INDUSTRIAL PROJECT Development official praises Winner's economic foresight

State officials would like to see this project replicated across the commonwealth.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- Dennis Yablonsky said the redevelopment of the former Westinghouse Electric plant on Sharpsville Avenue is the "poster child" for the governor's economic development strategy.
Yablonsky, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, was here Friday to see Winner Steel Inc., which occupies the southern end of the plant, kick off the operation of its third galvanizing line.
This project, including Winner Steel, is something state officials would like to see replicated across Pennsylvania, he said.
It has a total cost approaching $100 million, private capital investment, job retention and creation and is redeveloping a brownfield manufacturing site, Yablonsky said.
The state has kicked in a $10 million Capital Redevelopment Assistance Fund grant to aid in the project.
Winner Steel is owned by James E. Winner Jr., chairman of Winner International. He's also the man behind redeveloping the rest of the vacant Westinghouse property. He bought it and has cleaned up contaminated portions of the plant and refurbished other areas with the intent of creating Winner Industrial Park.
It has nearly 1 million square feet of manufacturing space and about 160,000 square feet of office space available.
What's envisioned
Winner said he hopes to see 1,000 good -paying, family-sustaining jobs created in the park.
Westinghouse shut down its electrical transformer operations here in 1985 and has since sold off the plant.
The northern end is now a pipe warehouse, and Winner Steel is located in the southern end. The middle section is Winner Industrial Park.
The new galvanizing line will create between 100 and 110 jobs, bringing Winner Steel's total employment to well over 300, said Ken Jennings, project manager.
The new line had a price tag of $40 million and the total cost to add it to the operation is between $50 million and $60 million, he said.
It cost more than the first two galvanizing lines put together, said Chuck Kennedy, Winner Steel president.
He said it is also the most technically advanced equipment available and predicted it will enable the company to expand its market, reaching into additional automotive parts supply operations.
The galvanized steel coming out of the plant now goes primarily to the building and heating/air conditioning industries, as well as auto parts.
Winner Steel now has 4 percent of the domestic galvanizing market and will reach 8 percent to 10 percent with the third line, Kennedy said.
Winner, who said he once worked in the old Westinghouse plant as a coil winder, said the move to get the plant reopened really started with Shenango Valley Initiative, a faith-based, community grass-roots effort that pushed the state and federal government in the mid-1990s to get the mothballed plant cleaned up and redeveloped.