YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP – The sale of more than 300 acres at a former World War II bomber factory at Willow Run Airport for use as a testing hub for connected and driverless cars could close by next summer, those involved with the purchase told Bridge and Crain’s Detroit Business.
Yet even as developers of the planned American Center for Mobility at Willow Run in Ypsilanti Township move ahead with buying property, significant hurdles remain — namely, funding — before the estimated $80-million car facility can open.
News last week that the center’s property acquisition entity, Willow Run Arsenal of Democracy Landholdings LLP, has agreed to pay $1.2 million for the 311-acre Willow Run site is a milestone for supporters of the mobility project, which has an expected opening date of 2018.
The mobility center, as proposed, will include a 2.5-mile highway loop for developers of connected and autonomous vehicles to test their cars at freeway speeds; a grid simulating urban streets, with intersections, buildings and pedestrian crossings; and buildings where the site’s operations will be based, Maddox said.
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