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LORAIN, OH-The joint venture partnership that recently purchased the shuttered Ford Assembly Plant on Baumhart Road says that two manufacturing companies have signed letters of intent for nearly 1.4 million sf. Though he declined to release many specifics about the pending lease deals, Stuart Lichter, president of Industrial Realty Group (IRG), says that the users will most likely take occupancy in the third quarter of 2007. Downey, CA-based IRG and local investor Chris Semarjian, senior vice president with NAI Daus in Cleveland, recently purchased the plant from Ford Motor Co. for $2.5 million.

Lichter says that IRG plans to convert the four-million-sf plant, which sits on more than 250 acres, into a facility designed to house several industrial and distribution companies. Construction of the redevelopment project is slated for completion in June 2007. Lease rates will vary depending on location, Lichter says, adding that it will be the "cheapest space around."

IRG has tackled a number of similar redevelopment projects in Ohio and across the nation in its 30-year history. In Sacramento, CA, IRG is the master developer of the 3,000-acre McClellan Park. There the developer has transformed the former McClellan Air Force Base into an 8.5-million-sf business park. Meanwhile, in Akron, IRG redeveloped B.F. Goodrich's first rubber plant into Canal Place, which includes a mix of office, retail, conference centers and recreational facilities in more than 2.5 million sf.