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The Metropolitan Transit Authority plans to purchase the shuttered Peterbilt Motors Co. site in Madison in order to replace operations on Nestor Street that suffered $10 million in flood damage. The 66-acre site includes a 400,000-square-foot plant.

Authority CEO Paul Ballard said Seattle-based Paccar, Peterbilt’s parent company, has requested $21 million for the property, but that MTA expects to pay substantially less. Ballard noted the lack of demand for manufacturing facilities. MTA has identified $9.4 million in federal grants, stimulus funds, proceeds from property sales and other sources that it plans to set aside for the purchase. The remaining balance will be paid by Metro government, which plans to share the facility with MTA.

If the purchase goes through, Ballard said administrative functions and heavy maintenance would relocate to the property at 430 Myatt Drive. MTA would retain its Nestor Street property for dispatching, staging and light maintenance. The plan was approved by a unanimous vote of MTA’s board Thursday. Ballard said MTA previously planned to upgrade its existing facilities, but reconsidered after the flood.

“Quite honestly, we were planning on investing a lot of money in Nestor Street,” Ballard said. “We thought that we were safe from flooding.”

The 2,000-worker Peterbilt plant rolled out its last truck in 2008 and permanently closed its doors in December. The company had stopped producing trucks after it and the United Auto Workers Local 1832 failed to agree on a new contract, but Peterbilt officials said the permanent closure was the result of decreased demand for large trucks.

In addition to the property damage it sustained, MTA also lost $20 million worth of vehicles. MTA, which is currently borrowing buses from Cincinnati and Memphis, plans to purchase 25 Gillig buses for $8.9 million. Ballard said he expects FEMA and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency to cover 90 percent of the cost. MTA will not be purchasing hybrid buses, due to the cost, and Ballard said the purchase will delay the transition to a fully hybrid fleet by two years.

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