American Center for Mobility Named Winner of RACER’s Edge Award
Award is for Visionary Reuse of Former Willow Run
Manufacturing Complex in Ypsilanti Township, Mich.
DETROIT — RACER Trust today announced the selection of the American Center for Mobility (ACM) for a 2023 RACER’s Edge Award, in recognition of ACM’s visionary reuse of the former General Motors Willow Run manufacturing complex in Ypsilanti Township, Mich.
Elliott P. Laws, of EPLET, LLC, administrative trustee of RACER Trust, presented the award Tuesday to Reuben Sarkar, President and CEO of the American Center for Mobility, during a ceremony at Huntington Place, host of the 2023 National Brownfields Training Conference.
The American Center for Mobility, founded in 2016, offers a one-of-a-kind global development center to transform the way industries advance safe, sustainable, and secure mobility technologies. It offers an Advanced Mobility Proving Ground with test environments featuring specialized infrastructure, equipment, facilities and resources; an innovation and technology campus with an industrial tech park for the co-location of mobility companies; and event and demonstration areas for showcasing mobility technologies and convening industry activities. It is open to private industry, start-ups, government, standards bodies, and academia.
The property is steeped in manufacturing history. Workers at the property produced warplanes at the rate of one every 59 minutes during World War II, and thousands of workers produced millions of automotive transmissions in a 4.5-million-square-foot building that covered 80 acres.
“The American Center for Mobility is an international resource, bringing together the top minds in automotive research and development to plan, develop, test and assess the technologies that will power the mobility industry into the future,” Mr. Laws said. “Willow Run is unique in its scale and place in U.S. manufacturing history, and the work taking place at the American Center for Mobility will inform manufacturing decisions for decades to come. We congratulate and thank Reuben and his outstanding team.”
“ACM is honored to be selected as one of the 2023 RACER’s Edge Award recipients in recognition of the reuse of the former General Motors Willow Run manufacturing complex,” Mr. Sarkar said. “We would like to thank RACER Trust, Ypsilanti Township, State and regional government, automotive industry, academia and ACM past and present employees for the initial vision and dedication in redeveloping the 500 acres into a safe, sustainable and secure testing ecosystem for the mobility industry.”
RACER Trust presents RACER’s Edge Awards to individuals and organizations in recognition of their successful redevelopment of former RACER properties or their support in helping RACER achieve its remediation and redevelopment mission in RACER communities.
In addition to the American Center for Mobility, this year’s winners were M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Mich.; RAV Properties in Syracuse, N.Y.; and the City of Flint and Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance.
Past winners of RACER’s Edge Awards include Ashley Capital (redevelopment in Livonia, Mich.); AUCH Construction (Pontiac, Mich.); Lear Corporation (Flint, Mich.), Sirmax (Anderson, Ind.) and Ameresco (Danville, Ill.)
RACER Trust's environmental cleanup and the redevelopment by buyers and end users of its former General Motors Corp. (GM) properties have had a significant, positive impact on the regional economies which were hurt by the GM bankruptcy. Investments by RACER Trust’s buyers and end users have generated annual, recurring impacts of more than 59,600 jobs, $4.5 billion in labor income and $16.4 billion in regional economic output, creating new opportunities and revenue for communities.
About RACER Trust: The Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response (RACER) Trust was created in March 2011 by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to clean up and position for redevelopment the properties abandoned by General Motors Corp. in its 2009 bankruptcy. At its effective date, RACER Trust’s real property portfolio consisted of 336 tax parcels; 34 million square feet in 167 buildings; and 6,776 acres of land at 83 locations in 14 states. When it was formed, RACER was one of the largest holders of industrial properties in the United States, and the largest environmental response trust in U.S. history. Since then, RACER has completed more than 90 property sales and achieved a no further action status or similar regulatory closure for more than 50 components of cleanups. Investments by RACER Trust’s buyers and end users have generated annual, recurring impacts of more than 59,600 permanent FTEs, $4.5 billion in labor income and $16.4 billion in regional economic output, creating new opportunities and revenue for RACER’s communities. For more information, please visit racertrust.org.
About American Center for Mobility: The American Center for Mobility (ACM) offers a one-of-a-kind global development center to transform the way industries advance safe, sustainable, and secure mobility technologies. Located in Southeast Michigan on over 500 acres at the historic Willow Run site in Ypsilanti Township, ACM offers an Advanced Mobility Proving Ground with test environments featuring specialized infrastructure, equipment, facilities and resources; an innovation and technology campus with an industrial tech park for the co-location of mobility companies; and event and demonstration areas for showcasing mobility technologies and convening industry activities. ACM is open to private industry, start-ups, government, standards bodies, and academia. For more information, please visit acmwillowrun.org.