TUPPER LAKE -- Jarden Plastics Solutions closed three weeks ago, leaving 68 people without jobs -- but now the building is reportedly being eyed by a major retailer.
|
The vacant, clay-colored plant with an industrial smokestack takes up 15 acres of a center stretch between hamlets on two sides of Tupper Lake.
It is the site along Route 3 where Oval Wood Dish Co. once made bowling pins and wooden spoons, across the road from sparkling, mountain-framed Racquette Pond.
DEVELOPER INTERESTED
A deal is in the works to sell Jarden's property to Nigro Companies, an Albany-based developer.
Officials aren't naming who wants to build in Tupper Lake or how much it would cost, but most believe it is a big retail operation.
Located in an Empire Development Zone, the site comes with tax incentives and sales-tax exemptions, said Paul Maroun, Franklin County legislator from Tupper Lake, who indicated that discussion -- as he understood it -- has reached the pricing stage.
"The thought is that if you've got 15 or 16 acres, they're not going to put a dollar store there."
Nigro, a kind of retail development middleman, lists 52 clients on its Web site, including Hannaford, Home Depot, Lowe's and Wal-Mart.
WAL-MART RUMORS
The Wal-Mart connection has raised conjecture.
In early May, village trustees and Mayor Mickey Desmarais sent a letter inviting Wal-Mart to consider locating in Tupper Lake, though not necessarily the Jarden site.
Desmarais said the invitation, in part, responded to Jarden's departure.
"It did and didn't. We'd been communicating with Nigro since last summer, when we knew Jarden was heading out."
Bringing big retail to the small town is something the mayor believes would work here, and the Village Board wanted Wal-Mart to know it was welcome.
The third try could prove the proverbial charm in the Tri-Lakes.
Wal-Mart fought and lost to public opposition in 1994 in Lake Placid and in 2006 in Saranac Lake.
"Why not Tupper Lake?" Desmarais said candidly. "How many communities can put something in the middle of their village with a waterfront park?"
Nobody is saying for sure it's even Wal-Mart that is interested.
"We just want to let Nigro do their thing. We're welcoming business to Tupper Lake," Desmarais said.
TUPPER VISION
In a telephone interview, Nigro Vice President Steve Powers said they "do have interest in the Tupper Lake area."
The apparent reserve exhibits stark contrast to a lively dialogue by Tupper Lake's Revitalization Committee, a community-based action group, which produced a vision plan last December.
When asked if Nigro has met with Tupper's revitalization group, Powers said no.
"We haven't progressed far enough to be able to work with them at this point."
The vision, compiled by Camoin Associates, encourages mixed-use development to connect two ends of Tupper Lake by the end of 2009.
It looks to mixed use -- retail, restaurants, a conference center -- as "an anchor facility in the heart of the community."
Powers said Nigro recognizes the value of mixed-use facilities.
"It certainly is the future of our business," he said, without divulging whether it is part of the Tupper plan.
When asked about a time line, Powers said, "We're working on it."
SMART GROWTH
And so is Tupper Lake.
The community received a $100,000 Smart Growth grant in March to fine-tune revitalization via zoning in a town and village once brimming with a rough-and-ready timber industry.
Marti Mozdzier, Chamber of Commerce executive director, said revitalization looks to connect hamlets where Oval Wood Dish once worked like glue.
"What we would really like to see there is something that would tie our communities into one continuous community hospitality and lodging, maybe a nice conference center that could anchor that section."
Tupper Lake is a trio of small hamlets, she said, with business sections "uptown" on Park Street, at the "junction" on Main Street and in what is called "Moody" to the west on Big Tupper Lake.
"Our vision wouldn't necessarily preclude a department store, but our long-term plan includes implementing zoning control over construction materials used, so we would have more appropriate Adirondack architecture and no strip malls."
Any formal zoning plan is months distant, with Nigro coming in for a landing.
Jon Kopp, past chamber director and town historian, said Franklin County Industrial Development Agency officials as much as told the Revitalization Committee the building was sold.
"I think there's a deal that was made somewhere. There are people in town looking at the plastic factory as if it would be a blight down the road -- the glass gets broke, grass growing through the parking lot. Jarden wants to sell their building."
dedam@pressrepublican.com
Sister Says She Reported Brother in Patz Killing
Patz Suspect's Sister: I Went to Police in 1980s
Diplomatic Expulsions Follow Fresh Syria Report
15 Dead in Northern Italy's 5.8-magnitude Quake
Angry Birds Spreading Their Wings
Witness Describes Fla. Face-chewing Attack
Man Falls Off Crane, Dies After Police Standoff
Russia Condemns Ally Syria Over Massacre of 108
Dairy Farm Uses Chiropractor to Help Cows
Unexpected Smog in Pristine National Parks
Air Canada Plane Makes Emergency Landing
New Ticks Spread Across Southeast, Diseases Rise
Bring Your Own Tech Programs Charge Up Students
Pope's Butler Vows to Help Vatican Investigation
Mother of Allegedly Abused Girl Denies Claims
Raw Video: 19 Dead in Qatar Shopping Mall Fire
Service Dogs Help Wash. Soldiers Battling PTSD
Raw Video: Heckler Bursts in on Blair Testimony
Japan Farmers Plant, Seek Radiation-free Rice
