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Industrial Park to Target GM Lordstown Suppliers
LORDSTOWN, Ohio – Mayor Arno Hill expects a deal to close within the next month for a Kansas City-based developer to acquire 173 acres near the General Motors Corp. Complex for a proposed industrial park.
NorthPoint Development is finalizing the acquisition from the Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response Trust, or RACER, theentity created to oversee the sale and development of properties owned by the former Gneral Motors Corp. prior to its 2009 bankruptcy.
NorthPoint is developing similar projects near GM has plants to accommodate the auto maker’s desire to have suppliers closer to their manufacturing operations to improve efficiency and cut costs.
Hill, who has been to several RACER meetings, says the project “probably got legs in the last four to six weeks.” RACER isn’t interested in just selling the land, he said. “They want community buy-in,” he remarked. Developers have to be able to show they want to come in and bring jobs,” he said.
Among the sites where NorthPoint is developing similar parks is near GM’s Spring Hill Assembly Plant. Comprehensive Logistics Co. Inc. is one of the companies that plans to open there, according to The Detroit News. An industrial park the company is developing near Kansas City is “going very well” so NorthPoint “would like to repeat the process” in Lordstown.
“I was told they do have some leads” on potential tenants for the Lordstown park but wasn’t given specifics, Hill said. The park would not target GM suppliers exclusively but also seek light manufacturing and warehousing operations.
The company wants to begin clearing the land after it closes on the property, the mayor said. NorthPoint officials are “pretty optimistic that there’s going to be more suppliers coming close.” The property is virgin land and already zoned industrial, Hill said.
The company already is showing it is going to be cooperative to work with, Hill said. Asked to keep some of the woods along Route 45 on the property intact to “maintain our ruralness,” NorthPoint officials responded that shouldn’t be a problem. “I think they’re going to be pretty good to work with,” he said.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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