HERMITAGE, Pa. – Mark Longietti looks over the sprawling 88 acres at LindenPointe.
Officials in Hermitage, the western Pennsylvania city where Longietti serves as business and development director, hope to see much of that property off of Hermitage Road developed, including a portion for housing.
“We have several lots,” Longietti says. “Each parcel is approximately nine acres. So we have probably a good four that could be available for development.” Development could include retail businesses too.
It’s one way the city aims to address the housing shortage that plagues most of the country. Developers are interested in building homes in other areas of the city as well, Longietti says. Discussions with interested companies are ongoing.
Repopulation
The housing shortage coincides with regional efforts to increase population, or what’s been dubbed “repopulation.” That effort is spearheaded by Penn Northwest Development Corporation, which launched efforts to ensure there’s an ample supply of skilled workers to fill jobs in the community and to stanch population loss.
The initiative includes retaining young people, returning people who have left the area and attracting new residents. Similar efforts are underway in the Mahoning Valley led by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
One way Penn Northwest is tackling repopulation is by participating in Make My Move. That company markets communities to entice residents of other locales to relocate. It targets remote workers and offers relocation incentives. Penn Northwest signed a contract with the company in March 2025.
The results are better than expected, says Jake Rickert, Penn Northwest associate executive director. They had hoped for 50 applicants.
“We are at 1,100 applicants and we have had 400,000 people get on and check out the Mercer County area,” he says.
The response shows there’s an external market in the area, but he acknowledges the dearth of desirable housing.
“That’s been the sticking point,” Rickert says. “We’ve got over 1,000 applicants and we don’t have 50 quality homes for them to pick. So it has spurred up some pretty good conversation, and some people that are getting very serious about doing some new builds.”
Relocation
Hermitage, Sharon, Farrell and Greenville signed up with Penn Northwest to participate in Make My Move. So far, four families have moved to Hermitage and two to Sharon.
While no one has applied to move to Greenville yet, many people have clicked on its Make My Move entry, says Jasson Urey, borough manager.
“It’s a good way to market the community nationwide …,” he says. “We just felt like it was a great opportunity to market not only the area, but our community and show anybody that’s looking to move maybe outside of the bigger cities that the small rural life that we have here’s pretty enticing [and] cost effective for anybody looking to get out of the hustle and bustle.”
Make My Move targets remote workers specifically and Urey says Greenville could appeal to someone who lives in a more expensive part of the country, such as California. They could maintain their California salary and take advantage of the lower cost of living afforded in the borough, Urey explains.
“It would attract a little bit larger wage earners that work from home – generally have a better home lifestyle,” he says. “They’re bringing their families with them. So usually that’s another adult that’s either doing the same thing or working within the community and then raising their family here.”
Farrell signed up for the program in late 2025, says City Manager Shawn Anderson. He’s received emails through the program from people inquiring about available properties. He says the city wants to be a part of Penn Northwest’s initiatives.
“We have some housing plans ourselves that we’re trying to get worked out, whether it be through [the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] or some developers to build some housing and provide housing for our county,” Anderson says, pointing to the countywide housing shortage.
Vacant lots dot the city that could be developed into that needed housing, he adds. “We’re doing some internal work to kind of position ourselves to be someone that, once people do start biting on to Make My Move to the county, we could potentially be one of the cities they’re looking to move to.”
Some homes in the city require rehabilitation as older housing stock has fallen into disrepair.
“We’re looking to do some work on them first and build there,” the city manager says.
The city also has a subsidized program to build houses.
“I guess the long and short of it is we’re kind of sectioning it off for now to areas that are already ready for build, but we would like to eventually do citywide builds,” he adds.
Sharon’s city manager didn’t respond to Business Journal inquiries for this article.
Longietti, the Hermitage business and development director, says the people who have relocated to the city moved from San Diego, the United Arab Emirates, Florida and Staten Island, N.Y. Most had some connection to the area.
Two of them bought homes and the others are renting. The city’s high quality schools, low cost of living, low crime rate and lower taxes attract newcomers to the city, Longietti says. He also points to development, including the former Shenango Valley Mall site and the municipal athletic complex, as draws.
Tight Inventory
People who relocate through Make My Move also consider available housing.
“Obviously each of these four were able to find [housing], but I think there is some challenge because our inventory is tight,” the Hermitage official says. “We’ve heard that outside of this program and so that’s part of the reason that we are really heavily engaged in trying to spur housing development.”
For the LindenPointe property, the city envisions multifamily development for the residential portion. But it could also include condominiums, townhouses and patio homes. “There is certainly a need for condos in the area,” Longietti says, adding that an area real estate agent has a list of 15 clients who want a condo in the city but can’t find one.
Word spreads that a condo owner plans to move and the unit is sold before it hits the market, he says. The city recently hired John Bralich, formerly the director of the Center for Applied Geographic Information Systems at Youngstown State University. Bralich is determining parcels in the city of a certain acreage so city officials know what the potential inventory is to develop.
Hermitage also commissioned a citywide market and housing analysis that also addressed LindenPointe’s potential. One finding of the analysis, completed last November, is that Hermitage is a growing city, Longietti says. By 2032, its population is projected to increase by 1,284 people to 18,119, the analysis says.
“And then on the housing side, they indicated that there is a demand, a market demand, for an additional 679 homeowner units and another 489 rental units,” Longietti says.
That shows there’s a need for additional homes to be built for both buyers and renters.
Penn Northwest’s Rickert is hopeful home construction in Mercer County will pick up soon.
“One of our developers is very, very serious, and we’re hoping in the next six months we’ll be able to get them started,” he says. “But I think everyone’s kind of in this waiting game of who’s going to try to do the builds first. And I think once we get that out of the way, I think we’re going to see a big growth spurt in housing around here.”
Pictured at top: Mark Longietti, director of business and development for Hermitage, Pa., stands in front of vacant property at LindenPointe, off state Route 18. The city is encouraging development of its portion of the parcel with part of that development expected to be housing.
