St. Clair County sees nine large expansion projects

Magna International, Cargill’s Diamond Crystal salt facility among those underway

TOM HENDERSON

According to the 2022 annual report issued in February by the Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County, of the nine expansion projects of at least $100,000 begun in the county last year, by far the two largest were in the city of St. Clair.

Magna International Inc. began building a $426.6 million, 740,000-square-foot expansion to its existing facility in the city’s industrial park, which when done late this year will create 920 new jobs.

In 2021, Magna opened a 345,000-square-foot plant on the site to produce components for battery systems for electric cars and trucks, such as General Mo - tors’ e-Hummer. e Canadian auto supplier got $44 million in state and local incentives, in addition to a new 500,000-gallon water tower and road improvements to accommodate the big addition to that plant.

 e second largest expansion project was by the agribusiness giant Cargill Inc., which is spending $68 million to build an additional evaporation facility at its plant on the St. Clair River to expand production of its Diamond Crystal kosher salt by 25 percent.

Construction on the ve-story building is expected to be nished this summer.