According to documents filed in US Bankruptcy Court Thursday, a Canadian scrap recycler has agreed to purchase the Roth Steel site in Syracuse, New York, a 23-acre scrap yard, for $687,500. The sale must be approved by the court before finalizing.
Montreal-based American Iron & Metal Co. also has operations in the US and Hong Kong, with a total of $1.5 billion in revenue in 2014. Roth Steel closed down in February 2014, and according to media reports, the property has a long history of pollution including evidence of buried metals, petroleum, and PCBs.
However, a former bidder of the property—who planned to turn it into commercial/retail space—told local media that environmental engineers hired to assess the viability of another scrap yard could not devise a plan that would guarantee protection from pollution. As such, the chances that American Iron & Metal Co. will use the site for another scrap yard are slim.