Demolition Underway at Former Delphi Flint East Facility on Center Rd [VIDEO]
Six years after its Dort Highway companion was reduced to rubble, the Delphi Flint East (formerly A.C. Spark Plug) facility on Center Rd is following suit -- see photos and video of the ongoing demolition here.
Originally opened in the mid-1920s, the facility underwent many changes in ownership and name before ending its life cycle as Delphi Flint East. The larger part of the facility that faced Dort Highway was demolished in 2008, leaving a giant hole in not only the landscape, but also the economy. The Flint East facility once employed nearly 14,000 workers, a number that was reduced to about 1,100 by 2007.
Though you could barely tell when you drove by, the remaining section of Delphi East remained operational -- in a limited capacity, but operational, nonetheless -- until November 2013, when it ceased operations altogether. There were just 287 employees working there at the time.
So yet another piece of Flint's history as "Vehicle City" is being wiped from the landscape. Soon there will be just a few visual reminders that we were ever an automotive boom-town at all. The complete absence of Delphi Flint East will leave a large vacancy in Flint, stretching from the areas between Center Rd. to Dort Hwy. and Brent Ave. to Robert T. Longway Blvd. What do you think they should do with the area?