General Motors will move its Heritage Center — which holds its archives and historical vehicles — from Sterling Heights to a bigger property it owns in Grand Blanc.
The move will happen in phases as GM renovates the Grand Blanc facility, which was once the automaker’s Customer Care and Aftersales headquarters, GM said Thursday.
“We do not have a start date for the renovations yet,” GM spokeswoman Kristen Sullivan said. “This move will take place in a phased approach, and the Heritage team will need some time in the new space to determine how best it can be renovated to fit their needs.”
In March 2021, GM moved about 900 workers from its Customer Care and Aftersales offices in Grand Blanc to the Global Technical Center in Warren, effectively vacating the Grand Blanc facility. At the time, GM told the Free Press it was unsure what it would do with the facility in Grand Blanc.
The GM Heritage Center, which first opened in 2004 to preserve GM’s history, had been leasing the facility in Sterling Heights, off Mound Road near Metro Parkway. It housed a portion of the GM Heritage Archive, as well as GM’s historic vehicle collection. It is not open to the general public, but does conduct tours and host events.
In the last few years, GM searched for a larger, permanent facility to display the growing number of archives, vehicle collection, product catalogs, sales brochures, press materials and promotional records the Heritage Center housed, GM said in a statement.
The decision to move it to the Grand Blanc facility brings GM’s heritage operations closer to the automaker’s location of origin: Flint and Genesee County. GM’s Flint Assembly campus is known as Factory One because of the company’s birthplace there. GM builds its hot-selling Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra heavy-duty pickups at Flint Assembly plant.
“Placing it near our company’s birthplace only makes sense and, much like our investment in Factory One and in our current operations in the area, aligns perfectly with our strong commitment to Flint, where it all began for us,” GM President Mark Reuss said in a statement.
The Grand Blanc facility provides a number of advantages over the current space, GM’s statement said. It has easy freeway access and is situated on 34 acres of land, partially surrounded by a wooded area with walking trails. The added space allows for more vehicle and archive displays. GM Heritage Center expects to host events in the space.
The location in Sterling Heights is roughly 81,000 square feet and could display over 150 vehicles at a time, Sullivan said. The Grand Blanc facility is approximately 300,000 square feet and GM expects to display up to three times the number of vehicles there.
In the near term, GM will continue its current operations in Sterling Heights where its Heritage Collection comprises nearly 600 vehicles that represent GM industry firsts, significant technological experiments, concept cars, special-interest styling and performance one-offs, notable race cars and milestone production vehicles.
The GM Heritage Archive includes over 8 million photographic images, 250,000 video masters and motion picture films, 1.5 million digital media files, and more than 1 million pieces of microfilm that are available to the public upon request, GM said. According to www.gm.com, requests should be sent to gmhc@gm.com.
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Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.