NEW BEAVER BOROUGH, Pa. – A 150,000-square-foot spec building to be constructed on the site of the former Stonecrest Golf Course in New Beaver Borough, Pa., will represent the first phase of an effort to make Lawrence County, Pa., more competitive in the effort to land development projects, officials say.
Ground was broken March 28 for Stonecrest Business Park, which is being developed by LaCarte Development Company Inc., Charleroi, Pa. The first building is expected to be completed by fall 2025, said John LaCarte, president of LaCarte Development and principal of Stonecrest Business Park LP.
“The site won’t be ready for vertical construction until spring of next year,” he said.
The plan is to develop up to 1.5 million square feet of space, with the capacity of employing more than 1,000 residents, said Ben Bush, executive director of the Forward Lawrence Chamber and Economic Alliance. The Stonecrest project is the first private business park to be constructed in Lawrence County in 40 years, he noted.
The first building will cost about $15 million. Site preparation for the entire project should come in at that amount as well, according to LaCarte.
“We saw the growth coming in this direction,” he said. “You’ve got to have sites available and buildings for companies to occupy.”
LaCarte’s company, which has focused on development in the Mon Valley region, acquired the golf course in March 2021 with the intent of developing it as a business park.
LaCarte saw the area as attractive for such development given infrastructure investment and proximity to the Royal Dutch Shell ethane cracker in Monaca, Pa.
While operation of the cracker plant hasn’t yet led to the kind of spinoff activity he had anticipated, the location lends itself to large distribution operations as well as light manufacturing, LaCarte said.
Bush, who took the job with Forward Lawrence last year, said Lawrence County often loses projects because it lacks development-ready pad sites or buildings ready to occupy.
“You’ve got to put your line in the water to catch a fish. You’ve got to have a site. You’ve got to have a building,” LaCarte said. “That’s how you catch a fish in the economic development world.”
Pictured at top: John LaCarte envisions distribution and manufacturing operations at the site.