Area Development
UPDATE

7/18 - In preparation for building its next-generation full-size pickup trucks in 2013, automaker General Motors has announced it will invest $328 million in its Flint, MI, assembly plant, and create or retain about 150 jobs.

"This investment will allow us to continue building award-winning full-size pickups that offer better fuel efficiency than ever before without sacrificing features and functionality," said Cathy Clegg, GM vice president of Labor Relations.

GM already said it would add a third shift to the Flint factory this year; those 750 or so positions would be given to transfers and laid-off workers. This announcement is part of the 4,000-job, eight-state hiring activity GM talked about in May in anticipation of an increased American consumer appetite for trucks and cars.

The Flint plant still awaits GM's approval for a project investing $417 million for a new paint shop at the facility by June 2015; that activity might add more positions there. Recently the Michigan Economic Growth Authority approved state tax credits for that proposal.

6/17 - GM will add capacity at its Tonawanda, New York, plant to make engines for its Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers. It will invest $33 million there and create or retain 100 jobs.

GM will add capacity to build engines for its 2013 Malibu sedan at its plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. It will invest $32 million and create or retain 63 jobs there.

6/13 - GM plans to invest $20 million in machinery and equipment at its Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, KS.

Although the investment will help GM make technology improvements to the its Buick LaCrosse model currently produced at the plant, the company said no new jobs are expected to be created.

The 3,900-employee facility also produces the Chevrolet Malibu. According to the St. Louis Business Journal, it's now in the middle of a $136 million upgrade here in preparation for the launch of the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu.

6/6 - According to a company press release, General Motors will invest $130 million to build an enterprise data center at its Technical Center campus in Warren, Mich., adding 25 high-tech jobs and expanding and renovating a former administrative building. Design is under way on the renovation and construction, with the final phase scheduled for completion in 2015.

This announcement is part of the $2 billion in U.S. investment that GM recently announced for 17 facilities in eight states. This is on top of $3.4 billion invested and 9,000 jobs created or retained in the United States since mid-2009.

5/13 - General Motors will invest $109 million in its operations in Flint and Bay City, Mich., to support engine production for current and future fuel-efficient small cars produced for the U.S. market. The investment will protect or add 96 jobs at the two sites and is the second bit of good news in the last six months pertaining to it's operations at Flint and Bay City. In November 2010, GM announced plans to invest $151 million and protect 143 jobs at the Flint and Bay City plants.

This latest investment is part of a $2 billion investment (announced on Tuesday) to create or retain more than 4,000 hourly and salaried jobs at 17 facilities in eight states. This is the second announcement that details where, specifically, the $2 billion will be invested. Last week, GM announced a $131 million investment at it's Bowling Green, Kentucky Assembly plant that is expected to create 250 jobs.

5/10/2011 - General Motors Co said on Tuesday it will invest about $2 billion in 17 U.S. plants, GM said the plans will create or preserve more than 4,000 jobs.

"We are doing this because we are confident about demand for our vehicles and the economy," GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson said during an event at the 54-year-old Toledo Transmission Plant. "This new investment is on top of $3.4 billion and more than 9,000 jobs that GM has added or saved since mid-2009."

On Monday, the Associated Press reported that the local union President in Toledo, Ray Wood, said General Motors planned to add 250 to 400 jobs and invest $260 million at its transmission factory in Toledo (where the event was held today) and that an announcement from the company was forthcoming.

Sure enough, today, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, and Toledo Mayor Michael Bell in the audience, Akerson said GM will specifically invest $204 million to retain about 250 jobs for an all-new, advanced 8-speed automatic transmission for future vehicles to be built at the Toledo plant.

According to investment website ZACKS, GM earned a profit of $3.2 billion in the first quarter of 2011 that increased more than threefold from $865 million during the same time frame a year ago. Excluding the profits contributed by one-time gains, GM's profit stood at $1.7 billion during Q1, GM's biggest quarterly profit in 11 years since its $1.8 billion earnings in the second quarter of 2000.

GM's U.S. sales through the first four months of the year are up 24.8 percent over 2010. Last week, the company reported its fifth-consecutive profitable quarter since G. Richard "Rick" Wagoner Jr., former CEO and chairperson of General Motors, resigned under pressure from Obama administration officials in March 2009 and since emerging from bankruptcy reorganization in July 2009.

The GM announcement comes on the heels of a visit to Detroit in late April by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who declared the rescue of Chrysler and General Motors a jobs-saving triumph for the city and the country.

"My visit here," Geithner said in his speech to the Detroit Economic Club, "has been a powerful reminder of how the president made the right choice to help stabilize the auto industry. Today, the American automakers are growing stronger, creating new jobs and ... for the first time since 2004, all three American automakers have an operating profit.

"Since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy in June 2009," he added, "the industry has added nearly 90,000 jobs -- the strongest period of job growth in more than 10 years."

The 4,000 jobs that will be created or preserved in the plans announced by GM today were not figured into the 90,000 jobs mentioned in the late April Geitner speech. However, the $131 million investment in the Bowling Green, Kentucky Assembly plant that was announced by GM last week, and the 250 jobs the investment is expected to create, were included in the figures mentioned by GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson at the announcement today.

Over the next few months, GM will make specific facility investment announcements dependent on successful completion of state and local incentives in some communities.