By Eric Stock

NORMAL – There’s still plenty of activity at the Mitsubishi Motors plant in Normal, three months after the automaker stopped production.

The last of the remaining workers are preparing the plant for closure by the end of May. Kyle Ham, CEO of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council, said there have been at least 12 perspective buyers tour the plant since the start of the year, which gives him optimism that someone could buy the plant this year.

“If we had been dried up for this last year and had nobody looking at it I’d be a little concerned, but the volume alone is telling us there’s certainly interest in the property,” Ham said.

Ham said as some of the old equipment gets moved out of the facility, it becomes easier for a prospective buyer to visualize what it could do with the plant.

“It’s ongoing,” Ham said. “This is going to take time.”

He added a couple of the prospective buyers are in the auto industry.

Ham said he plans to attend the Hannover Messe industry trade show in Hannover, Germany in late April with hopes of finding business for the former Mitsubishi plant.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].