Construction : Innovation & Job News

Two-hundred-and-six undeveloped acres hard by the Morgantown exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike are ripe for development as a brand-new Keystone Opportunity Zone.
 
The KOZ designation is one of the state's major economic development tools and is credited with creating or retaining more than 43,000 jobs since its inception in 1999. Companies inside zones are eligible for tax reductions or abatements affecting an array of state, county and local taxes.
 
These include the PA corporate net income tax, capital stock and foreign franchise tax, personal income tax, sales and use tax for purchases consumed and used by zone businesses, mutual and thrift institution tax, bank and trust company shares tax and insurance premium tax. On the county and local side of the ledger, potential tax breaks include earned income and net profits and property taxes. Projects located in a KOZ are also given priority consideration for assistance under state community and economic development programs as well as community building initiatives.
 
The new KOZ at the New Morgan Business Center in tiny New Morgan Borough offers 10 years of tax breaks and is part of a much larger planned mixed-use development that will eventually include residential and commercial uses. The site is known locally as Grace Mines and is part of the old Bethlehem Steel mining operation, says Pamela Shupp, vice president at the Greater Reading Economic Partnership, which is charged with marketing the new KOZ. The Partnership is at work on electronic and print marketing materials and informing its network of site selectors and industrial real estate interests about "this brand new piece of inventory with all these incentives attached to it," Shupp says.
 
The most likely prospects, she adds, are advanced manufacturers with needs for heavy infrastructure and highway access or corporate headquarters, who can benefit from the site's high visibility from the Turnpike.
 
 
Source: Pamela Shupp, Greater Reading Economic Partnership
Writer: Elise Vider

We may not mess with Texas, but Pennsylvania ranks third in new facilities and expansions – and first in the Northeast – according to the prestigious annual rankings published last week in Site Selection magazine. 
 
The 2012 Governor's Cup went to the Lone Star State, which led the nation with 761 projects in 2012. (The publication counts private-sector projects that meet one or more of these criteria: a minimum $1 million investment, creation of 50 or more new jobs or construction of new space of at least 20,000 square feet. Equipment upgrades, additions and construction jobs don't count.)
 
Ohio was second with 491 projects and Pennsylvania was next with 430 in the national rankings. Ranked by region, the Keystone State's 430 easily beat the number-two state, New York, which came in at 119. In new manufacturing, Pennsylvania had 130 projects, compared to New York's 26; in manufacturing expansion, the Commonwealth's 97 beat the Empire State by 49.
 
Site Selection was also upbeat about Pennsylvania in a January profile assessing the impact of the energy sector on the state's economy. 
 
With such fertile ground for new and expanded commercial ventures, new features on Team PA's SiteSearch website are well timed. The site now includes heat maps that provide a visual representation of demographic statistics. The new business search allows for queries of businesses statewide by geography, type, number of employees and annual revenue.
 
"The enhanced functionalities of PA SiteSearch puts more information at the fingertips of site selectors or company officials looking to locate to, or expand their operations, in PA," says Matt Zeigner of Team PA. 
 
The race is on for 2013.
 
Source: Site Selection magazine
Writer: Elise Vider
 

Energy conservation ranks with motherhood and apple pie, but for many small businesses the upfront costs of renovation and retrofit are daunting.
 
Now the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP)  is offering up to $400,000 in loans to small businesses to retrofit their buildings.
 
The so-called Advanced Energy Retrofit Demonstration Program is intended to promote energy-savings measures in commercial buildings smaller than 250,000 square feet and to accelerate the development and commercialization of promising clean and alternative energy technologies.
 
"This program will encourage the use of advanced energy efficiency products in building renovations, reducing costs and creating jobs," says RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, President & CEO of Ben Franklin.
 
BFTP/SEP is partnering with the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on the program. "The opportunity being offered by Ben Franklin will help accelerate the adoption by the region's building owners of advanced building technologies and complement the EEB Hub's mission to reduce energy use in Greater Philadelphia's building stock by 20% by 2020," says Laurie Actman, the hub's deputy director.
 
Companies with fewer than 500 employees in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties are eligible. Applicants could be building owners, facility managers, tenants, mechanical/electrical/plumbing design firms, energy and design professionals and others with building renovation projects using energy retrofit measures. An email notice of intent to apply is due by noon, Friday, March 15 and the deadline for completed proposals in April 15.
 
Source: BFTP/SEP
Writer: Elise Vider

Fueled by its fast-rising international reputation, KieranTimberlake is growing domestically. The acclaimed architecture firm is renovating a long-vacant industrial building in Philadelphia's Northern Liberties neighborhood as its new home.
 
The firm acquired the 60,000-square-foot, former Henry F. Ortlieb Company Bottling House in the fall and expects to move in by early 2014.
 
The streamlined 1948 structure offers critical amenities, says principal Stephen Kieran, including the expansive second floor, an open loft workspace with elbow room for 90-plus design professionals, and a skylight and factory strip windows that flood the building with natural light. Very important, adds Kieran, is the former loading dock that is being converted to shop space to accommodate the full-scale models – some over one-story tall – that the firm uses to test building materials and systems and for other research.
 
The bustling, mixed-use Northern Liberties location is also part of the appeal, says Kieran, as is "the opportunity to take a derelict building in the city and bring it back to life."
 
KieranTimberlake is working to get the building placed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also incorporating sustainable design features, including day lighting and passive mechanical systems, that it hopes will merit LEED certification.
 
KieranTimberlake was founded in 1984 and has especially emerged in recent years as a big-name firm with major awards and high-profile commissions including the new U.S. Embassy in London. "The recession was relatively short for us," says Kieran, who says the firm has been hiring as many as 25 annually. He anticipates a "few more positions" in the foreseeable future.
 
Source: Stephen Kieran, KieranTimberlake
Writer: Elise Vider
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

RPA Engineering rang in the New Year at a new Wyomissing headquarters after outgrowing its old building nearby. The new quarters, a 12,000-square-foot, converted carpet showroom and warehouse, offer the growing firm more functional space and a convenient location, says CEO Richard Aulenbach.
 
RPA covers all of the major engineering disciplines and is experiencing increased demand in the pharmaceutical, industrial, energy and health care sectors that it serves.  "We've been on a track of continued growth," says Aulenbach, who founded the firm in 1989. RPA employs more than 100 and Aulenbach anticipates adding 10 or more new positions in the next six to nine months.
 
Much of the growth potential comes from health care, a relatively new market for the firm. Aulenbach sees tremendous opportunities with clients such as The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. RPA is also expanding with national clients based outside Pennsylvania, such as a current prospect in Houston. "This is a new level we are rising to," Aulenbach says.
 
The company is also growing its portfolio of services. It is developing a management tool for health care facilities that would optimize decision-making by incorporating certain facility investments into business operations. And RPA recently launched a major initiative to expand its commissioning and qualification (C&Q) services. C&Q services are tools used by companies to ensure project success and regulatory compliance during the building design and construction phase.
 
"We are deepening our knowledge and honing the skills necessary to ensure that our engineers are equipped to deliver buildings and building systems that meet today’s commissioning and qualification requirements, while expanding our range of commissioning and qualification services,” Aulenbach explained in a July statement.
 
Source: Richard Aulenbach, RPA Engineering
Writer: Elise Vider
 

A new, 11-story medical tower is underway in West Philadelphia, promising to support short- and long-term job growth and innovation in healthcare. Ground was broken in late September for the 272,000-square foot building, creating 125 construction jobs. When complete in mid-2014, the building will house new permanent jobs, state-of-the-art, outpatient medical facilities and cutting-edge clinical research.

As reported in August in our sister publication, Flying Kite, the project is a joint venture between the University City Science Center and Wexford Science + Technology. Penn Presbyterian Medical Center will be the anchor tenant.

Michele Volpe, CEO of Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, says her institution expects to create 50 to 60 new jobs – physical therapists, lab technicians, radiation technologists, phlebotomists – at the facility, which will serve as its orthopedics center for medical offices, outpatient procedures and clinical research. The building will also house other practice areas including general surgery, urology and the hospital’s internationally known mesothelioma program, led by Dr. Joe Friedberg, which includes treatment and a large research component.

The facility will also enable Penn Presbyterian to streamline its outpatient procedures, boosting efficiency and saving money, Volpe says.

For the Science Center, Penn Presbyterian's expansion onto the Science Center campus strengthens University City's unparalleled reputation as an eds and meds hub," said Science Center President and CEO Stephen Tang in a statement. " We are delighted that we'll be celebrating the Science Center's 50th anniversary in 2013 with construction cranes on our campus. It sends a positive message about the economic recovery, job creation and the desirability of University City as an innovation center."

Source: Michele Volpe, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; University City Science Center
Writer: Elise Vider

Wind and sun helped Shoener Environmental  weather the economic downturn. "Renewable energy kept us going through the recession," says president Ed Shoener.
 
The consultancy, with Pennsylvania locations in Portage and Dickson City, along with San Diego, CA. had long focused on helping commercial and residential real estate developers navigate regulatory and environmental mazes. But since the real estate market stalled, a shift to design and permitting of renewable energy projects has enabled the company to stay "steady and slowly growing," Shoener says.
 
Shoener has been working on wind energy projects since 2000; its portfolio includes the Krayn Wind Project in Cambria County, 25 turbines on a reclaimed strip mine and the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm, one of the largest wind farms in Pennsylvania with 66 turbines on over 200 acres in Cambria and Blair counties.
 
Now, says Shoener, with technological advancements in solar, "utility-scale solar projects are a developing market on the East Coast," says Shoener. "It's sort of like where wind was a few years ago." Solar, he predicts, will be competitive with other forms of energy within 10 years.
 
One of Shoener's latest projects is a 103-acre solar farm in Lurgan Township near the Pennsylvania Turnpike that would be one of the largest solar installations in the state.  Shoener is working with the developer, Orion Renewable Energy Group in Oakland, CA, to secure permits in order for the $20 million project to begin construction.
 
Shoener founded the consultancy in 1994. Today the company employs about 40 and adds one or two jobs a year in Pennsylvania offices
 
 
Source: Ed Shoener, Shoener Environmental
Writer: Elise Vider

Eaton Corporation has two solar installations underway in western Pennsylvania, and has recently completed a third to power its own facilities, provide an opportunity for research and development and "help spread the solar message," says Dan Carnovale, a company executive.
 
Construction has just begun on a 1.3-megawatt solar array adjacent to Eaton's 500,000-square-foot plant in Vanport Township in Beaver County. The project, which will be the largest in western Pennsylvania, will incorporate more than 10,000 solar panels, Eaton's solar inverters and the heavy-duty circuit breakers manufactured at the plant.  When complete, the installation will help power the factory.
 
A much smaller, 250-kilowatt rooftop installation is being built atop Eaton's Moon Township building, headquarters for the company's electrical group, which Carnovale notes accounted for half of the company's $16 billion in 2011 sales. In Warrendale, Eaton has built a small under-50-kilowatt demonstration facility, including vehicle chargers, for testing and as a "show and tell kind of thing," says Carnovale. "The point is to do some testing and demonstrate these [products] that we offer."
 
Eaton, based in Cleveland, has a Pennsylvania workforce of about 2,000, out of 73,000 worldwide. Carnovale expects that the large Vanport Township array will bring with it several ongoing maintenance and monitoring jobs.
 
Source: Daniel Carnovale, Eaton Corp.
Writer: Elise Vider

Every time Burkentine & Sons breaks ground for a new house, they do likewise in their innovative use of technology and social media.
 
Mike Burkentine joined his family's Hanover-based construction and property management business a few months ago with a freshly minted Penn State degree and an inventive approach to keeping customers informed.
 
Every house under construction now has its own Facebook page, a way for buyers to stay up-to-date and share images. And customers get an iPad, loaded with apps that turn the device into a digital owner's manual. Burkentine has devised an array of apps that display contract documents, change orders, warranties and floor plans. Using the iPad, buyers can browse appliances, cabinets and other fittings and try out interior and exterior details and colors. A 3D model allows users to do a virtual walkthrough and arrange their furniture to see how it fits the new digs. The iPad also generates maintenance alerts notifying residents when it’s time, for example, to change the HVAC air filter or install fresh batteries in the smoke detectors.
 
Burkentine got the idea as an intern with a Baltimore builder of mega-commercial projects and skyscrapers. He continued to develop it for the residential market over the next year and a half before pitching it to his father, Paul, and Burkentine's marketing team.
 
"The idea spoke for itself," he says, adding that he continues to tinker: "It's always evolving. It's only a matter of time before the competition catches on."
 
Source: Mike Burkentine, Burkentine & Sons
Writer: Elise Vider

Few industries have been as hammered by the economic downturn as architectural firms, "a large share [of which] are still coping with a sluggish and erratic marketplace," the American Institute of Architects reported last month.  
 
But Bethlehem's Spillman Farmer Architects has maintained a stable workforce of 30 designers for years, reports Joseph Biondo, the firm's design principal. "We've definitely weathered the recession, although it's been tough, due to diversity in our client base, building types and where we practice," he says.
 
The firm's specialty in business incubators and higher education helped provide shelter from the storm, with an array of projects from $1 million to $50 million-plus in locations as far away as Iowa and North Carolina.
 
"But we really appreciate the work in our own backyard," says Biondo, especially TechVentures2, the nearby $18 million Ben Franklin Tech Ventures incubator expansion, which most recently earned the firm the National Business Incubation Association's Randall M. Whalley Incubator of the Year award.
 
Spillman Farmer designed BFTV's original incubator, converting a disused, 1960s Bethlehem Steel building. When it needed more space, BFTV again turned to the firm. The 47,000-square-foot expansion, says Fred Allerton, director in charge of the project along with project architect Christa Kraftcian, reflects a few changes: an emphasis on environmental sustainability (prestigious LEED Gold certification is pending) and a demand for highly flexible meeting space to accommodate thinking, computing and collaborating.
 
Other current Spillman Farmer projects include a mixed-use project in downtown Easton and a global learning village at Elon University in North Carolina.
 
Source: Joseph Biondo and Fred Allerton, Spillman Farmer Architects
Writer: Elise Vider

When it was built in 1931, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world. But it was also, by modern standards, an energy hog, with 6,514 windows, radiator heat, inefficient cooling and lighting.
 
To remedy things, the iconic New York skyscraper is now undergoing a whole-building retrofit, aimed at reducing energy use by 38% and bills by $4.4 million annually and preventing 105,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 15 years.
 
As part of the project, launched in 2009, the Empire State Building Company recently contracted with Lutron Electronics, based in Coopersburg, Lehigh County, to provide sustainable lighting control solutions in pre-built tenant spaces throughout the building.
 
Lutron will provide occupancy/vacancy sensors that turn lights off when spaces are unoccupied, daylight-dimming controls that adjust light levels based on available daylight and wireless components for easy retrofit and minimal disruption.
 
The work is expected to save up to 65 percent on total lighting energy costs -- critical because lighting typically uses the majority of electricity in commercial buildings -- and pay for itself in two-and-three-quarters years, Lutron said.
 
The solutions developed in collaboration with Jones Lang LaSalle, the Empire State's property manager, are replicable in other whole-building retrofit, says Lutron President Michael Pessina.
 
Lutron would not release details on the size of the contract or whether it would create jobs, but last year Newsweek calculated that the retrofit would create 252 jobs, 70 coming from the manufacture and installation of lighting and air flow controls.
 
Source: Lutron Electronics
Writer: Elise Vider

Next season, when Citizens Bank Parks' giant, neon Liberty Bell rings for a Phillies home run, it'll be – at least indirectly – with electricity generated in Lancaster County, where the state's largest solar project just got underway.
 
Community Energy of Radnor is the developer of the six-megawatt Keystone Solar Project in East Drumore Township, in conjunction with Exelon Generation, the wholesale energy broker. Besides the Phillies, other early, high profile customers include Franklin & Marshall College, Eastern University, the Clean Air Council and Millersville University.
 
The Keystone Project will go online this fall, supplying about 7.5 million-kilowatt hours per year of electricity under a 15-year power purchase agreement with Exelon. The annual environmental benefit equals that of 3,000 zero-emission passenger vehicles or 285,000 newly planted trees growing for 10 years.
 
Community Energy was founded in 1999 primarily as a wind energy developer and moved into solar in 2009. Brent Alderfer, co-founder and CEO, notes that solar by its nature is low-maintenance and non-labor intensive, so only a few permanent jobs will result. But over the summer, about 50 construction workers are busy on-site.
 
Located in a heavily agricultural area, the project is designed with farmland preservation and agricultural soil restoration in mind. The solar panels are being installed on driven posts without concrete to avoid soil disturbance and the site will be maintained with selected cover vegetation to preserve and improve organic soil content.
 
"This is the greenest of the green – local jobs building fuel-free power that will last for decades," says Brent Beerley, Community Energy's executive vice president.
 
Source: Brent Alderfer, Community Energy
Writer: Elise Vider

With the completed merger of Community Medical Center in Scranton and its affiliates with Geisinger Health System, the new Geisinger-Community Medical Center (G-CMC)  is racing to enhance clinical programs, increase physician recruitment, expand and improve facilities, and implement new information systems, adding jobs and physical developments at breakneck speed.
 
"The goal," says Wendy Wilson, associate vice president of marketing and public relations, "is to keep people in this area for specialized care. A lot of money goes out of the area," with patients leaving for Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and other bigger cities.
 
G-CMC is actively recruiting and hiring sub-specialists in a variety of areas including neurology, neurosurgery, surgical oncology and pediatrics. Over the next year, G-CMC expects to hire 25 new physicians and physicians' assistants.
 
In the last month alone, Wilson says, G-CMC also hired 50 fulltime nurses and 17 other positions including support staff, technicians and administrative staff. With the new fiscal year that began July 1, the hospital is budgeted to add another 80 new fulltime positions.
 
The organization is also moving ahead with major capital improvements, approving $125.7 million to enhance patient care in Scranton. An $80 million expansion at G-CMC, now in the design phase, will include 13 large, state-of-the-art operating suites, a new intensive/critical care unit and medical office space and is scheduled to begin construction next spring. Also moving forward is a new $25.7 million physician office building at the Mount Pleasant Corporate Center in Scranton and a $20 million project underway to upgrade G-CMC's information technology system.
 
Source: Wendy Wilson, Geisinger-Community Medical Center
Writer: Elise Vider

The door is open to double the jobs at a new plant under construction in Burgettstown, near the Ohio border.
 
Hörmann Flexon,  a huge German door manufacturer, broke ground earlier this month on a 68,000-square-foot facility at Starpointe Business Park. Alice Permigiani, the company's marketing director, says the state-of-the-art plant will open next summer and will eventually employ about 65, up from 30 at Hörmann's Leetsdale plant, which will close. The new plant could eventually grow as large as 220,000 square feet, accommodating a workforce of 100.
 
Gov. Tom Corbett spoke at the July 9 groundbreaking, along with Washington County Commissioner Lawrence O. Maggi who the Pittsburgh Business Times quoted as noting, "People think we're ground zero here for oil and gas, but we want to be ground zero for manufacturing as well."
 
August Hörmann began making steel doors in his metalworking shop in Germany before World War II. Today the company is a fourth-generation family business with operations around the world. In 2007, Hörmann acquired Flexon, a maker of industrial doors and related products in Leetsdale since 1979.
 
Hörmann Flexon's Pennsylvania operation manufactures high-perfomance industrial and commercial doors, Permigiani says. Last year, the company implemented a new visual management program that has boosted productivity by 30 percent. Earlier this year, the company rolled out four, new, high-speed, roll-up doors designed to meet the needs of specialized industries, including clean rooms, coolers and food processing areas.
 
Source: Alice Permigiani, Hörmann Flexon
Writer: Elise Vider

“If we build it,  they will come” could be the mantra at the Scranton Lackawanna Industrial Building Company (SLIBCO),  where speculative buildings continue to rise despite a lackluster economy.

SLIBCO just announced plans for two new spec “flex” buildings at its Jessup Small Business Center. TMG Health,  a large medical billing and management company, will take occupancy next month of a new, 150,000-square-foot building at the adjoining Valley View Business Park for its national operations center. SLIBCO is also developing a 43,000-square-foot, speculative office building as a small-business incubator.

Why are developers such as Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services of Wilkes-Barre, a major industrial developer in Northeast Pennsylvania, and SLIBCO willing to roll the dice on spec space? Andy Skrip, SLIBCO’s vice president for industrial development, explains: “Companies take a long time to make decisions about expansion or relocation. But once they pull the trigger, they want to move right away.”

Build-to-suit can take a year or more for land acquisition, permitting and construction. So spec space provides instant gratification. And flex space makes sense when building speculatively, since the space can be fit out to accommodate a range of uses.

Skrip anticipates that Mericle’s two new flex buildings will attract office, distribution or manufacturing, joining a roster of tenants that include food distributors, a glass distributor, a military-based manufacturer and offices including the Lackawanna County 911 call center.

Mericle broke ground earlier this month on its first, 96,000-square-foot flex building at Jessup; the second, 160,000-square-foot building will follow when the first is substantially occupied.

Source: Andy Skrip, SLIBCO
Writer: Elise Vider