Power of 32 Site Development Fund

The fund targets the 32-county tristate region defined by the original Power of 32 visioning initiative: southwestern Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, eastern Ohio, and western Maryland, with Pittsburgh as the economic anchor. This footprint corresponds roughly to the multi-state commuting shed and supply-chain radius around the Pittsburgh metropolitan statistical area. Priority sites are typically within 60 to 90 minutes of the urban core, along the historic river-valley industrial corridors.

Unlike a private real estate fund that raises LP commitments, the Power of 32 Site Development Fund assembles project-level capital stacks from federal brownfield grants (notably EPA Brownfields Assessment and Cleanup grants), Appalachian Regional Commission POWER grants, Pennsylvania's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, and county-level economic development authority allocations. Foundation program-related investments and grants also contribute to pre-development and carrying costs.

The fund is structured as a mission-driven intermediary, not a return-maximizing private equity vehicle. The primary performance metric is job creation per acre—measured as the number of permanent, full-time positions generated by end-users that locate on the remediated sites—rather than an internal rate of return. Any financial returns are typically recycled into additional land acquisition and remediation.

The fund focuses on former industrial parcels—steel mill sites, abandoned mine lands, shuttered manufacturing plants, and rail-adjacent brownfields—that require environmental remediation, title assembly, or infrastructure extension before they can be marketed to commercial developers and corporate end-users. Typical contaminants include heavy metals, mine acid drainage, and legacy petroleum or solvent residues, all managed under state voluntary cleanup programs.

Governance details are not uniformly disclosed in a single public document, but the fund's architecture suggests that site selection and disposition are guided by an advisory board that includes regional foundation program officers, county economic development directors, and redevelopment authority staff. This board evaluates potential acquisitions based on job-creation potential, alignment with county comprehensive plans, and fit within regional industry-cluster strategies.