MAY 2010
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PRA Partnership Again Named a National "Top 10 Development Group" by Site Selection Magazine
For the third consecutive year, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance (PRA) Partnership has been named one of the nation's Top 10 economic development groups by leading commercial real estate publication, Site Selection magazine. The recognition is based upon a variety of 2009 performance indicators, including total capital investment in the region, total jobs created, the contributions of regional economic development partners toward the attainment of these numbers, overall economic vitality, scope of economic strength, diversity of industry and ability to generate breakthrough deals.
An affiliate of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the PRA is the 10-county Pittsburgh region's public-private economic development partnership that markets the benefits of conducting business in southwestern Pennsylvania to companies worldwide that are growing, relocating or expanding. Recently, the PRA Partnership announced its own annual inventory of regional economic development deals, or "wins," and 2009 was a respectable year for the region, despite one of the deepest economic downturns in history.
"The Pittsburgh region has a balanced, diversified economy that has continued to perform even when the going is tough," said Allegheny Conference on Community Development CEO Dennis Yablonsky. "Investing in the Pittsburgh region opens doors to unique opportunities across a growing and diverse portfolio of industries including advanced manufacturing, financial and business services, energy, health care and life sciences, and information and communications technology…" Read more (PDF file)
More Economic Development News
Hiring 500: Atlas Energy Announces Expansion in Moon
"Atlas Energy has announced plans to add 500 people at its corporate office in Moon Township in the next five years. The company has also formed a joint venture with Reliance Industries in India, one of the largest refiners and petrochemical producers in the world. As a result, Altas plans to double in size and expand the company's location at Westpointe Corporate Center One where the company now leases 35,000 SF." Read more
Clean Energy: Wind Power Gains Steam, Creates Jobs in Pennsylvania
"Wind power came on strong in Pennsylvania in 2009, with the electricity generated by windmills more than doubling, the American Wind Energy Association said [recently]. Windmills now stand atop hills in nine counties across Pennsylvania, including Fayette, Somerset, Cambria and Blair. The first windmill in southwest Pennsylvania began generating power in 2000. Five years ago, the region had four wind farms with a generating capacity of 64.5 megawatts." Read More
Aethon Lands $6.6M, Launching 2 New Bots, Hiring
"Aethon's family of hospital helping robots is about to grow. The Robinson Township maker of the drug delivery bot TUG has landed $6.6 million in new capital to fuel company growth and add two new bots. And the company's hiring 10 in engineering, sales and service. A substantial slice of the funding, $5 million, was made possible through a partnership with the Bosch Group, a German supplier of technology and services." Read more
Summer Start Eyed for $20M dck Worldwide's Headquarters Building
"A new $20 million headquarters building for dck Worldwide – formerly known as Dick Corp. – could be started in Pittsburgh's South Side this summer, nearly three years after it was announced. Dck Worldwide is the region's largest construction company. Located in the Large section of Jefferson Hills, dck Worldwide would occupy one 30,000 SF floor with about 125 employees in a 120,000 SF building" Read more
LANXESS Making a Comeback on a Global Sustainable Scale
"LANXESS celebrates its fifth anniversary as a public company with growth, plans for global expansion and sustainable initiatives. A spinoff of Bayer AG in 2005, the manufacturer of high-performance polymers, rubbers and plastics struggled initially with layoffs as the company restructured. This month LAXNESS announced a return to profitability. Coming back from a $43.6 million loss in fourth quarter 2008, LANXESS posted a fourth quarter 2009 net income of $19.3 million and announced several major expansion projects. LANXESS employs 300 at its North American headquarters in Findlay Township, the home of corporate services and human resources." Read more
Power and Water Leader Emerson Keeps Growing in RIDC O'Hara Industrial Park
"Emerson Process Management Power & Water Solutions, Inc. has purchased a 40,000 SF building at the RIDC Industrial Park, O'Hara Township. This building at 160 Beta Dr. is Emerson's second property in the park. Its initial 242,423 SF 200 Beta Dr. building was built and purchased in 1966, and expansions were completed in 1972. Emerson began leasing the 160 Beta Dr. building in 1982, and with the lease up for renewal, decided to purchase the building as a ‘sound economic investment' that ‘cements Emerson's continuing commitment to this region.'" Read more
Regenerative Medical Firm Expanding
"Stemnion, a privately held company taking an innovative approach to treating wounds through regenerative medicine, has finished enrollment for first-phase clinical trials and is expanding its South Oakland operations. Co-founder and CEO George L. Sing said the company, started in 2004 with a staff of five and 1,000 square feet of space, with the help of some government seed money now employs more than 30 and takes up 20,000 SF at a facility on Technology Drive [in Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood] near the Hot Metal Bridge." Read more
Groundbreaking at Startpointe Business Park
Public and private sector leaders recently gathered to celebrate the start of construction on a new 30,000 SF flex building at Starpointe Business Park. Among those making remarks at the ceremony were Washington County Council on Economic Development Chairman Dick White, Washington County Commissioners Larry Maggi and Bracken Burns, State Representative Jesse White, Community Bank President & CEO Pat McCune and Fourth River Development's Mark Schneider. The facility, scheduled to be available for occupancy later this year, leaves six pad-ready parcels available in the first phase of development at the park. Read more
Pittsburgh Communications Agencies Quest Fore and Blue Fox Merge
"Marketing communications firm Quest Fore Inc. and Web application firm Blue Fox Development [recently] merged. As part of the transaction, they have launched Quest Fox Interactive, which offers interactive programming and application development … Blue Fox Development has been based in Cheswick, about 12 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Its staff of three have moved to Quest Fore's main office on Pittsburgh's South Side." Read more
Eight Pittsburgh Region Companies Make 2010 Fortune 500 List
"Pennsylvania has 25 companies on the 2010 Fortune 500 list, with eight of those in the Pittsburgh area. New to the list this year is Findlay-based Dick's Sporting Goods … Fortune magazine compiles its list of the biggest and best businesses based on 2009 fiscal and calendar year financial performance, focusing on revenue. PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. ranked higher than any other Pittsburgh company, rocketing up to No. 123 on the list, from 278 last year." Read more
TechRadio Highlights the PRA and Robotics Leader, SEEGRID
Listen to the Pittsburgh Technology Council's TechRadio podcast to learn about local robotics leader SEEGRID's innovative, unmanned industrial robot technology and hear from PRA Vice President of Market Research, Jim Futrell about the enormous regional economic opportunity related to the energy industry.
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Accelerates Scientific Research with SGI Altix UV
SGI, a global leader in HPC and datacenter solutions, recently announced that the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) has been working with pre-production Altix UV hardware and software both at PSC and SGI. Since the beginning of February 2010, PSC has been working to build and run important applications in climate, weather, chemistry, materials science and physics using Altix UV. The center has also tested kernels representing unique applications in graph-based informatics, an area in which Altix UV is expected to excel. Ongoing work at the center will target additional high performance computing (HPC) applications, including biology and astrophysics. Read more
Astrobotic Technology is Delivering to the Moon
"Carnegie Mellon spinoff, Astrobotic Technology Inc., is on track to land the world's first privately-funded lunar robot on the moon, a feat that it hopes will capture the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize in 2012. To get there, the company is purchasing the Falcon 9, a reliable, larger and less expensive launcher made by SpaceX, a company founded by Elon Musk, the Henry Ford of future space travel." Read more
Nashville (and Six others) Hope to Learn From Pittsburgh, Record Number of Benchmarking Visits
"Nashville's business leaders [recently brought more than 100 people] to Pittsburgh to see what ideas they can bring back to Middle Tennessee." Read more With the post-G-20 Summit buzz about the region's economic, environmental and quality of life transformation, the region is welcoming a record seven benchmarking visits from cities across the country that are looking to take some of best practices home. Read more about the visits (PDF file)
Pittsburgh Among Most Affordable Housing Markets
"Pittsburgh ranks among the nation's most-affordable housing markets, according to a study released Tuesday. Based on a Business First of Buffalo analysis of the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, Pittsburgh has an affordability ranking of 79, out of 451 markets. The study includes the 52 major metropolitan areas with populations above 1 million. The Pittsburgh area had a median home value of $115,700 and a median household income of $47,199 as of 2008. The smaller the ratio between the median home value and median home income, the more affordable the housing. Pittsburgh's ratio of $2,451 of home value per $1,000 of income puts it in the top five most-affordable markets, the study found." Read more
Pittsburgh Region Pulls in $24M in First-Quarter VC Investment
"While the country got off to a stronger start in first quarter venture capital investment activity compared to Q1 2009, the region also posted gains with almost $24 million invested and a strong showing from the life sciences sector. Venture capitalists invested $4.7 billion in 681 deals across the country this quarter, a 38 percent increase from first quarter 2009 when venture capitalists completed 635 deals for $3.4 billion. The strongest sectors nationally were biotechnology, medical devices and clean energy technologies." Read
more
A Smartphone On Your Skin
"Chris Harrison, a third year doctorate student in Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute … and two colleagues, Desney Tan and Dan Morris of Microsoft Research, have developed Skinput, a combination of bio-acoustic sensors and machine learning software that allows people to use the body – or a tabletop or wall for that matter – as a touchpad to control smart phones and other mobile devices." Read more
$321M Consol Energy Center Offers More Seats, Better Views, Eco-Friendly Design
"AIA Pittsburgh (American Institute of Architects) recently offered a tour of the new Consol Energy Center ... Attended by 60, the tour was led by leaders from Oxford Development, including project manager Mike Bernard, and by Michael Maruschak from Chester Engineers, which is working with Sports & Exhibition Authority on the new hockey arena. The Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County own the building." Read more
Riverside Development Group Completes Pittsburgh's First Net-Zero Energy Home
"The 1,850 SF residence is part of Riverside Mews, a 48-unit townhouse community developed, starting in 2007, on a former brownfield site between 18th and 19th Streets on the South Side … The Net-Zero home generates as much power as it uses on an annual basis through an 8,000-watt photo-voltaic roof mounted array. The townhome's energy use is minimized through super-insulation methods, a geothermal heat pump, LED lighting, and other energy measures including Energy Star-rated products." Read more
Former Westinghouse Building at 11 Stanwix Going Green
The owner of the former Westinghouse building at 11 Stanwix Street is spending more than $4 million in a bid to make the structure greener. Stanwix Lender Associates, L.P., an affiliate of Rugby Realty, is scrapping the building's old heating and cooling systems for new, more energy efficient ones, and upgrading the lighting in the 23-story structure. Aaron Stauber, Rugby Realty president, said the company has installed new gas boilers to replace an all-electric heating system. The change is expected to cut heating costs in half. Read more
PIT Chosen by Wings Logistics as Air Cargo Distribution Point
Wings Logistics, of New York, NY, a highly-rated and fast-growing freight forwarder, has selected Pittsburgh International Airport as its distribution point for chartered cargo flights from Asia. Currently, flights will be scheduled on average of one per week through August 2010. Read more
Equitable Gas Company Receives Grant for Construction of CNG Fueling Station in Pittsburgh
"Equitable Gas Company was selected today by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to receive an Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant (AFIG) to assist in the construction of a regional Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fueling station in Pittsburgh's Strip District. The station is being constructed to provide cleaner burning natural gas to fleet vehicles of area governmental units and private businesses including Equitable Gas Company service vehicles. The new CNG refueling station will also be available to the public to refuel privately owned natural gas vehicles." Read more
RIDC/State Partnership for Development Analysis of Former Sony Plant in New Stanton
The Regional Industrial Development Corp. (RIDC), which operates a dozen industrial parks in the Pittsburgh region, recently signed a one-year agreement with the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority to conduct a new analysis of the development potential for Sony Corp.'s 2.8 million SF, 400-acre complex, the Sony's Pittsburgh Technology Center, which straddles Hempfield and East Huntingdon townships near New Stanton. The site features includes utilities and infrastructure and easy access to interstate highways and a rail line. Read more
Pittsburgh's Collaborative Practices Continue Attracting National and Global Conferences
"Pittsburgh has become a top-flight destination for national and international conferences, the most notable recent examples being the G-20 Summit last fall and the upcoming World Environment Day conference in June. Our city is a strong choice for major conferences on any topic, but one national conference – the recent gathering hosted by Grantmakers of Effective Organizations – came to Pittsburgh for more than just our world-class facilities and location. The GEO Organizers took place here this week because Pittsburgh is a hub of philanthropy and nonprofit work. Read more
BodyMedia Says Armband Helps Dieters Lose Three Times More Weight
BodyMedia's popular armband is generating quite a buzz on the weight loss circuit. BodyMediaFit, formerly GoWearFit, wraps around the arm and helps wearers to monitor their activity, calories and weight. The company has achieved celebrity status since its technology was featured on NBC's "Biggest Loser" last year and the armband was touted by ABC as a "Top Tech" Gift for the holidays in 2009. Read more
Eaton Corporation/University of Pittsburgh Partnership Powers Future Engineering Talent
Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation and the University of Pittsburgh recently presented best practices and ideas aimed at addressing workforce challenges and cultivating new talent in electrical and power engineering. The panel discussions were part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power and Energy Society Transmission and Distribution Conference in New Orleans, La., and were an outgrowth of the path-breaking collaboration between the global power management company and the university's Swanson School of Engineering.
Philips Respironics Lands Industryweek "Top 10 Best Plant" Recognition
The Philips Respironics manufacturing plant in Murrysville, Pa., has been awarded a spot in Industryweek's "Top 10 Best Plants of 2009," a list that spans North America. The winning factory's accomplishments are featured in the cover story of the January 2010 issue of the leading manufacturing trade publication. The 125,000 SF facility, which opened in 1990, is one of two manufacturing facilities Philips Respironics operates in the region. Read more
Pittsburgh's Under-45 Labor Force One of the Most Educated in U.S.
"Pittsburgh's under-45 labor force remains one of the most educated in the country, as measured by the percentage of younger workers who have attained a bachelor's degree or higher, according to U.S. Census data compiled by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research." Read more
IUP B-School Ranks in Princeton Review Top 15 "Student Opinion" List
The Eberly College of Business and Information Technology is one of fifteen graduate schools of business in the nation named to the Princeton Review's second annual "Student Opinion Honors for Business Schools." In its debut on the listing, IUP was included in two of the six categories: Marketing and General Operations. The list appears in the April 2010 issue of Entrepreneur magazine. Read more
EVENTS
May 12 – Will You Prosper from Marcellus Shale? Those with Foresight & Vision Can Profit as Pennsylvania Gets Serious About Its Energy Riches
One study estimates that there is 500 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas in the Marcellus Shale field, more than the U.S. produces (about 30 trillion cubic feet) annually. That's a lot of energy to be harnessed and a lot of economic activity to be generated – and with it, real opportunities for Western Pennsylvania entrepreneurs and investors to find success serving the energy industry and its myriad of spinoffs. The questions we'd like to ask are simple: Who will prosper as Marcellus Shale extraction revs up – and how? Will it be you? Join Enterprise Forum Pittsburgh as it gathers a group of experts from the mining industry, government, universities and business to delve into the promises – and, yes, the obstacles – now before regional entrepreneurs and investors as Pennsylvania gets serious about its energy riches. At the Pittsburgh Golf Club. Cost: $25 in advance, $30 at the door, $10 for students. Registration and networking begin at 5:30 p.m., program begins at 6:30 p.m.
May 12 – Love and Marriage … and Business Makes Three
The University of Pittsburgh Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence features Meg Hirshberg presenting "Love and Marriage...and Business Makes Three." This program is ideal for individuals and families who are working to grow their business while balancing marriage, family life and self-development. From 5-8 p.m. at the University Club in Oakland. Registration is limited so contact the institute today.
May 28 – 34th Annual Small Business Awards (SBA) Luncheon & Trade Show
Honor our region's small business leaders and hear from keynote speaker, World Hall of Fame golfer Carol Semple Thompson. The Sewickley, PA native will present "The Business of the U.S. Women's Open," as Pittsburgh hosts the signature event at the Oakmont Country Club this summer. At the Sheraton Station Square Hotel. Trade Show and networking from 10:30 a.m. – noon. Luncheon from noon - 1:30 p.m. Cost: $45 prior to May 14/$55 after May 14. Tables of 10 also available ($450/$550).
June 3 – Water Matters! Global Water Conference, Presented by the Pittsburgh World Environment Day Partnership
Join us at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center to learn more about the future for and protection of our waters. Join citizens, students, business owners, watershed groups, and community leaders from across our region and North America to be part of a remarkable, eye-opening exploration of ways Water Matters! The conference is open to the public and intended for all audiences. Learn about the region's leading water innovators, problem solvers and applied technologies. The day-long conference will conclude with a networking reception and exhibition providing hands-on activities and displays. Panels span Water and Health, Water and Energy, and Water as an Economic Driver. Cost: $25. Attendance is limited so register today.
June 10 – Entrepreneur’s Growth Conference
Duquesne University Small Business Development Center will host its 12th annual conference with this year’s keynote speakers Roger Byford, CEO of Vocollect, Inc., and Ed Stack, CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. The event draws some 500 attendees annually who want to:
- Reenergize their business with new resources, new ideas & new contacts
- Experience unparalleled, nonstop networking with leading experts, investors, peers & future customers
- Choose from over 15 expert-led workshops on the hottest topics in business today
- Attend a Business Building Tradeshow featuring 50 exhibits, live demonstrations and prizes
- Receive cutting-edge strategies in marketing, sales, raising money, management, & growth
A variety of sponsorship opportunities are available. Please contact Christine Hughes at 412.396.1631 for information.
  
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