Carrier building far from being sold

Carrier employees stand in front of the last air conditioning unit manufactured at the local plant. Pictured, from left, are Judy Smartt, Nancy Wilkerson and supervisor Ralph Bess. Standing behind the unit are Darlene Campbell and Mike Morton.

With Carrier officially halting production in Warren County, I figured it wouldn’t take long for rumors to begin circulating about the building being sold. So sound a bell and give me 10 points because this time I was right.

I’ve heard several names mentioned, including Nissan, but the most common company that keeps getting tossed around is Toyota. According to the story, which I’ve heard from a half dozen people, Toyota representatives reportedly visited the Carrier facility in a helicopter which had “Toyota” clearly written on the side.

It sounds like a great story and I wish something like that had happened. But according to building owner Tom Robinson, it hasn’t

“I certainly don’t know about any Toyota visit,” said Tom, who makes regular visits to the Carrier plant and was in town Wednesday. “I do know once Carrier leaves, it’s a whole new ball game. A lot of people are waiting until that ball game is completely over.”

Even though Carrier has stopped local production, the company is nowhere near vacating the building. Tom says he doesn’t expect that to happen until November or December.

“They have floor and infrastructure repairs to do and about 200 chain hoists to deal with,” said Tom. “They still have a lot of equipment in that building.”

To get rid of some of that equipment, Carrier is holding an auction Sept. 27 that will be internationally advertised. As for a potential buyer, I’m sure we’ll hear rumors for months to come but nothing is close to being finalized.

“We’re motivated to bring jobs to the community,” said Tom. “We’d like to sell the building to a manufacturer or we could rent it. We have availability at a fair price.”

If you would like to buy the building, you can call director of economic development Don Rigsby at 473-6611.