To me, this is simply huge news. More than anything else the symbolic gains of reusing the old Chrysler HQs site is huge. If a major corporation can move back into this space or even just reuse the site, it takes away all of the other excuses by large corporations about not being able to reuse these old manufacturing facilities and sites in established cities.
On top of this, the economic impact of 400 manufacturing jobs for a place as small as HP will be huge. This would be significant news if even it'd been a factory in the much larger city of Detroit.
Quote:
Former Chrysler HQ site in Highland Pk. gets 400 jobs
BY TOM WALSH • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • July 20, 2009
The site of Chrysler's former world headquarters in Highland Park will soon be home to automotive manufacturing activity again.
Canadian auto components giant Magna International Inc. is expected to win approval today for tax incentives from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority to equip a new facility to produce parts for automotive seating. Magna is to ship the seats for assembly in Chrysler and General Motors vehicles. The plant will create 400 jobs.
"It's been awhile since we've seen new manufacturing investment," Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said. His staff showed Magna 28 sites in Wayne County. The firm also looked at locations in Oakland and Macomb counties, as well as in Canada, where Magna is based.
The old Chrysler headquarters complex has been largely vacant since Chrysler moved out in stages for its modern Auburn Hills complex in the 1990s.
Persistence pays off
For Bob Ficano, the decision by Magna International Inc. to locate a new plant in Highland Park proves two things:
• That Magna founder and Chairman Frank Stronach keeps promises.
• And that persistence pays off.
Ficano, the Wayne County executive, said Monday that he's been talking to Stronach and other Magna executives about locating a new research or manufacturing facility in Wayne County since 2004.
Today, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority is expected to approve a package of tax incentives for the $18-million project that will involve equipping a new building on the site of the former Chrysler headquarters complex.
Ficano said that Magna, based near Toronto, will use the facility to make seating components for General Motors and Chrysler vehicles assembled nearby.
"This shows that Mr. Stronach is a man of his word," Ficano said, recalling a vow Stronach made after several years of off-again, on-again discussion about various potential projects that began with talk of a horse racing track.
Ficano said he first met Stronach when the maverick industrialist, who is also the biggest operator of horse racing tracks in North America, was proposing a horse track on a site north of I-94 near Detroit Metro Airport. That plan eventually unraveled, and the Pinnacle Race Course south of the airport was opened four years later by another developer.
At first, Ficano said, Stronach talked about possibly building an auto research center alongside a racetrack. Ficano followed up with a visit to Stronach at Magna's Canadian headquarters and other meetings later.
Over several years, a number of different projects and locations were discussed. "But I remember distinctly when Mr. Stronach assured me that Magna would try to do something in Wayne County. I was at the ballpark at a Tigers game when he called," Ficano said.
Discussions slowed during the last year as GM and Chrysler became dependent on federal loans to stay afloat, but the Magna deal finally came together as it became clearer that the two automakers would survive.
Magna will occupy a 200,000-square-foot speculative building on the old Chrysler headquarters site, erected by Stuart Frankel Development after a $5-million tax-credit deal was approved in 2007.
The location, just east of I-75 and north of the Davison Freeway, was the site of Chrysler's world headquarters from 1925 until the early 1990s move to Auburn Hills. In 1997, Frankel bought the old site.
Magna already has 30 facilities and 4,900 employees in Michigan, including 15 manufacturing sites. The rest are product development, engineering and sales offices.
Contact TOM WALSH : 313-223-4430 or twalsh@freepress.com
|
Hud, I'll be awaiting you to post an aerial of this site, here, please.
Here's to hoping that this will result in something much larger than a single, isolated success story down the road.
Linear Mode
