Published: September 05, 2008 11:15 pm      

Tech park tenant: State Labor Department considering lease

The state Labor Department may be close to inking a lease in Greater Johnstown Technology Park, leaders say.

State government officials are looking at about 10,000 square feet, filling the building’s second floor area not leased to MTS Technologies.

“We are talking to (the Labor Department) as a potential tenant,” Memorial Medical Center President Scott Becker said Friday during a tour of the facility by U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown.

Becker would not say what operations the state agency plans for the Johnstown facility.

Defense contractors MTS Technologies and Northrop Grumman will fill a lion’s share of the three-story building, where work is on schedule for an Oct. 30 opening, said project superintendent Doug Brown of Pittsburgh-based general contractor P.J. Dick Inc.

Custom interior work is progressing in Northrop Grumman’s 90,000-square-foot suite that fills the third floor.

It includes a 5,000-square-foot sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, encased in steel mesh and employing other construction features to prevent electronic surveillance breaches.

“It’s an important part of the future operations,” Northrop’s Johnstown site manager, Bill Moynihan, said.

Energy-efficient, environment-friendly green technology is designed throughout the building, Brown said, listing a white roof, double insulation and recycled material. In back, a patio and river walk are being developed along the Stonycreek River.

The tech park will help diversify the region’s economy, Murtha said as he recapped recent expansion of manufacturing and commerce business.

“We are looking at about $150 million business a year,” Murtha said.

“What I really like: It’s the center of our technology and what we were trying to do all along.”