By Adam Studzinski

NORMAL – The Normal Town Council on Monday unanimously approved a series of incentives for Rivian Automotive, which is in talks to buy the former Mitsubishi Motors plant.

Normal City Manager Mark Peterson emphasized these incentives are performance based.

“There’s no upfront giveaway,” said Peterson. “And there’s some protection to the taxing bodies that they’re going to not only employ people that will benefit the community, but they’re going to invest in the building which is going to make that a more valuable asset.”

The incentive package includes a five year 100 percent property tax rebate, if Rivian meets certain investment and employee benchmarks. It also involves a $1 million grant once Rivian can prove it’s invested $20 million in the property.

Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe said the reason his company chose to leave Florida, where it was founded, had to do with business and a decision to move closer to their supply base.

“Now when we moved to Michigan, and what we committed to as part of our deal with Michigan, was only for the development center,” said Scaringe. “And that didn’t include any commitments around production locations because for the last two years we’ve been looking at different production locations.”

Scaringe added he’s confident his company will be able to succeed.

“We are financed to launch our business through profitability. We have backers that understand the difficulty of launching a business like this,” Scaringe said.

Several other entities, including Unit 5, McLean County, and Heartland Community College plan to also vote on the incentive package. Heartland’s vote will take place Tuesday night.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].