The former site of Fisher Body and General Motors Pittsburgh Metal Stamping Division operations in West Mifflin apparently will remain vacant.
At Tuesday's council meeting, borough community development director Walter B. Anthony said an Atlanta auto parts supplier withdrew a bid to buy the 72-acre lot along Lebanon School Road.
“Negotiations with the owner (Mifflin LLC) fell apart,” Anthony said. “They were in the process of getting a conditional use application.”
GM owned the location from Dec. 23, 1948, until April 1, 2011, when it changed hands in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan filed by GM successor Motors Liquidation Co.
GM's Pittsburgh Metal Stamping Division plant was sold for $1.2 million to Commercial Development Co. Inc., which sold it to Mifflin LLC for $2.78 million.
Commercial Development and Mifflin LLC have the same address in St. Louis.
Atlanta-based Pull-A-Part calls itself “the Rolls Royce of do-it-yourself used auto part superstores.” It has an online www.pullapart.com operation and 25 locations in 12 states.
The parties involved could not be reached for comment at presstime.
The Fisher Body plant once made about 200 parts for GM cars and trucks and employed more than 1,500 workers.
It closed in early 2008 when a bid by Allegheny Holdings LLC to buy it from GM and save the last 200 jobs collapsed for lack of financing.
In October 2010, Motors Liquidation set up a $773 million trust fund for the cleanup of hazardous waste at former GM properties in 14 states.
For Pennsylvania, where the West Mifflin plant was the only property on the list, $3.3 million was set aside.
Anthony said nine residential permits and three commercial permits were issued last month, a commercial plan was reviewed.
Public works director James Hess said Pennsylvania American Water made repairs last week to portions of Homestead-Duquesne and Thompson Run roads between Coral Lanes and Bull Run, where a water line was laid a month and a half ago.
Patrick Cloonan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-664-9161, ext. 1967, or pcloonan@tribweb.com.
