What-a-deal category
Buy the Stimson Property East of Missoula, and Get a Working Mill for Free
By Robert Struckman, 8-07-08
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| The Stimson mill in Bonner a few years ago | |
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Stimson lumber officials in Missoula met with Craig Rawlings of TimberBuySell.Com, representatives of Montana’s congressional delegation and others to spread the news about an offer: Buy the former Stimson plant in Bonner for $16 million and get all the equipment, including a working stud mill, for free.
The offer stands until Sept. 30., said Stimson’s Jeff Webber.
“We’re going to get it out over the Small Wood Utilization Network as fast as we can,” Rawlings said. His North American network has about 10,000 members. “Time is of the essence.”
Local developer Scott Cooney has bought a few parcels of former company land and the homes sitting on them along U.S. Highway 200, but his bid for the remainder of the land was rejected about a month ago by Stimson, which is a privately held Portland-based lumber company with mills across the Northwest. By the way, Stimson isn’t out of the manufacturing game. The company recently purchased a mill in Idaho.
The best case scenario, said those who attended the Stimson-led event, would be for another company to buy the plant. They wouldn’t have to operate it on the same level Stimson did. For instance, the buyer could downsize the boiler to make it into a small public utility providing power, heat and cooling to the homes there and also possibly run a scaled-down stud mill and lease out the planing mill to other industrial users.
“There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat,” Rawlings said. “But whoever it is will have to move really fast.”
If the whole package isn’t sold by Oct. 1, Stimson will sell the land to the highest bidder and auction off the mill and other equipment, Webber said.
“We would love to see somebody pick this property up before the auction and continue to run a sawmill in the county. It’s important in the long haul for forest health reasons,” Webber said. “Once this infrastructure is gone, it’s not coming back.”
The former mill sits at the junction of the Blackfoot and Clark Fork rivers. For a period in the 1970s, it produced more board feet of plywood under its massive roof than any other plant on earth.
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Comments
If you meant "East OF Missoula," then fine, but write that instead. Those of us in East Missoula know quite well that Bonner is not, and should not, be the same thing.
I can't imagine that it'd end up residential - the level of clean-up needed for that is much higher - i.e., expensive.
With the rail running right up to it - it's an ideal industrial site.
With the windmill people cooling to Butte, maybe they should start looking at Missoula? They could load those humongous parts right on the rail cars for long transport - and even if it's short transport, the highway is only 5 minutes away.
Cooney should just go away. We don't need no stinking high-priced condos and minimum wage jobs lining that river. Clean manufacturing, cleaner industry.
On the other hand, there are points to be had about Rawlings' comments regarding "once it's gone." He's right. Forests need to be managed, and without local infrastructure to do it, unhealthy forests are only going to grow.
Stimson's not on the hook unless the contract includes specific liability waivers, ala Denny Washington buying the Continental Pit off ARCO in 1985. The problem is nobody knows the extent of environmental damage yet. You think the cooling pond is the only problem?
They'll find penta and dioxin. The question is when?
I do wonder how DEQ could put a $5,000,000 pricetag on it when they haven't even been in there yet.
it seems like a green wood product company beside a free flowing Blackfoot Clark Fork confluence could be attainable. I will even give you the name- Confluence Wood Products. How about it Sierra Club? can we put you down for a couple Mill? Wilderness Society- how about a brand new shiny Montana wilderness bill in exchange for a mill or two? When it is reported on national news that environmental organizations and the government have stepped up to save jobs in Missoula it could go a long way to defuse the right wing attacks on these organizations and it would certainly be good PR. Who knows? in the long run, it might to be pretty profitable for everyone involved including missoula's disappearing middle class.