Port authority approves plan to give land to 3 companies

Allied Erecting and Dismantling would become Youngstown's first foreign trade zone.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- The Western Reserve Port Authority has approved giving away 250 acres of its foreign trade zone to three companies in Youngstown, Vienna and Warren to help with economic development.
Reid Dulberger, Regional Chamber executive vice president, brought the proposal to the port authority Wednesday at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. He asked the authority to allow the trade zone designation to be turned over to the three companies for 250 of the airport's 1,300 acres.
The companies are Allied Erecting and Dismantling on Poland Avenue in Youngstown, which wants to use the foreign trade zone to expand business; the former ATD Corp. site in Vienna, which wants the zone to sell a vacant building; and Leedsworld, a company that wants to use a 256,000-square-foot building off North River Road in Warren for a production and distribution facility.
About the trade zones
Foreign trade zones are areas in which companies can import products without paying duties on them. The company pays duties only when the products are sold in the domestic market. The companies use the foreign trade zone status at their own properties.
Board members John Masternick and Mike Harshman both had questions about the plan. Harshman wanted to know more about the companies being given the foreign trade zones, and Masternick said he was opposed to giving away any type of airport asset. Masternick eventually voted no on the idea.
Dulberger explained that the Northeast Ohio Trade and Economic Consortium, or NEOTEC, which serves as the administrator for foreign trade zones in Northeast Ohio, took the steps to provide the foreign trade zone for the airport. "They own it, if you will," Dulberger said.
He added that federal officials who govern the trade zones have repeatedly asked him why the zone at the airport has gone unused since the mid-1990s, when it was established.
"Your refusal to help with the economic development in Mahoning and Trumbull counties would not go unnoticed," Dulberger said.
Putting land to use
Dulberger said distributing the airport's zone for the three companies will allow the zone to be used in the way it was designed. It will take about 10 months to get approval of the zone to be transferred, Dulberger said.
Allied Erecting and Dismantling will use the zone to expand its business of taking heavy equipment and retrofitting it.
The company received a 10-year, 75-percent tax abatement last year from Youngstown on a 200,000-square-foot building it needed to expand its business. The company had received a previous tax abatement in 1994 and had not lived up to its promise of creating 50 jobs and retaining 87 others. Instead, its work force dropped to 29 people.
For last year's tax abatement and for the foreign trade zone, the company promises to add 21 jobs, said Tom Presby, Regional Chamber manager of business assistance projects. Presby said Allied would be the first foreign trade zone in Youngstown.
Dulberger said the former ATD Corp. site has a 400,000-square-foot building that has been vacant for two to three years. ATD manufactured racks that hold parts in automotive assembly plants.
The owners were marketing it as being in a foreign trade zone -- and had thought it was because nearby buildings are designated that way.
Leedsworld is proposing to lease a 256,000-square-foot facility for the production, processing and distribution of promotional material and goods. The company said its facility could provide 241 full-time jobs.
runyan@vindy.com