Special financing helps McKees Rocks business park to proceed
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A $3 million state loan and $1 million utilities grant will allow the developer of a brownfield site in McKees Rocks to move forward with plans to construct a business park.
The first phase of the project is proposed for a 33-acre site under the McKees Rocks Bridge and east of Island Avenue. The land is the site of tracks, repair shops and maintenance buildings for the bankrupt Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad.
"I cannot say enough about the support we have gotten from local, county, state and federal officials on this project," Craig A. Rippole, president of Trinity Commercial Development, said today.
Trinity, based in Emsworth, has plans for 385,000 square feet of new construction and renovation of 76,000 square feet of existing buildings that eventually will cover 52 acres. Site preparation and ground-breaking for the first new structure should begin this year, Mr. Rippole said.
The Commonwealth Finance Authority has agreed to loan Greenville Commercial Properties, a subsidiary of Trinity, $3.1 million under its "Business in Our Sites" program. The term of the 3 percent loan is 20 years.
McKees Rocks received a $985,000 PennWorks grant to help cover the $1.3 million costs of bringing new water and sewer lines to the site.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said the redevelopment project offers the potential to create almost 1,200 new jobs. "This will be a great boon to McKees Rocks and the surrounding community," Mr. Fitzgerald said.
First Published January 30, 2012 12:00 am
