In the midst of negotiating the sale of Carrie Furnace to Allegheny County, the owner of the historic blast furnace has taken out a permit to demolish it.

The county's director of economic development has asked the site's owner, Park Corp., not to tear the furnace down. Kelly Park, the company's vice president, has agreed not to pursue the demolition.

"Right now we're not doing anything other than negotiating with Allegheny County," he said.

The huge 19th-century blast furnace, once designated Homestead Furnaces No. 6 and 7, produced the iron that was taken over the Hot Metal Bridge to the Homestead Works.

The 90-foot-tall structure is being eyed by the county as the centerpiece of a national historic site that would include the Hot Metal Bridge and the Pump House, which is across the Monongahela River and already is being used as a museum. The 103-acre Carrie Furnace site straddles the Rankin-Swissvale border.

A bill designating the area as a national historic site has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives twice and is awaiting action from the U.S. Senate.

The idea of tearing down the furnace has sent a chill through those who want to see it preserved.

"It's pretty hard to make it a national historic park if you tear down the steel mill," said Swissvale Councilman James P. Bonacci.

"We're negotiating in good faith with the Park Corp. on a weekly basis," Dennis Davin, director of the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development, said through his spokesman John Dowling. "We are working towards an agreement acceptable to both sides, that will affect the transfer of ownership of the Carrie Furnace for a large-scale redevelopment that will ultimately create new tax revenues for the community. We've asked the Park Corp. to hold off on any demolition of existing structures on the site."

Park Corp. bought the land in 1988, along with the 311-acres that was then the Homestead Works and is now The Waterfront shopping area. The company paid nearly $3 million for all the property, with about $500,000 being designated as the value of the Carrie Furnace site in Rankin and Swissvale.

Kelly Park said it will take "million and millions" of dollars to restore the blast furnaces. He said the company decided two or three months ago to obtain the demolition permit because the furnaces have been sitting unused for 16 years now.

"That's a long time for a private company to hold onto something and not do anything," he said.

The county has been interested in buying the land for years now.

It was three years ago that Dick Schmitz, a consultant hired by the county, predicted after a series of community meetings on redeveloping the area, that Carrie Furnace would become a "major attraction for this area" that would draw a half million people a year.

At that time, Ron Gaydos, the project manager for the site for the county's Department of Economic Development, said the county was negotiating with Park to buy the land.

The preliminary drawings for the county plan that was developed then called for the Carrie Furnace Historic site to be developed along with a 500-bed hotel, an office park and housing. The final version of that plan has never been released by the county.

In August, Allegheny County was awarded a $6 million grant from the state's Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program that has to be matched with $6 million locally for the development of the site.

Davin said last month that part of the problem with negotiating a purchase price is that the county has not tested the land for environmental damage done to the land by decades of steel production.