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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe new owner of a former BorgWarner auto transmission factory in central Indiana plans to demolish much of the facility, which used to employ thousands of workers.
The move comes after unsuccessful efforts to find a company to take over the Muncie plant since it was closed in 2009 by Auburn Hills, Michigan-based BorgWarner.
The city building commission's office has granted a demolition permit to the Jim Wallace Co. of Sagamore Hills, Ohio, the Star Press of Muncie reported. The permit says the company plans to tear down most of the factory, which stretches for a half-mile along Indiana 32 and covers about 1 million square feet.
Real estate agent Mike Lunsford said the company bought the property for $500,000.
More than 5,000 people worked at the factory in the 1950s when it was known as Warner Gear.
People have been hoping for years that a business would come along and rescue the plant, the onetime jewel in Muncie's manufacturing crown.
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