Nonprofit to turn center into food processing, packing plant for Western Pa. region!
REPUBLIC -- The old Republic Enterprise Center in Fayette County shows signs of its eclectic past: office equipment to be auctioned off, liners that were designed to hold explosives, empty cheesecake boxes.
But by this time next year, the former IGA distribution center built in the middle of the last century could be turning crops that could have gone to waste into profitable products.
Using funds cobbled together from various sources -- including federal and state grants as well as money from a Pittsburgh foundation -- the strategy is to turn the 50,000-plus-square-foot building into a regional center that would be a linchpin in re-establishing a local food chain.
"The potential with the room in this building is unlimited," said Ken Navoney, who started work in early May as general manager of what's going to be called the Republic Food Enterprise Center. He already is busy taking bids on construction work to turn the place into a facility that can properly process and package food, perhaps turning slightly blemished tomatoes into salsa or less-than-perfect peaches into jams.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/nonprofit-to-turn-center-into-food-processing-packing-plant-for-western-pa-region-640745/#ixzz1y5ApgVNL
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