The opportunity
Erie has a rare chance to land one of the most transformative industrial projects in its modern history: a Navy‑focused shipyard on the former Erie Coke site. The proposal from Gem City Shipbuilding is serious, detailed, and backed by federal interest. If built, it would anchor thousands of jobs, revitalize the port, and inject more than a billion dollars into the regional economy over the next decade. Yet despite the scale of the opportunity, the project remains stalled – not because of a lack of vision or demand, but because of regulatory gridlock and a lack of urgency from state leadership.
A modern naval shipyard is not just another employer. It is one of the highest‑impact economic engines a region can land. Based on comparable mid‑sized naval yards, Erie could expect 800 to 1,200 direct jobs, ranging from welders and fabricators to naval architects, engineers, and logistics specialists. These are high‑skill, high‑wage positions, with average annual earnings between $65,000 and $75,000. That translates into $60 million to $90 million in direct payroll every year, instantly making the shipyard one of the largest economic drivers in Northwest Pennsylvania.
An economic and employment powerhouse
But the impact doesn’t stop at the shipyard gates. Shipbuilding has one of the strongest economic multipliers in American manufacturing. For every job created inside the yard, additional jobs emerge in the supply chain – steel fabrication, coatings, electrical systems, trucking, engineering, safety compliance, and more. Using a conservative regional multiplier of 1.7, the shipyard would support 1,360 to 2,040 total jobs across the region. That’s a workforce impact larger than many of Erie County’s top employers combined.
The construction phase alone would be a multi‑year surge of activity. With capital costs estimated between $250 million and $750 million, the project would generate 300 to 600 construction jobs, plus years of work for remediation contractors, engineering firms, and trades. Before the first ship is ever launched, Erie would experience a significant economic lift.
Over a ten‑year horizon, the numbers become even more striking. Direct payroll would total $600 million to $900 million, and the total economic impact – including indirect and induced activity – would reach $1.02 billion to $1.53 billion. This is the kind of project that reshapes a region’s trajectory, stabilizes population decline, and rebuilds a skilled industrial workforce. It would also catalyze an entire ecosystem of marine engineering firms, robotics suppliers, fabrication shops, and training programs, much like the industrial clusters that formed around shipyards in Bath, Maine and Marinette, Wisconsin.
Will this be allowed to happen?
So why isn’t Erie already moving forward? The answer lies in the condition of the site and the regulatory structure surrounding it. The former Erie Coke property is one of the most contaminated industrial sites in Pennsylvania. The soil and groundwater contain decades of coal‑tar residues, heavy metals, and petroleum byproducts. Under state law, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) cannot approve redevelopment until a full remediation plan is completed, funded, and approved. That process is slow, rigid, and unpredictable – the same pattern that contributed to the loss or delay of other major projects like Fairlife, Maplevale, and the Super Sheetz travel center.
The DEP’s requirements are legally mandated, but the pace and structure of the process create a regulatory choke point. Developers cannot finalize financing until they know the cleanup plan will be approved, and the DEP will not approve the plan until funding is secured. It’s a classic Pennsylvania catch‑22. Meanwhile, the Governor’s office has been informed of the economic stakes but has not yet stepped in to expedite or coordinate a solution.
Erie is not asking for shortcuts or environmental negligence. The community understands the importance of cleaning up the site properly. What Erie needs – and what this project deserves – is urgency, coordination, and leadership. Other states have shown how quickly transformative industrial projects can move when agencies work together. New York fast‑tracked Fairlife in under a year. Wisconsin and Maine have built entire regional economies around shipbuilding by aligning state, federal, and local partners.
Will our government work with us or against us?
Erie has the workforce, the port, the land, and the strategic location. What it lacks is a permitting and leadership structure that matches the scale of the opportunity. This shipyard could define the next 50 years of economic growth for the region. It could restore Erie’s industrial identity and create generational prosperity.
We are watching. We are waiting. And we expect our elected officials – at every level – to step up, cut through the gridlock, and get this done.
*Figures are approximates based off available information*
Lynne says
Can you suggest who we should contact and specifically what we should request?
Paul Crowe says
Our congressman, Mike Kelly is one, though he is already solidly in favor of this shipyard. Our state Senator Dan Laughlin and our state Representative Jake Banta, who also are already in favor of this development need to hear from everyone who supports this, because the DEP is a Pennsylvania agency and is often the slowest moving bottleneck in any proposed project. Their timeline for the Coke Plant cleanup is somewhere in the range of five years or more.
Governor Shapiro’s office also needs to hear from us to make it clear our region can’t wait for multiple studies over many years before permits are issued to clean up the site and to get this project in gear. The governor has said he wants to speed up the permitting process in PA. This is a perfect place for him to prove it.
No one is suggesting we shortcut the cleanup, but everyone needs to get on board and the various agencies, especially the DEP, need to prioritize this effort. The benefits to everyone are huge. Politicians respond when they see a groundswell of support for a project. Let’s get everyone on board and let all of our representatives at the state and federal level know we want to see this happen.
Jen says
Thank you for keeping awareness on these issues. I just sent an email. If we the locals don’t speak up in support of “home”, who will?! This area is just waiting for a rebirth.
Mary Rennie says
You say that you don’t expect short cuts but isn’t that exactly what this article is requesting?
Talk to the families who have lived downwind of Erie Coke. Let us share some of the stories of real people whose lives were severely impacted or cut short by long-term exposure to the many toxic by-products of this past industrial property use. This land was an economic development engine for decades already!. We in Erie paid for it with the lives and suffering of our loved ones. Cancers, lung and heart conditions. Neurological conditions. Regulatory processes, meant to protect us, while doing the job right, mandate common sense approaches that include professional studies by environmental engineers –and more-so that the lake water and groundwater is not further damaged by these pollutants. Let’s have the proponents of this plan, along with Kelly, Laughlin, McCormick and any other high-ranking public official locate their family residences down to the foot of East avenue for the next 10 years. Then I will listen to their beat of the drum. Until then they have no right to say that any corners should be cut.