STOW, Ohio—Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels plans to move to a new headquarters and warehouse next year in Stow that will be nearly double the size of its existing facility in the Akron suburb.
The company, a subsidiary of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., envisions building a 220,000-sq.-ft. warehouse and office building on a 15-acre parcel in Stow's Prosper Drive Industrial Park. Streetsboro, Ohio-based contractor Geis Cos. secured approvals on Oct. 15 from the Stow Planning Commission to build the facility.
Mickey Thompson, a designer, developer and distributor of specialty tires for the street, drag strip, truck and off-road markets, occupies a 122,000-sq.-ft. building on the same street in Stow industrial park, where it's operated since 1995.
The company employs 58 at that location and plans to hire six more in connection with the expansion, according to comments attributed to Joe Kohut, Mickey Thompson's controller, speaking at a Sept. 8, 2015, meeting of the Stow Financial Assistance Committee. That document also puts the approximate investment at $12 million.
According to minutes of the Oct. 25 planning commission meeting, Greg Seifert, the in-house architect of Geis, said the building would replace Mickey Thompson's current facility. The current building also is owned by an affiliate of Geis, according to online realty data provider CoStar.
Plans for the new property include a 20,000-sq.-ft. single-story office space within the structure. The remainder will be devoted primarily to warehousing, as the plan calls for that space to be 39 feet tall, allowing for more storage capacity.
Stow City Council approved revising an existing tax abatement for Mickey Thompson at its meeting Oct. 27. The tax abatement was revised so that rather than supporting a project starting in March 2016, as the abatement originally indicated, it will begin by December 2016 and will be finished by Nov. 30, 2017.
The tax abatement is for 10 years and is for 100 percent of the approved property.
The city agreement for the abatement was signed for Mickey Thompson by Joseph Kohut, the company's treasurer, who declined comment on the project.
Greg Geis, the principal at Geis Cos., declined comment in an email.
Neither Stow Mayor Sara Kline nor other officials returned calls asking for comment on the project.
Bruce Davis, Tire Business staff, also contributed to this story.