Three local agencies are slated to receive a combined $14 million in state financing to prepare business-ready sites in Allegheny County. The money will support improvements to the Pittsburgh Airport Innovation Campus, Carrie Furnace, and Fairywood Industrial Park.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced the funding Tuesday. He said it will allow the state to create more jobs by attracting growing businesses.
“Pennsylvania’s strong competitive advantage is reinforced by the funding approved today,” Wolf said in a statement. “This … funding is a great tool that provides the resources needed to build pad-ready sites to increase Pennsylvania’s ability to attract and retain businesses.”
A pad-ready site is one that has been prepared for a business to occupy: It is free of contamination, has utilities and roads in place, and level land.
Pennsylvania’s hilly topography often poses a challenge to developers, and critics fault the state for not investing more to build an inventory of pad-ready sites. The state’s Department of Community and Economic Development manages a program, called Business In Our Sites, to finance such projects. Wolf awarded the new funding through that program.
In Allegheny County, he approved a $1.2 million grant and $1.8 million loan for the Allegheny County Airport Authority’s Pittsburgh Airport Innovation Campus in Findlay Township. The Regional Industrial Development Corporation Southwestern Pennsylvania Growth Fund will receive a $3 million grant and $4.6 million loan to redevelop the Carrie Furnace in Rankin. The Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority was awarded a $1.4 million grant and $2.1 million loan to help to expand the Fairywood Industrial Park on the western edge of the city.
Wolf approved an additional $34 million elsewhere in the state.
