Fast-growing Steel Nation to move into new headquarters

October 19, 2018

Paul J. Gough
Pittsburgh Business Times

Steel Nation, the fast-growing Washington County firm that builds pre-engineered metal buildings for the energy industry, is moving its headquarters to much larger space in Cecil Township.

The company has about 36 employees at a headquarters in South Strabane and an office in Wexford. It bought the former Redford Photography building at SouthPointe Square Lane off Morganza Road, and will be moving in at the end of next week.

Steel Nation CEO and Founder Mark Caskey said the new headquarters is to accommodate growth for the company and be near its clients, many in the oil and gas industry that is centered at Southpointe. Steel Nation, which was founded in 2008, engineers and builds steel structures like compressor stations, control rooms and offices for the oil and gas industry. Its innovation includes noise reduction technologies to quiet the generally noisy engines that are required for compressor stations that move natural gas.

Its offices on Route 19 in South Strabane are less than 2,500 square feet and the Wexford office, which holds engineers, is about 2,000 square feet. All will move to the new building, which includes ample space for the engineering and project management teams plus accounting, as well as a large conference room. The buildout also includes a redesign of the former photography studio and darkrooms to include a lot more natural light. The building was originally built by Redford in 2000, and acquired by Steel Nation in June.

Caskey said that the company had been looking for about a year for the right spot for a new location. Steel Nation, which also includes an environmental and engineering division, has many blue-chip clients in the energy industry and has in the past two years doubled its revenue from about $20 million in 2016 to about $40 million in 2017. This year is tracking higher than that, Caskey said.