Billions of plastic bottles and bowls may be rushing out of Ames in the near future from a proposed establishment of a Ball Plastic Container Corp. manufacturing plant.

The Ames Economic Development Council announced Friday that the Ball Corp., popular for its home canning jars, is considering building a plant that would start production as early as 1997.

The decision on the Ames location depends on the approval of financial incentive applications, tax abatement, utility improvement and the approval of the company.

The Ames-based VisionAire Corp. recently secured $2.5 million from 11 Ames business leaders to complete the development and the manufacturing of the first flight of the proof-of-concept prototype of its new Vantage business aircraft.

Financial assistance applications for the Ball Corp. have been filed with the City of Ames and the State of Iowa with the assistance of the AEDC. The Iowa Department of Economic Development and the AEDC have been working with the Ball Corp. in the site selection process

“It’s not definite,” said Scott McCarty, a Ball Corp. spokesman from the Muncie, Ind. headquarters. “Ball’s preferred location is adjacent to Interstate 35 and 13th Street,” he said. The 250,000 square foot facility would produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic containers for the food and beverage industry.

The plant would produce the kind of plastic that two-liter bottles are made of, McCarty said.

As a multi-million dollar project, the plant would create highly skilled manufacturing jobs. McCarty said the three other PET plants typically employ about 100 people.

McCarty also said the Ball Corp. produces metal food and aerosol cans and is an aerospace business leader.