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Commerce Center gets new owners
By ED RUNYAN
LORDSTOWN
Brothers George and Spiro Bakeris of Howland have purchased the 476-acre Ohio Commerce Center on the west side of state Route 45 in Lordstown — one of the largest privately owned rail facilities in Northeast Ohio.
They bought the facility last week from Meritex, a Minneapolis-based company, for $2 million, said Chuck Joseph, broker associate for Routh-Hurlburt Real Estate.
The facility is about two miles north of GM Lordstown.
The Ohio Commerce Center, built by the federal government as the Lordstown Ordnance Depot in 1940 to store munitions and house soldiers, contains nine warehouse-style buildings that hold 1.5 million square feet of space, said Ron Barnhart, Lordstown planning and zoning administrator.
About one-third of the space is being used by several companies, but other companies moved out last year when Meritex told its tenants it was selling the facility and not renewing leases, Joseph said.
Before companies such as Kraft Maid and Appalachian Railcar Services moved out, about half of the space inside the buildings was occupied, Barnhart said.
There were about 20 buildings on the site at one time, but about 11 of them were removed, leaving cement pads that are also used for storage, Barnhart said.
“These guys are going to be aggressive,” Joseph said of the Bakeris brothers’ plans to improve the buildings and 10 miles of rail lines in the facility.
The new owners, who are in the locomotive business, also will construct new buildings where needed, Joseph said.
At Monday night’s village council meeting, the company PTI Quality Containment Solutions on Meridian Road in Youngstown said it is moving its company and 70 employees into the Ohio Commerce Center starting this weekend and hopes to add 150 jobs by this July, Barnhart said.
The company is a GM supplier.
The move doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the change in ownership at the Ohio Commerce Center, Barnhart said.
A CSX main rail line enters the facility at its southernmost point.
Because the buildings are as much as 60 years old and have ceilings that are only about 16 feet high, many need to be updated, Joseph said, adding that the brothers also have plans to pave streets and make other improvements.
Each of the eight largest buildings is divided into four sections, with each one being one acre in size.
Rail lines pass by each of the buildings, including the cement pads.
Joseph, who will continue to work with the Bakeris brothers to lease the facilities, said he sees a lot of potential for a company wanting to bring products into the facility by rail and back out by truck.
Barnhart said he believes the new owners will market the facility more than Meritex did over the past couple years, which should attract new investment in Lordstown.
In addition to the former depot buildings, there are also 80 acres of vacant land close to state Route 45 that the company hopes to market, Barnhart said.
“There’s 1 million square feet available, and it’s cheap rent, so hopefully some people will call about it,” Barnhart said.