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Buyer aims to revive A&P plant

California investors hope to fill huge facility and create at least 100 jobs.

By Jeff Murray
Star-Gazette
March 10, 2000

It’s a monolithic reminder of the Southern Tier’s economic decline in the early 1980’s.

Now, with the help of real estate investors from California, local officials hope the former A&P plant in Horseheads can become a symbol of the area’s rejuvenation.

Chemung County officials announced Thursday that Cohen Asset Management Inc. of Beverly Hills, Calif., will purchase the 1.5 million-square foot plant that A&P closed in 1982.

The shutdown idled hundreds of workers, and since that time, the sprawling facility has been marketed in fits and starts, with various warehousing and manufacturing operations occupying portions of the plant. Several potential purchase deals have fallen through over the years.

But Bradley Cohen, president of Cohen Asset Management, said he already has a list of 50 potential tenants and eventually hopes to fill every square inch of the plant—creating a minimum of 100 jobs along the way.

The news has been a long time coming, local officials said.

"I’m elated these people have come along," said Chemung County Legislature Chairman John A. Flory, who also heads the county’s Industrial Development Agency. "I’m very hopeful this is finally going to happen—what should have happened 10 years ago. I was there when they opened A&P. I’m so happy they’ve got something happening now. It’s been empty too long."

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. opened the Horseheads plant in 1965, billing it as "the world’s largest food-processing plant." At its peak, 2,500 people worked at the giant facility.

But after a few years of prosperity, things started to go sour for A&P, and after several layoffs designed to cut costs, the company announced on April 1, 1982, that the Horseheads facility would close for good—putting more than 1,000 employees out of work.

Several potential deals to sell the plant, visible from Route 17, have come and gone in that time; nothing has stuck.

Cohen hopes to change all that. His company manages about 12 million square feet of industrial and warehouse property in locations across the country, he said, and when A&P finally listed the Horseheads property with a national real estate firm recently, he decided the chance was too good to pass up.

"A lot of our properties are in secondary or tertiary markets and are underutilized due to a variety of reasons, mostly neglect of ownership," Cohen said. "We go out and buy the buildings and rehabilitate them and then lease them. We’ve been very successful at it.

"What happens is you get buildings like A&P where they’ve had many calls and they don’t respond," Cohen said. "You sit with it long enough, and people don’t bother. Coming in as entrepreneurs, we’ll change perceptions. We’re going to start getting activity."

The only tenant at the A&P plant now is Toshiba Display Devices, which uses about a third of the space for a warehouse. Norfolk Southern has three rail lines at the plant and is anxious to provide the new owners with a list of possible new customers, Cohen said.

Cohen Asset Management will invest more than $9 million to purchase and renovate the property. In addition, the county Industrial Development Agency on Thursday approved a $250,000 grant to be applied toward renovations, and the Southern Tier Economic Growth board will vote Tuesday on another $250,000 grant.

If the plant is sold again in the next five years, a portion of those grants would have to be paid back.

The new owners also are asking the Industrial Development Agency for property tax abatement. That request will be considered soon, said County Executive G. Thomas Tranter Jr.

Cohen Asset Management, under the corporate name of Horseheads Industrial Capital LLC, hopes to close the deal by the end of April and begin work to refurbish the plant. That work will include roof repairs, asphalt replacement, demolition of some dividing walls, dock additions and exterior lighting improvement.

The company’s grant application listed the creation of 100 jobs and retention of 33 Toshiba jobs among the economic benefits. Cohen and partner Jeffrey Stern said those numbers are conservative.

Local officials have had their hopes up before, but they are confident Cohen can deliver what other potential saviors of the A&P plant could not.

"We’re very excited about the new owners. They’ve got extensive real estate experience and a proven track record," Tranter said. "The fact that they’re going to make improvements is something we’re excited about. We’ve been working with them for about three months."

The revitalization of the old A&P plant will also be a morale booster and a vital marketing tool for the community, said Southern Tier Economic Growth President George Miner.

"That building has been sitting empty at the gateway to our community for 18 years," Miner said.

"No matter how well we’re doing, when visitors come in, their first reaction is that something is wrong here. We have to dispel that myth. Now that problem is going to go away. We’re very excited."

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