Location, location, location — Rossford has it, and businesses want it, the city’s mayor says.
At Monday’s meeting, Rossford City Council voted to approve the rezoning of 5.4 acres from planned commercial to planned industrial.
The properties, which are 2.1 and 2.3 acres, had been owned by ProMedica, Mayor Neil MacKinnon III said. They are now owned by Choice Crossroads Development LLC, which owns everything around the parcels, he said.
“That is turning into an industrial business park,” Mr. MacKinnon said of the Bass Pro Shops area.
Whiteford Kenworth Trucking will soon be there, along with an as-of-yet unnamed company, Mr. MacKinnon said.
Murphy Tractor and Equipment Company is also in the vicinity, along with Perrysburg Animal Hospital, he said.
Rossford is attractive because of its location, Mr. MacKinnon said.
“I-75 is the longest north-south highway in the country; 80-90 is the longest east-west highway in the country, and they interchange in Rossford, Ohio,” he said.
“On top of that, we’re within a day’s drive of almost 70 percent of the population of North America, and we’re less than 50 miles away from the new Gordie Howe Bridge to Canada,” Mr. MacKinnon said. “I just know that we have some assets and a great location.”
In the next year, there are over a dozen development projects in the works, he said.
“We have right now ... 12 new industrial-light manufacturing projects that are in the que,” Mr. MacKinnon said. “I think 2024 to the first quarter of 2025 will eclipse all other years.”
He said he expects the total development that is coming will be even bigger than the Amazon Fulfillment Center Warehouse project, also in the Crossroads Parkway. It opened in late 2020.
“That was a once-in-a-lifetime development,” he said.
Allyson Murray, city administrator, said the new zoning approved on Monday will match the rest of the area.
“Everything else in that area is planned industrial,” she said, adding that the city planning commission also approved the rezoning.
Also at the meeting, council was told that Glenwood Road has reopened. In addition, members were told that leaf pickup had started Monday, and continues until the first snowfall.
First Published October 24, 2023, 9:11 p.m.
