Clean up of Pittsburgh Glass Works site in East Deer could take years, new owner says

The company that purchased the former Pittsburgh Glass Works plant in East Deer says it has no definitive plans for the property but is working to clean up the site as an underground fire continues to burn out.

“We saw an opportunity to purchase that property, and basically, because of the site conditions, we need to sit and wait for them to be resolved,” said Jim Barker, executive vice president at Rosebud Mining Co.

Those site conditions include the underground coal refuse fire that has been burning at the former plant site since 2017. The fire was caused by coal refuse that apparently was used as backfill for the factory site many years ago.

Barker said the fire ruined the floor built over the coal stockpile area. Officials will wait for the fire to burn out before tearing that building down.

“The footprint of the material that is smoldering in the back is shrinking; it’s getting smaller which means the fire’s going out,” Barker said.

The glass plant closed in August 2018 because officials said it couldn’t keep up with increasing technological demands, and its manufacturing capacity was above market demand.

It is now owned by Creighton Property Holdings LLC, which purchased the property for $1.25 million in October. According to Allegheny County real estate records, the property sold for a little bit more than half of what Pittsburgh Glass Works LLC paid for it in October 2008. PGW is a division of Mexico-based Vitro Automotive Glass.

“There was a motivated seller there because of the conditions that are on the property with the fire,” Barker said.

Barker said cleaning up the site could take a couple of years.

“Truly, it’s going to take a year or two. The footprint is shrinking and it will continue to shrink. Just no one knows how long,” he said. “It’s just a waiting game at this point.”

The company is owned by Cliff Forrest, who also owns Rosebud Mining Co. It shares a mailing address with Rosebud, which is headquartered in Kittanning. Barker spoke with the Tribune-Review about the potential plans for the site on behalf of Forrest.

Tony Taliani, township commissioners chairman, said he is pleased that the property will be cleaned up.

He said he and his fellow commissioners are attempting to set up a meeting with company officials to see what their plans are for the property.

“Rosebud has a very good reputation, and I’m sure that they’re reputable and they’re going to try to do something positive with that property that ultimately would benefit the township and benefit our entire Allegheny Valley, hopefully,” Taliani said.

There are no current plans to use the property for mining operations. There has been a history of coal use at the site, which was the home of the first commercially successful plate glass factory in the country when it was owned by Pittsburgh Plate Glass, which is now PPG Industries.

Although natural gas was used to heat operations, coal was used at one point during the glass-making process and perhaps for heating.

The former PPG plant once operated a coal mine on an adjacent hill in East Deer along with a rail trestle above Freeport Road from the mine to the plant, local historian Bob Lucas told the Tribune-Review in 2018.

The trestle carried coal cars that went into the factory at least before and during the 1950s, Lucas said.

“There’s no plans for it,” Barker said of potential coal operations at the site. “I hate to say no, definitively, in case somehow someone comes up with something, but we have nothing in our minds right now relative to it.

“We’ll utilize it in some manner — not for Rosebud — but for some other business. Rent it out, keep it as a real estate investment. Or it could be sold or someone could approach us about it. It’s hard to say. We just saw an opportunity and decided to take a shot at it.

“We certainly didn’t buy it to stare at an empty lot for the next couple decades.”