Georgia Pacific keeps Perry in suspense as inquiries for closed mill pour in
A London gambit by a group of former executives to find a buyer for a closed mill in Perry appears to have stoked the interest of 10 companies, according to the Florida Department of Commerce.
The agency is working as an intermediator between prospective buyers and Georgia Pacific. The Koch Industries subsidiary owns the 69-year-old facility, which provided more than a quarter of the tax base for Taylor County and supported nearly 2,000 jobs until it was shutdown Nov. 17.
The layoffs of the plant’s 525 workers rippled through the economy of a county covered by 525,000 acres of forest.
April of this year, Taylor posted its lowest unemployment rate ever at 2.5%. Today it stands at 4.1% compared to the state rate of 2.8%, according to Commerce.
In early November, the small town known as the "Tree Capital of the South," sent a representative to a November conference in London in a longshot bid to find an international buyer for the Foley paper mill. The effort may be bearing fruit.
“We’ve referred nearly 10 companies to Georgia Pacific to discuss the land, resources and infrastructure, in the hopes that at least one of those companies is the right fit,” said Rose Hebert, director of communications for Florida Commerce.
Environmentalists have longed blamed the mill for decades of pollution in the Fenholloway River, which carries the plant’s wastewater into the Gulf of Mexico.
The facility is one of the few in the world capable of the water intensive process of extracting cellulose – the basic structure of a cell – from lumber and dissolving it into a chemical used in a variety of products, including electronics and ice cream.
In exchange for allowing Foley to pump millions of gallons of water from the Fenholloway watershed and then dump wastewater into the Gulf of Mexico, residents of a mostly undeveloped corner of the Big Bend got an economic engine.
A report from the UF Institue of Food and Agricultural Science found the mill and related employers provided the county of 22,000 people a $77 million payroll. Starting pay at the plant for most jobs was nearly twice the state per capita income of $35,216.
Hebert said at least two of the leads Commerce referred to Georgia Pacific came from the London Pulp Week Symposium 2023, where Bob Cate, a retired plant manager went last month to inform attendees the plant was on the market.
Cate said he did not represent Georgia Pacific but was in London on behalf of the plant, its workers and Perry. Since then he’s been like everyone else; on the outside waiting to hear if a buyer will step forward.
“It’s like watching a glacier. You know there’s movement. You just don’t see it moving,” said Cate.
The Commerce Department’s Laura DiBella was in London with Cate to provide prospective buyers with information about the kind of economic incentives and grants for infrastructure improvements the state could make available.
“We have consistently heard back from those referrals that GP always meets with them, and we have also consistently heard that GP gives very little actionable feedback in those conversations,” said Hebert.
Hebert said with Georgia Pacific “keeping their cards close” to the chest, it is difficult for the the Department and community to know what is going on.
Georgia Pacific, which said it completed a "safe and orderly shutdown" of the mill in November, confirms it has accepted calls recently from companies interested in discussing the purchase of the facility.
Georgia Pacific spokesman Scott Mixon said the company is developing "a plan" to respond to those inquiries after.
“Details on the content of the response and timeline have not been officially shared with any party or company outside of Georgia Pacific. Any interest expressed by another company about the sale of the Foley facility and timeline for the sales process will be kept confidential by Georgia Pacific for business reasons,” said Mixon.
More: Can London help As clock ticks for closure of Perry mill, supporters hoping for a Hail Mary
More: What Foley means to Taylor County The staggering numbers behind Perry paper mill closing: 2,000 jobs, $10 million in taxes lost
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Perry, Florida mill closure: Ten companies have inquired about sale
