Deal nears for former LeNature's facility
An Arnold bottler of a variety of sports beverages, teas and waters is close to a deal to buy the vacant Chestnut Ridge Beverage Co. building in Latrobe — the one-time home of the LeNature's Inc. bottling plant, officials said Monday.
Castle Co-Packers LLC, a contract bottler owned by Brian Dworkin, is expected to close on the purchase of the 7.4-acre property either this week or in July, said Alex Graziani, city manager of Latrobe.
Graziani said during Latrobe Council's meeting that he has provided information for Dworkin about city zoning for the property at 11 Lloyd Ave. and regulations affecting the property. A title search of the property has been conducted and “that's a good indication a sale is happening,” Graziani said.
Dworkin, CEO of the firm, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Graziani said he isn't certain if the buyer would restart operations this year or next year, or how many people it would employ. The extensive bottling and sanitation equipment in the plant was sold at an auction in February.
Graziani said he expects to tour Castle Co-Packers this week.
John Skiavo, executive director of the Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland, a Greensburg-based economic-development organization, said he had heard reports of the sale, but could not confirm it.
Grubb & Ellis, a Pittsburgh real estate agency, had listed the 236,000-square-foot building for sale at $4.5 million. The bottling equipment used by Chestnut Ridge, and its predecessor LeNature's, was sold in an auction last year.
Giant Eagle Supermarkets Inc. of O'Hara, the region's dominant supermarket chain, is a minority owner of Chestnut Ridge. The other partners have not been identified. Giant Eagle and investors purchased the former LeNature's plant in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh in September 2007 for $23.5 million.
Giant Eagle spokesman Dick Roberts didn't have any information last night on the proposed sale of the building.
Chestnut Ridge closed the plant, which bottled private-label water and tea for Giant Eagle and other customers, in October 2010.
At the time Giant Eagle announced the closing, Dworkin said he had been in negotiations for a few months before the closing was revealed. Dworkin said in 2010 that his 500,000-square-foot plant in Schreiber Industrial Park was “bursting at the seams.”
Dworkin said in February 2011 that he was not interested in the equipment that Chestnut Ridge was selling.
He also had been interested in acquiring City Brewing Co.'s plant when it was idle in 2008, but City Brewing wasn't interested in divesting itself of the former Rolling Rock brewery.
In other business, council plans to hold a pre-bid meeting at 10 a.m. Friday with refuse haulers intending to submit bids for a new five-year contract for trash-removal service for the city's 3,122 residential dwellings and 330 commercial accounts.
