EDITORIAL: Southpointe is as good as gold on its silver anniversary
Motorists motoring along Interstate 79 at night, especially for the first time, have to be impressed by the brightly lit expanse north of the Canonsburg exit. It appears to be a city, not as large as the one that never sleeps, but a mixed-use park brimming with energy – and energy companies – around the clock.
This is Southpointe, proposed more than three decades ago and enshrouded in uncertainty and controversy then and while it was under development. A number of Washington County residents, especially those in Cecil Township, where the park would be built, roundly opposed the project. They questioned whether the undeveloped land surrounding Western Center, a state residential facility for people with intellectual disabilities, could become the economic driver that officials intended and the county sorely needed.
Well, the project proceeded – and has succeeded on a grand scale. Southpointe is 25 years old and a smash hit, a location in a convenient location, just off I-79, 11 miles from I-70 and four from Route 19. The park offers what elected officials and the original planners and developers wanted to achieve: a complex where one could work, live and play.
Built in two phases, Southpointe is an 806-acre park with about 300 companies, a number of them public traded. Some have national headquarters there, including ANSYS, Consol Energy and Mylan. Range Resources, a major oil and gas production company, has its Appalachian Basin headquarters in the park.
Yet, as the Observer-Reporter’s Rick Shrum emphasized in an article Sunday, this is a mixed-use park, one with apartments, single-family homes, restaurants, retail, hotels, manufacturing and recreation. Town Center, part of Southpointe II and built up in more recent years, is a mix of virtually all of these elements and has been well received.
Oh, and there is plenty of recreation, featuring an 18-hole golf course; Printscape Arena, the former Iceoplex, where the Pittsburgh Penguins practiced for 20 years, and ample walking and running opportunities on miles of sidewalks and a trail.
Work, live and play indeed.
Unlike many so-called business and industrial parks, Southpointe does not have a monotonous series of buildings, lined up, all looking the same. Every structure has a distinctive appearance, despite being limited to four or five stories, and looks fabulous when illuminated at night. There also is a multitude of manicured green space beyond the golf course.
And even though there isn’t much acreage left for development, the park is ever evolving. Park Place at Southpointe Town Center, a hotel-office complex, is expected to be completed in the near future.
Southpointe, by many accounts, has exceeded initial expectations. Many deserve credit for what has transpired, but perhaps no one more than the “pioneers” of this development – especially the late Frank Mascara. He, Metro Petrosky and Ed Paluso were the county commissioners when this project was formulated, and Mascara, in particular, was a driving force.
People opposed to the plan referred to it as “Frank’s Folly,” but it has proven to be anything but. The commissioners and the Washington County Redevelopment Authority deserve credit for making this happen. So does the late state Sen. Barry Stout, D-Bentleyville, who was instrumental in acquiring the initial 589 acres from the state, then, later, in the construction of the Hendersonville interchange off I-79 into the park.
So do developers Jack Piatt and his son, Rod; Mike Swisher, and Burns & Scalo Real Estate … and so many others.
The folly would have been not building Southpointe.