The City of Vernon recently acquired the 11 acre Smurfit-Stone (formerly Container Corp) site on 57th Street, after the container manufacturer decided to close the Vernon plant and consolidate operations into other facilities.  The City expects to have a contractor demolishing the existing facilities on the site beginning later this month.  The City’s Industrial Development staff is currently in discussion with several large manufacturers about future use of the site.

The City has purchased several large land sites over the past several years in order to control the destiny who occupies the sites.  The City prefers companies that manufacture, employ more persons than warehousing operations, and that use copious amounts of the power that the City sells.  This interference by the government in the free market of real estate deals definitely rubs some people the wrong way.