Developer to be selected for So. River Metals site

Developer to be selected for So. River Metals site

BY JOSH DAVIDSON

Staff Writer

ABERDEEN — The township is expected to name a developer within the next few weeks to build 60 affordable senior housing apartments on the former South River Metals site on Church Street.

The developer will be chosen from a group of three that submitted proposals for the project, Township Manager Mark Coren said at the Township Council’s March 2 meeting.

Coren said the cost and time frame for the project’s construction will not be known until after the developer is named.

"The process is moving forward, and the pace of it will quicken once that report [listing the chosen developer] is given to me," Coren said.

The council will also have a better idea of how much it will cost the developer to clean up chemicals on the site after the developer is selected, Coren said.

The building on the 13.86-acre site was once a smelting and metal works factory.

Chemicals found on the site include cadmium, chromium IV and lead, according to a 1997 report done on the site by T&M Associates, Middletown. Other chemicals include asbestos, which has mostly been removed, and residue of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), according to the report.

Public hearings will be held on the project, Coren said.

Aberdeen’s Republican Party Chairman Edward Fitzgerald, Bank Street, said because the building is decaying, he wants the council to ensure the site is secure until it is remediated. The building is now boarded up with warning signs, Coren said.

Fitzgerald said he has seen one entrance door repeatedly left open and graffiti on the building’s walls.

Coren said the township will remove the graffiti and find a way to keep the door secured.

"South River Metals is owned by Aberdeen Township, so because of the deterioration of the building and damage from some of the fires, it was difficult to secure it," Fitzgerald said. "What I was suggesting to the council is the areas that can be secured, please do."

The building had at least two major fires in the 1990s, he said.

Prior to South River Metals’ inhabiting the site, it was owned by M&T Chemicals. Before that, it was owned by Hanson Van Winkle Munning, an electroplating company that made chrome bumpers for automobiles, he said.

Fitzgerald said he would like to see the building demolished once a developer is selected.