Dana shows off tech center in Maumee

Bill Carroll, left, explains a point to Dana CEO Joe Magliochetti and Gov. Bob Taft on the tour of the site.

Interior walls are going up in the $30 million facility the auto supplier is building.

Dana Corp. will have 35 more engineering and information-technology jobs than first planned at the $30 million technical center being built in Maumee, a site the Toledo auto supplier showed off to Gov. Bob Taft and other officials yesterday.

About 150 of 485 jobs at the center scheduled to open in November will be new to Dana. The rest will be transferred from technical centers that the company is closing in nearby Springfield Township and in Fort Wayne, Ind., and from Marion, Ind. The jobs, all but about 75 of which are filled, will pay an average of $62,500 a year.

Toledo's largest firm will invest an additional $15 million in equipment for the center.

“It's truly amazing to witness the progress that's been made in this facility,” Joe Magliochetti, Dana's chairman and chief executive, told a crowd of about 120 people.

Bill Carroll, left, explains a point to Dana CEO Joe Magliochetti and Gov. Bob Taft on the tour of the site.

“There's a lot of work going on, and there's a lot of work to be done.”

Bill Carroll, president of Dana's automotive systems group, said the project is on time and below budget, but he and other officials declined to elaborate on how much below. But it's enough to pay for the center's furnishings, said Steve Palmquist, a manager of Dana's asset management group.

The center will have various engineering and laboratory areas, including a section where 70 people will work on products five or more years away from being manufactured. In all, engineers will staff 285 of the jobs, and 90,000 of the center's 183,000 square feet will be for labs.

“This is truly something for future technology,” Mr. Palmquist said.

Governor Taft commended Dana for bringing jobs to the area, using mostly Ohio construction companies as well as some minority firms, and for making technology a high priority.

Dana was given at least $28 million worth of incentives from the state and from local entities to build the center in suburban Toledo.

“This project is really about having the kind of high-paying jobs we need to sustain our economy,” the governor told the crowd, which included Toledo Mayor Jack Ford and Maumee Mayor Tim Wagener.