Creating a “RENEWABLE ENERGY PARK”
Background
Ford’s Wixom automotive assembly plant opened in 1957 and was the home of Lincoln car production for 50 years As Ford’s second largest assembly plant in North America, Wixom employed nearly 5,500 people at its peak in 1973, averaging about 3,000 employees in recent years.
The Wixom plant was closed in 2007 -- one of five North American assembly plants that Ford was forced to close in order to right-size production capacity to match demand. In conjunction with various developers over the past 2 years, Ford has explored alternative uses for Wixom, with the intent of bringing a sustainable business to the site and community. Over the past 9 months efforts have focused on a large-scale project that will create thousands of green jobs and substantial investment, putting a brownfield site back to work.
Proposal
Create the “Nation’s Destination Site” for Renewable Energy Products. Ford will sell the site to the anchor manufacturers, Xtreme Power and Clairvoyant Energy, which will form a new LLC. The new LLC will develop the site, progressively co-locating suppliers and other manufacturers on the 320 acre site utilizing 4.7 million square feet of plant space. Production by the anchor manufacturers is planned to commence in the fall 2011. Xtreme Power will create 2,500 direct jobs and 10,000 supplier and indirect jobs, with at least 1,500 co-located or nearby – a minimum of 4,000 jobs in the Wixom area
Clairvoyant Energy will create 1,000 direct jobs over a 4-6 year production roll-out (270 at launch); its manufacturing partner, Oerlikon, plans to locate many sales/support staff jobs in Wixom. Investment of $1,275 million (excl. suppliers) by Xtreme Power and Clairvoyant Energy; state and federal support required.
Why Wixom Michigan?
- Support of local and state government
- Excellent brownfield site increases speed to market
- Electricity infrastructure
- Natural gas infrastructure
- Rail infrastructure
- Highway access
- Supplier base
- Glass
- Industrial gases
- Chemical components
- Employee talent pool
- Manufacturing management expertise
- Engineers, technicians and production skills