Developer Has Big Plans For Old GM Plant

Considering the news this week that Steelcase will layoff 400 workers at its Kentwood plant, news from Wyoming today must seem like a breath of fresh air.

Area officials and a Michigan developer want to transform the Old GM Stamping Plant on 36th street in Wyoming into an industrial center that could host  thousands of jobs.

Lormax Stern Development Company plans to team up the the city of Wyoming to buy the property, demolish it and then redevelop it.  The two million square foot plant was closed by GM in 2009.

“The vision is not for a bunch of 20,000- or 30,000-square-foot users,” said Jason Horton, a partner with Lormax Stern. “We fully expect to see this now-abandoned plant site retransformed into a premier manufacturing location for one or two major advanced manufacturing companies, national or international manufacturing companies or a new state-of-the-art industrial park for a large manufacturing anchor and its key suppliers.”   mlive.com

The plant has been there for as long as I can remember.  I used to walk past it on the way to school, back in the day.  It's apparently too old to use.  But it location near the freeway and a good supply of trained workers are a plus.

Lormax Stern is best known in West Michigan for owning Centerpointe Mall and redeveloping the old North Kent Mall.