LANSING (WWJ) - Michigan lawmakers have approved a large tax credit that’ll bring new life to the boarded up Ford Wixom plant.

WWJ’s Mike Campbell reports a $50 million tax credit was approved Thursday in Lansing that will be utilized to construct a new battery plant on the Ford Wixom property.

Townsend Energy Solutions will invest $238 million in the plant to locate advanced manufacturing operations of technologies and products related to energy efficiency

“We can take a young person right out of high school, teach him some additional skills on the computer, some basic manufacturing techniques and put him to work,” said Kowall, who added it’s not a newly created tax credit.

“The credit was originally established for battery manufacturing at the Wixom plant, it’s just that some of the players changed in who was actually going to come in there and do it,” said Kowall.

Pat Anderson, who owns a bagel shop on Wixom Rd. north of I-96, said she’s cautiously optimistic about the news.

“I’ll put it this way, when it happens, we’ll see. It’s been going on for the last three years at least, so you don’t know,” said Anderson.

On Tuesday, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority approved a tax credit worth $6.3 million for the project. 

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Earlier we reported Xtreme Power was going to make the investment.  That was incorrect and we regret the error.