V&M project honored

Staff report

youngstown

The $650 million V&M Star expansion here — and the local organizations that worked to ensure the investment — continues to garner accolades as one of the world’s best economic- development projects of 2010.

The latest recognition came Tuesday, when the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber was honored for its role in the project with an Excellence in Economic Development Award from the International Economic Development Council, a member organization of economic-development professionals.

The award, given in the Business Retention and Expansion category for communities with more than 500,000 people, honored the regional chamber for leading local development efforts that led to V&M’s decision to build a new seamless-steel pipe mill in Youngstown.

The project, under construction, is expected to create 350 permanent jobs.

The project highlights the chamber’s “successful strategies to promote new paradigms in economic development in this period of global recovery,” said William Best, chair of the International Economic Development Council.

The award, presented during the council’s annual conference in Columbus, “reinforces the significant magnitude of the V&M project and continues to celebrate the company’s decision to invest in the Mahoning Valley,” said Walt Good, the Chamber’s vice president for economic development.

The annual Excellence in Economic Development Awards recognizes the world’s best economic-development programs, partnerships and marketing materials, as well as the year’s most-influential leaders in the field.