4545 Fisher Road is comprised of 3,900,000 square feet, and was originally built in 1968 and occupied by Sears as their primary distribution facility. The facility is a multi-use, multi-tenanted, two-story office, distribution and retail property. The site was later sold to and occupied by Spiegel’s Distribution Fulfillment Services (DFS), which was subsequently sold to Industrial Realty Group. Throughout the years, industrial space was well-leased on the property (renamed 70/270 Commerce Center), securing 2.6 million square feet of tenants which stabilized the asset during its transition. The office portion continued to be challenging to lease.

OUTCOME

In 2018, the leasing team secured a tenant. The State of Ohio moved approximately 700 employees into the 214,566 sq. ft. office space, consolidating two of its divisions to the property. As landlord, nearly $7 Million was invested into renovations to create a modern space and a more efficient solution for the tenant. Concurrently, long-time tenant Eddie Bauer Outlet needed to be relocated. Utilizing an adaptive reuse approach, an adjacent warehouse space was converted to a unique, 33,380 sq. ft. retail space with high ceilings, a more efficient layout and natural light. The space is now fully-functional, supporting a variety of user types and a positive tenant mix.

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In 2014, American Greetings began transitioning their headquarters to a newly built location in another suburb, vacating the 1.8 million square foot industrial and office space at their Brooklyn (Cleveland), Ohio campus. The relocation of American Greetings had a significant impact on the city’s income tax revenue, which is inevitable when a Fortune 1,000 company relocates 2,000 employees. During the transition, IRG convinced American Greetings to lease back the remaining space in the project with a scaled reduction in the leased premises over the 10 year lease term during their transition.

OUTCOME

IRG was able to invest more than $35 Million into the property, retrofitting space to accommodate new tenants. Since 2015, five industrial tenants and two sizable office users have signed leases. Most recently, Medical Mutual of Ohio signed a 16-year, 345,000-square-foot office lease, in the entire multi-floor office building located at the main entrance. Approximately 750 of their employees now work on site. The campus is also home to Inogen, an office tenant that employs over 400 people and industrial tenants HKM, Health-Mor Industries, RhinoSystems, National Safety Apparel, and Taylor Exhibitions. The campus has exceeded the former number of employees on site. Positive lease activity has allowed IRG the opportunity to receive substantial cash flow from inception and upgrade portions of the property for further leasing and build to suite opportunities.

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The McClellan Air Force base, which stretches 8.5 million sq. ft. and 3,000-acres, once supplied major logistical, repair and maintenance support on the West Coast for World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War and Operation Desert Shield/Storm. After being outbid by Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah to perform aircraft overhauls, the base officially closed in 2001. In 2000, IRG purchased the California facility at a time when it was still a restricted access location.

OUTCOME

IRG invested more than $200 million into revitalizing the site and re-branding the property as McClellan Park. This included repurposing older buildings and constructing new buildings in key locations. The environmental clean up was significant. The responsibility and cost was transferred to IRG, who continues to indirectly aid the base by managing $1.2 billion in environmental remediation work. The collective redevelopment activities led to a successful conversion. The property now features 155 industrial buildings and 35 warehouses. Of those buildings, IRG operates industrial/office space, air museum, chapel, dormitories, hotel, conference center, base exchange and veterans’ services, recreational facilities and an airport. The real estate team leased up many of the property’s vacancies. More than 240 companies moved to the park in Sacramento, which became home to 14,000 employees.After millions of dollars in renovation and environmental remediation, McClellan Park is now widely considered the national gold-standard for large military base reuse.

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At one time, Hamilton’s Ohio Casualty building was home to more than 1,000 employees. The company vacated the 428,000 sq. ft. site and sold its three downtown buildings to IRG, who began major renovations in 2018.

OUTCOME

Originally consisting of eight stories of office space with some adjacent industrial space, IRG has renovated three floors into apartments with office and retail space to be converted on the lower levels. Most of the available units have been filled, with a running wait list and another floor of apartments on the way. Future development will include a possible hotel, restaurants, co-working, retail and office space.

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In 1961, NASA began manufacturing components for the Saturn and Apollo spacecraft missions on the North American Aviation campus in Downey, CA. After its closure, IRG purchased and led redevelopment and remediation at the site, converting it into one of the largest movie production facilities in California (2003 – 2012), and producing blockbusters such as Iron Man, Indiana Jones and Spiderman. Over time, with advances in technology, this large studio space was no longer needed. The site not only grew to have issues with marketability, but also had extensive environmental concerns. This included VOC spills from on site manufacturing in the NASA era, which led to leakage into an underlying aquifer, as well as some migration from neighboring sites that once supported the facility. A new plan was developed to address both concerns. Demolition of Downey Studios began in January 2012 in preparation for a new, class A, mixed-use retail, restaurant, entertainment and office space.

OUTCOME

In 2016 construction was completed at The Promenade at Downey, revealing a 450,000 square feet of entertainment and shopping destination featuring a pedestrian-oriented design, outdoor seating, Wi-Fi, fireplaces, and playgrounds, with access to a wide array of shops and restaurants, a state-of-the-art movie theater, and a health club. As developer and adaptive reuse expert, IRG also renovated the 1940’s office buildings on the property designed by Gordon Kaufmann.Throughout their ownership of the property, IRG executed millions of dollars in extensive remediation including 14 years of bio remediation and injections to reduce high VOC levels in the groundwater; removal of more than 1 million square feet of asbestos; and removal of various other toxic substances from the site.

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In 1976, Randall Park Mall was the largest mall in the world with 200 retailers and some 8,000 parking spaces. Over time, declining sales and failed management efforts to revive the site resulted in anchor tenants vacating. This sealed the site’s future and eliminated a major source of employment and tax revenue for the area. The mall closed in 2009. By 2014, other developers had tried and failed to successfully create a new plan for the property.

OUTCOME

IRG purchased much of the mall in 2014, including 7 adjoining parcels over time, which were previously home to anchors such as Dillard’s, Magic Johnson Theater, Macy’s, JCPenney, Burlington, Power Sports and Sears. Once IRG developed a full plan for industrial use on the property, demolition began. This removed much of the former tenant space which was unusable and made room for industrial build-to-suit and speculative buildings to entice future tenants. The former Sears building became a successful, multi-tenanted, industrial building. A 305,000 square-foot speculative building has been completed with interest from multiple tenants. In 2017, Amazon announced the company would purchase more than 60 acres of the site, creating 2,000 jobs with a $77 million payroll. The announcement was widely covered by major news outlets across the country.

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In the midst of bankruptcy, General Motors announced that it would vacate its 4.5-million-square-foot Moraine plant in 2008, laying off approximately 2,000 people and crippling the community near Dayton, Ohio. In 2011, Industrial Realty Group, LLC (IRG) purchased the 465-acre property from Racer Trust, which cleans and positions GM properties for redevelopment.

OUTCOME

IRG redeveloped 2.1 million square feet through leasing, sale, and demolition. It is currently home to nine businesses, including Chinese glass manufacturer Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co. Ltd., with a capital investment from all companies of $725 million. Approximately 2,300 people are employed on site with an annual payroll over $100 Million.

In May 2014, Fuyao purchased 1 million square feet of the plant for $15 million. During the state-wide announcement, Ohio Governor John Kasich said Fuyao’s investment would be the 9th largest Chinese investment in the United States, likely would represent the largest Chinese investment in Ohio, and potentially the largest Chinese investment in the auto industry in America. Fuyao’s customers include Honda, General Motors, and Hyundai and Safelite Auto Glass.

Initially Fuyao plans to invest $360 million into the site including a 120,000 square foot expansion and a second 106,400 square foot expansion. With 1,100 workers on site, Fuyao now has more people employed than General Motors when it ended its operations at the factory in 2008. Fuyao has a hiring goal of about 1,600 workers. Cao DeWang, Fuyao’s Chairman, believes the local plant will in time be the world’s largest auto glass manufacturing facility, producing 4.5 million auto glass sets annually for original equipment car manufacturers in the United States.

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Lockheed Martin, a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest government defense contracts, wanted to focus on their core business of government defense, rather than the facility management of a 2.1 million square foot site. IRG stepped in to transition purchase and manage the complex, providing strategic cost saving initiatives, enhanced tenant satisfaction and increased occupancy throughout the campus.

OUTCOME

Once the client was free to focus on their core business and realize the cost saving benefits of not owning or maintaining the campus, they were able to grow their business, adding over 150 new jobs to the Akron, Ohio area. IRG Realty Advisors has taken over the utility procurement on this site. This was accomplished through planning and engineering a new decentralized approach to utility delivery to the campus, abandoning the older inefficient central boiler plant system. This has saved over 60% in gas usage, 15% in electric usage and 48% in water usage.The success of this relationship has been so strong that the client is sponsoring IRG for official status as a defense contractor. Such a designation will allow IRG to hold a unique place in the market.

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IRG Batavia was the former 1.8 million SF Ford Transmission Plant, which provided many jobs to Clermont County Area. The University of Cincinnati was looking to expand its current Clermont County facilities on their existing property, but realized a potential opportunity at the IRG Batavia site through a lead provided by the Economic Development Office of Batavia. A partnership began to develop between IRG and University of Cincinnati while the deal between IRG and Ford was being finalized. IRG closed on the property and lease documents were executed in April 2010. IRG Realty Advisors worked closely with the leasing and transaction teams to ensure a smooth transition for University of Cincinnati.

OUTCOME

The University of Cincinnati initially occupied 82,000 SF of the Administrative Building. IRG has since added two additional manufacturing tenants to the site and sold off 900,000 SF in 2013 to Huhtamaki for their North American packaging operations. IRG Realty Advisors performs facility services for University of Cincinnati. and provided a reduction in operating expenses for a multitude of services by leveraging its national buying network and conducting on going analysis of energy usage and the overall service delivery model. This has created a comprehensive service delivery platform that has driven consistency, quality and safety throughout the campus, which has become a vibrant working campus with multiple jobs added to Clermont County and the Village of Batavia.

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Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company is one of the largest tire makers in the world, with their World Headquarters located in Akron, Ohio. The campus included 5 million square feet and more than 400 acres of property. As the company contracted, Goodyear found their space to be inefficient and considered leaving Akron. IRG created a comprehensive strategy to keep Goodyear in the city. As the project’s master developer, their plan involved consolidating Goodyear’s operations and building a new, 642,000 square foot World Headquarters building; purchasing the remaining campus area; controlling the headquarter and campus construction/renovation (while considering preservation efforts); and repositioning the remainder of the site.

OUTCOME

The redevelopment strategy and company transition for Goodyear was seamless. IRG’s expert team created a new vision for the company and the iconic area, re-branding it The East End. The East End became a live, work, play environment with loft-style apartments, office space, retail stores, restaurants, theater, gymnasium and a Hilton Garden Inn hotel (the first new hotel inside Akron city limits since 1980). Not only did these efforts benefit Goodyear, the City of Akron retained thousands of jobs that would have been lost and now enjoys the significant economic investments made by IRG including an improved street-scape along one of the city’s main corridors.

The East End has become an economic and social center for the city. The project’s award-winning, loft-style apartments remain extremely popular with a 97% occupancy rate. In 2018, Akron-based health insurance company, SummaHealth moved to the site, retaining 300 jobs in the city. Also in 2018, B&W announced it would move the company’s world headquarters and 700 employees to the site. Ernst & Young also left their long-time space in downtown Akron to join their project with 85+ employees. A new retail strip center was created to align with the architectural integrity of the property and is now home to bustling Starbucks and Handel’s Ice Cream stores. The East End has gained national media attention from The Wall Street Journal and Forbes Magazine and received dozens of industry accolades for its highly-unique, adaptive re-use approach.

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