[CPEO-BIF] Armstrong's industrial ghost town

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Ghost of a chance?

Armstrong says $51 million of demolition and environmental cleanup work 
is needed to make the vacated section of its sprawling floor plant 
appealing to another user.

By Tim Mekeel
Lancaster New Era (PA)
November 12, 2004

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - On the northern edge of the city sits an 
industrial ghost town. Decaying, contaminated and largely vacant, 
Armstrong World Industries' Lancaster floor plant is an inefficient relic.

Its present is grim. Its future is worse.

Armstrong announced last week that another 450 jobs there will be 
eliminated, leaving just 250 workers — less than a tenth of its post-war 
peak — on a corner of the sprawling site.

And the chances of any other business redeveloping the vacated section 
of the site and replacing those lost jobs are bleak at best, company 
documents suggest.

Citing the property's decrepit condition, Armstrong says the site needs 
$51 million worth of demolition and environmental cleanup work to become 
marketable to another company.

And because of its dire shape, Armstrong wants the site's real estate 
assessment slashed to a token $1, making the floor plant the only major 
factory here with no property tax bill.

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/4/9702

--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org


_______________________________________________
Brownfields mailing list
Brownfields@list.cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org/mailman/listinfo/brownfields