City Officials Ready To Approve Incentives For Arlington Assembly Expansion Plan
City officials in Arlington, Texas will vote Tuesday evening to approve incentives for General Motors’ $1.2-billion expansion of Arlington Assembly.
Mayor Robert Cluck says the incentive package – including a reduction of real estate and business taxes by 80 percent over 10 years and waived construction and development permits – is in exchange for an expansion that would add 589 jobs to the factory, Detroit Free Press reports. Cluck added that his city “had a beautiful relationship with General Motors,” and sees no issue with the package being passed.
In addition to the new jobs, the plan would add 1.2 million square feet and approximately $1 billion in equipment to the factory floor, with $300 million going toward building improvements for the 60-year-old facility that assembles Chevrolet’s Tahoe and Suburban SUVs, as well as GMC’s Yukon and Yukon XL models, and Cadillac’s Escalade. A spokeswoman for GM declined to offer anything more specific about the plans, claiming that the automaker had “nothing to announce at this time.”
The expansion comes as demand for the aforementioned SUVs have climbed 51 percent in Q1 2015 when compared to the same period in 2014. The demand has the 4.4 million-square-foot factory operating on three shifts six to seven days per week just to keep pace.
[Photo credit: Chevrolet]
Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.
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Corporate welfare at its finest.
Too bad they got rid of Oklahoma City. That was my favorite plant and was much newer having been completed in 1979. Nice clean layout and well lit, along with plenty of space for expansion. I spent a lot of time in Arlington as well. As an older plant, it wasn't as well laid out at the time, but was a lot more fun to explore. Definitely wasn't as bad as the ancient plants like Tarrytown NY. If I remember correctly, in Tarrytown, the employee cafeteria had metal tables and benches bolted to the floor (although the management cafeteria wasn't as bad). Oklahoma City looked like the cafeteria of an office building.
I hope the Tesla haters chime in with their rants about corporate welfare.
I came here to state my distaste for the chrome window trim placement on these new Suburban/etc models. Why is there a complete square around the front area, but behind the back doors there's none to be seen? It needs fixin'.