GE Puts Lot on the Market, No Plans for Vacant Plant
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- A 1-acre parking lot adjacent to the former General Electric plant on Market Street near the gateway into downtown is on the real estate market, a potential precursor to the sale of the building itself, a company spokesman said.
The site on Hughes Avenue was listed recently with CBRE Group Inc., a global real estate firm with offices in Cleveland. The long-idled, 172,000-square-foot plant building, constructed in 1909 just south of downtown, is not for sale yet. “GE goes through a long plant closing process” for shuttering and disposing of properties, and that process has caught up to the former parking lot, said Fred Herrera, first vice president for CBRE.
GE evaluated the parking lot site based on both environmental and market decision and “felt now is the time to list the property,” said Christopher Augustine, manager of global communications and public affairs at GE Lighting in Beachwood.
The plant has been idled since sometime in the 1980s, Augustine said. The property had been used for storage in the interim.
The company also is in the process of evaluating the plant building and site itself, Augustine confirmed. “As soon as they can get through that process they do plan to market that property as well,” he said.
“It could be soon. It could be a long time,” he added.
Other idled Mahoning Valley GE properties are also going through a similar process, he acknowledged. As remediations are completed and company officials are content they are safe for sale they look at whether the time is right from a market conditions standpoint, he said.
The vacant building, near the I-680 ramps to Market Street and prominently seen by motorists heading to and from downtown, has been a consideration of city officials.
“The city's always looked at that particular site and saw that there was a potential for it,” said T. Sharon Woodberry, Youngstown economic development director. “The obvious concerns were the building and environmentally what condition it was in.” If environmental remediation were done at the site and the building demolished, it would open up “many opportunities for development,” she said.
“I would like to keep an open mind with the potential use for the site,” she continued. “Clearly we would want to use it for something that it's zoned for, but because of its visibility and because of it being located right off of I-680 and close to downtown, I think there are lots of opportunities for it.”
“We have to make sure everything is environmentally sound before we would ever market it,” GE’s Augustine asserted. He could not say what condition the Market Street building is in but other buildings of that age have been taken down in the course of remediation, he said.
“I have no idea if that is the plan here,” he added. “My guess is unless it’s pristine or there is some kind of historical significance, it’ll be hard to market that large of a building.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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