HERMITAGE, Pa. – Penn Northwest Development Corporation is embarking on a new way to help Mercer County grow and prosper.
“With workforce development staying at the forefront of how we can grow Mercer County, we’re really looking at housing as a next step,” says Jake Rickert, associate executive director. “We’re looking at how a nonprofit like us can get involved in the residential side.”
The county has a significant shortage of workforce housing, he says.
“How do we build it?” Rickert says. “It’s a struggle for some of these for-profits to really make the numbers work. …The advantage of a low cost of living is people want to move here for that. The con is it’s hard to stay competitive with the market.”
The organization, based in Hermitage, Pa., is in the process of buying some properties in downtown Greenville with plans to turn them into a commercial-residential mixed-use area. It’s also looking into some houses in northern Mercer County to acquire and
remediate.
“Maybe it would require them to get knocked down and rebuilt,” Rickert says. “Some of them are in good enough shape that we can kind of flip them and make them into a higher quality home. And then our goal is to sell them at a market rate, at a worker rate that the average income can afford, and that they now will have a quality home that they couldn’t afford otherwise. We think that’s going to be a next step for us.”
Penn Northwest and Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation representatives have met to discuss ways to accomplish that.
“We’re still very, very early in it,” Rickert says. “But we would hope for about 10 homes per year, just to kind of get started, just to feel out the market.”
CATALYST FOR DEVELOPMENT
The intent is to focus on main streets to enhance people’s impressions of the towns when they first arrive.
“We’re looking at a couple key streets and a couple key neighborhoods adjacent to those streets as a strategic kind of first investment to get started,” he says.
The idea is for Penn Northwest to be a catalyst for for-profit companies that build homes. “We don’t want to be the only game in town.” Rickert says. “There’s plenty of work to do for everybody, but we think we can definitely be a catalyst for getting this started.”
The houses are in the $25,000 price range and require significant work to be restored to quality homes where someone would feel safe and comfortable to live.
“It’s hard for someone, a private investor, to come in and buy it and build it out, but we think through the nonprofit side, getting some state dollars, some public support – whatever we need to do – that we can dump the money into it while keeping it affordable,” he says.
While that work marks a departure from Penn Northwest’s traditional focus, it’s within the realm of what it’s been working on for the last five years, Rickert explains. The organization continues to work to attract businesses.
“But there’s a whole other side, and that’s the community development side, and we have to have an active hand in helping build a community, not just solely attracting businesses,” he says.
Penn Northwest wraps 2026 with more than $24 million in support for local businesses including through the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. That program helps offset business construction costs.
MEMBERSHIP
The organization also saw a record year in membership dues collected, topping $210,000 and membership continues to increase with 170 members.
Rebekah Reynolds, Penn Northwest business relations coordinator, plans to focus in 2027 on adding value for members. She and the team have been talking to members to learn the best ways the organization can support them. It’s about listening to people, she believes.
“We’re not Erie and we’re not Pittsburgh and we’re not trying to be either,” Reynolds says. “We’re so unique, and we matter. And so I think it’s really just making sure that our partners feel heard and then just putting our words into action.”
The county’s land, resources and its number of young people who stay in the community forge that uniqueness, she says.
“The past few years, there seems to be a disconnect where companies are saying, ‘Oh, we don’t have good quality people to hire,’ and then the young people are saying, ‘Well, there’s no job openings,’” Reynolds continues. “But yes, there are. It’s just how can we connect you guys together. And that’s what Penn Northwest has been doing, and that’s what our focus has been on with the workforce.”
She says businesses and individuals in Mercer County are excited about the development underway.
“When you drive by the Target, we can physically see buildings going up and dirt being dug, and things are happening…,” Reynolds says.
MOVING IN
Penn Northwest’s additional focus on housing is a way to address the workforce shortage faced by the county. For the last year, it’s worked with Make My Move, a company that markets communities online to entice residents of other locales to relocate. It targets remote workers and offers relocation incentives.
That program has drawn 1,600 applications from people in other parts of the country who are interested in relocating to Mercer.
“Our biggest barrier was really trying to find housing,” Rickert explains.
Information gleaned from Make My Move has led to conversations with developers, he says. Part of the program’s application requires participants to list how much they’re willing to spend and what they want to spend it on.
“So, for example, the average for these 1,600 applicants, is everyone’s looking in that $250,000 price range, and they’re looking for a three bed, one and a half bath,” the associate executive director says.
That information provides a good starting spot to speak to developers about what buyers want.
“Here’s the price range we’re at, and how do we build a capital stack that can achieve this result,” he says.
That price is lower than what the August housing report from the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors says was the state’s $330,000 median home price. That’s up nearly 5% year over year.
The report showed 10,556 house listings in August in the $250,000 to $374,999 price range and 32,250 sales in that range over the previous 12 months.
The next step with Make My Move for Penn Northwest is marketing to people in certain professions who want to relocate and fill in-person roles. Rickert points to a need for engineers, nurses, doctors and attorneys.
“A couple of these fields and industries have large gaps in kind of one career field so we’re looking at, can we pair up a couple leaders in the manufacturing, healthcare, legal services? Can we build a Make My Move around these industries where the employers help us run and facilitate the program, and in return they recruit employees to fill these gaps nationally?”
That effort remains in the early stages.
Pictured at top: Penn Northwest Development Corp. associate executive director Jake Rickert and Rebekah Reynolds, business relations coordinator, discuss the organization’s focus on housing and workforce development in Mercer County.
