Arlington Business Report: Gov. Perry Touts GM Plant as Place Where ‘Dreams Are Made’
The slick black 2015 Cadillac Escalade that Gov. Rick Perry screeched across the General Motors Arlington Assembly Plant floor was a far cry from the vintage Pontiac Chieftain that the plant first rolled out in 1954.
But present and the past converged on Tuesday as Perry joined local, state and congressional leaders in celebrating the facility' s six decade history in the community and the launch of several all-new, full-size SUV' s manufactured there.
"Dreams get made in this place," Perry told plant employees, including several long-time workers who marked 50 years of service. "And it' s not just the dreams that roll off the assembly line floor. It' s the dreams that come true for a family.
"Continue making this place the envy of the country," he said.
The governor said the first new car his father bought was a 1965 Impala that came out of the Arlington GM plant. Perry' s first automobile, he said, was a used 1967 Pontiac Catalina that was "as long as a yacht, canary yellow, but it was mine. And it came off of this floor."
Officials called the facility an economic backbone of Arlington and praised it as a continuing point of pride.
"I brag about this plant every day," said Mayor Robert Cluck.
The plant, which employs 4,500 workers, produces 260,000 to 270,000 Sports Utility Vehicles every year and is the lone source for Chevrolet Tahoes and Suburbans, GMC Yukons and Cadillac Escalades.
Bruce Payne, Arlington' s Economic Development Manager, said the plant represents a vital partnership.
"It' s turned out to be vastly more successful than we thought," Payne said of the economic development incentives the City put in place for GM expansion efforts. "We've had a great relationship."
The Arlington City Council previously established the General Motors site at Abram Street and State Highway 360 as a reinvestment zone and approved an incentive package to encourage the company to further invest in the Arlington plant.
The company, in turn, ramped up operations at the Arlington plant in recent years, investing a total of $500 million.
A $300 million addition included a new 129,250-square-foot body shop on the plant' s west side which houses 51 bays and six new truck docks. New machinery and special tools and equipment also were added at the plant.
A new $200 million stamping facility was added last fall. That facility features 1.5-million pound presses that transform flat sheets of metal into vehicle body panel parts, such as doors, hoods, fenders and side panels.
Previously, those parts were stamped at plants in the Midwest and shipped to Arlington. To operate the three presses, the plant hired about 200 new workers.
"The interaction and support we get from the community is a great feeling," said Paul Graham, the plant manager. "We like being here."
American Dream City
Business, Highlights, News