A deal for property bigger than the Pontiac Silverdome site is in the works that could bring a large defense contractor to the Oakland County seat.
While nothing has been finalized, Commerce Township-based Williams International Co. LLC is getting close to bringing potentially hundreds of jobs to the Pontiac site where “Batman vs. Superman” was filmed during the days of Michigan’s generous film incentives before such work fizzled.
As currently planned, Williams International, which develops and builds small gas turbine engines for cruise missiles, planes and drones, would buy more than 550,000 square feet of space and 120 acres of adjacent land that would be developed into a new manufacturing plant, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks who requested anonymity.
Williams International did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Two sources said the company is also looking at other states — Alabama and Utah, where the company has a production facility in Ogden — as possible locations. In 2003, Crain’s reported that the company opened a plant in Huntsville, Ala., the previous year.
The sources said a vacant 368,000-square-foot office building, the 185,000-square-foot Michigan Motion Picture Studios LLC movie studio building and the site of a demolished General Motors trucking plant would be sold to Williams.
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