By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Exercise equipment giant Peloton is peddling its unfinished manufacturing plant in Wood County for $85 million. And the county’s economic development director has high hopes that the site in Troy Township won’t sit idle for long.
“I don’t expect that building to last on the market through the summer,” said Wade Gottschalk, director of the Wood County Economic Development Commission.
Gottschalk, who gave a report last week to the Wood County Commissioners, said the roof, walls and perimeter floors are nearly complete at the site originally planned for Peloton.
“It’s mostly done,” he said.
Much of the flooring will be left unfinished, since the floor thickness varies greatly depending on the end user of the site.
“They are trying to leave it as open as possible for a variety of uses,” Gottschalk said.
There are few available sites that offer 1.2-million square feet of manufacturing space, he said of the Troy Township site under construction by Rudolph-Libbe.
“We’re trying to find the perfect match,” he said. “There aren’t many sites like this out there.”
In August of 2021, Peloton broke ground for the proposed $400 million manufacturing plant in Troy Township in Wood County.
But in February of 2022, the company backpedaled on its promise to bring more than 2,000 jobs to its first manufacturing site in the U.S. Instead, Peloton announced it planned to finish the external construction of the plant, then sell both the building and the land.
Wood County and Troy Township had what Peloton was looking for – a strong workforce, infrastructure already in place, and a location that is one day’s drive from 60% of the U.S. population.
Those characteristics are still attractive to manufacturers.
The original plan called for the plant to produce Peloton bikes and treadmills, and employ an estimated 2,147 people.
But the company had miscalculated the demand for its exercise equipment.
Peloton sales had spiked as quarantined Americans bought at-home exercise equipment as a way to stay fit. At first, the company couldn’t keep up with demand. Then Peloton faced competition from companies selling cheaper bicycles and exercise equipment. And as the pandemic waned, Americans returned to their local gyms.
Peloton had received the standard tax break from Wood County, of 100% abatement for 15 years. Gottschalk said the tax break was performance based. “They have to build and create jobs to get it,” he said.
Both Eastwood and Penta school districts had been promised revenue from Peloton, with Eastwood to get $389,000 annually and Penta to get $43,000 annually.
It’s possible that the tax abatement could transfer to a new tenant, Gottschalk said.
Gottschalk also reported to the county commissioners that his office is seeing a lot of interest in other Wood County sites.
“We’re still very busy,” he said. “We’re still seeing an incredible amount of interest in Wood County.”
Though times are far from ideal for economic development.
“We are at the whim of the U.S. economy, like everyone else,” Gottschalk said. But he added that he is not seeing companies lose interest due to rising interest rates.
“Part of this depends on the national economy chugging along as it has been,” he said.
Gottschalk told the commissioners that his office has also been working with the Wood County Fair Board on a study to find additional uses for the fairgrounds – other than just the annual fair and tractor pull.
Further development of the fairgrounds at other times of the year would benefit many entities, he said.
The economic development office is also working with Perrysburg Township officials to expand the enterprise zone to the entire township. This would allow some sites pursuing industrial projects to offer tax abatements, Gottschalk said.
