Plymouth Road Office Complex (PROC)
The Plymouth Road Office Complex (PROC) on 14250 Plymouth Road, home to Jeep/Truck Engineering for years, had over 80 continuous years of use by Kelvinator (as an appliance factory), AMC, and Chrysler.
The picturesque complex was built in a sparsely populated area, but over the years homes and businesses were built, and it is now in a fairly unsavory section of Detroit. The property has 1.5 million square feet of space on 50 acres, with multiple buildings.
Included on the grounds are 370,000 square feet of R&D space, 500,000 square feet of engineering/computer room space, warehousing, administrative/office space, a health activity center, auditorium, and cafeteria.
PROC was built in 1927 (according to the cornerstone; Chrysler history pegs it at 1926), to make Kelvinator refrigerators. In 1937, when Nash and Kelvinator merged, the combined company's headquarters was in the main building. Hundreds of helicopters were made there during World War II.
In 1954, when Hudson and Nash merged, PROC became an AMC's headquarters for some years; it was an AMC engineering facility until 1987, when AMC was purchased by Chrysler. At that point, PROC became the central engineering location for all corporate trucks and SUVs, a position it held until the building was cleared.
Development of various Jeeps (excluding the Patriot/Compass) and the Dodge Ram and Durango was centered at PROC.
In 2007, over 1,600 people worked in the complex (down from 1,900 in 2005). The asking price, as that time, was $10 million.
While Allpar reported on a somewhat premature rumor in late 2008 that the building was being cleared of its staff, Chrysler engineers were not to be moved to the Chrysler Technology Center until mid-2009.
