This Friday morning, August 30, at 11 a.m., Martin J. Marasco, President and CEO of the Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation, announced the latest expansion for Smith Transport. The proposed project entails the acquisition of Lots 2 (3.548 acres) and 3 (9.341 acres) in the Robert C. Jubelirer Business Park located along the I-99 Innovation Corridor (Old US Route 220) and construction of a 250,000 square foot building.
\nThe project cost is estimated at $7.3 million and will be financed by a combination of funding through Hollidaysburg Trust Company ($4,820,000), a $1,750,000 Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority loan that was secured through ABCD Corp., a $150,000 loan from the Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission, and a company investment of $240,000. The project is the second by Smith Transport in the Robert C. Jubelirer Business Park.
\nThe facility will enable Smith Transport to meet their customers\u2019 needs for flexible warehousing and distribution space. When complete, Smith Transport will have 500,000 square feet of modern distribution facility under roof. This kind of growth vision is indicative of Smith\u2019s desire to have a strong presence in the Mid-Atlantic market.
\nThis project will result in the creation of 75 new jobs within a three-year period, which is in addition to the 81 Smith Transport employees currently associated with this site. Distribution will be an important industry and job creation engine in the I-99 Innovation Corridor.
\nA groundbreaking ceremony was conducted with the likes of Representative Larry O. Sather, Senator\/Lieutenant Governor Robert C. Jubelirer, Representative Jerry Stern, and Congressman Bill Shuster in attendance. Tyrone Mayor, Pat Stoner, County Commissioner Donna Gority, Jerry Spangler of the I-99 Enterprise Zone Committee, and Jim Chronister and Jim Daughenbaugh from Snyder Township were other local notables attending the ceremony.
\nBob Becker, Senior Vice President of Smith Transport, shared Smith Transport\u2019s vision to the audience. \u201cWe are so fortunate that these people have supported us for many years,\u201d said Becker. \u201cBecause of their support and assistance Barry Smith (President of Smith Transport Company) is going to be able to live his dream of growing and building his company one distribution center at a time, and one truck at a time here in Blair County.\u201d
\nBecker continued, \u201cWe are so fortunate to have people like Barry Smith who 30 years ago teamed along with Lieutenant Governor\/Senator Bob Jubelirer and the state representatives and local representatives and business people like Dean McKnight and Chuck Whitfield.\u201d He added, \u201cThey had the vision and saw the future of this community to build it to the present and future generations.\u201d
\nState Representative Larry O. Sather, 81st District, spoke of the importance of the location of Smith Transport\u2019s expansion. \u201cThe location is a prime importance because of the fact that we have had economic development distress, but we\u2019ve turned the corner,\u201d said Sather. \u201cThey\u2019re saying the expansion here will offer 75 additional jobs and we\u2019re hearing some other good things with some vacant buildings that I think you\u2019ll hear about in the coming months.\u201d
\nSather added, \u201cIt\u2019s about people moving goods and services throughout this great Commonwealth and throughout this nation. I think the best is yet to come.\u201d
\nThe \u201cbig picture\u201d of a project such as Smith Transport\u2019s expansion was spoken about by Jubelirer. \u201cSmith Transport is the sort of bedrock business on which a strong local economy is built,\u201d said Jubelirer. \u201cIt is evidence of the terrific working relationship that the local economic development team has with state and federal officials. If it seems as though every event is a tribute to teamwork, it is so, because we have terrific teamwork and it pays off.\u201d
\nJubelirer noted, \u201cWe can never overlook the expertise and the consistent effort of Marty Marasco and his ABCD team. Nor should we overlook the collaboration of area financial institutions in these projects.\u201d
\nCongressman Bill Shuster took time out of his busy schedule to speak at the groundbreaking and talk about this good news from Barry Smith and Smith Transport for growing along the I-99 corridor and the support the government gives for the transportation system.
\n\u201cOnce again the good news that we hear today, we hear time and time again, 75 jobs here, 60 down in Claysburg, and it\u2019s happening all over,\u201d said Shuster. \u201cWe need to stay focused on the positive.\u201d
\nShuster added, \u201cOne thing the government does very well is it supports the transportation network to allow with the states\u2019 coming together and building the asset out there that we have in I-99, and it\u2019s an asset that\u2019s going to keep on giving to us.\u201d
\nThe Smith Transport property is located in the Northern I-99 Enterprise Zone. This site is also designated by the Commonwealth as a Keystone Opportunity Zone which enables the company to obtain various state and local tax abatement through 2008.
\nBarry Smith, President of Smith Transport Company, stated, \u201cBased on our success with the first warehouse, the property adjoining the existing warehouse was the perfect site for the expansion. The property already has rail access and the economic incentives of the enterprise zone and KOZ made good business sense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This Friday morning, August 30, at 11 a.m., Martin J. Marasco, President and CEO of the Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation, announced the latest expansion for Smith Transport. The proposed project entails the acquisition of Lots 2 (3.548 acres) and 3 (9.341 acres) in the Robert C. Jubelirer Business Park located along the I-99 Innovation Corridor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}