Elliot Forsyth, senior vice president of Ann Arbor-based ProQuest, says his company wouldn't be where it is today without Ann Arbor SPARK.

"Let me tell you the ProQuest story," Forsyth told members of the Ann Arbor City Council Monday night, speaking in support of the city's continued investment in the economic development organization.

Elliot Forsyth, senior vice president of Ann Arbor-based ProQuest, speaks in support of Ann Arbor SPARK at Monday's City Council meeting.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

ProQuest, a global information technology company founded 72 years ago, was facing serious financial troubles in 2006. By early 2007, Forsyth said, the company was acquired by an east coast firm called Cambridge Information Group and several east coast states began actively recruiting ProQuest to move its offices across the country.

Forsyth said SPARK was proactive and teamed ProQuest with the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the city of Ann Arbor.

"Through all those combined efforts, the support — the encouragement to stay here — occurred, and we're absolutely pleased and delighted that that happened," he said. "We've invested millions and millions of dollars in our facility on the corner of State and Eisenhower. Those millions of dollars went to a new data center, expansion of office area. The new technology and innovation has really kind of propelled us into new dimensions. And it has been, frankly, an amazing journey."

Michael Finney, president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK, also gave a 2009 year-end report to the City Council on Monday, highlighting how the city's investment in the public-private group is helping economic development efforts throughout Ann Arbor and the rest of the region.

Finney highlighted some of the companies that SPARK has helped bring to the city of Ann Arbor in recent years, including Google AdWords, Advanced Photonix Inc., Genomatix Software Inc, NetEnrich, Barracuda Networks, MyBuys, Recellular Inc., Sakti3, Competing Values, Northern United Brewing Co., ForeSee Results and SRI Technology Group.

Michael Finney, CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK, gives a report to the City Council on Monday night. Finney arrived at SPARK in November 2005.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

SPARK came into being in recent years as part a merger with the Washtenaw Development Council and Ann Arbor IT Zone. Finney said SPARK focuses on innovation.

"We can't be a manufacturing community, we can't be an automotive community," he said. "We don't walk away from those kinds of opportunities, but we have to be about the new economy and, if we're going to do that, it's about innovation."

Finney also said SPARK can't just focus on Ann Arbor.

"Everything can't be for this community. There is a bigger stake in the region that we're in — that if it's not doing well, we don't do so well," he said. "If the state does better, Ann Arbor does better. If Southeast Michigan does better and the state does better, Ann Arbor does better better."

Finney said the way Ann Arbor has branded itself over the years and has been "pretty incredible."

"No matter where I travel in the United States and across the world, when I say that I'm representing Ann Arbor, USA, I get a smile," he said. "I get a favorable reaction. Sometimes when I say I'm from Michigan, I don't. When I say I'm from the Detroit area occasionally, I don't."

Finney said SPARK had seven project successes in Ann Arbor in 2009 that resulted in 265 new job commitments and the retention of 450 jobs that the city faced losing. Overall, SPARK assisted 61 innovation startups in Ann Arbor using tax capture funds from the Local Development Financing Authority.

SPARK also worked on six pre-seed investments that translated to 27 jobs and $1.5 million of investment, Finney report. He said SPARK also assisted six companies in Ann Arbor with micro-loans that led to 15 jobs and $204,000 of investment.

Ian Dailey, CEO of an emerging Ann Arbor start-up called Ix Innovations, said SPARK has helped put his four-employee firm in a position to grow.

"My company has been involved with the business accelerator program through SPARK and that's been tremendously helpful for us," he said. "Also, more recently, we've benefited from the micro-loan program, specifically from the LDFA. And although we talk about how the money is not great, it actually does matter a lot to companies of my size where we really don't need a whole lot to get to that next level."

Across all of Washtenaw County, SPARK reported 34 major project successes in 2009 that led to $147 million worth of new investment commitments and 2,118 new job commitments. Finney also reported that SPARK had 135 project successes from 2006 to 2009, representing $1 billion of new investment commitments and 9,172 new job commitments.

Council Member Stephen Rapundalo, chairman of the LDFA board that helps fund SPARK, gave a report Monday night in which he said the tax dollars being capture by the LDFA are growing larger each year, which is funding businesses acceleration and incubation programs.

The LDFA's tax captures totaled more than $1 million for the first time in 2008-09. That figure is project to continue rising and will be approaching $2 million by 2018, future projections show.

City officials said the hope is that the investments in helping new and innovative companies get off the ground will pay off in the long run when one of those companies takes off in a big way.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.