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State and local economic development officials have closed on the bonds issued to help finance the $5 billion Rivian electric vehicles plant to be built near Interstate 20 east of Atlanta.

The Georgia Department of Economic Development and the Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton, and Walton Counties also have executed a rental agreement giving Rivian long-term rights to the project.

“Renting the site to Rivian is the next step in delivering this generational opportunity,” the two agencies wrote in a statement issued late Thursday. “Georgians in Jasper, Morgan, Newton, and Walton counties and beyond look forward to $5 billion in investment and 7,500 good-paying jobs that this innovative, American manufacturing company will bring.”

When it was first announced late in 2021, the Rivian plant was the largest economic development project in Georgia history. But it was superseded last year when Hyundai Motor Group broke ground on a $5.5 billion EV plant west of Savannah that has grown another $2 billion with this year’s announcement of an expansion of the project in partnership with LG Energy Solution.

Grading work will be completed at the Rivian site in the coming weeks, and construction will begin by early next year.

Rivian recently opened a “spaces” presence at Atlanta’s Ponce City Market as part of its marketing strategy, the company’s first physical presence in Georgia.