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Battery plant deal nears finish line
2/4/2010
By ANDREA GOODELL
The Holland Sentinel
Posted Feb 04, 2010 @ 05:30 AM
Last update Feb 04, 2010 @ 11:39 AM
Holland, MI — A land agreement signed Wednesday is a big step toward what would be Holland’s second hybrid battery plant.
“We’re approaching the finishing line with this project. We’re very optimistic we will see this through,” said Randy Thelen, president of regional economic development agency Lakeshore Advantage.
Korea-based industrial giant LG Chem Ltd. could invest $303 million in a plug-in automotive battery project in Holland beginning this summer.
Holland was once one of three sites under consideration by LG, Thelen said. It is now the sole site.
The project hinges on a $151.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to Troy-based Compact Power, a LG Chem subsidiary. The two are hammering out terms of the grant now, officials said.
The proposed 800,000-square-foot building would be on 80 now-vacant acres northeast of the intersection of South Waverly Road and East 48th Street.
Four things have to happen on the city’s end to ensure the project’s momentum: 1. The BPW/city must buy the two parcels; 2. jurisdictional transfer of the two now-privately owned parcels from Fillmore Township to the city; 3. re-zoning of the new, single property to I-2; and 4. a signed development agreement between the city and Compact.
“These are the necessary steps to really bring this project to fruition,” Thelen said. “We’re still awaiting their final decision, but we’re very optimistic.”
Two other events are key to the battery plant locating in Holland: Finalization of the DOE grant and Holland establishing a Renaissance Zone there.
“LG Chem’s culture is different in terms of announcing things,” BPW General Manager Loren Howard said.
The BPW expects both a previously-announced Johnson Controls-Saft joint venture and the Compact plant to generate $5 million each annually once they are fully functional in a few years. It would initially have to spend $3 million to $4 million in electric infrastructure improvements and expansions, Howard said.
The Compact facility would “manufacture and deliver lithium-ion batteries to the industrial, defense and aerospace markets,” according to the DOE grant.
Those would include rechargeable battery cells for GM’s new Volt hybrid vehicle.
The project is expected to be in the same scope as the Johnson Controls-Saft joint venture to build hybrid car batteries at the Meadowbrook plant on Holland’s south side, projected to employ more than 500.
The city would reimburse Lakeshore Advantage the $10,000 option fee as well as buying a property from Bernice J. Welscott for $242,000 and Kenneth and James Rabbers for $568,000.
The city would recoup all those costs from Compact.
The city would not purchase the land until the DOE approves Compact’s grant.
“Once that’s done, the odds of something going wrong are pretty small,” City Manager Soren Wolff said.
Compact would be one of the largest projects in the state, if not country, Thelen said.
“The co-locating of these two facilities puts us in a dominant position in North America,” he said. “There is a major global push and these two facilities are ground zero for that.”
Copyright 2010 The Holland Sentinel. Some rights reserved
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