On the block

Ford's St. Thomas assembly plant has gone up for sale for $22.75 million, and already there's "solid interest" in largest piece of commercial real estate to ever hit the area's market.

Commercial realtor C.B. Richard Ellis has had calls from manufacturers in sectors ranging from the automotive to green energy, kicking the tires on a possible sale, Randy Fisher, a broker with the realtor, said Wednesday.

"We are already encouraged. I would say there is solid interest," he said. "We are a global company and we put that message out, and there has been interest at various levels. I think there is opportunity here."

The sprawling, 44-year-old plant will close in September and take up to nine months to decommission, so it'll be available to a new owner in the summer of 2012, Fisher said.

"That is our job - to find an owner that brings jobs back to this area," he said.

It's likely the plant - since it is so large - will be bought by an investor and carved up for several users, essentially turning it into an industrial park, added Peter Whatmore, vice-president with C.B. Richard Ellis.
"It has been an important part of our business climate for (43 years) and has been a significant contributor to our local economy. This is a sad story," said Whatmore.

"It will be a significant challenge, but we have sold several of these across North America," he said.
"It will be tough, but we have a strong platform. We are optimistic," Whatmore said.

A vacant, 1.2-million-square-foot automotive plant in Windsor is attracting "substantial interest," he noted.
"We will get this done, but I'm just not sure what it will look like at the end of the day," said Whatmore.

While the looming sale had been common knowledge for months, seeing it listed has hit home for the plant's remaining 1,200 workers, said Scott Smith, chairperson of the Canadian Auto Workers union, Local 1520.
Still, a sale would offer hope a new owner might need workers - and the union would let an interested buyer know an experienced workforce is available, said Smith.

"We all knew the company was going to sell, but when you see it like that, there is a finality to it," he said. "The mood here is not good at all. It's becoming a reality as it gets closer."

About three years ago Ford of Canada also sold about 700 acres of land it owned - from the Ford plant south toward St. Thomas - for about $6.5 million to Bob McCaig, a St. Thomas businessperson who sold the Green Lane landfill to the City of Toronto for $220 million, said commercial realtor Dennis Broome, who chairs the St. Thomas economic development agency.

"I'm sure people will look at (the Ford plant)," Broome said of the plant. "It's close to Hwy. 401. It's a great deal."

It's "the end of an era" for the Ford plant, for many years the area's largest private employer.

"When you see a 'For Sale' sign go up, it is the end. It will not be saved," Broome said.

But there are many good signs in the St. Thomas economy, he added.

The Sterling Truck plant, home to 2,000 workers, was sold to Masco and it consolidated three different companies there, said Broome.

Two other plants near Sterling, where the former truck maker prepared its trucks and where it stacked them after, have been sold to different industries.

The Schulman Inc. plant was also sold to a Toronto plastic injection mould business that's now refurbishing the site.

"There are good things happening here," said Broome.