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Innovation center location mulled
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State University officials met behind closed doors with the Mahoning County commissioners to discuss possible land purchase or sale for a collaborative innovation center.
YSU officials – including President Jim Tressel; Mike Hripko, associate vice president for research; John P. Hyden, executive director of university facilities and support services; and Atty. Greg Morgione – met in an executive session Thursday afternoon, which included assistant prosecutors from the civil division of the county prosecutor’s office and a host of other county officials.
The advanced manufacturing lab that has been in the planning stages for two years would be known as the Mahoning Valley Innovation and Commercialization Center.
“We’re talking about how we can be collaborative in these efforts with the county and the city and all of the partners,” Tressel said. “We’re looking at possible options for location of the innovation center.”
“We have certain needs as to size and makeup of the building with a lot of the innovation that’s a part of it,” Tressel added.
Sheriff Jerry Greene declined to publicly explain why he was at the meeting, but his office has a former minimum-security jail building on Commerce Street that is now used as a staging area for its day-reporting inmate-work detail program.
The innovation center is envisioned as a place within walking distance of YSU and Eastern Gateway Community College, where high school and college students, entrepreneurs, engineers, machinists and welders will be able to interact.
“We want to be centrally located, and so we’re in some discussions with private folks, city folks and our own people,” Tressel said.
The 60,000-square-foot center could be in a new or renovated building. Tressel said one possibility would be to house it in a YSU building.
“We’re just trying to talk about different innovative ideas and projects that YSU, as well as the Mahoning County commissioners and Youngstown city, could all work together on,” said Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti.
YSU’s research foundation has received $3 million from the state’s capital bill to pay for the lab’s construction.
The project also got $200,000 from the Detroit-based Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow to cover design costs.
To cover the high cost of equipment, the project is a partnership of the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers’ Coalition, YSU, Eastern Gateway, the Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana County and Choffin career and technical centers, Youngstown City Schools and the Youngstown Business Incubator.
The idea for the center arose from discussions among manufacturers and educational institution officials concerning training programs.