Lights out for sizable Cleveland factory

Global manufacturing firm General Electric reportedly is working with the local government of Cleveland to push forward the demolition of a former light bulb factory in the city’s northeast corner.

In a Cleveland.com report, the factory complex is described as consisting of 13 buildings with 800,000 square feet of manufacturing space on a 22-acre parcel of land. Production ceased at the former tungsten-filament incandescent lightbulb factory in 2008.

The local media outlet quotes Marian Whiteman, GE’s executive council-brownfields, as telling a Cleveland government committee that developers have expressed interest in redeveloping the property for some kind of industrial use, in part because it includes access to a railroad line.

She also notes, however, those developers aren’t interested in buying the property until the buildings undergo an abatement process and are demolished. She also indicated the older buildings “aren’t configured for modern business practices.”

According to Cleveland.com, a Cleveland Planning Commission committee has approved the notion of demolition, giving a green light to GE to start that process. “The corporation intends to demolish the complex by next fall, in what likely amounts to one of the largest industrial demolitions in Cleveland in recent years,” Cleveland.com reports.

A brief history of GE’s presence in Cleveland prepared by Case Western Reserve University indicates light bulbs started being manufactured on the site in 1912, with plant expansions undertaken in the subsequent decades.

Two city council representatives quoted by the local news website express support for the demolition project, with one calling it “like a dream come true, because it’s not that often you get corporations like this who want to support redevelopment…and take an eyesore off of the street where [it] once operated.”

As with many vacant industrial properties throughout the United States, the complex is now described as a target for vandals and a source of safety concerns from nearby business owners and residents.

Cleveland.com says the much of the 22-acre property will require “extensive, costly environmental remediation” prior to dismantling and demolition. Sources of concern are listed as asbestos, lead paint, and mercury that was used in the lightbulb production process.

Whiteman of GE reportedly told the Cleveland city government, “This is a very expensive project. It took us three to four years internally to get the commitment for the dollars for this.”

The GE executive also reportedly indicated the company does not intend to leave the land empty and undeveloped but instead is attempting to find a developer with solid plans. Whiteman reportedly named  Milwaukee-based Phoenix Investors, which recently purchased another former GE property nearby, as a potential redevelopment firm.