VINELAND — Which glass company owns what property is in the process of changing a bit along Crystal Avenue, a sprawl of legacy and active manufacturing and storage facilities.
The prospective ownership changes were disclosed during testimony at a recent Planning Board hearing on behalf of Gerresheimer Glass Inc. The board then approved a minor subdivision for 527 Crystal Avenue, on the east side of the avenue near Cambridge Place.
Gerresheimer Glass wants to sell several developed acres from the 4.9-acre site, including a large building, to a New York company involved in warehousing. The city is offering financing to complement bank financing on the proposed sale.
Separately, Corning Pharmaceutical Glass later on would acquire from Gerresheimer about 1.1 acres, from the same property, to roll into its already considerable holdings in the area. Past furnace operations left petroleum hydrocarbons in the soil and a sale would come at some point during a planned remediation, however.
Attorney Mitchell Kizner, representing Gerresheimer at the Sept. 14 hearing, said the company has the means and every intention of cleaning up the contamination. Corning already has signed a contract to buy the smaller parcel, he said.
“This is not a situation where a company seeks to subdivide in order to somehow hide it or escape from its obligations to remediate,” Kizner said. The problem is the bank working with the prospective new owner, he added.
“Their financer says, ‘We do not want you to own the part that is contaminated. We don’t want you to be in the chain of title with the contaminated piece of property. So, in order for us to lend you the money, it’s got to be subdivided before you can take title to the larger piece,’” Kizner said.
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Vineland Supervising Planner Kathie Hicks told the board she had confirmed that the private and city financing depended on the contaminated parcel becoming a separate lot.
Kizner said he could not estimate how long the cleanup would take.
Voting in favor of the subdivision were Chairman David Manders, Vice Chairman Michael Pantalione, and members John Casadia, Robert Odorizzi, Doug Menz, Sandy Velez, and David Catalana. The board also approved a resolution to officially record its decision.
The glass-making complex in that area once belonged to Kimble Glass Inc. In 1997, Owens-Illinois Inc. sold it to Gerresheimer.
In June 2015, Corning Inc. disclosed an agreement to buy the Gerresheimer pharmaceutical tubing manufacturing facility here. The deal also set up a joint pharmaceutical glass packaging venture, led by Corning.
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Kizner said Gerresheimer employs more than 300 people here.
Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey more than 30 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.
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