GREENVILLE, Pa. – A major project that has been on the books for more than a decade is now moving forward, says Brad Gosser, executive director of the Greenville-Reynolds Development Corp.
“We just sent out bid requests for site preparation for the former Damascus Steel site,” Gosser says. “This is a big one – this has been going on since 2013.”
The project calls for preparing 10 acres along state Route 18 near Greenville, Pa., that would initially accommodate a 63,000-square-foot building, Gosser says. Once the site is finished, Greenville-Reynolds would either sell or lease the land to a potential tenant and end-user that has intentions to construct a new building there. A contract should be awarded sometime in mid-August, he says.
Gosser says the entire site encompasses 35 acres. “It’s a very accessible property,” he says, noting that the project would start with 10 acres with room for expansion.
“We want to market that site to someone who wants to build a 63,000-square-foot building,” Gosser says. “The need is definitely for buildings from 30,000 square feet and up,” he says. The deadline to complete the preparation work is July 31, 2026, but Gosser believes that the project could be finished earlier, perhaps by early spring of 2026.
“I think someone who does not need a building immediately and can wait 12 or 18 months would be interested in this site,” he says. “This is a prime site.”
Greenville-Reynolds Development Corp. operates three business parks – the Reynolds Industrial Park, the Reynolds East Business Park, and the Reynolds North Business Park – that collectively encompass 430 acres. The parks are home to approximately 50 businesses that include manufacturers, contractors, suppliers, distributors and a host of other companies.
“We are 100% full as far as commitments,” Gosser reports. All of the available buildings at the parks are either occupied or are contracted under lease, he says. “Our two big speculative buildings have been leased out, we built a new 4,000-square-foot building that’s leased out, our older buildings are going to be leased out,” he says.
As such, the development corporation is planning another speculative building at the Reynolds East park, he says. “Typically, when we do a spec building, we would probably build between a 15,000- and 20,000-square-foot building that is expandable,” he says.
Gosser says the Greenville-Reynolds industrial parks are home to a range of diversified businesses. “It’s very wide range, it always has been,” he says. The parks are home to manufacturers that process steel tube, tin, dumpsters and transformers, Gosser says. “We have three companies that are in the precious metals business that by scrap and remelt them,” he adds.
Others include a wood products company that supplies Kraftmaid’s cabinet factory in Ohio and computer technology companies.
“We’re not a niche park, we have all kinds of stuff,” Gosser says, that are dominated by small businesses. “Our average company is approximately 25 employees,” he says. The three parks employ a total of more than 1,600.
There is some space at the former PennTecQ facility, Gosser says, a privately owned facility near the Reynolds North park. “It’s privately held, but that building is still available,” he says.
Manufacturing Backbone
A healthy manufacturing sector is vital to Mercer County’s economy, according to recent statistics from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.
According to the department’s Center for Workforce Information and Analysis, manufacturing jobs account for 19% of all positions in the county, compared to just 9.4% statewide. The average wage for a manufacturing job in Mercer County stands at $68,341, and the sector is the second-highest employer in the county with 8,212 employed at 200 establishments, just behind health care and social assistance jobs, which account for 8,670 positions, statistics show.
In Hermitage, the manufacturing corridor continues to develop. Long time producers such as Joy Cone Co., Becker Crane and Wheatland Tube are in the process of expansions at their local operations.
Wheatland Tube
Two major projects are under construction at Wheatland Tube’s Council Avenue plant in Hermitage.
“We’re in the hot commission phase of our automated warehouse,” says Ned Feeney, operations manager at Wheatland. “Our target is the end of August to go live.”
The new enclosed automated warehouse is similar to the projects completed at Wheatland Tube’s Warren plant and at its sister company, Sharon Tube, in Hermitage. Both companies are owned by parent company Zekelman Industries. Another system in Rochelle, Ill., is also in operation.
“The system that is going live here will be our fourth,” Feeney says.
So far, the systems are having an impact on efficiency and pipe quality, Feeney says, since the products are no longer stored outdoors. “In the winter months the product was subject to winter conditions,” he says. “Those have gone away. We have literally zero claims about surface conditions and things like that. The condition of our product has been fantastic coming out of the warehouse.”
Feeney says another major upgrade at the plant is a new cooling bed system, which the company hopes to complete by the end of September. “We’ve had two very large projects recently,” he says. These projects alone represent an investment of between $75 million and $80 million, he says.
The plant has undergone a sizeable transformation over the last 10 years. “The only thing unchanged is the mill, but we’ve changed everything around it.”
Wheatland’s Hermitage plant manufactures metal tube that serves the pipe, valve and fittings market, Feeney says. This market includes products such as sprinkler pipe, plumbing, gas lines, steam lines and air compression lines, he says. This market, Feeney says, has historically been inundated with imported products, a scenario that could change under the Trump administration.
The recent improvements come as President Donald Trump assesses new tariffs on steel products imported from outside the country. Such tariffs would help level the playing field for Wheatland Tube, Feeney says, and allow the company to recapture more market share. Imports, he continues, account for more than half of the product in Wheatland’s market segment.
“The changes that we’re making will make our product the premier product against any of our competitors,” he says. “It’s really going to put us in a great position. I’m really excited for the future of the Wheatland Tube pipe division.”
Pictured at top: Two speculative buildings constructed by Greenville-Reynolds Development Corp. in the Reynolds Industrial Park are now home to Arrow Electric Inc.