The civic leaders have been telling the public for more than 2 years that the real payoff from having multiple ethylene production facilities – ethane crackers – was in the downstream manufacturing that would arise. Today, GE announced what had been alluded to in an earlier blog post last week – a new plant in Pittsburgh.

The company acquired a site in Chapman Westport, along Rte. 576 in Findlay Twp. with the intention of building a 180,000 sq. ft. advanced manufacturing facility. GE will get proposals from three development teams, including Chapman Properties, Al Neyer & Clayco, to build the plant. The project will be a crunch, with work starting in March if GE gets its way. GE’s announcement was a little vague about the building’s purpose but I was told last week that the plant would manufacture resins, one of the key ingredients to the plastics recipe. (As a reminder, ethylene is the mother feedstock of plastics).

Although there has been no confirmation, Ensinger Plastics has reportedly chosen a site for a new facility, a plant of more than 250,000 sq. ft.

Perhaps Shell wasn’t the only company waiting for the dust to settle before sharing its plans with the region.

The Ellwood City Ledger earlier this week reported some specifics about the early work at the Shell site that buildingpittsburgh alluded to last week. The paper listed Trumbull Energy Services as having won a contract for earthwork. The successful contractor is actually a joint venture between Trumbull and Mascaro Construction is expected to land significant pieces of the site preparation.