CONNEX MOVE HITS SNAG

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 26, 1993                   TAG: 9303260228
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
CONNEX MOVE HITS SNAG
Connex Pipe Systems, the Marietta, Ohio, company considering moving its operations to Botetourt County, apparently has run into real estate problems with the Troutville building it would occupy.
Gilbert Gardner, Connex president, was not in his Ohio office Thursday. But Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership, said problems have arisen in negotiations between Connex and the Oakey family, which owns the property Connex wants.
Earlier this week, Gardner declined to discuss the nature of the real estate problems. But he was quoted by the Fincastle Herald, as saying they threaten the company's move to Virginia. Gardner said he is reconsidering other locations.
"We don't have any other buildings [in the Roanoke area] that will meet their needs," Doughty said Thursday.
Doughty said she is not involved in the real estate talks. "This is a transaction between two private companies."
She said she's "still optimistic that something can be worked out." She said she has invested a lot of time in recruiting Connex.
The plant, promising 150 jobs, "is something the county really needs," she said.
The building was owned by RIB Detention Equipment Corp., a successor to the prison equipment business of the former Roanoke Iron and Bridge Works. Both companies closed in bankruptcy. Tuna Associates, a firm formed by the C.M. Oakey family, has been trying to market the Troutville building. Detention Equipment Co., a third prison equipment firm, occupies a small part of the structure.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB