Jacoby Development recently bought a second shuttered Ford plant, and is on the hunt for more. Industrial redevelopment is becoming a niche for the Atlanta-based firm.
First, Jacoby redeveloped a former Atlanta steel mill into Atlantic Station. Then, it bought and cleaned up the former Ford plant in Hapeville, adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Last week, Jacoby bought a Ford plant in Norfolk, Va., turned around and sold half of it to Belgium-based Katoen Natie, a global logistics company.
But not all sites are created equal, said Scott Condra, senior vice president of development for Jacoby.
In a conversation with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he said Jacoby’s long-term plans call for buying more industrial sites, but only if the price and circumstances are right. His answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Why buy a second Ford plant now?
A: The purchase of the Hapeville plant was about two years ago, and I’ve become very close with the Ford land people. Because of our environmental remediation experience, they showed us the rest of their portfolio. It was the right time to do this deal because Katoen was ready to buy and reuse the site. And of course, in the last two years the land prices have dropped.
Q: Why the Norfolk plant?
A: Henry Ford picked that site in the 1920s and built the original plant there for its access to Chesapeake Bay. First it produced model Ts, and by the 1970s, exclusively F-150 trucks. It’s the largest industrial-zoned site Norfolk. It has direct rail access to the Port of Virginia, eight miles away. ...And the port is dredged to 50 feet, so they can accept the ships that will go through the expanded Panama Canal.
Q: What do you want to develop there?
A: After the Katoen deal, we have 50 acres to develop. We think it’s a good site for supply chain activities, or possibly manufacturing wind turbines that could be placed off the coast of Virginia.
Q: How did you finance the deal?
A: As it turns out, because of the Katoen purchase, we didn’t need financing.
Q: You pulled out of buying the former GM plant in Doraville. Why?
A: We did it at the time, a year and half ago, because we had concerns. The site wasn’t adjacent to a port and it was better suited for a mixed-use development. It didn’t make financial sense at the price that GM was asking for.
Q: Are you looking to buy more Ford plants?
A: Potentially. We’re looking at another one right now and other plants throughout the country. Because now we know everything that went on at these plants, and how you clean them up.
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