Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 22, 1992 TAG: 9201220248
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN LENGTH: Medium
FEW COMMENTS OFFERED ON AT&T SITE PLANNING
If talk is cheap, as they say, officials from Montgomery and Pulaski counties and Radford have spent nothing but time talking about buying the empty AT&T plant.They met Monday night to discuss the idea again, but on Tuesday - citing executive privilege to discuss real estate purchases in closed session - they declined to reveal any particulars.
"I hate to say `no comment,' " said Montgomery County Supervisor Henry Jablonski.
"Nobody wants to do anything that would jeopardize a potential price or prospect," he said.
The three met to review the idea - originally surfaced in late 1990 - of buying the property from AT&T.
The company has had the 743-acre site, bordered by the New River in Fairlawn, on the market for almost two years. The asking price is $14.25 million - pretty steep for cash-strapped local governments.
But with the economy still sluggish, and few manufacturers expanding or willing to plunk down that kind of money, the local officials apparently hope AT&T will negotiate.
"It's like a house," Jablonski said. The longer it's on the market, "Sometimes you think you can get a better bargain. Perhaps that's the case" with the AT&T property. They also are talking about acquiring a portion of the site, and hope the company would consider breaking up the property.
AT&T has insisted on selling the whole site and nothing but the site, including the gigantic 548,000-square-foot factory.
"Obviously, as time passes and you get no takers . . . there has to be some flexibility on that," said Radford City Councilman Gary Weddle. "I think it would just behoove them to have a little flexibility."
AT&T spokeswoman Mary Lou Ambrose said that as of last week, the company was continuing to market the property in one chunk.
Montgomery County board Chairman Ira Long said he personally thinks the best option is for the localities to make an offer on the land except for perhaps 70 or so acres surrounding the factory.
"I just feel like, myself, the plant itself would be hard to market," Long said.
Before any offers are made, each locality has to agree to do it, then all three have to jointly agree - a bit more difficult but not unimaginable.
"Just by the fact that we met shows that we're closer than we were," Weddle said.
And although the city's budget is so tight it almost squeaks, putting money in economic development is a sound investment.
The localities hope to develop the prime industrial site - centrally located with rail access, surrounded by the river, served by Appalachian Power Co. - would be a perfect regional industrial park with the potential of thousands of jobs for the New River Valley.
The governments met in late 1990 but the idea fell through when Pulaski County expressed worry over where it would get the money.
Now, said Supervisor Joseph Sheffey, the county has computers in its schools, a new courthouse under way and is ready to reconsider the idea.
"We never said no," said Sheffey, whose district includes the vacant plant. "When I see people that are not working, when we see people leaving the county, we need to consider all the options."
"The AT&T property has been a sore subject ever since the announcement it would close," Weddle said. "People are waiting for some action."
All elected officials from Radford and Pulaski County attended the meeting.
Missing from Montgomery County were Larry Linkous and Nick Rush - both new to the board this year, and Joe Stewart and Jim Moore.
Also at the meeting were Bob Kilgore, division manager with Appalachian Power Co.; Dave Rundgren, executive director of the New River Valley Planning District Commission; Don Moore, executive director with the Montgomery County Economic Development Commission; W.W. "Skip" Griggs, chairman of the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance; Franklyn Moreno, director of the alliance; and Jill Barr, Radford's economic development director.