Harvey Hanna reportedly plans to buy the former Fisker-GM site near Newport

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CBRE photo
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Newport-based Harvey, Hanna is reportedly buying the former GM Boxwood plant.

Reports of the sale have been widespread for weeks within the commercial real estate community regarding, which is said to be undergoing due diligence prior to closing.  Harvey Hanna would not comment on the transaction.

The company has a large commercial real estate portfolio that includes properties in nearby Newport.

Word of the pending deal was first reported Thursday in a Facebook video post from Greg Buckley, the owner of an auto repair shop near Newport. The News Journal later picked up on the report and made phone calls.  Click our Facebook page for a link to his video.

Real estate giant CBRE gets assignment to sell Boxwood site

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The plant produced a variety of GM vehicles for nearly a half century. It lived a precarious existence for many years, due to its location a long distance away from the automotive industry’s supply chain, which now extends from the Detroit area to the deep south.

Over the years, the auto industry shut down unionized plants along the East Coast.

Once or twice,  the plant was reportedly eyed by foreign automakers. However, such companies rarely come into areas where the Big 3 automakers had unionized plants.

Republican State legislators proposed a “right to work” zone around the plant that would exempt works at companies from mandatory union dues.Last year, real estate giant CBRE was given the assignment to sell the property from Chinese automaker Wanxiang. The company ended up with the property after buying assets of now-defunct automaker Fisker.

Last year, real estate giant CBRE was given the assignment to sell the property from Chinese automaker Wanxiang. The company ended up with the property after buying assets of now-defunct automaker Fisker.

Fisker planned to assemble the mid-sized Atlantic hybrid electric automobile with a small gas engine at the Boxwood site. Wanxiang has no immediate plans to produce the vehicle and never expressed an interest in the Boxwood site.

In the past couple of years, the focus has shifted to all-electric vehicles that are now being turned out by Tesla in a northern California.

Hundreds of thousands of people have made a deposit on a $40,000 model, which recently went into limited production.

Renovations to the site by Fisker were abruptly halted when the company lost a federal loan to build the car, due to financial problems. The State of Delaware also contributed $20 million that was largely lost when Fisker went into U.S. Bankruptcy Court in  Wilmington.

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