I know so many people that were effected by the closing of Collins and Aikmen Plant. This hurt the entire town. I thought this article was worth sharing. I will be keeping you posted on updates to the story.
The Daily Reflector
Sunday, August 12, 2007
The Collins & Aikman plant in Farmville is finally ready for a "For Sale" sign.
Bound up in the Michigan company's bankruptcy proceedings for a year, the building can go on the market at the end of this month, company spokesman David Youngman said.
The legal proceedings recently reached a point where the company would be allowed to sell the plant and others to help repay creditors, Youngman said.
It has sat empty since August 2006, when Collins & Aikman shuttered the facility as part of its bankruptcy restructuring. The company closed three other North Carolina plants last year, laying off 1,200 people. Of those, 576 worked at the Farmville plant, which opened in 1962.
The year of legal wrangling has yielded missed opportunities to lure new industry, said Wanda Yuhas, executive director of the Pitt County Development Commission, because officials couldn't show the plant while the reorganization was in progress.
Multiple companies have expressed interest in the building over the last year, Yuhas said. She couldn't offer further details about those inquiries because they came through the N.C. Department of Commerce, she said.
"We were not able to be part of those searches because we were not free to show the building," she said. "We didn't keep track (of the number of leads), we just wept and wailed and gnashed our teeth."
Commerce officials couldn't be reached for comment. County development officials have been showing the building for the last week, and they're seeing if any of the suitors from earlier this year are still in the market, Yuhas said.
The brick building will be attractive to industries, Yuhas said. At $16 per square foot, a company could buy the plant more cheaply than it could build a comparable one, she said. C.B. Richard Ellis, a property management company retained by Collins & Aikman to oversee the plant, has kept it in good condition, she added. The company will ask $9.4 million for the facility.
Further, state job training for those left unemployed by last year's layoffs have enriched an already-attractive local work force, she added.
"A lot will depend on whether or not there is a client out there that needs a building this big," Yuhas said. "It is a huge building."
However, a company that can fill the massive space may not employ as many people as Collins & Aikman did, Yuhas said. With expanding mechanization, a 275- or 400-employee operation is more likely.
Jobs won't be the only benefit a new tenant brings, Farmville Mayor Robert Evans said.
It would also help close a revenue gap for the town. Losing the plant cost Farmville $600,000, much of it revenue from utilities usage. The town cut six jobs and raised water and sewer rates to make up the difference, Evans said.
Should another company open shop at the Collins & Aikman plant, it would boost utilities income and put more dollars into the local economy, Evans said.
"We would like to see a good corporate citizen occupy that building and bring some jobs to this area, but also bring a purchasing power," he said.
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Katie Evans
RE/MAX Preferred Realty
3208 Charles Boulevard
Greenville, NC 27858
(252) 341-5052 cell
(252) 355-1223 office
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