SPRINGFIELD, MA—The economic impact generated by the construction and in 2018 the operation of the China Railway Rolling Stock Corp.'s rail car manufacturing plant will be tremendous for Western Massachusetts in the years to come, according to a broker who helped the firm find the plant site here.
With construction scheduled to begin in earnest this spring on the 201,000-square-foot, $95-million facility, Globest.com talked with NAI Hunneman's Mike DiGiano, who worked for five years in helping CRRC find the shovel ready site and broker its $12-million sale from Pinnacle Entertainment. Last month a ceremonial groudbreaking for the project was held for the new railcar plant that will restore the historic Westinghouse building that was built in 1911. The building is the only surviving building of the seven that Westinghouse constructed on the site.
The rail car plant project is expected to create more than 100 construction jobs and once the CRRC USA Rail Corp plant is in operation, will initially employ 150 workers. Production of the rail cars is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2018 with delivery of the first car in January 2019.
In 2014, CRRC was awarded the controversial $566-million contract from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to design and manufacture 284 Orange and Red Line vehicles. The contract includes the purchase of 152 new Orange Line vehicles and 132 new Red Line vehicles.
DiGiano, executive vice president with NAI Hunneman, is convinced that the CRRC project will have tremendous economic ripple effects for Springfield and the surrounding region. He relates that CRRC's strategy was to not only secure the MBTA Orange and Red Line bid, but to establish its North American manufacturing operations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He adds that with the company's successful bid award, CRRC has expansion plans to secure similar projects across the United States that would be built at the Springfield plant.
He says that he believes CRRC is also looking to secure rail production contract work with Philadelphia, New York City and is also involved in a joint venture on high-speed rail work in Los Angeles.
“This contract with the MBTA is for electric subway cars, but this 201,000-square-foot plant would only be operating at a partial capacity for the MBTA contract and I think they are putting in other manufacturing lines because they are bidding on upcoming work in the U.S.," says DiGiano.
He continues that many rail car-manufacturing subcontractors are located in the Midwest and other parts of the country. However, if CRRC is successful in years to come, he predicts, “those manufacturing subcontractor specialties will build up in the Western Massachusetts region and the Massachusetts region overall because I think machine shops and other manufacturers can retool themselves to meet the needs of that industry.”
An interesting back-story on CRRC's search and purchase of the 40-acre site was that previously the property was to be home to a new casino. Ameristar Casinos had proposed building a more than $900-milion resort casino at the site in East Springfield. However, in late 2012 the company, which in 2013 was acquired by Pinnacle Entertainment, dropped plans for the project after receiving lukewarm support from some city officials who favored projects located downtown. Eventually Springfield selected MGM's $800-million casino proposal. The MGM Springfield broke ground this past spring.
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