{"id":209882,"date":"2026-06-03T21:09:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/209882\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T21:09:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:09:49","slug":"national-fuel-clears-way-for-expansion-with-3-35-million-purchase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/209882\/","title":{"rendered":"National Fuel clears way for expansion with $3.35 million purchase"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Fuel Gas<\/a> has made it official. The company will be leaving its downtown offices at 1100 State St. and moving to the former Hammermill Paper Co. headquarters in Erie’s SB3 Industrial Park.<\/p>\n

In a related move, National Fuel has sold its 48,000-square-foot State Street office building that was built in 1972.<\/p>\n

The utility paid $3.35 million to purchase its new home from SB3 LLC, an entity controlled by Erie businessman Samuel P. “Pat” Black III<\/a>, according to a deed filed at the Erie County Courthouse.<\/p>\n

Litigation against SB3 LLC created the need for a court order to allow for the property to go up for sale.<\/p>\n

\"National<\/p>\n

National Fuel Gas has purchased the former Hammermill office building in the SB3 Industrial Park on East Lake Road in Erie.<\/p>\n

The centerpiece of the litigation is a federal lawsuit that Black filed in the spring of 2024 against his adopted daughter, Sumi James-Black<\/a>, 51, once Black’s heir apparent to take over his business empire.<\/p>\n

Sale has been in the works<\/p>\n

NFG, based in the Buffalo area, announced at the end of April<\/a> that it was in negotiations to buy the 112,000-square-foot building and 10 acres on East Lake Road.<\/p>\n

The move was driven by expansion. In October, the company paid $2.62 billion for CNP Ohio, a natural gas utility serving portions of west central Ohio. NFG’s Pennsylvania division, which had served 214,000 customers in 14 counties, added another 335,000 customers with the purchase.<\/p>\n

More customers means more employees in Erie<\/p>\n

That’s going to mean more employees at the new office building, which will serve as headquarters for the company’s Pennsylvania and Ohio operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we move forward with our Ohio acquisition, we expect to add more than 80 new jobs in Erie over the next year plus,\u201d Michael Colpoys, president of National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp., said in a statement. “This reflects our commitment to investing and growing in a business-friendly environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This artist’s rendering shows off plans for National Fuel’s new Erie headquarters building.<\/p>\n

The company currently has about 215 employees working at its State Street location.<\/p>\n

They won’t be moving immediately. National Fuel said in a statement that renovations are expected to take 10 to 12 months.<\/p>\n

Until that work is complete, National Fuel will continue to lease its State Street building, which has been sold to 1100 State, a Wyoming-based limited liability corporation.<\/p>\n

New owner has plans to invest<\/p>\n

According to the deed on file at the courthouse, the new owner paid $2.55 million for the four-story building.<\/p>\n

National Fuel said in a statement that “The new owner plans to redevelop the downtown property into a mixed used project, bringing added retail and commercial activity to the area.”<\/p>\n

National Fuel’s future home, a brick and glass structure, was built in 1959 as an office building for Hammermill and later International Paper Co., which closed its Erie plant in 2002<\/a>. SB3 LLC bought the office building in 2007.<\/p>\n

National Fuel said the purchase of the building followed an extensive search led by Sherry Bauer Real Estate.<\/p>\n

Bauer, who handled both the purchase of the SB3 property and the sale of the State Street property, said she’s been asked not to immediately disclose the name of the buyer. She described him as a man who is native to western New York but currently living out of state.<\/p>\n

“They are very much invested in Erie,” she said. “We have been working with them on more than one deal. Their vision is to develop commercial space on the first floor and Class A office space on the remaining floors.”<\/p>\n

Bauer says Pat Black investment cleared the way<\/p>\n

Bauer said Pat Black’s vision for the property and the investments he made in the building have cleared the way for the rebirth of Erie’s east side.<\/p>\n

“He has put millions into that property to get it where it is today. When National Fuel toured, they were very impressed with the property and what they could do with it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“That led to their purchase, which is really going to transform the east side of Erie.”<\/p>\n

When completed, the new building also will serve the needs of the company’s pipeline and storage and gathering businesses.<\/p>\n

More: Erie’s tallest building begins hotel transformation with Gov. Shapiro<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud to continue growing our presence in Erie,\u201d Joseph Del Vecchio, president of National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. said in a statement. \u201cThis investment reflects our long-term commitment to the region and supports continued economic development in the community.”<\/p>\n

More: North East Heat & Light has been sold. What it means for customers<\/a><\/p>\n

National Fuel’s move is only the latest activity at the site of the former paper company.<\/p>\n

The Erie County Redevelopment Authority<\/a>\u00a0announced in January that Modular Engineering signed an agreement to lease a new 75,000-square-foot factory and headquarters building that will be located on the former paper company property.<\/p>\n

Staff writer Ed Palattella\u00a0contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Contact Jim Martin at\u00a0jmartin@timesnews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: National Fuel buys former Hammermill office building<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National Fuel Gas has made it official. The company will be leaving its downtown offices at 1100 State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,13086,138,137,16856,82953,92058,92059],"class_list":["post-209882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-county-courthouse","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-national-fuel-gas","tag-office-building","tag-samuel-p-quotpatquot-black-iii","tag-sb3-llc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}