UNCERTAINTY and OPTIMISM: Potential sale of former Colgate plant falls through

Clark County

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November 28, 2009

By DAVID A. MANN The News and Tribune Sat Nov 28, 2009, 05:14 PM EST

Clarksville officials say they’re still optimistic about future development at the site of the old Colgate-Palmolive Co. plant.

That comes despite the fact that a potential sale of the site recently fell through.

“They’d been working on a couple of deals — but there are no offers on the table,” said Greg Isgrigg, president of the Clarksville Town Council and member of the town’s redevelopment commission.

Isgrigg wouldn’t disclose the name of the potential buyer or the amount of money discussed for the property.

Located near the Ohio River, Colgate-Palmolive had used the site to manufacture toothpaste and other personal-care items. During the 1960s, the plant boasted as many as 1,500 workers. Only about 200 of the workers remained when it closed two years ago, moving the jobs to more modern facilities in Tennessee and Mexico.

Colgate sold the plant for an undisclosed amount to Active International, a New York-based corporate trading firm, earlier this year.

Active International seeks to sell the facility as Clarksville officials try to turn the area from an industrial to a retail and possibly residential sector in a mixed-use capacity.

Plans for the property are still viable, but “we just got to wait for someone to buy it,” Isgrigg said.

The potential retail district has been dubbed Clark’s Landing.

Restaurants, bed and breakfasts and shops would line the waterfront west of the Clark Memorial Bridge, according to a concept plan created for the redevelopment commission this year. An overlook and a steamboat dock also are planned — as are condominiums, an amphitheater, a museum, hotel and convention center.

The project would not only encompass the Colgate property, but also several others surrounding it.

Don Fisher, a member of the redevelopment commission, blames the economic recession for the slow progress on the district.

“It’s just the wrong time,” he said, noting that investors are hanging onto their cash at present.

He believes the town is on the right track and that progress likely will be seen once economic conditions improve.

The town is in the process of picking a planner for the project, Isgrigg said. About 40 planners have applied for the job, and a special committee has been formed to make the selection. That step will likely be taken next year, Fisher said.

The Colgate site has historical significance, as well.

It was opened as a state penitentiary in 1847. Colgate purchased it in 1921 and began production there in 1924.

Its huge, illuminated red clock — one of the largest in the world and something officials hope to preserve — has become a recognizable symbol of the area.

HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY

• 1847 — building constructed as the second Indiana state prison

• 1918 — prison closed

• 1921 — Colgate purchased the site

• 2005 — Colgate announced it would shut down the Jeffersonville/Clarksville plant

• 2007 — plant closed for good

• 2009 — Colgate-Palmolive Co. sells to trading firm Active International

— Clarksville Historical Society