Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 13, 1995 TAG: 9504130054
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After sitting vacant for more than two years, a former school bus plant in Buena Vista is the cornerstone of plans for a publicly financed industrial park in Rockbridge County.
As local leaders prepared to order a feasibility study tonight, Blue Bird Corp. of Macon, Ga., said it will consider the proposal for its building but is in no hurry to act on it.
"It's paid for," said Blue Bird President Paul Glaske.
The company, which builds 40 percent of the school buses sold in the U.S. and Canada - more than any other bus maker - also hasn't ruled out restarting production at the plant.
"Someday it may have some real value to us," Glaske said.
But in August 1992, citing slack demand for school buses, Blue Bird announced it was closing the plant. It shut late that year, dealing the region a severe economic blow. About 220 people lost their jobs, and many have been unable to find comparable employment, said Buena Vista Mayor James Jefferies.
The region now is somewhat hamstrung when potential new employers come calling because it is running out of vacant industrial space, said Stu Litvin, executive director of the Rockbridge Area Economic Development Commission.
Prospective users of the Blue Bird building either have declined to pay the company's $4 million asking price or wouldn't sign a lease long enough to warrant Blue Bird's modifying the building to their needs, Glaske said.
Blue Bird has lowered its asking price to $3.6 million and would consider a somewhat deeper discount for Buena Vista, he said.
In recent weeks, Buena Vista, Lexington and Rockbridge County made public a proposal to create an industrial park anchored by the long, narrow bus-assembly building, which sits on 78 acres.
The Buena Vista City Council is scheduled to vote tonight on whether to forward its share of the cost of a $2,500 feasibility study by Mattern and Craig engineers in Roanoke. Lexington and Rockbridge County already have agreed to the study.
The engineers would determine ways to divide the 244,000-square-foot building into two or more large spaces and carve adjacent land into 10-acre tracts for new buildings. Remaining acres would be committed to buffer zones between buildings, storage and roads.
The three government agencies envision financing the site purchase and construction through bonds issued by an industrial development authority, said Buena Vista City Manager Richard Flora. The authority would recoup its investment by renting and selling sites.
by CNB