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On Tuesday, Navistar International Corp. announced plans to sign a lease agreement for a former National Alabama rail-car plant in Barton, Ala., with The Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA). On Jan. 1, 2012, Navistar would take possession of the facility, would become the company’s third manufacturing plant in the state.

Several years ago, RSA provided a loan to National Steel Car Ltd. to build the freight-car plant, but later assumed ownership of the facility after the recession took hold in 2008 and impacted the rail-car market. The plant was built in 2007.

Navistar manufactures heavy- and medium-duty trucks, severe service trucks and school buses. The company plans to “maximize the facility’s under-utilized fabrication equipment and other assets to cost effectively expand manufacturing capabilities and options in North America,” company officials said in a prepared statement, adding that the firm can “capture synergies and efficiencies” because of the facility’s close proximity to two Navistar engine plants in Huntsville, Ala.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley believes Navistar’s plans have “the potential to be one of the largest economic development projects in the United States,” he said in a prepared statement.

“It has been a long road for this area between the rail-car plant groundbreaking and [this] announcement,” he said. “This project will bring a large number of high-paying jobs that the people of northwest Alabama need.”