NILES, Mich. (AP) — A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for next week on a $1 billion natural gas power plant in southwestern Michigan nearly two decades after it was first proposed.

The South Bend Tribune reports Buffalo Grove, Illinois-based Indeck Energy Services has begun preparing the site for the Indeck Niles Energy Center.

The ceremony is scheduled Wednesday in Niles, located north of Michigan’s border with Indiana.

David Hicks, vice president of business development for Indeck, says it’s a testament to the “persistence and perseverance” of the city of Niles and Indeck.

The newspaper says the project, first proposed in 2000, was shelved when rising natural gas prices made it financially unviable, but it was later revived. More recently, plans to break ground in 2017 were pushed back.

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Information from: South Bend Tribune, http://www.southbendtribune.com