A Governor’s Office RFI was received in January 2019 and stated they had a project that needed a location with 32 acres of gently sloping land to build a 205,000 square foot building. The company had about $120 million to invest AND they wanted to select the site no later than the first quarter of 2019. The site needed to have water, sewer, electric, and natural gas ready to be connected as soon as they begin construction. The initial response was that we had a couple of properties that were “close” to meeting their needs – but no exact match. After countless hours looking at workforce data, property searches (to include many that were not for sale), infrastructure that would be needed for each of those properties – and, did the property meet the zoning requirements that would support some sort of manufacturing; and oh by the way – we want your response no later than January 15th! We gathered what we had, made it look nice and sent that on. While in the back of our mind we thought we had a shot at this (albeit less than 10%), we still needed to continue to refine what we can do if they call back.
Fast forward – three site visits later . . . Two of the initial three properties stayed on the final list for New Braunfels and both had some needs that needed to be worked out. The Site Selection Team was silent until April 19 (Founders Day) when they called and stated that we were on the final list and wanted to talk about the initial incentives list that was provided March 1. Throughout the next 10 months, there were hundreds of phone calls, thousands of emails, and five additional visits from the site selection team. On June 12, New Braunfels was notified they were one of the final two sites for the new plant – and the only site in Texas. Again, literally hundreds of phone calls by Team NB, over 50 impact analysis scenarios, 42 versions of possible incentives, and 16 versions of performance agreements were completed through November 2019 when the NBEDC approved an incentive package, the City of New Braunfels City Council and Comal County who approved the package in December 2019.
On February 6, 2020 the announcement was made by Continental:
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Feb. 6, 2020 —[Automotive] Technology company Continental today announced plans to develop a new 215,000-square-foot facility to manufacture and produce products for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in New Braunfels, Texas. The investment totals about $110 million (about €100 million). The new construction, once completed and operational, will retain approximately 450 jobs in the state of Texas and add more than 130 new positions to the city. The new manufacturing facility will be located at a greenfield site 15 miles from Seguin, Texas where Continental’s Powertrain Division, now operating under the new name Vitesco Technologies, has a 320,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and employs more than 1,500 people.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2020. Production is expected to start in 2021.
Today – we are still busy coordinating a groundbreaking for the facility that will occur in April – Save the Dates will be sent out in early March. Hope to see you there!
