Nexteer Automotive is selling off a chunk of its Buena Vista Township campus while staying put as a tenant, in a deal that hands a Milwaukee real estate firm control of more than half a million square feet of manufacturing space in Saginaw County. Phoenix Investors purchased three buildings — plants 5, 6/1 and 7 — totaling 1.8 million square feet, while Nexteer will lease back approximately 1.27 million square feet across two of those buildings and continue operating at the site.
The sale-leaseback arrangement was reported by MLive, which detailed how the transaction was structured. Nexteer retained ownership of plants 3 and 4, along with land that includes a solar field and test track. That leaves roughly 552,000 square feet in Plant 5 immediately available for a new user, according to the report. Commercial real estate firm CBRE, represented by brokers Andrew Baines, Matt Osiecki, and Joe Kemp, brokered the transaction on behalf of Nexteer, as detailed in a PR Newswire release announcing the deal's completion.
A Long Industrial History Behind the Deal
The Buena Vista Township campus has deep roots in the region's manufacturing identity. The facility was formerly known as Delphi Saginaw Steering Systems before General Motors rebranded it as Nexteer Automotive in 2009, when it became a wholly owned standalone GM subsidiary after Delphi Corp. emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, per MLive's account. GM later announced the sale of Nexteer to Pacific Century Motors of China in 2010, and AVIC Automobile acquired a 51 percent stake in Pacific Century Motors in 2011, becoming Nexteer's controlling stockholder that same year.
Nexteer remains the second-largest employer in Saginaw County, trailing only Covenant HealthCare, with approximately 1,100 employees at the Buena Vista Township campus — its only U.S. manufacturing facility among 27 global locations, as Hoodline previously reported on the plant's role in the regional labor market. State economic development officials had earlier granted Nexteer a $25.5 million grant and a $2.2 million tax abatement through the Michigan Strategic Fund Board to support facility expansion and job retention there.
Executives Frame the Sale as Strategic Focus
Jill Dralle, vice president and USA divisional president at Nexteer Automotive, said the transaction allows the company to focus resources elsewhere, according to MLive's reporting. Nexteer's site transformation strategy, launched in 2018, aims to strengthen core manufacturing operations in the region and improve operational efficiency. The company plans to modernize plants 3 and 4 and pursue future growth opportunities in Saginaw, per the same account.
Anthony Crivello, president of Phoenix Investors, said Phoenix can bring significant value to the large-scale industrial property, MLive reported. Phoenix intends to position the available space in Plant 5 for manufacturers seeking alternatives to building new facilities, and the company plans to invest capital in the property. A joint statement from the two companies did not address what Nexteer's future operations might look like in the buildings now controlled by Phoenix, the outlet noted.
Record Revenue Meets Real Estate Restructuring
The sale comes at a moment of financial strength for Nexteer, not distress. The auto supplier reported record global annual revenue of $4.6 billion for 2025, a 7.2% increase over 2024, and record first-half 2026 revenue of $2.3 billion, according to company results driven by growth in electric power steering and motion-by-wire vehicle systems. That contrast — strong global revenue alongside a physical asset sale — points to a balance-sheet strategy rather than a company in trouble.
The deal also lands just two months after a turbulent stretch for labor relations at the plant. Members of UAW Local 699 ratified a new four-and-a-half-year labor contract with Nexteer in June by a 57% to 43% vote, according to the World Socialist Web Site, resolving months of friction during which workers rejected three tentative agreements and voted 86% to authorize a strike.
Phoenix Investors' Playbook in Mid-Michigan
Founded in 1994 by Chairman Frank P. Crivello, Milwaukee-based Phoenix Investors has grown its industrial portfolio to about 88 million square feet across 27 states, with a business model built on buying large industrial properties and revitalizing underused portions through investment and leasing. The firm has worked in Mid-Michigan before: it purchased the shuttered 550,000-square-foot former Delphi Flint East plant in 2017 for $3.15 million and committed $12 million toward turning the site around.
Phoenix has also branched into infrastructure and AI data center conversions. As Hoodline reported on the Memphis deal, the firm acquired a 785,000-square-foot former Electrolux plant and later sold it for $185 million to SpaceX for an AI data center buildout. Whether the vacant space in Plant 5 draws a traditional manufacturer or something more novel remains an open question, but the Saginaw County site now joins a growing list of Midwest industrial campuses where Phoenix is betting on new life for old factory floors.
