DETROIT (WWJ) -- Detroiters will be first in line for 450 new jobs coming to the new Lear Corporation auto parts plant on the city’s east side, where crews officially broke ground on Monday.
Work began Monday to prepare for construction on the historic site of the former Cadillac Stamping Plant near Conner Street and I-94.
The new 684,000-square-foot facility is expected to be up and running by mid-2022, producing parts for new electric vehicles being produced at General Motors’ Factory Zero Assembly Plant on E. Grand Boulevard. Monday’s announcement is just the latest in a number of new projects centered around the electrification of vehicles.
With the first phase of the $48 million industrial building underway, officials say a second phase of the project will provide room for another tenant and hundreds more jobs down the road.
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Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced the initial plans for the project back in June as crews continued demolition of the former Cadillac plant, though specific details had not been disclosed. At the time, Duggan promised the majority of jobs -- both in the construction phase and the industrial facility itself -- would go to city residents.
Nicole Sherard-Freeman of Detroit At Work confirmed that during Monday’s ground-breaking ceremony, saying the agency has signed an agreement with Lear Corporation to give Detroiters hiring priority.
“Today we are welcoming 400 quality jobs with good pay to a site that many Detroiters and many others across the county and the state and the country had written off and called dead,” Sherard-Freeman said.
The former Cadillac Stamping Plant, once a bustling hub of the Motor City designed by famous architect Albert Kahn, dates back nearly a century to 1925, when it was built for the Hudson Motor Company and eventually bought by GM in 1956. But it had since become a symbol of Detroit’s decline in the east-side neighborhood, as Duggan put it back in June.
The building sat mostly vacant for the better part of four decades until demolition began this past spring. A demolition effort that, much like the future facility, was led by Detroiters.
Officials will require at least 51% of construction workers on the new project to be Detroit residents, while they’ll be first in line, based on qualifications, once the Lear plant opens next year.
The Southfield-based Lear is one of Michigan’s largest employers. President and CEO Ray Scott says he’s excited to be bringing the new state-of-the-art facility to Detroit, where “we have had a large manufacturing presence for years.
“This facility is just another example of Lear providing innovative, quality and on-time products while helping our customers achieve their sustainability goals,” Scott said. “We are pleased to be working with the City of Detroit, the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC), NorthPoint Development and GM, and appreciate their support on this project.”
NorthPoint, based in Missouri, approached the city in 2019 with plans to demolish the former Cadillac plant and build the new facility.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy (EGLE) provided a $1 million grant via Wayne County for environmental cleanup efforts ahead of the new project.
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