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Judge Approves Sale of Kansas City, Mo., Steel Plant

Posted on: Thursday, 3 November 2005, 00:00 CST

By Randolph Heaster, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Nov. 3--KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A federal bankruptcy court has approved the sale of Havens Steel Co.'s Kansas City plant to local real estate investor Skip Sleyster.

Havens Steel, which closed its Kansas City facility before entering bankruptcy proceedings in March 2004, sold the fabrication plant and office building in the Blue Valley industrial district for $972,250. The court approved the sale last week.

Sleyster owns many properties in the Blue Valley and runs his own salvage yard. He also operates the Super Flea Swap & Shop.

Sleyster was the only bidder for the 150,000 square feet of plant and office space located at 7219 E. 17th St. Havens has not been an operational company since it sold its plant in Ottawa, Kan., to a Phoenix-based steel company in July.

Under terms of the sale, Havens Steel will continue to lease office space from the new owner for its administrative staff as the bankruptcy case winds down.

Eventually, Sleyster said, he would like to see a medical clinic open in the Havens office building for children and the elderly.

"We don't have anything like that around here," he said of the Blue Valley area.

As for the plant, Sleyster said he hoped to lease the spacious facility.

"There's plenty of storage space," he said. "I doubt anybody would want to put a lot of employees in there."

The Kansas City headquarters was the last physical asset that Havens Steel still held, said Jonathan Margolies, the company's bankruptcy attorney.

"The debtor still has some claims relating to various projects, but that's the last hard asset of any significance," said Margolies, of McDowell, Rice, Smith & Buchanan.

Holding the lien on the Kansas City plant was St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co., the bonding firm that has financed Havens since the bankruptcy filing last year. St. Paul's financing of Havens expires Dec. 8, and Margolies said he would have to consult with St. Paul officials about how the bankruptcy will proceed.

Typically, a case such as this one would be converted into a Chapter 7 liquidation.

"There's not much gas left in the tank," Margolies said.

Havens Steel was founded in 1919 by engineer Harry Havens. At one time it employed as many as 700 people and worked on big commercial projects all over the country, including the new printing facility at The Kansas City Star. The company worked on the skywalks of the Hyatt Regency Crown Center hotel that collapsed in 1981, but Havens was cleared of any wrongdoing four years later.

Soaring steel prices eventually crippled the company in 2004, leading to the bankruptcy. Havens Steel sold its Ottawa plant to Schuff Steel Co., which maintained the work force of more than 100 people there.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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SHUF,

Source: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)

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