State development agency officials confirm, in a published report, the Dearborn, MI-based automaker has narrowed its search to Morgan and Meriwether counties, but don't know whether Ford will close its existing 128-acre, 56-year-old factory in suburban Hapeville, GA, or build a second manufacturing plant.
GlobeSt.com couldn't reach Ford or Fulton County officials to comment on the land search. But area industrial real estate brokers, familiar with available large tracts near Atlanta, tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity Ford has had representatives "poking around" for over two years within a 75-mile radius of the Hapeville plant.
"They have been looking for a 300-acre pad but would be satisfied with 200 acres," an Atlanta area broker tells GlobeSt.com. "The new plant would be at least three million sf." The Hapeville plant is 2.3 million sf.
The Hapeville plant employs 2,322. An additional 2,300 jobs could be created at a second plant, according to a published report. Morgan County, east of Atlanta, is off Interstate 20. Meriwether County, southwest of Atlanta, is off Interstate 85.
Fulton County officials are confident Ford will not close the Hapeville plant but plans instead to build a second manufacturing campus, according to the report. They say Ford has spend $380 million so far in upgrading the Hapeville site.
A new plant would cost Ford "in the neighborhood of $1 billion," an Atlanta construction industry estimator who has worked on comparable projects worldwide, tells GlobeSt.com.
Ford has been an Atlanta corporate citizen since 1909 when it began turning out its Model T cars in a small factory on Ivy Street Downtown. The Hapeville plant makes the Mercury Sable and Ford Taurus, models expected to be phased out in the near future, according to the trade press.
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