As published in Toledo Business Journal - April 1, 2019
Rendering of the upgraded Global Distribution Center in Perrysburg
GDC advancing
$20.4M Master Plan
The Global Distribution Center (GDC), an industrial site at 29180 Glenwood Road in Perrysburg, is moving forward with the implementation of its new $20.4 million Master Plan project to upgrade and expand the site.
Tony Marks, CEO of GDC, said, “I bought the property in 2008 as an investment because of the location between I-75, I-80/I-90 (Ohio Turnpike), and 795. We are considered to be in the Golden Triangle. We’ve been working with the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP) and the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority to take advantage of the location, the property, and the ground we have available. We’ve been putting a Master Plan together for the current buildings from an efficiency programs point-of-view, but also, we’ve been working on the land that we have available for future growth and future businesses. We get a lot of interest in the site because the property has some of the best infrastructure available; that’s why the site makes sense for developing for the future. It’s been over 10 years since I acquired the site, and now is the time to really look at developing the property.”
According to Marks, the first component of the project includes upgrading the existing 800,000 square feet (three buildings: one 400,000 square foot building, two 200,000 square foot buildings) of 20-foot to 36-foot clear food grade space with energy efficient LED lighting, increased docks, and improved paving and parking. GDC has also initiated a process which will enable it to provide a box-in-box cold storage solution within 12 weeks of lease signing.
The second component of the project is a 430,000 square foot multi-building, build-to-suit expansion program to provide dry and/or temperature-controlled spaces to occupants. The plan as of now is to develop a 100,000 square foot building, a 250,000 square foot building, and an 80,000 square foot building. According to Marks, this phase of the project will begin in the near future.
“It’s time to take this property to the next level. We’ve already been improving the interior and exterior of the existing facilities and we continue to receive inquiries weekly because of the location and the infrastructure. In the past, I’ve been asked many times, ‘Do you have a Master Plan? Show me what’s available, show this location, etc.,’ and we really haven’t. All of our growth in the past has really been just from past relationships and past customers and continuing to grow those relationships. But now, we really feel that it’s time to market the location, market the facility, and utilize it to its maximum capacity,” said Marks.
Interior of one of Global Distribution Center’s existing facilities
The site’s infrastructure includes 10-plus megawatts (MW) of power, a water capacity of 6.8 million gallons per day (MGD), and access to a Columbia Gas of Ohio natural gas pipeline that can meet the needs of any manufacturer or assembly operation, according to the company.
“The RGP has experienced an increase in companies seeking existing, temperature-controlled, food grade buildings in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan,” said Dean Monske, president and CEO of the RGP. “However, the supply of such buildings is at an all-time low. The redevelopment of this site will enhance our region’s ability to compete for projects in the food processing sector, which is a target industry for the RGP.”
The site is also located in close proximity to major highways and thoroughfares, providing its occupants with access to 60% of the US population and 38% of the Canadian population within a one-day delivery distance and 460,000 workers within a one-hour drive.
According to GDC, with the property competitively priced below market, GDC is flexible and willing to work with clients on either a short-term or long-term basis. GDC also has the ability to provide value-added warehouse services to augment a client’s warehouse workforce or to manage the entire operation on the client’s behalf.
“We are excited that the Master Plan project will transform our site and leverage our location, underutilized parcels, and infrastructure to bring more businesses and jobs to our community” said Marks.
Patricia Crumley and Terri Never of KodaC Enterprises, LLC are serving as the exclusive marketing agents for this site and the jdi group, Inc., based in Maumee, helped design the Master Plan.
