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New port authority website to help explain financing tools
By Ed Runyan
YOUNGSTOWN
The new website for the Western Reserve Port Authority’s economic-development division went live to give people considering investment in the Mahoning Valley information on financing options.
The site – www.neodfa.org – uses the Northeast Ohio Development and Finance Authority’s new logo, displays economic-development news and gives four examples of NEODFA’s most-recent projects and explains the financing tools the port authority provided for them.
An example is the Inn at Poland Way, an assisted-living center on U.S. Route 224 that is using a “capital lease wherein [the owners were] able to save significant costs through sales-tax savings and through tax-increment financing to help defray infrastructure costs.”
Another page explains all the financing tools that NEODFA has. Another page explains enterprise and foreign-trade zones.
The site also provides links to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and provides information on the personnel at the port authority, which also runs the airport.
John Moliterno, port authority executive director, said having a useful website will be crucial to making potential developers understand how NEODFA can help them carry out the expansion they may be considering.
“When people are interested in doing business in a place, the first thing they do is go to the website,” he said.
“I think once large companies realize what we do, it’s a no-brainer. They’ll be coming to us, the new name makes us more recognizable, and the new website does a better job explaining our services,” said Anthony Trevena, NEODFA economic-development director.
On Wednesday, the port authority also approved the creation of the new position of NEODFA executive assistant at $14 per hour plus benefits.
NEODFA hired Sara Jackson. She had done the job for seven months through a contract with an employment agency.
In the position, Jackson will be bookkeeper and office manager and continue to prepare presentations, said Sarah Lown, public finance manager for NEODFA.