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Newark Assembly was a Chrysler (DaimlerChrysler from 1998–2008) factory in Newark, Delaware built in 1951 to make and later with production continuing until December 2008.
Various Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth models were produced at this facility over the years, totaling nearly seven million cars.
The University of Delaware purchased and redeveloped the property.
Construction began in January 1951 for a plant to produce tanks with the first M48 Patton driven to Army Ordnance on 11 April 1952. A total of 11,703 M48s were built at the plant between opening and 1959. A five-year phase-out after the Korean War brought the facility and tank production to an end by 1961. The plant also produced M103 heavy tanks. Initially named T-43, they were designed to use some components and systems of the M-48. Three hundred were built in Newark, but field experience showed that the heavy tanks required upgrades and retrofits of the medium-weight components. As of June 1954, the production of additional tanks was moved to General Motors in Detroit.
During the 1990s, a recycling initiative was implemented to reduce the factory's environmental impact and improve the facility's reputation. This resulted from several fires and air pollution from the plant, for which the Environmental Protection Agency fined the automaker.
To prepare the Newark plant for the production of the 1997 Dodge Durango, a sport utility vehicle (SUV), a $623 million investment included a new training facility, production simulation building, a paint shop, as well as upgrades to the test track, a new material handling fleet, and new controls on the assembly line.
On 14 February 2007, DaimlerChrysler announced that the plant would lose one working shift in 2007 and that it would be scheduled to be shut down entirely in 2009.
In October 2008, the company announced that the closure would be moved to the end of 2008, citing a slowdown in the economy and demand for large vehicles. The Newark assembly plant, built the slow-selling Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen meaning the closure also ended the hybrid models Durango and Aspen, the only hybrid versions that Chrysler marketed.
Production ended and the neighboring Mopar parts distribution center also closed in 2008.
On 24 October 2009, The University of Delaware announced it had signed a deal to buy the Chrysler facility for $24.25 million. The property is next to the university's south campus (the main campus is a to the north and usually accessible by bus by students). Plans are to use it as a research and development site and for the university's future expansion.
Demolition of the buildings began in November 2010, and the process was expected to take a year to 18 months. Only the former Chrysler Administration Building near the front of the facility will remain. Approximately 90% of the material on the site was recycled.
The development plans call for about 16,000 jobs at the property, focusing on research and collaboration between the public and private sectors. The first was the new Science, Technology, and Advanced Research (STAR) campus. In 2012, Bloom Energy, makers of the Bloom Energy Server held a groundbreaking for a new manufacturing plant at the former auto assembly site. In 2014, the first tenant of the revitalized Chrysler administration building will be the College of Health Sciences and a health-related complex.
On 19 November 2015, the Digital Infrastructure Management company SevOne announced its move to the STAR Campus
The history department at the University of Delaware and the Hugh M. Morris Library used a class of graduate and undergraduate students to conduct interviews of eleven former autoworkers employed at the Newark Assembly plant.
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