Metal Plater’s Bankruptcy Halts a Housing Program
A downtown metal plating firm guilty of improperly disposing of hazardous wastes filed for bankruptcy this week, bringing to a halt plans to raze the building and clean up the site in preparation for a housing project.
Super Plating Works Inc. filed for protection from its creditors Tuesday under Chapter 7 of the federal bankruptcy statutes and has ceased operations at its plant at Martin Luther King Way and 1st Avenue. Tests on the plating company site in September indicated a high level of contamination, both within the building and in the ground.
Thomas Monson, attorney for the property owner, said that attempts to evict the plating works from the building had failed and an eviction action, scheduled to go to trial Thursday, was postponed until January after notice of the bankruptcy was received. Monson, attorney for Starr Children’s Trust, said that negotiations are under way with Centre City Development Corp., the city’s redevelopment arm, for the agency to acquire the land for a housing development.
The bankruptcy filing stopped the court action aimed at evicting the firm and negotiations to redevelop the land, Monson said.
“The wheels of justice move slowly on bankruptcy matters,” Monson said, “and we plan to go to court asking that the stay on the eviction action be lifted so that the property owner can clean up the property and negotiate its sale.”
Kathy Kalland, spokeswoman for CCDC, said the redevelopment agency is negotiating to purchase the property, which is part of a site slated for a housing project by Shappell Housing Inc. and Goldrich Kest & Associates. The two development firms have posted a $100,000 bond and begun formal negotiations with CCDC.
Tests on the quarter-block site of the plating company by a private firm hired by CCDC showed high levels of pollution but little off-site contamination. A report filed by Irvine-based Hydrotech Consultants Inc. indicated that contaminants found on the site include “unsafe levels” of nickel, copper, cyanide and hexavalent chromium, which county hazardous waste officials report apparently have been stored on the site and used for electroplating for 15 years or more.
After a report by a former employee that toxic waste contamination was present at the firm, the district attorney’s office obtained warrants and searched the building. Four felony charges of illegal dumping and one misdemeanor charge of illegal storage of hazardous wastes on the property were then filed.
Two Super Plating Works executives and the firm pleaded guilty to one charge last month. The firm and its general manager, Sandra Lazovich, face fines of up to $50,000 on a felony charge of disposing of acid and metal sludge in a trash bin. Thomas Nerat, the firm’s chief financial officer, faces a fine of up to $25,000 after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge. Both could be sentenced to jail for six months. Sentencing is scheduled Jan. 14 in Municipal Court.
Monson said that no estimate of the cleanup costs and no decision on who is responsible for those costs have been made. Trying to force the plating firm to bear the costs “seems in doubt” now that the company is out of business and in total bankruptcy, he said, although insurance on the property may cover the costs.
Kalland said that development plans for the block--considered to be one of the prime sites in the Marina redevelopment area--are for mixed-use, high-rise development. The block bounded by 1st, Front and G streets and King Way is directly south of the Horton Plaza shopping center and east of the Marina Palms apartment complex. Neither of the other sites showed hazardous levels of contamination.
CCDC officials have ordered a study of cleanup costs from Hydrotech Consultants and expect the firm’s report by Dec. 31. If the plating firm fails to assume the costs of the cleanup, Kalland said, CCDC may pay the bill and deduct the amount from the purchase price of the property.
