Iron City plans to tear down its Lawrenceville buildings! (Pittsburgh: to buy, construction)

[PreservationPioneer]

Just read about this today in the Post-Gazette. Iron City plans to tear down its Lawrenceville plant. The plans are apparently opposed by the city, because the company owes the city money.

The main buildings are from the 1860s and architecturally significant, in my opinion. It would be a great loss.

[Herodotus]

I can't imagine that there couldn't be some use for the buildings that front on Liberty Ave.

[neurodistortion]

What's going on with Iron City? First they try to move its bottling operations and now they want to demolish the entire plant. Could the end really be near for the company?

[Drover]

Originally Posted by neurodistortion

What's going on with Iron City? First they try to move its bottling operations and now they want to demolish the entire plant. Could the end really be near for the company?

A buyout by a bigger brewer is more likely, though I see neither death nor buyout as the most likely short-term situation.

The production move to Latrobe for better or worse gained them substantial production efficiencies, and did so more cost-effectively than updating the Lawrenceville plant would have. They are after all a business, and they have to do what it takes to remain one.

Originally Posted by Herodotus

I can't imagine that there couldn't be some use for the buildings that front on Liberty Ave.

For what, and more importantly for ICBC, at what cost?

[Geeo]

I may be wrong, but I think they're talking about tearing down four buildings that can't be seen from Liberty Ave. There must be some old unused buildings back there that are in disrepair. By tearing them down, it makes the property more attractive for redevelopment. The old HQ building on Liberty is in pretty goor repair.

[Honest Bob]

If you read the articles published about the history of Iron City Beer, you would read that the company was mismanaged for a long time.

The one owner - who back in the heyday of the 70's - when the steel mills were still running and a shot and a beer were king, was just a young man who owned a garbage company - "Mafia" who used the place as a tax write off and then ran it into the ground.

The original brewery is still there. The buildings cited for demolition have been unused since at least the 50's and the roofs are falling in and the city would have condemned them a long time ago - had they been left on the property.

I will say almost nothing of the last owner, except that he prolonged the agony and did the same as the previous owners and his day came in court when he was involved with inside trading and all sorts of money laundering scheme's.

As far as I am concerned, the beer they brewed in Eden Nc did not taste the same as the beer brewed in Pittsburgh. You have to remember that the water makes a big difference.

The company said that they had made payments on the water bill, but still owed money on the sewage.

If you think about it. You can make beer as long as you have a large amount of water. But the sewage goes down the drain - no matter if you pay the bill or not.

I worked for a short time at the Straub Brewery in St. Mary's Pa on a time and materials job when I worked construction back in the 90's. I can tell you for a fact that they poured more beer down the drain then you could drink in a lifetime - every day of the week.

Only the top layer of beer gets used in the vessel and the bottom 1/4th goes down the drain every time they move the beer from one vessel to the other. it might get moved 6 to 8 times from the time they brew it until it is polished and put out for production.

Everyday a guy with rubber boots takes the cap off the tanks and walks into them with a fire hose and cleans out the tanks - after they moved the beer from the one tank to the next.

I guess a lesser brewery would just can the stuff and sell it as generic beer, but they dumped it down the drain. There was nothing wrong with it, just that the sediment settled down to the bottom and you wouldn't want that in your beer.

All the city is looking for is more money. You never hear about when honest - hard working citizens pays their bills every month. But forget about a month or two's bills and they will have your name in the paper and will be crying on everyone's shoulder about how they lost money.

The city will never tell you about the millions of dollars a year they made from selling Iron City Brewery the water.

I think they should just cut their losses and forget about it.

[Drover]

^^^ Well the city's position is they already cut a lot of losses in a deal that was supposed to keep production within the city limits and they got stabbed in the back.

[ditchdigger]

The city will never tell you about the millions of dollars a year they made from selling Iron City Brewery the water.

That statement supposes that the Water and Sewer Authority operates at a profit, as opposed to a loss or break even. I can't claim to know one way or the other, but I suspect it's not a cash cow...

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by Drover

A buyout by a bigger brewer is more likely, though I see neither death nor buyout as the most likely short-term situation.

The production move to Latrobe for better or worse gained them substantial production efficiencies, and did so more cost-effectively than updating the Lawrenceville plant would have. They are after all a business, and they have to do what it takes to remain one.


For what, and more importantly for ICBC, at what cost?

I agree, and I think that their decision is understandable. I however don't buy Iron City anymore, I really only bought it since it was a Pittsburgh thing. If I want to buy "local" I'll just stick with Yuengling I guess.

[Copanut]

All they ever had to do was make a beer that tastes good, and they would still be making money. Guess what? That beer always tasted lousy.