I've heard through the grapevine that the Southern Union headquarters under construction in the 400 blk of Lackawanna Ave may remain empty. The reason for placing their headquarters here was because the COO of Southern Union Karam did not like flying to Texas for board meetings. I hear that Karam is on the way out. I've heard that the board is not happy with him because of his involvement with Enron (I do not know what that involvement was), and also the Pa american water/Theata land deal. If Karam is out then there is no longer a need for that building. Southern Union has already stated in the Scranton Tribune that they are not going to employ as many people as originally planned, they went on to say that they did not know how many people would be employed there. I found it very hard to believe that a company would spend that much money on a buliding and then abandon it. However, there was alot of federal, state, and local money that went into it. I guess we will have to wait and see. I'm not sure I believe this either, but I did hear it from some very reliable sources who have been in contact with people from the company. These rumors go back to last year.
I heard something similar. I heard that the company was still going to open up shop here but that there would be a little over 20 jobs and that they were not really high paying positions. I also heard something that the main jobs would go to Texas that were going to be located here. On the upside, the building was just refurbished so even if they don't go into there, someone probably will.
