SEBRING PLANT 10-year tax abatement OK'd for Akron company

Thirty jobs are expected to be created at the plant.
YOUNGSTOWN -- An Akron company says it will bring jobs back to an idled plant in Sebring.
Mahoning County commissioners approved a tax abatement to that end Thursday.
Famous Distribution Inc. will use the facility at 350 Courtney Road as a center for distributing products to its branch offices in Ohio, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, said vice president Marc Blaushild.
The 349,000-square-foot building was formerly occupied by Little Tikes, which moved out earlier this year. The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber immediately began marketing the facility to potential users, said Walter Good, director of the chamber's economic development action team.
Famous Distribution was considering other sites in Ohio as well as Pennsylvania, he said.
He said Famous Distribution will invest about $10 million into the plant.
New jobs
Blaushild said the company, founded in 1933, will transfer 17 employees to the Sebring plant and create 30 jobs. He said the company is a wholesale distributor of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, industrial and building products.
As part of an incentive package to bring the company to the area, Mahoning County commissioners approved a 10-year, 75 percent personal property tax abatement Thursday.
Good said the abatement was approved earlier in the week by Sebring village and school district officials as well. The Ohio Department of Development is considering issuing a job creation tax credit for the project.
Good said Famous employs more than 300 people in Ohio.
Little Tikes employed 130 in the building until it moved the making of toy parts to its main plant in Hudson.