Bohl Enterprises proposes new $10.6 million North Toledo facility
Posted By: Toledo Blade on August 4, 2026. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Over 100 years after its inception as a monorail business, Bohl Enterprises is seeking approval to build a 72,000-square-foot facility to bolster its manufacturing capacity.
According to paperwork filed with the Toledo City Plan Commission, the company has requested planning permission to build a new production facility at 5315 Stickney Ave.
The approximately 21-acre parcel, located south of Shantee Creek, has not been targeted for development since 1974, when City Council denied a special use permit request for a sanitary landfill at the site.
“I do believe that they are looking to consolidate existing manufacturing and office facilities elsewhere, and this is going to be a new facility,” said city planner Alaya Vachon, who reviewed the application. “It’s a 72,000-square-foot building, which will support manufacturing.”
The Stickney Avenue location is in councilman Theresa Morris’ district. She said the Bohl development, which was first proposed two years ago, is slated to be a $10.6 million investment that would create more than 20 jobs and retain about 36 jobs.
“They manufacture overhead cranes, and they were looking at different locations to see where they could manufacture them,” Ms. Morris said. “The city of Toledo’s economic development department helped them in trying to locate different incentives to build on that property, or to use that property.”
She added that the construction of overhead cranes — which contain horizontal beams that can lift heavy materials, such as copper and steel — requires a long and narrow building, a shape reflected in the proposed design set to be evaluated by the City Plan Commission.
The application for a major site plan review requests site and utility improvements in addition to the construction of the facility, which will be used to support manufacturing, parts storage, servicing, repair, and office spaces. It also includes a proposal for a parking lot for employees and customers, alongside landscape improvements.
Bohl Enterprises, which consists of Bohl Crane, Bohl Equipment, and Bohl Machine, has locations in Toledo; Marion, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Birmingham, Ala.; Jackson, Mich.; and Otsego, Mich. Its two Toledo facilities are located on Custer Road and Laskey Road.
Ms. Morris said she was glad that Bohl, which was founded in 1924, had decided to keep its new development local.
“It’s a nice shot in the arm. I mean, what we want to do is we want to maintain our companies here in Toledo and specifically in northwest Ohio, because at the end of the day, we are a skilled work force,” she said. “So we are happy that they have chosen to stay in the city of Toledo, and to continue the great reputation of being a manufacturing city and also having our amazing workers to go with that.”
The Stickney Avenue lot, which is currently a grassy field, is located a little more than a mile away from the Toledo North Assembly Complex, where Jeep production began in 2001. Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said that the construction of that facility transformed the area.
“We had to fill in a lot of swamp land to put that plant together,” he said.
Ms. Vachon noted the existence of a flood area located at the back of the site along the creek, which would not be developed as part of the proposed plan.
“In all site developments, our engineering team, specifically stormwater and the environmental division, they do look at all these reviews and ensure that clean water practices and storm water control are being developed on the site,” she added.
City planning staff have recommended approval of the major site plan, subject to conditions of approval. The City Plan Commission will meet to review the proposal at 2 p.m. on Aug. 13.
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