Convergix Automation Solutions is planning to expand with a new Auburn Hills headquarters in a space abandoned by an automotive plastics and foam supplier in bankruptcy.
The automation company will move from its base in Troy to a building two-thirds larger at 800 Standard Parkway, bringing it closer to the nerve center of automotive robotics and automation.
Convergix, which plans to take the 150,100-square-foot space in August, is riding high on the demand for automation in the automotive industry as OEMs and suppliers lean harder into robots to solve labor scarcity and cost issues.
Around 150 employees, including engineers, skilled technicians and corporate staff, will move to the new space, with plans to grow headcount in tandem with business growth, said Kirk Benson, chief financial and administrative officer for Convergix.
“We’re excited about it because it offers more integration floor space,” he said. “It’s a great location near other automation companies as well as suppliers like the robot OEMs and still in the Detroit area close to many of our strongest customers.”
The industry’s move toward automation — a play for “survival,” as Lear Corp. CEO Ray Scott described it — has been good for the automation business.
Robotics projects have proliferated in Southeast Michigan in recent years. Robot OEM Fanuc is nearing completion of an $86 million expansion in Auburn Hills that will grow its footprint to 2 million square feet. Integrators such as JR Automation and Paslin Co. have followed suit with expansions.
Unique Fabricating, which filed for bankruptcy last November, vacated the property April 30 as part of a liquidation plan overseen by the court. Assets inside that building and others were sold to Louisville-based PSC Industries, which made a winning $14.7 million bid for equipment and inventory.
For building owner General Development Co., which signed the long-term lease with Convergix last week, filling the space quickly after Unique’s departure was an ideal outcome, said Gary Weisman, co-owner of General Development.
“You can’t own the type of portfolio that we own in the decades that we’ve owned it and not deal with an out of the blue bankruptcy,” he said. “What we’re most proud of is that through that experience, we knew how to deal with the bankruptcy court, when to begin marketing and be able to, in basically 100 days, move a facility.”
The quick turnaround was especially welcome given a more challenging market for industrial leasing as of late, added his son Ethan Weisman, business development director at General Development.
“In what appears to be a slightly more challenging market than in ’23, we at General Development were pleased that we were able to re-tenant this facility in Auburn Hills in such a short period of time,” he said.
Anthony Rubino of Pilot Property Group represented Convergix in the lease deal, while Ryan Stipp and Charlie Elias of Friedman Real Estate represented General Development. Craig Zucker, attorney at Maddin Hauser, represented General Development as a creditor in the Unique bankruptcy case.
Convergix, owned by New York City-based private equity firm Crestview Partners, represents the acquisitions of four companies since 2021. It has 900 employees throughout the U.S., Canada, UK and India. In addition to the Detroit 3 automakers and suppliers, it does business in life sciences, renewables, consumer, and food and beverage.
“Our sales funnel has grown significantly over the past year,” Benson said. “We have a broader growth strategy that we are investing behind.”
