Navistar's workforce in Fort Wayne has been sliced to less than a fifth of what it was two years ago, and the building that housed its operations here is for sale. But at least one consolation prize remains: The test track isn't on the market.
Navistar's 345,000-square-foot facility at 2911 Meyer Road is on the market at a price of $4.12 million, but the nearby test track on Oxford Street is not. Navistar spokesman Steve Schrier said about 25 employees would remain to staff the test track.
The main building that is on the market still has machinery, tools and other equipment in it. Karl Behrens, a partner in BND Commercial Real Estate, which is listing the Navistar property, said the company says that the contents will eventually be sold in an auction. Last week, Behrens said, he was told that the auction is likely in the “January-March time frame.”
Schrier said that no firm timetable for phasing out the last of Navistar operations in Fort Wayne has been established yet.
The company has been winding down its presence here since 2010, when it announced that it would consolidate most of the work that had been done in Fort Wayne at its new headquarters in Lisle, Ill.
In terms of employees, the phase-out in Fort Wayne is more than 80 percent complete. When the company announced it would leave, it employed about 1,400 people here. Schrier said it now has 230 employees in Fort Wayne.
