Continental's long good-bye in Elma
Jamison Road plant is closing, 3 years after shutdown was announced
The bad news for Continental Automotive Systems' Elma plant came in November 2006.
The site, which employed 380 people at the time, would be shut down. But unlike many plant closings that happen swiftly, Continental's phaseout would unfold over three years.
Now the end has arrived, on the schedule Continental had forecast. Production stopped at the Jamison Road plant early this month, said Sue Frederick, a Michigan-based spokeswoman for Continental, which is headquartered in Germany.
A "couple dozen" employees will continue working at the site through the end of this year, and Continental expects a "very small team" to stay through mid-January to wrap up administrative and operational matters, Frederick said.
The shutdown takes away a significant, longtime employer and leaves a large piece of industrial real estate to fill.
Continental's plant, which for most of its existence was a Motorola plant, made products such as relays and sensors for vehicle makers and component manufacturers. Back in 2006, the company blamed the planned shutdown on the need to reduce costs in a global economy and a softening of the auto industry. Conditions in the auto industry since then worsened, and manufacturing jobs have continued to disappear.
The Elma plant scaled back production as certain products reached the end of their life cycles, and it merged the remaining sensor operations and service from Elma with other Continental facilities in Asia, Frederick said.
"The transition has gone smoothly as a result of the commitment, professionalism and hard work of the employees at the facility," she said in a statement.
Continental announced in April 2006 it was acquiring Motorola's automotive electronics business for $1 billion. Only months later came word the Elma site would be closed.
"I think, in my opinion, it was a situation of buying out your competitor to close it," said Elma Supervisor Michael P. Nolan.
Nolan said he felt Continental's departure was part of a larger issue that the federal government must confront: jobs being shipped overseas. "Nothing could have kept them in Western New York, even if they didn't pay one dollar in taxes," he said.
Continental's decision was also a blow to its employees, some of whom had long careers with Motorola before the new owner entered the picture.
Stan Gunsolus started with Motorola in Arcade in 1981, and moved with the company eight years later to its newly built plant in Elma. When rumors surfaced that the local operation would be sold to a company called Continental, the name was unfamiliar to many employees, he said.
But when they learned it was a European company with a strong background in the automotive business, they felt encouraged, Gunsolus said.
"Things were looking good for a while, with a lot of work coming our way," Gunsolus said. "It seemed like people around Elma enjoyed having a large businesses there as we had many area business and shops participate in the Thanksgiving and Christmas promotions and gift cards from Continental."
Gunsolus worked in the reliability test lab, which had "more work than we could handle" testing products for other Continental plants. Then came the shutdown announcement.
"It was a low point for me and for many people in the plant and around the area," Gunsolus said. Work in his lab dried up quickly, and he was laid off by Continental in August 2008. He now operates his own Web site and computer business.
While Nolan is sorry to see Continental's plant close and its jobs disappear, he said Elma benefits from a diversified manufacturing base. Two other major employers, Moog Inc. and Steuben Foods, have added jobs and expanded their operations, he noted.
Moog, a motion control equipment manufacturer with more than 2,300 local employees, has hired more than a dozen former Continental employees since 2008, said Ann Luhr, a Moog spokeswoman.
Steuben Foods, which has 475 employees, has hired a few ex-Continental workers and has recently received a number of applications from others, said Thomas Krol, general counsel.
Continental's Jamison Road property is on the market with an asking price of $9.75 million, down from more than $11 million previously. RealtyUSA Commercial, which is marketing the property, referred questions to Continental about efforts to sell it.
The property consists of 211,000 square feet of manufacturing, warehousing, office, and research and development space on a 42-acre landscaped lot, just off the Aurora Expressway.
Motorola expanded the Elma plant twice after opening it 20 years ago. As of 2000, the plant had 800 employees, but its employment declined in recent years.
Continental paid $8.4 million for the Elma plant as part of its $1 billion deal with Motorola. Now it is looking for a buyer amid a tough economic climate.
CB Richard Ellis-Buffalo reported early this year Buffalo Niagara's vacancy rate for industrial space was 9.5 percent, down slightly from the year before. The Continental plant was included in that vacancy statistic, since the space was already being marketed for sale, said Steve Blake, vice president and partner at CB Richard Ellis-Buffalo, and a specialist in industrial real estate.
Blake said Continental's plant has a lot of positive attributes, with its attractive campus-like setting. But the facility is also geared toward manufacturing, with its low ceilings and full air conditioning, he said.
Finding a single company to absorb all of its roughly 200,000 square feet could be a challenge for the Buffalo Niagara market, since prospects with those types of needs come along infrequently, Blake said.
"The odds are it would have to be multiple [users]," he said. "You just don't have enough single users in that size."
Blake noted two recent local projects of that scale, for Sonwil and CertainTeed, were "built-to-suit" developments tailored to the users' needs. "When you get into that size, companies also want it their way."
Nolan said he and the town's economic development partners have been working to fill the property after Continental is gone. He said some local parties have offered to buy the property but that Continental wanted a higher price.
Nolan said he remains optimistic about the site's outlook. "Bottom line, I'm confident we're going to put somebody in there."
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