Report: Chrysler receives $27.5 million bid for old plant

Report: Chrysler receives $27.5 million bid for old plant
02/16/2010, 8:14 PMBy Mark Kleis
As both Chrysler and GM continue to finalize their bankruptcy processes, they are each liquidating the assets now assigned to the defunct entities which received the unwanted assets. Chrysler’s entity, Old Carco LLC, has already sold its Newark, Delaware plant for $24.2 million and now it has received a $27.5 million bid for another plant in Ohio.


According to a report by Detroit News, a series of documents were filed early this week which identified Twinsburg Industrial Park LLC as the stalking horse bidder for the Chrysler stamping plant located in Newark, Delaware. The plant currently continues to operate and is now scheduled to close on June 26, 2010, taking 400 jobs with it.

The current high bidder, Twinsburg Industrial Park LLC, is a company that was incorporated in October 2009 with Ricky Bertram as the agent for the company. Bertram is chief counsel for Park Corp., which owns Cleveland’s massive I-X Center, according to Cleveland.com. Given Park Corporation’s history of owning and managing large properties such as the nearly two million square foot facility included in the 195-acre transaction, many believe that this bid may indicate a strong possibility that jobs may be retained in some form at the plant – as opposed to the sale resulting in further liquidation of assets and splitting up of the property.

City officials, including Mayor Katherine Procop, had previously voiced concerns that a potential buyer would strip out the presses and leave the nearly two million square foot facility vacant, according to Cleveland.com.

By contrast, when Ford sold the Lorain assembly plant in 2006, it was purchased at approximately $1 a square foot, indicating intent to essentially buy the building as a shell. In the instance of the Chrysler plant, the big represents approximately $15 per square foot – indicating intention to utilize the plant for future jobs of a similar nature.

According to Ohio.com, in all there were 31 interested parties, of which seven sent letters of intent to purchase and of those one has placed an initial bid. Competing bidders must beat the bid of $27.5 million by at least $750,000 by March 5, 2010, from there the sales would go to an auction on March 10, 2010, and then to a sale hearing on March 11, 2010.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/report-chrysler-receives-27-5-million-bid-for-old-plant.html