With the purchase of two buildings in Detroit, Cech Corp. and Phoenix Haus will relocate its branch locations in Livonia to the corner of Mt. Elliott and East Lafayette on the city's east side, near the Martin Luther King High School campus.
"We're very excited about the new buildings, and all the good activity going on in Detroit," says Hilde McDonald, owner and president of the Saginaw-based companies. Cech Corp. specializes in the sales of industrial weighing equipment, from floor to truck scales. Phoenix Haus designs performance envelopes for low impact buildings and supplies turnkey shell systems for related projects.
McDonald says nearly $1 million was invested to purchase and renovate the buildings, which share the address of 1000 Mt. Elliott. The buildings will be used for the companies' manufacturing operations. The Phoenix Haus' facility is 19,000 square feet, while Cech Corp.'s facility is 9,000 square feet. Both firms will share an 8,000-square-foot showroom.
"The price per square foot in Detroit is very attractive, but aside from that, the buildings that exist are very durable and robust, which means there's plenty of room to expand our operations to manufacturing," says Bill McDonald, general manager of Phoenix Haus. "In Livonia, that would have been at a great expense. (The new location is) well suited for our business models."
The companies have 20 employees combined. Five Cech employees and three Phoenix Haus employees will work out of the Detroit facilities, although McDonald expects that number to increase once the buildings are up and running in the next few weeks.
