May 31—North Perry Village has achieved its goal of selling the community's annex building.

On May 27, the village completed the sale of the edifice, which is located at 4485 North Ridge Road, to Leppo Rents of Tallmadge. The deal was consummated with a purchase price of $1.5 million.

Under its new ownership, the building will be transformed into a Leppo Rents store, which leases, sells and services compact construction equipment.

In December 2020, the village signed a contract with Global Real Estate Advisors of Mentor to sell the annex building.

Mayor Ed Klco said it was worth the wait to connect with Leppo Rents.

"We got a good company for our community," Klco said. "I look forward to working with Leppo Rents, and I think they'll be a real asset to North Perry, I really do."

Throughout 2021, Global showed the annex building to a variety of potential buyers.

In November, it looked as if the village was on the verge of selling the structure to Ag-Pro Real Estate Investments as Village Council had authorized the mayor to enter into an agreement for the purchase of the building.

Ag-Pro had set its sights on opening a John Deere equipment dealership, but at a special council meeting on Jan. 26, Klco confirmed that the deal had fallen through. He said the company withdrew its offer to buy the building "based solely on geography."

By early 2022, Leppo Rents had emerged as the most promising prospect to purchase the annex building. Village Council, at its March 3 meeting, authorized Klco to enter into an agreement with Leppo to wrap up the acquisition.

During that same meeting, village Solicitor James O'Leary said Leppo already had agreed to put up $25,000 that would not be refundable if it decided to back out of the transaction.

Leppo, founded in 1945 by Roy and Stella Leppo, is still headed today by members of the same family. The company provides and performs maintenance and repairs for compact construction equipment such as Bobcat excavators, JLG boom lifts and Hydro Mobile climbing work platforms.

Leppo's current roster of Northeast Ohio stores includes locations in Bedford Heights, North Ridgeville and Girard. In the southern United States, stores owned by Leppo can be found in cities such as Opelika, Ala., and Tallahassee, Fla.

A voicemail message left at Leppo's headquarters on May 31 was not returned.

The building that Leppo bought from North Perry was constructed in 2007 and originally served as an auto dealership. However, that business closed by August of the following year.

Lake County then purchased the building in 2009 as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

The county used the structure as a vehicle maintenance garage until 2014. That's the same year that North Perry and the entity then known as the Lake County Ohio Port and Economic Development Authority each became involved with the building at 4485 North Ridge Road.

Village Council laid the groundwork for a transaction in 2014 by unanimously approving a plan to appropriate $1.9 million from the village's savings into its general fund to buy bonds.

The Port Authority then issued and sold those bonds to the village to raise money for purchasing the building at 4485 North Ridge to lease to South Shore Controls.

A large part of the rental income from South Shore was earmarked to repay the principal and interest of the bond revenue that North Perry provided to the Port Authority.

Back in 2014, South Shore Controls was operating a manufacturing plant in a smaller building at 4823 North Ridge Road in North Perry. At that time, Rick Stark, the company's president, said South Shore Controls wanted to expand its operations, and a move to the building at 4485 North Ridge would help in those efforts.

Initially, South Shore Controls signed a five-year lease that included an option to purchase the building. But the company, which designs, manufactures and installs factory automation systems with fully integrated hardware and software, ended up leaving in late 2019, before the lease expired since it had built and moved to a new plant in Mentor.

The village then began leasing the building from the Port Authority for $20 a month as a place to store Road Department equipment. That month-to-month lease ran through May of 2020, and starting in June of that year, North Perry Village took ownership of the structure.

To complete the transaction with Leppo Rents, the North Perry Village Community Improvement Corp. was designated by council as the seller of the building.