SALEM — The Salem and Brooks vegetable processing plants owned by bankrupt NORPAC Foods could soon reopen after Lineage Logistics filed to purchase the company’s Oregon properties for $49 million, according to court records.

The Statesman-Journal reports that a bankruptcy judge is scheduled to hear the petition for the proposed sale Jan. 14 in bankruptcy court in Portland.

The sale would include NORPAC's Willamette Valley processing facilities in Salem, Brooks and Stayton, along with the field shop in Quincy, Washington.

NORPAC attorney Al Kennedy said in court that Lineage Logistics will lease the plants in Salem and Brooks from NORPAC until the sale is completed.

And Lineage would lease those to Oregon Potato Company to operate until the sale is done, which would allow some of the 1,400 NORPAC workers who had been notified they could be laid off to continue to work.

Lineage Logistics, which was formed in 2008, is one of the largest cold storage companies in the world, including operating 169 cold storage warehouses in the United States and more in countries such as China and the United Kingdom.

NORPAC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August. The company indicated it would sell most of the company's assets to Oregon Potato Company for $155 million, but the deal fell through.

According to court documents, CoBank – the lender that has financed NORPAC’s bankruptcy – has liens against the company’s Salem, Brooks and Stayton plants for more than $382 million.