GM Fort Wayne Assembly: the living plant, at its true address

1986 – present

Where it actually is: The plant General Motors calls Fort Wayne Assembly does not stand in the city of Fort Wayne. Its address is 12200 Lafayette Center Road, Roanoke, Indiana 46783 — a Roanoke mailing address — and the plant itself stands in Lafayette Township in Allen County, southwest of Fort Wayne and north of the town of Roanoke, which lies in Huntington County. The state's own environmental record files the source as "Roanoke, Allen County." The name is the company's, the workforce is the region's, and the geography is as just stated: an Allen County plant wearing a Roanoke address and a Fort Wayne name.

The plant's record: Construction began in 1984; the first pickup was built on 8 December 1986, with about 3,000 employees and a payroll above $100 million at the opening. The plant — now about 4.6 million square feet on some 716 acres near U.S. 24 and I-69, worked by UAW Local 2209 — builds the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500, at a rate above 1,300 trucks a day. Its product line runs from the C/K trucks of 1986–98 through the Sierra (from 1986) and the Silverado nameplate (from 1998); heavy-duty regular and double cabs were added after the Pontiac Truck and Bus plant closed, a transfer announced in September 2009 with some 900 workers moving from thirty-five sites. The milestones are dated: the seven-millionth vehicle on 6 December 2015, and the ten-millionth — a white 2023 GMC Sierra Denali — on 30 May 2023. In June 2023 GM announced a $632 million investment in the plant for the next generation of internal-combustion full-size trucks, an investment the Indiana Economic Development Corporation's release said would support the facility's 3,983 employees. Employment in the published figures runs 4,360 in 2022 and "nearly 4,000" in the Indianapolis Business Journal's December 2023 account. It is the area's living auto plant, and the direct successor in function — though not in company — to the Harvester works that closed three years before it opened.

Sources:

1. General Motors, Fort Wayne Assembly facility record — the 1986 opening, products, plant size and acreage, and UAW Local 2209; Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Title V records for General Motors LLC – Fort Wayne Assembly — the source at 12200 Lafayette Center Road filed as Roanoke, Allen County.
2. KPC News, thirtieth-anniversary account of the plant — construction from 1984, the first pickup of 8 December 1986, and the opening workforce and payroll.
3. Plant milestone reporting — the seven-millionth vehicle, 6 December 2015, and the ten-millionth, a white 2023 GMC Sierra Denali, 30 May 2023; the 2009 Pontiac Truck and Bus transfer.
4. Indiana Economic Development Corporation, 12 June 2023 — the $632 million investment and the 3,983 employees it supports; employment as separately reported: 4,360 (2022) and "nearly 4,000" (Indianapolis Business Journal, December 2023).