Empire Tissue Co., a startup company that includes parties involved in the opening of the Great Lakes paper mill in Michigan, is seeking to build a recycled tissue mill in Onondaga County, N.Y. If the company is able to line up financing, as well as have off-take contracts signed and permits approved by various state agencies, it could be open by the second quarter of 2012.
Jim Austin, who is heading Empire Tissue, had been looking at multiple locations in New York state, before narrowing the choice to the Solvay site. Part of the reason was the availability of “good, cheap power,” he notes.
The facility where the company is looking to build is a brownfield site owned by Honeywell, an equipment manufacturer based in Morristown, N.J. The company recently signed a deal to remediate the site.
Empire Tissue has filed a number of documents with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, while it expects to have its air permits submitted by the first half of this year.
The company has applied to the state for grants under New York State’s Upstate Regional Blueprint Fund.
As the project now sits, the mill will produce around 200 tons per day of recycled tissue products, and will be buying around 230 tons per day of sorted office pack and coated book stock.
Austin says that he expects to close financing on the site by the end of this year.