AKRON (Dec. 7, 2016) — Bridgestone Americas has exercised a two-year lease extension option on its race tire manufacturing facility, located in the original Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. Plant One building in Akron.
This extension, covering what is known as the Advanced Technology Workshop (ATW), will keep more than 50 jobs at the race tire plant, the tire maker said. The race tire unit occupies about 100,000 of the structure's 750,000 square feet.
In addition to the ATW, Bridgestone employs about 900 at another Akron facility, which includes the Americas Technical Center, where it conducts research, design and development.
In 2012, Bridgestone moved its research and development center from the Firestone building to a newly built facility a mile away.
Last year the City of Akron had proposed razing the former Firestone building, which it has owned for the past several years.