Recycling Center Sale Finalized

The purchase of the former Ames distribution center in Davisville, WV, has been finalized, clearing the way for it to become the Polymer Alliance Zone's end-of-life electronics recycling center.

"We're ready to offer it out to molders and manufacturers," said Jo Shields, vice president of the Polymer Alliance.

The facility has been a long time coming, with lawsuits challenging the validity of the state economic development grants funding the project and numerous others across the state holding up the process.

Because of questions raised in the lawsuits, the alliance was unable to buy the building itself. Instead it was purchased from Ames for $4.4 million by the Mid-Ohio Valley Area Development Corp.

"It was determined that a government entity would have to own (the building,)" said Jim Mylott, executive director of the development corporation.

The development group used the $4.3 million state grant and an additional $100,000 from the zone to purchase the facility in a sale finalized at the end of May. The Polymer Alliance has a 25-year lease and functional control of the building, Mylott said.

The Polymer Alliance Zone was created by executive order in 1996 by former Gov. Gaston Caperton. It unites Wood, Jackson and Mason counties in a not-for-profit organization and partnership between government, schools and the plastics industry.

The goal is to bring polymer-related industries to the area which make the product from the raw materials produced here.

The more-than 300,000 square-foot facility and its 148-acre lot, along with existing land owned by the zone, will become the Polymer Technology Park. The facility will act as an end-of-life electronics recycling center. Shields said computer companies such as IBM, Panasonic and others will send old computers there, where their materials will be recycled for use in new computer housings, automobiles and other products.

"To keep them (computers) out of the landfill is the main priority," Shields said.

Multiple companies can use the facility for recycling tasks and other purposes.

PWP Plastics, whose manufacturing center is located in Mineral Wells, already is using space in the new facility for warehousing, Shields said. Another company, whose name Shields could not reveal, is "very interested" in setting up a manufacturing facility there, she said.

"There's interest in other projects there," Shields said.

Companies coming in will generate higher-paying jobs for area residents, she said.

The facility is expected to employ about 150 people within the year, Shields said. Anticipated expansions could have as many as 1,000 people working at the park in the next 10 years, she said.