How this headline may connect to industries in Oregon. Technical scores are below — click any ? for what a metric means.
Both parties involved in a potential sales agreement that could determine the fate of Blessings of Hope’s main facility in Warwick Township have declined to share the status of their deal days past the buyer’s apparent due diligence period and less than a month before the property is set to go to auction.David Lapp, CEO of Blessings, declined to discuss the sales agreement he says exists for 500 Becker Road — the nonprofit’s 6.7-acre warehousing and sorting facility Lapp says is responsible for nearly half of Blessings’ warehouse capacity.“At this point, I am going to refrain from answering your question,” Lapp said in a text on May 29.“I am not interested in being 10% of another newspaper so LNP can put ‘click-bait headlines’ out to sell more papers and get more clicks.” The Becker Road property currently owned by Blessings of Hope, a 20-year-old Lancaster County nonprofit that distributes tens of thousands of meals to food banks every day, is scheduled to be auctioned by the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office on July 29 at 10 a.m.The auction comes after Ephrata National Bank foreclosed on the property, seeking a $3.4 million payment to satisfy the terms of a mortgage it says Blessings violated, and two former Blessings board members filed court judgments seeking more than $1 million in unpaid loans.On May 13, Lapp said in an interview that Blessings recently arranged a sales agreement for 500 Becker Road that would pay out $5.25 million and allow Blessings to lease the facility through Oct.31, 2027.At the time, Lapp said the buyer had a due diligence period through May 26 to review and potentially back out of the deal.He declined to disclose the buyer’s identity.A zoning special exception application dated April 13, two weeks before 500 Becker Road was first published as up for auction, sheds some light on who could be looking to buy the property.A potential agreement Representatives with Oregon Ag, a limited liability company on East Oregon Road in Manheim Township that supplies farmers with plant and animal feed, are listed as equitable owners of 500 Becker Road on a nine-page application provided by the Warwick Township Zoning Hearing Board.Oregon Ag’s farm is across the street from 500 Becker Road.Stephen Esch, a representative with Oregon Ag, wrote in the zoning application that the company wants to expand into Blessings’ current warehouse facility and get Warwick Township’s permission to operate its agriculture business there.It also wants to remove a 3,600 square foot portion of the building and put up a new 20,000 square foot building for warehousing and truck loading.Since the property on East Oregon Road is preserved farmland and zoned agricultural, Esch wrote, Manheim Township doesn’t want Oregon Ag to operate its agriculture retail business there.“We understand, with what you experienced with Blessings of Hope, that the township might have concerns with another business moving in,” Esch wrote.In 2021, Blessings appealed a zoning decision from Warwick Township in Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas after Warwick municipal officials endorsed Blessings’ plan to expand its distribution center on Becker Road only in part.That legal back and forth ended in June 2022, when a settlement left Blessings with a list of conditions to abide by, including limiting the number of vehicles coming in and out of the property, its hours of operation and the types of operations permitted at 500 Becker Road.In its April zoning application, Esch wrote that Oregon Ag would comply with all previous conditions made for Blessings of Hope, though the vehicle and foot traffic at the facility would be considerably less under Oregon Ag’s ownership.The company has 13 full-time employees, four part-time drivers and up to 10 vehicles coming in and out of the facility in a given day.Barbara Kreider, Warwick Township’s assistant secretary, said via email Friday that Oregon Ag’s case was approved at a May 13 Zoning Hearing Board meeting, under the conditions listed in its application.The board granted Oregon Ag a one-year extension to close the sales agreement, obtain permits, complete its proposed construction project and give Blessings time to vacate the building.Tom Zorbaugh, Warwick’s zoning officer, said via email that the extension gives Oregon Ag through May 2028.While the Zoning Hearing Board approved the case on May 13, the written decision has not been published, and zoning officials won’t have the opportunity to approve those minutes until their next meeting.There will be no board meeting in June, Zorbaugh said.Unless someone fills out a Warwick Township zoning application by June 8 — no one has yet — there won’t be one in July, either.Esch, the Oregon Ag representative who filled out the application, said by email Friday that he has no interest in answering questions about the property, and LNP | LancasterOnline shouldn’t run a story based on information from Warwick Township because there’s still too many unknowns for what could happen.“Its nobodies business what we are doing with the property,” Esch said via email.The standing of the sales agreement between Blessings of Hope and Oregon Ag, including when and whether the deal will close, is uncertain without confirmation from Lapp or Esch, but the 500 Becker Road property was still listed on the Lancaster County Sheriff Sale listings, as of Monday afternoon.The property’s deed still listed Blessings of Hope as the owner.A spokesperson for Ephrata National Bank said by email Wednesday that the sale won’t be canceled until a settlement is finalized and the bank receives its requested funds.“To cancel the sale, we would want settlement to occur and proceeds from the property to be received by us,” the spokesperson said.“Funds are usually received the day of settlement or day after settlement."