BROOKVILLE — The Dayton area will soon be home to a new General Motors plant.
Construction has already started in the area of West Campus Boulevard and Collective Way in Brookville on the new GM DMAX plant.
The new plant will have more than 100 employees when construction is complete by the end of 2020.
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The new plant will operate concurrently with the original DMAX plant in Moraine, sending the established plant machined engine components.
From Moraine, finished diesel engines will go to a GM Flint, Mich. plant, where the engines will be built into the new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra HDs (heavy duty) trucks.
DMAX in Moraine will continue to have more than 800 workers.
The Moraine DMAX plant has been running “flat out” for years to meet growing demand for its chief product — the Duramax engine, Gerald Johnson, GM’s executive vice president of global manufacturing, said at a press conference Thursday at a Brookville fire station.
“Strong demand for GM’s all-new family of Chevrolet and GMC heavy and medium-duty pickups is driving us to find ways to build more Duramax diesel engines,” Johnson said. “The Brookville investment will enable us to machine more engine blocks and heads and ultimately enable our DMAX engine plant in Moraine to build more 6.6-liter diesel engines for our Flint truck assembly plant.”
Since 1998, DMAX has been a 60-40 joint venture of GM and Isuzu, with GM being the majority owner. The Moraine plant has built more than 2 million engines since 1999.
“This will ensure that we meet great customer demand,” said Jay Niijima, executive officer and division sales executive with Isuzu Motors.
Montgomery County Commissioner Carolyn Rice said the new plant enjoys strong support for a new $400,000 county development grant, called an ED/GE (Economic Development/Government Equity) grant.
EARLIER:
General Motors Executive Vice President of Manufacturing Gerald Johnson — with representatives from Isuzu, DMAX and local and state elected officials — will discuss plans during a press conference in Brookville, a GM release says.
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The plant would have about 100 employees to start.
The Dayton Daily News first reported in September that GM leaders were exploring the possibility of a new plant to buttress the existing DMAX truck engine plant in Moraine.
GM and Isuzu are the 60-40 (respectively) co-owners of DMAX.
Recently filed property records identified General Motors LLC as the buyer of nearly 75 acres in Brookville and Clay Twp. JRC LLC is the seller, and the transaction was dated last Wednesday. Sale price: $2,981,600, records show.
The new GM/DMAX facility would complement production of Duramax diesel truck engines in Moraine. The new plant would not build complete new diesel engines, GM spokesman Dan Flores has told the Dayton Daily News. Instead, it would machine engine blocks and heads to supply the DMAX plant in Moraine, which builds finished engines.
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“If we do go forward with that project, it would be for the machining of blocks and heads, and those parts would be sent over to DMAX for more engines. That’s ultimately how we get more engine production,” Flores said in September.
The newly purchased land is northeast of the intersection of West Campus Boulevard and Collective Way, near the now-closed Payless Shoe/Collective Brands distribution center.
