LEWISTOWN - The property located along Roundhouse Road in Granville Township, which was at one point in time part of the American Viscose Corp., textile plant, recently went to auction, but did not get sold because the reserve price was not met.
The two-day Internet auction with a starting bid of $400,000 didn't really heat up until the last remaining moments of the sale when the price jumped upwards by $50,000 increments before settling at $1,190,000.
The 323,400 square foot industrial building sits on 34 acres along the Juniata River, adjacent to the Mifflin County Industrial Development Corp. Plaza and has access to the railroad.
The Greater Lewistown Corp. along with some other companies currently occupy the facility, but the majority of it remains vacant, said MCIDC President Rob Postal.
Postal said that particular portion of the former textile complex was built by Food Machinery Corp., in the 1960s to manufacture polyester and was adjacent to the rayon plant, owned by the same company. The Chicago based FMC, owned several manufacturing plants in the United States.
A couple years after Tropical Storm Agnes struck the polyester plant became Avtex Fibers in August of 1976 and the manufacturing of rayon was shut down.
The last company to manufacture textiles on the property was Lewistown Speciality Yarns in the 1990s and at the time employed nearly 700 people. Since then the property has changed hands a couple of times. Postal said the property will remain on the market.
