Port board buys empty building next to industrial park

11/16/2017

One of several old buildings on Central Avenue near the entrance to the new Overland Industrial Park will come under ownership of the Toledo Lucas County Port Authority, the port board of directors voted Thursday.

The board approved the acquisition of 1102 W. Central Ave., an abandoned two-story structure of 14,000 square feet, from C & R Moore Properties, LLC.

The property is on the southern boundary of the new industrial park that has several manufacturing businesses.

Board Chairman Jim Tuschman said 1102 W. Central is one of three buildings lining Central behind the factory that the board wants to acquire to improve the appearance of the industrial park.

The board’s purchase offer is for $12,500, plus $6,800 for delinquent real estate taxes. The board approved spending up to $50,000 for the acquisition and to begin remediation of the property.

The building sits on a ¼-acre lot and was operated as Moore Chrome Products from 1932 to 1997, according to port authority materials.

Also Thursday, the board voted to spend $292,441 to repair hydraulic pumping equipment on man-made island Facility No. 3 that was acquired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The contract was awarded to low bidder Toledo Caisson Corp. of Ottawa Lake, Mich.

The pump-out platform equipment, which has not been used for some time, will allow the port authority to resume dumping material dredged from the Maumee River shipping channel. State law prohibits open-lake dumping of dredged material after 2020.

Mr. Tuschman said old dredged material on Facility 3 is going to be used for fill on the $700 million Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. project taking place on Front Street in East Toledo.

The company is building a processing plant to make hot-briquetted iron to be used in making steel. The cost of the equipment repair will be paid with the port’s Ohio Healthy Lake Erie Grant, according to the resolution.

Contact Tom Troy at tomtroy@theblade.com, 419-724-6058, or on Twitter @TomFTroy.