By KEVIN COLLISON
The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star
Updated: 2012-02-17T04:28:45Z
An automotive supply company is planning a new facility in the area that would furnish parts to the Ford Claycomo plant, The Kansas City Star has learned.
Area economic development and city officials declined to comment, but David Hinchman, a vice president at the Kansas City office of CBRE, a real estate services firm, confirmed that the Kansas City Area Development Council had been working on a development code-named Project Victory that involves an automobile supplier.“They’ve had requests for proposals out for a new, 180,000-square-foot building,” Hinchman said Thursday. “My understanding is they’ve looked at Kansas City, Missouri, Riverside and Liberty.“It’s an automotive supplier, primarily for the Ford plant, but possibly some of it would be for General Motors.”Hinchman said B.A. Karbank & Co. was the broker representing the firm.Officials at Karbank and the Kansas City Area Development Council declined to comment.Several sources, however, told The Star the plant would be operated by Magna International, a Toronto-based firm that is a global supplier of automotive parts. The Canadian firm has an operation in Excelsior Springs that supplies seats for the vehicles assembled at the Claycomo plant. The new plant would employ about 160 people assembling vehicle frames and chassis with parts manufactured by two Magna subsidiaries in the Iowa towns of Victor and Montezuma. Liberty is the leading candidate for the project, according to the sources. Magna is considering building the plant in the Heartland Meadows Industrial Park off 69 Highway and just a few miles from the Claycomo plant.Officials at Magna and Liberty declined to comment.The Magna International plant would be the first major auto supplier to open a new facility since Ford announced last fall that it planned to invest $1.1 billion in the Claycomo plant and create an additional 1,600 jobs there, bringing the total employment to 5,400 workers.Ford is planning to continue and expand its F-150 pickup truck manufacturing operation and start a new product line for the Transit delivery van. The company is moving its Escape production line to Louisville, Ky.The expansion includes a new stamping plant to make sheet-metal parts for the Transit.To reach Kevin Collison, development reporter, call 816-234-4289 or email kcollison@kcstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @kckansascity.
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