Moving our Economy & Community Forward
Our economy & community strategy focuses on maximizing business investment opportunities and strengthening communities throughout the region.
Business Investments Impacting Our Region
In 2017, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (PRA) – the Conference’s economic development marketing affiliate – worked with partners across the 10-county region to secure:
The PRA’s 2017 wins include a signature investment from Evoqua Water Technologies. The company, a water solutions provider to public and industrial water systems, expanded and established its global headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh. The expansion will result in the creation of 63 new, full-time jobs over the next three years. In an official press release, Evoqua noted its confidence in Pittsburgh as a “viable business destination, which will help the company attract and retain more, high-skilled talent.”
Funding Key Sites for Development
A top reason the Pittsburgh region loses economic development investment projects is the lack of available shovel-ready real estate sites. To address this issue, the Power of 32 Site Development Fund (P32 SDF) was created to provide patient mortgage loans to sites located within the 32-county, multi-state Greater Pittsburgh region that have the potential for regional economic impact if they are made ready for construction.
In 2017, the P32 SDF made a $6.9 million investment loan to the developer of Beaver County’s Turnpike Industrial Park to cover site preparation of three pads that can accommodate up to one million square feet of space for distribution and/or manufacturing facilities. Read our press release on the announcement.
To date, the fund has made four loans – three in Pennsylvania and one in West Virginia – bringing the grand total of investment to $24.8 million.
Helping Communities to a Prosperous Future
The Allegheny Conference continued its support of community revitalization efforts through the Strengthening Communities Partnership (SCP). More than a dozen employers contributed a total of $2.3 million to our seven partner organizations: Economic Development South (Mt. Oliver/Knoxville), Fayette County Cultural Trust (Connellsville), McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation, Operation Better Block (Homewood), Sharpsburg Neighborhood Organization, Washington Citywide Development Corporation and Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation.
SCP worked with the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce to create a statewide coalition to support the protection of and increased investment in Pennsylvania’s Neighborhood Assistance Tax Credit Program (NAP). In December 2017, Governor Tom Wolf announced that $7.1 million in NAP funding will flow to southwestern Pennsylvania communities, including to all seven of the SCP communities, for projects planned in 2017-18.