The nation’s largest manufacturer of gasoline-powered automobiles at the start of 20th century was the Winton Motor Carriage Co. on Berea Road north of Madison Avenue in Cleveland’s Cudell neighborhood. Most of the original factory still stands, and now it has a new owner with a plan. Note the test track around the perimeter of the plant (The Motor World-Wikimedia). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Winton Works is in the works
One of Cleveland’s most historic industrial properties is no longer on the to-be-demolished list after it was acquired by a Greater Cleveland-based developer. That property is the four-parcel, 7.3-acre former Winton Motor Carriage Works, 10300-10630 Berea Rd. in Cleveland’s Cudell neighborhood.
Acquiring it are two companies including one created by John Ellis of Mentor. He has a number of Northeast Ohio properties, developments and construction projects on his 20-year resume, many of which include Pinnacle Properties in their names. But this would be his largest endeavor, yet.
Through Winton Works Ltd., Ellis led the acquisition of the entire, former auto plant property for $300,000 from Legacy Property Investments VI Ltd., an affiliate of the Weston Inc. of Warrensville Heights, public records show.
Weston could have demolished the historic factory and sold the cleared land for industrial development for a lot more money, as it had intended to do as recently as February. Weston is one of Northeast Ohio’s largest commercial real estate development firms.
As is, Cuyahoga County appraised the property including its 260,000 square feet of remaining brick-built factory buildings at $1.5 million for tax purposes. Weston acquired the land and buildings in 1984 for $543,800, according to Cuyahoga County property records.
Those buildings are rated by the county to be in fair to very poor condition. Ellis told NEOtrans that work is already underway to secure the property and plans for their redevelopment are coming together.
“Work has started but mainly just trying to get it back to maintained,” Ellis said. “Nothing really substantial yet.”
He said he has tenants but declined to disclose them for now. But those plans for the reuse of the plant will cover the entire 7.3 acres and be launched in stages.
“I will have renderings and plans finalized in next two weeks,” Ellis said. “I’d love to show it off as a rebirth of a really cool piece of history and Cleveland.”
In February, it seemed the days were numberd for the old Winton Motor Carriage Company factory on Berea Road in Cleveland. But now a developer has plans for its future that don’t involve flattening it (NEOtrans).
Winton Works Ltd. has a 5 percent interest with another firm holding a 95 percent interest in the property. That other firm is TCWB OR LLC, an affiliate of Equity Advantage of Portland, OR.
The secondary firm is involved to provide IRS Reverse 1031 Exchange benefits. That financial bridge mechanism lets a real estate investor buy a new property before selling another to-be-relinquished property while still deferring capital gains taxes.
“They will only be there (on the deed) for a short time as we sell another property,” Ellis explained.
Ellis and his primary development firm, EB Pinnacle Properties, is involved in multiple projects, including the redevelopment of Shea’s Downtown theater in Ashtabula and the Stanford Avenue townhomes in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood.
He also co-founded Pinnacle Roofing Systems of Collinwood with Jeff Haas and has multiple other companies listed to him, Ohio Secretary of State records show. Tax mailings for Winton Works go to Pinnacle Roofing Systems’ address.
From the east looking west down Berea Road, the Winton Motor Carriage Company factory features multiple types of buildings totaling about 260,000 square feet (NEOtrans).
Until Ellis acquired the mostly vacant factory, its destiny was demolition. Last February, then-owner Weston Inc. submitted a permit application to the city to demolish a substantial, 183,000-square-foot portion of the remaining Winton plant. The goal was to make the site more attractive to a new industrial user, Weston’s application showed.
The Winton Motor Carriage Co. was founded in 1897 by Scottish-born bicycle maker Alexander Winton who built at a lakefront mansion in Lakewood.
He built the first commercially produced car in Cleveland in 1898 in the corner of the Brush Electric plant on the East Side. His nascent automobile company grew quickly, especially after one of his cars was the first to make a transcontinental drive across the United States in 1903.
Just after the start of the 20th century, Alexander Winton’s 500,000-square-foot factory was the largest auto plant in the United States. And Winton was the largest manufacturer of gasoline-powered automobiles in the country. Back then, electric cars were more popular.
But a young Henry Ford was denied employment at the Winton factory because Winton wasn’t impressed by him. Ford went on to mass-produce gasoline-powered cars in Michigan so they could be afforded by the mass-market. Until then, cars were seen as only a plaything of the wealthy.
By 1930, the Winton Motor Carriage Company was no more and Winton’s former diesel engine operation was acquired by General Motors and relocated into a new plant south of Madison Avenue. Users of the Winton plant in 1930 were Gair Cleveland Cartons Co., Superior Wrought Washer Co., Cleveland Railway Co. (Sanborn Fire Insurance).
Winton’s cars, like most brands, were hand-made and therefore costly. With Ford soon overtaking Winton in sales, Winton focused on making luxury cars before becoming one of the first companies to manufacture diesel engines for trucks, trains and maritime uses.
That attracted General Motors which bought Winton in 1930 and renamed the operation as the Cleveland Diesel Engine Division until it was consolidated with GM’s Electro-Motive Division and relocated to La Grange, IL in 1962.
GM’s Cleveland Diesel Engine Division was relocated to a new plant south of Madison Avenue, between West 106th and 110th streets. That plant and the neighboring Midland Steel closed, were acquired by the city then demolished. Weston acquired the 21.6-acre site in 2018 for an Amazon distribution center.
The Winton site hosted a wide variety of tenants and uses over the decades. Uses included the Gair Cleveland Cartons Co., Superior Wrought Washer Co., Cleveland Railway Co., Cleveland Connection rock and roll bar, Gabriel’s Night Life gay bar, U4IA dance/rave club, and for many years, Roman Chariot auto parts.
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