RALEIGH – Siemens Mobility, a $75 billion revenue company in 2022, will build a railroad car manufacturing facility in Lexington, N.C. and create more than 500 jobs under an agreement reached with the state of North Carolina and local governments.
Gov. Roy Cooper formally announced the agreement for the “Project Gemini” as it is called later Tuesday.
“Leading global companies like Siemens Mobility continue to choose North Carolina to build the next generation in innovative clean transportation,” Cooper said in a statement. “Thanks to our state’s skilled workforce, and the proven education and training systems that help people maintain and build those skills, North Carolina is the number one state for manufacturing.”
The deal calls for Siemens Mobility, which is based in Munich, Germany, to hire 506 people over five years beginning in 2024.
Minimum wages will be more than $51,500.
Siemens will invest some $220 million in the facility.
“After four decades of manufacturing trains in America and on behalf of all 4,000 Siemens Mobility employees in the U.S., we are excited to announce that we will expand to our new east coast hometown in Lexington, North Carolina,” said Marc Buncher, CEO of Siemens Mobility North America. “Now is the moment in time for rail in America and this facility supports our strategy to grow in close proximity to our customers as well as provide us with the added capacity needed to push the boundaries of innovation.”
According to Siemens, the plant is needed to meet demand it expects to grow for railcars. It already has one 530,000 square foot plant in Sacramento, California, and a site in N.C. will meet its requirement for a facility east of the Mississippi River.
The deal is laden with tax incentives totaling more than $32 million split almost equally between state and local (Lexington, Davidson County) benefits.
The state’s Economic Investment Committee voted Tuesday morning to support the deal.
