Flex-N-Gate breaks ground on massive manufacturing center in Detroit

In a sign of hopefully good things to come in an area that needs it, Flex-N-Gate officially broke ground this week on a new $95 million manufacturing facility at the I-94 Industrial Park near I-75 and City Airport. The auto supplier recently landed a big contract with Ford and the new facility will create anywhere from 400-750 jobs in Detroit.

The 350,000-square-foot facility should be completed in mid-2018.

Flex-N-Gate will hire at least 51% of its construction workforce from within Detroit and will award at least 30% of construction work to Detroit-based companies.

According to the press release, Flex-N-Gate will develop a hiring plan with the City’s Human Rights Department and Detroit Employment Solutions, Corp., so Detroiters will benefit from permanent jobs.

Flex-N-Gate is owned by Shad Khan, who also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The project did benefit from tax incentives. According to the release, the Detroit City Council approved a $5.9 million property tax abatement for the project. Georgia Street, along the facility’s south side, will also be resurfaced as part of a $2.6 million grant from the US Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Administration. The street improvements came out of the community engagement process for the project, where residents voiced concerns of bad roads from increased truck traffic.