SUNBURY – Sunbury City Council voted unanimously to enter into an agreement with Glen Raven, Inc. to acquire the former Sunbury Textile Mills property. City solicitor Joel Wiest presented the agreement at the Monday city council meeting.
Wiest said, “Glen Raven, which is actually Sunbury Textile Mills, for the purpose of this agreement, they are going to transfer to the city three parcels of property , with a total of 36.5 acres, all of which are vacant.”
Wiest said the property is being given to the city at no cost, “ The agreement basically says that the city will accept the property in as-is condition, and that we will get possession at the time of settlement, and that they will give good and marketable titles to the property.”
DRIVE, an economic development council of governments serving the Valley, will now take over the facility. The idea was spearheaded by State Representative Lynda Schlegel Culver (R-108th, Sunbury), who then formed a task force that includes Glen Raven Director of Operations Brian Burke, DRIVE Executive Director Jennifer Wakeman, Sunbury City Administrator Jody Ocker, and Lauren Bryson of Central Pennsylvania.
Culver says lots of inquiries about the 400,000 square-foot building are already coming in. She says concrete ideas are not set yet, but the idea is to lease or sell portions of the facility. She says two vacant parcels of the mill will be donated to the City of Sunbury for its fire departments to use for training, and the ultimate goal is to make it a regional training center.
Glen Raven first purchased the facility three years ago and will be onsite through the end of 2020. The textile mill has been a fixture of the City of Sunbury since about 1892.
