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New owner foresees warehouses, eateries, shops, even possible hotel on North Canton campus
By Jim Mackinnon
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Tuesday, Jan 29, 2008
North Canton lost a premier maker of vacuum cleaners, and its largest private employer, when the new owner of the Hoover Co. closed the aging headquarters and factory in 2007.
But over the next several years, the small Stark County city might get a new 100-room hotel in Hoover's place.
Plus shops, restaurants, light manufacturing, warehouses and more. All told, between 350 and 850 jobs might be created where as many as 2,400 people worked during Hoover's peak years.
That's the vision of Maple Street Commerce Ltd., the new owner of the 88-acre Hoover campus in the heart of North Canton's downtown. The real-estate venture closed on the property Monday morning, buying it from TTI Floor Care North America, Hoover's new corporate parent.
''Change is inevitable,'' Mayor David Held said in a news conference announcing the new ownership plans before as many as 150 people in the auditorium of the former Hoover headquarters building known as the ''White House.''
The three faces behind Ma
ple Street Commerce are familiar with redeveloping aging Northeast Ohio sites: Stuart Lichter, founder and head of California-based Industrial Realty Group, Chris Semarjian of Industrial Commerce Ltd. and Cleveland real-estate firm NAI Daus, and Realtor Bob DeHoff of North Canton's DeHoff Development Co.
Lichter and Semarjian are the developers behind the $900 million Goodyear headquarters project in Akron and other large industrial properties in the region.
DeHoff, meanwhile, counts among his projects the new Hilton Garden Inn at the Gateway Corporate Park off Interstate 77 near Akron-Canton Airport.
The Hoover complex is outdated and inefficient for large manufacturing operations, but its space lends itself to small companies, DeHoff said. Small and midsize companies in Northeast Ohio are the ones adding jobs, he said.
''Two years from now the building will be teeming with employees,'' DeHoff said.
Semarjian said that while the developers have a vision for the site, market forces ultimately will determine what kind of businesses move in.
One tenant, still unnamed, has signed to use warehouse space, he said. By May, there will be four tenants using the property, Semarjian said.
Hotel idea studied
Maple Street Commerce is awaiting the results in the next 90 days of a study it commissioned to see whether a 100-unit hotel is feasible, he said. He put the chances of a hotel at just 30 percent, calling it a ''very speculative'' proposal.
The retailers they want to bring in will be aimed at serving the local community and will not be ''big box'' types, Semarjian said.
Likewise, large manufacturers will not be moving in, either, he said.
''You are never going to see the big behemoths come back in,'' Semarjian said.
The crowd in the auditorium applauded when Semarjian said the developers are negotiating to give the athletic fields on the property to the North Canton school system.
So far, no public money has been used as part of the Hoover project, Held and Semarjian said. But Semarjian said developers will be seeking public funds at some point.
The property needs a lot of work, Semarjian said. Even while closed, the Hoover campus uses $300,000 in natural gas and $100,000 in electricity a month, he said.
''We're going to cut those bills down,'' he said.
The amount of investment could reach as high as $60 million if the hotel and all of the residential proposals are built, he said.
'On the right track'
Among those at the news conference were Larry Hoover, great-grandson of the company founder.
''It's exciting. A lot of details to come,'' he said. ''These guys are on the right track and they'll do a good job. I think it will be a great thing for the city.''
While Semarjian declined to say how much Maple Street Commerce paid TTI for the Hoover property, Stark County records show Maple Street Commerce took out a $5 million mortgage to buy the site. Semarjian said he and Lichter had been trying to buy the North Canton property for years, going back to when Maytag Corp. owned Hoover.
While TTI sold off the North Canton site, it kept 150 employees at its Stark County distribution center and bag assembly plant in downtown Canton. Corporate headquarters is in Glenwillow, a southeast Cleveland suburb. Besides Hoover, TTI owns the Dirt Devil brand.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.
North Canton lost a premier maker of vacuum cleaners, and its largest private employer, when the new owner of the Hoover Co. closed the aging headquarters and factory in 2007.
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