By Andreas Yilma, Staff Writer
NAUGATUCK — A few months after representatives of a freight shipping company presented preliminary plans for a new service center on the former Peter Paul factory site, a deal to sell the land appears to have stalled.
The Hershey Company owns the 36-acre, now-vacant parcel at 889 New Haven Road. R+L Carriers, an Ohio-based freight shipping company, signed an agreement with The Hershey Company to buy the land. In June, officials from both companies said they were doing their due diligence to finalize the deal.
Naugatuck Economic Development Corp. President Ronald Pugliese said last week Hershey had not provided R&L Carriers an environmental report on the land. Both sides are trying to talk through the proposed deal, but there weren’t any decisions as of late, he said.
“I’m not as confident this will get done like I was several weeks ago,” Pugliese said.
Pugliese said R&L Carriers is not going to go through the sales process without seeing the environmental report. There are no other apparent setbacks, he said.
“I was 100 percent, and now I’m not quite positive as where we would be,” Pugliese said.
Stan Richards, director of construction and facility maintenance for R+L Carriers, said the company didn’t have any comment.
Jeff Beckman, director of corporate communications for The Hershey Company, said the company is still actively pursuing the sale of the land. He declined to discuss details on the pending sale until a sale is completed for confidentiality reasons.
Richards in June presented to the public preliminary plans for the service center, which would include a 100-foot-wide dock for 53-foot-long trucks to unload goods, a maintenance shop for minor repairs, a fuel station and an office.
As of last week, R&L Carriers had not submitted any applications or plans to the borough. The sale of the land would be contingent on R+L Carriers getting approval from Naugatuck land use boards.
Pugliese said he has personally never seen the environmental report for the land but suspects there’s some issue.
“It’s very heartbreaking,” Pugliese said.
