Interview by Jonathan Kersting
What do a shared-use SCIF, autonomous driving test track and one of Pittsburgh's top advanced manufacturers have in common? They are all currently under the wing of the Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC).
Jonathan Kersting sits down with Don Smith of the RIDC for a wide-ranging update on the projects reshaping Pittsburgh's tech and manufacturing landscape.
At Mill 19 on Hazelwood Green, RIDC is building a $10 million shared-use SCIF — a hyper-secure facility where companies can engage with classified government projects from the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and beyond. Partnering with Parallax on an accelerated build-out, the SCIF gives Pittsburgh startups a home-field advantage for defense procurement — no more driving to the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, Hellbender is bringing manufacturing back inside the city limits with plans to scale to 500 jobs — potentially the largest manufacturing deal in the City of Pittsburgh in decades.
Don and Jonathan also cover:
The Pittsburgh Technology Council produces TechVibe to explore Pittsburgh's technology and innovation economy.
Transcript:
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[00:00:00] We're actually really fortunate that we get to work with all these really cool companies. I say all the time that we have more robotics and autonomy tenants than any landlord in the world. Yes. No one's been able to disprove that yet
It's Jonathan Kersting here with the Pittsburgh Technology Council, bringing you Tech Vibe from the Huntington Bank Studios. And today's show is very exciting for me, because first, I'm catching up with Don Smith from the Regional Industrial Development Corporation. We usually call it RIDC, make it a little easier to say.
But you're talking to the guy here who has a team of folks that have put together some of Pittsburgh's most significant infrastructure when it comes to things around tech and innovation. And today, we're getting an update on some key things that have been going around, especially in the Mill 19, Hazelwood Green part of town, which is just...
It's one of my favorites, Don. Over the years, I've covered many stories as you've developed this, and I've always just been so enamored with you guys taking pieces of real estate that typical people cannot develop and turn into useful things that go back on the tax [00:01:00] rolls. Jonathan it's always great to talk to you and you've always consistently been one of the most positive voices for tech in Pittsburgh.
Thank you. And a big fan of RIDC, and we really appreciate all the support over a long time. Absolutely. No, y- you... Seriously I feel like RIDC is one of these secret ingredients of what has really made Pittsburgh tech be able to achieve the success it has to date in so many ways because I think about some of the most significant companies we've had and how they've been a- in your properties because you've been able to make properties that actually work for them.
It's really cool stuff, and it just goes to show you how it is an ecosystem that makes tech happen. And at the end of the day, these companies need space. You guys create that space, and you do it in some of the coolest places 'cause you're, you literally build on the foundations of Pittsburgh in so many places.
We do. We're actually really fortunate that we get to work with all these really cool companies. I say all the time that we have more robotics and autonomy tenants than any landlord in the world. Yes. No one's been able to disprove that yet. No. It's true. But, my whole team and I, we really just enjoy working with these companies, seeing them grow, seeing them start, seeing [00:02:00] them have success.
And we try to create the places where they can do what they need to do. Yeah, and what's crazy is the pace of technology changes what that means, and you guys just keep lock and step with it. I go back to when it's like, when robotics was first coming, you're like, "Wait a second. We need high bay space.
Where do... We need space to move things around." So you found properties that had that, created it, and then marketed specifically to those companies at rates they could afford, because they're startups, giving them that space they need and that headstart they need as well, too. And predating me- Yeah
~going back to Brooks Robinson, RIDC's been building those spaces. Exactly. Lawrenceville, when RIDC started investing, was not the coolest neighborhood in Pittsburgh. It was not. Wait a second. It was far from it. I couldn't find mustache wax there back in the day? You couldn't. Okay. As a grad student, we only went there in groups of five or six.~
Exactly. But, with the Chocolate Factory being next to NREC- ... and all the spin-outs that have come out of NREC and started it at the Chocolate Factory. Yeah. Some of them moved over to the Tech Forge. Carnegie Robotics in the, in the- Exactly ... Heath Scott Blue Building. It's really been a fun and amazing journey to see The ecosystem grow- Yeah
Lawrenceville grow, the companies grow. Oh, yeah. And hopefully we're gonna do it again and again- Oh ... in other parts of the city. And that's what we're talking about today because there's some key things that I really wanted to [00:03:00] kinda nerd out on. Of course, we're also gonna talk a little bit about some of the other things, 'cause there's so much to talk about, ~and I become very scattered 'cause I get so excited when I just think about some of these things.~
~'Cause as someone that just loves Pittsburgh, that I'm just, I'm completely obsessed with our history.~ And when I think about places like Mill 19, when I think about that mill that was built in the '20s and the stuff that was made there that literally went into saving the world, like stuff that went into World War II, went into buildings around the world, steel that came out of there, and then seeing them actually build buildings inside that building.
And on top of that building is one of the world's largest solar arrays. It's just like all these things are like, oh my goodness, you're literally building on the bones of Pittsburgh. When we were a leader in that, we're now a leader in this, and we're just kinda building on top of it. So that's why I get excited and so- Yeah.
Pittsburgh's- Excuse me if I ping around too much today. Pittsburgh's got such a great history- Yeah ... of industrial might and then innovation. ~And I think what's great about RIDC, and we're now over 70 years old- That's amazing ... we did publish a history last year. I know. I- I'll put a little plug in for Rebuilding Pittsburgh.~
Yes. I saw that. W- it, it satisfied some of my history nerdery. It actually turned out to be more fun than I expected. And we try to go where the puck is going and where the economy's going. Absolutely. Exactly. And so y- we were in robotics before robotics was a real thing.
And today it's AI autonomy, it's defense it's manufacturing and energy in so many of those places, and so [00:04:00] we're out there trying to build the facilities- Yeah ... that'll be the homes for the next wave of companies and innovators. But you said defense And that's so important.
At the Tech Council, it's been an area that we've been exploring for the past three or four years where we've been able to find a lot of traction for our member companies to actually take their dual use technologies that can... The military can help prove it out and pay for it, and you can also bring that into the regular world.
And this is an area that's been very valuable. We see it growing, and you're building a space that directly addresses that, that was just announced this summer. It's like a... You had a two-part package announcement going on. Yeah. You talked about this SCIF that's being built. We're gonna talk about what a SCIF is and how it operates, and why it's so important for Pittsburgh, along with the announcement that Hellbender- Right
one of my favorite companies, is moving into that kind of same space on the first floor where this, this SCIF is gonna go. And that, this to me is like a, just a really cool step in RIDC's trajectory as you've been building stuff out and filling it. So let's start with this SCIF. What exactly is a SCIF?
Most [00:05:00] people don't know what it is. When I learned what it was, I was like, "Oh, I didn't realize you need a secure space, duh, to work with the, to work with the government on very sensitive things." Yeah. I think, First, let me tip my cap to the Tech Council. We've been working together with you, and Audrey, and Brian Kennedy for decades now actually.
Yes. We've known each other quite a while. And the defense robotics work that Brian's been heading up is really important. And I think the SCIF is a facility that's actually gonna be extremely complementary to all the things that are going on with the Tech Council and with some of the other robotics activities- ... in the region. But a SCIF stands for a specialized compartmented information facility. I believe you. And basically it is a, a hyper-secure environment- ... where companies and researchers can exchange inter- information with classified US government sources. So that could be the Department of War, it could be the Department- of Energy, it could be other classified- I see ... materials. And so for our startup companies to be able to participate in [00:06:00] procurement opportunities to make and build and research things- Yeah ... with those departments, they need access to one of these SCIFs. Okay. Because you can't transmit the plans for any of this classified stuff- Darn
to anywhere but- Yeah ... a SCIF. Okay. And it turns out they're hyper expensive to build. ~I could imagine if it's to these types of standards I think about national security and what that means to make sure that sensitive information isn't hacked or leaked, detected by our adversaries and so forth. It's gotta be a pretty heavy lift to put a, a site like this together.~
~It's basically on a par with building wet lab space in terms- ... of the price per square foot. Okay. So it's very expensive. We have a terrific partner in Parallax- Yes ... who- You know those guys well? Yeah. Dennis and his crew are terrific, and they've done this in other places. So they're our experts on this, and they'll actually handle...~
You have to get certified even to go into a SCIF. Exactly. That's how locked down this is. That's how locked down- yeah ... it is. So no windows, entire facility is wrapped in copper wire so that there's no- Oh my God ... el- electronic signals that can get out. Oh my God. Everything has to be air-gapped, including your HVAC and everything else.
It's all very secure so that there's no way Anyone can listen in or penetrate the facility and get access to that classified information. So working with Parallax we're on a really accelerated schedule- Okay ... to build out- That's exciting to know that ... 16,000 square feet. Yeah. Okay. And it's gonna be a shared use SCIF.
So it's far too expensive- Yeah, what does that mean? Okay ... if you're a startup company, you can't afford to build your own. No. 'Cause this facility's gonna be $10 million. Geez. What you'll be able to do though is [00:07:00] buy a membership in the facility, and that'll give you a certain amount of time- You get all your classifications and stuff done
and access. Give you the classification. Okay. You can get in there. You can use individual rooms. You can use ... There's conference rooms. If there's- ... a bunch of companies that want to attend an Air Force briefing on a classified project- ... they can do that. And this facility's gonna have multiple levels of security, everything from the very highest level to more moderate levels of facility, which is gonna distinguish it from some of the other facilities around.
Wow. So I can imagine right now, where would these companies have to go if they needed to access a SCIF? The ... ~You have to go to a military facility in some cases. Oh, okay. And the university Carnegie Mellon has a small one. Okay. But it's really mostly for their own researchers- Surely. ... And for the SEI activities.~
~Some of the big companies have them, but again- Yeah. If you're not, they're not letting you ... it's for their own use. Yeah, this is not a shared thing. So you can drive to DC to have- Oh, that's fun. Yeah ... meetings with the Pentagon. Okay. Yeah. Very easy to do ... w- before soon you'll be able to access the SCIF at Mill 19- Okay~
And have those meetings remotely. And that's why I'm so excited about this, 'cause this is a key resource. This is a differentiating resource for our ecosystem that we have access to this. I think about how much faster if a company doesn't have to drive to the Pentagon to have a meeting. They do it here in Pittsburgh so they're not spending two days back and forth.
It's just time is of the essence. And to have this is just, I think, tremendous for our region and I think the, the evidence is already mounting fast. Before we've even started construction, we're waiting for the [00:08:00] permits- Yeah ... we've had over 30 companies express interest that they wanna- Really? ... be members and have access to this facility.
Oh, I believe it. And both universities have said they want access to the facility. Are you serious? Like- So their researchers can... Because even the SCIF space they do have is chronically oversubscribed. Exactly. It's limited, and so this is gonna open up. Oh, this is so exciting for us to have this. And for me, I, what I love about this is it is in my favorite part of
~I just love Mill 19 so much. I remember when we did a cover story on that in our TEG magazine when you were just opening it up, and I had so much fun just nerding out about this development, 'cause it's literally taking stranded infrastructure and making it something amazing.~ And I feel like this is one of these key pieces down there that just, you got bio going on down there.
You got a SCIF. You've got robotics. It's like, what is not going on down in Hazelwood Green/Mill 19? It's pretty crazy. It is. It's fun to watch. Mill 19 was a pretty big bet when we made it. Huge. Oh my God. And some of my board members at the time were suggesting we'd be better off scrapping it for the scrap value.
But others really, bet on our mission and bet on the region. And now with the Robotics Innovation Center from Carnegie Mellon adjacent to it and the BioForge from Pitt across the street, [00:09:00] and all three buildings under Mill 19 that RIDC operates and built and designed being essentially filled That's amazing
It- it's really starting to recog- Wow ... to realize the vision- Yeah ... of the Amano Partners and Hazelwood Green- ... to be this new innovation neighborhood in, in the city of Pittsburgh and to really capitalize on our strengths and assets and create economic opportunities for a whole swath of the region.
That's what it's doing. And I tell you what, I think about now the fact that you have what I consider one of Pittsburgh's coolest... Dare I say they're a manufacturer? 'Cause they are manufacturing, but they're also robotics, they're autonomy, they're vision. Talking about Hellbender. Yeah. One of my favorite companies here in Pittsburgh, and the fact that they're gonna be now taking up space in your site, I think that is amazing.
Tell me about that. Yeah, Hellbender's an amazing company and an amazing success story. Growing really rapidly. Yes. And they are not only a, a, a sort of a technology provider, but they're making their own products and they're a manufacturer. Their plan is to scale to 500 jobs- Oh my gosh ... in the next three to five [00:10:00] years.
If we get th- 500 manufacturing jobs from Hellbender, that'll be the- Yeah ... biggest manufacturing deal in the city of Pittsburgh- Really? ... in a, as long as I can remember and I'm getting pretty up there. Yeah. Yeah, 'cause yeah, manufacturing within the city limits. In the city limits.
'Cause this is inside the city limits. This isn't like Westmoreland County and at the out- outside, but inside the city. Literally we could say manufacturing's back. And they're gonna create jobs not only for PhDs and master's students- yeah ... from Carnegie Mellon and Pitt- All types
and others, but production workers from the city. City neighborhoods are gonna be able to work in the city in a manufacturing job in a really cool tech company- Yeah ... with huge growth potential. But old is new, right? It's exactly- That's so cool to me. Literally Pittsburgh almost coming full circle to a certain degree is amazing to me.
It absolutely is. Mill 19 is one of the places where we built the steel that won World War II. Exactly. A- and now we're gonna build the technology that wins the next world war that we hope doesn't happen. Yeah. But the AI and robotics and autonomy revolution is, centered certainly in Oakland, but its commercial outgrowth is gonna flow down the hill to Hazelwood Green.
Exactly. What, ah, to me, it just, [00:11:00] it blows my mind all the way around, all this work. So obviously, and this isn't all the things that RIDC does. There's other... Obviously the investments you made in Lawrence, we talked a little bit about with the chocolate factory and all that kind of stuff, amazing stuff.
What are some other areas that you're excited about that RIDC is kinda cooking up these days? We're having a great run here in the region, and we're getting a lot of inquiries from companies from outside the region startup companies that are starting to scale. So Neighborhood 91 out at the airport is- Yes
is really starting to cook. We have a 108,000 square foot spec building under construction now. Oh, do you... I didn't realize that's happening right now. Okay. That's happening right now. Very cool. And we have a very promising technology company that would like to take it. Okay. And so we're in the final stages- I like the way you're talking with that
of nailing that down. Things are happening behind the scenes. ~Very cool. We've already designed the next 40,000 square foot building. So we can get that permitted and start that as soon as this one's done. You're keeping architects pretty busy here, man. Gee. We are keeping architects, engineers, and others pretty busy.~
My team, which is, I'm, very fortunate to have a great team, and they're working- Absolutely ... working really hard doing some good stuff. New Kensington with rebuild manufacturing. Tell me about New Ken, 'cause I think that is so interesting. I've been out to New Ken a few times, and I just, I see the potential there and some of the things that are happening.
I was a little [00:12:00] freaked out when I saw that Penn State was kinda moving out- Yeah ... 'cause I know they have done so much original anchor work to really kinda prop the area up. What's going on in New Ken that I can get excited about? Yeah, New Ken, so there's personal connection for me in New Ken.
~My wife grew up in New Ken. No way. Yeah. Okay. Very cool. So my father-in-law and mother-in-law were very active there. So it, it's- ... a special place for me.~ Surely. And we've got a really cool project going on, the, the former, Former Alcoa site right on the river- ... in New Ken. We took that over in, in partnership with Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation, Jason Rigoni and his team- Gotcha
who are awesome partners. That's cool. I love the fact that you're working with other IDCs in order to kinda make the whole region better. All the time. Yeah. We sorta say we have our own PPP program. It's it's partnership, it's packaging, and it's patience. There you go. Mostly on the patience.
Yeah, a lot of patience. This stuff doesn't happen in six months or a year. No, but we were fortunate enough to get ReBuild Manufacturing in- Exactly ... in, in a big way in New Ken, and they're ramping up production very quickly. We have another prospect for 100... 100,000 square foot building- Okay ... we're just finishing renovating- on the site another manufacturing prospect. And if that goes through, it'll [00:13:00] actually be one of the first local customers for Shell's pellets from the cracker plant. Interesting. So they'll- Once again, ecosystem connecting, finding proximity, all that kinda good stuff. Trying to connect the dots.
Yeah. And so ~and I think if you look at the main commercial street in New Ken, new restaurants and brew pubs- Yes ... and businesses going in there. There's an a- an amazing- So there's a renaissance ... an amazing bakery out there. Yeah. That does the the Greek stuff, and it's just I think it was the baklava.~
~And I was like, "Baklava. Ah." Ah. It was so good. Yeah, and there's ethnic restaurants, and there's brew pubs. And so I think New Ken is really really on the rise, and ac- after it had really quite a rough- Yeah ... rough go for a little while. Rough is an understatement, absolutely. But it's definitely bouncing back.~
And that's so important because, of course, the City of Pittsburgh has... can rise, but we want everyone to come along with us on this. And being able to take these communities 10, 15, 20 miles out that aren't on the ship as much, get on that ship to me is just so cool. We've done so much in the Mon Valley to McKeesport, Duquesne, Carrie Furnace, to the Hazelwood Green.
We're also doing the Allegheny Valley. Okay. So we have O'Hara, of course. And then y- you go out to to New Kensington. But we've also partnered with Armstrong County, and we've taken over the former North Point site- in, in Armstrong County. And we've got a bunch of deals working in Armstrong as well.
Some manufacturers, some tech companies a, a number of good announcements there recently, some residential even in the park. Very cool. Yeah, I love it. And so we're kinda working our way [00:14:00] up the- ... Allegheny Valley as well. I love it. But a lot of good communities, good people, fell on some hard times and to be able to bring some, some jobs and investment- Yeah
back into those communities is really cool. I love it 'cause this is like a passion for you and your team. You've been at this for, s- 18 years now or you're coming up on 18 years. Yeah, coming up on 18. Which is ama- that's something where you're dedicated. You're seeing these projects through.
You're actually seeing the beginnings of your work and it taking a decade for these things to c- actually kinda start showing the fruits of their investments and so forth. That's gotta be a cool feeling to be like, "Wow, like that was so long ago, but look at it now." Like on the d- I would feel, I'd, I would get some gratification just seeing like, wow, some of this works.
No, it's been fantastic. I spent a lot of years in academe, and I love those- Surely ... and the universities are awesome. But the tangibility of real estate and some of the developments that we do, we didn't talk about New Stanton and the former Sony plant. 2.8 million square feet, two million on the first floor alone.
That two million is filled. Is it really? With manufacturing jobs. Okay. And so that's a huge milestone. And ~that's companies like Intervala and things like that? Intervala, Siemens Energy- Okay ... city Brewing DNP And STAC has space out there Oh, STAC's got space out there too. Westmoreland County Community College. Yeah. ~And that's great, and those companies are growing, and they're [00:15:00] doing well, and, there's well over 1,000 jobs. We're coming up on 2,000 jobs out at the site. So cool. And then we're building adjacent to that the PennSTART Test Track.
I know. So- Tell me... Yeah, could you... Let's... Jump in on the test track a little bit 'cause this is... I just love this. This is so cool. It's super cool. We partnered with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and PennDOT- ... to build this two-mile test track, and it'll be a dual use test track.
So a lot of the autonomous vehicle manufacturers, but also all their suppliers who build the sensors and the tokens- They can take it there and see how they work and everything. Yeah ... they'll have a an environment to test all their products in. But it's also for the first responders and the safety workers- Okay.
I didn't realize that. Interesting ... to be able to do things like respond to an electric vehicle fire without being on the actual roads. Exactly. Testing some of the safety technologies for snowplows and- Yeah. Okay ... other kinds of things, and doing what they call TIMS training. What's that?
~Not Tim White. Just, okay. Yeah, we know Tim. I think- Exactly. He can go out there go do some hot laps. ... my ~. But this is traffic incident management. Okay. And so [00:16:00] they're doing a lot of first responder training on the track as well, which is why PennDOT and the Turnpike Commission- Perfect
Are so interested. Yeah, they gotta be excited about that. So yeah, it's a great partnership that- Once again, yeah ... packages all these different uses. And y- we we expect to have the track open in early of 2027. Nice. We got a lot of companies expressing an interest in being there and using- I can imagine so
using the track. And once again, that becomes a resource here that makes our ecosystem have this thing you don't find any place else. We've got skiffs, we've got test tracks, we got high bay stuff. We got a little bit of everything. And too many of our, too many of our companies were going to other places to test.
Exactly. I've heard- Now they can test here. I- They can stay here- I heard the- ... and keep those jobs here ... I heard the horror stories of people going to Ohio, and God bless Ohio, but Ohio- ... in order to test their stuff. It's like no. You can stay here and test your stuff." Yeah. Amazing. No, so that's really been our focus and our strategy is build these sort of catalytic assets- like the skiff- Yeah ... the test track, like the additive manufacturing environment at N91. Yes. Like the [00:17:00] robotics environment around NREC in Lawrenceville. And really leveraging the great resources that CMU and Pitt have here. Exactly, yeah. And creating opportunities for those to turn into, to jobs and revenue and investment here in our region.
And that's the cool thing, is at the end of the day, what this really all equates to is people having great jobs here. They can live here, work here to have a good life because you got a cool job and it's happening. I don't know. I... and some of these companies are now, recruiting people from all over the world to come to Pittsburgh, and we need to grow our population.
We need to grow our population. ~We need to grow our town. And say, "Hey, population, we have test tracks and skiffs." That's right. And affordable housing, and affordable housing. Yeah. And mustache wax in Lawrenceville, so- Exactly ... it all comes together. You got everything you could want.~ Oh my God, Don, you are the best.
This is so much fun being able to catch up with you. Yeah. Learn about all the new stuff that you guys are working on, reminisce a little about some of the things that you've built to date. I think we've covered a lot of territory here. Huge fans of what you guys are up to. Like I said, you're really building the buildings that we go to so we can get the job done, thanks, Jonathan. Thank you. It's always great to talk to you and, stay tuned. We got a bunch of new buildings in the design phase- That's cool, man ... and so we'll be coming up with some new projects soon. You always know it's the open door policy here, ODP, at TechVibe for Don Smith and any of the folks there, of course, at RIDC.
We always want continual updates because it is amazing. [00:18:00] This is literally building the structure so we can build tech and manufacturing here in Pittsburgh. Because more manufacturing jobs in Pittsburgh than in many years with Hellbender.
Heck yes. No, we're trending up. Fun fun. We'll leave it on that note, trending up. And I tell you what, you wanna keep getting stories just like this, keep following us here on TechVibe. It's what we do. It's been Jonathan Kersting with the Pittsburgh Tech Council, pghtech.org, and I cannot wait to see you on the next one.
And Don, you're the best. Thanks, Jonathan. Great to be with you. So much fun.