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s e r v i n g m i d va l l e y & u p pe r l ac k awa n n a va l l e y thevalleyadvantage.com | march 10, 2017
Scenes from the BlakelyPeckville Crimewatch Mardi Gras |PAGe 7
Voices of the Valley will present a Welsh music concert |PAGe 8
At a vendor fair, a Daisy troop will be selling cookies|PAGe 11
St. RoSe BecomeS Neet
Building to house tech startup incubator by Christopher Cornell
ADVAntAGe eDitor
You may remember the low-slung building on Old Plank Road in Mayfield as the home St. Rose Academy. The building is about to become a place for knowledge once again. The 95,000-square-foot mixed-use building is about to become the Northeast Environmental and Technology Center (The NEET Center for short), which will serve as a business incubator. Officials say the center will provide an opportunity for entrepreneurs and product developers to get the assistance necessary to move their idea and inventions forward. “Northeast Pennsylvania is well positioned to play in the life sciences/environmental product development arena,” Dan Summa, president of NEET, explained. “The intersection of new technologies being created for the gas industry, agriculture and healthcare will spawn new companies developing solutions to today’s issues. The Life Sciences Incubator with its first-class labs, offices and meeting rooms, is a natural fit for startup companies to test new ideas with both administrative and facility support.” The NEET Center will be will be marketed to the bioscience industry and it is launching the Keystone Life Science Incubator with the goal of becoming a test bed
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for innovation and research on emerging technologies. According to Karl F. Pfeiffenberger Jr., managing partner, the site has everything an entrepreneur will need. “The building has more than 35 enclosed offices, five laboratories, lab support spaces, three conference rooms, other meeting rooms, a conference center, an auditorium with a seating capacity of 250, four break-out rooms, two teaching labs, a high-bay demonstration space, tiered TV classrooms, production/projection rooms, a computer/technology lab, common areas, a lobby, security office, kitchen, cafeteria, staff lounges, restrooms and a restored greenhouse,” he said. In addition the principles have received a $1.5 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant to assist in the acquisition and facility upgrades to The NEET Center. “After St. Rose Academy closed,” Pfeiffenberger said, “the building sat pretty much empty for years. The bank did minimal repairs. The good news is that back in the day it was constructed well. It always had good bones and a solid structure. But just as with a house, the work is never done, you get one room done and move on to the next. We’ll initially focus on things that may be out of sight but insure the longevity of the project and comfort of our tenants. Things like upgrading the air conditioning and taking care of the roof and outside lighting. We’ll then take care of some of the things that will be more immediately visible like upgraded signage and some landscaping and plantings.”
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From left: Ray Angeli, Dan Summa and Karl Pfeiffenberger have purchased the facility.
Pfeiffenberger has run a full-service real estate services company serving Northeast Pennsylvania since 2013. The industrial, office, medical and retail properties that he has managed total more than 712,140 square feet with 18 business tenants. He has 26 years’ experience in the real estate industry. Karl served on the Scranton Lackawanna Industrial Building Company (SLIBCO) staff from 1988 to 2014 as project manager. He was responsible for planning and managing of SLIBCO’s development projects. Another NEET principle, Ray Angeli, was a member of former Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey’s cabinet, serving as secretary of the state’s Department of
Community Affairs. He had beginning in January of 1994, after having served as deputy secretary for programs at the agency and as director of its Northeast Regional office. In addition, many in the community know Angeli from Lackawanna College, where he was president for many years and oversaw the growth of the college until 2013 when he retired. Summa is an entrepreneur who has both operated companies and was a partner in a venture capital fund. The portfolio companies he has been involved with have raised more than $100 million in venture funding. Please see NEET, Page 9