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Visteon Corp., which has been unable to nail down a bankruptcy loan from its customers and has seen revenue plunge as the auto industry implodes, found a new source of cash this week: rent.

The troubled auto supplier obtained bankruptcy court approval Tuesday to lease space near its Van Buren Township, Mich., headquarters to General Electric Co. GE plans to create a $100 million research-and-development center on the site, which is known as Visteon Village.

Visteon said in court documents that it expects to collect $10.5 million in rent over the 13-year term of the lease.

GE will rent about 236,000-square feet of space from Visteon and has committed to building 100,000-square-foot building on the site. GE is planning to open an “Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center” that will employ 1,200 scientists and researchers.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm touted the GE center as bringing “tech-driven jobs” to a state hard hit by the auto industry’s woes.

Visteon could be a poster child for those problems. The company that only a decade ago was seen as a high-tech spinout of Ford Motor Co. has deeply cut its work force in recent years. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 28.

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