Oakland Celebrates $3B Invested in County Since 2004

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More than 600 people are expected to attend an awards celebration next week for nearly 350 companies in Oakland County that have generated a total investment of more than $3 billion since 2004.

Guests will include L. Brooks Patterson, executive of Oakland County, Edsel Ford, principal of Pentastar Aviation, along with other business leaders and government officials, to be held Wednesday at Pentastar Aviation at the Oakland County International Airport in Waterford Township.

Patterson says the companies have supported 57,000 new and retained jobs.

“This is a testament to these companies — 337 of them,” Patterson says. “They contributed (invested) to this huge success. I congratulate each and every one of those companies for helping rebuild Oakland County’s economy after the Great Recession, and along the way creating 35,000 new jobs in a completely diversified portfolio.”

He says the most successful sectors have been the health care and life science industries, representing $975 million in total investment. The information technology/communications sector was second at nearly $620 million.

Patterson started the Emerging Sectors program in 2004 as a way to diversify the county’s economy. Oakland County has held events celebrating the investments in 2008, when $1 billion of total investment was reached, and again in 2013, when the $2 billion mark was surpassed.