This muggy spring morning finds excavators and trucks clearing away the remnants of the former plant, which closed in 2010 as part of Chrysler’s bankruptcy reorganization.
When finished, the bulk warehouse will measure over 200,000 square feet and stand more than three stories high. It’s going in what’s now called the Cornerstone Business Park, next to another warehouse built last year for a Virginia snack food company.
Terry Coyne is Executive Managing Director of commercial real estate company Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, and broker for the business park. He admits the construction project could strike some as precarious.
“The goal is to have a first-class, world-class industrial park, and we’re just trying to kick start it with what could be considered a risky endeavor of building a vacant warehouse to try to attract some tenants," says Coyne. "I mean, you’re in between two, full, 4-way interchanges at 271 and 480. So we have what we consider to probably be the best location for an industrial park in Northeast Ohio. .”
Coyne says he has two promising inquiries on the bulk warehouse, which is scheduled to open next year. He says he’s not only hoping for distributors for the warehouse, but also a manufacturer. He’s preserved a railway system on the old Chrysler site in case a major assembly plant is needed.