HARMONY SELECTED FOR INDUSTRIAL PARK
BEAVER- The Beaver County Corporation for Economic Development is hoping to get a
$500,000 state grant to develop a 22-acre industrial park in Harmony Township. Robert Rice,
CED’s vice president of marketing, said the park will meet the needs of companies seeking smaller
spaces, between 15,000 and 30,000 square feet, which is normally not found in industrial parks.
The property, currently owned by GenCorp of Fairlawn, Ohio, is bordered by Route 65, Duss
Avenue and Logan Lane in Harmony (Legion Ville National Register Boundaries, Ed.). CED is
expected to buy the property from GenCorp, but Rice refused to say how much the corporation is
paying for it. Rice also said development of the land depends on a $500,000 grant from the state
Department of Community Affairs. Without the grant, Rice said CED can’t create the park.
The Beaver County Commissioners approved the grant application today, and Rice said CED
could close on the property this fall if no historical items are found at the site. Part of the grant will
be used to create a road through the middle of the property, Rice said. Rice defended CED’s
decision to build another industrial park by saying small companies can’t find suitable space. He
also said CED has two pieces of property left in the Hopewell Business and Industrial Park. The
other five have been sold, he said. "Our concern with the Hopewell park is that it will be sold out
by the time the (Greater Pittsburgh) airport is completed and we would miss out on other
businesses," Rice said.
Rice said the proposed park, which will contain one- to three- acre lots, is a much smaller project
than the Hopewell park. The Hopewell park took two years to develop, he said.
* While CED proposed destroying the Legion Ville site, hundreds of thousands of square feet
of abandoned steel mills lie vacant 2 miles away.