SHARON Project gets loan backed by state grant

The developer also seeks a direct grant for work at the former Westinghouse plant.
SHARON, Pa. -- The redevelopment of the mothballed Westinghouse Electric Corp. plant on Sharpsville Avenue has gotten a boost from the state.
The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development has approved a $1.25 million grant for the project through the Sharon Industrial Development Authority.
The SIDA will loan the money to Winner Development LLC, the project developer, which will pay it back over a 15-year period at 2 percent interest.
All of the payback money comes to the city for future economic development, Mayor David O. Ryan said Friday as he presented James E. Winner Jr., principal in Winner Development, with an oversized, symbolic check.
Winner said the money will pay for a substation for a power plant at the site.
Winner is still working to get a $7 million grant directly from the state's capital budget program to help finance the $49 million project.
Project status
Part of the redevelopment is well under way.
It involves adding a third galvanizing line to Winner Steel Services, located in what used to be the southern end of the Westinghouse plant, which closed in 1985.
Winner said the rest of the property, about 800,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 200,000 square feet of office space, will become Winner Industrial Park.
He said his company is working on partnerships with three Israeli companies interested in part of the site. All are high-tech operations, he said.
Deals are very close with two of them that manufacture products for the anti-terrorist market, he said.