Former GE Plant Gets New Life With Global Vehicle Parts Manufacturer’s $32 Million Investment
As first published by Allen Johnson & Christian Taylor for CoStar.
The revival of a former General Electric plant has shown the strength of the Roanoke, Virginia industrial market with a big new tenant and plans for expansion.
STS Group, a global supplier of vehicle parts, signed a 15-year lease at 1501 Roanoke Blvd.in Salem, Virginia. The German company seeks to establish its North American headquarters and a manufacturing operation on the site, representing a $32 million investment and the creation of 119 jobs, according to a March 2023 statement from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office.
When fully completed, the new facility will supply Volvo truck assembly operations in Pulaski County, Virginia, as well as facilities throughout the Midwest and Southeast, the statement said. STS Group took about 200,000 square feet of existing space and has made significant progress on a 32,000-square-foot addition to house machine presses.
The project has been selected by a panel of local industry professionals as the winner of the 2024 CoStar Impact Award for Redevelopment of the Year for Roanoke.
The building’s owner, Milwaukee-based Phoenix Investors, helped streamline construction of the addition and other facets of the project, including the installation of new dock locations, an office renovation and a testing lab. The buildout for the addition was completed within nine months of lease execution.
About the Project: STS Group comes to Salem as an operator with production facilities in Europe, China, and the Americas.
What the Judges Said: “This was repurposing a closed General Electric plant. That more manufacturing is going into the building is great. Plus, there was a fairly large addition constructed on the rear of the existing building,” said Henry Scholz, Director of MKB Realtors.
They Made it Happen: David Marks, President and Chief Executive Officer, Phoenix Investors; Rob Stockhausen, Managing Director, Colliers Virginia; Grant Bates, Colliers Virginia.
