Warehouse plan moving forward

5/21/2005

A Streetsboro, Ohio, developer s long-running plan to develop

warehousing on the south side of Toledo Express Airport may finally bearing fruit.

Ohio International Developers, whose exclusive development

agreement with the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority expired in January, has asked port offi cials to authorize a long-term lease of 40 acres at Air Cargo Parkway and U.S. 20A upon which to build a 400,000 square-foot warehouse.

Airport director Paul Toth presented a draft resolution authorizing the lease to Opie Rollison, chairman of the port authority s airport committee, during a briefi ng yesterday. Mr. Rollison said he would present it to the port s full board of directors when it meets Thursday

as long as none of the other committee members objects to it.

The proposed lease terms $3,850 per acre with annual

index increases for an initial 25 years plus options of 25, 25, and

15 years are the same as had been provided in the expired

agreement, Mr. Toth said.

OID s original concept for the site was of a cold-storage warehouse

that would specialize in handling imported fish, fruit, and flowers. But the developer now is proposing a conventional dry-goods warehouse and has a prospective tenant lined up to occupy about three quarters of it, the airport director said.

Mr. Toth said the prospective tenant had not been identified to him, and David Hall, president of OID, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

A lease authorization from the port authority is needed so the developer can complete arrangements with the tenant, the airport director said. If the deal falls through, the lease will not be completed, he said.

The proposed warehouse site is part of land the port authority

bought during the 1990s as part of its campaign to reduce

the impact of aircraft noise on neighboring property owners.

Mr. Toth also apprised Mr. Rollison the only airport committee member to attend what had been scheduled as a committee meeting yesterday of his intention to recommend later this month that the port authority seek federal economic development funds

to build roads and install utilities on other port-owned land south of the airport to support future industrial or warehouse activity there.