Projects to revive the former North Towne Square mall site, level the former Sears store in West Toledo, and build a new Toledo Zoo parking lot on a site once heavily contaminated with industrial pollution are among recipients of state funding announced Friday.
The largest local grant among the $192 million distributed to 112 projects in 41 counties involves the North Towne Square site off Alexis Road, for which developer NorthPoint Development will get $9.9 million toward converting long-abandoned property into a project called the Toledo Trade Center.
But right below that is $9.3 million toward the Toledo Zoo’s ongoing construction along the Anthony Wayne Trail. The package also includes $1.3 million to help Westgate Village Retail, LLC, clean up the former Sears department store off Central Avenue near Secor Road, and $393,750 for asbestos removal in downtown Toledo’s Nicholas Building, vacant for years but targeted for new residential and commercial use.
“The grants received today will be a tremendous boost for the projects under development,” Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said. “These previously challenged locations can once again be put to productive use, an exciting prospect for all of us.”
Brandon Sehlhorst, the city’s economic development director, said Toledo faces challenges “with functionally obsolete buildings and environmental remediation that create a high barrier for redevelopment.
“Without the Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program, several high-profile economic development projects wouldn’t be moving forward as quickly, including the Four Corners [Nicholas Building], North Towne, and Westgate projects,” Mr. Sehlhorst said.
All of the sites represent properties with redevelopment potential that “are not only being wasted in their current capacity, but oftentimes are a danger to their local communities,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement jointly issued by his office and that of Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.
Seventy-nine of the grants statewide are for cleanups, while 33 are for assessing the properties’ conditions. Nine are in Toledo or surrounding Lucas County.
The state announcement did not name the former Jennison-Wright creosote plant as the 23-acre site for the Toledo Zoo project, but that is where construction is already under way to build the new parking lot. That, in turn, will allow the zoo to redesign its entrance and expand exhibit space.
“The site has a long history of industrial uses dating back to 1888, and previous attempts to remediate it have failed,” the statement said.
At the Sears site, both the main department store and the former auto center will be torn down after asbestos is removed. The plan is to market the site for a mixed-use project.
The Lucas County Land Reutilization Corp. is the recipient of funding for the asbestos removal at the Nicholas Building, which was built in 1904 as one of Ohio’s earliest skyscrapers but has been vacant since 2010.
Other grants for northwest Ohio include:
■ $6 million to 2509 Hayes LLC to clean up the former KBI factory in Sandusky, a former General Motors property. Remediation will include disposal of contaminated waste. Asbestos is to be removed, and selective demolition will occur.
■ $2.5 million to the Port Authority of Northwest Ohio for cleanup of the vacant Display Components Manufacturing, a site where cathode ray tubes for televisions were made. Asbestos and other types of waste need to be removed.
■ $800,000 to help Defiance County Land Reutilization Corp. remediate a 143,000-square-foot building that was last used by SK Hand Tool Corp. Remediation includes removal of remaining concrete and soil.
■ $653,038 to help Toledo Innovation Center Landlord LLC create a technology training facility at a vacant, 1911-vintage building owned by Toledo Public Schools. Asbestos needs to be removed.
■ $500,000 to Ottawa County to help clean up the former Carroll Elementary School, which has been vacant since 2011. Asbestos and lead removal are among the items being addressed. There also will be an underground storage tank and contaminated soil removed.
■ $165,460 to the Paulding County Board of Commissioners for an assessment of the former Paulding Facility, a plant that manufactured brake linings and other automotive products from 1941 to 1984. No buildings remain on the site, but an assessment is needed before the property is redeveloped as a solar-energy farm.
■ $155,728 to the Sandusky County Land Reutilization Corp. for an assessment of the former Commercial Oil Service site, which has been vacant since the 1990s. Cleanup of this site would allow for more development in one of Fremont’s primarily residential areas.
■ $135,000 to the Paulding County Board of Commissioners for an assessment of Park Station, a former restaurant and gas station that was abandoned in the early 2010s.
■ $117,562 to help Lucas County remove asbestos from the former site of its Job and Family Services building, 3210 Monroe St. The property will become the new site for the Lucas County Department of Facilities Operations.
■ $86,700 to the Paulding County Board of Commissioners for an assessment of Paulding Theatre to determine if there is asbestos that needs to be removed prior to demolition.
■ $81,277 to help Lucas County assess the potential of a former 21-acre landfill at South Avenue and Kuhlman Drive that received waste from 1950 to 1957. The goal of the Lucas County Solid Waste Management District is to eventually develop it into a residential curbside recycling process facility.
■ $80,000 to the Paulding County Board of Commissioners for an assessment of a former Sunoco gas station and car wash that has been vacant since the late 1990s.
■ $52,125 to help the Lucas County Land Reutilization Corp. demolish North Toledo’s Elm Warehouse, which was built in 1926 but has stood vacant since the early 2000s. Asbestos needs to be removed. Once demolished, the site will be prepared for redevelopment.
The latest grants are in addition to $60 million in state brownfield grants awarded in April.
An additional $98 million in funds will be awarded in the coming months, the statement said.
Former Findlay Mayor Lydia Mihalik, now director of the Ohio Department of Development, said the funds “are significant investments in the future of our communities.”
“By cleaning up these hazardous sites, we’re creating new opportunities for economic growth that will benefit businesses and residents for years to come,” she said.
First Published June 17, 2022, 10:00 p.m.
