VIENNA Delphi Packard plans site in industrial park

THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
The company hopes for corporate approval for the new plant this month.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
VIENNA -- May 1 is the target date for Delphi Packard Electric Systems to start construction on a $75 million plastics plant next to Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
Delphi Packard is announcing the site in a new industrial park just west of the airport after months of saying only that it was looking in Vienna Township.
The company confirmed its interest in the site after applying for state financing and starting lease negotiations with the Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates the airport. The port authority would own the building and lease it to Delphi Packard, said Ann Cornell, a spokeswoman for the wiring harness maker.
She said the project still must be approved by Delphi Packard's parent company, Delphi Automotive Systems. That approval may come at the end of the month, she said.
Praise: Adding Delphi Packard to the industrial park would be a big gain, said Reid Dulberger, executive vice president of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce. The chamber is developing the 93-acre industrial park.
The plant would solidify the Mahoning Valley as a center for plastic injection moldings, he said. The plant would be among the most advanced plastic-molding plants in the world, similar to the one Delphi Packard recently opened in a remodeled plant in Cortland, he said.
"Having a facility like that from a world-class company screams success," Dulberger said.
Delphi Packard would be the second tenant in the park, after the Timken Co.'s Latrobe Steel Distribution. Timken has about 19 acres. The acreage needed by Delphi Packard hasn't been decided but could be as much as 30, Dulberger said.
Neither Timken nor Delphi Packard would use the airport except for emergency shipments or deliveries, but the hope remains that the industrial park will attract cargo companies who need the airport regularly, he said.
Delphi Packard has been moving some plastic operations out of its aging Dana Street plant in Warren as it buys new molding machines, which make plastic parts. It wants the new machines in a climate-controlled environment.
Jobs: The Vienna plant would employ about 200. Cornell said the plant would open about a year after construction starts.
To help to fund construction, Delphi Packard has asked for a state loan and grant. The Development Financing Advisory Council approved a $5 million loan and $250,000 grant, but both need to be approved by the State Controlling Board, which meets March 26.
A 10-year abatement on 75 percent of new real and personal property taxes has been approved by Trumbull County commissioners.