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Historic Ohio Plate Glass building sees new life as construction companies share space

Posted By: Toledo Blade on June 10, 2025.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

An unusual partnership between two Toledo-area construction companies will bring new life to a 115-year-old building in the city’s Warehouse District.

Mosser Construction and Foundation Steel will jointly occupy the old Ohio Plate Glass building located at 303 Morris St., Toledo. Foundation Steel will be moving its headquarters from Swanton to the Morris Street property, while Mosser Construction will continue to operate from its Fremont headquarters while moving its Maumee operations to Toledo.

“The historic property will be repaired, refurbished, and reimagined to become a dynamic space that reflects both companies’ values — serving employees, customers, and the broader vision for a more vibrant, prosperous Toledo,” said Cheryl Hardy of Hardy Communications & Marketing, which is coordinating public relations for the project.

Danny Dymarkowski, Foundation Steel’s executive vice president, said that he anticipates that the renovation will be completed within 12 to 18 months.

The companies will operate separately but share a workspace in the renovated 47,000-square-foot facility, which features a beautiful close-up view of the Anthony Wayne Bridge from its enormous rear windows. They may also lease office space to another tenant, which they hope will be an architectural firm.

“This partnership represents the kind of strategic reinvestment our region needs — two respected companies leveraging their strengths to fuel economic growth and reinforce downtown Toledo as a hub for business,” said Wendy Gramza, president and CEO of the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a strong signal to the market that northwest Ohio is a place where innovation, leadership, and opportunity converge.”

Mosser Construction, a general construction contractor, is an employee-owned company based in Fremont and Maumee. Founded in 1946, the firm does more than $100 million in annual sales. Foundation Steel is a family-owned company headquartered in Swanton. It specializes in structural steel and steel buildings and has annual revenue of $60 million to $65 million.

Ohio Plate Glass specialized in commercial and industrial glazing, glass tempering and fabrication, and glass wholesaling. The business was founded in 1915. At its peak, the business had 600 employees. In the mid-1980s, the company was sold to Bradford Ventures and eventually left Toledo.

As it looks now, the company’s old building and its environs could charitably be described as unprepossessing. The street is crumbling. The grass in the tree lawn between the sidewalk and street is taller than the fire hydrants. But the building itself appears to have good bones and pleasing geometry, though it seems to be used primarily for storage at present. It is attached to a long-abandoned warehouse that, according to neighbors, is sometimes used by glamour photographers when they want a backdrop of urban decay.

The building is owned by Riverfront Ventures LLC, a joint venture of Mosser Construction and Foundation Steel.

“Sometimes in economic development, things happen with their own momentum, but this is one the city helped happen,” said Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz. “We were very involved with Foundation Steel moving into Toledo. We helped guide them to the Ohio Plate Glass building and incentivized them with a White Box grant and a Toledo Expansion Incentive grant.”

The White Box program provides up to $75,000 in financial assistance to property owners who bring a vacant, commercial, first-floor space up to code so it can be occupied by a business. In this case, according to Brandon Sehlhorst, the city of Toledo’s director of economic development, the city contributed $26,604 from the city’s general fund.

Toledo Expansion Incentives provide a performance-based grant, the amount of which is based on the actual growth in annual municipal income tax generated from the new employees and payroll associated with the company’s project.

The mayor said 40 employees will be relocated to the Morris Road facility. They will bring in an annual payroll of $3.3 million. Mosser and Foundation Steel will invest $7.5 million to renovate the building. He also credits JobsOhio and the Regional Growth Partnership with assisting with the project.

Ms. Hardy said JobsOhio has offered $100,000 for environmental remediation.

JobsOhio gets no taxpayer funding but rather is supported by the profits made by liquor sales in Ohio.

“We’ve been working with Foundation Steel for over a year to find the right location for them downtown,” Mr. Sehlhorst said. “Finding the perfect space took some time.”

Charlotte Dymarkowski, the owner of Foundation Steel, said that her company was proud to have contributed to many construction projects that have helped revitalize downtown Toledo.

”We were planning on staying in Swanton, but this was the right place to be.”

“It’s a gem just starting to shine again,” Ms. Dymarkowski said, “and we want to be right in the thick of it. … We’ll have a beautiful view of the river and look forward to providing an awesome workspace and family-like facility for our employees and various construction partners.”

“This is about impact,” said Mosser CEO Brian Geffe. “By joining together, we can do more — not just for our teams and clients, but for downtown Toledo. We believe in leading by example.”

Mr. Geffe said Mosser would be the construction manager for the building’s renovation and would also do some of the work.

“We’ve had a satellite office in Lucas County since the 1980s,” he said, “but we felt it would be important to be part of something bigger. When you walk out of the building and see the Metropark, you realize that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Emma Helvey, Mosser’s director of marketing and business development, said there’s a lot of competition for workforce now and that being in what she called a cool building will help attract talent.

“We’re in growth mode now,” she said.

People associated with the project point out two unique benefits of the Morris Street location.

The property is close to Middlegrounds Metropark, which will eventually be connected to the Glass City Riverwalk. Ms. Hardy described Middlegrounds and the Riverwalk as catalysts for the redevelopment.

“It’s not likely that this project would have happened without it,” she said.

The mayor added that “the role of the Metroparks in this project can’t be overstated.”

The other geographical feature that made the site attractive to the construction companies is its proximity to the Anthony Wayne Bridge.

“We had the honor of participating in the refurbishment of the High Level Bridge and now we could almost open a window and touch it,” Ms. Dymarkowski said.