Amazon could've come to town

VERMILION — Almost a year ago, an unnamed company wanted to pursue a massive, and likely multimillion-dollar, project on barren land in Vermilion. That company could have been Amazon, which eyed the site for a potential fulfillment center. That's where incoming orders are received and shipped out to customers. Jim Forthofer, the city's mayor, recently confirmed the vast internet-based enterprise's possible interest in building a 1.4 million-square-foot, factory-size warehouse at Baumhart Road and Ohio 2. A quick search shows no other such centers exist in the area. The closest others are located in places like Akron, Canton and the greater metropolitan Toledo area. During negotiations with Vermilion, a select few in the know didn't reveal Amazon's name due to the real estate deal's pending status. But it got out now since this deal never came to fruition — and here's why, as explained by Forthofer. "The developer's original distribution prospects either chose to look at other sites or changed their distribution approach while a few local families litigated the zoning change," said Forthofer, noting Amazon worked with two development companies, serving as "middlemen," on figuring out these logistics. "According to the developer, the client was within 40 days of breaking ground before a possible referendum then litigation was filed," Forthofer said. When this occurred, the fulfillment center, likely Amazon, apparently hesitated, balked at coming to Vermilion and ultimately withdrew its consideration. This translated to, what's likely, millions of dollars lost for the local economy, Forthofer said. Though some activity could still occur at the site. "Now that a lawsuit has been withdrawn, all 119 acres of the property have been cleared as 'light industrial zoning,'" Forthofer said. "We get regular blind inquiries from other companies about utility services to the property, especially wastewater service. The required volumes of wastewater service suggest these new interested parties are manufacturing businesses rather than distributors." A timeline of events Following is a look at notable events, previously reported by the Register, transpiring over the past few months to best understand what happened with this deal. In December 2021 Vermilion's city council unanimously approved plans, by a 7-0 vote, to rezone an entire 119-acre site at the corner of Baumhart Road and Ohio 2 as "light industrial." The elected officials also supported a special variance on this site, which would allow a building to stand 65 feet high. In this particular zoned area, all Vermilion-based projects need variances if a structure exceeds 45 feet in height. Representatives from two development companies — Detroit-based Sterling Group and Dallas-headquartered Hillwood Group — proposed their joint concept. It's believed these are the groups that directly communicated with Amazon. Many specifics weren't divulged — such as the type of business/industry, a construction timeline or estimated investment — other than these two. The company wanted to: • Build a 1 million-square-foot, factory-size warehouse on this site • Establish a parking lot big enough for 1,000 employees At the time, Forthofer, an advocate of the project, believes it would have been a complete "game-changer" "This can help infuse our small town on a great lake with much better infrastructure than what we have now," he said. "We have the potential to diversify our tax base from the backs on the taxpayers to it possibly being shared with a large commercial partner. That's huge." In January 2022 The mayor's office received documents, or petitions, containing more than 500 signatures from local residents seemingly opposed to this project. In short, the petitions aimed to create a referendum, or citywide vote, letting residents decide whether this land should be rezoned and at what height buildings can stand. Those signing the petitions eyed November as a time when such a contest would occur. At the time, officials believed if a referendum moved forward, all activity on the site would get paused until a definitive outcome would be reached. "It freezes what council did," Forthofer said. In February 2022 Vermilion officials sent these petitions, filled with signatures, to those representing the elections boards in Erie and Lorain counties. Upon sending these documents back to Vermilion, its finance director, Amy Hendricks, discovered several problems with them. She reviewed them with Forthofer and city law director Susan Keating-Anderson. "We scrutinized the petitions and noticed there were some fatal errors," Forthofer said. "While the signatures may be valid, we have determined the entire process for collecting them was flawed." For instance, Forthofer claims there were two ordinances cited on one petition. "Each petition needs to address each ordinance separately," said Forthofer, who didn't want to get into further specifics, citing legal reasons. "We have nothing against referendums, but they can't be sloppy, inaccurate and misrepresentative like these petitions are." Pointing out these problems, city officials refuse to send these petitions back to both elections boards, for a second time, which would trigger a referendum, or vote, in November's election. At least in Erie County, it's rare a referendum process occurs — and it's even rarer for a government to stymie it from occurring, commissioner Matt Old said. In fact, Old, a historian on local elections, can't remember this ever happening before in Erie County's past. In September 2022 Forthofer confirmed Amazon's previous interest in the site.