The city of Toledo has suffered some major company losses in recent years. But one of the businesses that helped give the city its nickname "the glass city," isn't going anywhere.
Owens Illinois relocated to Perrysburg and the Dana Corporation moved to Maumee. But LIbbey Glass headquarters is staying in Toledo.
Libbey Glass has been in Toledo for 125 years. About a year ago, it came time for a change, and the global company considered other cities. But on Wednesday, city and state leaders celebrated the company's decision to stay.
The company needed a new environment and had been receiving generous offers to relocate it's global company.
"When you're looking to the future, you try and take all the shackles off and all of the preconceived ideas," Libbey CEO Stephanie Streeter said. "So we wanted to do that and take a look at what other opportunities that we had as a global company and we paid a lot of attention to what others had done before us."
Toledo Mayor Michael Bell said he was aware Libbey was weighing it's options, so the city stepped in.
"The Libbey name is very crucial to Toledo so we were prepared to do whatever necessary to make sure that we did not lose them in our downtown area."
The CEO of Libbey Glass said the city helped convince them Toledo was the place to stay. Economic development grants and the legacy of the company also helped. Libbey Glass even decided to remain in the same building.
"It was a difficult decision, but one that we're proud of and happy that we made, " Streeter said.
Libbey is on different floors now and features their rich history and products as decor. Streeter says the new environment is modern, inspirational and fresh.
Mary Reau is a 13 year Libbey employee who loves her new work space.
"They tried to keep it a secret. Some of us tried to sneak up to see it but they actually locked the floors on the elevator so we couldn't see it. So it was a very good surprise and it was a nice reveal and it was very good."
City leaders are happy with the renovated Libbey space as well.
"We've actually been able to snag other companies back into the downtown area. And I think that having large companies like Libbey is extremely important to that," Mayor Bell said.
