EDA: Tear down all old Avtex buildings

Local economic leaders want to start fresh in redeveloping the mini-ghost town of Avtex.

"How can you develop a mixed use business park with big, ugly, unusable buildings in the middle?" asked Stephen Heavener, executive director of the Front royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, Tuesday. An administrative building at the site is the only one that’s reusable, he said, estimating that half of Avtex’s original buildings are still lying idle and should be torn down. Those buildings are presently outside the scope of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s remedial efforts under the federal Superfund law.

Except for the administration building, all the buildings are contaminated with asbestos and lead, although a bill expected to be approved in Congress this week would target money for removal of those toxins, he said.

Heavener appeared before the Front Royal Town Council at its work session Monday night, asking that it approve the general concept of the re-use plan recommended by North American Realty Advisory Services of New York City. The consultant’s plan said that in addition to starting with a clean slate at Avtex, that the site should be developed as a mixed-use business park.

"Our goal is to develop the property as a brand-new business park exactly like we’re doing in other parts of the county, where you take a farm or a vacant field and develop it into a business park," Heavener said.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors gave its blessing to the general re-use plan two weeks age. And the Front Royal Town council is expected to follow suit at its meeting this Monday, Oct. 26.

Following that, the economic agency hopes that the local governing bodies will approach the EPA and FMC Corp., a former plant operator who is helping to fund cleanup costs, about demolition issues.

"Our goal is to continue to lobby hard politically to get EPA and FMC to demolish all the buildings," Heavener said. "We can’t develop the site until that happens."

The EPA recently demolished buildings it perceived to be environmentally hazardous but left alone a lot of other buildings that have asbestos and lead which aren’t regulated under the Superfund law, Heavener said.

As part of a congressional appropriations bill, Rep, Frank Wolf (R-10th ), tacked on a request for $275,000 grant to remove lead and asbestos in buildings at Avtex.

But while that money, if it comes through, will help, other external funding will be needed, Heavener said.

"That starts the process of additional demolition. But we believe there’s upward of $5 million of additional demolition to take place."

In a memo to the town, Town Planning Director Kimberley Fogle said adoption of Avtex’s reuse plan in its general form should incorporate recommendation of the town’s comprehensive plan, which recommends the expansion of Ed Stump Park to better accommodate soccer, football and parking, and for road improvements leading to the site.

" Avtex fibers has long been a facility that has stood off by itself— it has not been integrated into the fabric of the town as a whole," Fogle wrote,

"This new plan provides a fresh opportunity to bring this land in as part of the community."

Heavener said road improvements are among issues that can be worked out later as the site develops, but for now the focus should be on getting the ball rolling to turn the site around to productive use.

"Our goal will be to accommodate the comprehensive plan." Heavener said. "That’s not a concern at all. We intend to develop that property."