Van Buren may get Chrysler engine plant

Kevin Hill
Staff Writer

DaimlerChrysler AG may have good news for western Wayne County.

Amid a major restructuring announcement and sale speculation for troubled Chrysler Group, representatives from DaimlerChrysler said Thursday that a site in Van Buren Township is the preferred Michigan location to build a new V-6 engine plant.

The manufacturing facility would be one part of the automaker’s new Phoenix engine program, a total $3 billion investment in a new line of V-6 engines, to debut in 2010 models of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles.

The plant, which would disrupt roughly five acres of regulated wetlands, was the subject of a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) public hearing Thursday at Van Buren Township Hall.

The 300-acre site is bounded by Van Born Road to the north, Belleville Road to the east, Ecorse Road to the south and Beck Road to the west. A site plan given to the MDEQ shows the building situated closest to Van Born.

Christine Estereicher, manager of state relations for the company, said DaimlerChrysler “routinely considers” several sites and performs due diligence work, and that an application for a DEQ permit at the site was not an endorsement of the Van Buren site. The final choice is contingent on permits and state and local incentives, she said.

“What I can say this evening is that Van Buren Township is being seriously considered for this investment,” said Estereicher, manager of state relations for DaimlerChrysler.

The company had been expected to detail a new southeast Michigan plant along with its restructuring efforts Feb. 14, but needed more time to finalize plans, according to a source familiar with the project.

It would have been a drop of hope in a sea of bad news for ailing Chrysler Group and the state’s dwindling manufacturing base. In the restructuring announcement, Chrysler announced it would cut 13,000 positions, including 5,500 in southeast Michigan.

Estereicher and spokeswoman Curtrise Garner would not comment about how many the new plant would employ, but the source familiar with the project said 1,000 production positions would be brought to the township.

DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche’s now-famous statement that “all options are on the table” concerning Chrysler led to speculation the Germany-based automaker was looking to sell its American arm. That apparently hasn’t derailed the Phoenix project in Michigan, though.

Chrysler also intends to expand operations at a Dundee plant that produces a new four-cylinder engine.

The company approached Van Buren last summer, said Bryce Kelley, planning and economic development director for the township. Like many local officials, Kelley is keeping his fingers crossed.

“The package is not just us,” said Kelley. “It’s the county and the state as well, and I can assure you that the biggest share of it is the state.”

According to the permit application on file with the MDEQ, the company looked at 27 Michigan sites during its site selection process and narrowed the field to six, including a different property near Willow Run Airport in Van Buren, as well as Pinnacle Park in Huron Township, and property close to Metro Airport in Romulus.

Chrysler would construct 8.18 acres of wetland to compensate for areas disrupted construction of the facility on the preferred site, which is owned by Farmington-based Ecorse Belleville, LLC. Ecorse Belleville bought the land from General Motors Corp. in 2005.

Donald Tilton, of Environmental Consulting & Technology, said the site plan calls for relocating part of the Apple Run Drain, which runs diagonally across the site. Residents can review the application, file number 07-82-0012-P on the web at http://www.deq.state.mi.us/ciwpis. The period to make public comments on the application, in writing or by e-mail or phone, lasts until March 5, according to David Dortman of the MDEQ, who added the agency would make a decision whether to approve or deny the permit within 150 days.