City Printing seeks to ink tax abatement deal

By David Skolnick

YSU is interested in buying the property but hasn’t made a formal offer.

YOUNGSTOWN — A commercial printing company is seeking a tax abatement from the city to relocate from near the Youngstown State University campus to a larger property on the South Side.

City Printing plans to invest about $1.5 million, said Joseph Valentini, its president, to improve the former J.L. White Moving & Storage Inc. property at 122 Oak Hill Ave.

City Printing purchased the Oak Hill property for $152,000 in October 2006. That property is about one-third of an acre and twice the size of its current location.

The purchase was in anticipation of an eventual move because the company needs more space than is available at its current location at 36 W. Wood St., Valentini said.

The time to move is now, he said.

“We’ve outgrown our facility,” Valentini said.

City council will consider legislation Wednesday to recommend a 75 percent, 10-year real-property tax abatement for City Printing. The final decision on the abatement rests with the city’s board of control.

If the abatement is approved, City Printing would save $119,607 in property taxes over 10 years and pay $39,869 in property taxes over the same time period.

The project would start shortly after a tax abatement is finalized and take about eight months to complete, Valentini said.

City Printing is also moving because the business is not a good fit for the area, he said.

“YSU wants to expand in the area we’re located,” Valentini said. “This is a campus site, and a manufacturing building doesn’t fit into a college campus.”

YSU officials have discussed purchasing the building, located near the site of the university’s Williamson College of Business Administration project.

“We have shown and continue to show interest in the property, but no final decision [on a deal] has been made,” said Ron Cole, a YSU spokesman.

As long as a fair offer is made for the property, Valentini said he would sell it to YSU.

City Printing employs 22 full-time workers and two part-timers.

The company plans to hire up to 10 new employees during the next three years.

skolnick@vindy.com