CLEARFIELD – At yesterday’s annual luncheon, Rob Swales, chief executive officer for Clearly Ahead Development, formerly known as the Clearfield County Economic Development Corp. (CCEDC), not only reviewed successes from 2015, but also announced plans for TAFCO’s expansion project in the upcoming year.
According to Swales, TAFCO, a manufacturer of commercial refrigeration products, such as walk-in coolers and walk-in freezers, will expand into the Clearfield Commerce Park. The Clearfield Commerce Park is located on Industrial Park Road, and it is less than one-mile from both Interstate 80 and state Route 879.
As of this week, Clearly Ahead has an agreement established with TAFCO after working on the project for nearly two years. TAFCO has acquired more than 11 acres of land in the Commerce Park and has developed plans to construct a 100,000-square foot facility with completion expected to be in the summer of 2016, he said.
Additionally, Swales noted that TAFCO will retain 80 full-time employees. He said TAFCO has an aggressive expansion plan with job growth projections of 10 percent per year. “We are very excited about this project moving forward in 2016. It has been a very exciting project to work on,” he said.
Prior to the announcement, Swales said that Clearly Ahead began actively working in early 2015 to make the Clearfield Commerce Park “a signature piece” for Clearfield County. Through partnerships with Primus Builders Inc. and Garner Economics LLC, he said Clearly Ahead obtained Pennsylvania’s first food site certification for the Clearfield Commerce Park.
He said Clearly Ahead wanted to obtain a unique certification for the Commerce Park that was also recession resistant. He noted there aren’t that many food manufacturers in this area, and it’s also an energy-intense industry with tight standards, especially on water quality. In the coming year, he said they have plans to reach out and work with Penn State’s Food Sciences Department to help grow the food sector.
Swales began his presentation with reminding attendees of Clearly Ahead’s mission statement. He said that it is to serve the community to create growth and opportunity in Clearfield County. Swales showed a graphic of Pennsylvania highlighting the county’s location, which Clearly Ahead utilizes to its advantage when promoting the county.
In 2015, he said that Clearly Ahead reached out to 85 local businesses within Clearfield County. Of those, he said 88 percent of their discussions with local business owners involved internal expansion opportunities and strategic planning for the future. In 2015, he said Clearly Ahead reached out to 139 out-of-area businesses.
“We really stepped up the bar with our out-of-area business outreach this year,” said Swales. He said their promotion of Clearfield County included substantial domestic and international outreach, including 15 states and more than 20 countries; they also hosted six international visits, including two from delegations from China.
According to him, Clearly Ahead has focused on recruiting energy-intense industries with the ability to take advantage of the advanced infrastructure in central Pennsylvania. He noted the county has access to electrical transmission lines in close proximity to I-80, the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and major natural gas pipelines.
For 2015, Swales said Clearly Ahead actually reports 2014 project impact figures to the Pennsylvania Economic Development Association (PEDA). He said the economic development corporation reported administering 14 projects, which had a total project cost of more than $29.5 million, retained 700 jobs and created an additional 120 jobs.
So far as real estate development impact this past year, he pointed out that Clearly Ahead owns and manages 262 acres and paid out more than $80,000 in real estate taxes. Since 1999, he said 11 of 12 sites owned were rescued failing projects; only one site was developed to rapidly meet an immediate demand for growth with unmet capacity.
In 2015, Clearly Ahead’s real estate increased by nearly 162 acres, which was a goal and a result of an economic development partnership. “Right out of the gate” this year, Clearly Ahead reached an agreement with the Clearfield Foundation, the owners of the Clearfield Firemen’s Industrial Park, to help re-brand to the Clearfield Commerce Park located off of I-80, Swales said.
He said that over the past year, Clearly Ahead has developed a list of 15 projects. He said they are not happening in Clearfield County presently, but nationwide and have hit Clearly Ahead’s radar for recruitment. “Moving forward, we are going to continue working on these in 2016 … they are highly competitive and very aggressive projects,” Swales said.
Of those projects, he said Clearly Ahead has identified eight projects that anticipate $1.452 billion in investment. As well, he said 10 of the 15 projects are forecasting the creation of more than 1,400 jobs. He said some of these projects have a more aggressive 12- to 18-month timeline and others are forecasted not to develop until 2019.
He said locally in 2015, Clearly Ahead significantly completed the first phase of the Clearfield Riverfront Redevelopment Project. He showed photographs of the site from about a year ago and then current photographs after the investment of more than $2 million into the project.
He said the riverwalk will be conducive for small festivals and was developed with that in mind. In 2016, Clearly Ahead will focus on the other phases of the riverfront project, including hotel recruitment and development at the former Tool Shed site and the redevelopment of the Market Square site.
Before his presentation, Swales also recognized Clearly Ahead’s former long-time solicitor, the late Dwight L. “Skip” Koerber Jr., who died in June of this year. Koerber was a founding board member and solicitor who guided the economic development corporation’s projects through “thick and thin,” he said.
“He was our mentor, our motivator and inspired the organization individually and collectively,” said Swales. “He will be missed; he was a big part of the community … We wanted to recognize him here today, and I think he’d be proud of where we are at with our mission.”
