MORAINE — Eight months after a Los Angeles-area developer took control of the former General Motors assembly plant here, the 386-acre site sits largely empty. But Dave Dickerson, president of Gem Real Estate Group, suggests patience. Retrofitting large structures and working with clients, many of whom are considering multiple sites, is not a quick process, he said.

“It would be slow moving (even) if we were in a good economy,” Dickerson said.

Stuart Lichter, principal of Downey, Calif.-based Industrial Realty Group (IRG), said his representatives in Ohio regularly show the property — which they have renamed “Progress Park” — to prospective clients. In time, IRG executives have said, they hope to bring a number of tenants to the site who may employ up to 2,000 people.

“We are in active discussions with a couple of (possible) users and we’re hopeful that we’re nearing an announcement,” Lichter said last week.

He wouldn’t elaborate on a proposal from Dayton Development Coalition that the plant’s former paint shop be transformed into a site for University of Dayton Research Institute production of big composite-material parts — components of wind and water turbines, military vehicles and more.

But one official said IRG has sought to find more than one business for that project. Lou Luedtke, investor with the Composite Technology Investors LLC and former National Composite Center chief executive, said IRG has approached Luedtke’s investment group with the thought of having CTI “co-locate” at the paint shop with UD’s Research Institute. He said it’s a possibility.

Today, CTI’s Dayton operations are housed in a former Delphi facility off McCall Street in Dayton.

“There are things about it that would make good sense for us,” Luedtke said of a move to the Moraine plant.

The 800,000-square-foot paint shop has been a key part of the plant’s history. In late 1991, then-GM chairman Robert Stempel identified the lack of a clearcoat paint line as a weakness for the plant. That same month, GM announced a restructuring that would close 21 plants, imperiling the local plant, many thought.

That’s when local government and union leaders rallied to the plant’s cause, urging GM to keep it open. By June 1993, construction workers were pouring concrete and raising steel for a $155 million paint facility at the corner of Stroop and Springboro Pike.

The paint shop was built, but in time a weakening economy, higher gas prices and GM’s own financial strains doomed the entire plant. The automaker closed the complex in December 2008.

Dave Hicks, Moraine city manager, welcomes the coalition’s proposal. He believes a solid first development will spark interest in the plant and lead to additional tenants.

“They (UDRI) are at the forefront of innovation in this area,” he said. “It’s likely one good thing will follow another.”

Asked if he was impatient at the apparent lack of progress in developing the plant, Hicks noted that clients are being shown the property and internal demolition work is ongoing. “We’re impatiently patient.”

Lisa Novelli, CEO of Kettering’s National Composite Center, said a composite manufacturing site would further a partnership that the center and UDRI have long had. Taking composite parts and devices from prototype to production is something the center has always done with its partners, she said.

Luedtke said there are new composite technologies that could be housed in the paint shop that NCC couldn’t house. And such a site could solidify Dayton’s reputation as a center for advanced materials, he said. Dayton doesn’t have a large production facility for composite materials today, although it has a number of smaller ones, he said.