Auto Parkit owner outlines multi-year plan
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WARREN -- Warren native Christopher Alan says he isn't backing down from his earlier predictions to bring 800 to 1,000 jobs to Warren.
The owner of Auto Parkit, a California-based company that designs and builds automated parking garages primarily used in larger metropolitan areas, said last week he expects production here to ramp up significantly in the next two years.
He blamed much of the delays on lawsuits involving purchase of the former Delphi Packard plant at 408 Dana St.
After months of legal maneuverings and delays involving the suit with the former owner of the Delphi Packard Electric plant -- Maximus III Properties, a company formed by Warren businessman Sergio DiPaolo, who had ownership of the Delphi property -- Alan went to Plan B. Alan purchased the former GE building nearby at 310 Dana St.
Then the bankruptcy court ruled in May ruled that Alan's Dasher Lawless Co. could move forward with its $455,000 purchase of the Delphi property.
But the interim purchase of the GE Building has provided space to do something he had not initially envisioned.
"We are now manufacturing many of the component parts we need for our garages that we were purchasing from other companies," Sam Bowser, director of manufacturing for Dasher Lawless, said. "We did not have any intentions of manufacturing our own parts. … This has increased the scope of the work that was planned."
The company's original plans were to design the automated garages in Warren, outsource manufacture of key parts and then assemble and test at the Delphi plant.
However, the company now is manufacturing about 30 percent of the parts needed for new garages, along with replacement parts for its older garages.
The company has seven garages contracted to be built over the next year; 19 over the next three years; and 65 in different stages of development over the next four years, Alan said.
Alan said he's spent about $4.5 million on the purchase and upgrades of the former GE and Delphi buildings since 2015. By 2028, that number will surpass $20 million, he said, not including equipment.
"We are here for the long term," he said.
Alan projects employing up to 75 engineers, architects and other higher-paid employees in Warren by next year.
Additionally, Alan said the company will hire workers to upgrade both Dana Street facilities, expected to be completed in the mid to late 2020s.
"It will take a year just to clean out the Delphi plant," Alan said. "I have eight people working full time cleaning out that space."
Alan said the company now is spending $250,000 a month in payroll between Warren and Chicago, which will accelerate as the company grows.
Once the plants are fully operational, Auto Parkit will not only design the garages for individual customers, but make many of the parts and test their operations before they leave Warren.
It will have a two-story fully operational automated garage in the former Packard Electric building, where it will test all of its platforms, he said.
The company now has about 30 people working in Warren and another 20 in Chicago and Los Angeles. Locally, some graduates from Youngstown State University, Penn State and the University of Akron, as well as area trades programs, have been hired at Auto Parkit.
Alan said neighbors have not seen the work being done in just getting basic utilities fully operational. He said thousands of pounds of debris and metal are being stripped out of the former Delphi building.
"There are residents looking from the outside that believe we've not done very much," he said. "We have done quite a bit, but this is a slow process."
rsmith@tribtoday.com