Jun. 23--Local investors have bought the old Wilson Foods Co. plant and plan to knock down the four buildings -- one of them dating to 1910 -- and redevelop the property as an industrial park.
B.H. Harb & Associates LLC paid $1.25 million for the buildings and 36 acres northeast of May Avenue and SW 15, said Terry Klaus of Klaus Realty.
Klaus and sales associate Danny Rivera represented the seller, Cordova, Tenn.-based ACH Food Co. Inc., a shortening and oil processor that closed in 2004.
The new owners plan to sell parcels from 1 to 10 acres and build several industrial buildings from 5,000 to 20,000 square feet, said Klaus, who is marketing the property.
Demolition and redevelopment, including the installation of streets, should be complete in six months, he said, and will cost another $1.3 million. A 50,260-square-foot cold-storage facility will remain, which will be attractive to another food company, he said.
The property -- presumably zoned for industrial use as long as Oklahoma City has had zoning -- originally was connected to the establishment of the Oklahoma City Stockyards in 1910.
The packing firm Schwartzchild & Sulzberger brought what became Wilson Foods to the stockyards area, according to the Stockyards City Main Street district's Web page, www.stockyardscity.org. The property once was the Wilson Edible Fats and Oils Refinery.
It will remain zoned for industrial, Klaus said. Its location a half-mile east of Interstate 44 and a mile south of Interstate 40 makes it a good spot for industrial redevelopment, he said.
It doesn't hurt that Dell Inc., less than a mile to the west, is rejuvenating the surrounding sector of old southwest Oklahoma City, he said.
"It's in the same area as Dell computers," Klaus said. "It'll be another feather in the cap for that neighborhood."
County records show that the property includes a two-story, 13,251-square-foot building constructed in 1910; a single-story, 8,862-square-foot building constructed in 1963; a two-story, 250,000-square-foot building constructed in 1963; a single-story, 15,228-square-foot building constructed in 1990; and the 50,260-square-foot cold-storage facility, built in 1990.
