Wednesday, March 9, 2005
A move out of Youngstown would require a state law change.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The B.J. Alan Fireworks Co. is looking at two properties -- one in Youngstown and the other in Vienna -- to relocate much of its operations from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
William Weimer, the company's vice president, said B.J. Alan made an offer to the owner of the former Community Air Craft building on Ridge Road in Vienna, adjacent to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and the Youngstown Joint Air Reserve Station.
The company is also actively looking at a site in the Ross Industrial Park on Youngstown's East Side on the corner of Albert Street and McGuffey Road, Weimer said.
The move would cost the fireworks company more than $1 million.
Besides the cost of relocation, the company would pay to make significant changes to either warehouse, Weimer said.
A fireworks warehouse needs increased fire protection, additional exits and fireproofing, among other things, he said.
"All of that is very expensive," Weimer said.
Limited by law
The company opened its 25,000-square-foot MLK Boulevard facility and located its headquarters there in 1985. But because of its success, the business kept expanding and outgrew the location in 1995, Weimer said.
Over the years the company added several hundred thousand square feet through the use of trailers at the site.
"We are up against a wall with space problems," Weimer said. "We are exploring a handful of alternatives."
The Ross Park and the Vienna warehouses are each about 250,000 square feet, he said.
Weimer said the move to the Ross Park location would be easier than moving to Vienna because the company would need to have a state law passed permitting it to move out of Youngstown, Weimer said.
State law permits a fireworks company to relocate operations to acceptable facilities only within its political subdivision, Weimer said. He said B.J. Alan plans to start working with state legislators in coming months to seek a change to the law.
Bruce Zoldan, the company's president and chief executive officer, is one of the Mahoning Valley's most prominent political contributors.
Sparkling business
A move away from its current facility would mean relocating about two-thirds of the 135 to 150 workers there to the new site, Weimer said.
But the company would still maintain its corporate headquarters at the MLK Boulevard location, he said.
"Everything is speculative, but we are looking," Weimer said.
The company has more than 400 year-round, full-time employees and swells to about 1,700 workers between April and July, Weimer said. The company owns a 115,000-square-foot warehouse in Wheatland, Pa.
Zoldan started selling sparklers to wholesale customers in the early 1970s, and B.J. Alan was established in 1977.
In 1985, the company acquired the assets of a sparkler manufacturing facility and moved it to Youngstown. The company established Diamond Sparkler Manufacturing Co. Inc. that year. It is the only sparkler manufacturer in the United States.
The company operates retail outlets in 14 states under the name Phantom Fireworks and leases about 1,200 temporary locations nationwide at the height of the Fourth of July season.