AUSTINTOWN State officials sweeten Tamco deal

A representative called the grant package a significant offer.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- State officials have added up to $175,000 in grants to an incentive package targeted to persuade Snyder's Drug Stores to sign a lease agreement for the Tamco distribution center in Austintown.
The Minnesota-based drug-store chain still hasn't announced its decision on the lease. Snyder's has been considering three potential warehouse sites -- the Tamco building and locations in the Detroit area and the Kansas City area.
Julie Michael Smith, Gov. Bob Taft's regional representative, said the Ohio Department of Development has offered Snyder's a $100,000 business development grant and an industrial training grant of up to $75,000.
The grant package is in addition to a 10-year, 60-percent personal property tax abatement Mahoning County commissioners and Austintown Township trustees approved for the facility last month.
"That's quite a significant offer," she said, "particularly in light of the state's serious financial condition and the fact that our grant funding has been cut considerably."
She said Taft and ODOD officials agreed to extend the grant offer after meeting with Snyder's representatives to learn what incentives they would need.
Reason for incentives
She said state leaders agreed to offer the incentives partly because the Mahoning Valley has suffered so many job losses in recent months, and the Tamco project is expected to restore about 200 of the jobs lost.
Snyder's officials are completing the grant applications, she said, adding that the grants are contingent upon the company's signing the lease agreement and final approval by ODOD officials and the State Controlling Board.
The Tamco center on Victoria Road is a former Phar-Mor facility that closed when the bankrupt discount drug chain was liquidated last summer, idling 250 workers.
Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle owns the Tamco center, and spokesman Daniel Shapira has said the grocery store chain is working to negotiate a lease with Snyder's. Shapira could not be reached to comment Wednesday.
He said last week that an unofficial agreement had been reached, but the deal was contingent upon Snyder's lining up financing. Under the tentative deal, he said, Snyder's would lease the warehouse for 10 years and would buy the inventory and some equipment in the building.
Youngstown Mayor George McKelvey has said that while Snyder's has a warehouse in Kansas City, he believes the company would eventually make the Austintown location its main distribution center because it is more centrally located.
vinarsky@vindy.com