GM is investing $1 billion into an expansion of its 330-acre Tech Center in Warren, Michigan.
One reason General Motors was guarding its stash of cash against the advice of activist investors is becoming very clear: the automaker plans to expand its facilities.
Just after it was revealed that the company plans a $1.2 billion expansion of a plant in Texas, it appears GM will spend another $1 billion to grow its Tech Center campus in Warren, Michigan, a suburb north of Detroit.
The plan was referenced by Warren Mayor Jim Fouts during his State of the City speech yesterday.
“We are pursuing incentives with the City of Warren. If the project is approved it would include new buildings and renovation of existing buildings,” said GM spokesman Dan Flores told the Detroit Free Press. “This is still in the planning stage. The deal’s not done.”
The automaker has been growing the tech center campus steadily in recent years and the latest effort would involve two different efforts. First, the existing 330-acre campus sustained $132 million in flood damage due to severe storms last summer, and part of the plan calls for restoring the buildings where the damage is most extensive.
(GM plans $1.2 billion expansion of Texas plant. For more, Click Here.)
The other half, which would bring 2,500 to 3,000 jobs, would involve the construction of new buildings to house the company’s IT function, which it has been slowly consolidating on the campus. Ideally, the project would be complete by 2020.
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The shift in GM’s computer functions has been ongoing as the maker has already has begun bringing thousands of computer experts to Warren as one of four information technology centers nationwide that are being set up to develop software for new vehicles and other purposes. The company also has consolidated 23 data centers globally into two, including Warren, and it’s likely to expand design and engineering work on the huge campus.
(To see why Canada sold its ownership stake in GM, Click Here.)
The focus isn’t just on IT alone as the company has been hiring engineers and product development people and moved some engineering work to Warren that previously had been based in India and other markets.