Marwest Enterprises and Willmeng Construction broke ground on the new facility this week for the Canadian designer and manufacturer of environmentally efficient electric vehicles (EVs), ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Corp.
The new facility will include an assembly and manufacturing plant, a research center, 22,000 square feet of office space and 19,000 square feet of lab space. To maintain ElectraMeccanica’s asset-light model, the building will be leased from the Developer, Marwest Enterprises, LLC. The building is being designed by the architectural firm Ware Malcomb and engineered by Hunter Engineering with Willmeng Construction as the General Contractor.
“I’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ to ElectraMeccanica for believing in us and our ability to execute out here,” said David Martens, Marwest Principal. “This has been 10 years in the making and we’re very fortunate to break ground with a quality group like this and be a part of their future.”
“ElectraMeccanica has an outstanding leader in Paul Rivera,” Willmeng CEO James Murphy said. “We’re looking forward to watching them drive the market and it’s an honor for us be constructing on their behalf. The City of Mesa, ACC, GPEC, and Marwest did an excellent job of embracing Paul’s vision resulting in an outstanding addition to the local economy.”
“This is a big day for us in Mesa,” said Paul Rivera, ElectraMeccanica CEO. “This establishes our U.S. footprint and it comes after a very long search. We started 14 months ago to find the ideal place to put our facility where we will build our Flagship SOLO Electric Vehicles. It’s exciting that we’ll be putting between 200 and 500 people to work here with Arizona labor.”
The 235,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility is located on 18 acres of land adjacent to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway airport. When operational, the facility will have a production capacity of up to 20,000 vehicles per year and employ upwards of 200-500 people. The current completion date is slated for Spring 2022.
“The ElectraMeccanica investment is kind of a building block, of sorts. We’ve had such success in luring other major manufacturers to this area. Obviously, we love the headlines and we love the groundbreakings, but it’s about the citizens and the job availability that they now have at this site,” said Chris Camacho, President & CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. “Arizona has emerged as one of the top leading markets in the United States for electric vehicle manufacturing. We’re excited to have this one today and we expect to have many more in the future.”
“Today has been a momentous day for the State of Arizona and the City of Mesa,” said Sandra Watson, President & CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority. “Electric Vehicle manufacturing in our state continues to thrive, with the latest being ElectraMeccanica, with their new facility here in Mesa. They’ll be creating 500 high-value, high-quality jobs for the state of Arizona and will also be part of an overall innovation ecosystem that continues to attract supply chain and opportunities for all the citizens throughout Arizona.”
The groundbreaking this week was one to remember with three SOLO EV vehicles adorning the red carpet and stage. With numerous local and state officials present, the groundbreaking was a momentous moment for the City of Mesa and the State of Arizona.
“We’re able to move at a rapid pace to make this happen, working together with the developer, Marwest, and the contractor, Willmeng,” said Bill Jabjiniak, City of Mesa Economic Development Director. “The City was able to move and not all municipalities or bureaucratic entities can move that quickly.”
“This really elevates the City of Mesa on an international level as being an active player in the electrical vehicle manufacturing industry,” said Mesa Mayor, John Giles. “We know that this is among the most significant emerging industries in the world – so this really is the wave of the future and it’s exciting to see that Arizona and now specifically Mesa is on the cutting edge of that. Thank you to everyone that has made this possible: the Arizona Commerce Authority, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, Marwest Enterprises, and Willmeng Construction. Thank you to ElectraMeccanica for making this great decision. This, for generations, is going to be a legacy business in the City of Mesa and I’m really excited I could be here to see it start.”
“This is further confirmation that the EV industry is not just here, but it’s growing by leaps and bounds,” said Tom Stringer, BDO Managing Director; Management Advisory Services, Site Selection & Incentives Practice Leader. “We’ve had three major announcements in the last 16 months. For the City of Mesa, having these high-tech jobs here really drives property values and tax revenue, so it’s very exciting on all fronts.”
Willmeng Construction, established in 1977, is a Phoenix-based commercial general contractor specializing in ground-up and tenant improvement projects for the public and private market sectors in Arizona.
Willmeng stays true to building excellence and was recently awarded the Best of NAIOP Arizona’s General Contractor of the Year, TI Contractor of the Year and Firm of the Year in 2021. They were also selected as the 2020 RED Awards General Contractor of the Year. Willmeng is built on great relationships, a commitment to building a genuine place of purpose, and the reputation of positively impacting employees, clients and the community through volunteerism. For more information visit .
Focused in the southern United States, Marwest Capital, strives to find investment opportunities in supply constrained markets, with long term demographic and employment growth trends. Advising capital sources on development and value-add opportunities, Marwest acts on behalf of their clients, providing expertise, unbiased analysis, and a comprehensive real estate management solution to projects.
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