Fay-Penn closes deal on Army Reserve center
After three and a half years, Fay-Penn Economic Development Council has closed the deal on selling 20 acres for a new Army Reserve center in the Fayette Business Park near Smithfield.
At its quarterly board meeting Friday morning, Dana Kendrick, Fay-Penn economic development specialist, announced that the real estate closing was held earlier this month.
“We began working on this project in October 2008,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg, announced in May that an agreement had been reached to purchase about 20 acres in the Fayette Business Park in Georges Township for the U.S. Army Reserve Center, a multimillion-dollar military training center. The Army paid $620,000 for the property.
Shuster said the project was the result of months of hard work and negotiations between his office, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fay-Penn and local elected representatives.
“The acquisition of this land and the reserve center that will be built there will result in positive economic development for the county and deepen the already close ties between the community and our armed forces,” Shuster said.
The property purchase is the first of several phases for the $11.8 million project that, when completed, will provide a center for Reservists from Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia.
Initially, the business park property was listed as an alternate site for the Army Reserve 401 Medium Truck Co. by the Corps of Engineers, with a 26-acre property located within the Westmoreland County I-70 Industrial Park as the preferred location.
According to tentative plans, the project is to include a training facility, maintenance building and storage site that will provide administrative, educational, assembly, library, learning center, vault, weapons simulator and physical fitness areas for the unit.
Kendrick said she has not been notified when the Army will start construction of the new center. She added the Army has told her that once the project leaves its real estate division, it will move “up the ladder” toward construction and completion.
Thomas LaVean, project engineer of the Corps of Engineers, said the main building will include about 30,400-square-feet of space. Engineer Bradley Cole of Michael Baker Inc. of Pittsburgh said there will be 141 parking spots at the site, but they will be mostly filled on weekends when the classroom training is held.