FORKS TWP., Pa.- When it comes to redevelopment projects involving former Dixie Cup sites in Northampton County, the one in Wilson Borough has been getting a lot of headlines lately.
Recently the developer seeking county approval for a special tax financing district to help pay for the transformation of the dilapidated old factory into luxury apartments didn’t get it.
But there’s also unfinished business about six miles away in Forks Township, where a different developer is trying again to get the go-ahead to build a warehouse at another place that once churned out those iconic little cups.
The Dixie Cup plant at 605 Kuebler Road closed in 2021 after Georgia-Pacific decided to shift manufacturing operations to Kentucky. Nearly 200 workers lost their jobs.
The factory was torn down in 2024. The site is mostly empty now; a circular pad marks the spot where a massive Dixie cup once marked the entrance to the grounds.
A circular pad marks the spot where a giant Dixie Cup once stood at the entrance to the plant at 605 Kuebler Rd. in Forks Township.
On Thursday, May 21, the Forks Township Board of Supervisors will conduct a hearing on a conditional use application for a 473,000-square-foot warehouse on the property.
Plans also call for 289 parking spaces for employees, 86 loading docks and 122 trailer parking spaces.
According to an application submitted for the project, the warehouse would create more than 300 construction jobs and 355 permanent, full-time jobs spread over multiple shifts.
The 35-acre property has been owned by Dixie Consumer Products LLC since 2007.
The applicant for the warehouse is listed as Hillwood, doing business as Industrial VI Enterprises.
Hillwood is a real estate company founded by the family of the late Texas businessman and two-time U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot. According to the application, Hillwood has “successfully developed warehouse and logistics projects across the country and in Europe.”
The property on Kuebler Road is located in the township’s Industrial Designation Zoning District, where a warehouse is allowed as a conditional use.
But, in 2024, the Forks Township Zoning Hearing Board rejected three appeals and one variance request for a proposed warehouse for the site. At the time, the township cited floodplain restrictions, steep slope restrictions and woodland restrictions.
The hearing on May 21 will begin at 7 p.m. at the Forks Township Municipal Building at 1606 Sullivan Trail.