Some good news...
KENTWOOD -- Here's a switch: A Virginia auto supplier is passing up Mexico to move here.
This winter, GRW Technologies Inc., a German-owned business now in Winchester, Va., will pick up its machinery and a handful of employees to move into a former Bosch Corp. site at 4460 44th St. SE.
Ten employees will relocate from Virginia and Germany, but the company expects to hire 50 local toolmakers and technicians, GRW President Walter Gebert said.
"We looked into different locations in America and also Mexico," he said. "But the infrastructure in Mexico wouldn't support a higher technology operation."
State and local officials were to announce GRW's move this morning.
Within five months, the company will relocate $3 million in equipment and invest $1.7 million for a leased 42,000-square-foot plant. The site also will be GRW's North American headquarters, and the business has an option to more than double its floor space.
Long-range goals include an additional $8 million invested over three years, and up to 90 more jobs.
Not all doom and gloom as some would have you believe.