Pittsburgh Business Times reported that Alro Steel Corporation has acquired a 15 acre parcel in the Findlay Industrial Park at Westport on which it plans to develop a new steel services center. The land, which sold for USD 995,000, could eventually see a facility of 100,000 to 150,000 square feet, which will bring a third major occupant to the business park.
Mr Mark Alyea president & COO of Alro said that the company has yet to establish a time table for its future development plans, but said it needs to establish a larger, more updated facility than the 20,000 square foot one it operates in Carnegie. The facility would be designed to replace the Carnegie site.
He added that "We're looking for an opportunity to site a larger facility somewhere down the road. We feel like that location is conducive to our business in the future. We will be making a significant investment there. Obviously, we don't buy property just to sit on it."
The privately held company, which Alyea described as kind of a grocery store for metals, has been in Pittsburgh for the past seven or eight years and serves a territory within a 100 mile radius with a wide array of steel products.
The owner of the park, Imperial Land Corporation, combined what it previously designated as two parcels to accommodate Alro’s future plans. When Alro moves forward with its plans, it will join two other new facilities, operated by Appliance Dealers Cooperative and Okonite.
Mr Jerry Bunda president of Imperial Land said that Imperial Land's first phase of the business park encompasses 55 acres, and his firm will begin to push forward with establishing the infrastructure for a 244 acre second phase, which he estimated will cost approximately USD 3 million. With all approvals and permitting established, Bunda said he hopes to get started on the second phase next spring and finish in the fall.
He added that "Since this is our first go round at a development like this, we didn’t know what to expect. We had hoped that the market would be a little tight and it has proven to be that way."
Mr Gene Galiardi VP for Pennsylvania Commercial Real Estate Inc, who represented Alro, said that the options for the company were narrowed by the fact that it wanted to own property and needed an updated facility with crane capabilities. He added that "In western Pennsylvania, often we talk about crane buildings, and we talk about buildings that date back to the last century. This will be a modern new facility."
Mr Lou Oliva, an executive vice president in the Pittsburgh office of Jones Lang LaSalle, said that Alro fit the profile of the kind of company Imperial Land sought to attract when it began the project on a large tract of land close to Pittsburgh International Airport.
He added that "The whole reason for Imperial Land making these investments is that because of all of the older functionally obsolete products, if people are expanding and want to get into a new facility, they’re going to have to build. They certainly fit our target."
(Sourced from www.pittsburgh.bizjournals.com)
