City leaders, and at least one tenant, await final purchase documents in the Honeywell-Ironton industrial park deal.

Wednesday, August 08, 2001

City leaders, and at least one tenant, await final purchase documents in the Honeywell-Ironton industrial park deal.

"The deal fell through with GE, and now Honeywell’s attorneys say they are back to working on it," Mayor Bob Cleary said. "We don’t have a purchase agreement in hand, but we expect to have that in two weeks."

One company already eying the 40-acre park at the corner of Third and Lorain streets – formerly used by AlliedSignal/Honeywell – wants to use about eight to nine acres, the mayor said.

"We could make an announcement at the same time as we sign the purchase agreement," he said.

Cleary declined to name the company, but did say it will make a good cornerstone for the industrial park.

The park itself, funded by state economic development dollars, a $150,000 contribution by the City of Ironton and monetary commitments by the county, is slated for use by industrial/manufacturing clients.

A street will run through the park, and the city almost has the master plan finished.

The goal is to spur economic growth and bring needed jobs back to Ironton, which has suffered numerous losses in recent years, Cleary said.

In addition, the park’s frontage along Third Street – from the greenhouse to the Allied scales area – will be reserved for retail businesses. The retail space extends back about 250 feet into the park.

The GE-Honeywell billion-dollar merger talks in recent months put a strain on the city’s deal to purchase the park property.

Now that the merger has fallen through, the feeling’s more positive in Ironton, Cleary said.

"I really think it’s going to go," he said. "There’s still reservations because of past delays but I think we’ll have a purchase agreement soon."

The mayor said he has also contacted several people who had been considering the use of the industrial park.