CLEARFIELD – Primus Builders Inc. and Garner Economics LLC have awarded the Commerce Park, located in Clearfield, as the first Food Site Certification in of Pennsylvania.
“Partnering with Primus/Garner is a long-term strategy for business recruitment and development initiatives for the Commerce Park and our community as a whole,” explained Rob Swales, chief executive officer of Clearly Ahead Development.
“We are pleased to announce this partnership is active in the promotion and recruitment phase of our certification process with prospects. This is truly a proud moment for Clearfield County, as we are the first Industrial Park in Pennsylvania to become a certified site.
“This will place Commerce Park as a serious contender with Food Manufacturing businesses looking to expand their operations into other areas of the United States – particularly the Eastern Coast.”
The Commerce Park in Clearfield consists of 162-acre industrial and commercial lots in a terraced fashion with infrastructure, including access roads, overhead and underground electric, telecommunications, water, sewage and natural gas services.
Located on Industrial Park Road, the Commerce Park is less than one mile from Interstate 80 and state Route 879. Recently zoned Industrial Limited Special, the Commerce Park’s leadership is positioning the site to attract a wide range of capital investment in an effort to bring new food and beverage processing jobs to the area.
“The certification process is a critical component to assist business prospects to determine whether a site is conducive to their operations. A certified site is a major competitive advantage over other sites and industrial parks that do not have a unified compilation of site selection data critical to a company’s decision making process,” Swales stated.
According to Swales, there are more than 30,000 companies in the United States that are defined as food and beverage process manufacturers. These companies employ more than 1.6 million people. The food and beverage sector has growth opportunities in organics and naturals, ready-to-eat, health and wellness, ethnic and comfort foods. Clearfield County wishes to capitalize on these opportunities.
“Speed to market continues to be an important factor with our clients in selecting sites or buildings. When we evaluate a community for one of our food clients, we analyze hundreds of variables that our clients consider important in the selection process. By having a Primus/Garner Certified Food Site, you are ahead of your competitors in showing food and beverage clients that your site meets the rigorous criteria that many companies are reviewing in their siting process,” commented Tony Pitrone, vice president of Primus Builders, and Jay Garner, president of Garner Economics.
The certification process began with an extensive labor analysis focused on the workforce requirements of the food and beverage industry. This presents solid information to prospective clients that prove the site’s value. Primus and Garner’s technical experts have initiated additional field analysis exercises to strengthen Clearfield County’s market position.
Primus’ engineers have provided a master site plan, virtual spec building and various marketing materials to help in efforts to create business activity in the Commerce Park.
“We look forward to the end results as the Commerce Park’s geophysical data, heavy infrastructure with premier pre- and post-treatment water/sewer facilities and labor analysis for high-demand occupations are extremely attractive for food manufacturing operations to expand into the Commerce Park. Furthermore, the certification highlights our region’s Universities and secondary trade institutions ability to provide world-class food science and technology degrees and training capabilities to showcase workforce development and sustainable operations growth to prospects,” stated Swales.
