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Officials: Starpointe’s proximity to Shell cracker project offers great potential

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MEADOW LANDS – Site preparation for a 507,000-square-foot distribution center – the largest single-building construction project in Washington County in nearly 50 years – is under way in Starpointe Business Park in Hanover Township.

The project, which was announced this summer, was highlighted Friday during the annual luncheon of Washington County Council on Economic Development at the DoubleTree hotel in North Strabane Township. The council is the developer of Starpointe.

The scope of the project, a 90-bay truck distribution center being built for Indianapolis-based Scannell Corp., was described by WCCED Executive Director Dan Reitz, one of several officials who spoke glowingly of the economic progress being made in Washington County.

The Scannell site, which Reitz said will be leased to a third-party operator when it’s completed – the project was identified earlier this year at a Washington County commissioners meeting as being related to the Shell ethane cracker project in Beaver County – also underscored the comments of other officials that the park, just a half-hour drive from the cracker site, is poised to take advantage of projects related to Shell’s $6 billion cracker.

In introducing Friday’s program to about 80 professionals in economic development, banking and manufacturing, WCCED President Richard White noted that Starpointe “may be the best-positioned park in Washington County to take advantage of the Shell project.

“The future is indeed very bright for Starpointe and Washington County,” White said, adding that only four lots remain of the 18 developed so far. He said the 1,200-acre park hopes to have another 100 acres of lots ready for sale within the next year.

During his presentation, Reitz showed a drone-produced video of the massive distribution center site that covers nearly 31 acres, with scores of earth movers and graders moving across it. According to Reitz, the center is the largest single building project in Washington County since Washington Crown Center (533,000 square feet) was constructed in 1969.

Pat Tracy, Starpointe’s leasing agent, said the contractor has an aggressive goal of delivering the center in the third quarter of 2018. 

Friday’s keynote speaker was Dennis Davin, secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development. He said Pennsylvania’s business climate “is extremely strong,” with advances in high tech and a manufacturing sector that employs 550,000 workers whose average salary is $70,000 a year.

While acknowledging that he frequently criss-crosses the state to assess its economic progress, Davin said he spends a lot of time in and around Washington County, given its emergence as an energy center related to natural gas production.

“Washington County is a major player as the region becomes a world leader in natural gas and natural gas liquids,” he said. But Davin said completion of major pipeline projects and Shell’s cracker plant should enable the area to derive more economic benefits by using some of the output here.

“Pennsylvania has a significant base of manufacturers who can benefit” from the abundance of natural gas here, he said.

During Friday’s meeting, WCCED officer Ray Vargo noted that the council now has 120 active small-business loans, which help people start or expand small businesses of all types. He said the output represents the largest number in WCCED’s history, making it the highest-producing microloan agency in Pennsylvania.

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