Mr. Golf Carts to buy former PerfectionSchwank facility

Perfection-Schwank, which ceased production in Waynesboro six years ago, may have a buyer for its sizeable East Sixth Street complex.

Locally-based Mr. Golf Carts, currently occupying a stretch along the northern end of the bypass, is negotiating a deal to buy the facility, according to owner James Eastmead.

"It's ninety-nine percent sure," he said. "It's been approved, it's a deal. We're just waiting on the environmental tests."

Eastmead said environmental testing is being conducted to ensure that there is no contamination on the property from the production of the infrared and gas heaters previously manufactured there.

The Perfection-Schwank facility, which faces East Sixth Street just inside the bypass, occupies around 48 acres that lies adjacent to the Mr. Golf Carts property.

According to Eastmead, the company has been leasing a portion of the PerfectionSchwank property for parking golf carts and housing their accessories division for a few years.

The golf cart and golf cart accessories dealer will continue to maintain its headquarters on the bypass, but will utilize the extra space for their inventory. The company generally keeps around 3,000 golf carts in stock.

According to Jerry Long, executive director of the Burke County Development Authority, the Perfection-Schwank property includes a 175,000 square-foot warehouse, a 15,000 square-foot office building and a 6,000 squarefoot building that housed a laboratory.

The facility was constructed in the 1940s by Knox Metal Fabrication, which produced containers for shipping Jeeps during WWII. In 1955, Perfection Industries, a division of the Hupp Corporation, bought the property. The Perfection division was sold to White Consolidated Industries and later sold to Bernhard Schwank of Germany.

Since 1955, the facility had been used to manufacture residential, commercial or industrial heaters.