PENNSYLVANIA SPOTLIGHT
The Diversity Lesson
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ven the daunting prospect of a $1-billion state budget shortfall hardly musters a blink from those who have faced the shrinkage of an entire industry. So it only seems fitting that the state that gave birth to the U.S. Constitution and the steel that built a nation's backbone would have the character to lead that same nation in a renaissance of sorts for industrial and commercial development. After all, who better to set the example for brownfield redevelopment than the place that is home to more brownfields than almost anywhere else? Today, those places are filling with green dollars and live bodies.
Sure, the recession's effects are still unfolding, illustrated by the recent shuttering of International Paper's mill in Erie; unemployment in the city has risen to the highest level in the state at 8.2 percent. Yet geography remains geography. Erie's location near Canada, its port on Lake Erie and its airport expansion make it a prime candidate for revival.
Regeneration is a theme that rolls like a steam train through the state's economy. From the mainline metropolis of Philadelphia to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, from steel capital Pittsburgh to state capital Harrisburg, acreage long since abandoned is slowly waking up to new opportunities.
Sure, the recession's effects are still unfolding, illustrated by the recent shuttering of International Paper's mill in Erie; unemployment in the city has risen to the highest level in the state at 8.2 percent. Yet geography remains geography. Erie's location near Canada, its port on Lake Erie and its airport expansion make it a prime candidate for revival.
Regeneration is a theme that rolls like a steam train through the state's economy. From the mainline metropolis of Philadelphia to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, from steel capital Pittsburgh to state capital Harrisburg, acreage long since abandoned is slowly waking up to new opportunities.
It was no accident that Viasys headquarters in Conshohocken was where President George W. Bush signed into law the national brownfield revitalization bill. The state's Land Recycling Initiative, Keystone Opportunity Zones and Key Sites Initiatives are adding whole new dimensions to what the state already offers through its SelectSite program, by setting forth a model for brownfield redevelopment that the whole world looks to as an example.
Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone (KOZ) status allows businesses to operate without having to pay any local real estate taxes, PA Capital Stock and Franchise Taxes, or PA corporate net income taxes until 2013. Over 37,000 acres (15,000 hectares) of virtually tax-free developable land has been made available since the program's inception in 1999, and the zones have welcomed more than 10,000 new jobs and more than $200 million in public and private investment. The largest KOZ success yet came last October, when retailer Marshalls chose a site near the Northeast Philadelphia Airport to locate a 1-million-sq.-ft. (93,000-sq.-m.) distribution center that will employ 1,100 people. That was one day after Target announced a 1,000-employee distribution center to be built in Chambersburg, in another nearby KOZ. Similar efforts are underway to bolster brownfield-centered sites in Reading, Harrisburg, the Lehigh Valley (home to 28 such zones), as well as Hazelwood, Lawrenceville and Homewood in the Pittsburgh area, led by state grant support for environmental assessment, land purchases and infrastructure improvements. Since the Land Recycling Program's inception in 1995, 1,116 cleanups have been approved on 1,000 sites in 66 counties, including 230 cleanups conducted during fiscal year 2000-2001. Recognized with the Innovations in American Government Award by Harvard University and the Ford Foundation, the program supplements liability relief, cleanup standards and financial incentives with multi-site and buyer/seller agreement programs and a follow-up program called The Guardian Trust. To explore the full spectrum of sites and service, go to www.pasitefinder.com. |
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