Kannapolis, NC, Oct 27--An investment group led by a Rowan County businessman plans to buy the vacant Pillowtex Plant 4 on South Main Street and may buy the company's shuttered Rockwell plant, according to the Salisbury Post.
Priapus Development plans to close Nov. 15 on the purchase of Plant 4, said Will Dellinger, president of Priapus and owner of Southend Building Products, a floor manufacturer based in Cleveland.
Dellinger declined to say how much the company will pay for the plant until after the closing.
Priapus had Plant 4 under contract before Pillowtex entered bankruptcy July 30, Dellinger said. After Pillowtex closed, Priapus began negotiating with GGST, LLC, the liquidation venture that eventually bought Pillowtex for $128 million.
In the short term, Dellinger said, Priapus might move three companies into the 687,863-square-foot Plant 4: Southend, a hardwood-floor maker; Harmony Industries, a plastics recycler; and a yarn-distribution company.
That could provide around 50 new jobs in Kannapolis. Dellinger said it would not take jobs away from Rowan County, since he contracts out the labor for his flooring company to another firm.
After five or ten years--when the economy has recovered sufficiently, Dellinger said--Priapus might redevelop Plant 4 into offices or loft apartments. But it might also consider tearing down the plant and starting over, an option some Kannapolis officials have favored in the past.
Dellinger has hired a consultant to work with the city to determine the best future uses for the property and to negotiate for possible tax incentives tied to redevelopment investment.
Dellinger wants to "figure out what's best for everybody ... more so than just myself and what I need," he said. "I'm really going to weigh heavily on what the town wants to do."
Kannapolis City Manager Mike Mahaney said city officials will "work with them any way they want to work."
Mahaney said he'd like to see more traditional kinds of shops in downtown Kannapolis, and demolishing the plant might pave the way for that.
"But when you put pencil to paper, that might not be economically feasible," he said.
Mahaney said the project could qualify for property tax rebates under the city's existing incentive structure, which ties the tax breaks to capital investment and job creation.
Dellinger said he has not been involved in redeveloping a vacant mill before, but a partner in Priapus bought a million-square-foot former finishing and printing plant in Rock Hill for redevelopment.
Dellinger said the investors have placed a bid on the former Pillowtex plant in Rockwell and may take a look at the 5.6-million-square-foot Plant 1 complex in Kannapolis soon. Because of the potential cost of environmental cleanup at that Plant 1 site, however, he said there is only about a 30 percent chance the group would buy it.
"It's going to take deep pockets and multiple investors to pull it off," he said.
Meanwhile, the N.C. Department of Labor will be allowed to continue using Plant 4 to provide services to former Pillowtex workers, Dellinger said.
