Altoona Blair County Development Corp. has long had its eye on 220 acres east of the railroad mainline between the Eighth Street Bridge in Juniata and the Lower Riggles Gap Road Bridge in Pinecroft.
Norfolk Southern Railway, owner of the southernmost 150 acres, has drawn attention to the land recently with its removal of hundreds of old railcars and parallel tracks.
The company sold the steel for scrap, said spokesman Rudy Husband, who cautioned that "there's no bigger picture" and no plans for the property.
"[But] it's always a site that's on the drawing board for potential development," ABCD President and CEO Martin J. Marasco said. There's nothing happening now, but "there's always hope."
There's also history.
It's all former Pennsylvania Railroad property, Marasco said.
The Norfolk portion is the former classification yards.
The other parcel, owned by Charles Powell, was an airstrip and later a parking area for storage trailers, Marasco said.
Since ABCD got interested, there have been proposals for a co-generation facility, a plant that would have used fly ash on site as a component for concrete, a refrigerated warehouse and a potato chip plant, Marasco said.
ABCD came close to taking over the entire tract as a speculative venture.
It had separate pending agreements to buy the yards from Conrail and the former airstrip from Powell, with plans to make the tract "shovel-ready" as a development draw because it was running out of land to offer and was looking for brownfield development opportunities.
But when Conrail was sold to Norfolk and CSX, Norfolk canceled the still-unexecuted agreement.
Norfolk said the classification yards were too valuable strategically to let go, Marasco said.
They still are, he said.
ABCD then let the Powell agreement lapse because it didn't believe that parcel would make an attractive enough piece on its own, Marasco said.
Overall, the ground is suitable for medium to heavy industry, Marasco said
It's flat and "has all the infrastructure you could ask for:" rail access, large main water service, sewer, gas and electricity, he said.
For a time, there was also the possibility of an enhanced highway connection with the proposed northern access link between Chestnut Avenue in Juniata and the Pinecroft interchange of Interstate 99.
But that project is dead, because of high cost.
Some of the tract is also in a flood plain, and it's near a sewer plant.
There are also environmental restrictions.
An Act 2 clearance for the Powell tract, supported by a "tri-party consent agreement" among the corporation, Powell and the state Department of Environmental Protection, lays out requirements that include slab-on-grade, or no basement, construction, Marasco said.
Marasco doesn't know whether there would be contaminants to be dealt with in the classification yards, but said experts would need to conduct an evaluation before it could become available for development.
ABCD discusses the potential for acquiring the yards with Norfolk officials "every opportunity we get," Marasco said. The company is always cooperative and willing to talk, he said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
