Bendix May Sell All of Its 43-Acre Site

Bendix May Sell All Of Its 43-Acre Site

BY DAN McLEISTER
Business-Labor Reporter

FRIDAY OCT 18 1974

The Bendix Corp. is considering selling its entire 43-acre site near the corner of Plymouth Rd. and Green Rd. in northeast Ann Arbor and moving its Aero-space Systems Division into a smaller building an S. State St., The News confirmed in an interview Thursday. The site is valued at approximately $7 million.

The company is also considering selling a 15-acre portion of the property which is valued at approximately $5 million and which contains one sizeable office building. The market value figures were provided by the city assessor's office.

The interview with Robert Schaeffer. Aerospace Systems Division general manager, also resulted in confirmation that Bendix is considering selling its automatic mass transportation systems division.

A possible buyer for the entire site is the University. Eight corporations have expressed an interest in a portion of the site. The site contains two sizeable office buildings, several small warehouses and a test track.

Employment, which was approximately 1,200 persons at the height of the space program contracts in 1971, has dropped from 570 in mid-1973 to 470 early in 1974 to the present level of 370 persons in the Aerospace Systems facility here. The transportation systems operation involves approximately 60 employes.

It had been revealed previously by The News that the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM) had made a tentative offer to buy Building One and 15 acres of land.

Last year the Michigan Chemical Corp. of St. Louis, Mich., purchased land near the comer of Green and Plymouth Road and a building formerly occupied by the Bendix Electro Optics Division, which closed its facilities here in 1971. It had 114 employes.

The Buhr Machine Tool Corp., 839 Greene, is another Bendix facility located in Ann Arbor. It has 275 employes.

The Bendix Aerospace Systems Division is best known around the world for designing and building scientific instruments which were set up on the moon by Apollo astronauts.

Each Apollo mission to the lunar body carried made in Ann Arbor instruments to obtain scientific data on both the moon and earth. Contained in what is known as the Apollo Lunar Scientific Package (AL-SEP), some of these instruments are still sending valuable information back to earth.

After questioning by The News, Schaeffer indicated that “the University had looked at both buildings but we have no offer as such from them."

A News source, who asked not to be identified, said companies which had expressed an interest in buying the Bendix transportation facilities here were General Motors, Ford, Chrysler. Pullman, Rohr. McDonnell-Douglas. Boeing and Otis Elevator Co.

When asked about negotiations. Schaeffer said: “We are talking to several firms on an exploratory basis." He said they were large* corporations, some of which were already in the' transportation business and some of which were not. I don’t think I should discuss names at this stage. It would be unfair to the companies involved."

A University spokesman said, “We have had some discussion about the possibility of purchasing the Bendix property on Plymouth Rd. We have made no offers and had no precise discussions. We have no careful plans about a use for the facilities. Our main interest is that we have land surrounding the Bendix site," said Wilbur Pierpont, vice president and chief financial officers for the U-M.

Pierpont said, “We are not interested in taking part in discussions about what ERIM might do." He also said the University has no interest in the test track.

Schaeffer said Bendix was reassessing whether to continue in the automatic mass transportation vehicle and controls business. "I would say right now the outlook for continuing is marginal." He said the chances are better than 50-50 that Bendix will get out of the mass transportation business. A decision will be made by mid-1975, according to Schaeffer.

He said, “Right now Bendix has no plans to move from Ann Arbor.” The general manager said if all the Plymouth Rd. site is sold, then the Aerospace Systems Division personnel would be moved to a building at 3621 S. State which was occupied by the Bendix Industrial Metrology Division before it was moved out of Ann Arbor in 1971. It had 139 employes. That structure is being sublet by Bendix to the Bechtel Power Corp. under an agreement which expires in April, 1975.

The fact that W. Michael Blumenthal, chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Bendix Corp., lives in Barton Hills near Ann Arbor would not have an effect on the company's decision about staying in or moving from Ann Arbor, according to Schaeffer.

The Aerospace Systems Division is still a healthy size, the general manager said. “But we don’t see the growth Joe (Joseph Clayton, former general manager of the Aerospace Division), saw a year ago. Schaeffer expected the employment in the division to remain in the 300 to 400 range for the next 12 to 24 months.

Clayton said in an interview with The News in July, 1973, that the employment level at the division was expected to move from the present level of 550 back up to the 1,000 level by the latter part of 1975.

Clayton said then management was diversifying into several new areas of business and expanding several other areas to replace the heavy emphasis on space contracts.

In November, 1973, Clayton said: “I am enthusiastic about the future of automatic transportation systems and controls and am delighted to have the opportunity to devote my full time and energies to it.”

Schaeffer said there have been changes in both the space and automatic mass transportation areas. Some programs have been canceled and some have been stretched out, he said.

He noted that Bendix did win a $12 million contract for a transportation system in the Toronto Zoo. Bendix will also finish the control systems for the Morgantown. W.Va., system and the company is working with the New York Transit Authority on control systems.

Schaeffer said the employment level would be relatively stable with minor adjustments up and down as business conditions change.

The general manager said he expected the Earth Resources program to grow in the next 12 to 24 months. In this same period the space program area will have stable employment, he said. The space area could grow again when the space shuttle program by NASA expands in a few years.

Bendix Site

The Bendix Corp. site on Plymouth Road, which runs across the bottom of the picture, includes (1) a structure known as Building One. The vacant land (2) in this 1968 picture is now occupied by a test track for automatic mass transportation vehicles. In the background is what is known as Building Two (3). The building at the left (4) which was formerly occupied by the Bendix Electro Optics Division has been purchased by the Michigan Chemical Corp. of St. Louis. Mich. That building faces on Green Road, which runs across the picture. The US-23 expressway is further to the left and top of the picture.