Hampstead officials are relieved to learn that Black & Decker Inc., the fifth-largest employer in Carroll County, plans to retain its operations outside town, even though the company is selling its factory and distribution center.
The Towson-based company confirmed Friday it is selling its 800,000-square-foot factory and distribution center and accompanying 280 acres on Hanover Pike to a Boston redeveloper.
Black & Decker will lease back half the building and retain most of its operations, including light manufacturing, customer service, product-service operations and packaging. The warehouse and distribution functions for the company's power tools and lawn mowers will be transferred to South Carolina.
"If Black & Decker ever were to leave, they would be a very hard neighbor to replace," said Chris Cavey, president of the Hampstead Business Association. "They do so many things for the town, and most people don't realize it because they never ask for credit."
Most of the approximately 600 Black & Decker employees in Hampstead will keep their jobs, said company spokeswoman Barbara B. Lucas. About six people will be transferred, she said.
Lucas said job losses will be "minimal" and would probably affect only contract workers.
If the deal goes through, as is expected to happen in the next three months, Boston rede- veloper Goodman Industrial Equities LLC would have the responsibility of finding tenants for the rest of the building and would be free to develop the land.
"We're working with a potential user for a majority of the lot," said Steve Goodman, a principal of Goodman Industrial. "We're very excited about it. We're working very closely with the economic development agency in Carroll County."
John T. Lyburn, Carroll's economic development director, was unavailable for comment Friday.
Owings Mills-based Sweetheart Cup Co. Inc. considered the property in June as it looked for a site for a new distribution center that would employ more than 100 people.
Company officials could not be reached for comment Friday about possible plans in Hampstead.
Cavey said if Sweetheart moved to the Hampstead area it would bring the county more tax revenue, but it wouldn't add as many jobs as an out-of-state company might.
"If Sweetheart moves 15 miles, chances are most employees are going to be willing to do the drive," he said.
Luring new industry to the area will prove difficult, Cavey predicted, without firm plans for a bypass around Hampstead to ease traffic congestion on Route 30, the town's main thoroughfare.
"You can't say to someone, 'Come back when we've got a road,' " he said. "You don't want to grow too fast but you do not want to turn people away from the door."
Hampstead's planned $35 million bypass, which has been in the works since the 1960s, is on hold while officials deal with concerns over bog turtles. The bypass threatens the habitat of the turtles, which were declared a threatened species in 1987.
Dennis Wertz, chairman of Hampstead's planning commission, said the area would welcome the right new industry.
"Development that would not adversely impact the existing community, such as something that might create environmental problems, odor, noise or large amounts of truck traffic" would be right, he said. "When the bypass is built it might be a different story, but we don't have it at this point."
Sun staff writer William Patalon III contributed to this article.
Pub Date: 3/14/99