Former General Motors Plant Trades in Upstate New York

March 3, 2020

Deals Featured Industrial NewsMoreNortheast

A trust created in the aftermath of the company’s bankruptcy has sold the property in metro Syracuse, N.Y., to a local owner-operator of industrial properties.

Salina Industrial Powerpark. Image courtesy of RACER Trust

RACER Trust has agreed to sell the 805,000-square-foot Salina Industrial Powerpark in Salina, N.Y., to RAV Properties. Both the property and the buyer are in the Syracuse, N.Y., area. The purchase price was not disclosed.

The building, formerly the GM Inland Fisher Guide plant, sits on an approximately 78.5-acre site that’s essentially adjacent to the New York State Thruway (I-90) and about 2 miles east of I-81. It reportedly is about two-thirds occupied by 11 tenants.

Salina Industrial Powerpark. Image courtesy of RACER Trust

In 2009, the then General Motors Corp. relinquished ownership of the building as part of its Chapter 11 reorganization. RACER (Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response) Trust took title in 2011 and has since operated it as a multi-tenant industrial park.

Information from the leasing broker, Cushman & Wakefield affiliate Pyramid Brokerage Co., indicates that available spaces at the property range from 28,800 to 109,300 square feet.

Remediation and redevelopment

RACER Trust, based in Detroit, was created in 2011 to clean up and position for redevelopment various former GM properties. At that time, RACER was one of the nation’s largest holders of industrial property and was the largest environmental response and remediation trust in U.S. history. Its initial property holdings were at 89 locations in 14 states, principally in the Midwest and Northeast.

A RACER spokesperson told Commercial Property Executive, “The property does have environmental impacts.” For example, RACER maintains a sub-slab depressurization system to control sub-slab soil vapors (vapor intrusion), as well as a stormwater and groundwater treatment system, and will continue to do so even once this sale has closed. An RAV Properties spokesperson said that the company will focus initially on the asset’s immediate needs, potential capital improvements and leasing the remaining space.

Last June, independent hardware distributor Orgill announced plans to build its first distribution center in the Northeast, in Rome, N.Y. The $68 million, 780,000-square-foot facility will have the potential to expand to 1 million square feet.