CLEARFIELD – A food site certification will make the Commerce Park in Clearfield a “serious contender” with food manufacturing companies with plans to expand their operations into areas of the United States, particularly along the Atlantic Coast.
During Tuesday’s Clearfield County Commissioners’ meeting, Rob Swales, chief executive officer of Clearly Ahead Development, said that the Commerce Park was recently awarded a food site certification from Primus Builders Inc. and Garner Economics. The Commerce Park is the first-ever in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to receive a food site certification, he said.
The Commerce Park consists of 162 acres of industrial and commercial lots in a terraced fashion with infrastructure, such as access roads, overhead and underground electric, telecommunications, water, sewage and natural gas services. It’s located on Industrial Park Road less than one mile from both Interstate 80 and state Route 879; it’s also zoned as Industrial Limited Special.
A food site certification is a “critical component” that assists prospective companies in determining the conduciveness of a site to their operations. “A certified site is a major competitive advantage over other sites and industrial parks,” Swales said. “Other sites aren’t going to have that compilation of site selection data critical in a company’s decision-making process.”
According to a previous press release from 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.
He said food manufacturing was chosen over other options, as it was “recession proof.” “Through good times and the bad, people still have to eat, and food manufacturing goes on no matter what,” he said. “… Also, if you can meet the [site] needs of food manufacturing, you can for almost any industry out there.”
Swales said it was noted in the analysis that the Commerce Park has an abundance of quality water and impressive sewer treatment. He said it was also noted that this would save $500,000 or more per development project, while food manufacturers wouldn’t have to invest as much if at all into pre- and post-treatment for food operations.
He said that Primus’ engineers have developed and provided a master site plan, a virtual spec building and various marketing materials to help promote and locate prospective food manufacturing companies into the Commerce Park. He said the virtual spec building was developed to allow for a company to double in size on its site without running into constraints.
Swales said the food site certification process also included an extensive labor analysis. He said it found there was a high demand for food/beverage manufacturing jobs within a 45-minute drive time. Swales said that with Penn State, other universities and post-secondary institutions offering food science and technology degree programs, it’s an opportunity to market and showcase workforce development and sustainable operations growth to prospective companies.
He said that Clearly Ahead Development will actively promote the Commerce Park in Clearfield at the Site Selections Guild this fall in Philadelphia. “We’ll be the only corporation there with a certified industrial site,” he said.
Commissioner Joan Robinson-McMillen said she would like to see Clearly Ahead Development promote the Commerce Park’s food site certification on signage on I-80. Swales said he agreed with that as an avenue to promote the Commerce Park.