Technicolor Sold : $600,000 Deal Consummated During 30-Minute Meeting in Pinckneyville
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A 30 minute special meeting of the Pinckneyville City Council and a well-written 21-page sales agreement is all it took Wednesday to change a chapter of business history for all of Perry County.
It was an afternoon of hope first, then jobs as Mayor Joe Holder shook hands with Higman, LLC vice-president Chris "Cliff" Beckerle as the council unanimously approved the sale of the huge industrial complex.
The sales agreement is simple: $600,000 with $5,000 now, $295,000 due when the sale closes and the $300,000 balance in $15,000 quarterly installments for five years at 5 percent interest.
The city will pay the 2008 real estate taxes on the property and split the 2009 taxes due in 2010. The building reverts back to the city if Higman defaults on any major component of the sales agreement.
The 800 jobs that Technicolor Universal Media Services provided are gone--born from an unprecedented chamber initiative in the 1950s to bring DECCA Records and its signature stamping of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" not only to Perry County but to the world.
It all got down to this in the words of commissioner Sam Fulk: "We have a building for sale and you need a building."
Baldwin, Ill. based Higman, LLC is a steel salvage and recycling company that also markets new steel and needs the warehouse space as a hub for those operations. What they do will not impact the environment nor the aesthetics of the huge Technicolor plant, located within eyeshot of the planned Pinckneyville Community Hospital.
Higman, LLC will lease 75,000 square feet of the building's interior to Hush Bullet Manufacturing--an ammunition maker--when held an option to buy the plant itself.
Beckerle said Hush Bullet will provide 20 jobs at the outset, but could not immediately commit to a lot of new jobs on behalf of his own company, commenting, "We have a lot of ideas and we will build up our operation over two or three years." He added that work will include the development of a more efficient steel recycling concept.