County to buy ADS offices

FINDLAY — The Hancock County commissioners this week voted to buy Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS) offices on Olive Street for $2.1 million for county offices. The commissioners, for now, have declined to specify which county departments would be moved into the 25,000-square-foot building at 401 Olive St. That will be disclosed in early March, they said. The deal with ADS is expected to close in April. ADS will continue to own and operate manufacturing facilities to the east, at 433 Olive St. The commissioners for years have been wanting to buy office space instead of making lease payments. The ADS property was recently brought to their attention. "A citizen in the community told us, 'Hey, this is going to be up for sale,'" Commissioner William Bateson said. The commissioners had been looking at a couple of other properties, but those had flaws. "We looked at one, it would have been satisfactory for office space but it had no parking, so that one wasn't up to snuff," Bateson said. The ADS property, on the other hand, offers about 120 parking spaces. "There was another one, it had plenty of parking, but the remodeling costs would have been exorbitant, and we didn't want to go there," Bateson said. Remodeling will not be an issue at 401 Olive St. "This building is in near-move-in condition. There is going to be very little renovation that is needed," Commissioner Timothy Bechtol said. "This is office space (usable) now." The 18 ADS workers who had been working at 401 Olive St. have been moved to Riverside Suites, the former Kodak building, at 1100 E. Main Cross St. The building at 401 Olive St. once was the workplace of 100 workers when Hancor operated its headquarters there. Hancor was purchased by ADS in 2006. ADS also has a plant on County Road 172, just south of Findlay, which produces pipe for agriculture and construction. It employs about 110. It was built as the first Hancor plant in 1970. ADS is headquartered in Hilliard. In addition, it opened a 110,000-square-foot engineering and technology center in Hilliard in October. The center includes labs for product development, material science and manufacturing technology development. ADS has 50 manufacturing plants in North America, 30 of which produce pipe. Some of ADS' other plants have produced drainage systems for stadiums and other large systems.