Scott City packaging company purchases Thorngate building

The growing demand for "green" packaging will bring a new company and new life to the former Thorngate Ltd. building.

Blair Packaging Inc. of Scott City will open a paper box manufacturing facility this spring, initially bringing a $2.5 million investment and 30 jobs to the city.

The operation, to be known as Blair Best Box, will produce high-end recycled consumer boxes used for DVDs as well as other consumer products, including binders, rigid boxes, sewn products and advertising specialty items. It will also manufacture products using leather, faux leather, cloth, paper and vinyl with a push toward using recyclable and recycled materials.

The company, which manufactures vinyl packaging in Scott City, has been in business in Southeast Missouri since 1983.

The building had been tied up in foreclosure proceedings but was purchased by Blair with assistance from a $165,000 low-interest loan from the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission's revolving loan fund, said Chauncy Buchheit, executive director. The Bank of Missouri provided financing for the acquisition.

Blair Packaging announced on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, that they will move into the former Thorngate Ldt. building in Cape Girardeau. (Kristin Eberts)

The city had applied for a $430,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Missouri Department of Economic Development but due to time constraints chose not to wait for the state to complete application approval process, said Mitch Robinson, executive director of Cape Area Magnet. Instead, Blair found alternate funding, he said.

The Thorngate building has been vacant since early 2009 when its more than 300 workers were laid off and the men's clothing factory closed.

More than $1 million in new equipment has been ordered for Blair Best Box, said president Ronn Unterreiner. Initially the company will use about 65,000 square feet of the 170,000-square-foot facility, leaving room for expansion, he said.

Blair Packaging Inc. previously had a manufacturing facility in Cape Girardeau but relocated its Sheridan Drive operations to Scott City when the 2009 ice storm caused the building's roof to collapse.

Blair sold one and a half acres and one building on the Thorngate Ltd. property to Tipton Linen, which has operations next door.

Unterreiner said he hopes to begin hiring in groups of three to five people and by the second quarter have 20 to 30 employees working on site. While he would not disclose the hourly wage, he said Blair intends to offer health insurance benefits to employees.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

1507 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO