriter, University lec- turer in Screen Arts & Cultures, and vice chair of the Michigan Film Office Advisory Council - presented his proposal "Amend, Don't End" at the event, a plan to amend Michigan film incen- tive tax by reducing Michigan's incentive rebate from 42 percent to 32 percent. Additionally, Burnstein's plan calls to offer additional incen- tives to film companies that do post-production work in Michi- gan, and advocates for a collabor- ative effort with Pure Michigan that includes placing their logos in the credits of films made in the state as part of an effort to pro- mote tourism. The film incentives bill, passed in 2008, provided a 42 percent rebate to production- related expenses incurred in the state. According to Burnstein, it accomplished three goals: to cre- ate jobs, build infrastructure and reverse the "brain drain" - the loss of Michigan's young talent to more "successful" states. Burnstein noted that at least 4,000 full-time, lucrative jobs have been created by the film industry in Michigan since 2008, adding that part of the upswing can be attributed to the opening of Motown Motion Picture Stu- dios in Pontiac in 2009, which was constructed by Raleigh Stu- dios, one of the biggest motion picture facilities in the world. There has been an increase in Michigan students moving to Detroit after graduating to pursue film careers in the state, Burnstein said. He also discussed the "multi- plier effect" perpetuated by the film industry, urging the audi- ence to consider jobs created by large film casts and crews look- ing to utilize Michigan hotels, eat at Michigan restaurants and rent cars from Michigan businesses. He added that for every incentive dollar spent, there is a six-dollar positive impact on the state's economy. Burnstein said he doesn't believe Republican Gov. Rick Snyder or the Michigan Treasury Department took into account the positive impact of film incen- tives when they rallied to support the new, 2011 film incentive bill - which places a $25 million per year cap on rebates given to film companies that shoot in Michi- gan. Now that the Michigan film incentive is at risk of being reduced, Burnstein said not only could the state potentially lose University graduates studying film to other parts of the coun- try as they search for careers, but also high caliber students in other fields that may be related to film, exacerbating the brain drain. Robert Rayher, University lecturer in Screen Arts & Cul- tures, ended the presentation by discussing an upper-level Screen Arts course that collabo- rates with Michigan's top three research universities - the Uni- versity of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University - to bring together the top film students from each school to create a professional, 20-minute film. Rayher said he credits the course with significantly help- ing to keep the film industry in Michigan. "(We're) keeping the hope alive via this program," Rayher said. Haley Goldberg copydesk@mchigandaily.com CopyChief SarahlSquire b eelopn,,~ment Manager squirArmichignaily.,,,, BUSINESSSTAFF Ashley Karadsheh Alexis Newton Meghan Rooney Connor Bsyrd QuyVo Layut Manager Special Projects CirulationManager The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. One copy isavailable tree nf charge to all readers. Additinnal copies may be picked up at the Daily's office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in Septenber, sia U.S. nail are $tt0. Winter term(anuarythroughApril) is$15,yeartont (September through April)is$195.University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-canmpus suhscriytions lor tall tern are $35. Subscriptions east be prepaid. 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