Chamber official says land deal near for V&M project

YOUNGSTOWN — City officials with Youngstown and Girard are expected to finalize a land deal next week that would help pave the way for V&M Star Steel’s potential $970 million expansion project.

Thomas Humphries, the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s president and chief executive officer who’s been involved in negotiations with the cities and V&M, confirmed today that a deal is in place.

Girard City Council will meet Monday to approve the deal that calls, among other things, for that city to give 191 of its acres to Youngstown, Humphries said.

“I’m not aware of anyone opposed to it on council,” he said.

Also, the Youngstown Board of Control needs to give its approval on the deal. That should be done sometime next week.

V&M Star won’t decide on moving ahead with a $970 million expansion near its Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard facility until December or January.

Girard and Youngstown officials have said that V&M Star officials had made it clear they wanted all of the land needed for a potential expansion in Youngstown, and that a deal between the two cities needed to get done very soon.

Youngstown and Girard officials couldn’t be reached this morning to comment. But they said Monday that negotiations were progressing well and it was just a matter of time before a deal was reached.

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