Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 23, 1993 TAG: 9307230135
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN LENGTH: Medium
DeNovo Corp., based in Toronto, hopes to be the first company at the Radford arsenal to capitalize on a $200 million federal fund aimed at converting ammunition plants to commercial use.
"We're very excited about this project," said Brecc Avellar, technical director for DeNovo. "Quite frankly, I didn't even think about Southwest Virginia as a site until I heard about this ARMS Act."
The act, passed by Congress last year, provides companies with incentives such as rent-free use of buildings, planning grants and loan guarantees.
DeNovo is willing to invest about $5 million and is asking the Army to guarantee a loan to finance the rest of the project, Avellar said. The company also is asking the government for "several hundred thousand dollars" to help pay for a feasibility study and to aid in upgrading waste-water treatment and electrical systems.
The 15-person corporation has a New River Valley connection in Avellar. The company's technical director lives in Floyd County and got his job after doing consulting work for DeNovo.
Hercules Inc., which runs the plant for the Army, has laid off more than 2,000 workers in the past two years as demand for propellant has decreased with the end of the Cold War. The plant now is using only about 20 percent of its capacity.
Chip Batton, ARMS marketing manager for Hercules, said DeNovo's proposal hasn't been officially reviewed, but it appears to fit with the company's plan for using its empty buildings.
"We're excited and like its potential," he said.
A news conference officially announcing the proposal is to be held today in Blacksburg before a scheduled town meeting to discuss the ARMS initiative.
The Army should decide in the next month whether to accept the proposal, Avellar said, and the plant is expected to be up and running by the end of 1994.
The plant would be roughly 100,000 square feet and employ 30 to 40 workers initially and up to 120 after about 18 months, he said. It would be housed in several buildings.
The jobs wpuld range from paper sorters to managers and should pay close to the $10- to $14-an-hour range earned now by most arsenal workers, Avellar said.
The plant proposed for the Radford arsenal would "de-ink" recycled white paper with a special "steam explosion process" that eliminates the need for chemicals used in traditional de-inking plants.
"This seems to fit right in with the environmentally sound type of company we would like to see there," said Holly Lesko, regional planner for the New River Valley Planning District Commission, which is in charge of marketing the arsenal to private companies.
Avellar said he learned about the ARMS Act after talking with Pat Therrien, marketing director for the Appalachian Regional Recycling Consortium.
In addition to creating jobs, Therrien said, the recycling pulp plant could help the region by giving localities an outlet for recycled paper. Because of long distances to recycling mills, many areas now have to pay tipping fees to get rid of their waste paper.
Avellar said the plant would remove not only ink, but also plastic coating, adhesive strips and other fibers.
The clean pulp will be sold to paper makers; and the crumbly, powder byproduct would be dumped in a landfill.
Avellar said plans call for the plant eventually to make its own paper.
DeNovo is about to start construction of a $60 million tissue plant in Alberta.
The company's stock, traded on the NASDAQ market, rose 6\ cents, to $2 a share, after plans for the Radford pulp plant were made public.
by CNB