Pontiac Assembly Center
Pontiac Assembly Center, also known as Pontiac East Assembly, was a GMC and Chevrolet (pickup) truck production plant operated by General Motors. Other past names of this large GM facility were Truck & Coach and Truck & Bus. The now shuttered plant is located at 2100 South Opdyke Road in Pontiac, Michigan. There was another facility called Pontiac Assembly which built Pontiac vehicles starting in 1927, and Pontiac West Assembly, which was the original location for GM medium and heavy duty trucks beginning in 1909. Truck building operations were relocated to Fort Wayne Assembly in Roanoke, Indiana.
The factory opened in 1972 for the production of medium-duty pickup trucks, primarily GMC C/K series, and became part of the Truck & Bus Group ten years later. It was also the location where the GMC motorhome was built, as well as the GMC Bus and the revised Rapid Transit Series bus. In 1985 medium-duty Chevrolet Kodiak/GMC Topkick truck production was consolidated with heavy-duty Chevrolet Bruin and the Chevrolet Titan truck production, and the plant was renovated and re-tooled to produce full-size pickups. Floor space amounting to 712,000 square feet (66,100 m2) was added, including a second floor that houses the paint facility. Production of full-size pickups began in December 1986. The plant closed in September 2009.
In late 2011, demolition of the plant began. According to the Racer Trust; an environmental trust organization marketing GM surplus industrial properties, the site where the plant stood has been sold. In early 2014 the buyer was identified as Challenge Manufacturing Co., of Walker, Michigan. [1] Challenge plans to spend $50 million for a 400,000-square-foot plant on the site which will produce automotive components for General Motors. The new plant is expected to employ 450.
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- Map: 42°37′02″N 83°15′34″W / 42.61722°N 83.25944°WCoordinates: 42°37′02″N 83°15′34″W / 42.61722°N 83.25944°W