By Paul Maryniak | East Valley Tribune
Chandler officials and the community are reeling from General Motors’ surprise announcement Aug. 23 that it’s closing its Arizona IT Innovation Center and giving a pink slip to 940 workers at the end of October.
The announcement stunned city officials, who apparently will try to help the affected salaried employees while waiting to see what auto giant will do with the 170,000-square-foot facility on West Geronimo Place in the Price Corridor.
It also stunned workers. One posted on social media, “It was a complete surprise to literally everyone, I called my manager immediately afterwards who is based in Michigan and even she didn’t know it was coming.”
Equally surprised was the city’s top economic development official.
“Today’s announcement that GM plans to close its Arizona IT Innovation Center came as a complete surprise,” city Development Director Micah Miranda said after the announcement by Stacy Lynett, GM vice president of information and Digital technology.
