Big fish: St. Joseph County hauls in $3.5 billion GM/Samsung battery plant; officials project two years to build, to employ more than 1,600

Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Tuesday morning that General Motors would build its EV battery complex with its partner Samsung SDI on about 650 acres of agricultural land at Larrison Boulevard and Indiana 2 just east of New Carlisle. 

"This is a game-changer for us," South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jeff Rea said during a press conference Tuesday morning after the announcement. "It puts us on radar screens that we haven't been on before."

The decision comes after a lengthy courtship with the automaker, and a change in direction when the automaker’s original partner on three other EV battery plants ? LG Energy Solution ? decided not to proceed with a fourth plant earlier this year. 

More:Even without LG, GM may proceed with EV battery plant in St. Joe County with new partner

That led some to speculate that the project that the automaker had been considering for St. Joseph County could be scrapped. Instead, it was just delayed by about six months as the county had to repeat the entire development deal with Samsung as the partner.