O-I headquarters plan OK'd Work to begin Monday at site in Perrysburg

7/27/2005

Owens-Illinois Inc. will start building its $20 million world headquarters at the Levis Development Park in Perrysburg on Monday after receiving site plan approval and a tax incentive agreement last night from Perrysburg City Council.

Council approved the world headquarters site plan, which shows a three-story building in the northwest section of the development park property near the O-I's buildings there now. The headquarters will be 75,000 to 100,000 square feet.

Council also voted in favor of an incentive agreement worth more than $6 million to O-I over the next 15 years.

"This is a momentous occasion," Frank Butler, manager of Toledo area properties for O-I, told Perrysburg officials. "We feel very excited about this project, and we will not let you down as a good neighbor."

O-I officials said they hope to complete construction of the building within a year and move personnel from the current headquarters in downtown Toledo to the Perrysburg site in August, 2006.

The incentive agreement between O-I and Perrysburg includes a 15-year tax abatement on real property taxes for the headquarters. The abatement, coordinated through a Community Reinvestment Area agreement, will save the company about $4.8 million.

O-I plans to spend about $9 million to renovate its three buildings at the site now. The city granted a 12-year tax abatement on those improvements, which will include an expanded fitness center and remodeled cafeteria.

As part of the agreement, O-I will pay about $1.6 million to the Perrysburg schools and about $354,000 to Penta Career Center over 15 years.

The incentive package also contains a cash-for-jobs grant worth up to $1.5 million over the next 10 years and a waiver of water and sewer expansion charges totaling about $50,000.

Another agreement between Perrysburg and O-I is in the works. The two are discussing details of a tax-increment financing agreement, which is scheduled to come before council in early September.

The tax-increment financing agreement would allow taxes paid on the increased real property value at the site to be set aside to finance between $9 million and $12 million of infrastructure improvements.

O-I is considering a financing agreement with another local entity.

The firm met yesterday morning with the Rossford and Perrysburg Township Joint Economic Development Authority, and the organization agreed to move forward with helping to secure up to $24 million in bonds to finance the new building.

If the development authority helps finance the building, all construction materials would be exempt from sales tax, saving the company over $200,000, Mr. Butler said.

O-I has not committed to the financing arrangement.