Toledo Shipyard operator to stop building

Despite millions of dollars in pledged public aid for modernizations and upgrades, the Toledo Shipyard?s operator has indicated that it will pull the plug by the end of October, costing the area about 70 jobs.

Wisconsin-based Manitowoc Marine Group, currently operating a shipbuilding and repair yard via its subsidiary, Toledo Shiprepair Co., met with and sent letters to local managers and employees yesterday saying the company would cease operations at the site by the end of October. Essentially, Manitowoc claims that the facility in Toledo is not competitive, productive or profitable.

The operator, which has leased the shipyard from the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority since 1992, also met with top officials of the port authority yesterday to say they would be activating a clause in their lease allowing them to move out after a notification period of 120 days. The period would begin at the end of this month, and allow the company to be free of their lease?s obligations by 31 January.

Jim Hartung, president of the port authority, said he was reviewing the lease to see if the company?s interpretation of the clause was correct. Regardless, Hartung said he would not fight too hard to keep the operator beyond its obligations. “I want an operator in that facility that is 100 percent committed, that will be aggressive in the marketplace to make that facility profitable. I?m not looking for an operator held there by some legality,” Hartung said, adding that he and others had been in negotiation with the company about upgrades at the shipyard for years, and had yet to receive a site plan.

Over the last several years, a package of public assistance was put together to modernize and upgrade the “bare bones” facility, including $5 million in federal dollars, $1 million from Lucas County, and $1.5 million from the city of Toledo. Manitowoc said, in March 2003, that it hoped to add 150 to 300 jobs to the facility.