Originally Posted by
MuseumDriver
The next huge mistake DHL blundered was paying something like $240 million for a new sort facility in Cincinnati that was utilized for about a year or less... that sits empty and unused right now but DHL still pays the lease payment.
You may recall that at the time ground was broken on the new facility, negotiations between DHL and Airborne regarding the purchase of the latter had stalled. Many suspected that DHL went ahead with the project in part to drive Airborne stock price down, and force them back to the bargaining table.
DHL also received numerous tax abatements and other favors from the state of Kentucky in exchange for keeping jobs in the area, so the out-of-pocket probably didn't reach quite to 240 mil.
It really IS a beautiful, state-of-the-art facility. Now it just sits there like a big yellow albatross, surrounded by jurrasic jets that will never fly again.
Truly a fitting monument to everything that was/is wrong with the company that built it.