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BUSINESS STORIES of the YEAR
BUSINESS STORIES
of the YEAR
A LOOK BACK AT THE TOP BUSINESS STORIES IN THE VALLEY
1: Fracking/Shale Boom
2: Chevy Cruze
3: VAM/V&M Star
4: Unemployment rate/lack of skilled work force
5: Post Office drama
6: Chamber vs. Unions
7: Stock market notables/ Farmers makes NASDAQ
8: Revere Data’s huge growth
9: Resurgence of downtown business
10: Anderson DuBose
By Karl Henkel
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning Valley business spectrum diversified, grew and developed new hurdles throughout 2011.
New businesses, mostly dealing with the Utica and Marcellus shale drilling boom, will soon bring hundreds of new jobs to the area. General Motors Co. Lordstown is still buzzing over the smash-hit Chevrolet Cruze. The Youngstown Business Incubator and its roster of companies continues to grow.
But the potential closing of the mail-processing center in Youngstown and a dwindling work force have and will continue to present the region difficulties in 2012 and beyond.
Here are the area’s Top 10 business stories of 2011 as selected by The Vindicator staff.
1. FRACKING/SHALE BOOM:
The buzzword of 2011 in the Valley was undoubtedly “fracking.”
The controversial practice in which water, chemicals and sand are blasted into rocks thousands of feet below the ground to unlock natural gas and oil has sparked rallies, protests, arrests and create jobs, extra income and new opportunities.
Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. has already started drilling in Milton Township and has gobbled up hundreds of thousands of acres in the Valley.
Companies such as Exterran Energy Solutions and VAM USA LLC are investing millions and creating hundreds of jobs related to the Utica and Marcellus shales, two previously untapped underground formations.
2. CHEVY CRUZE:
Local union officials thought the Chevrolet Cruze was going to be a big hit. So far, GM has hit a home run.
By year’s end, GM will have sold more than 225,000 of the Lordstown-built compact cars.
The vehicle has had its highlights — for a short time it was the best-selling car in America, it also dominated the compact-car segment for five- straight months.
It also had its low points: In May, GM recalled all Cruzes built to that date because of possible intermediate steering-shaft problems and improperly installed automatic-transmission shift links.
But through it all, including a new four-year national GM-United Auto Workers contract, the Lordstown plant has remained a winner, even scoring a $5.5 million investment so it can build a diesel Cruze beginning in 2013.
3. VAM/V&M STAR
Not much could top the $650 million, 350-job V&M Star expansion project in Brier Hill.
But Vallourec, the parent company of V&M, sure tried.
Vallourec in November announced a $57 million investment that will employ an estimated 100 full-time workers at a new VAM USA, LLC plant.
The plant will thread pipe that is produced from the V&M plant, which is expected to ramp up production in April. The VAM project should be completed by mid-2012.
4. UNEMPLOYMENT
The Valley’s unemployment rate in November dropped 2.1 percent compared with last year and now sits at 8.4 percent.
Yes, there are more jobs, but the unemployment drop is also attributed to many longtime job-seekers deciding to give up looking, therefore leaving the work force.
5. POST OFFICE DRAMA
Will it stay or will it go?
That’s still the big question surrounding the Youngstown mail-processing and distribution center, home to about 500 local employees.
All indications, including documents from the U.S. Postal Service to union representatives and obtained by The Vindicator, point to the consolidation of the facility with a similar plant in Pittsburgh, costing hundreds of Valley residents their jobs.
The postal service has agreed on a post office closing moratorium until May.
6. CHAMBERS VS. UNIONS
The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and local unions and Democrats across the Valley engaged in a heated, months-long verbal battle regarding Senate Bill 5, the controversial legislation that curbed some collective bargaining rights for public officials.
Though only eight of 23 chamber board members voted to endorse SB 5, the chamber, led by CEO Tom Humphries, still endorsed the legislation.
That set off a barrage of attacks from state Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, and even Doug Sollitto, president of Ohio State Penitentiary Chapter 5041, and Eric Kusky, president of Chapter 7820, who sent letters to local businesses asking they not spend money at the chamber’s approximately 2,800 business members.
7. FNBC ON NASDAQ
Farmers National Banc Corp. in September began trading it shares on the NASDAQ Capital Market. “Nasdaq is where most of the community banks are,” said Farmers president and CEO John Gulas.
Meanwhile, another bank, First Place Bank, found itself off the NASDAQ in November because of a failure to timely file multiple financial statements.
It had appeared on the NASDAQ since 1999.
8. REVERE DATA GROWTH
San Francisco-based Revere Data, a market- analysis firm for the financial industry, first moved its research operations from New Delhi, India to the Semple Building on West Federal Street in 2010, bringing 10 jobs to the Valley.
Revere has already quadrupled its Youngstown work force and plans to double that total — bringing the jobs count to 80 — in 2012.
The company is in negotiations with the Youngstown Business Incubator to move from the 5,200-square-foot Semple Building to the 8,600-square-foot former Furnitureland warehouse at 234 W. Boardman St.
9. DOWNTOWN BUSINESS
Business is booming in downtown Youngstown. All 23 units at the Realty Tower Apartments, 47 Central Federal St., and the 14 apartments at the Federal Building, at Phelps and Federal streets, are occupied.
Downtown Circle Convenience & Deli store, 116 W. Federal St., opened this summer, giving the downtown area a Mediterranean cuisine.
V2 Wine Bar Trattoria, run by Vernon Cesta of Vernon’s Cafe, opened this fall on the first floor of the Federal Building.
The Erie Terminal building at 112 W. Commerce St. will be transformed into a 65-bed apartment complex with a Friends Rostary on its ground floor.
Joe Maxx Coffee recently opened shop at Realty.
A new lounge is planned above another hotspot, Imbibe Martini Bar, at 124 W. Federal St.
10. ANDERSON-DUBOSE
Anderson-Dubose Inc. broke ground in August on a new $30 million, 155,000-square-foot headquarters at the Ohio Commerce Center in Lordstown.
The Ohio company will merge two current locations — one in Solon and the other in Carnegie, Pa. — into the new location, which the company expects will be ready for business by April.
The project will bring 160 jobs and $8 million in additional annual income to the Valley.