Nov 3, 2017 3 min read

KeyBank Pavilion and Bert’s Hot Dog Shop aren’t the only featured attractions in and around Burgettstown. Starpointe Business Park has a formidable presence as well.

The 1,200-acre expanse in Hanover Township is gaining momentum under the auspices of the Washington County Council on Economic Development, and fulfilling the council’s mission. Starpointe is enhancing economic progress from land that was once forsaken – scarred by years of strip mining. It has evolved into the largest brownfield site being reclaimed for a business park in Pennsylvania.

In a little more than a decade, WCCED has sold 14 of 18 available lots, success that may prompt further development. Council President Richard White said his organization plans to prepare another 100 acres of lots for sale, according to an article by Observer-Reporter business editor Michael Bradwell.

The largest project at Starpointe – in fact, the largest single-building project in the county in nearly a half-century – is in the early stages of development. And it could be a harbinger of the not-too-distant future for the largely industrial park.

Site preparation has begun for a 90-bay truck distribution center to be built for Scannell Corp. of Indianapolis. Plans call for a 507,000-square-foot facility. Nothing since 1969, when Washington Crown Center (533,000 square feet) was completed, has a project of this scope been completed in the county.

Plans for the center were announced last summer, and its eventual purpose is intriguing. Word came down at a county commissioners meeting that the project is related to the ethane cracker plant that Shell is developing in Potter Township, Beaver County. And that makes complete sense. Starpointe is less than a half-hour drive from the $6 billion cracker plant, which is targeted to open in the next few years. Plastic pellets, ultimately, will be the plant’s major product.

Starpointe has geographic advantages that could attract other cracker supply-chain partners to the park. Not only is the park close to Potter, it is a 10- to 15-minute car commute from Pittsburgh International Airport, where corporate executives would fly in from headquarters. There also is quick or easy access to Routes 22/30, the Parkway West, Interstate 79 and downtown Pittsburgh.

The project was the focus of WCCED’s annual luncheon last week, which attracted keynote speaker Dennis Davin, secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development. Davin is a Pittsburgher who is impressed by what is occurring in Washington County, calling it “a major player as the region becomes a world leader on natural gas and natural gas liquids.” He said completion of the cracker plant and major pipelines should further boost the region.

Hanover’s business park is poised to be a beneficiary. As WCCED’s White succinctly put it, “The future is, indeed, very bright for Starpointe and Washington County.”