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These days, itâs easier to point to buildings Scott Pitcher and Fortune Management havenât revitalized in downtown Kokomo. The prolific developer recently began work to reimagine two downtown properties, with the intent of bringing more residential options to the community.
Notices were posted on the old Firestone building in late May. Located at the southwest corner of Union and Mulberry streets, the structure will be demolished by Fortune to make way for a new development.
The Firestone building was among those targeted a few years ago by developer Jeff Broughton. Unfortunately, the redevelopment effort came up short, and most of the tenants who occupied the building quickly departed as unaddressed structural issues mounted. Pitcher intends to start from scratch at the location.
âThe property was tied up in litigation for years,â said Pitcher. âThis may be the last of Jeff Broughton's messes that he left. A lot of people got hurt financially, And that's a shame. But the building is going to be demolished.â
Pitcher isnât certain when the demolition will be completed, but he does know it wonât be a quick process. The building must be gutted before the wrecking ball is put into play. Once the property is brought back to a usable state, he said he will work with the City of Kokomo and Howard County to determine what the best use of the property could be.
âThe lot is very well positioned,â said Pitcher. âWe want to make sure we do the right thing for the entire area. It's a piece of blight that sits in the middle of a very nice-looking downtown, and it just lowers everybody's property value. Demolishing it will eliminate that blight.â
A few years ago, demolishing a property in downtown Kokomo wasnât an option. The city administration under Mayor Greg Goodnight prohibited demolishing in the cityâs center unless absolutely necessary. The Firestone building is one of the properties previously considered and denied for demolition. But things have changed in that regard. The current administration of Mayor Tyler Moore doesnât oppose that level of redevelopment.
âWe have saved more buildings in downtown Kokomo than anybody in history,â said Pitcher of his company. âWe've also demolished more buildings, because when a building's bones aren't any good, you canât financially find a way to save it and make sense out of it. We think Firestone is too far gone. It just needs to come down and be repurposed with something new.â
What will take the Firestone buildingâs place has not yet been determined, but Fortune knows exactly what will happen with a second property it is redeveloping right across the street. The company has begun the process of transforming the former home of the Kokomo Tribune. The newspaper left its historic home at the northeast corner of Union and Mulberry streets a few years ago following a fire.
âRight now, it looks like apartments,â said Pitcher. âThe study that the city did says there is a need for 600 apartments in Kokomo, and that's before 600-700 Korean workers come here. So really, you can double that number. âNeeding housing for growth is a good problem to have, but there is definitely a problem.
âIt's hard to say how many apartments weâll develop,â said Pitcher of the Tribune property. âIf I really wanted to address the housing problem, I would put a tower somewhere downtown and try to put in 90 apartments. At the Tribune property, we're going to get close to 40.â
Fortune is no stranger to apartment development downtown. The company repurposed the former home of the YMCA and turned it into the Macy Apartments.
âWe take blighted historical property and save it, just like we did with the old YMCA,â said Pitcher. âAnd that project turned out very nice. Everything we have built downtown thus far has been very financially successful.â
Pitcher hopes that the Tribune apartments will be ready by next summer. Thatâs also when he hopes the Firestone building will be levelled. The only thing standing in the way of that deadline is manpower. Like many companies in the area, Fortune is short on workers.
Pitcher has made a career out of revitalizing downtowns, with Kokomo at the forefront of his list of accomplishments. The work has brought him into political conflict with local leaders. It has gained him notoriety and a long list of fans and detractors. Itâs also nearly brought him to financial ruin more than once. So, why does he continue to work in downtown Kokomo?
âThere's a lot easier ways to make money than urban redevelopment,â said Pitcher. âI've always just found it challenging and rewarding. When you drive by a project and see people living there and happy that they live there, then it's rewarding. You can drive by and touch the work that you've done, and that's rewarding.â
Kokomo Casting Plant earns safety award
From molten metal to award medals: two of Stellantis' North American casting plants have been recognized with safety awardsâŻfrom the North American Die Casting Association (NADCA).
TheâŻEtobicoke Casting Plant (ECP) in Ontario, Canada, and Kokomo Casting Plant (KCP) in Indiana, U.S., received three prestigious awards in the annual NADCA Safety Award Program. The program recognizes facilities across North America "with a strong emphasis on their employeeâs safety and well-being."
For the ninth consecutive year, KCP received the âOutstandingâ Award, and for the third time overall, received the âProgress Award for Safety Improvements,â based on the plantâs 2022 safety record. The Outstanding Award is given to companies with employee days away from recordable injuries or illnesses averaging less than 2.1.âŻThe Progress award is given to a company that has shown improvement of 25 percent or more, compared with the prior year.
"Employee safety is priority number one and core to the culture in all of our Stellantis manufacturing facilities," said Mike Resha, Senior Vice President and Head of North America Manufacturing, Stellantis. "I'm extremely proud of the recognition the teams at our Etobicoke and Kokomo casting facilities have received from NADCA for theirâŻsustainedâŻand ongoing efforts to keep everyone safe while making top-quality products."
On Aug. 1, 2022, Stellantis announced a $99 million (USD) investment in three North American plants for production of a new 1.6-liter, I-4 turbocharged engine that has both direct fuel injection and flexibility for hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) applications. More than $14 million will be invested at Kokomo Casting to convert existing die-cast machines and cells for production of the engine blocks.
On Feb. 28, 2023, Stellantis announced that it will invest a total of $155 million in three Kokomo plants to produce new electric drive modules (EDM) that will help power future electric vehicles assembled in North America and to support the goal of 50 percent battery-electric sales in the U.S. by 2030. The EDM gearbox cover will be cast at the Kokomo Casting Plant. Production is expected to start in the third quarter of 2024, following retooling.âââââââ
As award winners, ECP and KCP will be highlighted in the Die Casting Engineer magazine and recognized at this yearâs Die Casting Congress & Tabletop Show, September 19-21, 2023, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
NADCA was founded in 1989 to support and promote the die casting industry throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.