Ford Motor Company officials had many good things to say about the land at the Habben industrial site and the city of Albert Lea

after they visited Monday.

&uot;It is a good site, with good infrastructure, utilities and streets already in place,&uot; said Frank O’Hara, a global planning manager for Ford, who visited Monday.

Ford is close to making a final decision on where to build a new 225,000-foot warehouse that coud eventually employ more than 200. Other cities in the running are Stewartville and Menomonie, Wis. The three cites, O’Hara said, are candidates because they are in good places to be hubs for a regional parts distribution warehouse.

The region the warehouse will serve will go as far west as eastern Montana, into western Wisconsin and Northern Iowa.

The warehouse, according to O’Hara, is part of a nationwide change in Ford’s approach to parts distribution. It will enable dealers and mechanics to order and get parts within 12 to 48 hours instead of what in the past was four to six days.

&uot;This will give our customers better service and faster service,&uot; he said.

O’Hara said each site has its own positives and negatives and said that many factors will determine why they choose one site over the other two. He would not disclose the criteria or the dispositions of the company.

&uot;All the sites are comparable,&uot; O’Hara said about the incentive packages that have been offered to Ford. &uot;But we are getting near to choosing a winner.&uot;

Ford will meet with the state of Minnesota as well as the cities of Albert Lea and Stewartville on Oct. 16. A decision is expected to come soon thereafter.