A Pennsylvania business will be leasing the city-owned facility formerly owned by SMART Papers.

Hamilton City Council Wednesday approved the lease agreement of the 42.9-acre site on B Street with Moses B. Glick LLC of Fleetwood, Pa.

City Manager Joshua Smith said the company has one of the largest eBay store operations. According to its website, the company sells new, used, and surplus metals, equipment, machinery and tools for industry.

The Glick website said the company focus is on buying metals, materials, equipment and machinery that is no longer wanted by an owner and reselling the items for their intended purposes or recycling the base material to be re-manufactured into another product.

The employee-owned company also does demolition, warehouse and factory clean-outs and scrap metal services across the Mid-Atlantic region.

According to the lease agreement, Glick will pay the city $10,000 a month rent retroactive to Sept. 1 through Dec. 1. The agreement also states the site can be used for demolition, rehabilitation and scrapping functions and will have the option to purchase the property at a price to be negotiated by the city and the company.

However, Smith said the purchase option is “non-exclusive” as Glick or the city could terminate the agreement with 20 days notice to the company. The agreement also gives the city the right to sell, transfer, convert or demolish the buildings

Smith said the company will also be responsible for security and utilities costs at the site, the installation of a heating, air conditioning and ventilation system for the 1926 historic office building on the site and that the natural gas service must be completed by Nov. 16. The agreement also requires Glick to furnish and install the necessary metered power to the existing lighting system in buildings that won’t be demolished in Mill 1 at the site.

Glick officials did not return a phone call for comment on their plans for the site on Wednesday.

In October 2011, SMART first announced in October plans to shut down the plant and lay off more than 200 hourly and salary employees.

“We need to control our own destiny and I won’t give up on making paper in Hamilton,” Smith said. “The city has been in the paper-making industry since the 1840s.”

The closing of SMART Papers cost the city an estimated $250,000 in lost payroll taxes a year as well as $178,000 for water and $1.1 million in wastewater services provided by Hamilton, according to Smith.

The city and SMART worked on the property purchase deal for more than four months before it was approved March 14.

Smith said the sale of the property to the city did not include the equipment and machinery in the plant as SMART had contracted with asset liquidators prior to the property sale with all asset sales proceeds going to SMART.

When Council approved the $400,000 purchase of the site, it was hoping to attract another paper manufacturer to Hamilton to utilize the 1.1 million square-foot facility that also may need significant brownfield remediation.

At that time, Mayor Pat Moeller said, “I think this is a good move,” about the city buying the site as it would help the city create manufacturing and other jobs as well as help redevelop the riverfront.