Merchants are hoping for a Valentine’s Day validation.Retailers and others are looking for any signs that an economic comeback is truly mounting.Fort Wayne entrepreneur Jerry Henry Jr. has acquired the plant that used to house Zollner Pistons and expects a manufacturer to put 200 people to work there.
Henry said Wednesday that he had signed a non-binding letter of intent with a Pennsylvania company that could bring 200 jobs to the plant.
“I don’t need another building,” Henry said. “I don’t need another company. If we don’t create 200 jobs in six months, I’ll be very disappointed.”
Henry declined to disclose the name of the Pennsylvania trailer manufacturer or the price at which he bought the 400,000-square-foot building from Karl Schmidt Unisia Inc. But he said the building, at 2425 Coliseum Blvd. S., was well maintained by Karl Schmidt and its location near the intersection with East Washington Boulevard is attractive.
“It’s like being at Main and Main,” Henry said.
If the deal with the Pennsylvania company falls through, Henry said he’ll move one of his companies, Midwest Pipe and Steel Inc., and its 100 employees into the plant. Midwest Pipe and Steel is housed in a building Henry owns at 2001 E. Pontiac St.
Marinette, Wis.-based Karl Schmidt announced in April it would close the piston plant, which employed only 38 after being ravaged by the auto industry downturn. Karl Schmidt bought the business, which employed 1,200 at its peak, from Zollner Pistons in 1999.
Former company owner Fred Zollner started company softball and basketball teams that won world titles in the mid-1940s, according to “The Zollner Piston Story,” published in 1995.
In 1949, the National Basketball Association was formed when Zollner brought together leaders of two predecessor leagues at his Fort Wayne home. In 1957, the Pistons, a charter member, moved to Detroit.
Henry owns an interest in more than 50 area businesses that employ more than 1,000.
He has made a specialty of buying and breathing new life into industrial facilities that seemed to be past their prime. For example, Henry and two others in August bought a Garrett manufactured-housing plant out of bankruptcy and preserved about 80 jobs.
Henry said Wednesday he hopes to do something similar with the building that used to house Fred Zollner’s company. “I want to be like these old industrialists,” Henry said. “Fred Zollner was a legendary businessman and entrepreneur.”
