The Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant showed off its $131 million construction project to elected officials on Tuesday, as preparations for the C7 Corvette kick into high gear.

The plant will be closing to the public for tours on September 14 as the secretive work continues for the highly anticipated next generation.

Construction includes a new pretreatment building and a body shop that will have 89 new robots. The end result will be 250 new jobs, and local officials are thrilled about that.

?One new job at the Corvette Assembly Plant may create as many as seven jobs throughout the community, with retailers and service providers, so it’s an extraordinary benefit to the community,? Warren County Judge Executive Mike Buchanon told WBKO-TV’s Elsa Bolt.

Also touted in the project is a switch in the plant’s lighting system to a more environmentally friendly system.

?We’re switching to these fluorescent bulbs that are more energy efficient and they give us a better light for everyone to work under,? said Jon Andrews, body shop launch manager.
Tuesday’s event also included a ceremony transferring ownership of the plant.

?We purchased bonds from the city, 30-year bonds, that matured on May 1, 2012,? Plant Manager Dave Tatman said. ?Now at the time, because we were buying the bonds from the city, the city owned the plant so up until today, the city owned the plant.?

Tatman says the excitement level at the plant is growing.

?The enthusiasm, the excitement, the energy around this new car, for those of us associated with it, it’s off the charts,? he said.