CNH Industrial America, a manufacturer of specialized machinery for the agricultural and construction industries, is nearing completion of a new, $69 million test facility that has repurposed a former Mount Pleasant manufacturing plant that had been sitting idle for two decades. The 100-acre property located on 24th Street was formerly the site of a foundry and
CNH Industrial America, a manufacturer of specialized machinery for the agricultural and construction industries, is nearing completion of a new, $69 million test facility that has repurposed a former Mount Pleasant manufacturing plant that had been sitting idle for two decades.
The 100-acre property located on 24th Street was formerly the site of a foundry and manufacturing plant, known as the Case South Works. The plant was built in 1913 by the former Case Company, originally founded in Racine in 1842 as the J.I. Case Threshing Machine Company. More than 900,000 tractors were produced at the site before operations were shut down in 2002. Tractor manufacturing was then moved to Racine.
Now, the site is home to labs and a concrete track that will allow CNH employees to test new products like autonomous vehicles, electrified power train, and alternative fuel equipment.
“We had announced that our corporate headquarters was moving (from Burr Ridge, Illinois in 2022) and as part of that strategy, we were also trying to put things back where they would be aligned,” said Megan Myers, CNH North American corporate facility manager. “We have the Racine tractor plant (and buildings in) Sturtevant and Mount Pleasant, so it made a natural home for the testing site to be joined there. We also had this facility sitting idle.”
[caption id="attachment_575957" align="alignleft" width="300"] An aerial view of the new test facility. Submitted photo.[/caption]
Case IH is one of CNH’s two American brands in the agricultural industry. Fiat Group acquired Case in 1999 and merged it with New Holland to create CNH Global, which eventually became CNH Industrial.
When Case South Works was closed, the plant was decommissioned and demolished. The property was remediated in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in order to prepare it for redevelopment.
Last year, CNH broke ground on its new 425,000-square-foot concrete test track, as well as 86,000 square feet of supporting labs, offices, and research facilities housed within two buildings. Work should be finished by January 2024. CNH is now working to install testing and validation equipment.
Approximately 54 engineering, testing and operations employees will work at the new testing site. Those positions will be a mix of new and existing roles, according to Myers.
“The heart of the work will be drive line testing, which is the bread and butter of all of our equipment,” said Myers. “It will be cutting edge. We’re starting to look more at electrical vehicles and autonomous vehicles. We’re also starting to dig into alternative fuel supplies.”
CNH currently employs approximately 1,900 people between its Racine and Mount Pleasant locations.
“This is aligning us with where we want to be in the future. We’re trying to point the engineering process back toward manufacturing,” said Myers. “I think that’s what this (investment) is really signaling.”
