HERMITAGE, PA. Health network receives funding to expand medical, dental offices

A public hearing is set for 10 a.m. Sept. 25 in Mercer.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- The board of directors of the Mercer County Industrial Development Authority has approved financing for Primary Health Network to buy a medical office building it leases in Mercer County and to expand a medical and dental office building it owns in Lawrence County.
Under the financing arrangement approved Friday, PHN would borrow $1 million for 10 years and add $250,000 of its own money for the combined $1,250,000 project. The authority approved the issuance of $1 million in MCIDA tax-exempt notes. Sky Bank would fund the project.
The interest rate would be fixed at 4.34 percent for the first three years, then the Federal Home Loan Bank advance rate plus 1.35 percent would apply. The authority assists in financing local projects that promote jobs and economic development.
A public hearing on the matter will be at 10 a.m. Sept. 25 in the county commissioners' conference room in the county courthouse in Mercer, and the project and its financing are subject to commissioners' approval.
Building plans
The Sharon-based Primary Health Network seeks to buy for $624,960 a 5,200-square-foot medical office building it has leased for almost three years at 737 Greenville Road, Coolspring Township, Mercer County.
The remainder of the project would be construction of a 3,200-square-foot addition to a 4,600-square-foot medical and dental office building PHN owns at 1112 S. Mill St., New Castle, where 10 new full-time jobs would be created over the next three years, said Jack Laeng, the network's executive director. The entire project would also retain 35 full-time jobs, according to a written summary presented to authority board members Friday.
The network, which focuses on medically under-served areas, is a private, nonprofit outpatient health care provider group with 21 offices in western Pennsylvania, which includes physicians, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and social workers.
Marketing study
The authority board also heard Larry D. Reichard, executive director of the Mercer-based Penn-Northwest Development Corp. say that a marketing study is under way for the authority's proposed 1,000-acre industrial park to be established on a site still to be determined somewhere in Mercer County. The primary focus of the study is on previously undeveloped land, he said. Penn-Northwest is the county's economic development agency.
The goal would be to attract advanced technology businesses to the park, he said.
He also said Premier Hydraulics and Duferco Steel, both in Farrell, are seeking redevelopment grants from the state. Premier wants to expand its facilities, and Duferco wants to add machinery and equipment.