AKRON (April 11) — Goodyear is considering building a new corporate headquarters on a several-acre plot of land south of its existing technical center in east Akron, provided adequate support from local, state and federal sources can be arranged, Akron Mayor Donald Plusquellic said today.
Goodyear is not actively looking for a new headquarters location, according to Executive Vice President Joe Gingo, who said nonetheless he was tasked several months ago to look at the situation — Goodyear´s existing corporate headquarters is housed in a converted 80-year-old, five-floor tire factory — and come up with parameters for a new facility to house the tire maker´s headquarters staff of 3,000.
"Our outdated facilities are not conducive to effective and efficient business in today´s standards," Gingo said at a news conference held at the company´s technical center. Trying to keep the existing headquarters updated technologically was a "logistics mess," he said, and the building and its facilities are not up to the standards one would expect from a Fortune 150 company. The headquarters was last renovated in 1973.
Goodyear has not been approached by other communities seeking to entice the company to move, Gingo said. Mayor Plusquellic countered that comment, adding: "There´ll be 20 or more lining up now to try it."
Goodyear declined to discuss details of how big or expensive a new headquarters would be, other than to say the existing structure has about 800,000 square feet of usable space and would cost "in the millions." An ideal new headquarters would be a more open, campus-like structure, Gingo said, pointing to the firm´s technical center, which opened 24 years ago after a $125 million renovation project.