July 31, 2009

BorgWarner plant sold

By KEITH ROYSDON
kroysdon@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE -- A Youngstown, Ohio, businessman has purchased Muncie's million-square-foot BorgWarner Automotive plant with plans to redevelop it.

William Marsteller bought the former Kilgore Avenue plant -- which shuttered in April -- in a deal worked out through local real estate developer Mike Lunsford.

Marsteller announced he will rename the plant -- purchased for an undisclosed amount from BorgWarner Automotive -- Muncie International Commerce Park.

The BorgWarner plant features 1.2 million square feet of office, production and laboratory space and is nearly a half-mile long.

Lunsford said Marsteller plans to develop the building to attract companies that will create jobs.

"I already have several prospects," Lunsford said. "We had a site selector for a company in the state last week. I hope this acts like an activity generator."

Roy Budd, executive director of Energize-ECI, a multi-county economic development group, said the sale was "a wonderful opportunity for our region to have someone come in and develop that property."

"It would have been a shame to waste it," said Terry Murphy, vice president for economic development for the Muncie-Delaware County Economic Development Alliance.

Since the BorgWarner building is so big, Lunsford said it was most likely companies would lease portions of the building.

Marsteller did not return a phone call left Thursday by The Star Press, but in a press release announcing the sale, Marsteller noted the BorgWarner plant was "well-maintained and ready for occupancy" and that it would be "ideal for logistics and warehousing, pallet manufacturing, plastics companies, plus other manufacturing types, life sciences -- there are really no limits to what would work on portions of the 125-acre site."

Marsteller is the redeveloper of several Youngstown industrial properties and now lives in Florida. In the press release, he cited similarities between Muncie, which has lost thousands of auto industry jobs in the past few decades, and Youngstown, which has lost tens of thousands of steel industry jobs.

"We're proud to be part of the renaissance of the Muncie-Yorktown area," Marsteller said in the press release.

Two mayors in the Youngstown, Ohio, area said they had good, if limited, dealings with Marsteller.

"My experience has always been a good experience," Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams told The Star Press. "He has a good reputation, that's my impression."

Jack Dill, mayor of Campbell, Ohio, where Marsteller owns property, said, "I can't complain about Bill at all. I've had some good success with Bill. Does he do everything that I would like him to do? No, but at the end of the day, he does come through."

Marsteller has Indiana investments, including the former NATCO industrial property in the Richmond area. Marsteller bought the property in 2005.

Lunsford said the sale of the building will be final this fall. He said he was unable to disclose a sale price until that time, but said it was less than BorgWarner's asking price of $9 million because Marsteller will handle any environmental cleanup of the building.

Lunsford credited former BorgWarner plant manager Doug Owenby with working to ensure the plant was not razed before a buyer could be found.

"Doug fought to keep that plant," Lunsford said. "At the end of the day, it would cost BorgWarner to take it down, so I don't know that it was completely altruistic, but finding a guy like Bill Marsteller was important to them."

When BorgWarner closed the Muncie plant in April, only about 300 employees still worked there, although at least that many had been laid off in the months since the closing was announced two years earlier. The plant employed more than 6,000 at its peak in the 1950s.