ONATARIO — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has issued a Covenant Not to Sue to RACER Trust for the former GM Mansfield/Ontario Stamping Plant Property in Ontario, certifying the completion of environmental cleanup at the property.
“Our environmental team has worked very hard to achieve this milestone,” said Elliott P. Laws, of EPLET, LLC, Administrative Trustee of RACER Trust. “Though the property has been ready for job-creating redevelopment since the day we sold it, this covenant not to sue removes once and for all any perceived obstacle to immediate investment in productive reuse of the property and jobs for the community.
“We hope this leads to redevelopment of the property without further delay.”
RACER Trust sold the property to Brownfield Communities Development Company, LLC, in 2012. BCDC at the time said it would repurpose a portion of the 2.5-million-square-foot manufacturing building and create a multi-tenant business park with approximately 1,500 jobs. The building has since been demolished and the property remains vacant.
“While we remain disappointed that the property has not yet been redeveloped, the action by Ohio EPA provides another opportunity for this site to reach its potential,” Laws said.
The former General Motors Corp. surrendered the former Mansfield/Ontario Stamping Plant Property as part of its 2009 bankruptcy proceedings. RACER Trust was given ownership of the property — and assumed GM’s cleanup obligations — in March 2011.
More than 2,500 tons of contaminated soil was removed from the property by RACER’s environmental team and disposed off-site during a cleanup process that was authorized and overseen by Ohio EPA.
A copy of the Covenant Not to Sue can be downloaded from the RACER Trust website, at http://www.racertrust.org/Properties/Detail?Id=12010.
