Tax abatement keeps business in Atown

Without the abatement, the business likely would have moved to California.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Township trustees have approved a tax abatement package that will keep a local business from moving to California.
Player Wire Wheels Ltd. will receive a seven-year, 49 percent property tax abatement on a new 42,000 square-foot building that will be built behind B & amp;R Wholesale Tire and Wheel, 116 S. Meridian Road. B & amp;R Wholesale is the retail division of Player Wire Wheels.
The abatement was approved Monday by trustees.
Product: Sean McCarragher, controller for Player Wire Wheel, said the company would most likely have been forced to move to California without the abatement. Player Wire Wheel sells after-market custom wheels, many of which are sent to California for finishing, McCarragher said.
"We do not want to move the company," he said, adding that Player Wire Wheels is growing at a rate of 40 percent each year.
McCarragher said the new building is needed for about $3 million worth of inventory created as a result of the company's growth.
An additional 10 employees will be hired to work in the new building during the next two or three years, he said.
Trustee David Ditzler said the company pays about $70,000 in property taxes each year. Under the abatement, the company will pay an additional $35,000 on the new building for seven years.
"It's actually a good addition to the community; it's not a subtraction," Ditzler said of the taxes paid under the abatement.
McCarragher said the new building should be constructed by year's end.
Other business: Trustees also passed a resolution answering a request to change the plans for a development at the corner of Norquest and Fitch boulevard.
D.E.B. Enterprises Inc. of Austintown is planning 65 condominiums on 15 acres in a development called Falcon Square. The company had asked trustees for permission to construct a wooden fence buffer around the development, said Michael Kurilla Jr., zoning inspector.
Original plans for the development call for the construction of a buffer that includes pine trees on top of earthen mounds.
The resolution approved by the trustees states that the company must construct different buffers around different sections of the development. Some of the buffers will include fences, some will include mounds and some will include pine trees.
No additional zoning permits will be issued for the development until the buffer is built, according to the resolution.
hill@vindy.com