On Friday, September 6, at 2 p.m., at the very heart of the I-99 Innovation Corridor, ABCD Corp. (Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation), a non-profit county-wide economic development agency, officially dedicated its new home \u2014 The Devorris Center for Business Development.
\nThe striking 38,000 square foot Devorris Center for Business Development is home to ABCD Corporation, the Blair County Chamber of Commerce, and many other business servicing organizations including the Small Business Administration, the Ben Franklin Technology Partnership, a SCORE Chapter, and other financing and educational partners.
\nThe Devorris Center offers flexible full-service tenant office space equipped with high-speed internet access, teleconferencing and multi-media capabilities, conference rooms, and shared suite support services. The facility is a point-of-entry single location for business development resources.
\nDesigned by the firm of Baechle & Associates of Hollidaysburg, the stunning facility stands on a previously under-utilized \u201cbrownfield\u201d site that is now back in productive use, and will be the focal point for business development in the entire I-99 Innovation Corridor.
\nThe Devorris Center for Business Development represents a multi-million dollar public\/private investment. Funding for this project involved the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania\u2019s Departments of Community & Economic Development and Environmental Protection, the Governor\u2019s Office of the Budget, Capital Funding from ABCD Corp., and a generous gift from the Devorris Family.
\nThe General Contractor was Blaircon Building Company, in cooperation with Biter Electric, Wayne Oakes Plumbing, Allied Mechanical, and Sprint. Blair Technology Group assisted ABCD Corp. with oversight of the technology components. PC Works Plus serves as Devorris\u2019s Systems Administrator.
\nMany prestigious people spoke briefly at the ceremony such as Mayor of the city of Altoona, Tom Martin, Blair County Commissioner, John Eichelberger, Representative Rick Geist of the 79th District, Lieutenant Governor\/Senator, Robert C. Jubelirer, Legislative Assistant to Congressman Bill Shuster, Rob Young, and Chief Executive Officer of The Blair Companies, Donald Devorris. Representative Jerry Stern was also in attendance.
\nJubelirer stated, \u201cThis event provides a wonderful snapshot of the pace of progress in Blair County. Now we have this magnificent facility up and running, another substantial piece in building for a better economic future in our County.\u201d
\nHe continued, \u201cThis Center was a great idea. It is now a successful project. It will be a terrific community asset and economic generator in the years ahead. And it bears a name that symbolizes the strength of commitment to the future of our communities, which we take so much pride in. As the popular commercial puts it: Priceless.\u201d
\nThat name that Jubelirer said that \u2018symbolized the strength of commitment to the future of our communities was Devorris. Chief Executive Officer of The Blair Companies, Donald Devorris, stated, \u201cThis facility represents a statement in the confidence we all have had in the future of our country, our county, and the continued growth in the economic health of central Pennsylvania.\u201d
\nDevorris continued, \u201cThis building represents the statement of our generation, to our children and our grandchildren. (On behalf of the Devorris family) we are happy to be a part in the continued economic growth of the Blair County and central Pennsylvania area.\u201d
\nRepresentative Stern noted, \u201cThis (Devorris Center for Business Development) will impact Tyrone and Bellwood, as far as Antis Township as well. It will bring in anyone who is interested in starting businesses or expanding businesses in their community to come into ABCD Corporation and talk to the Chamber of Commerce people, talk to the business development people that are located in this facility.\u201d
\nStern added, \u201cThey know the contact people not only in the federal government and state government and local government to make a project come to fruition, they\u2019re going to help the whole county.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Friday, September 6, at 2 p.m., at the very heart of the I-99 Innovation Corridor, ABCD Corp. (Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation), a non-profit county-wide economic development agency, officially dedicated its new home \u2014 The Devorris Center for Business Development. The striking 38,000 square foot Devorris Center for Business Development is home to ABCD Corporation, […]<\/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-48260","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\/48260","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=48260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}