It was sold for only $1, but city officials believe the former SMART Papers facility will be redeveloped into a small industrial park and a business incubator that will payoff in new jobs, businesses, and a remediated brownfield.

Hamilton City Council recently approved an emergency ordinance to sell a large portion of the former paper-making plant on the west side of North B Street to Green Reclamation Group of Fleetwood, Pa., for $1 for that company to redevelop the site.

Green Reclamation — Moses B. Glick is a principal owner of the company — purchased the former Mill 1 and the office building, said Colleen Taylor, the city’s acting law director. However, the city will continue to own the balance of the property on the east side of North B Street that is along the Great Miami River for future redevelopment purposes.

The city purchased the property last March for $400,000 so that it could control how the west bank of the river would be developed. Glick has had a three-month lease for $10,000 a month since Sept. 1 with an option to purchase the site.

While the sale price was $1, Taylor said Green Reclamation will be putting in much more than $400,000 for brownfield remediation. She said the city will assist the company to secure Clean Ohio funding for the remediation projects.

“This is a huge project,” she said. “They can do it cheaper and faster than the city could because they’re in the business of doing that.”

Taylor said the city will also be able to recoup part of its initial investment through income taxes when those small businesses open at the site.

Taylor also said Green Reclamation has said it “has no intention of opening a scrap operation at this site.”

She said the company seeks to target small manufacturing or machine shops that could occupy the former warehouse and manufacturing space. Taylor said depending on the size of a future tenant, between seven and 15 different companies could be housed in Mill 1 and another three to 10 businesses could set up shop in the former office building after it has been renovated.

Green Reclamation has already submitted a redevelopment plan to city officials that includes demolishing about 40 percent of the structures they now own, as well as, rehabilitating and re-purposing the remaining portions. In addition, new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems will be installed in the former office building.

Some work is expected to begin immediately at the site and demolition is slated to begin in April. The site will be landscaped with the entire project to be completed by the end of 2015, according to the plan.

City officials also said that Hamilton’s municipal utilities will benefit from the purchase because it will gain additional customers from future tenants. When SMART Papers operated the plant, it’s electric service was with Duke Energy. The new project will receive all utility services from the city. Officials do not anticipate that the redevelopment will generate the same utility revenues that the SMART facility once used, but the project and the potential for new customers will benefit the city’s utilities.

When SMART Papers closed its operations, officials estimated the city lost about $250,000 in payroll taxes a year, $178,000 for water and $1.1 million in wastewater services provided by Hamilton.

“There was a lot of thought and discussion on my part and on the part of other members of City Council,” Mayor Pat Moeller said. “But I am very enthusiastic to see that there will be some manufacturing businesses there.”

In addition to his concerns regarding bringing manufacturing businesses to the site, Moeller said the city would avoid having to cover the costs of brownfield remediation, “which could be very extreme” to the city. Moeller said council received assurances from Green Reclamation with a specific timeline on the demolition and renovation projects and that there would not be a scrap operation at the site.

“I hope it works out as its envisioned by (Green Reclamation),” he said.