Auto parts giant Flex-N-Gate Corp. has received more than 16,300 applications for about 500 positions the company plans to fill at the manufacturing plant it's constructing on Detroit's east side to stamp and mold parts for the new Ford Ranger pickup truck.

Company officials have been swamped with applications as they have prioritized hiring Detroiters, specifically residents of the 48213 ZIP code where the new plant is based just west of Van Dyke Avenue in Detroit's I-94 Industrial Park.

With a median annual household income of $21,372 and about 49 percent of residents living in poverty, the 48213 ZIP code is one of the poorest areas of Detroit, the poorest big city in the country, according to census data.

Flex-N-Gate company officials would not discuss the company's wage scale, but applicants said they were advertising entry-level wages of $13 per hour, with higher wages based on experience and 40-cent raises after a probationary period.

"There's a lot of people who need jobs, and Flex-N-Gate will be good for them," said Edward Parker, 35, who got hired to work at the plant and lives in a nearby neighborhood. "It's a good opportunity. The wage is going to be what people are really interested in."

But the sheer volume of new jobs has garnered attention of workers as the 450,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is the largest newly built auto parts plant in Detroit in 20 years.

Flex-N-Gate owner Shahid Khan has said he pursued the new 450,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Detroit at the behest of the company's customer, Ford Motor Co., and the automaker's executive chairman, Bill Ford Jr., who has signaled an interest in re-establishing Ford's connection to the city where it was founded 115 years ago.

The Urban, Ill.-based auto supplier plans to begin production of parts for Ford by October and has started hiring its first groups of production employees who are going through a city-funded training program at Focus: Hope's Machinist Training Institute on Oakman Boulevard.