Oshkosh Corp., a manufacturer of fire and emergency trucks and a variety of what it calls "mission-critical vehicles and essential equipment," is working to establish a new Pittsburgh presence.
The company, which generated $8.2 billion in net sales in 2022, has its name on Oxford Development Co.'s Factory 26 tech flex property in the city's Strip District and is shooting to open what will be a new Innovation Center there in June.
"We're actually pretty excited about it," said Jill Hanegraaf, a senior marketing manager for Oshkosh (NYSE: OSK).
"As an industrial technology company, we have really been focused on technology development, electrification and autonomy in particular," she said. "There's been a lot of work in that in Pittsburgh and a lot of great talent there."
The company has leased about 17,000 square feet in the building, a mature warehouse building that Oxford invested to upgrade into a new tech flex property, seeking to capitalize on the influx of robotics, autonomous vehicle companies and artificial intelligence firms setting up in what's become known as Robotics Row.
The new Innovation Center by Oshkosh Corp. comes after another publicly traded conglomerate, Honeywell International (Nasdaq: HON), confirmed last May that it has also taken space at Factory 26, expanding into the research-oriented building after establishing a 25,000-square-foot office at Oxford's 2555 Smallman Street building across the street.
An executive for Oxford, which redeveloped Factory 26 amid its ongoing 3 Crossings plans nearby, wasn't immediately available for comment. Honeywell never confirmed how much space it took in the building, so it's unclear if the property is now fully leased or not.
Located at 26th and Smallman, Factory 26 totals about 53,000 square feet.
Oshkosh is a different kind of company than those that helped to create the reputation of the Strip District and Lawrenceville as Robotics Row.
Instead of highly capitalized startups working to create a new technology and, by extension, a new market for autonomous vehicles, Oshkosh has been in business for more than 100 years and now comprises 12 different lines of business, all of which revolve around designing and building purpose-built vehicles.
That includes tactical vehicles used by the military, waste collection trucks, as well as a range of vehicles and equipment used in the construction industry, many of which are produced by Oshkosh Corp.'s JLG Industries division, based in eastern Pennsylvania.
JLG established a new 400,000-square-foot distribution center in Findlay Township a little more than a year ago. Hanegraaf said the new Innovation Center in the Strip is expected to have nothing to do with the JLG operation.
Oshkosh has hired about 12 employees for its new Innovation Center in Pittsburgh and is shooting to ramp up to about 30 people.
Given the ongoing fallout in the tech sector in contrast with the strong financial performance of Oshkosh, Hanegraaf said the company's mission of serving essential industries proves to be a recruitment draw.
"When you're making vehicles that help to save people’s lives, our purpose tends to really draw folks to our organization," she said.
The company also started publicly demonstrating an interest in investing in western Pennsylvania last September. It was then that Oshkosh announced that it was investing in the Carnegie Foundry, described as a "venture studio" dedicated to robotics and artificial intelligence startups, a new local venture institution that also includes support from U.S. Steel Corp.
Hanegraaf said Oshkosh has been working on autonomous vehicle technology for nearly 20 years now, noting how the company's technology development can easily be applied to all of its various business lines.
It's a move that's part of the company taking what she said is a little different approach. That includes being more "loud and proud" about the company's accomplishments and assets as well as going to where there are resources, partners and talent.
"Pittsburgh is just a hub of AI and robotics and autonomy and it made sense to set up an innovation center there," she said.
Oshkosh Corp. is working to set up in Pittsburgh amid what has been a challenging time for tech nationwide and locally, where one of the region's major AV companies, Argo AI, announced last October it was shutting down, and other companies have been cutting back and laying off employees.
Don Smith, president of the Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, which works with many tech firms at its Lawrenceville Technology Center, expects the current down period are part of typical growing pains for a new industry here.
"It’s like weather versus climate. Right now, the tech weather is a little chilly. But I think the climate trend is a little warmer," he said.
He expects a new presence by Oshkosh can only help.
"The more global players we can have here the better," he said.
