The long-vacant Louisiana Pacific building in Center has been sold – apparently to a company that plans to manufacture wood pellets as fuel for wood-burning stoves.
“What we know is, yes, it’s been sold,” said Courtney Bernardi, the director of economic development for the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce. “We have no details, none.”
Rumors about a pending sale have swirled for months, but at least one proposed purchaser backed out for lack of financing. Bernardi said “there is some form of foreign investment involved,” but again cited a lack of details.
“It happened at the end of the year,” she added. “There is no timeline as to when things will actually start in the building.”
Commerce officials have long been hopeful that a company would buy the LP facility, because a wood fuel manufacturer would use huge amounts of natural gas purchased from Commerce.
The current city budget — written when the purchase of the LP facility seemed imminent — projected about $150,000 in profits from the sale of gas to the company. Unless the new purchaser gets up and running very quickly, the city will have to amend its budget to cover the loss of that revenue, according to accounting manager James Wascher.
LP was by far the city’s largest gas customer before it shut down, helping the city’s Gas Department generate revenue that enabled it to transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars annually into the General Fund, subsidizing other city operations. The current budget calls for $362,000 to be transferred out of the Gas Fund to the General Fund; two years ago that figure was $700,000.
