Maryland tech firm aims to fill 800 jobs at future Detroit HQ

A Maryland defense tech company is buying the former UAW-GM Center for Human Resources on Detroit’s east riverfront from Dan Gilbert and plans to create as many as 800 jobs there by 2031.

The city of Detroit announced on Thursday, that Eccalon, a defense and cybersecurity firm, is in the process of acquiring the 420,000-square-foot riverfront building complex and its 18-acre site from Gilbert’s Bedrock firm, which has owned it since 2021.

Eccalon intends to use the building complex at 200 Walker St. as its new corporate headquarters. The complex dates to 2001 and in recent years has gone by the name The Icon.

The Michigan Strategic Fund in Lansing this month approved a $10 million performance-based grant to help the Hanover, Maryland-based company relocate to Detroit and upgrade the building complex.

Eccalon is required to invest at least $71 million at the site and create 800 full-time jobs there by March 2031, or face the possibility of having to pay back some or all of the grant. However, up to 25% of those jobs could potentially be remote workers who don’t live in Michigan, according to a synopsis of the grant’s contract language.

The strategic fund also approved the company for a five-year tax break, worth nearly $250,000, known as a State Essential Services Assessment exemption.

“A successful high-tech company like Eccalon could have taken their headquarters to Silicon Valley or Austin or Chicago but saw Detroit as the best place for them to flourish and grow,” Mayor Mike Duggan said in a news release. “The fact that Eccalon chose Detroit over other cities shows that Detroit has established itself as a desirable location for major high-tech companies.”

The company said in the release that its new Detroit headquarters would be used for product development, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing and automation. The firm’s customers include the Pentagon and defense contractors.

Eccalon says it anticipates that the new jobs would pay an average wage of $60.80 per hour, plus benefits.

The company was started in 2017 and says it currently employs about 400 employees, working in areas such as engineering, computer science, information technology and business administration.

JC Reindl reports for the Detroit Free Press. Content from USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.