Owners to demolish old Philips Lighting facility in Bath by the end of the year
The former 335,835 square-foot Philips Lighting facility in Bath will be razed by the end of the year, according to Steuben County IDA Executive Director Jamie Johnson.
Crews are currently performing asbestos abatement at the 75-acre Philips Lighting plant off State Route 54 prior to the demolition, Johnson said. The plant, which previously manufactured light bulbs, closed in early 2014.
Officials at Philips Lighting Northern Headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, could not be reached for comment. The company is now known as Signify.
“I know Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, has gone through a number of efforts to market the facility since the plant closed and none of them was successful,” Johnson said. “As part of the cleanup effort, they did some additional analysis on the facility and felt the best path forward was demolition.”
Steuben County Manager Jack Wheeler said Signify's remediation and demolition of the former plant may lead to future development at the site. Two major development projects are already underway nearby.
Amazon has signed a lease to locate a distribution center at the former Mercury Aircraft building, while LP Building Solutions will start construction this summer on a new engineered wood siding pre-finishing facility on 75 acres off State Route 54.
“Once that (demolition) work is completed, we will have a marketable site in a prime area that is growing, with work planned to begin soon on Amazon and LP Building Solutions and a handful of other smaller projects,” Wheeler said. “That’s a really hot area in Steuben County right now.”
Johnson said Signify will likely begin looking for a possible buyer for the site once the plant is down and it is a vacant property.
“We are eager to work with them on their redevelopment efforts,” Johnson said. “I think vacant land is much more attractive and marketable in this environment. The building was built for a very specific purpose and trying to redevelop it for another use is difficult.”
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Steuben County Legislator Hilda Lando, D-Corning, said the county is encouraged by the decision to demolish the plant and how it may fit into a growing business base in Bath.
“Obviously they couldn’t sell it, so they are going to demolish it,” Lando said. “An interesting fact is that over $1 billion in investment will be made in Bath and throughout Steuben County with a lot of the work being on State Route 54.”
Initially, Philips Lighting attempted to sell the large plant for nearly $4 million, later dropping the asking price from $3.95 to $3.45 million without finding a buyer.
Jeff Smith can be reached at jsmith@the-leader.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on The Leader: Old Philips Lighting facility in Bath to be razed by year end
