Milk from oats and affordable coats: Pennsylvania lands 2 major corporations in 3 days

For the second time in three days, a national company announced major investments in Pennsylvania. 

The two announcements – coming from yogurt giant Chobani and discount retailer Burlington – are expected to bring nearly 3,000 jobs to the commonwealth over the next five years. 

In Philadelphia Thursday morning, Gov. Josh Shapiro and Mayor Cherelle Parker unveiled Burlington Stores Inc.’s plans to relocate its headquarters to the Schuylkill Yards complex in West Philadelphia. The move, which Shapiro called “the largest headquarters relocation to the city in years,” includes a $370 million investment from Burlington Stores, a $30 million state investment and a $7 million forgivable loan from the City of Philadelphia, according to government officials. 

“The state is committing $30 million to this project, and we’re taking an all-hands-on-deck (approach) alongside the City of Philadelphia to continue to support the growth at Burlington and to support your workers for years to come,” Shapiro said Thursday. 

The announcement comes barely two days after Shapiro was in the Lehigh Valley to share the news of a $1.2 billion investment by Chobani to create a dairy manufacturing facility – and 900 jobs in the process. 

“We’ve worked with the private sector to create 29,000 new jobs and secured over $43 billion in economic growth – from a corporate headquarters like this to just two days ago in the Lehigh Valley, landing Chobani as their big new facility,” Shapiro added. 

Burlington’s move is expected to create at least 2,000 new jobs over the next five years, officials said. Chobani’s expansion to Pennsylvania is the largest private-sector investment in the state’s agricultural history. 

“Job creation is important, but we have to be creating the kind of jobs that will put people on a path to self-sufficiency – that will give Philadelphians the opportunity to become homeowners and to be able to take care of themselves with a sense of dignity and pride,” said Parker, who noted the average salary for the Burlington jobs is about $125,000 a year. 

“It’s about more than those numbers: It’s about 2,000 people being ingrained and being a part of the fabric of our city,” Parker continued. “Two thousand people loving our restaurants, our coffee shops, our stores, and our small businesses, (and) 2,000 new people enjoying our neighborhoods, our cultural institutions and our world-class attractions.”

Chobani acquired a 1.5 million-square-foot facility in Lehigh County and is expected to create 900 full-time jobs over five years. When fully operational, officials said, the facility will process more than three billion pounds of Pennsylvania milk annually – nearly one-third of all milk currently produced in the commonwealth. 

In the final stretch of his reelection campaign, Shapiro has repeatedly leaned on the state’s economy and private investment as a sign that the state is “open for business.” 

“A big part of that is because of our hard-nosed competitive approach to economic development,” said Shapiro.