Former Industrial Site In Montco Gets Grant For Cleanup, Remediation

POTTSTOWN, PA — A state grant of nearly a half-million dollars has been awarded to the Redevelopment Authority of Montgomery County that will go toward the cleanup and remediation of an old industrial facility in this western Montgomery County community.

The state award, in the amount of $467,636, will help clean up the former Pottstown Plating Works property, an old manufacturing site that has been sitting vacant since 2009, according to the office of State Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-Montgomery, who announced the award on Thursday.

Ciresi's office stated that once properly cleaned up, the site will be able to accommodate light manufacturing, warehousing and distribution, and general small business.

"For Pottstown to reach its full economic potential of providing jobs and family-sustaining wages to its residents, we must look for new ways to creatively re-use our legacy industrial buildings," Ciresi said in a statement. "The new owners of Pottstown Plating Works have a solid plan for bringing this building back to productive use."

According to Ciresi, the money will be used for a variety of site remediation activities, including capping a section of the site to prevent contact with contaminated soil, installing a vapor barrier system, and renovating sections of the site in order to accommodate new business.

Ciresi thanked Gov. Tom Wolf for his administration's "commitment to Pottstown and the promise of its future."

"This opportunity is a perfect example of good government investment working for people," Ciresi stated.

The lawmaker noted that once redeveloped, the site has the potential to provide additional tax revenue for both the borough and the local school district.

The former owner of the site was delinquent in property taxes and fees, Ciresi stated, but the current property owner has been paying taxes since taking possession of the site.

The taxes that have since been paid total more than $1 million, according to Ciresi, and represent the first time full payments were made on the property in more than a decade.

A story from late last year in the Mercury newspaper said that the site was home to Pottstown Plating Works from 1950 to 2009, during which the company specialized in metal electro-plating industrial work.

The story identified the former owner as Ted Maack, saying Maack was delinquent on not just taxes, but also water bills, sewer bills and fines that had accumulated on the 3.89-acre parcel.

At the time of the Mercury's October 2021 story, the total amount of funding to go toward site cleanup up until that time was just over $200,000, and a state grant of $439,000 was still being sought.

This week's announcement about the redevelopment grant seems to satisfy the remaining desired amount.