State awards grants to 2 area projects

12/7/2004

Two northwest Ohio projects, one of them in metro Toledo, have been awarded business development grants by the state of Ohio.

Germany's Kuka Group will receive $250,000 to help set up a shop that will produce unpainted bodies for the successor of DamilerChrysler's Jeep Wrangler and similar vehicles made by the company in Toledo. The $103 million facility is expected to create 210 jobs in its first three years, the Ohio Department of Development said. It will be in a supplier park adjacent to Chrysler's Toledo North plant.

The other grant, for $100,000, will go to Atwood Mobile Products-Antwerp Operations, in the Paulding County community of Antwerp. The company, a division of Dura Automotive, will use the funds to set up a commercial insulated bus window line. The $1 million project is expected to create 50 jobs in its first three years and to retain 280.