It Looks Like Another Great Year!
I’m delighted to be able to report that despite the national housing crisis, the national credit crisis, the energy crisis and all of the other announced crises throughout the world, there is strong evidence that area businesses and the community at large continue to do quite well. Specifically, numerous area manufacturers are benefiting by the value of the dollar and experiencing very healthy revenue and employment growth, and the Economic Progress Alliance continues to experience a strong demand for quality expansion space.
To accommodate a number of important demand-based projects, the Alliance Board authorized, and we have now finalized financial commitments from banking and state sources to complete about $2,400,000 in capital improvements at the Crawford Business Park.
Current projects at the business park include:
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Rehabilitation of 16,000 + s.f. of manufacturing space for ChipBLASTER
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Rehabilitation of 80,000 s.f. of manufacturing and office space for Acutec
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Rehabilitation of 25,000 s.f. of manufacturing and office space for Abbatron
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200,000 s.f. of roof replacement
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Expanded tenant parking
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Reconstruction of Broadway
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New east entrance to the facility
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Expansion of Universal Well Training Center
The ChipBLASTER project is nearing completion, and the Abbatron and Universal Well projects will be completed by October 1, 2008. The Acutec project has begun with full occupancy expected in the spring of 2009. Roof replacement projects have commenced and will continue until completed while the exterior improvements to parking lots and Broadway will begin in the spring.
Upon completion of these projects, about 98% of all property west of Broadway at the Crawford Business Park will be occupied. Strong interest has been expressed in all of the remaining property. So, while I have great respect for just how fast things can change, we seem headed for another very good and very busy year.
Until next time...
Mark Turner
News and Developments . . .
Grand Valley Manufacturing Company in Titusville has been awarded $1 million Infrastructure Development Program funding, $1 million Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority funding, Titusville Redevelopment Authority funding and job training funding towards a total $8 million renovation project. The project includes new company headquarters for Grand Valley, renovation of common areas, road work and infrastructure at the multi-tenant park located at the former site of the Polish American Steel Company. The project will begin immediately and is expected to be completed within 15 months, and will create 30 jobs.
Grand Valley has been located in Titusville for over 50 years. It is a family-owned high-end machine shop and specialty manufacturing shop with horizontal and vertical milling and boring operations for large steel manufacturing. Some of their products have included landing gear for aircraft, periscopes for submarines, footers for deep sea oil wells, and carriages and under carriages for a subway system in California.
In addition to the Titusville facility, Grand Valley has a large plant in Warren and a small operation in Pleasantville.
The Economic Progress Alliance as well as other development organizations and Chambers of Commerce along the I-80 corridor has received correspondence from the Alliance to Stop I-80 Tolling to help fulfill a request from U.S. Senator Robert Casey to provide him with specific anecdotal information concerning the economic impact tolling of I-80 will have on businesses. In response, we are conducting another informal survey of our readers asking you to let us know if your company will be hit by tolling and give an estimate of what tolling would cost you on an annual basis.
For consistency, the Alliance to Stop I-80 Tolling would like to follow the following format: company name (if you are reluctant to have your company name used, let us know and we will honor your request) and/or industry sector, location, estimated annual cost, number of employees and any additional comments you may have.
A prompt turnaround is requested by the end of next week. Please email your response as soon as possible.
Summertime is winding down and back-to-school time is near. Following are a few statistics associated with the return to the classroom that might prove to be interesting:
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$7.5 billion was spent in August 2007 at family clothing stores
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75.2 million children and adults throughout the country were enrolled in school in 2006, nursery school to college
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10.9 million children 5-17 speak a language other than English at home; 7.8 million speak Spanish at home
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30.5 million children participated each month in the national school lunch program in 2007
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18.4 million is the projected number of students enrolled in the nation's colleges/universities this fall
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8.6 million people hold bachelor's degrees in business; 25% of bachelor's degrees were in this field
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7.1 million teachers in the United States in 2007
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14.2 million computers available for classroom use in the nation's schools, 2005-2006
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3.3 million projected high school diplomas will be awarded in the 2008-2009 school year
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3.1 million college degrees expected to be conferred in the 2008-2009 school year
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$9,138 per-pupil expenditure on public elementary and secondary education nationally in 2006
On Thursday, August 28, 2008, Precision Manufacturing Institute (PMI) will be holding an open panel discussion hosted by Senator Bob Robbins on the current shortage of a skilled, qualified workforce in Crawford County and our surrounding counties. The purpose of the panel discussion is not to just talk about the shortage of a skilled workforce but to start to develop a strategy on how to address this issue.
As the overall economy expands, much of the manufacturing sector, particularly in northwestern Pennsylvania, is continuing to operate well below its previous peak. Nearly 36% of 3,000 companies polled by the National Association of Manufacturers have good jobs going unfilled due to the lack of qualified applicants. If these current trends continue, experts estimate that manufacturers will face a shortage of roughly 13 million qualified employees by 2020. In order to sustain manufacturing in Pennsylvania, a new generation of skilled workers needs to be trained in current manufacturing technology or companies could begin to consider moving operations out of the area or even overseas.
If you are interested in participating in this panel discussion, contact Jessica Albert at PMI, 814-333-2415.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has introduced two new free online finance courses to help small business owners with the basic principles of finance and borrowing. The self-paced course, Finance Primer: Guide to SBA's Loan Guaranty Programs, and How to Prepare a Loan Package walk business owners through steps answering questions about debt financing, available loan programs, what small businesses should know about borrowing money, how to prepare a loan package and how loan requests are reviewed by lenders. The primer will help small businesses understand the variety of financial resources, including those from SBA. The finance course will help entrepreneurs avoid such common mistakes as securing the wrong type of financing, miscalculating the amount of financing required and underestimating the cost of borrowing.
These courses have been added to a menu of more than 26 online tutorials offered through the virtual training campus at the Small Business Training Network. Other online courses relate to starting a business, business planning, business management, financing and accounting, marketing and advertising, government contracting, small business retirement, e-commerce, international trade and federal tax training. All are free, self-based courses which take approximately 30 minutes to complete.
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Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County
764 Bessemer Street, Suite 101
Meadville PA 16335
814-333-2299
08/28/2008