A Chinese battery maker has paid more than $137 million for a former Kmart distribution warehouse south of Chicago, where it plans a $2 billion manufacturing facility.
Gotion last week paid $137.4 million for the nearly 1.6 million-square-foot building in Manteno, Illinois, according to Kankakee County property records.
The company in September announced plans to develop a $2 billion facility to make lithium batteries for electric vehicles on the 153-acre site at 333 S. Spruce St. Gotion said it plans to create 2,600 jobs at the facility about 50 miles south of Chicago’s Loop business district.
The seller was Transformco Properties, a real estate arm of Sears’ parent company, which shuttered a Kmart warehouse on the site in 2017.
It was Transformco’s second major property sale near Chicago in recent months. The company in September sold Sears’ 194-acre longtime headquarters campus in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, to Compass Datacenters. The Dallas-based firm, which paid $194 million, is expected to replace connected office buildings on the site with new data storage buildings.
Its purchase of the property came less than two weeks after Manteno’s village board voted to approve a zoning change to allow for the project despite opposition from some residents.
Gotion’s plan, backed by state incentives valued at $536 million, is a key step in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s efforts to make Illinois a major player in manufacturing electric vehicles and parts such as batteries.
The state is home to a Rivian car factory in Normal and a Lion Electric bus and truck factory in Joliet, while Stellantis recently said it plans to add an EV battery plant to its existing assembly plant in Belvidere.
Transformco and Gotion did not respond to requests for comment from CoStar News.
At an event at the Manteno facility in September, Gotion founder and Chairman Li Zhen said he hoped the factory could be open within a year.
Gotion also plans another Midwest factory near Grand Rapids, Michigan.
This story was updated March 5 to correct the size of Sears’ headquarters campus from 197 acres to 194 acres.
For the Record
The seller was represented by JLL brokers Sam Durkin and Keith Stauber.