February 17, 1995

Local business and government leaders saw the potential, as well as the problems, of the old Avtex Fibers site as they evaluated the facility Thursday for possible new tenants.

Stephen A. Heavener, executive director of the Front Royal-Warren County Industrial Development Authority, said businesses have told him they'd be interested in occupying the space if it were usable.

"The warehouses are perfect," Heavener said while looking around one of the huge rooms, left dark, cold and dirty from disuse.

He, authority members and representatives of town government and the Warren County Redevelopment Corp., toured about 400,000 square feet of the closed 2.8 million-square-foot facility, now an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site.

The area they looked at never was contaminated and could be readied for light industrial use within a year, said Frederick G. Foster, president of the redevelopment corporation.

Before any space can be used, however, the EPA and Avtex's bankruptcy trustee must agree on terms and areas must be cleaned and repaired.

The discussions mark the first time the EPA has negotiated about a Superfund site before the cleanup was completed, Foster said.

The EPA also has asked for proposals from specific users about the amount of space they want and the number of employees they have, Heavener said. The authority knows of a business that might want about one-eighth of the available space, but optimally the plant would house "a handful of users," he said.

First, hazards would have to be removed from the rooms that had been used by Avtex as warehouses and offices.

Those on the tour noticed crumbling asbestos insulation, chipping paint, leaking roofs, rusting pipes and warped tin walls.

Old equipment and vats of chemicals also would have to be removed, Foster said.

Although some roofs had holes, redevelopment corporation Secretary Dan Althouse said he was impressed with much of the facility's construction. One warehouse room with a leaking concrete ceiling would require a new membrane roof, he said. But its basically sturdy construction could support items from the ceiling, which would be helpful to industries such as steel fabrication or printing, he said.

Of the 65 acres of buildings on the 500-acre site, 35 are scheduled to be torn down, Foster said.

"We see this as a very important resource. It's close, it's in town and it's on rail. The big companies now want rail," Heavener said.

The authority will act as the property's landlord when and if the EPA releases the building to the redevelopment corporation, Foster said.