Former Caterpillar plant in Washington County under new ownership

April 6, 2018

Tim Schooley 

Pittsburgh Business Times

A former Caterpillar facility in which the Fortune 100 company operated a long-wall mining division has been sold.

Wisconsin-based Estes-Green recently sold the 78,000-square-foot distribution facility after more than 40 years to the interests of Blaise Larkin, of Madison Realty Group LLC.

Pat Tracy, of TARQUINCoRE LLC, who represented the property for sale, said it sold for $2.815 million in a deal that closed recently.

“Blaise bought it up with the idea of breaking it up and ‘multi-tenanting’ the building, which it will work nicely for,” Tracy said.

Located on 2301 West Pike Street in Houston, Washington County, the property was originally a food distribution facility that Caterpillar occupied for more than a decade, Tracy said.

Caterpillar used the property as a manufacturing facility but closed it last spring as the market for longwall mining equipment declined with the coal industry.

Tracy said the property, which sits on 7 acres, has ceiling heights of 16 to 22 feet and includes 4,000 square feet of office space, was not a hard sell.

“It moved pretty quickly,” he said, noting the property drew the attention of a mix of oil and gas service providers and distribution users. “We had a lot of activity on the building because of the location."

A representative for Larkin could not be reached for comment.