Developer working on more Clinton projects

Warehouses planned at air-corridor park

A Cincinnati developer is betting heavily on the Pittsburgh International Airport corridor.

Al. Neyer LLC has reached a deal with the Allegheny County Airport Authority to build two more single-story warehouses at the Clinton Commerce Park.

The new buildings, measuring from 50,000 to 75,000 square feet each, will supplement four others the developer has erected or intends to construct at the authority-owned Findlay site.

Authority board members approved a development agreement Friday with Al. Neyer for the new buildings, to be constructed over 10 acres. The company will pay 20 cents a square foot for the land.

Al. Neyer already has built two buildings at the site. One, measuring 300,000 square feet, houses Berlin Packing. Another, at 265,000 square feet, is empty and being marketed for a tenant.

David Storer, the authority’s manager of real estate development, said Al. Neyer also plans to start construction of a third building at the end of the year. The timetable for a fourth has not been determined.

The new buildings will be marketed simultaneously with the others, Mr. Storer said.

Christina Cassotis, the authority’s CEO, attributed Al. Neyer’s big commitment to the Clinton Commerce site to several factors, including the development of the Shell cracker plant in nearby Beaver County and the lack of available space

at the Southpointe office park in Washington County.

“The airport corridor right now is really hot,” she said.

Al. Neyer alone has already invested more than $35 million in the two warehouses it has built at Clinton Commerce Park.

The six buildings planned by the developer will complete the second phase of the Commerce Park development. Overall, about 330 acres of the 790-acre site have been developed so far.

Also Friday, the authority reported a 8.6 percent increase in Pittsburgh International passenger traffic in January compared with the same month last year.

It marks the 21st consecutive month traffic has risen, fueled by the big growth in flights and destinations over the last three years.

“We are seeing a great trend in people being responsive to the flights we are bringing in “Ms. Cassotis said.

The increases are not only being driven by lowcost carriers like Allegiant, Spirit, and Frontier but more traditional airlines as well.

She noted the number of flights to Chicago and Boston, for example, has been growing.

In fact, the dozen daily flights the airport now has to Boston are more than it had in its heyday as a US Airways hub, Ms. Cassotis said.