Former type Private company Defunct 1992 Founded 1919 | Fate Sold Headquarters Allentown Successor Thomas & Betts | |
Industry Steel production and fabrication Subsidiaries Lehigh-Lancaster Inc., Lancaster, South Carolina | ||
The Lehigh Structural Steel Company is a former steel manufacturing company, located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company was sold in 1992 to Thomas & Betts Corporation and its facilities were closed.
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History
The company was formed in 1919 by Thomas R. Mullen, William H. Mohr and Les Kift during the height of Allentown's industrial era. Its facilities occupied 55 acres along the Lehigh River, consisting of heavy fabrication buildings, tower fabrication and tower galvanizing. Lehigh Steel was the only major steel manufacturer located in Allentown.
Lehigh Steel received coal, iron ore and other requirements, and transported out its manufactured steel products via railroad links with the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey, both of which had spur lines that ran into the plant.
The company fabricated steel for everything from bridges and airplane hangars to high-rise office buildings. It fabricated large steel trusses and girders up to 150 feet long, weighing up to 75 tons. It also produced galvanized and chromium steel. It employed more than 500 workers in the 1960s and had annual sales of almost $90 million in the 1980s. In 1967, the company expanded, purchasing Kaufman Fabricators of Texas and Wolko Engineering of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. It also constructed a second manufacturing plant, Lehigh-Lancaster Inc., in Lancaster, South Carolina.
Lehigh Steel began to have labor problems in June 1973 when a wildcat strike over incentive pay for welders temporarily halted production. Additionally, the company had begun facing stiff competition from lower-priced imported steel. In early 1983, the Allentown plant closed and laid off 350 workers shortly after asking union workers to accept wage and benefits concessions. The union agreed to concessions several months later but the plant was closed for more than a year until it reopened in July 1984. Shortly afterwards, Lehigh Steel won a large contract to provide structural steel for two New York City office buildings that guaranteed work into February 1985. At that time, the company employed 260 people and had annual sales of almost $90 million. Its South Carolina plant won a contract to provide 1,100 tons of steel to Mack Truck, for the construction of its new plant in Winnsboro, South Carolina.
However, pressure from foreign steel manufacturers led to a loss of orders during the mid-1980s. Canadian steel manufacturers, in particular, were cited for dumping more than 120,000 tons of steel a year to the United States during the late 1980s. While the Canadian market share amounted to about 5 percent at the time, a majority of the Canadian imports were being dumped in the Northeastern United States, which was Lehigh Structural Steel's prime market.
In 1989, the company announced the decision to stop fabricating steel in Allentown, citing company losses of about $10 million in five years and the firm was no longer able to secure financing or bonding for future operations. The Lancaster plant, however, would remain open.
The company sold its Allentown plant in June 1990 for $3 million to three local investors who renovated the property and begin to lease out space to area companies. The number of employees was reduced in Allentown to a small group of twelve executives. In June 1992, the Lancaster South Carolina plant was sold, and the last assets of Lehigh Steel were purchased by Thomas & Betts Corporation, an electrical equipment manufacturer based in Bridgewater, New Jersey on 25 August 1992.
The Waterfront Redevelopment
Today, several large buildings of the former steel plant remain, being used by several light industrial companies. There are several outdoor warehouses and a large number of tractor trailers. Other portions of the former steel plant has been torn down.
During August 2012, a development group, Waterfront Redevelopment Partners (a partnership between Jaindl Properties, LLC and Dunn Twiggar Company, LLC) acquired 26 acres of the site. In 2013, plans were announced to redevelop the site into a mixed-use campus known as The Waterfront as part of the Allentown's new Neighborhood Improvement Zone. The $300 Million Dollar proposal includes six office buildings, 172 market rate apartments amongst three residential complexes with site-wide first floor retail and restaurant space to be built in two phases. The project will take between seven and ten years before it is fully complete.
The development received final plan approval on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013. Construction is anticipated to begin March 2014.