YOUNGSTOWN Company seeks tax break for move to Ohio Works

By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Three companies, three projects of various sizes, three pieces of good business news for the city.
All three companies are seeking the city's standard 10-year, 75 percent tax abatements on real and personal property.
All were on city council's agenda for tonight's meeting.
Industrial Waste Control will spend $2.65 million building a facility for its offices and operations. Another $1 million is for new equipment.
The company has 46 workers and plans to add 15 more each of the next three years.
That would double the company's employment and its $2 million annual payroll, adding another $45,000 a year to city income tax collections.
"It's a small company looking to get bigger. Hopefully we can help them grow," said Jeffrey L. Chagnot, city development director.
Industrial has operations on Teamster Drive and offices on Meridian Road, which the company will consolidate at the Ohio Works.
History: The company started as a pressure washing business about 15 years ago.
It since has branched into cleaning industrial size tanks and power plant equipment, generating $5.7 million in annual sales.
The company also makes equipment for the power washing business.
Industrial hopes to start building in the fall and finish in about six months.
Industrial is the third company to build in the Ohio Works park, following Graybar Electric and Insulated Glass Specialties.
Bridge: The park is getting an upgrade, too. Council is to vote on accepting a $600,000 state grant to build a $1.4 million span from Division Street into the industrial park.
The money is the final funding piece needed to build the bridge, Chagnot said.
Federal money and a borrowing will pay the balance.
Construction should start in the first half of next year, he said.
The two other abatements up for a vote today, each a 10-year, 75 percent tax break, are:
UExal Corp. Earlier this month the city announced Exal is planning a $12.6 million project at Performance Place Industrial Park.
The project will create 66 jobs over the next four years.
The project will include Exal, an aluminum container maker, buying its building, enlarging it and adding expensive equipment for another manufacturing line.
UCoronado Steel. The company plans a $100,000 warehouse at its Funston Street location.
The warehouse will save Coronado, an alloy steel casting maker, the cost of self-storage facilities and create one or two jobs in the next three years.
rgsmith@vindy.com