Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 18, 1992 TAG: 9201180176
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
AT&T SITE'S FUTURE IS TOPIC OF MEETING
Officials from Montgomery and Pulaski counties and Radford are taking another stab at discussing a joint effort to establish a regional industrial park at the vacant AT&T site.The two boards of supervisors and the City Council will meet Monday night at the Peppers Ferry Wastewater Treatment plant off Virginia 114 at 7 p.m.
The meeting was organized by the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance, which is helping AT&T market the 743-acre site.
"We wanted to get everybody thinking about this again," said Franklyn Moreno, the alliance's director.
In October 1990, the three governments toyed with the notion of jointly buying the property - a prime industrial spot in a bend of the New River, centrally located between the three localities.
AT&T is asking $14.25 million for the plant, which includes a modern, 548,900-square-foot manufacturing facility.
The local governments would sell the factory and develop the rest of the land into several industrial sites in an effort to create as many jobs as possible.
At the time of the boards' last meetings on the site, an out-of-state prospect appeared ready to buy the plant and start a new company with only a few hundred jobs - nothing compared to the thousands of workers AT&T once employed at the prime industrial property.
But the localities' idea fell by the wayside when Pulaski County officials grew worried about coming up with their share of the money to buy the plant.
The two county boards now have new members after November's elections. Moreno said that Monday's meeting would bring the officials up to date on the AT&T plant, as well as on efforts to create a regional industrial park.
AT&T has been marketing the plant for almost two years, a period that has coincided with a nationwide recession.
Although prospects continue to look at the site, none has put down any money, Moreno said.
"To find a buyer for a property that size, you're falling into a range of companies worldwide that is very small," he said. Most prospects these days are looking for plants a fraction of the size of the AT&T one - between 50,000 and 100,000 square feet.
Robert Asbury, Radford city manager, said one possibility that might be discussed is buying the land, but not the building.
AT&T, however, continues to market the site as a package deal, Moreno said.
"They bought it in one lump, and they want to sell it in a lump."
He said that company officials know about next week's meeting, which he said would likely be closed to the public under state law that allows governments to discuss land purchases in private.