Former ATI plant in West Leechburg under new ownership

The site of the former ATI plant in West Leechburg is under new ownership, but its future use remains unknown.

The property was sold in September to West Leechburg Holdings LLC, said Kayla Visnovsky, borough secretary and treasurer of West Leechburg.

West Leechburg Council members, in a joint statement, expressed their support for a new business in the area but did not disclose what type of business would be put in the building.

“West Leechburg is excited to have a new business owner in the community,” the statement said. “We look forward to working with them in the future to develop a strong partnership with the borough.”

According to the Westmoreland County Geographic Information Systems, West Leechburg Holdings LLC is based in Galion, Ohio, and shares the same address as Mosier Industrial Services, a full-service company that offers a variety of services including crane rigging, heavy equipment relocation, and plant demolition and decommission.

Mosier Industrial Services officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The former ATI plant has been closed since 2006, when ATI announced it was going to be phasing out the site to save money. The site was primarily a finishing mill for steel coils delivered from ATI’s Brackenridge Works in Harrison.

Despite the plant’s employment slowly decreasing since the 1970s, its closing was a big hit to West Leechburg’s and Leechburg Area School District’s budgets. According to a previous report by TribLive, the borough and Westmoreland County collected almost $13,000 last year in property taxes from the site. The school district collected almost $53,000.

As for wage taxes, the school district and borough collected a combined total of almost $26,600 between October 2004 and September 2005.

The plant was built in the 1960s and employed almost 2,000 people in the 1970s. There were fewer than 243 employees at the plant in April 2005.