The view from the New Kensington Bridge will look a bit different come year’s end.

Since the Regional Industrial Development Corp. and the Westmoreland County Industrial Corp. bought the New Kensington Advanced Manufacturing Park along the Allegheny River, the site, known for its brick buildings with missing windows, has been undergoing renovations.

Two interconnected buildings to the left of the bridge’s off-ramp into New Kensington are being rehabbed in hopes of netting a new manufacturing tenant, RIDC Senior Vice President Tim White said.

“It’s a nice high-bay building,” White said. “We’re looking to put it back in service.”

It is getting new windows and updated utilities and interior infrastructure, he said.

This summer, parts of the roof will be replaced.

White said the entire rehab is expected to be done by the end of the year.

The work is being paid for with a Pennsylvania SITES grant of nearly $7 million, WCIDC Executive Director Jason Rigone said.

Six other buildings at the park are being razed, in an effort that started last year.

“We’re in the process of taking the final ones down now,” White said.

As part of an $81 million investment, Re:Build Manufacturing moved into five buildings at the park in 2024.

The Re:Build facility was estimated to create 300 new jobs.

Last year, the manufacturer partnered with New York-based Ecolectro to build next-generation hydrogen electrolyzers.

Re:Build officials did not reply to a TribLive request for comment .

The ongoing park renovations are intended to attract more investment in the region, Rigone said.

“These downtown-related former industrial-use projects are really vital to the long-term success and growth of some of these de-industrialized communities like New Kensington,” Rigone said. “It’s creating job opportunities for local residents, it’s stabilizing tax revenue for the community, for the school district, and obviously for the county.”

It also adds aesthetic value to the neighborhood, he said.

“We had discussed the importance of making physical and visual improvements,” Rigone said. “There was a series of very old and antiquated structures that were demolished last year.”

Rigone said there has been interest from potential manufacturers to fill the space, but no one has claimed it yet.

White said it could potentially create another “100 or so” jobs.

Site renovations have been paid for, he said, by a mix of state grants, loans, county funding and some philanthropy.

Building demolition last year was paid for by county American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money, Rigone said.

“The county commissioners have taken a direct approach to investing in these downtown communities,” he said.

The park originally was home to Alcoa’s earliest production and research facilities before it closed in 1971.

It was Schreiber Industrial Park before New Kensington’s redevelopment authority bought it in 2018. In 2023, RIDC and WCIDC acquired it.

Other companies at the park are Affival, Filterbuy, APA Inc. and building materials maker QXO.