When a commercial laundry supplier decided to sell its laundry in the Hill District, 175 employees faced losing their jobs. But through an arrangement with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, workers at the former Hospital Central Services Cooperative Inc. facility will continue to clean 19 million pounds of hospital linens each year. UPMC said it has contracted with Sodexho Inc. for laundry services after insisting that any new vendor continue to prepare the linens in Pittsburgh and maintain current jobs at the Jumonville Street plant. Centerstone Development, of Buffalo, N.Y., bought the plant for $1.7 million, according to deed records, and Sodexho, of Gaithersburg, Md., is leasing it. Sodexho said it will not only continue to operate the Hill District facility but will grow its laundry business in Western Pennsylvania. "We became aware of the opportunity to buy the plant in December. Then we toured it and decided to buy it," said John Giardino, Centerstone's chief executive officer. He wants to upgrade the plant for $1 million to $1.5 million, including improving the energy system and roof, and installing new equipment. Giardino said increasing the workload from UPMC and other health care operations could create up to 50 more jobs at the plant. Allentown-based Hospital Central Services told UPMC in November it planned to sell the Hill District plant. The firm claims to be the biggest not-for-profit health care linen rental provider nationwide, with other plants in Kingston, Pa., Asbury Park and Camden, N.J., and Baltimore. "To prevent the loss of jobs here, we insisted that the plant remain open and in Pittsburgh," said Rob DiMichiei, UPMC chief financial officer. "We were the main provider -- probably about 75 percent of their workload -- and the local plant allowed a quick turnover in work because of its proximity to our health care facilities." DiMichiei said he is delighted that Sodexho has partnered with Centerstone and believes it will bring new technology and industry knowledge to the local plant, which has been in operation since the late 1960s. "The chance to be a vital part of the patient delivery systems at UPMC is an exciting opportunity for Sodexho," said George Chavel, the company's health care market president. Sodexho, a food and facilities management services company, said it hopes to use its greater purchasing power and other efficiencies to improve the Hill District plant's competitiveness. The company processes linen for more than 400 facilities nationwide and has total annual revenues of $6.3 billion and more than 120,000 employees in North America.

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