Cohen Recycling buys former Franklin Boxboard plant

A Middletown recycling firm has purchased the former Franklin Boxboard plant.

Cohen Recycling Inc. purchased the former paperboard factory from Dayton Business Services on Nov. 22 for $95,000, according to the Warren County Auditor’s Office.

The company has “no definitive plans yet” about the future use of the 6.41-acre property at 50 E. Sixth St., said Ken Cohen, Cohen Recycling Inc. president and CEO.

The newly-acquired property is adjacent to the former Mindlin Recycling facility that Cohen Recycling purchased in late September.

“It didn’t make any sense for us not to buy it,” Cohen said. “We’ve always felt that if there was adjacent property available, it would be prudent for us to buy it.”

Franklin Boxboard ended production of recycled paperboard in August 2011 when 81 people lost their hourly or salaried jobs. The plant had been in operation for 100 years. The building’s size is between 170,000 and 200,000 square feet.

“That was a pretty big hit for the city when Boxboard closed,” said Franklin City Manager Sonny Lewis.

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