ROTEM USA has signed a 20-year lease on a 27 000 m² building in south Philadelphia which will be used as a US headquarters and to assemble commuter rail vehicles.
The Hyundai Automotive Group subsidiary will spend $10m to adapt the building, where it will produce 120 Silverliner V cars for delivery to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in 2008-10 under a $214m contract, and 107 double-deck coaches worth around $215m for Southern California Regional Rail Authority. Future assembly work will also be undertaken at the plant.
Parts will be shipped in from several countries, with the body shells coming from Rotem's home in South Korea.
Around 300 people are expected to be employed at the site, which is owned by Rimas Properties and was selected in preference to a building at the former navy yard which would have required extensive refurbishment.
