Posted on July 21, 2025
Pennsylvania officials have announced that Philadelphia-based Rhoads Industries is making a nearly $100 million investment in its manufacturing operations at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
The office of Gov. Josh Shapiro says the project will create some 450 jobs and retain another 540.
The type of U.S. Navy shipbuilding and retrofitting work done at the facility can be considered metals intensive.
According to the governor’s office, Rhoads will build a new 95,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to increase its production capacity for the Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base, supporting its submarine program.
“This investment by the commonwealth will expedite and accelerate our production output and rapid hiring by at least one year,” Rhoads Industries CEO Dan Rhoads Jr. says. “Gov. Shapiro’s commitment to our company is significant and signals the importance of the defense industry’s growth in Pennsylvania.”
The new facility will allow for the installation of a continuous fabrication process and will provide direct access to a pier for barge shipment of completed products.
“Shipbuilding has always been key part of Philadelphia’s identity and our economy,” Shapiro says.
Support from the state includes a new $4 million investment tied to the new facility and some $17 million of support over the past decade.
“The future of shipbuilding runs through Philadelphia—and just like generations before us, it’s Pennsylvania workers who will build what keeps our nation safe,” Shapiro says. “We’re investing in that future because it’s good for our economy, our communities and for the people of Pennsylvania.”
The shipbuilding company was founded and has been family‐owned since 1896 and provides large-scale industrial fabrication, along with mechanical and maintenance maritime services.
Rhoads Industries also offers a paid, three-year state-accredited apprenticeship program that prepares high school technical education graduates for careers in the submarine industrial sector, which it runs in partnership with the Boilermakers Local 19 union chapter.
“Throughout the last two years that I’ve been at Rhoads Industries, I’ve been offered so many amazing experiences — from the welding [certifications] I’m allowed to acquire to the events I’m invited to be part of, and all of the people I have the joy of working with along the way,” says Boots Olson, a welding apprentice at Rhoads Industries.
The Philadelphia Navy Yard overall is home to more than 150 employers and 15,000 jobs.
