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WIRED/Wall Street West
Wayne County is one of nine counties (Monroe, Pike, Wayne, Carbon, Berks, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne and Northampton) participating in the WIRED (Workforce Innovation and Regional Economic Development)/ Wall Street West initiative. The project’s main goal is to transform the nine-county region into the premier back-up operations location for Wall Street firms.
After the 9/11 tragedies, federal regulatory agencies began mandating that disaster recovery sites for the financial service industry meet certain location and infrastructure requirements. These include separate power grids, water sheds, and transportation systems. Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA), including Wayne County, not only meets these requirements, but is also positioned conveniently close to Wall Street firms. Close, but not too close should the heart of our country’s financial services be threatened again. Recognizing these advantages, local economic developers along with Congressman Kanjorski, began marketing the NEPA region as an ideal location for the Wall Street West project.
Two recent events have added tremendous momentum to this initiative. First, a $15 million WIRED grant from the U.S. Department of Labor and Industry was awarded to the nine-county region to be used to prepare and educate workers for high-skilled, high-wage opportunities in the financial services industry. Secondly, on June 7, Governor Rendell announced an agreement with Level 3 Communications, Inc. to construct a $25 million fiber optic network from Manhattan to East Stroudsburg. This network will have the ability to exchange information between Wall Street and NEPA instantaneously, which is crucial to the development of back-up facilities for financial services firms. The construction is expected to be completed within two and a half years.
Wayne County’s own Sterling Business Park could ultimately benefit from the WIRED/Wall Street West initiative. The park’s ideal location on I-84 provides excellent access to New York City, while remaining at a far enough distance to benefit from lower costs of doing business. The fiber optic network will not directly serve the Sterling Business Park, but our engineers are developing a technology plan that is appropriate for back office operations that do not require synchronous data transmission. With construction anticipated to begin early 2008, Wayne County will soon be prepared to serve Wall Street’s back-up offices with a highly-skilled workforce, as well as an excellent location.
For more information on the WIRED/Wall Street West initiative, visit the website at www.wallstreetwest.org or subscribe to the monthly newsletter by submitting a request by email to bstarkin@peppercom.com.
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Last updated July 2007 |
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