The lessons learned by Westmoreland County officials in 1988 did not go unheeded.

Larry Larese, the economic development coordinator for Westmoreland County, was around when Volkswagen closed down the plant in East Huntingdon. After that experience, he said, county officials vowed not to be caught dependent on any single business there again.

On Tuesday, when Sony Corp. announced the 560 remaining workers at its East Huntingdon Technology Center would be among 16,000 employees losing their jobs in a worldwide corporate restructuring, all of the jobs at that industrial park were not gone.

Instead of just one business, the county and state built four industrial parks on the site. Aside from Sony, there are 23 companies located there now plus room for many more.

Sony this week announced televisions will no longer be made at the plant as of March 1, services and repair work will end in the fall, and the logistics and distribution operations would close by the end of March 2010.

When the Japanese company's lease with the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority expires in 2010, the plan is to take the 2.8 million-square-foot building that Sony once fully occupied and convert it to a building for more than one tenant.

"That's easily said, and it sounds like a wise thing to do, but it costs of lot of money," Mr. Larese said. The building will have to be reworked so utilities can be sectioned off for different tenants. Separate entrances and loading docks also will have to be constructed.

As for Sony's shutdown, Mr. Larese said, "The only surprise was the timing." He said the company had just installed tens of millions of dollars worth of robotics equipment to make the Bravia line of televisions.

Last year when Sony cut 900 from the work force at the plant, Mr. Larese said most of those workers were absorbed into other jobs in Westmoreland County. Others went back to school for more training.

Fourteen of the 110 students now at Westmoreland County Community College are former Sony employees whose tuition is being paid for with Trade Readjustment Allowance money, according to Patrick Gerity, vice president of continuing education and community development for the college.

The money also covers books and equipment, so Sony workers who want to move into the health care or computer industries, for instance, will have both tuition and materials covered. Mr. Gerity said the allowance covered six semesters of college.

When Sony is ready, he said, representatives of the community college will visit the company along with representatives of Pennsylvania CareerLink to talk about the programs available. Sony invited them to do the same thing last year.

Local officials are still trying to piece together what the ripple effect of the plant closing will be. "A vast majority of their suppliers, or people they did business with, were in Western Pennsylvania," said John Skiavo, president of Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland County.

Companies such as Hamill Manufacturing Co. in Trafford, which does precision machining, and Pace Airo Division in Loyalhanna, which is a die casting plant, had significant dealings with the electronics company.

Mr. Skiavo said Westmoreland County and state officials would try to get a list of Sony's local suppliers to pinpoint who has been affected by the news the plant is closing.

It isn't just the business community that will be affected. Mr. Larese said over the years Sony has quietly donated computer equipment to local schools.

There's already some interest in the building. "We have a company that wants to occupy a portion of the Sony building," Mr. Larese said. He said that new employer, which he would not name, would be big enough to absorb many of the employees who will be out of work when the plant shuts down.

"A lot of things aren't going great right now," Mr. Larese said about the current economy.

Then he added: "All of us have to believe this is only temporary. The plans for the reuse of this building are going to go ahead no matter what the current economic climate is."