Pasadena Company Acquires Former Utah Meatpacking Plant for Conversion Into Aerospace Factory

[Editor’s note: This story originally incorrectly identified Pasadena’s Atwater Infrastructure Partners as a division of AMRO. That is incorrect. We apologize for, and have corrected, the error.]

Atwater Infrastructure Partners is acquiring a former meatpacking plant in the city of Ogden, Utah and plans to build a 120,000-square-foot aerospace manufacturing plant on the site, according to a report in the Ogden Standard-Examiner.

The report said the proposed $1.7 million sale was authorized by the Ogden City Council, Oct. 22, according to public records.

Atwater represents an unidentified client in the purchase.

The Standard-Examiner report said Ogden officials expect Atwater Infrastructure Partner’s client to relocate to the site, said to be a reclaimed hazardous waste site, to be closer to its military customers, including nearby Hill Air Force Base south of Ogden.

The acquisition by Atwater will help resolve a major environmental and fiscal headache for Ogden, caused by decades of accumulated toxic chemical storage in the defunct Swift building.

It will also augment Ogden’s Trackline development, which aims to transform a blighted area west of the railroad tracks along Exchange Road near 24th Street in the west side of the city, the report said.

The Ogden City Council said the sale will involve a large portion of the Swift parcels consisting of about 6.46 hectares. The city will retain one hectare for purposes of rehabilitating the nearby section of Weber River improving the public right-of-way along Exchange Road.

The transaction could also result in the creation of approximately 120 new jobs related to the aerospace and defense manufacturing industry, and have a significant impact to the West Ogden neighborhood.

The Standard-Examiner report said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March began cleaning up the Swift complex, finding thousands of containers of solvents, acid, benzene, antifreeze, propane, hydraulic fluid and other chemicals, plus items such as 3,000 pounds of explosive materials.

The city of Ogden bought the dilapidated warehouse a few years ago from Utah-Smith, an entity connected to Bert Smith, late founder of the Smith and Edwards Co. military surplus store, so it could have the site cleaned up and the building demolished.

The cleanup should be complete by the end of November, the report said. Construction on the new Atwater site could begin in March 2020.