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CT Hard Rubber Site Attracts Interest
French owner markets property for $3 million-plus
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Business New Haven
1/5/2004
By: BNH
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Realtor Fred Maretz of Levey Miller Maretz has reported interest from local manufacturers and distributors for the former Saint-Gobain industrial site in New Haven. The site, which houses four industrial buildings with a total of 108,000 square feet on 7.5 acres, sits at the corner of East Grove Street and Grand Avenue. It is on the market for $3.24 million.
The site was once the home of the Connecticut Hard Rubber Co. That firm was founded in 1921 and purchased in 1999 by Saint-Gobain, the French industrial conglomerate with international operations and annual sales in excess of $30 billion. Saint-Gobain's North American operations are based in Valley Forge, Pa., where the company oversees 200 manufacturing plants, including one in East Granby.
The company closed the New Haven plant in early November.
The New Haven facility produced pressure-sensitive tapes and silicon rubber products and housed about 66 employees. The company is relocating the manufacturing equipment and operations to another Saint-Gobain plant in Hoosick Falls, N.Y.
According to Fealtor Maretz, "This is one of the largest industrial properties to come unto the market in New Haven in a while."
Jerry Connors, the plant's facilities manager, who dclined a transfer to Hoosick Falls, says the employees were skilled manufacturing employees and that nearly half had found new employment.
Prospects for re-use of the site are good, Maretz says. He said five parties had expressed interest. Maintaining the tax value to the city may be difficult, however. Potential use of the site by distributors - two of which have expressed interest - could mean lower personal property tax revenues to the city. (Distributors typically employ less taxable capital equipment than manufacturers.)
Maretz has also said there has been interest from local manufacturing companies that are growing and "would like to stay in New Haven," he says. Maretz cited incentives from the city's Empowerment Zone designation as an incentive for this use.
Maretz added that the site is being marketed as a total package but some of the interested parties are not large enough to use the entire facility. He suggested a developer might choose to buy the site and lease or sell portions of the property.
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