(bright music) (bright music continues) - The electric vehicle maker Rivian is expanding its plant operations in Normal.

That means 550 more jobs on the way and a lot more money coming into the community.

We asked Rivian leaders to come on "At Issue," but they declined saying they are in a quiet period.

We will be talking with Normal Mayor Chris Koos and the head of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council.

But first, our Phil Luciano shows us the history behind the current Rivian plant in Normal.

(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) Joining us now is the CEO of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council, Patrick Hoban, good to see you.

Thanks for joining us today.

- Definitely.

Thanks for having me on.

- Well, Rivian hasn't really been around in Normal all that long, just a few years, but it seems to have made a big impact.

What are your thoughts?

- Yes, a company that came in, I think expecting about 500 jobs now has over 8,000 and made another announcement of adding 500 more and another $1.5 billion in our community.

- [Mark] So what does that mean for the community in terms of overall growth and maybe attracting people to live here?

- The demand's really high right now, especially for some more local houses.

But luckily, we do have a great central Illinois region, where a lot of people are commuting in now, but I'd say half of those jobs are currently at Rivian are being filled outside of our county and we expect the same for the new jobs coming in.

- And what about, let's talk about the physical growth, you know, out there where the plant is, it's kind of on the west side of town, a lot of cornfields out there.

But in the future, do you think maybe more businesses will be attracted to that area?

- Oh, I definitely think so.

We've already seen plans for some new residential developments to go out west of the Walmart that's there.

So I would see in the future up and down Rivian motorway being full of businesses and residential in that area.

- And especially with these 500+ more jobs coming, it looks like Rivian is gonna be at least the second or third largest employer in McLean County.

What kind of, from what you've seen so far, what kind of neighbor, if we can use that term, has Rivian been to the community?

- Sure, I'll use one of our other puns there.

They've been a good neighbor, just like some of our other major employers that are here.

Yeah, their rapid growth has been phenomenal for our restaurants and retailers, even our hotels, which we don't really consider when doing a economic impact analysis.

But over COVID, hotels suffered.

Ours did not because the new employees and construction workers were supporting our hotels.

- Okay.

So where do we go from here in terms of, you know, when we're trying to attract new businesses to Bloomington-Normal and McLean County, of course, we mentioned State Farm and ISU and Country and Illinois Wesleyan, I guess, we're gonna have to put Rivian up there in that top five to let folks know about our big businesses here.

- Yes, Rivian has been a great brand.

A lot of people are aware of it now.

Just like Ferrero Chocolates is a new one in our area and everybody loves Beer Nuts too.

So the more brand recognition that we can get from our local manufacturers, the easier it is to sell our community to future workers and future businesses.

- And when we are trying to sell the community, what types of things are we telling folks that maybe are from outta state or are out of the area about why Central Illinois is a good place to live and work?

- One of the top ones is just logistics.

Being in the middle of Illinois has been great, in one of the largest counties in Illinois, having access to Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis, we really do have a lower cost of living here relative to some of the major metros and some of the higher incomes in the area as well.

So it depends on if I'm talking to a business or if I'm talking to a worker.

Right now we're really trying to lure in more workers, because we know the businesses follow our talented workforce.

- You mentioned some new developments around the Walmart there in Bloomington, new housing developments.

I know that housing is a premium in McLean County.

Is that one of those good problems to have?

- Yes, everybody says it's a good problem.

In our world, it's still a problem.

We do have 3,000 units that are planned.

We're currently working with the town of Normal City, of Bloomington and the state of Illinois to figure out how we can encourage those to speed up the development process.

- And even though the big plant is in Normal, Bloomington has got to be seeing some windfall too in terms of people and tax revenue and things coming in like that.

And even folks, I would imagine, they'll be happy living in Bloomington and making that 10, 15, 20-minute commute to the Rivian plant if they have to.

- Yeah, if you're living in Bloomington-Normal, that commute really is 10 to 15 minutes and most of our residents have no idea where that line is that divides Bloomington and Normal, because they sort of wrap around each other.

- Yeah.

It's pretty amazing how quick the process has gone from the Mitsubishi plant closing to Rivian expressing interest to Rivian just exploding onto the scene.

In your wildest dreams, did you ever think it would happen that fast?

- No, not at all.

Whenever I got here, they had 300 employees, like I said, looking for 500, maybe get to 1,000, and they rapidly approached 8,000 really fast.

So it blew all of our expectations.

But also they invested $2 billion in the plant already, so to have another 1.5, it's exceeded all of our expectations.

- And where do you see the future going from here?

You know, they're gonna start producing the new SUV here, which is good news for us.

We initially thought that was gonna happen in Georgia, and maybe it will eventually, but right now it's gonna be happening here.

They've been doing the delivery vehicles and of course the trucks that we see around town.

Have leaders there given you any indication of where they hope this is all gonna go?

- I think it really just depends on what we can do locally as a community when it comes to our workforce.

They're going to go as far as our workforce will take them.

If you look at any other major manufacturer though, automotive or not, they usually have multiple locations due to the restrictions on workforce.

So as long as we can build the housing and keep working regionally, the more workers we can get, the further they're gonna go here.

- And besides the workforce and the housing developments, are there any other issues or things that the community, the towns, the county need to be doing to keep up with the growth of Rivian?

Any other things that we're looking at?

- Yeah, one of the things they are doing really well at right now, especially the town of Normal, is investing in their infrastructure.

So improving some roads out in that area.

Then also our ballooning, some Normal water reclamation district as we're improving investments in their storm water and sewer capacity up in that area as well on the northwest side of town, combined with the state of Illinois' investment in infrastructure usually follows investment in manufacturing and that's one another reason why they're investing here.

- And I haven't heard much about this, but has the community been able to sell itself to maybe any businesses that would be helping out Rivian in terms of car parts and things like that?

Around in Peoria, we have Caterpillar and we have a lot of other companies that supply Cat with their goods.

What about in McLean County?

- Yeah, we've had a couple, not as many as that we were hoping for, but there should be more on the way when it comes to the suppliers for Rivian.

So yeah, as Rivian grows, as Ferrero grows, we expect some suppliers to move closer than their current location.

So that is the next phase of the project.

- Anything else, Patrick, about the Rivian effect that it's had on the community that you'd like folks to know about?

- As cheesy as it sound, it really is electric.

- Well, we'll leave it at that, Patrick.

Patrick Hoban with the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council.

Thanks for your time today.

- Thank you.

- We are joined now by Normal mayor Chris Koos.

Thanks for your time today.

- Good to be here.

- Well, you've been mayor since 2003.

Before that you were in the town council, you've seen the highs and lows and highs of automobile manufacturing in Normal.

Tell us how you feel right now, considering all that's going on with Rivian.

- Well, I think, it's been quite a surprise for us.

So, you know, we had expectations when Rivian came to the community.

We were sorry to see Mitsubishi leave, of course.

They were great corporate partners, but I think everybody is surprised Rivian included in the growth of that company in our community.

- Can you give us a feel for what it was like back when Mitsubishi slowly left town, and then eventually were gone?

What did that mean to the area?

- It was a shock to us that Mitsubishi was leaving.

It turned out not to be as much of a shock as we thought it would be, because automotive manufacturers tend to be regional employers more than they are just local employers.

So the impact wasn't quite as big, but at the same time, it was a loss for the community, and we worked with Rivian and then a liquidator that they sold the company to, to try and find a company that would come in and look at the plant.

And a number of companies did, including one of the big threes.

But it just never came together as a fit.

And I would say probably eight weeks or so before the plant was scheduled for demolition, auction and demolition, that Rivian came to town and looked at it.

And that's quite a story in itself.

- Sure.

And having a practically a startup company come to town, how did you feel?

Were you hesitant or were you like, "Hey, somebody's gonna take over this factory.

It's a good thing"?

- You know, we were open to anybody that came in.

We had parts suppliers, we had automotive manufacturers look at the plant.

So we were just open to doing something with the plant to preserve that plant, because once it was torn down, that was gonna be it forever in terms of having a facility like that in our community.

We investigated Rivian a little bit, and everything they told us was accurate.

The financing that they had in place at that time was valid.

So we were, I would, say at that point, cautiously excited that they were coming to the community.

And what was interesting about it for Rivian was they actually sent people to the Mitsubishi plant to preview auction, the auction of equipment within the plant.

And when they got into the plant and saw how modern the plant was and how well maintained it had been by the Japanese, they called their senior leadership and said, "You've gotta come down here and look at this thing."

There was some skepticism, because they were gonna build in Detroit likely and the Detroit area.

And when, I think, RJ Scaringe and some other people came down and saw the plant and saw the community, they said this was just an opportunity they couldn't pass up.

- Well, Rivian hasn't even been here that long, about three years, and according to them, they've invested more than $2 billion in Normal and generated a value add of more than 3.9 billion.

Those are big numbers.

Can you kind of give us an idea of how big of a deal that really is?

- It's a huge deal for the community.

One, it diversifies our economy.

Bloomington-Normal has always been very strong in insurance, finance, medical, and the idea of diversifying our economy with a major employer like that was a big deal.

And just the fact it has changed the fabric of the community a little bit because we've gotten so many people from all around the world, literally, who are moving to Bloomington-Normal, working at that Rivian plant.

So it's been a very positive effect on the community.

And the people that I've talked to that are from England, Germany, California, Oregon, really liked the community.

They were a little skeptical when they thought that they were going into the Midwest, but when they got here, they found out that they really liked the community.

- Do you think the town was prepared for such a big influx of people and investments by the company, and how is the town looking towards the future?

- So I would say, we probably weren't ready for it, but we were open for it and responded accordingly.

We just knew that it was gonna be important to the community and celebrated with Rivian when they got major investors, Ford, Cox Automotive, when Amazon gave them the contract for delivery vans, we just thought that this is great news for them and it's great news for our community.

So, you know, there were some issues as a result of them coming here, housing being one of them, but it's something we're trying very hard to respond to.

And Rivian has been an incredibly strong corporate partner to the community as a whole, not just Normal, McLean County, Bloomington.

They're very active within the school system.

They've assisted Heartland Community College in developing new programs around battery technology and electric vehicle technology.

So they've been a very, very strong, involved corporate partner as well.

- When I was talking to Patrick Hoban earlier, we were talking about some of the side effects, if you will, of Rivian coming here, one of them, and this goes for Normal and Bloomington, McLean County, a lack of certain types of housing for some of these folks.

What do you see in the future in terms of developments, whether it's subdivisions, apartment buildings, condos, things like that?

- So, this is an issue that is facing every municipality in the United States.

It's probably more of an issue for us because the size of our community and the huge influx of employees.

Again, Rivian is a regional employer.

A lot of people that work at Rivian are living in Peoria, Champaign-Urbana-Decatur and driving in, we know there's a very, very strong demand for housing.

And probably one of the strongest areas of demand is in multi-family housing.

There are a lot of younger people at the factory.

They're not necessarily ready to buy a home or can afford a home, but they definitely want a place to live here.

So, I'd say we're probably in catch-up mode at this point trying to get some projects going.

And it's been difficult.

The issues that that we see for housing are interest rates are not conducive to a new investment in that, and labor in the housing market, framers, carpenters, foundation work, there's just not enough people to meet the demand of housing in this community.

- When you look at other businesses that may supply Rivian, other businesses that may be needed just in that area in terms of gas stations, grocery stores, things like that, do you anticipate a lot of growth in the next few years on the west side of Normal?

- We do.

West side and north side of Normal, there's already a logistics operation in North Normal that I would say basically came because of Rivian.

And Rivian uses most of their space at this point and they have plans for expansion of that space.

Again, the market for commercial real estate right now is really tough.

So it's hard for people to make those decisions right now, but we think that's going to happen eventually.

- When you have a big company like Rivian come in our, this, I say our area, 'cause I live in Normal, but you know, the area's used to the state farms and the universities and the hospitals and things like that, when a company like Rivian comes in and they're under a lot of scrutiny, they have their highs and their lows, their ups and downs, maybe some quarters they don't build enough cars or deliver enough cars, people are always looking at stock prices, how do you feel about that in terms of, are you fixated on everything Rivian or do you just kind of say, "Hey, as a town we're doing what we can," and just stand by and watch?

- Well, you know, I guess I'll put my business hat on as a small businessman for many years, Rivian's a startup, you know, and a startup has a lot of growing pains, and so far Rivian transcended those.

They've really stepped up and gotten over some hard hurdles.

They've had fine tuning their assembly lines, getting their product to market, selling the product.

It's kind of the Wild West out there for 'em.

But that's what happens in the startup environment.

So I'm very confident that they're gonna prevail in the community and I think they're a good fit in the community that, like you pointed out, is primarily white collar, that diversifies our economy and gives out opportunities for people who might not be looking for a career in insurance or finance or medicine, an opportunity to have a good paying challenging job.

- When you have another big company like this come into town and have the success that they've had, does that make it easier to try and lure other businesses maybe to move to town or just people in general to move in?

- Well, I think that naturally happens.

It definitely changes the fabric of the community, the social fabric, what's happening in the community.

But a business coming town, one of the things they're gonna look at, first things they're gonna look at is workforce.

And do we have the workforce to support what they're trying to do in the community.

So again, that's another factor that diversity workforce helps.

So I think we have companies I know that are looking at this community, what the area has is affordable power and water and land, transportation network.

Midwestern workers have a reputation for being hardworking people.

So there's still a lot of appeal in the Midwest, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, they're all capitalizing on that.

- And it seems like, I know that the Rivian has a program now with Heartland Community College and one of the high schools.

So it seems like the community is saying, "If this company's gonna be in our town, we should train our own people to make sure they can get jobs at a place like Rivian in the future."

- That's absolutely true.

And Rivian has a specific skills that they need from their workforce, and so they realized that the fast track to getting people with those skills is working with the educational system to train people to do that kind of work.

And they're well-paying jobs, so a lot of younger people are looking at as a career.

And, you know, just in another community investment sense, Rivian is very, very mindful of the schools in our community.

And during COVID they actually paid for COVID testing for unified schools.

They were able to do that.

So they're really strong community partners.

- And with the recent announcement we had about the big tax break that Rivian is gonna get and Governor Pritzker's push towards eco-friendly vehicles and green aspects of the state, it seems like that company's got a lot of backing from not only local politicians, but the state government too.

- Absolutely.

Governor Pritzker's very, very driven with the notion of bringing strong manufacturing back to the state of Illinois and focusing on electric vehicle technology, not only Rivian, but Lion in Northern Illinois.

There's an electric bus company in the north.

So Pritzker is very, very much focused on electric vehicle technology as a gain for the State of Illinois.

- We are with Normal mayor Chris Koos, very interesting times for the town of Normal and Bloomington and all of McLean County, and we hope things go well in the future.

Thank you for your time.

- Oh, always glad to talk about my community.

- Alright, have a good one, Mayor.

- Thank you.

- Rivian is a story we will be following for a very long time.

Joining us now, Phil Luciano, to tell us about the greatest hits of "You Gotta See This."

- Oh yeah, we've got a great episode.

It's a repeat, but it's a great repeat.

It's a special food episode and all the things we talk about in this episode, you can still do.

For instance, there's 100-year-old hot dog shop you can go to that looks like you're not even just going into the shop, but you're going into a time machine to about 1900.

And another place that just sells soda.

That's all they sell.

How do they stay afloat just selling soda?

We gotta check out their soda.

- I love soda.

It's one of my vices.

- It's a safe place.

You can admit it.

- Okay.

I'll have to watch it again.

- And you've got a story out of Bloomington in this one.

- Yes, Epiphany Farms will be talking about the farm-to-table movement and all the success that Epiphany farms and their collection of restaurants has had in the Twin Cities area.

I'll tell you what, if you're a foodie, living in Bloomington-Normal is the place to be.

- Lots of stuff going on.

And if you're a foodie and a music fan, check out eight track time machine greatest food songs of all time.

- Greatest food songs.

Now, are these all kind of novelty songs?

- No, they just happen to mention food.

So it's kind of different angles, different stuff.

So now if you like music, you like food, you're in the right place.

- Alright, well, I know we love that stuff.

So we will enjoy it.

Stay tuned.

That's coming up in just a few minutes and thanks for joining us.

Check us out anytime at wtvp.org and on Facebook and Instagram.

Have a good night.

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