Published: June 25, 2009 06:36 pm      

Future of Pilgrim's Pride site unclear

Now that the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant near downtown Dalton has closed, company officials aren’t discussing their future plans for the site at 433 S. Hamilton St.

“At this point, I wouldn’t be able to offer any comment on that,” said Ray Atkinson, director of corporate communications for Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim’s Pride.

Pilgrim’s Pride laid off the 277 employees at the plant on June 11. The site sits on several acres just outside the downtown business district. The company is consolidating the Dalton plant with a similar facility in Chattanooga. Atkinson said the company did not move any of the Dalton jobs to the Chattanooga plant, which has about 1,700 workers.

Pilgrim’s Pride filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December. Because the company is in bankruptcy, its creditors will have first shot at the assets. Dalton Mayor David Pennington said he would like to see another chicken processing company take over the facility, but he admitted that’s “truly wishful thinking.” Pennington, members of the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce and officials with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs plan to meet about securing grants to redevelop the site.

But local officials must wait to find out who the owners will be. Pennington has not talked to any company interested in the site.

“It could sit there forever if we don’t do something,” he said.

The former plant sits on about 1.75 acres on the edge of downtown Dalton next to the railroad tracks. Pilgrim’s Pride owns 14 land parcels in Whitfield County, including more than 32 acres at the hatchery off Cohutta-Varnell Road.