Kodak — which emerged from bankruptcy last autumn — has puts its 1,200-acre Eastman Business Park on the market. Although it refuses to name an asking price for the New York state site Kodak says it will use the money to focus on its commercial imaging businesses.
For years, The Rochester-based printing technology company has sold off chunks of its sprawling business complex which has its own internal railway network serving the 50-plus companies remaining from the site. Now Kodak is formally looking for a developer or group of developers to purchase the entire complex.
“Eastman Business Park is already on the path to becoming a powerful economic growth engine for our region and a vibrant centre of invention to several technology sectors,” said chief executive officer Jeff Clarke. “A strong new owner will expedite that process.”
Kodak has confirmed it would maintain a significant presence on the site, leasing back some of its existing buildings from any owner. Selling Eastman Business Park “allows us to focus on what we do best,” said spokesman Christopher Veronda. “That’s not being an industrial and technology park developer, but pursuing our strategic technology businesses. This is a big potential opportunity, but it’s a big potential opportunity for someone who is a developer, not a company that wants to focus on strategic technology businesses.”
Several international property firms have already voiced an interest in the park which many analysts expect to trigger a bidding war. Almost 5,000 people are currently employed at Rochester in what is effectively a self-contained city — complete with its own power station, water treatment and supply system, steam and compressed air generation facility and full-time fire brigade.
“Hundreds of new high-tech research and advanced manufacturing jobs have been created at Eastman Business Park over the last two years,” said Brad Kruchten, president of the Graphics, Entertainment and Commercial Films Group. “The site is now positioned to realise its potential to develop new, cutting-edge technologies, especially in functional films, energy storage and bioscience and biofuels.”
As head of New York state development company Buckingham Properties, Larry Glazer feels that any buyer is going to face some particularly significant hurdles. “A lot of the good buildings — those that will make easy deals — have all been spoken for,” he explained. “What’s left is sophisticated, more challenging space that will only be attractive to the right user.
“For example, you have a power plant and an infrastructure that’s very hard to duplicate. If you can find and match the users with the property, then you have something to offer on a competitive basis. But you’re trying to find needles in haystacks. Those users, who need massive amounts of water or chilled water or steam for certain processes, are going to be hard to find,” he added.
Founded in 1880, Kodak was at the forefront of popularising photography in the early twentieth century and for decades was the dominate force in both the professional and amateur market. Under pressure from Japanese competition and, more recently, the shift to digital photography it filed for bankruptcy in January 2012.
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