“I wish we could say there was another factory going in and we would employ a hundred people or more,” said William Carter this Monday. “But for the time being the building will be used as warehouse space to store 4-by-8 sheets of OSB sheeting (similar to plywood).”
Carter and Hix are leasing the space for storage by a third party who had lost their warehouse contract and needed a place to store the building materials.
“The last of the legal papers haven't been signed, so at this point the deal is primarily verbal. But there are already materials being moved into the building for storage so you could say it's a ‘done deal',” continued Carter, who operates Carters Homes and Thomas Carter Real Estate and Auction Company in Lafayette.
The eleven acre parcel fronts on Hwy. 52 and is bordered by Oak Street on the west and Music Row Road on the east.
“Dale (Hix) and I will be looking for a buyer who might put a factory in and bring some jobs with them, and there is a possibility we will sell some of the out lot parcels on Hwy. 52 for other commercial development due to the excellent location.”
The large brick factory building was originally constructed in the late 1950's for Imperial Reading, a shirt manufacturing company. It was purchased in the late 1970's by the American Greetings Corporation, and used for the next twenty-five years to manufacture envelopes and assemble novelty greeting cards. The “card factory” employed as many as 300 persons at its peak, and more than 200 local people lost their jobs when the corporation closed the facility in early 2006. Many of the American Greetings production jobs in Lafayette were moved to Arkansas where the nation's second largest greeting card manufacturer has another similar facility.
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