A Feather in Detroit's Hat

Chicago is losing the headquarters of one of its oldest and best-known corporate names -- and also one of its most profitable --BorgWarner Inc. The world's largest maker of components for automatic transmissions plans to move its corporate headquarters to Auburn Hills, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, to be closer to the automotive industry and to raise its profile among companies it hopes to recruit as new customers.

About 60 workers in Chicago will be offered jobs in the new office, which will be about 7 miles from BorgWarner's Powertrain Technical Center and about 30 miles from downtown Detroit. BorgWarner employs 1,000 people in Michigan now.

The impact on Michigan will be greater than the loss to Chicago. The Michigan Economic Development Corp. said Borg-Warner plans to invest $8.9 million in the Auburn Hills project and create 146 new jobs, including 90 directly on the Borg-Warner payroll. What did Michigan give to land the deal? Michigan promised a tax credit worth more than $2.6 million over the next 10 years to lure the headquarters.

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