THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510270550
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
A steel scrapping company from New Jersey is purchasing Jonathan Corp.'s former shipyard property on Front Street in Norfolk.
The company bought the property at a noon auction Thursday.
The auctioneer, Mark Motley, who also represented the company by sealed bid, would not disclose its identity.
The company plans to disassemble and scrap decommissioned Navy vessels and other ships at the site on the Elizabeth River, said Motley, who owns MACI International Inc., the Richmond-based auction house that handled the sale of the land and everything on it. The steel from the vessels will recycled in the global steel scrap market.
``They'll certainly be coming in and creating some jobs,'' Motley said.
Robert Smithwick, Norfolk's director of development, was unavailable to comment on the city's newest corporate citizen.
The New Jersey firm bid $912,000 for the property. It will ultimately pay $2 million for the site after it pays the nearly $1.1 million owed to W. MacKenzie Jenkins Jr. of Norfolk to buy out the industrial revenue bond he holds that is secured by the property.
The 8-acre site has 800 feet of river frontage with a 5-acre mooring basin and a large concrete pier. There's 112,000 square feet of warehouse and office space, some of it built before the turn of the century.
The only other bidder was a Virginia investor who planned a commercial/retail development there, said William A. Hudgins, a vice president at Harvey Lindsay Commercial Real Estate.
Hudgins represented the potential investor, but wouldn't say who it was. He said the development the investor had in mind would have complemented the surrounding neighborhood of Ghent well.
The New Jersey company had contacted MACI a month ago about the property, Motley said. It made an offer for the land and all the equipment on it three weeks ago, but preparations for the auction were too far along to call it off, Motley said.
A shipyard executive who attended the auction said he had heard the New Jersey company was going to scrap the former amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima and another warship there. He didn't know the company's name , however. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo buy Huy Nguyen/ The Virginian Pilot
An auctioneer urges prospective buyers to place a bid on equipment
at the Jonathon Corp. on Thursday.
Color staff photo by Martin Smith-Rodden\ The Virginian-Pilot
A New Jersey company is expected to set up a steel scrapping
operation on Jonathon Corp's former shipyard property in Norfolk.
Virginian-Pilot map
Area Shown: Jonathan Corp.
KEYWORDS: JONATHON CORP. AUCTION by CNB