Michigan moves from cars to stars

Incentives turning state into Midwestern Hollywood

The incentives program has also triggered plans to build or expand four studios in and around Detroit. "Without new studios and the creation of a whole infrastructure, I would not consider the program a success, because we are looking at the long term," Lockwood says. Furthest along is a $75 million project to convert a shuttered 22-acre General Motors complex in Pontiac into a multistudio facility. Backed by Michigan shopping-center magnate Alfred Taubman, William Morris Endeavor topper Ari Emanuel and others, the deal closed in early June. Named Raleigh Michigan, it will be managed by the Hollywood studio whose name it bears: Raleigh.

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