WEIRTON, W.Va. — A large section of the former Weirton Steel property in Hancock County has a new owner.
Frontier Group of Companies, based in Buffalo, New York, announced the finalization of the purchase of more than 1,100 acres along the Ohio River on Wednesday. The previous owner was ArcelorMittal.
“This is probably the single largest catalytic real estate transaction in the history of Weirton going back to when the decision was made to transact to put this mill here,” said Pat Ford, executive director of the Business Development Corporation of the Northern Panhandle.
Much of the purchased property has not been used for years. It includes Brown’s Island, a blast furnace, ore yard, rail sidings, barge loading and unloading areas and a basic oxygen plant shop along with other structures.
The Weirton mill itself is not part of the sale.
The companies of the Frontier Group specialize in industrial demolition, industrial dismantling, asset recovery, equipment repurposing, industrial cleanup, site remediation, brownfield redevelopment, facility acquisition, real estate development and materials recycling.
Done in stages, reclamation work on the Weirton property could clear the way for future development in the manufacturing, energy, chemical, transportation logistics or healthcare industries with the potential for many ancillary amenities.
“You really look at that 1,100 acres as basically a clean slate. Any economic development professional or city administrator or county commission just yearns for those opportunities,” Ford told MetroNews.
“I would, quite frankly, say they’re generational opportunities and they’re right here on the front doorstep of our community.”
Frontier Group of Companies already has a good track record in the Northern Panhandle region.
In 2012, FGC bought the site of the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Mill in Mingo Junction, Ohio and, after renovations and other site work, sold part of that property to ACERO Junction in December.
“We believe the Weirton facility, like other industrial sites we have redeveloped, has tremendous attributes and potential,” said David P. Franjoine, president of the Frontier Group of Companies, as reported in the Weirton Daily Times.
“Now that we have completed our acquisition in Weirton, we will immediately get to work on identifying what future development and reuse possibilities exist.”
No timeline for reclamation work in Weirton was immediately released.
Ford was predicting great things, though.
“The spin-off impacts of repurposing that 1,100 acres will not only immediately affect the community but will go, to a large part, to actually probably redefining the entire Northern Panhandle,” he said.
The purchase price paid to ArcelorMittal was not being disclosed.
It was 2015 when officials with Frontier Group of Companies first entered into a contract for the buy.