Siemens' move to RIDC Westmoreland won't create new jobs, company says
Siemens plans to consolidate existing facilities in Monroeville and New Kensington that handle utility and power services to RIDC Westmoreland in East Huntingdon, the company revealed Thursday.
About 200 people are expected to relocate to the new facility, which will occupy 230,000 square feet of existing space and 60,000 square feet of new construction. The move will not bring new jobs to the area, the company told the Tribune-Review.
The RIDC Westmoreland location will contain office and shop-floor space and house field repair and inspection services for utility and power customers, generator and turbine services and house service engineering, sales, marketing and district offices, officials said.
In addition to the two local sites on Old Frankstown Road and in the Schreiber Industrial Park, Siemens also has Pennsylvania power-related facilities in Malvern, Bethlehem and Horsham.
Siemens has 13 sites in Western Pennsylvania, including a facility in the Westmoreland Business & Research Park in Upper Burrell and Washington Township, an automated rail factory in Munhall and East Pittsburgh and health care offices in Green Tree and Pittsburgh.
Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation announced on Wednesday that Siemens planned to move into the business park off Route 119.
The site opened in the 1970s as an assembly facility for Volkswagen before the German automaker ceased operations there in 1988. Sony made televisions there from 1991 until 2010, and battery maker Aquion Energy employed about 700 people at the site from 2012 until filing for bankruptcy this year.
Current tenants at the business park include envelope manufacturer Cenveo and Westmoreland County Community College's Advanced Technology Center for workforce-development programs.
Based in Berlin and Munich, Siemens has 351,000 employees, of which about 50,000 are in the United States, according to the company's website. The company has more than 60 manufacturing sites in the United States.
Aaron Aupperlee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at aaupperlee@tribweb.com, 412-336-8448 or via Twitter @tinynotebook.
