GE Lynchburg - Facilities & Employment Time-line
Sept. 23, 1955 - GE announced its rectifier business was moving to Lynchburg from Lynn, MA.
June 18, 1956 - First local employee hired.
June 25, 1957 - New Mountain View Road plant containing 264,000 square feet of floor space completed on 122 acres of land.
July 25, 1958 - General Electric announced the move of its communications business from upstate New York (mainly Syracuse and Utica) to Lynchburg.
Aug 14, 1958 – 200,000 square feet leased in the old cotton-mill buiilding on Carroll Avenue. Rectifier manufacturing and some moble support operations housed there.
Dec 31, 1958 – 1100 employees on payroll, including initial NY transfers of communications business.
Jan. 1, 1959 - Lynchburg was formally designated as worldwide HQ for GE's communications business.
Dec 31, 1959 – 2200 employees on the payroll as communications business was staffed for production.
Jan. 18, 1960 - New two-story, 33,000-square-foot office building completed at Mountain View Road.
Jul 13, 1960 – Entire Mountain View Road plant air conditioned.
Dec 31, 1960 – 2500 employees on the payroll.
Dec. 31, 1961 - 3,000 employees on payroll (which was maintained or exceeded until the mid 1980s).
Mar 15, 1962 – Major manufacturing and office building expansions completed, adding 120,000 square feet of floor space for a total of 417,000 in space at MVR plus 200,000 leased space - Carroll Avenue Plant.
Feb 5, 1968 – Mobile Radio Business Section established as part of Communication Products Dept.
Sept. 1, 1969 - General Electric's communications business attains division status with HQ in Lynchburg.
Nov. 10, 1969 - Additional office space leased and later purchased, named Fort Avenue Building.
Sept. 30, 1971 - Ground broken for a mobile radio manufacturing plant in Florence, S.C.
April 12, 1973 - Power line carrier UHV production/test center at Mountain View Road dedicated.
In 1973 -Florence plant in full operation producing metal and plastic parts.
April 22, 1974 - Leased Bradley Park Building opened, manufacturing Hybrid Thick Film microcircuits.
March 1, 1975 - Personal radio manufacturing begins operation at Timberlake Plant on Waterlick Road.
Aug 1, 1975 – Mobile Radio Department announces its reorganization to cover the fast growing International market.
Jan. 1, 1976 - GE's mobile communications business begins acquisition of European manufacturer of mobile radio equipment -- Storno of Denmark, headquartered in Copenhagen.
July 1, 1976 - New customer services center building opens at Mountain View Road - GE out of Carroll Ave. building.
June 1, 1977 - Bradley Park Plant purchased; expansion begun to double its size.
Mid 1983 - GE Medical Systems business begins a small, but destined to grow, operation in the Florence plant.
Nov. 13, 1984 - GE to cut 750 jobs in Lynchburg; implemented on Jan 2, 1985.
Mar 3, 1986 – Wall Street Journal advertisement announcing Multi-Million Dollar Public Auction of GE surplus manufacturing equipment including automatic insertion and injection moulding machines in SC.
Nov 21, 1988 – GE sells Bradley Park to Lynchburg Sheltered Industries.
August 31, 1989 - LM Ericsson of Sweden and General Electric's Mobile Communications division announce the formation of a new joint-venture company. Manufacturing to be in Lynchburg and R&D at Research Triangle Park, NC.
Late 1989 - Mobile Radio ceases all opertions in the Florence plant, and it becomes 100% Medical Systems.
January 1, 1990 - The new joint venture Ericsson-GE begins operating. Ericsson 60% owner - GE 40% owner.
Early 1992 - Ericsson bought an additional 20% of the joint venture from GE.
April 1, 1998 - Ericsson bought GE’s remaining 20% of the business, and GE leaves the LMR business.
*****Post GE*************************************
January 26, 2000 - Ericsson sold the Land Mobile business to Com-Net forming Com-Net Ericsson, Inc.
May 15, 2001 - Com-Net sold the business to M/A-COM, forming M/A-COM Wireless - a Tyco International company. This business was located on Jefferson Ridge Parkway in Lynchburg.
May 29, 2009 - Harris Corporation purchased Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems, and, as L3Harris, still maintains a small presence in Lynchburg as of 2023.
Present-2023 – Catalyst Communication Technologies formed in 1996 (by ex-GE employees?) is in the LMR business in Forest, VA.
