New company moving into former Sony plant
The state has approved a loan package to a company that will create more than 300 new jobs in the former Sony plant In Westmoreland County.
The Commonwealth Financing Authority last week approved a grant and low-interest loan package totaling $5 million to Aquion Energy Inc. for a manufacturing plant at the former Sony television plant in East Huntingdon Township.
The authority authorized a 10-year loan of $3 million at 2 percent interest and a grant of $2 million, both through the Alternative and Clean Energy Program.
Aquion manufactures sodium ion batteries to store electricity for renewable energy facilities and also to store power for large-scale energy grids to adapt to intermittent variations in generated energy. The batteries are more environmentally friendly than old lead-acid battery systems.
The company’s planned use of 250,000 square feet of the former Sony plant will mean the creation of 341 full-time, high-tech manufacturing jobs during the next 18 months.
Converting the space entirely will be a large-scale project, coming in at almost $120 million.
The company had been considering a move of its operations to another state, and they had reportedly received better development package proposals, but opted to stay in Pennsylvania where Aquion already has a 70-employee plant in Pittsburgh.
In July 2009, the state approved a $7.5 million loan and matching grant package for Solar Power Industries, which manufactures ingots of purified silicon, silicon wafers made from those ingots, solar cells and modules, solar power systems, custom solar modules and even solar street lamps. The company has a 120,000-square-foot plant at Rostraver Airport and leases 265,000 square-feet in the Sony Technology Center facility.
Another company, DNP, also leases about 165,000 square feet at the sprawling former Sony plant site.
“This is a good start. But there are about 2.8 million square feet in the Sony facility, so we have a ways to go,” said Tim White, assistant vice president of development for the Regional Industrial Development Corp. of Southwestern Pennsylvania (RIDC), which is working to develop the property.
“There is a good bit of activity at that site. The (Westmoreland County) community college has committed to 70,000 square-feet and we have a number of other prospects that we are in discussions with,” White added.
State Reps. Ted Harhai, D-Monessen, and Deberah Kula, D-North Union Township, made a joint announcement about the Aquion package.
“I am extremely pleased to hear of the Aquion decision,” Kula said. “The news also means Westmoreland County Community College will lease 70,000 square feet at the old Sony site for training workers on the specific jobs that Aquion will offer. That’s also encouraging.”
Harhai congratulated the RIDC on winning the Aquion commitment.
“It illustrates the wisdom of the development corporation’s commitment to make the old plant more attractive to potential developers to fill more of the 2.8 million square feet of industrial space that Sony left behind,” Harhai said.
“If it is handled properly, as the old saying goes, ‘Nothing succeeds like success,’ which could apply here, and the victory with Aquion likely will attract the interest of other potential occupants to East Huntingdon Township and the former Sony plant,” Harhain added.
Last year, the Commonwealth Financing Authority granted RIDC an $8 million low-interest loan to enhance the property and make it more attractive to developers. The enhancements included modifications to plumbing, heating, ventilation and electrical systems and removal of features that would inhibit multiple-client use.
The plant’s history dates to the late 1960s when a plant was built for Chrysler Corp. but never was occupied. Volkswagen operated an auto assembly factory for 10 years before closing. Sony acquired the former Volkswagen auto assembly plant in 1990 and produced its first television, a CRT-based rear-projection model in 1992.
The New Stanton plant became the world’s first vertically integrated television manufacturing plant with the start-up of American Video Glass in spring 1997.
The glass company, originally a partnership with Corning-Asahi Video Products, became a Sony subsidiary in June 2003.
Sony closed its television glass operation near New Stanton and terminated about 300 workers in May 2006. The workers were mostly from Fayette and Westmoreland counties.
Sony closed the television plant in 2010.
At its peak, Sony employed about 3,000 workers at the plant.