Local business leaders touted Ann Arbor's role in leading the state out of the economic recession as the 2009 Deals of the Year were unveiled Friday night.

The annual awards, presented by AnnArbor.com’s Business Review, highlight the best of local business, collectively showing the power behind the individual successes in our region.

Top honors went to the University of Michigan's purchase of the Pfizer site on Plymouth Road as its Deal of the Year.

U-M is already a top employer in the county and it attracts $1 billion in research funding. With the purchase of the campus, U-M has set the goal of doubling that funding in coming years, and more employment will follow.

The fifth annual Deals of the Year black-tie gala brought 350 attendees to the Four Points Sheraton hotel, where speakers pushed them to work harder to create a vibrant, entrepreneurial business climate that can be an example for the rest of Michigan.

Michelle Crumm, chief business officer at alternative energy firm Adaptive Materials, said half of all jobs being created are at companies with 50 employees or smaller.

"We are leading this state out of this troubled economic time we are facing," she said. "We are the drivers out of this economic crisis." Arboretum Ventures won its award for closing on $73 million in financing in the midst of the recession, and U-M for purchasing the 30-building, 174-acre campus in order to transform it into the North Campus Research Complex.

In announcing U-M's honor, Michael Finney, president and CEO of economic development agency Ann Arbor SPARK, said the campus has the potential to become an "innovation catalyst" for the university, city, region and state.

"I truly believe that will be the case," he said.

In accepting the award, Ora Pescovitz, executive vice president for medical affairs and CEO of the university's health system since March, said the Pfizer purchase and eventual uses that include efforts to commercialize research discoveries can have even wider impacts.

"This will, in fact, be a transformational event not only for the city, state and region, but I also believe for the economy of this country," she said.

The staggering economy, with nationwide unemployment reaching above 10 percent, was the ever-present backdrop to the sold-out event, and speakers urged the audience to do what it cant to reverse the slide.

Rick Snyder, former leader of Ann Arbor SPARK and Gateway Computers, and now a Republican candidate for governor, challenged audience members to get away from lamenting about Michigan's economy to out-of-staters. He said that when people complain about Michigan's economic reputation, he asks them whether they respond positively or negatively when asked about it. Probably 80 percent, he reported, say something negative, and that is part of the problem.

"Why should we expect anyone else in the country to say something nice about us?" he said. "While we celebrate tonight, remember tomorrow morning is coming."

Paula Gardner, leader of annarbor.com's business coverage and organizer of Deals of the Year, called the speakers and nominees - as well as the FastTrack winners from Ann Arbor SPARK, also honored on Friday - both inspiring and powerful.

Annarbor.com reporter Nathan Bomey and local radio personality Lucy Ann Lance were the emcees.

Freelance reporter Dan Meisler can be reached at danmeisler@gmail.com.