A company that redevelops old industrial buildings bought the former HPM building and land in Mount Gilead, Ohio, at a May 8 auction conducted by the Morrow County Sheriff's Office.
Middlefield Industrial Complex Inc., based in Warren, Ohio, bought the aging building and the 80-acre property for $370,000, President William Marsteller said. The minimum opening big was $300,000.
The company will rehabilitate the building and seek tenants. Marsteller said his firm likes to find a single tenant for its industrial buildings, but HPM also could end up being occupied by two or three tenants.
The 400,000-square-foot HPM building closed in December 2009, ending production in Mount Gilead of injection presses, extruders, sheet extrusion lines and die-casting machines. The contents were auctioned off in 2011.
HPM was founded in 1877 to make apple presses.
“There are not a lot of buildings of that size available,” Marsteller said.
Marsteller said his company has done 20 industrial redevelopment projects, including Johnson Rubber Co. in Middlefield, Ohio, and Youngstown Steel Door in Youngstown, Ohio.
He said that a year ago, when scrap prices were high, the HPM factory could have been attractive for scrappers who would have bought the building, then demolished it. Now it has a chance for a new life.