MERCER COUNTY Effort launched to locate, develop all industrial sites

The latest effort will show what improvements each site requires.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- The Penn-Northwest Development Corp. has launched a concerted effort to identity all industrial sites in Mercer County.
It's part of the Strategy 1000 project unveiled in 1998 to identify and develop 1,000 acres of industrial brownfield and greenfield sites around the county.
The original Strategy 1000 identified four specific brownfield and four specific greenfield sites, all privately owned, totaling just over 1,000 acres, and some of that land has since been developed.
Strategy 1000 was designed to be an evolving program and efforts are under way to develop a new 1,000-acre list. Penn-Northwest is taking an aggressive approach to locate and actually secure those sites.
Mercer County is expected to participate directly by coming up with $5 million, probably through a bond issue, to help finance the purchase and development of that land.
Penn-Northwest, the county's lead economic development arm, has started a related effort, called Strategy 1000 Plus, to compile a list of all possible development sites and gather information on what infrastructure improvements are required to make those sites "shovel ready."
What's being done
The agency is seeking help from all 48 municipalities in the county to put together that list.
Questionnaires and information describing the project have been sent to the municipalities asking the information be forwarded to all developers and industrial land owners.
The responses, identifying potential development sites, are to be returned to Penn-Northwest by April 12.
The sites will be placed in one of four categories: Industrial greenfield shovel ready, industrial brownfield shovel ready, industrial greenfield lacking infrastructure and industrial brownfield (lacking infrastructure.
The project is expected to give Penn-Northwest a solid inventory of industrial sites and their needs. That list also gets put on Pennsylvania's database of available properties.
gwin@vindy.com