Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors to end US production

The plant is the only Japanese-owned auto factory with UAW representation. The union contract at the plant expires next month, with negotiations set to begin in earnest on Monday, said DeVary.

Both Brady and Normal Mayor Chris Koos stressed that Mitsubishi's decision was not about labor issues but because of dramatically falling sales. Brady said the hope now is that the closure of the plant, which had been not been used to capacity as sales fell, "may bring the opportunity to more fully use the capacity of the plant and bring more jobs."

State and local officials would not identify specific companies they plan to recruit, but said they would not limit their outreach efforts to automakers.

"We're confident that we will be able to attract a replacement company in relatively short order," Koos said.

One industry analyst said factors such as the location of the plant and its proximity to a network of suppliers for the Detroit automobile industry could make it attractive to another automaker. But Karl Brauer, a senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book, also said that given Mitsubishi's the financial straits over the past decade, he doubts the company has invested much in technology to bring the plant up to date.

Still, "it is a foundation, a footprint, and there is already a process in place to ship cars from (the plant) and components to it," he said, adding that another company might do as electronic car maker Tesla Motors did a few years ago when it retooled a shuttered plant in Fremont, California.

"They had to basically start from scratch and now it is a very vibrant plant," he said.