The tier-one automotive supplier Mitchell Plastics will invest $20.5 million to build a facility in Sterling Heights, Mich., a move that will create 122 jobs, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. announced Wednesday.
The Kitchener, Ontario-based injection molder plans to build a 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility for the production of automotive interior parts, its first manufacturing site in MIchigan. The 144-acre site can accommodate build-to-suit manufacturing buildings up to 1 million square feet on 2 or more acres.
Mitchell molds both decorative and functional parts, and has eyed growth as a console supplier.
Mitchell Plastics got its start in 1997 as Ultra Manufacturing Ltd. The company designs and develops automotive interior mechanisms and decorative components. According to the MEDC, the company has grown by 75 percent in the past five years and has 2,200 employees throughout Ontario, Alabama, Indiana, Germany and Mexico. Its previous presence in suburban Detroit was a sales office in Troy, Mich.
Mitchell Plastics on Wednesday won a $427,000 performance-based grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund, a division of MEDC. Michigan was chosen over competing sites in Ontario, where it already has a significant production base, and Charlestown, Ind., where its current facility has room to support the increased production. The MEDC said the grant was needed to help offset the costs to build a new facility.
"Mitchell Plastics' expansion in Michigan rather than other locations means well-paying jobs for Michigan residents and underscores the strength of the talent in the state's automotive sector," said Steve Arwood, CEO of the MEDC, in a news release.
The city of Sterling Heights has offered Mitchell Plastics a property tax abatement.
