Pittsburgh, PA--SMARTSolution Technologies has purchased the Hipwell Manufacturing Company buildings, a former flashlight factory in Pittsburgh’s West Allegheny neighborhood on the city’s North Side.
- Mitchell Schwartz
- By the end of this year, the company’s 25 employees will move from the 5,500 square-foot space in Pittsburgh’s Knoxville-Mount Oliver Business District they have occupied for the past seven years to 15,000 of the 60,000 square-foot Hipwell Buildings complex.
From 2008 to 2009, SMARTSolution enjoyed a 40 percent year-over-year growth rate, from $6.1 million to $8.6 million, with revenues of $9.9 million in 2010.
Mitchell Schwartz, founder and president of SMARTSolution Technologies, and his wife, Elaine Stone, have re-named the former manufacturing complex Flashlight Factory Lofts. The remaining space will be divided into loft apartments occupied by Schwartz and Stone, and by renters. One of the five buildings will be used as a parking garage.
“Our new location enables us to accommodate the dramatic growth our company has experienced over the past several years,” Schwartz said. “It will be especially helpful as we expand our business and industry offerings to include design and construction of conference, meeting and board rooms for clients in the corporate, professional services and healthcare sectors.”
Renovations to the Hipwell Buildings will retain many of the structures’ original features, including high ceilings, interior brick walls, wood floors, and timber and structural steel beams. HVAC and lighting systems will feature Crestron electrical controls. In addition, the lobby entrance to SMARTSolution Technologies will feature a “heritage wall” of artifacts related to Hipwell Manufacturing Company, a producer of metal and plastic flashlights that occupied the space from the early 1900s to 2005, and was the first light-metal fabricating plant west of the Allegheny Mountains.
