You are currently browsing the The Pennsylvania Conservative weblog archives for the day December 13, 2005.
December 13, 2005 by Matt Heckman.
This came by on the Reading Eagle web site today. Now this is great news for Berks County. Now just like the bottling plant at the former Dana site you and I both know that this can not stand well with the Berks County Democrats. Just wait and see I’m sure we will see some execuse for them to be against this in the coming weeks.
A Montgomery County developer has an agreement of sale to buy the 133-acre Agere Systems Inc. property in Muhlenberg Township and projects the return of 1,000 jobs to the site within 18 months, with more jobs to follow.
But Gene Call, a spokesman for Oaks-based Audubon Land Development, would not provide details on what the company intends to do with the property, which has more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing, warehouse and office space.
Call said Monday that Audubon would investigate potential uses, but added that many of its projects are commercial.
“We haven’t made a decision on the best possible use of the property,” he said.
Agere spokesman Glen Haley confirmed the deal, but said he had no idea what Audubon has planned.
The Berks County Industrial Development Authority had been trying to buy the property, and Thomas C. McKeon, authority executive director, has doubts about the viability of Audubon’s employment projection.
“It’s hard for me to give much credibility to their claim of 1,000 jobs,” McKeon said.
McKeon, who previously met with Audubon officials, said it has been difficult to pin down the company about its plans.
The authority had approached Allentown-based Agere last summer with plans to buy the North 13th Street plant, which closed in 2003.
McKeon said an excess of industrial property and the age of the buildings make demolition and redevelopment the best option. Many of the buildings date to 1962.
McKeon said the authority recently received a $175,000 state grant for environmental testing and a cleanup plan for the site. It had proposed using state and federal funds for the demolition, estimated at $6 million to $12 million.
Agere had been asking for $8 million for the property, but Haley and Call declined to disclose the purchase price. The deal is expected to close by the end of January.
The assessment of the property was lowered to $9.5 million from $26.3 million after Agere appealed.
McKeon said the authority’s big concern is the cleanup of the property.
Call said environmental consultants would be hired.
Terri C. Lampe, authority deputy director, said at least three developers came close to buying the site, but passed because they believed they could not make the deal viable.
“It’s not over yet,” Lampe said.
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