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Do IT this week: Layering
Kansas trucking company seeking investors to buy, lease back Akron facility
By Jim Mackinnon
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Saturday, Oct 10, 2009
The former Roadway headquarters on Gorge Boulevard in Akron, part of struggling Kansas trucking company YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW), is up for sale.
Asking price for the 270,000-square-foot property: $8 million.
The site at 1077 Gorge Blvd. is where Roadway Express built its headquarters in 1962; a 180,000-square-foot, multistory addition was finished in 1986 at a cost of about $14 million.
The move to sell the Akron property mirrors similar action that YRC undertook earlier this year with its corporate headquarters in Overland Park, Kan., the company said Friday.
A company statement read:
''YRC Worldwide continues to execute its comprehensive plan to manage through this economic recession, which includes steps to regain financial strength and improve financial performance. One successful strategy for the company is monetizing certain real-estate assets to generate additional liquidity.
''We have recently listed the property at 1077 Gorge Blvd. with NAI Cummins Real Estate to seek investors for a sale and financing lease-back opportunity. It is common in the transportation industry to lease facilities, and the company
has entered into these kinds of arrangements with other real estate.
''In fact, YRC Worldwide entered into a sale/lease-back arrangement for its Overland Park headquarters property several months ago.
''In a sale/lease-back arrangement, the company will continue the employee work at the offices on Gorge Boulevard, just as it does today.
''The Akron offices remain an important part of the company's global operations.''
YRC stock dropped 11.9 percent, or 55 cents, to $4.08 on Friday. Shares are up 42 percent from Jan. 1 but are down 36 percent from a year ago.
The Akron property is close to North High School and state Route 8. The parking lot on Friday was full of cars.
YRC has been downsizing staff nationwide as part of a cost-cutting program to remain financially viable. Some industry analysts have questioned in recent months whether YRC will be able to avoid bankruptcy by next year. Company officials have disputed those reports.
Yellow Freight purchased Roadway, one of Akron's most established companies, for $1.1 billion in 2003. The merged company was eventually renamed YRC Worldwide.
Roadway's roots go back to 1930 in Akron. The Gorge Boulevard site was the company's third headquarters location since its founding.
Roadway co-founder Galen J. Roush and his second wife, Ruth, set up the GAR Foundation in 1967. The foundation has given millions to organizations over subsequent decades.
Summit County tax records list the property owner as Roadway Express Inc. The county's latest appraised value of the site is more than $9.9 million.
The Roadway property listing with commercial real-estate firm NAI Cummins says the building can be divided from 25,000 square feet to the total structure.
The company did not say how many people work at the site. The company in 2008 was one of Summit County's largest private employers, with about 2,000 people at headquarters and trucking terminals.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.
The former Roadway headquarters on Gorge Boulevard in Akron, part of struggling Kansas trucking company YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW), is up for sale.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 05:38 AM, 10/10/2009
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
''The Akron offices remain an important part of the company's global operations.''
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Mayor sure has been quiet lately. Yes, that's it! He must be in Israel trying to land an Israeli trucking company to replace Roadway!!!
Akron, OH
Posted 05:41 AM, 10/10/2009
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Summit County tax records list the property owner as Roadway Express Inc. The county's latest appraised value of the site is more than $9.9 million.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Somebody's getting a huge WRITE-OFF!! No wonder Akron is laying off police and fire! Where is the Mayor on this? You know he's got something to do with it! Yeah, yeah, that's it alright!
Akron, OH
Posted 05:43 AM, 10/10/2009
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Akron property is close to North High School and state Route 8. The parking lot on Friday was full of cars.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not for long, Jim! The mayor is outsourcing everything to New Mexico!!!
Akron, OH
Posted 07:11 AM, 10/10/2009
Hey GAR Foundation - the ex-Roadway employees need you now more than ever. How about buying the building back?? Heck, you can move in, too - there's plenty of space. Wouldn't that be an ironic twist of fate.
South Carolina, SC
Posted 08:40 AM, 10/10/2009
YRC also sold the building for their headquarters in Kansas. Must be desperate for money. When I think of how huge that place was and how many employees it once had, it makes me sick. When it was Roadway Services (including Roadway Packaging, and several small trucking companies and Roadway Express) they had well over 1500 employees. Then Packaging got sold, then Roadway Express was spinned off on it's own, and did a-ok.....until....
Yellow who was smaller started a purchase war on stock...and the Roush family sold out. See ...see what happened? And Yellow came into Akron and swore there would be little if no employee impact on job loss...yup, and Akron and the teamsters bought it.
Days without pay, pay cuts, lay offs, all because Yellow went so in debt.
The parking lot was full? not.
Now what?
akron, oh
Posted 11:36 AM, 10/10/2009
Akron has lost MANY great trucking firms. It is a sad day...
somewhere near you, US
Posted 11:44 AM, 10/10/2009
The region has been on the leading edge of economic decline for years and now the rest of the country is following your lead.
Akron can certainly show some pride in being among the first.
South Carolina, SC
Posted 02:13 PM, 10/10/2009
Remember Roadway was doing just fine, just fine, no debt and making a profit, until Yellow bought them. Akron had nothing to do with it other than the fact the mayor stated he was "told" there would be little job loss. If Roadway was standing alone without the debt Yellow put the company into, it'd survive the recent turn down in freight.
They always did better, their stock was always worth more than Yellow ...because Yellow has always been in debt...Roadway wasn't.
Orrville, Oh
Posted 06:28 PM, 10/10/2009
YRC selling its 270,000 square foot property for $8 million; and leasing; it back; won’t enable YRC; to defy demands; of Natural Law: what Mother Nature, God, or Whatever Power decreed to be the reality of the real world, God, democracy, capitalism, the US Constitution, and free, fair, and affordable commerce.
Demanding YRC; markets the cost; in the wholesale and retail price of his or her product and service; Of paying owner lease for this property; and collecting; the more stock dividends (money); without compensation; Chinese, Foreign and Domestic Investors and Stockholders (money marketers); market quarterly; in the wholesale and retail price of EVERY product and service YRC needs to provide their service; and every workers, consumers, and taxpayers living (including pension and health care); enabling parents to love, nurse, nurture, discipline, protect, and provide for every child (job) they conceive; and fund schools, infrastructure, national security, government services, and etc.; with money derived from YRC independent business profit!
akron, oh
Posted 10:07 PM, 10/11/2009
Oh boy could someone translate what Loren Eberly said..even better keep her away from the internet.
Regardless what YRCW is telling Jim, this does not mirror what was done in Overland Park. They're trying to attract ANYONE just to sell the building. This is not a leaseback. Go look at the other advertisements for properties and they'll state that it would be an opportunity for an investor to lease back to client. This does not state such in the 1077 Gorge Blvd property.
South Carolina, SC
Posted 12:32 PM, 10/12/2009
Right, because they (YRC) won't have enough employees left to "release" Gorge Blvd. If they keep any of the remaining people/jobs in Akron, they'll probably just rent another place real cheap. There are a couple of depts. in Roadway's headquarters that have remained virtually untouched with layoffs etc. Maybe not replacing employees that quit/retire, but not laying off ....yet.
Posted 12:44 AM, 10/16/2009
OhioGirlAtHeart... Do you know which departments haven't laid off employees at Roadway? I'm just curious..I retired from Roadway Express due to poor health back in 1994.
South Carolina, SC
Posted 03:32 PM, 10/18/2009
Yes I do know of two departments. Payroll and Collections
