Bedford County will soon have new office space for startups and expanding businesses.
The Bedford County Development Association is working an addition to the 24,000-square foot Bedford County Business Center it owns outside the town of Bedford in southwestern Pennsylvania. The nearly 15,000-square foot addition is set to be finished in the summer of 2012.
The existing business center, which opened in 2004, is a home for new businesses and those in need of a new space. About 21,000 square feet are occupied now. Companies leasing space in the center include printing firm Stel-Tek Graphics and the sales and marketing division of Bedford Reinforced Plastics.
Construction on the additional facility is expected to start this summer and take about a year, says Bette Slayton, president of the Bedford County Development Association. Its cost is estimated at $1.1 million, of which $650,000 will be covered by a federal grant. The Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority is lending another $252,000.
Slayton says the additional space will be open to entrepreneurs, startup businesses, companies looking for a place to expand, and people who work out of their houses now but want an office away from home.
Source: Bette Slayton, Bedford County Development Association
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen