Oct 6, 2013 5 min read

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MEADOW LANDS – Jack Piatt doesn’t mind hearing or seeing the earth move behind his home off Allison Hollow Road in Chartiers Township.

He said last week it actually pleases him to see the heavy equipment that is moving an estimated 450,000 cubic yards of earth to create Piatt Estates, a $100 million development that will begin bringing him new neighbors by next spring.

The 110-acre site being developed by Piatt’s sons, Lucas and Marcus, is at Piatt’s Sulky Manor Farm. It will become a mix of luxury, single-family and patio homes.

When Piatt Estates was announced in late May, Piatt said he would remain a resident at the site, retaining a 4-acre compound that contains his home and other buildings at the former horse farm.

“We raised a lot of horses that raced nationally and internationally,” said Piatt, 85, who is chairman of Millcraft Investments. The family exited the horse-raising endeavor many years ago, and Piatt said the land is strategically located near Tanger Outlets, and just a couple of interstate exits south of Southpointe.

According to Lucas Piatt, the first component of the new development will be 24 standard single-family lots, 18 patio home lots and 14 luxury estate sites.

“We’re having an amazing turnout for pre-sales,” Lucas said, adding that about 15 units of a planned 56 units for the first phase have already been spoken for, with construction on the first house to begin by mid-October.

Development for a second phase is expected to begin next spring.

Patio homes start at $260,000, with single-family homes in the low $300,000s, with luxury units starting at around $550,000.

The Piatts acknowledged that their project is part of a resurgence of homebuilding that’s been noted nationally since the beginning of the year.

“We’re seeing all kinds of people who are looking to upgrade,” Lucas said, adding that potential buyers are coming from numerous segments, including not just those who have moved here to take jobs in the energy sector, but those who work for other companies that are expanding as well as empty nesters looking to simplify their lives in a single-story patio home.

“We ultimately see a lot of people who work in Southpointe coming here, but the biggest area is coming from pent-up demand in the area,” he said.

Piatt and his company, Millcraft Investments, are no strangers to home developments. Millcraft, the lead developer of apartments and condominiums for downtown Pittsburgh’s residential renaissance, has built homes at resorts in Florida and locally built the Eastpointe development in South Strabane Township.

As the developer of the original Southpointe development that began in the late 1980s, Millcraft also built 150 to 200 houses, townhomes and apartments in the mixed-use park.

Marcus said he and his brother are actually third-party developers for Piatt Estates, working with Primrose Homes of Cranberry, which will build the luxury homes, and S&A Homes of State College, which will build the single-family and patio homes on the site.

He said when the plan is completely built out, it will total $100 million and create 450 to 500 construction jobs, and is expected to generate $1.4 million in annual tax revenue, with most of the proceeds going to the Chartiers-Houston School District.

Lilliput Play Homes of Finleyville, a leading manufacturer of high-end play homes, will be featured in episode 10 of “Good Company,” produced by Dallas-based MultiView Inc. Good Company, or http://goodcoshow.com, the digital publisher’s new Web-based documentary series, explores the businesses of some of America’s most interesting entrepreneurs. Production crews were in Finleyville last week to film and interview key players from the local business.

Tim Martinson, DC solutions director for Canonsburg-based Universal Electric Corp.’s Starline products, will represent the company at this year’s Business of Humanity Conference in Prague, Czech Republic. Alongside additional attendees from the Pittsburgh area, Universal will highlight new products and technology designed to reduce energy consumption both domestically and abroad.

Joe Martin has been appointed vice president of sales and marketing for Burgettstown-based Olson Industries, a leading manufacturer of custom industrial furnaces.

Martin has more than 25 years of sales and marketing leadership and management experience, and most recently served as director of global sales for a major thermal products manufacturer.

Jacqueline Winkel of Waynesburg has joined the Washington County Community Foundation as its allocations & programs coordinator.

She will be responsible for the management of the WCCF’s allocation cycles, which include grants to charities and educational scholarships for students, and will assist advisors to donor-advised funds in recommending grants to the Board of Trustees. Additionally, Winkel will facilitate community programs as approved by the board, including WCCF Gives, Washington County’s official community-wide day of giving that recently raised $400,000 for local charities.

Previously, Winkel was associate director of undergraduate admissions for Greensboro College in North Carolina. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame College of Ohio and a master’s degree in business administration from Lake Erie College.