All signs point to U.S. Medical Glove opening plant at former Motorola site in Harvard

The former Motorola plant “is being prepped for occupancy,” but a nondisclosure agreement precludes city officials from providing details, Harvard City Administrator Lou Leone said.

The city also has not seen a lease nor received further documentation about who that occupant may be, Leone said.

Although city officials will not confirm if a new occupant is coming to the long-dormant Motorola campus at 2001 N. Division St., logos for Kentucky-based U.S. Medical Glove Co. have been reported on “no trespassing” signs placed around the campus and on security vehicles patrolling there.

Documents including texts and emails received by the Northwest Herald through a Freedom of Information Act request indicate that city officials believe USMGC is the planned tenant.

They are expecting a lot of people to come work for them.”

—  Harvard Mayor Mike Kelly, at a May 18 city meeting regarding recreation facilities

In an April 25 email to Harvard Mayor Mike Kelly, economic development consultant Charles Eldredge and code enforcement officer Anne Nutley, Leone indicated that he’d been in contact with a USMGC representative regarding a possible news release.

“We spoke directly on the phone, and she is understanding of our situation given that USMGC has posted job ads. I should hear back from [the contact] one way or another. In the meantime, as a reminder, the company phrase is that the building is ‘being prepared for occupancy,’ ” Leone wrote.

That email was sent about four hours after a reporter’s email to Leone asking about job postings in Harvard. Since mid-April, online job search sites have advertised U.S. Medical Glove Co. positions based in Harvard.

At a May 18 city hall forum to discuss a possible Harvard indoor recreation facility, Kelly also provided more details on the Motorola site’s future.

He told the audience that the building is being “brought up to occupational standards to have manufacturing there” and that city officials expect the company to bring jobs to Harvard within the next year.

Manufacturing, Kelly said, could begin at the site before the end of 2023.

“They are expecting a lot of people to come work for them,” and Harvard will need more housing soon for those workers, Kelly said.

Representatives from the medical glove company, which also operates a facility in Montgomery, have not responded directly to Northwest Herald emails with questions about the property or a pending occupancy.

The company announced in August 2021 that it had signed a 15-year lease for 1 million square feet of manufacturing space at the former Caterpillar site in Marengo.

In May of that year, the company was awarded a $63.6 million Department of Defense contract ″to expand the domestic industrial base for nitrile glove production in the United States” according to a news release at the time.

Nitrile gloves are an alternative to latex and made with a synthetic rubber.

Leone said work on the former Motorola building and campus done in recent months includes mowing and landscaping, mold remediation, water system work, fire suppression and electrical work.

The former Motorola site has sat empty since 2003 and has been through a few owners in the past 20 years.

Xiao Hua “Edward” Gong bought the building in April 2016 at an online auction for $9.3 million. In late 2018, Gong was charged with securities fraud in Canada. The U.S. Marshals Service was tasked with selling the property while the case against Gong in Canada was ongoing.

It was bought in September 2021 by Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Fund Management.

On April 10, Leone emailed Matthew Tucker of Pinnacle-associated CAI Investments LLC requesting a signed lease and information on the “initial area tenant will/needs to occupy.”

Leone sought the information to complete the tax increment financing process. A reply to that email was not found in the FOIA response.

Harvard has been working with Ernst and Young for several years to develop a TIF district for the property, but a lease is needed to finalize that, Leone said.

There have been no requests for a TIF from either Pinnacle or a prospective tenant, Leone said. Additionally, no construction permits have been applied for, as the work thus far has been to bring the facility back up to code.