The $629.7 million for the Ford development, named the BlueOval Battery Park, includes $299.7 million for the project’s site development and $330 million for “community improvements,” the governor said. Those include expanding M-96 from two lanes to four, upgrading intersections and reconstructing interchanges on I-94 and I-69, according to the Whitmer administration. The Department of Transportation will oversee the $330 million, while the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity will oversee the $299.7 million.
Ford officials said the factory is slated to be the first in the country to manufacture lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric vehicles.
The total cost of the Ford project in Calhoun County is expected to total about $3.5 billion, the automobile giant said. In addition to the $630 million included in the supplemental bill, Ford is slated to receive about $772 million in real and personal property tax abatements for 15 years and a $210 million SOAR grant following a vote by the Michigan Strategic Fund, the public funding arm of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
The Ford plant is expected to employ about 2,500 people, who will earn an average of $20 to $50 an hour; average annual wages are slated to be about $45,000, Ford company officials told lawmakers.
“This historic opportunity is an investment in people,” state Rep. Jim Haadsma (D-Battle Creek) said in a prepared statement. “I’m so pleased Ford Motor Company chose Calhoun County and I’m confident this influx of good paying jobs will put people on notice that Michigan is on the right track.”
Preferential treatment? Perhaps, but it received bipartisan support and will be very good for Ford in expanding a new venture.
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