Rivian Automotive to purchase Mitsubishi Motors Plant

Posted on December 8, 2016

Mitsubishi plantBy Nick McClintock

NORMAL- A deal over four months in the making means that the Mitsubishi Motors Plant in Normal will possibly have a new name and tenants soon.

Rivian Automotive, a Michigan-based automotive start up, is in talks to purchase the 2.4 million square-foot plant, which will be used in full-scale automotive production.

Kyle Ham, CEO of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council, said the deal is promising, but is still a few steps from being a complete deal. “A couple steps to be done, which includes talking to the local taxing bodies to look at some tax abatement,” said Ham. “Those conversations will happen next week.”

There will be a resolution for the tax abatement at a special Normal Town Council meeting Monday night.

Rivian Automotive was started in 2009 and, according to a news release from the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity, is a automotive technology company. It also has  operations currently in San Francisco and Detroit.

Ham said the introduction of Rivian to Normal would come in stages. “The plan is to scale up production to about 500 automotive jobs the first five years,” he added.

The project investment would include investments of up to $175 million by 2024 with total employment by that time over 1,000 people.

Nick McClintock can be reached at [email protected] 

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