On June 16, General Motors announced plans to expand its Duramax (DMAX) Diesel Engine Plant in Brookville by 1.1 million square feet.
The $920 million project will quadruple the facility in size and new equipment and technology will be installed, GM officials said.
The Brookville plant, located 15 miles northwest of Dayton, opened in 2021, cost about $176 million to build and created about 400 jobs for affiliated members of various building trades Local Unions, including Sheet Metal Workers 24.
Rodney French, Sheet Metal Workers Local 24 Business Manager, expects the expansion project to create a similar number of jobs for SMW 24 members as the original project.
The original DMAX plant was built under a National Maintenance Agreement (NMA) and French believes this project will be a game-changer for Brookville.
The current Brookville facility has about 80 employees. After the expansion is complete, the new facility is expected to employ over 800 employees.
French said despite the busy work schedule in the Dayton area, Local 24 members will want to work on the DMAX expansion.
Dayton Building and Construction Trades Council President Grady Mullins added that this facility is one of the bigger projects to break ground in the area this year.
“It’s going to take a lot of tradesmen and tradeswomen to get this job done,” he noted. “GM knows we can get the workforce to build and get their plant up and running.”
This is the third GM investment in the state of Ohio in the past 10 months. GM is investing $760 million at the Toledo Propulsion Systems plant and $55 million in its Defiance plant.
The expansion is expected to be completed by 2025.