TOLEDO, Ohio — A West Coast tech company with big plans for expansion in Toledo - and beyond - has furloughed all 900 of its employees.
It's a move that came as a surprise to many and affected Bitwise Industries workers here in northwest Ohio.
Now, the future is unclear.
The people looking forward to the company's opening in downtown Toledo are left with more questions than answers.
Rob Koenig, interim director at Toledo School for the Arts, said he is surprised and disappointed by the news. The school hoped students would be able to learn there and maybe eventually get jobs with the company.
"Bitwise was the next big step that would take over a large facility and be a good neighbor, in our opinion, to improve all of Uptown," Koenig said.
The tech company spent the last year and millions of dollars renovating the former Jefferson Building at 1300 Jefferson Ave. It pledged to bring about 400 new jobs to the area in a space that is supposed to be a training and job center for people looking to work in the tech industry.
Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said this is a missed opportunity, especially for young people.
"They were going to do something no one else was going to do," Gerken said. "That was training for tech code jobs. They were training coders. It was kind of a specialized niche."
Koenig agreed.
"We felt that having Bitwise across the street would have been a great opportunity for those students, in particular, to take advantage of whatever training or opportunities were over there," Koenig said.
It's unclear what will happen with Bitwise.
Gerken said he's not optimistic things will turn around for the company, but he is looking on the bright side.
"If there's any upside to Bitwise coming in and then exiting the community, we've rehabilitated a building that would still be in decline in Uptown that's going to be a magnificent addition to our community," Gerken said.
But Koenig is holding out hope things will work out.
"I still think there's a lot of opportunity for them to do that," Keonig said. "The whole neighborhood is moving forward and trying to draw people in and I think we're doing a great job at that."
Economic development group Regional Growth Partnership also commented on the Bitwise news today, writing that "the Regional Growth Partnership remains committed to the multi-million-dollar investment to redevelop the Jefferson Center, which had been a vacant, historic building in downtown Toledo. In collaboration with JobsOhio and other local partners, we will continue working to move the project forward on this renovated site."
WTOL 11 reached out to Bitwise leaders for comment and did not hear back by the time of publication. This story will be updated if and when Bitwise responds.