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Equipment from Wheeling Corrugating to be auctioned

BEECH BOTTOM – An auction to sell thousands of pieces of equipment from the old Wheeling Corrugating site is expected to draw a worldwide audience.

Pat Ford, executive director of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle, said the auction is slated for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Holiday Inn, 350 Three Springs Drive in Weirton. An inspection of items at the plant is slated from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday.

The former steel coil coating and roll form decking facility offers equipment such as a machine shop, a paint line, fabricating equipment, forklifts with 50,000-pound capacities, bridge cranes with a 30-ton capacity, incinerators, oxidizers, compressors and more.

The company made steel decking for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks.

Ford noted the buildings are not up for auction, but offers will be entertained that day. There is no set asking price for the real estate.

The corporation’s co-investor, Hackman Capital of Los Angeles, owns the plant buildings and interior equipment. The auction is being conducted by the Capital Recovery Group.

The Brooke County property has a total of 616 acres with 120 of those acres on flat land between state Route 2 and the Ohio River. The BDC purchased the property during RG Steel bankruptcy proceedings.

“The auction is part of our original plan to redevelop the plant and site and adapt it to multiple uses,” said Michael Hackman, chief executive officer and founder of Hackman Capital.

“It is exciting to witness the interest in the site and the improvement of the economy in the Northern Panhandle play out at the Beech Bottom site. In order to quickly prepare the site to accommodate these new uses related to the gas- and oil-related business, we will auction off the equipment in the plant to allow prospective tenants to better visualize how portions of the buildings could be adapted to energy-related uses,” he added.

Earlier this month, Ford announced Tulsa, Okla.-based Sheehan Pipeline is temporarily using a portion of the acreage as a staging site during a job to install 40 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline from Washington, Pa., through the Northern Panhandle to Ohio. And it was announced Friday that Pietro Fiorentini USA will lease space there while it builds a manufacturing facility in Weirton.

In addition to the live auction Tuesday, the auctioneer will also offer online bidding at crgauction.com.

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