Alpha Technologies plans to expand in tech park building

Charleston Gazette
By Lori Kersey

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A company that recently bought a building in the West Virginia Regional Technology Park plans to add 50 employees over the next three years, officials said Tuesday.

Alpha Technologies bought Building 6000 in the South Charleston tech park from Dow Chemical for $6.1 million and plans to expand the business, Charles Dennie, company vice president, told the South Charleston Economic Development Council at its Tuesday meeting.

The West Virginia Economic Development Authority recently approved a $2.7 million loan to Alpha for the deal.

Alpha Technologies, a data storage company headquartered in Teays Valley, will provide data storage, disaster recovery, cloud computing and other technology services from the former Union Carbide data center, Dennie said.

A 2010 assessment and development plan for the Technology Park called for a full-service data center, Dennie said. The company will make the building the data center for the park, he said.

“With that data center, Alpha is going to be providing voice and data services and 24-7 support for the park and all of its tenants,” Dennie said. “In short, the facility helps preserve existing jobs, will be the economic engine to bring in new jobs and helps the West Virginia Regional Technology Park meet their objectives.”

HP Enterprise Services, a division of Hewlett Packard, is already in the building and will stay there, Dennie said.

Alpha Technologies has signed an agreement with the tech park to provide maintenance to the building, Dennie said.

“We didn’t feel like that was a wheel we needed to reinvent,” Dennie said.

In other business, South Charleston Mayor Frank Mullens said he is working with a company that is interested in moving into South Charleston near the city’s stamping and manufacturing Plant.

The mayor declined to say which company. The city has recently taken over operation of a pump station, which had been at issue with the company coming to the city, he said. The company and others in the area didn’t want to take ownership of it, he said.

The city’s takeover of the pump station should “get this deal done,” Mullens said. “Hopefully at the next meeting we can maybe divulge to you who we’re talking about.”