An agricultural recycling facility in Southern Lee County, where a stubborn composting material fire occurred in April, was purchased by the state’s medium-sized industrial-scale greens and wood waste recycler.
Veransa Group, Inc. announced Wednesday that it has completed the purchase of MW Horticulture’s South Lee County greens and wood waste recycling facility, with an option to acquire MW Horticulture’s LaBelle facility. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Veransa CEO Marc Owensby said:
Former owner-operators Denise Spaniak Houghtaling and Mark Houghtaling will remain part of the new owners. Denise Spaniak Houghtaling will become Veransa South Florida’s Senior Director of Business Development and Mark Houghtaling will become her site manager for the Labelle site.
“We are very happy,” said Dennis Spaniak Houtering. “It’s a win-win for us, Veransa and the community at large. I’m excited to be joining Veransa.”
Veransa is a zero-waste leader that transforms green waste and wood waste into beneficial recycled products on an industrial scale through vertical integration with waste collection/recycling centers and organic product manufacturing facilities.
The company has offices in Tampa, Sarasota, Clearwater and Seffner.
The deal, which was officially signed on Wednesday, involves MW’s green and wood waste collection and recycling yard in Fort Myers.
A company official said the deal was a personal financial matter and the amount was confidential.
As part of the change of ownership, all “legacy” materials on the South Lee County site will be removed, the company said.
MW officials said the demolition is expected to take several weeks.
“It’s an aggressive plan, but it’s well-planned and exciting to see in action,” said Denise Houghtaling.
According to information from Veransa, the company will enact new safety procedures to reduce the risk of fire, including limiting the amount of material that can be placed on site.
An April fire at the facility burned for days and produced pungent, thick smoke. Firefighters from the San Carlos Park Fire District stayed at the scene for an extended period of time.
The state fire department opened an investigation, but it was later dropped, an MW official confirmed.
The April 3rd fire was part of a hardwood log at the south end of the 11-acre MW yard.
The April 10 fire smoldered and burned for 10 days, making it one of the longest fires in the horticultural recycling business since Houghtalings took over the business in 2013.
The San Carlos Park fire spent hours on site, pouring hundreds of thousands of gallons of water into the stubborn fire as piles of compost, mulch, and other materials.
Houghtaling said early in the fire that arson was suspected. Given the high temperatures sometimes found in composting piles of agricultural waste such as cut grass, leaves, wood pieces, and other debris brought into the facility, she said fires at facilities like MW I admit that this is not uncommon.
As part of Veransa’s purchase terms, the new owners will send many of MW’s assets to the company’s repair facility to complete necessary repairs and then return them to help clean up the South Lee site. To do.
Veransa spokeswoman Roxane Teymourtash said in an email that it “has hired a fire mitigation expert for its composting facility to minimize fire risks and increase its ability to manage fires that do occur.”
“We have procured fire extinguishing equipment such as hoses, pumps and sprinklers to mitigate the fire. We have about 20,000 cubic yards of soil set aside to contain the fire should it occur,” Teymourtash said. added Mr. “Verantha will also deliver water trucks to (sites) to help mitigate fires. I guess.”
There will also be high-tech probes to help contain the fires, she said.
Teymourtash added that Veransa and MW personnel will visit the San Carlos fire station to help with the decontamination work, which poses the highest risk of fire.
In addition, Verantha officials said Verantha’s South Yard will be limited in its ability to receive debris from Ian until the company implements a program to clean out the site.
“As Ian’s recovery progresses, we are working to speed up the cleanup of the site so he can be there for his neighbors,” Taymo Tash replied via email.
Further changes to MW carried out by Veransa include modernization and strict safety and operational procedures.
The site is part of Veransa Group’s new South Florida Division, led by Veransa South Florida’s General Manager.
“By acquiring MW, Veransa will be able to increase its portfolio of organic soil products and incorporate more specialty blends, including several high-volume agricultural and nursery mixes,” said Veransa. COO Kevin Dunlap said. “Veransa is already the largest recycler. It manages the amount of garden and wood waste in Central and Southwest Florida with five facilities in Southwest Florida. We simply increase our share of greens and wood waste intake while maintaining our position as the largest manufacturer of , mulch and soil.”
Denise Houghtaling said there will be a special sale in the next few days on some of the composting, topsoil and mulch provided at the South Lee County MW facility.
“It’s great to use to grow low-lying properties,” she said.
Other MW-owned facilities, including the North Fort Myers site, are not part of the acquisition and will continue to be operated by Houghtalings as North Fort Myers, Inc.’s MW Horticulture Recycling.
“We will continue to clean up the North Yard,” said Dennis Houtaling, adding that he will “continue to file a $5 million lawsuit against the county.”
The lawsuit stems from the company’s collection of debris from Hurricane Irmine in 2017.
WGCU is the authoritative source for Southwest Florida news and information. We are a non-profit public service, and your support is more important than ever. Keep your public media strong and donate now. Thank you very much.
