Business View Magazine | October 2019

340 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2019 company that also invested in McKeesport - it built a new facility on the RIDC site, and American Textile Company just recently expanded over to the site. Also this year, it was announced that River Materials Inc. will take over 18 acres at the RIDC Industrial Center for warehousing, processing, and recycling. They intend to construct buildings for offices, storage, and light manufacturing, as well as a railroad car and barge remediation facility. That will bring about 50 jobs. Constellation Energy was already onsite and has renewed its lease. R.A. Hiller Company, a wholly- owned Weir Valve & Controls USA, Inc. subsidiary, signed a lease for a 12,500-square-foot building for its engineering, light manufacturing, assembly, quality assurance, and sales operations. “We’ve been fortunate at bringing these businesses into the RIDC site,” says Cherepko. “In addition to that, on our East Fifth Avenue corridor, we have a big development that’s about to take place, but we can’t give details yet. Right down the road, we have a Dunkin’ Donuts and they’re doing extremely well. It was nice to get a national chain in town. In that same area, we have the first Speedway (gas station / convenience store) to open in Pennsylvania. We also have several businesses throughout the town that have expanded, renovated, reinvested – including Pennzoil, State’s Tire, and Eat’n Park did a total facelift and renovation, and new businesses such as Dollar General and Family Dollar. A lot of times, businesses look at our demographics and they’re hesitant to come in. But once they get here, they become one of our biggest advocates because they see that working with our administration, you get a very hands-on approach.” The city has removed much of the bureaucratic red tape from the local zoning and planning commission and it’s put itself in a better position to make things happen, with everyone working together. Cherepko notes, “Every business that’s come in, to this point, has exceeded their expectations from what they planned. All these years, we’ve been recruiting, recruiting, recruiting, and I think for the first time, things are starting to move ahead for us, and we have people knocking PROUD TO BE IN MCKEESPORT 4000 University Drive McKeesport, PA 15132 412-675-9010 | greaterallegheny.psu.edu | psuga@psu.edu Since 1934