A voracious Northeast Ohio real estate developer has purchased the Sherwin-Williams Co.’s technical center, a 105-acre campus in Warrensville Heights.
Industrial Commercial Properties LLC bought the property on Friday, Dec. 15. The parties would not disclose the price for the site, which includes 435,000 square feet of buildings.
Sherwin-Williams has approximately 440 employees in Warrensville Heights, where the publicly traded company has been a major employer since 2000. Those workers eventually will move to Brecksville, leaving behind a longtime industrial site in an inner-ring eastern suburb.
“The site will be redeveloped to support new industrial business in the community, and we are pleased to support this significant investment in Warrensville Heights,” said Julie Young, a Sherwin-Williams spokeswoman, in an emailed statement.
Industrial Commercial Properties, or ICP for short, has a track record of reinventing real estate.
Through a joint venture, the Mayfield Heights-based developer turned the old American Greetings Corp. headquarters in Brooklyn into a multi-tenant complex. Today, that property is home to 14 companies and more workers than American Greetings ever employed there, ICP owner Chris Semarjian said in a written statement.
ICP also has transformed dead and dying shopping malls into new business parks. That includes Randall Park Mall, which once stood less than a mile down Warrensville Center Road from the Sherwin-Williams research campus. A mammoth Amazon fulfillment center replaced the mall, with new and renovated buildings around it.
“This project is an exciting new venture for our company. We have extensive experience working with municipalities to redevelop large corporate campuses,” Semarjian said.
Chris Salata, ICP’s chief operating officer, said the company doesn’t have a firm plan yet for the Warrensville Heights property, which sits across the street from the Jack Thistledown Racino. The developer expects to keep and redevelop two small buildings at the southern end of the site, off Emery Road.
The rest of the buildings, off Warrensville Center, will be demolished. They house offices, labs, research facilities and a pilot plant, according to marketing materials from CBRE Group.“This could be a business park,” Salata said in an interview. “There could be light industrial, commercial. There may be opportunities for retail here. … We’re trying to keep an open mind.” Click here to read entire article on Crainscleveland.com
