WEST MEAD TOWNSHIP — New life may be coming soon to a longtime tool and die manufacturing facility that fell silent in one of Crawford County’s largest bankruptcies.
Ironstone Properties Limited Liability Co. has plans to close on the former Sipco facility at 1099 Morgan Village Road by mid-April and intends to use it for light manufacturing like tool and die, technical school classrooms and storage, according to township officials. The 1.66-acre site with 23,500 square feet under roof is currently listed with ERA Richmond Real Estate Service for $595,000.
Because of a prior commitment, Ironstone President Jeffrey W. Cooley of Gravel Run Road, Cambridge Springs, was unable to attend a conditional use hearing for the property during Tuesday night’s township supervisors’ work session. During that meeting, supervisors discussed the plan and granted approval for the proposed use, subject to several conditions.
Among the conditions discussed were the need to store items only inside the building, concerns about the amount of traffic going in and out of the site, which is accessible only through a residential neighborhood, and ensuring there is adequate parking on site for the intended uses.
In a phone call to the Tribune after the meeting, Cooley said those conditions had already been discussed in detail with him and that he sees them all as “workable.”
Supervisors directed township attorney Alan Shaddinger to draw up a document laying out the conditions for them and Cooley to review.
Cooley said a deal is not yet completed to purchase the building, and he’s negotiating for a closing cost that’s “a decent amount lower” than the $595,000 asking price.
While he has no plans to conduct a business of his own at the former Sipco site, he said he is hoping to line up a maximum of three tenants that would set up their businesses there. He has already taken three parties through the location and has spoken to three others, but none has committed yet.
“If we can’t get it all rented, I would possibly use (some of the site) for storage myself,” he said, noting that he and his wife, Lori, own and manage three residential rental properties.
Those properties have connected the Cooleys with officials at Mercer County State Bank in recent years. “We’ve been interested in doing commercial (development), and the bank approached us with this option,” Jeff Cooley said of the venture at the former Sipco site.
Sipco was founded by one of Crawford County’s tool and die pioneers, Henry Sippy, in spring 1959 and had been run since his retirement in 1987 by his sons. Sipco is credited as being one of six businesses founded between 1945 and 1960 that were the foundation for the more than 100 tooling and machining shops in Crawford County.
In October 2006, Sipco was acquired by Eric Hoover and his CORE Manufacturing Inc., which held a portfolio of businesses and was once one of Crawford County’s largest manufacturing employers with about 275 workers. Hoover was recognized in April 2006 as the federal Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Person of the Year for 2006.
In early 2009, however, the faltering economy claimed CORE, which filed for bankruptcy, citing $17 million owed to lenders and creditors.
Eventually parts of CORE were purchased out of bankruptcy by Esmark Inc. of Chicago, the private holding company of two brothers who have focused primarily on steel and manufacturing firms.
The Sipco site was not part of that deal, and in October 2009 it was scheduled for sheriff’s sale and was reclaimed by the bank who held a loan to CORE on the property, Mercer County State Bank. A court filing listed $538,561.80 as the unpaid loan balance; $5,902.03 in interest owed as of Sept. 9, 2009; $63 in fees; and $81,679.02 in attorney fees.
Current marketing materials at the site bearing the logo of ERA Richmond indicate that Mercer County State will offer financing to prospective buyers.
Pat Bywater can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at pbywater@meadvilletribune.com.
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