Aug 5, 2023 4 min read

Focus of MVA, Hardy’s World

Call in the MVA’s Jamie Colecchi

10 a.m. Tuesday (Aug. 1)

Hardy World is a private equity real estate development firm based in the greater Pittsburgh area.

Elena Oyster

Taylor Hardy will contact me on Hardy’s World. If not quickly, call me back.

Elena will check on speaking with Maggie Hardy for the Made In story. 

2022 mag piece

Since its inception six years ago, change has been a byword for the Mon Valley Alliance – and its mission.

Renewal and revival are major focuses of the organization, which serves a Mid-Mon Valley that has been wracked by the dissolution of steel and other heavy industries over the past 40 years, and continues to struggle.

MVA, formed by the 2016 merger of the Mon Valley Progress Council and the Middle Monongahela Industrial Development Association, strives to foster positive change. That includes a switch in home base for the fourth time.

Chief executive officer Jamie Colecchi and his three staffers have deposited themselves into the former Community Bank branch building in the center of Monongahela’s business district. MVA moved to 235 W. Main St. last November, across from the Aquatorium.

“This will be our permanent home for the foreseeable future,” said Colecchi, promoted from director of operations and development to CEO last spring when Ben Brown departed for a position with Community Bank.

Mon Valley Alliance got a great deal on the site, which, according to Colecchi, had an appraised value of $280,000. Community Bank, however, agreed to sell it at a discount of $50,000.

Renovations are continuing in what promises to be a busy home. The building will serve not only as headquarters for the alliance but for the Mon Valley Alliance Foundation and a new venture as well – the Mon Valley Resource Center.

The resource center, the result of a partnership between MVA and Community Bank, provides a venue where small businesses can interact with nonprofits and service-related organizations.

“We have started to have events there,” Colecchi said. “When we acquired the building from Community Bank, we thought we had space we could make available to nonprofits, small businesses or community groups for meetings.

“Some of these organizations typically meet in coffee shops, where there’s no sense of privacy. It’s a small world, and someone’s going to hear your business. That’s not always welcome.”

The Washington County Community Foundation provided a boost for the resource center by presenting a $50,000 grant for expansion. MVA also has benefited from a $250,000 grant from the Washington County Local Share Account for ongoing renovations at the new home.

That work has been costly, and Colecchi said the organization has sent out funding application requests “for a more robust renovation of the building. We’re excited about what the building will be. We’re also excited about the interest organizations are showing in using it now.”

Although renewal and revival are paramount, MVA’s initiatives go beyond those ventures. On their website, the alliance and foundation state they “look forward to working together to improve current economic distress, remove blight, improve community health, and promote more effective local government cooperation.”

MVA oversees the development of three industrial parks in Washington County: Alta Vista Business Park in Fallowfield Township, Donora Industrial Park and Speers Industrial Park. The alliance also heads the 14-member Mid Mon Valley Regional Enterprise Zone.

Alta Vista, visible from Interstate 70, has been a veritable beehive of activity in recent years. A mere three lots are available on the 256-acre site.

All three parks – and MVA – were in the limelight on Aug. 29, when Neil Weaver, acting secretary for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, came visiting.

Weaver toured Retal Americas Holdings and Barchemy in Donora, Valley Tire Co. in Speers and Bakery Barn and Bloom Engineering in Alta Vista.

The Observer-Reporter quoted Weaver at the time: “The governor is very interested in the investments that we’ve made over the past 7 1/2 years. The results out here in Southwestern Pennsylvania are awesome. These kind of projects are exactly what we’ve been looking at doing and have refunded over the past 7 1/2 years.”

Mon Valley Alliance is now operating from its fifth location. Donora was its “starter home,” followed by offices in Monessen, Charleroi and Forward Township, across the Mon River in Allegheny County.

Colecchi heads a staff that also features Kelly Jo Ellin, office manager; Mary Stollar, director of Real Estate and Economic Development; and Madison Codeluppi, a former intern who is now marketing and development specialist.

They’ve changed their work environment with the goal of changing the Mid-Mon Valley.