Mar 24, 2016 5 min read

PITTSBURGH – Advanced manufacturing continued to play a key role across Southwestern Pennsylvania, according to an “economic scorecard” of significant investments during 2015.

According to the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, manufacturing had the strongest showing for the seventh time in nine years in terms of investment activity with 63 deals announced and a total investment of $174 million.

For the past nine years, PRA has followed significant business and economic development deals taking place in its 10-county region, which includes Washington and Greene.

Specifically, the alliance follows business activity in five sectors it has identified as having the best competitive standing against other regions in the country: advanced manufacturing, health care and life sciences, financial and business services, information technology and energy.

PRA charted a total of 275 business investment deals across the five key sectors in 2015 that totaled $2.9 billion in capital investment.

In discussing the results at a news conference, PRA President David Ruppersberger noted that of the 275 projects, 75 percent were expansions by already existing companies.

“We see expansions as a positive signal,” Ruppersberger said, explaining that the decision by companies to expand here is a reflection of their confidence in the region.

Beyond the investments, the other big payoff for the region is the number of jobs they represent.

Ruppersberger noted the $2 billion invested here last year represented 5,417 new jobs and another 9,534 retained, for a total of 14,951 jobs, and was the highest amount since PRA’s count from 2011.

Beyond helping to continue to boost the economy of Southwestern Pennsylvania, the continuing high scores by the region’s most competitive business sectors puts it in good stead nationally.

PRA noted Pittsburgh’s diverse and balanced economy has allowed the region to achieve a full recovery from recession quicker than nearly all of the country, hit record-level employment and reach a gross domestic product – a measure of the value of the goods and services produced here – that pulled ahead of the U.S. average four out of five years from 2010-14.

“Diversification of our economy is paying off,” said Jim Futrell, vice president of market research and analysis for the PRA. “Being dependent on five key sectors – not one – carried us through the recession. We didn’t fall as far as other regions did, and we emerged from recession quicker.”

When Washington County commissioners presented their annual economic update in February, they also noted that diversification here, which ranges from generic pharmaceuticals to engineering software development and casino gambling, provides a mixed economy that is insulating the county from a downturn in the energy industry, which boomed here for several years before retracting because of a natural gas surplus.

Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, said the diversification strategy is one that Washington County has been following for a couple of decades and is now reaping the benefits from.

“We’ve learned to take a long-term view” of economic development, Kotula said, adding that while the county continues to support energy despite its current downturn, it has other sectors to rely on while it waits for energy to recover.

“The rest of the region is really following Washington County’s lead” with respect to building diversified economies, he said.

Diversification was also on the minds of two people involved with economic development in Greene County.

Robbie Matesic, director of economic development for Greene County, and Don Chappel, director of Greene County Industrial Developments Inc., have been working to expand Greene’s manufacturing base as a way of diversifying the county away from its traditional role as an energy county.

Matesic said after hearing Thursday’s news conference she was glad to hear that advanced manufacturing was again leading the five key sectors.

“It means we made the right decision,” she said, noting Greene County’s initiatives in attracting more manufacturing.

Chappel noted that last year, the county saw two business investment projects for expansions, one for Stahl’s Hotronix, an image transfer company with an operation in Carmichaels, as well as an expansion by Wilson Forest Products in Jefferson, which produces oak barrels for the wine and distilling industries.

Matesic said contact has been made with entrepreneurs in the county who have expressed interest in investing in manufacturing.

“Our focus is on business people in the county who have been very successful,” she said, adding that the initial response has been positive.

Chappel said plans are being made to start a manufacturers association in the county. He and Matesic also are working with Pittsburgh-based Catalyst Connection, which advises small- and mid-sized manufacturers in their quest to build out the sector.

Both said they have also learned that if manufacturing is to grow significantly, the county will have to improve its access to the Internet and that additional sources of power will be needed.

The last requirement may already be in the works.

On Wednesday, a New York company said it wants to build a 536-megawatt, natural gas-fired power plant on the property of the former Nemacolin Mine in Cumberland Township.