John LaCarte said he’s not much of a golfer.
But he bought a golf course anyway.
“I’m an average golfer at best,” the developer from Washington County-based LaCarte Enterprises.
Golf, he said, is a special place for him. It’s where he could walk the course and play with his father. The Stonecrest Golf Course closed in the fall and construction on a new business park is already underway in what has been promised to be the beginning of something new — and big — to bring jobs and businesses here all led by LaCarte’s entrepreneurship.
Lawrence County officials hope LaCarte’s course — both the physical one and the direction it takes the county’s economy — can be a driving force for development here.
LaCarte, speaking at a groundbreaking event Thursday morning, purchased 213-acre land along Route 18 in New Beaver Borough. With 18-wheelers whizzing by and construction equipment clearing trees that once lined the fairways, LaCarte is betting big on Lawrence County.
The county, as Forward Lawrence CEO Ben Bush said in opening remarks, is losing out on attracting companies despite its existing utilities, transportation corridors and a willing manufacturing and industry workforce.
“We had minimal pad-ready or near-pad-ready industrial sites, specifically those with the ability to suit the larger needs that this market has produced over the last several years,” Bush said. “Today, with John’s investment, we can officially say we are well on our way to being able to compete again.”
The county is betting big on him, too.
The multi-million-dollar project is the first new business park development in Lawrence County in four decades. While progress could start slow, possibilities are endless. With pad-ready sites, a company can quickly move in or expand quickly.
It’s no secret the key to large-scale economic development is available shovel-ready real estate — preferably with utilities and traffic access. Right now, Lawrence County is lacking in that combination.
That changes with LaCarte’s investment.
Thursday’s ceremony, attended by nearly 100 people including county and statewide officials, reminded me of a similar business park in Indiana County.
As a college intern in their county planning and development office, I heard much discussion in the community and in the office about the mostly empty Windy Ridge Business & Technology Park along Route 422. The business park, though, was one reason Creps United Publications, a commercial printer, was able to get back to working so quickly after a fire at its Indiana facility. The firm moved to the pad-ready business park just outside the borough and has been there ever since.
A few years later, county leadership attracted a major tenant in 2018 when Urban Outfitters announced it was building a $30-million warehouse that would employ 200 people.
I love Indiana and Indiana County. Logistically, it had no business landing an investment that size. Not when you compare the access to two major highways, a tech hub in Pittsburgh, an international airport and public utilities we have in Lawrence County.
Urban Outfitters chose Indiana County because it had pad-ready sites available.
LaCarte is already four years into the process, which included purchasing the course and then receiving the many permits needed to eventually build a 150,000-square-foot spec building. The building, LaCarte hopes, will house a new company or companies. Others will then follow.
He said the property has the potential for a $130-million investment. Around 750 to 1,000 jobs are promised.
Stonecrest resembles more a golf course right now than a construction site or a business park.
The house always wins, but success in Southern Lawrence County sounds like a sure bet — or an easy putt for birdie.
(Pete Sirianni is the editor of the New Castle News. Email him at psirianni@ncnewsonline.com.)
