East Huntingdon industrial park is an official sellout

The sixth industrial park in Westmoreland County will be filled to capacity with the impending sale of a 6-acre lot in East Huntingdon to a plastics manufacturer, officials announced Thursday.

The Westmoreland commissioners, acting as the county’s Industrial Development Corp., approved a $319,000 deal with Roechling Industrial Mt. Pleasant LP for the purchase of a parcel to be part of a 26,000-square-foot expansion of its current plant in Westmoreland Technology Park 1.

The company operates in a 34,000-square-foot building adjacent to the lot purchased this week.

Once construction of Roechling’s building is complete, all 14 parcels in the industrial park will be occupied. That will make Westmoreland Technology Park 1 the sixth of the county’s 18-park system to be at capacity.

Roechling supplies custom-machined components made of plastic materials. The company began operations in Latrobe in 1981 and moved to the industrial park two decades later.

“By purchasing the adjoining lot and expanding our facility, we will remain in the county for at least another four decades. We plan to continue growing our business and creating more jobs in a clean and safe working environment,” Roechling General Manager Craig Critchfield said.

More than 600 workers are employed at the businesses in the technology park, generating $550,000 a year in county and local tax revenue, officials said.

Other deals approved

The commissioners also approved a $122,000 deal to option a 3.86-acre parcel at the Westmoreland Air Park in Unity to BGH Property LLC to build a veterinary hospital for the Latrobe Animal Clinic. Officials said plans to build a 10,000-square-foot facility will allow the hospital to double its staff of four full-time veterinarians and 14 support staffers in the next three to five years.

The development agency also awarded a $5.58 million construction contract to A. Liberoni Inc. in Plum to build three pad-ready sites at the Westmoreland Distribution Park North in East Huntingdon. Officials said that project will be paid for in part through a $2 million Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program grant.