Industrial park filling fast

The past year has been a good one for the Ohio Works Industrial Park.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The spot is surrounded by highways, and one day last week, trains were running through it.
A work crew was criss-crossing the site on a machine that smoothes the ground.
Michael Garvey, president of the Garvey Corp., was here at the Ohio Works Industrial Park with family, friends and business associates for those very reasons.
He broke ground for a $4.3 million operation at the Ohio Works -- a heavy industrial machine shop called M-7 Technologies -- because of its central location and quality of the area's workers.
Garvey told the audience the machine shop will be smack in the middle of its customers, who are within 300 miles of the park. The talent and work ethic of the area work force is the other main reason for locating in the city's last unfilled industrial park, he said.
Garvey and M-7 are one reason the past year has been a good one for the Ohio Works, said Jeffrey L. Chagnot, city development director.
M-7 said it will provide 40 jobs over the next five years. Employees will make an average annual wage of $41,600. The plant should be ready in about a year.
Operations are about to start at another company in the industrial park that announced a year ago it was locating there.
Tenants
Industrial Waste Control is finishing building a $3.65 million facility that will have about 45 workers with plans to add 15 more each of the next three years. The company cleans big tanks and power plant equipment and also makes equipment for the power washing business.
M-7 and Industrial Waste follow Graybar Electric and Insulated Glass Specialties at the Ohio Works.
Graybar built a $6 million distribution warehouse and has about 50 workers. IGS makes windows and has a $4 million manufacturing plant with about 85 employees.
There have been some setbacks in the past for the Ohio Works park. In April 2000, Cintas Corp. of Mason said it would build a $7.5 million center with 88 jobs.
Cintas, in the uniforms business, later changed its mind, citing concerns about environmental problems. U.S. Steel closed its mill on the site in 1980 and paid $1 million for environmental cleanup in 1998.
The city indemnifies Ohio Works tenants against environmental costs, Chagnot said, but top Cintas executives opted not to take a chance.
K.T. Lyden Construction wanted to move into Ohio Works but couldn't get financing in order, Chagnot said. Anglo-American Inc., a gun safe maker, applied to be a tenant but never followed through, he said.
What's available
Nonetheless, just three parcels are left before the 135-acre industrial park is full. The plots are 10, eight and seven acres each.
The city turns away smaller companies that want to locate in the park, Chagnot said. For example, a company with 50 workers is more desirable than one with only 10 workers. The city wants companies in the park that generate other business in the area, such as from suppliers or trucking, he said.
"We choose these projects where there will be a larger spinoff, higher wage rates, more jobs per acre," Chagnot said.
A road, sewer and water lines are in, but the park isn't quite finished. Bids should go out shortly to build a $1.4 million bridge from Division Street into the industrial park, Chagnot said.
That will give companies access to Interstates 680 and 80 by way of Salt Springs Road, making the park even more attractive to large companies, he said.
rgsmith@vindy.com