Local officials are determined that the Sumitomo plant will not be the son of Bethlehem Steel, where a sprawling industrial property sat for decades before a solid redevelopment plan emerged.
That is paramount to county leaders, says its economic leader Zaque Evans.
“If there isn't someone that comes in and takes the property in Sumitomo’s wind down timeline. There may be a period after that in which there is no occupant of the property, but we're looking at 12 to 18 months, ideally, not decades, like Bethlehem Steel,” Evans said.
Strategic Development Group, based out of Greenville, S.C., will look at the present environmental and geotechnical conditions of the property but also from a redevelopment perspective about what the future may hold for the site.
“To make sure this plant gets back into productive use in a number of different ways is the goal of this task force and what we're looking for in site consultant,” Evans said. “It's not just going to be a, hey this was a 100-year-old tire plant. We'll find someone else in that space to fill it. It might be, but it might be that some of the site needs to be retrofitted. Some of the site might need to be demolished and redeveloped. There's a menu of different options.”
From the moment Sumitomo last November surprised the region by announcing plans to close the century-old tire-making plant and put 1,550 people out of work, the county began an aggressive approach to find a new life and use for the complex.
Evans says the one common thread: No way was this property sitting like an empty, industrial eyesore.
“I think there's some evidence, especially on the workforce front of how quickly and collaboratively the county, the state, the town, all of the stakeholders, the steelworkers, everyone responded to this sort of mass layoff event and taking that as an example for what we can translate to the site,” Evans said.
The SDG report will provide an early blueprint for how that may happen. The company was selected from five firms that responded to an RFP issued by the county task force this past winter. SDG will be getting paid $250,000 for its work, with funding from Empire State Development, Invest Buffalo Niagara, and National Grid.
