The closing of the Sony Technology Center in Westmoreland County was an economic catastrophe -- and a terrific opportunity.

Just two dozen people now work for Sony in the massive plant that employed more than 3,000 people at the height of its days producing TVs almost the size of the Volkswagens. The Japanese company announced a little more than a year ago it was closing the plant as the market moved toward lighter, flat screen TVs.

Economic development officials look at this sprawling building and see a great location and nice amenities -- the industrial equivalent of granite counter tops and a jacuzzi. If they can fill the plant with a collection of smaller users that create just one job for every 1,000 square feet, the equation would produce about 2,800 jobs. That's almost as many as Sony once employed.

That is, admittedly, a big challenge.

To get an idea of the size of the 2.8 million-square-foot building, imagine the entire U.S. Steel Tower on one level. It's so big that the structure extends into two townships, Hempfield and East Huntingdon.

To get an idea of what it is like to be inside the place today, imagine the U.S. Steel Tower with just six to 10 people in it at any one time.

The building, which used to be filled with the sounds of machinery working, is now so quiet the only noise is the humming of the lights and the occasional banging from the steam heating pipes.

The Pennsylvania Industrial Development Corporation, which owns the structure, recently announced it was teaming up with the Regional Industrial Development Corporation to study how to best use the property. It received a $175,000 Business in Our Site grant from the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority to explore future uses of the building.

John Skiavo, the CEO of the Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland, isn't worried. As he stood in the middle of the building recently looking at the vast empty space, he saw an opportunity to diversify the site and get half a dozen companies in where one used to be. That way if one company moves out, all the jobs won't be lost.

That plan would be breaking with the building's history.

It was built in 1969 by Chrysler, but the company pulled out of the project before it was complete. Volkswagen stepped in nine years later, spent $40 million to finish the construction and started building its Rabbit model. Volkswagen stayed 10 years, before vacating the premises in 1988.

In 1990, Sony moved in.

At the turn of the century, about 3,000 workers on 20 lines built models such as 38-inch cathode ray tube televisions and 55-inch rear projection televisions in cabinets that were more than 6 feet tall. The products built there were sold across the country.

Sony rented the property from the state's industrial development corporation with the option to buy the building. It did not exercise that option.

Larry J. Larese, the executive director of the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp., said that when Volkswagen had the property, the automaker also controlled 1,200 acres surrounding the building. After the auto plant closed, the land was subdivided. The plant now sits on a 400-acre parcel with surrounding land made available for other companies.

For those in the market now for a little -- or a lot -- of commercial space, Mr. Skavio was quick to list the reasons any manufacturer would want to move in.

Among the highlights: A major gas line runs past the plant, assuring an ample supply. There are two separate power lines from two sources, assuring there will be no interruption of work if one line goes out. The land, which is right off a major waterline, is equipped with its own primary water treatment plant to begin the process of treating wastewater. There is even a fiber-optic "backbone," which is essentially the big feeder line of all Internet service, running right past the building.

The property also has its own rail freight terminal with a spur that goes to one of the walls of the building. And the road in front of the plant runs right to Route 119, which means that -- now that Idaho has taken out the traffic signal on Interstate 90 -- you can drive from the Sony Technology Center to Seattle without hitting a red light.

"We really think the utilities and amenities of that particular site, in addition to its scale, make it a really unique asset," said Donald F. Smith Jr., the president of the Regional Industrial Development Corporation.

Under the 50 acres of roof, there are 2.8 million square feet of space, including 500,000 feet on a second story over the main production floor that had been used for offices and warehouses.

It is an area so large that when Doug Orbin, the facilities manager, needs to travel from one part of the building to another, he drives a golf cart. Mr. Orbin said it costs about $3 million a year to maintain the building.

Two companies already occupy what in any other case would be large areas. In this place, they only account for small sections of the enormous building.

Dai Nippon Printing makes thermal transfer ink paper for barcode scanners in one corner, and Solar Power Industries is building solar panels in another corner. The two combine to cover about 200,000 square feet.

Westmoreland Community College also is studying whether to use about 70,000 square feet for a technical training center. Mr. Skiavo said the college had estimated it would cost about $7 million to upgrade a section of the building for a training center.

The rentals leave about 2.6 million square feet still available, including 100,000 square feet of office space in an connected building at the front of the plant and 500,000 square feet inside the plant that can be used as warehouse space or for offices.

The hardest part of subdividing the building for multiple companies is how to do it so each company has enough exits to comply with the building codes.

Mr. Smith said the industrial development corporation would not have any of the same problems encountered at Keystone Commons, a former Westinghouse plant in Turtle Creek that is being renovated. The Sony building, he said, is structurally in much better shape.

In many plant shutdowns, a company essentially will turn the lights off and leave the building as it was on the last day of operation. In this case, Sony emptied and cleaned the facility.

There are still boxes of files to go through, some gloves to give away and a whole bunch of chairs that are trashed. In one area, there's a collection of huge carcasses of those televisions made obsolete by flat screens.

But unlike the old technologies that were replaced by the new, economic development officials know that concrete and steel are timeless.

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