Exal to hire 35 new employees

By David Skolnick | June 11, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Youngstown board approves real-property tax abatement

YOUNGSTOWN

The Exal Corp. will hire 35 new employees as part of a $1.05 million expansion project at its Poland Avenue location.

The city’s board of control approved a 10-year, 75 percent real-property tax abatement for the 7,800-square-foot expansion at its Friday meeting. The work should be done in about 90 days, said city Finance Director David Bozanich, a board of control member.

The company has about 300,000 square feet at the city’s Performance Place Business Park and employs about 400 workers.

The tax abatement will save the company $246,093.80 over a 10-year period. During that same time, the company will pay $82,031.30 in taxes for the addition.

The company makes aluminum cans and bottles for major companies including Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola and GlaxoSmithKline, for its Aquafresh and Sensodyne toothpastes.

Exal is deciding whether to move ahead with the construction of a $400 million project in the city’s Salt Springs Road Business Park. The project has been considered by the company for more than 21/2 years.

Exal is “talking to their financial people” about the project, Bozanich said.

The project would add about 300 jobs if it’s done.

The city received $4.3 million in November 2008 from the state to improve a 61-acre site at Salt Springs for Exal.

The money was used to purchase the property for $1.4 million from LaFarge North America Inc., which used it to mine slag, as well as to make major site improvements and install water, sewer, gas and electric lines.

If Exal decides not to expand there, Bozanich said the city could sell the property to another company “in a heartbeat.”