Warehouse

The Tredyffrin Zoning Hearing Board is considering a request to allow construction of a 14,880-square-foot warehouse on Yellow Springs Road.. Robert Owen, an architect for the project, testified at a hearing Thursday that the applicant, Ballyheerin Associates, planned to lease space in the warehouse to several tenants. Owen said that a home on the 1.2-acre parcel would be torn down to make way for the cement block-and-steel structure. Plans also call for 18 parking spaces.

Rouse and Associates' plan for a small office development in Warminster Township reflects the firm's belief in the business growth potential of suburban Bucks and Montgomery Counties, a company official says. "As Philadelphia grows out . . . there is going to be more demand from people who want to work closer to their homes," said Lawrence J. Stuardi, the company's project manager for Bucks County. Rouse is coordinating office and warehouse projects in the area from its 18-month-old regional office, which recently moved to Horsham from Plymouth Meeting.

The Upper Southampton Township Planning Commission has asked George Pappas to send his plan for a warehouse complex at James Way and County Line Road to the township engineer for review. The commission voted, 6-0, Monday night to recommend rejection of the plan. Revisions presented Monday night by Pappas may conform to township codes, commisison member Jerry Snyder said, but they need to be reviewed by the township engineer before the commission can vote on them. Pappas, engineer for the development, has proposed plans to build eight 4,800-square-foot warehouses and parking for 32 cars.

For about 40 years, weeds grew on the marshy, unused 62-acre tract on South Commerce Street in Paulsboro. One day last spring, neighbors noticed trucks moving dirt on a five-acre portion of it. On May 28, the frame to a 6,000-square-foot garage and warehouse began going up. That was about one week after the footings for the office several yards in front of the garage went in, according to borough records. On June 28, residents of the area just off Exit 18B of Interstate 295 were informed of the obvious.

A four-alarm fire raging in South Philadelphia may put a serious damper on New Year's celebrations in the City. A blaze broke out shortly after 2 p.m. at a warehouse rented by one of Philadelphia's preeminent Mummers organizations. At Second and Wharton Streets, more than 120 firefighters from 33 companies battled the fire in the building where the celebrated Fralinger String Band stored its equipment. Men from Fralinger stood at the scene as huge plumes of thick black smoke billowed from the three-story structure's roof.

The operator of the Chinese-food warehouse padlocked Monday by federal authorities because of rodent and insect infestation has opened a new outlet near the old one in North Philadelphia. "I understand he has moved some of his operations to another location," Loren Johnson, district director for the federal Food and Drug Administration in Pennsylvania and Delaware, said in interviews this week. The New Eastern Food Co.'s new warehouse, Johnson said, is on Indiana Avenue near 17th Street, about five blocks from the other warehouse.

Philadelphia health officials last year failed to seek disciplinary action against a major supplier of some Philadelphia-area Chinese restaurants, even though the city found serious health violations during three inspections of its warehouse. City health records show that an "active rodent infestation" was found in March 6 and June 21 inspections and that an "active insect infestation" was found on June 21 and July 9. Yet the operators of the New Eastern Food Co. warehouse at 1901-13 W. Westmoreland St. were never called to a Health Department hearing or ordered to face a more serious Municipal Court hearing.

Planning officials in mostly rural Lumberton Township have given unanimous approval to a huge warehouse-office complex that will rival the Moorestown Mall in size. The Lumberton Planning Board approved plans Jan. 8 by Whitesell Enterprises of Mount Laurel for a 280-acre warehouse, retail store and professional office complex to be located on the former Grant Berry farm between Route 38 and the Hainesport-Lumberton Road. About 110 acres of the complex will be in Hainesport Township, which has yet to formally approve the project.

The snow yesterday didn't deter Gov. Whitman from joining the ribbon- cutting ceremony at the Micro Warehouse in Gibbsboro. She just donned a pair of high black boots and was on her way. She arrived around noon, touring the facility and then making her way to a reception room, decorated with holiday poinsettias and a Christmas tree. There, she caused a stir of excitement among the array of officials awaiting her turn to speak. She began by praising the many officials who had worked to put together the $8.3 million deal that brought Micro Warehouse - and more jobs - to the region.

The New Eastern Food Co. Inc., the Tioga-based Chinese-restaurant supplier that was closed in January because of unsanitary conditions, has signed a consent decree permitting it to salvage some of the food items that were padlocked. The warehouse, at 1901-13 W. Westmoreland Street, was seized and padlocked Jan. 13 by federal officials who alleged that some food stored there had been contaminated by rodents and insects. Under the consent decree, New Eastern may proceed to "recondition" any "salvageable articles of food," according to a statement released yesterday by the U.S. attorney's office.