Today, Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore and James City County's Board of Supervisors and Economic Development Authority jointly announced John Deere's plans to locate a $30-million research, development and manufacturing complex at Stonehouse Commerce Park in James City County. The John Deere Worldwide Commercial & Consumer Equipment Division has contracted to acquire a 75-acre Stonehouse site on which its Vehicle Group will build a facility of approximately 300,000 square feet. This plant will design, manufacture and market the John Deere line of Gator utility vehicles. The company expects to create 300 new jobs at the Stonehouse site when the plant becomes fully operational following a targeted Summer, 2000 opening. As an added plus, Deere expects 6 to 8 smaller suppliers to follow it to the region.
In his remarks today at Stonehouse, Mark Rostvold, Senior Vice President for John Deere's Commercial & Consumer Equipment Division, outlined the role the company expects this new plant to play in Deere's future plans. "John Deere is building a 300,000 square foot facility to design and manufacture utility vehicles here in Virginia because we need more capacity to meet growing worldwide demand. Our vision is simply this - a John Deere on every landscape. We plan to grow our Division to $3 billion in the next few years, and the utility vehicles and related products that will be built right here in James City County are a big part of the growth we need to achieve that goal."
Governor Gilmore approved a grant of one million dollars from the Governor's Opportunity Fund to assist James City County with site preparation and acquisition. The County's EDA also aided Deere with the acquisition of its site at Stonehouse and the provision of temporary space, and County Staff will provide fast-track permitting to help the company achieve its ambitious target project completion date.
Jack D. Edwards, Chairman of the County Board of Supervisors noted that, "It is quite fitting that John Deere and James City County should enter into this new partnership since John Deere is a long-established corporate institution and James City County was the birthplace of business in America nearly 400 years ago. We are enthusiastic about the responsibilities Deere intends to assume as a corporate citizen here."
County EDA Chairman Gil Bartlett credited a total team effort for this economic development success. "Since last summer our region's new Peninsula Alliance for Economic Development and James City County's Office of Economic Development worked many long days and weekends pulling together the information and resources necessary to help convince John Deere that our community was truly a location where it could thrive and prosper. The Governor's Office, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, and Chesapeake Corporation couldn't have been more supportive once Deere set its sights on our community."
The project's announced initial phase alone is expected to be a real boon to James City County tax coffers. When fully operational, the project is expected to generate more than $350,000 in annual tax revenues. This is comparable in revenue to the Solarex manufacturing facility, a business unit of BP Amoco and Enron Corporation, which was announced in 1995 and is also located in the 220-acre Stonehouse Commerce Park.
The Commerce Park is part of the master planned community of Stonehouse, a 7,200-acre mixed use development straddling Interstate 64, ten minutes west of Williamsburg. Stonehouse is owned and being developed by the Chesapeake Corporation, a $1 billion international tissue and specialty packaging company headquartered in Virginia's capital City of Richmond.
For more information regarding the new John Deere Plant, please send all questions or proposals in writing to:
John Deere |
General Contractor |
Architect |
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For Employment information, please contact the agency listed below: Virginia Employment Commission |
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