Prineville molding maker for sale

In May 2016, the New Jersey-based owner of Consolidated Pine Inc., a maker of wood molding in Prineville, announced an infusion of capital aimed at keeping the enterprise afloat.

Now the property is for sale, the promised revival unfulfilled. The commercial and industrial division of Tiger Capital Group, with offices in California, listed the manufacturing facility, its 23 acres and associated shops and railroad sidings for sale June 13 as a turnkey operation. The office furniture and company name are included.

A message left with Mark Shirvan, the president and CEO of Consolidated Companies, the property owner, was not returned Tuesday. Neither did a representative of Tiger Group return messages. In addition to the manufacturing plant in Prineville, Consolidated Companies also owns a lumber and building supplies distribution center that serves the Mid-Atlantic states.

The Prineville plant, which employed about 30 people last year, ceased operation in January. The sale information posted by Tiger indicates everything associated with the plant, including manufacturing equipment such as saws, paint lines, forklifts, air compressors and more, must go.

Prospective buyers are encouraged to contact a listing agent, John Coelho, with an offer.

Last year the struggling molding maker was targeted for millions of dollars of new capital in order to make the facility competitive and profitable.

A Providence, Rhode Island-based investment firm, Tzar Investment Group, took a large but unspecified stake in the company in May 2016. Shirvan at the time said Consolidated Pine had “not been a profit center for us” and had swallowed “an immense amount of money” to stay in business. He said the alliance with the investment group offered a lifeline.

At the time, Tzar Investment founder and CEO Hirak Biswas announced a plan to upgrade the plant, make it more competitive and bring more jobs to Prineville. He said he looked forward to eventually competing with foreign wood-products makers. Tuesday, phone numbers for Tzar Investment Group were out of service or not accepting messages.

Biswas and Shirvan also said Consolidated Pine needed an Oregon enterprise zone tax credit to make the investment work, but Consolidated Pine never applied for the credit. Crook County Judge Seth Crawford said he and others encouraged company owners to apply for the enterprise zone incentives, which typically provide a break on the tax on capital improvements in exchange for creating jobs at higher-than-average wages.

“We were ready to work with them and get it done,” he said Tuesday.

Crawford said the closing of Consolidated Pine is another consequence of natural-resource management policies. “That’s important to point out,” he said. “If we were cutting more timber and more logs were coming out of the forest, we might be having a different outcome.”

Prineville City Manager Steve Forrester said Consolidated Pine had been in decline since its sawmill closed in the 1980s. Without the ability to produce lumber, the primary product and a source of raw material, the molding plant, a secondary enterprise, lost its competitive edge, he said.

“Consolidated has been part of this community for over 50 years,” he said. “It would be great to find a nice tenant or owner that could utilize the property and existing equipment as some sort of jobs creator.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com