City board OKs land purchase for V&M deal

By David Skolnick

YOUNGSTOWN — V&M Star Steel hasn’t announced Youngstown as the site of a $970 million expansion, but city officials continue to take steps as if the project is coming here.

The city’s board of control on Monday agreed to purchase 15 to 20 acres from the state for $10 with the land used to relocate a Norfolk Southern Railroad line.

The line is being moved so V&M can use the railroad property for a potential expansion. The land purchased by the city used to be part of the former Youngstown Sheet and Tube location near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

The land needs some minor hazardous-material cleanup, said city Finance Director David Bozanich, a board of control member.

The railroad-line relocation should be done in May or June, he said.

“It’s an important piece of property,” Bozanich said about the state land purchased by the city for a potential V&M expansion.

Though V&M hasn’t committed to building the proposed expansion, the city has purchased various properties near the company’s current plant near the Youngstown-Girard boundary. Also, the city and state are spending about $17.7 million in federal-stimulus money to improve the location.

Youngstown officials are in frequent contact with V&M and are optimistic the company will select this area for its expansion, Bozanich said.

V&M officials repeatedly have refused to discuss the expansion project in public.

“We’re anticipating news will be forthcoming early in the first quarter” of 2010, January to March, Bozanich said about a V&M decision.

A new facility would employ about 400 workers in addition to V&M’s current mill that employs 450.

After sometimes tense negotiations, Youngstown and Girard signed an agreement Oct. 14 to provide about 200 acres to V&M for its potential expansion. Girard agreed to give 191 acres of industrial-zoned land to Youngstown for the expansion. V&M officials wouldn’t consider the site unless all of it is in Youngstown.

V&M makes seamless tubes used mostly in the gas and oil industry.

skolnick@vindy.com