MONROE [AP] — David Hitchcock looked across the vacant floor of what used to be a Guide Corp. headlight plant and saw the future.
“The cars will be moving back and forth on this floor during the assembly process and roll out of the building over there,” said Hitchcock, the director of Louisiana assembly operations. “And remember, this isn’t the Guide plant anymore. It’s the V-Vehicle plant.”
And the future is coming fast.
V-Vehicle Co., with Gray Construction as its lead contractor, plans to double the size of the plant in less than a year with a 400,000-square-foot addition on the western side.
“It’s really not an abnormal schedule; we’ve done this before,” said Gray project manager Brian Jones. The company has built plants for such established automakers as Toyota, BMW, Hyundai and Kia.
Demolition and construction at the V-Vehicle plant, which plans to hire 1,400 workers with an average annual wage of $35,000, shifted into full gear after the company received its state Department of Environmental Quality permit Sept. 11.
“That permitting really triggered a lot of events,” Hitchcock said.
The car itself remains a mystery, other than it will be gasoline-powered, get 40-plus miles per gallon and cost about $10,000.
“We feel like we have a tremendous product,” Hitchcock said. “But the auto industry is very competitive, so it’s in our best interest to protect our playbook until its time.
“That’s why we’ve been a little secretive, even though we know it can be a little frustrating for the community. We’re eager to tell our story and showcase our car, but competitively it’s not the smart thing to do right now.”
V-Vehicle will use $82 million in local, state and federal incentive grants to build out its plant, including $67 million from the state’s economic development megafund, $5 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and $15 million from Ouachita Parish governments.
The Ouachita Parish Police Jury has placed a 15-year, 1.8 mill tax on the Oct. 17 ballot asking taxpayers to meet the local obligation.
V-Vehicle must raise $350 million in capital by March to collect the entire $82 million.
It has raised about $100 million from investors and hopes to land a $250 million low interest loan from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program designed to assist manufacturers in building high mileage cars.
U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, had said he expected an announcement soon, V-Vehicle officials and state economic development Secretary Stephen Moret said the loan decision remains weeks away.
“We believe it will be about four weeks,” Moret said. “That still keeps it on the fast track, and the ATVM loan would be the last key piece of the financing package that’s required.”
Hitchcock said the plant will have an open floor plan, “which allows our assembly process to be very flexible,” he said. “We want to be agile.”
He also said the company is seeking LEED Certification, which identifies construction and the plant itself as environmentally sound. “We think that’s an important statement about our commitment to the environment,” Hitchcock said.
Though Gray is headquartered in Lexington, Ky., Hitchcock said most of the major subcontractors will be Louisiana companies. Already such local companies as Denmon Engineering, Lazenby and Associates and PPM Consultants have performed subcontracting work for the project.
“And there will be many more,” Hitchcock said. “We’re very excited about the high quality Louisiana firms available for this project. We believe that Louisiana firms will perform the vast majority of the work.”
