The elaborate sale/lease/redevelopment deal – estimated at around $900 million – involves the tiremaker, a California developer, the state of Ohio and county and local governments.
Under current plans, Goodyear will get a new office campus near its present Technical Center in Akron, and will move in sometime in 2010. The company has agreed to a 20-year lease on the new offices, with 11 five-year options thereafter.
“I’m pleased to announce we have reached a tentative agreement that will allow Goodyear to continue its 108-year history with the City of Akron and the State of Ohio,” said Bob Keegan, Goodyear’s chairman and CEO. “These state-of-the-art facilities will reflect the new Goodyear – a place of bold leadership and innovation – and they will inspire future generations of Goodyear associates.”
The tentative agreement between Goodyear and developer Industrial Realty Group calls for Goodyear to sell most of its Akron area property and facilities to IRG, with IRG constructing the tiremaker’s new world headquarters building, a new headquarters for the company’s North American Tire business, and make improvements to the company’s technical center and research facilities. Goodyear will then lease the new buildings and the existing technical center from IRG.
While exact terms were not announced, funding for the project and related infrastructure improvements will come primarily from IRG, with state and local governments kicking in funds, tax incentives and land.
The deal will keep Goodyear’s 3,000-person Akron operations in the city for at least 20 years. However, reports said that the proposed lease deal would make it nearly impossible for Goodyear to abandon its Akron base once the first 20-year lease expires. Company officials told the Akron Beacon Journal that breaking the lease would be ”financially disastrous.”
Once Goodyear vacates its present Akron offices, IRG plans to convert the buildings for new office and retail space, and potentially a new hotel and other attractions, such as a proposed indoor ice rink. That portion of the project is slated for completion in 2014, but could take longer, the developer indicated. (Tire Review/Akron)
