UPDATE | Mayor happy that TJX wants Lordstown site

LORDSTOWN — Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill said he’s happy TJX is once again pursing its plan to build a Homegoods facility in Lordstown.

Hill said he had been waiting for the call all week that TJX had made their decision to stick with the original site on Ellsworth Bailey Road.

There will be a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Lordstown administration building, 1455 Salt Springs Road.

Homegoods released the following statement Friday:

“As we have said previously, having a strong relationship with our communities is a core part of who we are and how we do business at HomeGoods. While our intent as of April 20 was to withdraw our zoning application from Lordstown, from the moment we announced our decision, we received considerable encouragement from the broader community, as well as state and local officials, to hold off in doing so. With the groundswell of recent support for our project, including last Sunday’s community rally, we have changed our minds and are planning once again to pursue the Ellsworth Bailey Road site for our proposed distribution center.”

“While we have considered alternative sites for our project, we have not identified any other nearby site that meets all of our business needs. We are hopeful that our intent to bring approximately 1,000 jobs to the area, in addition to the many enhancements we have made to our site design, will address the needs of the broader Lordstown community. We sincerely thank community residents, government officials, and the many others for their support and look forward to pursuing this project once again.”

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, thanked TJX’s leadership “for their perseverance and commitment to this community.”

“I want to commend our local economic development agencies, state and local elected officials and our civic leaders for their unwavering support and resiliency on this significant project,” Ryan said in the statement. “Good things happen when we work together as a team — with a common mission and goal.”

There is still more work to do, Ryan continued in the statement, but the “latest development shows we have put this project back on the path to success.”