Mitsubishi Comes to Fort Smith

Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas Inc. announced this Friday that it will build wind turbine manufacturing facility in Fort Smith. This investment, which is estimated to be worth $100 million, will create as many as 400 jobs.

The subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Inc. plans to begin construction by early 2011. The company, which is headquartered in Lake Mary, Fla., plans to build the plant in a 200,000 square-foot facility on 90 acres of land that was formerly part of Fort Chaffee.

President and CEO Koji Hasegawa said the company went through an extensive site selection process over the past 15 months and decided on Fort Smith because it offered the most attractive site and community support for the wind turbine plant. Hasegawa thanked Gov. Mike Beebe, Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, Rep. John Boozman, Maria Haley and the Economic Development Department staff and the entire Arkansas delegation and said the company was “very impressed with Arkansas’s commitment to the renewable energy industry. With the establishment of this Wind Turbine manufacturing plant, we are also planning to expand our component sourcing in the U.S. so as to shorten our supply chain.”