Just reading about Nancy’s excellent piece on the trouble brewing in Pleasant Hills. Not so pleasant these days it seems…
Methanol does explode with one spark in the presence of oxygen. One explosion lifted a similar tank to these 40 feet into the air… That’s as tall as a four story building! Or the tallest radio cell phone fake tree in Delaware.
Nancy points to another fact. This was sneaked in without anyone knowledge. How? Someone during holiday season put the wrong address on the permit… which was duly approved without being checked out….
Well that rung a bell. “That was how Lehman Brothers used to operate…” I guess not being diverted by Christmas trimmings makes one aware of how lax regulatory agencies are during that week of Christian merriment….
Anyways, intrigued.. I looked… Could there possibly be a connection? Or was this simply a random duplicity? Most likely a random duplicity.. for sure…. But curiosity would never be satiated, if one never looks…
Nancy reports the company with the permit is TwinCo-Romax. The Business Week dossier states that they specialize in the manufacture and distribution of automotive aftermarket products…
The company was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Medina, Minnesota. It has distribution centers in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as a production plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As of August 31, 2012, Twinco Romax, LLC operates as a subsidiary of DYK Automotive, LLC.
First of September 2012? Not yet a year…
So who is DYK Automotive?
Again the Business Week snapshot….
DYK Automotive, LLC operates as a automotive aftermarket distributor. The company offers branded and private label packaged oil, chemicals, parts, and accessories. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee….
This appears that this Memphis run automotive business recently bought out the Minnesota based automotive business. However on their website, the acquisition of TwinCo- Romax takes place on August 13, 2012, not August 31, 2012. One also sees they more recently acquired another company this past February. February 13th, incidentally. They took control of Robert Elgart & Son, Inc., in neighboring Philadelphia. Robert Elgart has been servicing the automotive industry since 1948 and is a wholesale distributor of automotive supplies. The company sells primarily to medium independent automotive supply stores, as well as carwash, marine, industrial and aviation customers.
So DYK has bought up two of America’s primary markets in the automotive aftercare business in less than half a year. Certainly those are not cash transactions. They involve leveraged financing.
A search for DYK in Newark Delaware points to their giant warehouse on Pencader Blvd, in Glasgow, (Nancy’s backyard). This is DYK’s fourth distribution center and the first in the Northeast. It brags upon its location as being close to 95, and being in Pencader Plaza, I’m sure it pays zero Delaware tolls for its use of that road…. It’s trucks get off at Newark exit in Maryland, and get on at the Newark exit in Delaware. The Pencader plant, listed as a “manufacturing and distribution center”, has been operating since late 2011.
On February 21st of this year, DYK announced the opening of its Wilmington manufacturing plant. That would be the storage tanks in Pleasant Hills. Ernest Felici and John Birmingham of the Wilmington, Del. office of Cushman & Wakefield were principals in the arrangements. Cushman & Wakefield specialize in surreptitious acquisitions. . “Given the product storage, it became difficult to find municipal cooperation in our initial search. Newark, Del. provided the right combination in terms of the right building and the ability to meet local code requirements.”
If one looks the corporate roster of DYK one sees its principal is Don Youngblood, CEO and President. He is listed as having no cross relationships. However his Vice President, Chris Crosby, does have one relationship and that is with Dobbs Management Service, LLC.
Dobbs Management, just like DYK, Cushman & Wakefield, is also based in Memphis. Chris Crosby is also Vice President of Dobbs Management. This person is connected to 3 Board Members in 3 different organizations across 5 different industries.
In his brief bio, is this statement…
Ah ha. and there you have it… Thought so.
kavips 
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June 3, 2013 at 4:59 am
delawareway
Well, this research certainly adds a layer or two to the story.
One of the reforms done for the NCC land use process during Tom Gordon’s first tenure was to limit rezoning application hearings to three times a year. That meant the public didn’t have to worry about chasing after when and where developers’ attorneys were going to sneak in plans during Christmas break or over the mid-summer holiday.
Reversing that three-times-a-year only rezoning hearing was one of the text amendments Paul Clark and Chris Coons made in favor of the developers.
The practice of sneaking plans through when no one is likely to be paying attention is a common one. The false address submitted and never corrected is probably less common.
June 3, 2013 at 2:23 pm
kavips
Thanks for your insight into how that law was switched by Mr. Pam Scott. Is Gordan’s rule back in effect yet? Or are we still filming that Scott series…: “Developers Gone Wild”….