Friday, July 18, 2008

Fast-growing Vocollect Inc., a maker of wearable, voice-activated computers, plans to increase its building space by about 50 percent because it is adding 30 to 50 employees annually and needs to expand its campus.

Vocollect has 380 workers at its two-building Wilkins headquarters site, which adjoins property in Penn Hills where it wants to expand.

The company is proposing a $7 million, 60,000-square-foot office-light industrial-warehouse building on the Penn Hills property owned by its landlord, Joseph D'Andrea. It would spend additional money on infrastructure and equipment.

The privately held company, co-founded by CEO Roger Byford in 1987, has offices in the United Kingdom and Japan and a Miami-based Latin America office. The company had sales of more than $100 million last year.

The Penn Hills Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing Thursday on the request to rezone a 9.9-acre site from single-family residential to multi-use and conservation zoning.

"Over four acres will be zoned conservation with the remainder for the new building," said Becky Getkin, Vocollect's manager of facilities services. Some of the funding may come from loans and grants from the state and county, she said.

"The proposal calls for a two-story structure at the front, to be used for offices, and a one-and-a-half-story building behind for light industrial and warehouse use," said Chris Blackwell, Penn Hills principal planner.

When the building is completed in two or three years, industrial and warehouse operations will be relocated out of the headquarters building, and the vacated space will be used for additional office workers. About 220 parking spaces will be added.

Vocollect makes a voice-activated technology used by warehouse and distribution workers for retailers such as Giant Eagle, Pep Boys, Office Depot and Pier One Imports.

Another system, AccuNurse, allows nurse's aides to listen to instructions via a wireless headset, rather than having to decipher written instructions. It lets them immediately call for assistance, rather than use an intercom.

Currently Vocollect operates out of two buildings on its site, an 80,000-square-foot "blue" building that serves as headquarters and a 30,000-square-foot "white" building that houses a health care unit and service personnel. Developer D'Andrea built and owns the two buildings.

"D'Andrea apparently believes he has resolved major issues that have led to resident protests against any expansion there," Blackwell said.

Besides providing a buffer area between the parking lot and the residential neighborhood under the conservation zoning, D'Andrea has changed the configuration of the access road to Vocollect's facilities by having the road connect at Purity and Rodi roads, which is controlled by a traffic signal, Blackwell said. This was accomplished with the help of Penn Hills, Allegheny County and the other private property owner, August Damian.

Sam Spatter can be reached at sspatter@tribweb.com or 412-320-7843.