Industrial manufacturer Corning says it is the mystery buyer that bought the shuttered Hynix computer chip factory in Eugene last September but said it isn't sure when or if it might reopen the plant.

"From time to time Corning has acquired properties which the company could use in the future," spokesman Joe Dunning said Wednesday. "We have no immediate plans for this site."

The Eugene Register-Guard first reported the 300-acre property's $13.4 million sale on Tuesday after finding a deed filed with Lane County reporting the transaction.

Hynix was one of Eugene's largest employers when it shuttered the facility in 2008, amid a downturn in the market for memory chips. The site employed 1,400 at the time and has been vacant ever since.

The plant opened in 1998 following a $1.5 billion investment to build a 1.2-million-square-foot factory. Computer chipmaker Avago paid $21 million for it in 2015 and announced plans to spent $400 million to reopen it.

A year later, though, Avago (by then called Broadcom) reversed course and scuttled plans to revive the site. Broadcom then put it back at the market, ultimately auctioning it off in September.

Headquartered in New York, Corning makes glass, ceramics, fiber-optics and other materials used in scientific, communications and technical equipment. For example, it makes the robust Gorilla Glass screens for iPhones.

Corning reported $9.4 billion in revenue last year and profits of $3.7 billion, including a $2.7 billion, one-time gain from a realignment of its ownership in Dow Corning. The company had 40,700 employees at the end of 2016.

Corning already has 29 manufacturing facilities in the United States and "several other properties with available capacity," Dunning said.

The Hynix property sits inside an enterprise zone, meaning it would be eligible for property tax breaks potentially worth millions of dollars.

Even without a firm plan to reopen the facility, its sale to an established manufacturer like Corning rather than a real estate speculator makes it more likely the factory might eventually have a second act.

This article has been updated with additional comment from Corning.

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699