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WYOMING, MI – For more than a decade, the site of a massive former General Motors stamping plant in Wyoming has sat vacant and unutilized, the reminder of an auto giant that once employed hundreds before its closure during the Great Recession.
Now, new life is being planned for the sprawling 75-acre campus that city leaders have been trying for years to clean up and fill. A German auto company received city approval this week to build a battery plant on the property, making it the second company this year to lay down roots at the former GM site.
RELATED: New $105M automotive parts facility planned for Grand Rapids suburb
The reactivation of the sprawling former industrial site, located at 300 36th St. SW, is expected to have a massive impact on the city and broader region, bringing hundreds of jobs to the Grand Rapids suburb and infusing millions of dollars in new wages into the local economy.
“This is a big deal for a community this size, and will start to replace some of that tax revenue (that was lost when GM left),” said Paul Isely, associate dean and professor of economics at Grand Valley State University. “It will start to make the businesses in the area healthier, and may even start to have new businesses start to crop up to take advantage of the incomes being created.”
Even beyond the impact on employment, the redevelopment of the former GM site will likely have a broader effect on morale in the Wyoming community, creating a “sense of growth versus a sense of decay,” Isely said.
The city is taking a place that was an eyesore for years, and turning it into an active, vibrant place for the community, he said.
“It boosts morale,” he said. “It brings new people in. I mean, you’re generating jobs, so now you’re having an infusion of people, and they’re often young people, which adds to the community.”
“It creates optimism, and optimism is contagious.”
The revitalization of the former GM site was not an overnight success, said Randy Thelen, president and CEO of The Right Place, the regional economic development group that has been working with the city of Wyoming to draw new employers in to the site.
After GM closed the plant in 2009 and the property went on the market, developers faced a “perfect storm of challenges” in drawing in buyers, including brownfield challenges that needed remediation and a tough economy when the site was listed for sale, Thelen explained.
There were also other good industrial sites nearby that were readily available and easier to develop, like in Kentwood, Walker and Cascade, making it hard to draw new employers to the Wyoming site.
“If you pull back and look at the region, that site from an industrial perspective was a little bit of a hole in the doughnut,” Thelen said.
Real estate development firm Franklin Partners purchased the site from the city for $5.25 million in 2022, with the goal of bringing new manufacturers to the sprawling site. The property was marketed as Site 36, with officials touting its close access to railroad, the U.S. 131 freeway, and the fact it is eight miles from Gerald R. Ford International Airport.
RELATED: ‘Building the next chapter:’ Wyoming hopeful purchase of GM plant site will bring jobs to city
Now, two years later, developers are expecting to add three new, diverse employers to the former GM site, bringing the industrial site back to life with an expected 500 new jobs, Thelen said.
Corewell Health has begun construction on a 296,515-square-foot “consolidated service center” on the northern 40 acres of the site, which will employ roughly 240 people and feature a distribution center, document and mail services and offices for supply chain staff.
Construction of the $80 million facility is expected to be completed before the end of 2026, a Corewell spokesperson said.
RELATED: $80M development planned for long-vacant site along U.S 131, bringing 240 new jobs
Benteler Automotive was approved by the Wyoming City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 3, to build a new 316,965-square-foot facility on the southwest 20 acres of the former GM site, at 3901 Buchannan St. SW.
City records show the new facility is expected to be an assembly plant for V801 Ford transit van battery components, creating approximately 170 jobs that will run three shifts, five days a week. Benteler did not provide a timeline for construction, but city officials said construction is expected to start this fall.
A third interested party is also in talks about purchasing the southeast corner of property from Franklin Site 36 LLC, Deputy City Manager Patrick Waterman told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press this week. He did not have additional information about the prospective buyer but said they are currently in negotiations with Franklin.
A spokesperson for Franklin Partners declined to share additional information about the project.
Also, as part of the redevelopment of Site 36, a city marketplace is going to be built just north of the GM site, with a pedestrian trail along Buchanan Avenue SW that will connect the businesses to the marketplace as well as nearby Godwin High School, Waterman said.
Thelen said Site 36 is a prime example of bringing a former industrial property back to life. What once was an industrial site with one employer will soon have three diverse industries on-site, as well as nearby public amenities like a bike path, street marketplace and the high school.
“If you look across the country and how these former GM sites have been redeveloped, I think this one is going to come out near the top,” Thelen said. “It took time, but sometimes you have to wait good things come to those who wait.”
The closure of the GM plant was a huge blow to the city in 2009, as it employed 1,500 workers and annually generated a half million dollars in tax revenue for the city of Wyoming. Having three different employers on the site will reduce the impact of the loss of jobs if any of the companies go out of business, Isely said.
“If business comes upon hard times and has to downsize or disappear, you’re not losing the entire basket,” he said.
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