for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 11, 1984, citing cash flow issues brought about by "two years of turbulent market conditions in the pork industry," a labor dispute with the Teamsters labor union and the recent shutdown of A&B's slaughtering operations. The bankruptcy was immediately triggered because one of the company's customers had issued a stop-payment on $800,000 worth of checks paid to Arbogast & Bastian. The firm's financial woes were further complicated by four large meat packing companies – Pork Cutters, Inc., Rotches Pork Packers, Inc., Otto Doerrer and Son, Inc. and Crissman, Inc. – who collectively failed to pay for nearly $5 million worth of pork carcasses and meat products purchased from Arbogast & Bastian in 1983 and 1984, according to charges made by the United States Department of Agriculture. In total, about 380 workers lost their jobs. Within months of filing for bankruptcy, Purity Bacon Products Corp., one of A&B's most profitable divisions, was sold for $1 million to an investor group led by Richard A. Strouce, the president of Arbogast & Bastian at the time it filed for bankruptcy. The corporation filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on January 9, 1985. With the closure of Arbogast & Bastian, only two major meat processing facilities remained operating in the state of Pennsylvania – Hatfield Quality Meats of Hatfield, Pennsylvania, and Martins Abattoir & Wholesale Meats, Inc., with headquarters in Godwin, North Carolina. Legacy As early as 1989, city officials in Allentown had announced plans to revitalize brownfield land along the Lehigh River, which included the abandoned Arbogast & Bastian plant. This redevelopment, which was to be known as "Lehigh Landing," was originally to include a museum, a brewery, walking trails, a footbridge across the river, and a promenade for festivals. Allentown businessman Raymond E. Holland, former president of Holiday Hair Fashions, had purchased the abandoned Arbogast & Bastian plant for $250,000 in 1985 and gave it to the Allentown Economic Development Corp. as a charitable contribution in 1990. Development of "Lehigh Landing" was hindered by fundraising problems, environmental remediation issues, and even a national debate on pork barrel government spending. The iconic Arbogast & Bastian plant remained vacant for over a decade, often the victim of vandalism and suspicious fires. The plant was finally dismantled in late 1990s, and the company's large heart-shaped sign, long a fixture of the Allentown skyline, was taken down on June 30, 1998.