Jun 20, 2013 4 min read

June was a busy month for business news in Washington County, particularly in the area of economic development.

Last week, during a “Corridors of Opportunity” presentation for Washington County, speakers from gaming and entertainment to natural gas, engineering and commercial real estate development told about 200 people at the Hilton Garden Inn that the county’s economy is booming.

“Washington County is really exploding, and it is exciting to see it happen and to be a part of it,” said Bill Paulos, co-founder of Cannery Casino Resorts, which owns The Meadows Racetrack & Casino on Racetrack Road, one of the county’s hottest development corridors.

While each of the five people who spoke said the county needs to be vigilant in managing its business to continue the growth that’s been happening for the past several years, the prognosis looks good for our economic future.

As one engineering firm executive pointed out, growth here is being experienced in gaming and entertainment, hospitality, energy and housing.

As has been pointed out by those in economic development here for years, the county has been blessed with not one, but now three distinct corridors that offer opportunity for future development and the jobs that should accompany it.

Interstate 79 boasts the Southpointe development, which over the past 20 years has developed into an international business campus and more recently has become the epicenter for energy industry companies working in the Marcellus Shale play.

Just a few exits south of Southpointe is the Racetrack Road corridor, once a sleepy connector between I-79 and Route 19 that is now home to the casino, Tanger Outlets, about 750 hotel rooms and, by the end of next year, a combination retail and apartment development planned by Horizon Properties.

There is also the Interstate 70 corridor that intersects I-79 just outside of Washington that is providing additional opportunities in the Bentleyville area, with the buildout of Alta Vista business park.

The county has a jobless rate of around 7 percent, one of the lower rates in Pennsylvania, thanks in part to a widely diversified economy.

A check of Observer-Reporter classified employment advertising over the past week shows scores of openings across numerous industries seeking a variety of skill levels.

All-Clad Metalcrafters was seeking entry-level manufacturing employees for its Canonsburg plant; California University of Pennsylvania needed a research analyst; one chain restaurant had multiple openings for cooks, another for an assistant manager; a mine repair company was looking for ironworkers and certified welders.

Three car dealerships were seeking automotive technicians and several companies in the oil and gas sector were looking for people with commercial driver’s licenses as well as crane operators and pipefitters.

Speaking of welders and pipefitters, at a late May meeting of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, a panel of people working in the steel and pipefitting industries noted that high demand for welders in the region is expected to continue for years, given the amount of work being created from the oil and gas industry working in the Marcellus Shale play.

“Every project we do, we are desperate for welders,” said John McCarthy, chief executive officer of Chapman Corp., which last year completed a $6.6 million, 54,000-square-foot expansion of its pipe fabrication shop in Washington.

Jim Broadbent, business manager for Steamfitters Local 449, told the chamber audience that the union has estimated that if Shell Oil proceeds with its plan to build an ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, the demand for welders across the region could increase by as many as 3,000 positions.

Western Area Career and Technology Center in Houston, which held a groundbreaking earlier this week for a welding training center, hopes to help fill the growing need for the skill.

For business, for skilled and entry-level labor, the opportunities abound in Washington County.

Michael Bradwell is business editor for the Observer-Reporter.