Energy Power Systems to create 300 jobs in Pontiac

Posted on January 23, 2015

Troy-based Energy Power Systems, an advanced battery technology company, will launch a “high-volume” manufacturing plant in Pontiac, expected to create 300 new and high-tech jobs, a trust established to handle former General Motors properties said Thursday.

The company will lease 150,000 square feet in a former General Motors Pontiac Centerpoint Central building from Industrial Realty Group. The real estate firm bought the property last month for an undisclosed price from RACER (Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response) trust. The trust was created in March 2011 by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to sell and clean up former GM properties that are not part of the “new” GM.

Energy Power Systems was founded in 2011. It is expected to begin commercial production in the space early next year and will make “high-performance, low-cost and long-life batteries” that will be used in start-stop and certain hybrid vehicles, energy storage, renewable energy integration and fast-charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

The company expects its annual production capacity to start off being the equivalent of 500,000 stop-start vehicle batteries.

The Pontiac Centerpoint Central campus has been vacant since 2008. It includes a 1.2-million-square-foot office building that is slated to be converted into an industrial, multi-tenant space.

“We are proud to welcome EPS as our first tenant to the facility and support the job creation it will bring to Pontiac,” Stuart Lichter, president and CEO Industrial Realty Group, said in a statement. “IRG’s specialty is acquiring buildings in need of adaptive reuse, repositioning them and locating quality tenants. I anticipate the momentum at the property to continue and further announcements to come in the near future.”

Oakland County and Pontiac executives are hailing the announcement. Pontiac City Administrator Joseph M. Sobota in a statement called Energy Power Systems’ use of the property a “perfect fit for the area.”