Poultry Plant Property Will Be Donated To The City
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The buildings and acreage on Lafayette Street that housed the poultry plant will be donated to the City of Water Valley.
WATER VALLEY – The owner of the former poultry plant on Lafayette Street has agreed to donate the buildings and adjoining 28.4 acres to the City of Water Valley. The property includes 96,000 square feet under roof and has been listed for sale by Kessinger Real Estate for $500,000.
City aldermen voted unanimously during the Feb. 1 meeting to enter into the purchase agreement with the owner of the property, GFI Mississippi, LLC. The deal will be contingent on the findings of routine environmental due diligence. The transaction will cost the city an estimated $50,000, which includes closing costs, a commercial appraisal, real estate fees and a Phase I environmental study. The deadline to close the deal is March 31.
City attorney Daniel Martin explained that GFI Mississippi, LLC approached the city about donating the chicken plant and adjoining property for use as municipal buildings to house the city’s street, parks, sewer and water departments.
“Everything is contingent on the Phase One environmental study,” Mayor Donald Gray explained during the city meeting. “If it is a negative report, everything is off the table. Period.”
Martin added that local Environmental Engineer Pierce Epes will do the environmental study.
“What we are going to do is a Phase One, which means he goes and checks the records,” the attorney told aldermen. “He is going to look through GFI’s records, he is going to look through the records at the state (Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality) to see if there were any large contaminated spills that would put him on high alert.”
Martin also noted that aldermen have had the opportunity to inspect the property including the buildings where the processing occurred.
“As y’all know, it is massive to say the least,” Martin said about the sprawling buildings scattered across the property. “All real property, fixtures, equipment and rolling stock would transfer to the city. There is a lot of steel in those buildings.”
City officials indicated that the equipment and rolling stock on the property, tens of thousands of pounds of scrap metal, will be put out to bid if the deal closes.
“Hopefully we will receive some good bids for all that stainless steel,” Martin explained. Other items remaining on the property that can scrapped or sold include several fork lifts, 18-wheeler trailers and miscellaneous items ranging from fork lifts to lawnmowers.
Gray explained the buildings on the property will allow city equipment to be stored inside when the city departments are relocated to the property
“It will be good for the city as far as cleaning up,” Alderman-at-large Herbie Rogers added about moving the vast amount of equipment currently housed at the Blount Street headquarters.
While one of the large buildings on the front of the property will likely have to be demolished after a large portion of the roof caved in during the winter storm last February, Martin said other smaller, stand-alone buildings that will not be utilized by the city could be leased to third parties.
“How much property tax do they pay?” Ward One Alderman Ron Hart asked during the meeting.
“Six thousand dollars,” Gray answered about the portion of the taxes the city receives from the property and structures. “And that is what they were paying when they were operating, it could be lower now.”
The plant closed in February, 2019, as owners cited challenges that included more than a million dollars needed in infrastructure improvements while the price of chicken products processed at the facility plummeted due to tariffs. Much of the needed infrastructure improvements were related to wastewater treatment at the plant.
Kessinger Real Estate Broker Lee McMinn told the Herald the property was shown to multiple buyers interested in reopening a poultry plant at the site, but the antiquated buildings and equipment made it a tough sale.
