Land-Air LLC breaks ground near Toledo Express Airport

12/7/2017
BY IGNAZIO MESSINA
BLADE STAFF WRITER
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    The exterior of Toledo Express Airport. Land-Air LLC ceremonially broke ground on a 100,000-square-foot “speculative building” near the airport Thursday.

    blade

  • Land-Air LLC, along with state, county, and Regional Growth Partnership officials, ceremonially broke ground Thursday on a 100,000-square-foot “speculative building” near Toledo Express Airport.

    Brian McMahon, a local commercial developer who is a Land-Air partner, said there is a demand for “spec buildings,” and the proximity to the airport will make it easy to market to a future tenant.

    The exterior of Toledo Express Airport. Land-Air LLC ceremonially broke ground on a 100,000-square-foot “speculative building” near the airport Thursday.
    The exterior of Toledo Express Airport. Land-Air LLC ceremonially broke ground on a 100,000-square-foot “speculative building” near the airport Thursday.

    Spec buildings are built with no user or tenant with the intent to provide a suitable location for a company. 

    “We recently had a success formula when they built a spec building on the old Overland site so there is a big demand right now for spec buildings,” Mr. McMahon said. “That spec building has been expanded now to accommodate Dana.”

    The Dana project, company officials have said, would not have happened had the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority not built a speculative building at the Overland Industrial Park.

    The Land-Air property at 11330 Airport Highway consists of 250 acres with easy access to the Ohio Turnpike and a Norfolk Southern railroad line. It is in a joint economic development district with Monclova Township, Swanton Township, and the city of Toledo.


    “We have owned the land for many years and we believe to jump start the interest we would build a spec building,” Mr. McMahon said. “Once we were able to demonstrate that we had the funding available through the county and Jobs Ohio to put in the roads and the infrastructure … we have several interests to do additional buildings on this site.... You could very easily build 1 million or more square foot fulfillment center on this site.”

    The building will be designed to have ceiling height and floor space suitable for any company, he said.

    Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said the county would do whatever it could to help the Land-Air team.

    “That could include investment, our economic development funds, bringing different state money to the project,” Mr. Gerken said. “Our role is to help on the infrastructure side.... This is a great public-private partnership.”

    County records from earlier this year show Land-Air purchased more land near the site. There were four parcels purchased from Audrey A Santus, Successor Trustee, for $461,660 each.

    Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com419-724-6171, or on Twitter @IgnazioMessina.