Brian Lawrence can see a light at the end of the tunnel when he looks over the 19 acres of empty land in Derry once known as Porcelain Park.
Decades ago, 200 people came there to work for the borough’s main employer, a plant that produced ceramic insulators. If the latest plans for the site bear fruit, the expansive property will once again be a scene of activity, both commercial and industrial.
Lawrence is executive director of Westmoreland County’s Redevelopment Authority and Land Bank. Those agencies acted in concert this week, awarding a contract to install infrastructure this summer at the long-dormant property at Route 217 and Third Street and approving a contingent agreement to sell it to a Pittsburgh real estate developer for $325,000.
Lawrence said developer PennTex Ventures has expressed interest in creating a commercial space, possibly including retail, on a section of the property that is most visible from the bordering streets.
“They’re essentially looking at doing what we had always envisioned, parceling out that portion of the property for several different businesses,” Lawrence said.
The remainder of the site would be available for light industrial manufacturing or warehousing, he said.
PennTex didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
Founded in 2009, PennTex has developed Dollar General stores nearby, in Derry and Unity townships.
According to its website, the developer has been involved in retail, restaurant and convenience store projects in other states. In Mid-Atlantic states, in addition to Dollar General, it’s developed sites for such retailers as 7-Eleven, Dunkin’, ALDI, Buffalo Wild Wings and PetSmart.
“They have a strong track record with those kinds of properties and other retail and industrial flex spec properties,” Lawrence said of the firm. “They’re very bullish in the industrial market.”
“It’s very exciting,” Derry council President Barbara Phillips said of the proposed activity at the business park. “We’re cautiously optimistic that, once the roads and everything are in, we’ll see some progress of building there. It’s been a long time coming.”
Cooperation noted
Phillips said borough officials are looking to change the property’s zoning designation from industrial to commercial use, to match the new development plan.
“We want to get the ball rolling on it,” she said. “When (the developer) is ready to go, we want to be there with them.”
“We hope in the next several weeks we’ll have a document signed,” Lawrence said of the property sale agreement, adding, “We have a lot of work to do on our side of the equation. It’s going to be some time before the sale is consummated.”
The first step will be preparing the site with stormwater improvements, grading and installation of utilities and roadways.
For that work, the Redevelopment Authority awarded a contract to the Tresco Companies of Plum for $1.59 million.
Lawrence said construction could begin near the end of May and be complete by the end of August.
About $1.9 million in funding is available for the project, including $500,000 from the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation.
The rest of the money is coming from state programs — including $326,000 recently awarded from gaming revenues, to help replace an outdated underground box culvert and stormwater piping where a sinkhole developed on the property.
Borough public works crews discovered the sinkhole in September and filled it with material available at the site. A permanent fix will involve raising the site grade above the local flood elevation.
“It’s been an issue we’ve known about,” said Lawrence. “The sinkhole punctuated the need to address the culvert in its entirety.”
Lawrence said the contractor will replace an angled section of stormwater pipe that may have contributed to formation of the sinkhole. He credited the area’s state legislators — Sen. Joe Pittman and Rep. Leslie Rossi — with steering the gaming funds toward the project.
Once roads and a new storm system have been completed, they will be turned over to the borough to maintain.
Once a Westinghouse plant
The business park property at one time was home to a Westinghouse ceramics plant. After that business changed hands and closed in the 199os, it was revamped as the multi-tenant Porcelain Park before becoming vacant.
The Redevelopment Authority obtained most of the property in 2010 and since has been working to remediate what had become an eyesore in the Derry community.
Featured Local Businesses
The Land Bank acquired less than one acre of the site that had included the former Ralph Smith & Son auto repair shop, a building that was destroyed in a June 2022 arson.
The Redevelopment Authority is turning over its portion of the site to the Land Bank, to facilitate the sale to PennTex.
“There’s an advantage to that because land banks aren’t subject to (real estate) transfer tax,” Lawrence said. “We want to put the developer on as strong as footing as possible.”
Lawrence expressed hope that a plan for remediating a portion of the site where petroleum leaked from underground fuel storage tanks will be cleared by state environmental officials this fall.
The authority has been monitoring the site with a series of wells.
“It’s been a long road and we’ve had to fight through a lot of challenges at that site,” Lawrence said. “We’re confident in this developer’s ability to deliver a worthwhile project that will benefit the whole community.”
A proposed sale of the site last year to Landmark Properties Group of Allison Park, for the same dollar amount, was contingent on that developer finding tenants for the property and didn’t pan out.