EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — Nela Park, the home of GE Lighting and considered the world's first industrial park, will soon be under new ownership.
An affiliate of Milwaukee-based Phoenix Investors has reached a definitive purchase agreement to acquire the 109-year-old park on Noble Road in East Cleveland. GE Lighting will continue to operate in its 93-acre campus after signing a long-term lease. Approximately 250 employees work at GE Lighting.
Nela Park's beloved holiday lighting tradition will continue.
“This is great news for our business and the future of Nela Park, as well as East Cleveland and other surrounding cities,” said Kathy Sterio, President of GE Lighting, a Savant company. “Phoenix has a track record of success reinvigorating and investing in commercial real estate to attract new tenants and will bring that same approach to historic Nela Park.”
The new owners are tasked with attracting new tenants to fill the rest of the historic space. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of March.
“We’re excited at the prospect of expanding our footprint in Ohio with Nela Park,” said Frank Crivello, Founder & Chairman, Phoenix Investors. “Revitalization is one of our core values; we plan to both honor the Park’s history and embrace its future with thoughtful renovations while attracting high-quality tenants to the area.”
Meanwhile, GE Lighting has also announced that it is closing two of its Ohio plants. The company will shutter its Bucyrus light bulb plant, as well as its Logan glass plant. There is no word yet on when the plants will officially close.
"Two products are manufactured at the GE Lighting, a Savant company, plants. Linear fluorescent lamps continue to experience a double-digit decline in demand across the lighting industry year over year for the last five years," said Ben Sabol, Director of Communications for GE Lighting, a Savant company, in an email to 3News. "Energy efficient halogen lamps have already been regulated off the market by California and Nevada, and proposed federal policy will soon eliminate its manufacture and sale in the US."
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) reacted to the news of the plant closings in the following statement: “Once again, we are witnessing the result of decades of misguided tax and trade policies that work against Ohio workers and companies that want to manufacture in the U.S. I have been fighting alongside the men and women of GE-Savant for years, and I won’t stop fighting for them and their community now. This announcement should serve as a wake-up call – innovation happens on the shop room floor, and when 99% of energy efficient light bulbs are made in China, it is impossible for us to compete. We need to make more things in America – not cede market share in the products of the future to China.”
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