Piney Point plant sold to New York investors

Bradenton, Fla.-After Manatee County, Fla., officials declined a sweetheart deal, a group of New York City investors agreed to purchase Mulberry Corp.’s defunct Piney Point phosphate processing plant for $4.3 million, according to Herb Donica, the attorney for the trustee of the property. In addition, the group, HRK Holdings LLC, agreed to pay $3.8 million over an extended period for cleanup and additional maintenance, costs that would have been paid by the state, which has already spent nearly $100 million to secure the site. “We offered it to the county (Manatee) for practically free for use as a reservoir, but they turned us down,” Donica said. “They said it was too much liability.” Donica added that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) offered to purchase an insurance policy from Lloyds of London for the county’s protection, but the county still declined. The Southwest Water Management Authority had urged the county to make the purchase. Fresh water in the Tampa Bay Area is a scarce commodity, and most of the cities and counties are on permanent water restrictions. The stacks and holding ponds at the site became a hazard after Mulberry walked out and informed the FDEP it could no longer afford to maintain the plant and ponds. The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but that was later converted to Chapter 7 and FDEP took over responsibility for the cleanup, which will continue until 2007 and will require special maintenance until 2010. FDEP emptied the ponds through a series of releases and treatments of the highly contaminated and acidic water. When the ponds on the stacks were emptied, they were lined so they could hold clean rain water. The ponds would have been the largest fresh water reservoir in the state if they had been purchased by Manatee County. The new owners did not say what they planned to do with the property, but it is zoned industrial and is near Port Manatee.