NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County supervisors have formally agreed to convey part of the old IP paper mill site to a Connecticut-based company that plans to resume operations and annually give the county about $500,000 that its most recent occupant did before closing last year.
Phibro, a renewable energy investment company, bought Delta Energy’s Natchez fixtures and other assets at the county-owned industrial site, where Delta recycled old tires.
Meeting Monday, the Adams County Board of Supervisors voted to reassign the property lease it had with Delta to Phibro. The terms of the lease with Phibro are the same as what was contracted with Delta, which includes the company paying Adams County $300,000 a year to lease the property and $200,000 or so annually in taxes, according to county board attorney Scott Slover. Phibro is also obligated to employ at least 41 people.
The board wasn’t scheduled to convene until next Monday for its regular first-of-the -month meeting, but supervisors were asked to transfer the lease sooner. Slover cited this as an indication of Phibro’s fast-track plans to restart operations at the Natchez facility on Carthage Point Road.
Delta converted old tires into specialty oils and recovered carbon black for tire manufacturers, such as Bridgestone and Continental. Bridgestone was a plant co-owner. Delta began leasing a building there and about 30 acres from the county in 2015 but halted operations late last year.
Phibro invests in operations dealing with low-carbon natural resources, such as renewable gas, oil and feedstock. Its Natchez plant could employ about 70 people, said Chandler Russ, Natchez-Adams County’s chief industrial recruiter.
Phibro is headed by Simon Greenshields, a former executive at Morgan Stanley, the New York-based financial services corporation, according to Phibro’s website. Greenshields in 2016 acquired Phibro, a company that traces its beginnings to 1901, when it was founded in Germany by Julius and Oscar Philipp. It expanded to the United States in 1915 and later became the largest independent oil refiner in the U.S. Headquartered in Stamford, Conn., it also has offices in Utah, Switzerland and China.
Its newly acquired Natchez location is where International Paper operated its huge paper mill that once employed more than 1,000 people before closing in 2003 after 53 years of operations.
The Adams County Board of Supervisors in 2013 bought the 478-acre property on Lower Woodville and Carthage Point roads for $9 million to be parceled out to new industries.
Along with Phibro and Delta Energy, two other businesses have been leasing parts of the old IP property: Winnwood and NetCo, which are forest-products companies.
For more information about Phibro, go to its website: www.phibro.com
Comments