Lackawanna County brownfield to be redeveloped

CANPACK Group, a coalition of packaging companies, plans to redevelop a former brownfield site in Lackawanna County for a North American Center of Excellence and an aluminum-can manufacturing facility.

CANPACK Group is a subsidiary of Pennsylvania-based Giorgi Global Holdings and manufactures aluminum and steel cans and glass bottles for the food and beverage sector.

The company will purchase a 102-acre brownfield site in Olyphant Borough, demolish a blighted 1 million-square-foot facility and build and new 908,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and operations center.

The building will include a customer experience center, CANPACK’s first in the United States.

To complete the project, the company will invest nearly $366 million.

The new facility is expected to create more than 400 executive, professional, and technical manufacturing jobs within three years.

“In addition, investing in the conversion of a brownfield site to a state-of-the-art aluminum can manufacturing facility and operations center, which creates local jobs and benefits the community, is consistent with CANPACK’s focus on sustainability and being a responsible corporate citizen that gives back to the local community,” Roberto Villaquiran, CANPACK CEO, said.

The Governor’s Action Team coordinated the project, and the Department of Community and Economic Development submitted to CANPACK a proposal for $6 million in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Project funding.