ONTARIO – The city of Ontario has officially acquired the former General Motors property, according to Mayor Randy Hutchinson.

Less than two months after the city announced its intentions to take possession of the 267-acre West Fourth Street property, it was transferred from the Ontario Business Park to the city of Ontario on Tuesday, Nov. 6, a representative from the Richland County Auditor’s office confirmed.

“We’re excited to be in control of our own destiny,” Hutchinson said.

Before acquiring the property, Hutchinson met with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Richland Community Development Group (RCDG), Team NEO (Northeast Ohio), a brownfield expert and others.

The conversations left him feeling optimistic about the property’s future.

“I’m still very excited,” he said. “We’ll start working on getting some things moving forward.”

Hutchinson and other city officials haven’t been on the property since beginning negotiations to take possession of the property with the Ontario Business Park and its developers, the Adler Group of Miami, Florida.

“We wouldn’t step on it until we owned it,” Hutchinson said.

He believes clean up could start throughout the winter, depending on the weather, and will speed up in the spring.

Ontario city officials first shared their plans to acquire the former General Motors property on Sept. 19.

Officials agreed to take control of the property rather than filing a lawsuit and fighting for $1 million in escrow.

In June 2017, city officials had sent Ontario Business Park a notice of default of surety guaranty under the development agreement, where the city alleged the owners were in default because they had not created the required 500 jobs on the site within the first 5-year term of that agreement at the property.

The notice informed the owners that their $1 million in escrow must be forfeited to the city because of this. However, the Adler Group argued that the notice was untimely and threatened legal action against the city.

A lengthy discussion in November 2017 left the city and the Adler Group at odds, but the two parties settled their differences. Both city officials and a representative from the Adler Group said they were on the same page in September.

Ontario City Council held an economic development committee meeting last month to discuss the property’s future and develop an action plan. They covered how the “press prep” building, which was once used by GM for stamping preparation, could be used and how they might layout the property.

Also at that time, Hutchinson shared he’d heard from at least three companies with interest in leasing the property’s nearly 40,000 square-foot “press prep” building or a space on its large concrete slab.

Tuesday, he said, city officials would have to follow up with those businesses.