Mike, I, and I'm sure many others, would certainly pay $750 thou for a luxury "carriage" old tyme residence in that part of town. I can see it now, as I go out to my top floor balcony with a cup of coffee, looking at the U-Haul place (the old Liberal grocery store to those who don't know), the Dollar General, the Wade E Miller Gym and Middletown High School (yes, I know it's Vail, but it'll always be Middletown High to me ) Hey! How about the other direction looking over the now vacant Armco General offices and Research on down to the old Taft school site and Barnitz? Who knows, on a clear day, you might even see Woodside Cemetery around the bend from Rosa Parks as you look south. Nice views from the penthouse! Kinda "New Yorkish"

There is some "happy juice" additive in the kool-aid at City Hall if they are thinking as you say. What else would explain the surreal visions they come up with?

For those of you who may not be familiar, the Middletown Paperboard Plant is the group of large industrial buildings on the west side of Verity Parkway, roughly between Girard and Yankee Road.  This complex has been empty for a number of years.  All attempts at using it as it is zoned (heavy industrial) or even light industrial or commercial have been stymied by certain interests at City Hall.

è Can you please provide me one concrete example of attempts to use it as currently zoned that have been turned down by the city?

I don’t buy what this guy is saying for a single minute.  The site will be cleared.  It is only a matter of time.  Question is will remediation happen? 

How do you dismantle a complex and then attempt to reuse it?  The whole place is full of wood that the owner plans to auction off:

http://www.strikler.com/sales%20and%20auctions/auctios.php?entry_id=1334423200&title=strikler-metals--demolition-will-be-dismantling-company-property-owned-in-ohio

Old Growth Western Red Ceadar FOR SALE

Large Quanity of Old Growth Western Red Cedar, 1 Million to 4 Million Board Feet. Also Maple Flooring, 400,000 Sq Ft,.

Strikler is Partnering with Charlie Griffin from Wood Processing in Alabama to Market, Sell Material.

https://plus.google.com/photos/100295427752623744463/albums/5730214108130861281

 

 

The pictures are from Charlie Griffin from Wood Processing—the company Strikler is working with to auction the wood.  The links are from the Strikler website previously provided.

While the facility might be “clean” the property is likely a brownfield and will need remediation--similar to the old Aeronca, Wrenn Paper, Miami Packaging and Black Clawson properties.  At times it involves a complete demo and property clean up; others a portion is demoed and cleaned up. This is how the Clean Ohio Grant would be used to remediate the site.  The Middletown Paperboard complex, since becoming vacant, has always been a targeted brownfield site for the city.

What’s likely to happen is Strikler will dismantle and remove anything of value in the property that could be resold and will demo the rest.  The question becomes---will the site be remediated.  For example, Wausau demoed part of the old Sorg Paper Company at their own expense.  But what is unknown is if the site was remediated in the process.  I am going to guess no.  So it is unsuitable for development at the moment.

I checked the Butler County property records.  It appears BP Logan, LCC, acquired 50 plus parcels.  Each have a transaction $ of $5,000.  What is unknown is if the $5,000 is the total purchase price for all parcels or $250,000 plus when added all together.  I’ve seen records noted both ways.  Depends on how the sale was structured.

I have a few questions about this property. 1) Why can a company get a grant (tax payer money) and make a profit off the sale of the demolished property? I know that tax dollars support private industry to a much greater extent than individual citizens but I thought the purpose of a grant was because there was no profit in the demolition and remediation. Did I miss something? 2) Didn't the city just approve a 216 unit "high end" development on Towne Blvd? How many "high end" developments can this city support considering the economic situation? 3) If this property is zoned "heavy industry", how are they going to build housing on the site?

Things are certainly "moving forward" in Middletown; I guess it's a matter of whether you have a forward facing seat!

Mike_Presta wrote: "è Can you please provide me one concrete example of attempts to use it as currently zoned that have been turned down by the city?" Absolutely I can!!! For one, several years ago Nick Kidd wanted to expand an out-of-town business by bringing it into Middletown and moving it into this very facility (which was much larger)!!!  I can't recall exactly, but it was very light manufacturing (some sort of packaging, if memory serves).  The property is currently (and was then) zoned HEAVY INDUSTRIAL, yet City Hall threw one road block after another at him to prevent him from doing the deal.  I don't remember all of the details, but it was a real horror story.  Mr. Kidd instead went out of state with the business which ended up employing (I believe) over 200 people!!! I repeated the story to Perry Thatcher soon after Mr. Kidd told me about it.  (This was before Mr. Thatcher was elected to City Council.)  Mr. Thatcher said he had heard a similar story from another businessman that he had tried to bring to Middletown for this same site.  Mr. Thatcher is the one who told me that "City Hall" had their hearts set on "a high end town home development" for this site.  Thereafter, I discussed the property with two different Realtors (on separate occasions).  Both Realtors said they had heard that City Hall wanted loft condos and high-end town homes on the property, but that none of the local developers were willing to risk such a development. Now, I realize that you can't check with Mr. Thatcher (even if you have a 4G iphone), but Mr. Kidd still lives here in town, and I believe that his number is listed.  Since he was a candidate for City Council last November, his address (and possibly his telephone) is a matter of public record, available on the BuCo Board of Elections website. I don't want to reveal any of the other names, since they do business in the city and, regardless of all the lip service about how "business friendly" City Hall is, most everyone who does business in the city fears the vindictive nature of certain individuals, so they only speak with the condition of anonymity.  I will not betray their trust.  (Mr. Kidd has spoken openly; and of course Mr. Thatcher is beyond the reach of City Hall.)

Well now isn’t that an interesting story. 

Fact:      Perry Thatcher was elected to the Middletown City Council in November 2011
Fact:      Newark Group announced the closing of Middletown Paperboard in October 2002 with the        plant being shutdown in December 2002.

Given this, Mr. Thatcher was elected to City Council nearly 12 months prior to the announcement that Middletown Paperboard was closing.

Which conflicts with some of the details of your account above. 

The city’s Master Plan which was developed released in the 2006-2007 does call for redevelopment of this site for housing.  But only if it is remediated.  Mr. Kohler himself acknowledged at a Planning Commission meeting last year discussing an industrial-use expansion of a business located directly behind this mill that was passed by the Planning Commission as recommended by city staff.  

chmoore1 wrote: What's this smokescreen about: “The Middletown and Franklin buildings are in good shape and we’re working with both cities to work with expanding companies,” Logan said. He said they’d be looking at manufacturing companies that are in the service side of the paper, auto or steel industries. “There may be a market to do processing in the future,” he said.?  Is it to be reused or recycled for the wood?  Just a smokescreen, I imagine.  chmoore

Take a look t the pics in the links above and the amount of wood in the building, and tell me how they are going to be able to reuse the facility after the wood is stripped.

Um...the city just permitted the expansion of an industrial operation right across the street. I would be surprised if a legitimate industrial operation with jobs came along that the city would prevent it, assuming it met exisitng zoning code.

swohio75 wrote: Mine was not a lapse of memory but I typo. I did my research to make sure I had my dates right

So mine may have been due to a lapse of memory…so what do you want me to do, pay a fine or go to prison???  (Please do your research to make sure that I prefaced my remarks as being from memory!!!  Did ya notice the phrases “I can’t recall exactly”, “if memory serves”, “I don’t remember all the details”, and “I believe”???)

Next time please warn me if you want a sworn affidavit and I’ll be much more careful. 

 

Now, on to the case you seem so proud of:  I must assume that you mean the machining operation on Vanderveer Street (near Liberty Ave.) that wanted to expand and hire more people.  Did you actually watch the hearings on that???  The property was indeed already zoned INDUSTRIAL!!!  They were willing to DOWN-zone it to LIGHT industrial because there was so much opposition at city hall.  People from South Main Street showed up to speak AGAINST it.  Kohler was there because he HAD to be there, and if you watched it you could see that it was killing him to “do his job”.  They threw everything they could at those good citizens who owned it, and who were trying to cooperate because they realized that there were residences nearby.  (Remember, this land was already zoned INDUSTRIAL, so what was the real reason for a hearing in the first place???)  They were forced to plant trees and change the color scheme all because if some of the South Main Street folks took step ladders up onto their roofs and sat on the top rung in the winter when the trees were bare, they could look across Old South Park and see one end of the ridge-line of the roof.  Kohler ultimately HAD to “recommend” it because he ran out of things to object to, since the owners kept bending over backwards and accepting his unreasonable demands.

SupportMiddletown wrote: Sounds like what is supposed to happen. A compromise was struck that allowed the investment to happen while mitigating some of the impact on the surrounding uses.   Any smart property owner knows that industrial property surrounded by residential uses is going to bring additional regulations and, at times, objections from neighbors. Middletown has a number of these former industrial sites scattered in residential neighorhoods, and the city must balance the redevelopment/reuse of the sites while considering how the neighborhood will be impacted.   Look at the recent article about the reuse of the Miami Packaging plant--that site is less challenging then some, but I would call that a win for the city, something to give city hall kudos for pulling off.

That is strange.  I admit that my memory may be faulty again, but I don’t recall the proposed purchaser of the Miami Packaging property having to jump through hoops; DOWN-zone the site from “Industrial” to something more restrictive; screen the property from view by planting tall trees; or subject the color scheme for review, etc.  Remediation was required, something that I think the EPA requires precedent to sale if I am not mistaken. (But that is separate and apart from ANYTHING required by the city).  And in this case the City ASSISTED, instead of trying to hinder.  PLEASE...remind me of the "compromise" to which the new company agreed.

Of course, even though both these industrial sites are about the same distance from the corner of Central and Broad, the Miami Packaging site is AWAY from the Kohler’s and Mulligans’ property, while the machine shop was TOWARDS them…but we all are certain THAT made NO DIFFERENCE, aren’t we???

From MJ:

Sale of businesses focus on court action

By Ed Richter, Staff Writer 8:37 PM Wednesday, June 6, 2012

A man who purchased the former Franklin Boxboard and Middletown Paperboard facilities from The Newark Group is in a legal action in the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court after the seller said the equipment in the building was not part of the sale.

Christopher Logan said the purchase and sales agreement he signed was for everything on the property — including the buildings and equipment.

Logan, of Canton, Mass., is claiming that The Newark Group added the list of excluded property after the agreement was signed.

“They’re trying to state the equipment left at the Middletown and Franklin properties is theirs,” Logan said.

Logan said the agreement he signed Jan. 17 is completely different than what was presented by The Newark Group in court.

“The sale went through and I’ve owned it since Feb. 29,” he said. “Now 97 days later, The Newark Group is saying they own the equipment.”

The company received a two-week temporary restraining order keeping Logan from selling the equipment.

Court documents also stated that the company entered a contract to sell equipment to a third party and that they believe and have information from some of its prospective buyers that Logan is also selling the same equipment.

The Newark Group is seeking a permanent injunction against Logan from marketing and selling the equipment. It is also seeking an order to allow them to remove their equipment.

In its pleading, the company alleges several claims, including breach of contract, conversion (of assets such as equipment), and trespass to chattel.

The Cranford, N.J.-based company is also seeking damages of no less than $25,000 plus pre- and post-judgment interest, attorneys fees and court costs; the awarding of other court costs to initiate the suit and all other relief allowed by Ohio law.

Logan said the case was filed Monday in Montgomery County because that is where the purchase and sale agreement was signed. The parties appeared in court on Tuesday morning and the next court date has been set for June 19.

Benjamin Helwig, an attorney for The Newark Group, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Franklin Boxboard ended production of recycled paperboard last August, when 81 people lost their hourly or salaried jobs. The plant had been in operation for 100 years.

The Middletown site is between 400,000 and 600,000 square feet and the Franklin site is between 170,000 and 200,000 square feet.