Ashley Capital finalized the purchase of 18+ acres of land from RACER Trust at the corner of Eckles Road and Amrhein Road in Livonia, Michigan, ideally located near I-96 and I-275.
The newly acquired 18-acre parcel is part of the former GM Delco Chassis property. When added to the 20 acres that Ashley purchased in 2014, the site now totals over 38 acres and will house a 365,000 square foot industrial facility that is expected to yield 200 new jobs for the community. Ashley is already familiar with this particular location having recently developed a 1.1 million square foot fulfillment center for Amazon in 2017 on an adjacent site.
“Ashley Capital is a proven, successful developer of industrial properties, as demonstrated by their transformative work at the formerly vacant Delco Chassis property and elsewhere,” said Elliott P. Laws, of EPLET, LLC, Administrative Trustee of RACER Trust. “RACER’s redevelopment mission compels us to secure buyers who will maximize a property’s reuse potential for the benefit of our communities, and Ashley Capital is helping us fulfill our mission in Livonia.”
“The success of our previous work on this property, along with favorable market conditions for industrial properties overall, gives us confidence that there will be more than sufficient demand to support this investment,” said Susan Harvey, Senior Vice President of Ashley Capital.
Ashley Capital intends to invest a total of $32 million in the build-out, scheduled for completion by April 2022. Pictured below is a rendering of the new Livonia industrial development project.
Ashley Capital already has a strong footprint in Livonia, including the 1.1 million square foot Plymouth Road Technical Center; 2 million square foot Livonia Corporate Center; 480,000 square foot Mastronardi Produce Distribution Center; and the 1 million square foot Livonia Distribution Center.
“Ashley Capital has long been a reliable partner to the City of Livonia, and their work has resulted in new opportunities for thousands of people in our community,” said Livonia Mayor, Maureen Miller Brosnan. She added that, “I appreciate their ongoing investment, as well as the work of RACER Trust to prepare this property to generate additional local economic benefits and jobs.”
View Video of the Livonia, MI Industrial Real Estate Property
About Ashley Capital, LLC: Founded in 1984, Ashley Capital has become one of the largest privately held real estate investment companies in the United States. Based in New York, the firm has offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, and Grand Rapids. Ashley pursues opportunistic investments, creating value by acquiring and redeveloping underperforming industrial and office properties; developing and managing new business parks; helping corporations reposition their real estate holdings; and advising financial institutions and tax-exempt investors on asset enhancement. For more information, contact us.
About RACER Trust: RACER (Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response) Trust was created to clean up and position for redevelopment properties and other facilities owned by the former General Motors Corp. before its 2009 bankruptcy. When it was formed in 2011, RACER was one of the largest holders of industrial property in the United States 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. The Trust was created by a settlement agreement in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court between the U.S. Government, the 14 states where the former GM properties are located, and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, which owns land adjoining one of the properties in Upstate New York. For more information, please visit RACER Trust’s website: www.racertrust.org.