Westinghouse Opens New Headquarters In Cranberry
Some people say George Westinghouse, the founder of Westinghouse Electric, would be very proud today as the company is celebrating the completion of its new local headquarters.
The facility will create thousands of well-paying jobs and keep Westinghouse at the forefront in nuclear energy technology.
The official ribbon-cutting, marked the completion of the Westinghouse Electric global headquarters in Cranberry Township.
By 2011, the company expects to employ 5,000 people at the state-of-the-art facility, which represents a huge investment in southwestern Pennsylvania.
"Westinghouse also pledged to the state that we'll invest $45 million in capital in the strategic development area. In reality, the value of our Cranberry expansion exceeds $200 million," Dr. Aris Candris said.
Although they didn't actively lobby to bring Westinghouse to Cranberry, officials said they took some steps to make the decision easier.
"Back in the early 1990s, our board began to craft a long-term vision for Route 228. We directed our professional staff to design an environment where knowledge-based companies of the 21st Century could settle and prosper and benefit our entire community," Cranberry Township Supervisor John Skorupan said.
"It's not far-fetched to say that Westinghouse is to southwest Pennsylvania what Microsoft was to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest," Gov. Ed Rendell said.
Gov. Rendell credits the original Westinghouse workforce in Monroeville, and the fact that the state legislature designated Cranberry as a strategic development area.
The company is now the world leader in the development of nuclear energy technology.
"We have four units that we're building in China. Right now, we also have contracts for six units here in the [United States], all of them in the southeast. Four of them have actually started pre-nuclear construction. In other words, site construction and then, we're negotiating around the world, for a large number of units, as we speak. So, it's a good story," Tom Kurzeja said.
As the leader in nuclear energy, Westinghouse could have relocated its headquarters anywhere in the world. But, the company will now celebrate its 125th anniversary in the area where it was originally founded, here, in southwestern Pennsylvania.
