Lordstown still a magnet for business expansion

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

LORDSTOWN

Despite being a village of only 3,272 people that doesn’t have its own grocery store, Lordstown has gained worldwide name recognition in recent months because the last 1,500 workers at its 53-year-old Lordstown General Motors Assembly Complex were idled March 6.

But the village has also generated another kind of fame: It’s been the Mahoning Valley’s most active area for business expansion.

Starting with the 2011 construction of the $30 million Anderson DuBose Co. distribution center on Tod Avenue and 2015 construction of the $100-million Metalco Inc. plant next door, the village has been the economic envy of the Mahoning Valley.

In 2014, developer Bill Siderewicz used the word “billion” in describing the impact of building a power plant in the village.

The $900 million facility employing about 20 full-time people opened last October in the Lordstown Industrial Park and now produces electricity for close to a million people. It took about 800 people more than two years to build the Lordstown Energy Center.

Before construction was over, Siderewicz announced his desire to build a second plant next door, this one costing about $950 million. Though a legal dispute slowed things down, Siderewicz is now putting financing together and hopes for construction to begin this fall.

Perhaps the most closely watched project has been the $150 million HomeGoods Inc. distribution center planned for a site across Ellsworth Bailey Road from GM that promises 1,000 jobs. Its fame came in part from opposition to it resulting from a requested zone change from residential to industrial.

In April 2018, the company announced it had given up on the project, but a rally and other things appeared to change their mind. Village council approved the zone change, but residents used a referendum to bring it to a public vote, which failed.

Then a citizens group sued to overturn the zone change, but that also failed. Council then approved a tax abatement, the re-routing of Hallock Young Road and the site plan. State and federal environmental approvals gave their approval, leaving little doubt construction will begin in the coming weeks.

FOCAL POINT

Arno Hill, Lordstown mayor since 2012 and also from 1992 to 2003, has been a focal point of development. A Champion native, Hill worked at Packard Electric 31 years, 25 of those as a tool and die maker, until he retired in 2004.

Hill says none of Lordstown’s recent projects has come easily. It took 18 months to get approval to build Metalco because of gas wells on the site. It took 27 months to get approval to build the first power plant.

“Nothing comes easy in Lordstown,” Hill, a Republican, said.

The HomeGoods project even needed help from state legislators, who approved an amendment state Sen. Sean O’Brien of Bazetta, D-32nd, helped get into a larger bill that allowed the HomeGoods zoning referendum to take place more quickly than normal.

After those issues were resolved, three village council members slowed the project another month by voting against turning a portion of Hallock Young Road into a cul-de-sac.

At a memorable village council work session, Hill asked all three to explain their opposition, which they did. Though Hill seemed to suspect their opposition was a “delay tactic” aimed at killing the project, he asked each one whether he or she would expedite the final approvals if HomeGoods relocated Hallock Young the way they wanted. All three agreed, and all three followed through with a yes vote.

One of the three, Councilman Robert Bond, who plans to run against Hill for mayor in November, said he opposed the first site for the first power plant and the HomeGoods rezoning because he feels residentially zoned land should not be used for industrial development if industrially zoned land is available.

“That’s the reason for zoning is to establish various areas for different usages,” he said. “I feel most every community that has instituted zoning, it was brought in to protect what they already had.”

In the case of the power plant, after he and others voted against a site on Salt Springs Road, Siderewicz chose a site in the Lordstown Industrial Park that did not need a zone change.

“Once they moved it to an industrial location, I voted for everything for it,” Bond said. “They seemed to like that location well enough they want to put another one right beside it.”

Bond, who is a farmer, says his yes votes for relocating Hallock Young Road were similar. “We all voted to approve it,” he said of himself, Karen Jones and Lamar Liming after the cul-de-sac was eliminated. “I am not against all development.”

FINNISH CONCEPT

When Hill was asked how he has persevered through so many roadblocks to getting economic-development projects completed, he pointed to his 100 percent Finnish ancestry and a Finnish concept called “sisu.”

Sisu in Finnish means strength and perseverance in a task that for some may seem crazy to undertake, almost hopeless, according to the British Broadcasting Corp. Hill defined “sisu” as “grit, strength, stubborness, fortitude.”

“The last few years, I’ve had to call on my sisu quite a lot,” Hill said.

People have a cynicism regarding corporate interests that Hill said he thinks goes too far.

“Everybody says, ‘What if this happens?’ ‘Why are they hiding stuff?’”

His answer is: “What’s hidden? Nothing.”

Hill said part of his role is to provide answers to concerns people raise. In many cases, after he provides the information, they better understand.

Land of Opportunity

Commercial real estate agent and former Warren councilman Dan Crouse says Lordstown is the “center of the universe” for Trumbull County industrial development because it has undeveloped land, ideal access to the Ohio Turnpike, utilities and public officials such as Hill, O’Brien and state Rep. Glenn Holmes of Girard, D-63rd, who answer their phones.

“Lordstown is blessed to have the utilities and the access and infrastructure of a big city. They have better water, rail, electric, sewer and highway access than any big city around here – Youngstown, Warren, Sharon, any of them.”

Lordstown has “a responsive mayor and state representatatives. It’s a big deal. It just makes people feel welcome and that they will succeed in what they want to do. It’s fun working out there,” Crouse said.

He believes one reason HomeGoods wanted its current site is its closeness to the turnpike.

“Lordstown is the last place in Ohio as you are heading east where somebody can get within a mile of that turnpike exit and get really good land, really good utilities, really good access,” he said.

Crouse said autonomous trucks will be a significant part of the turnpike in a few years, and Crouse said he thinks HomeGoods sees a great opportunity to capitalize on that. He said he thinks HomeGoods chose Ohio over Pennsylvania for its warehouse because Ohio’s gas taxes and vehicle license taxes are lower.

Dennis Blank, who ran for Warren mayor in 2015 after a career in publishing, including six years as associate publisher of Money magazine, says power plants and a HomeGoods warehouse can’t replace thousand of good-paying jobs at GM. But attracting HomeGoods could breed interest from other companies.

“In all facets of business, success breeds success, so with TJX coming here, that automatically means some people who wouldn’t have otherwise looked at the area will look at it because they will need to know: ‘What did TJX know that I didn’t know?’ It’s the nature of business. They are not going to leave the area unexamined,” Blank said.

“Nobody wants their boss to say to them, ‘Why was’nt this area on our list?’ TJX, they’re big. They do a good job. ‘What do they know that we didn’t know?’ If your job is to find the best place for your employer to relocate or find a new place, you are less likely to get second-guessed if you’re picking some place that other respected businesses have selected.”

Blank said he met Hill after a debate during Blank’s run for Warren mayor. Lordstown incorporated from a township to a village in the 1970s to prevent Warren from annexing the GM plant into the city.

Blank acknowledged the success Lordstown was having in attracting new industries and told Hill if he became Warren mayor, “We’ll have to talk about divvying up all of the opportunities in Lordstown.”

Hill replied, “Maybe I’ll annex Warren,” Blank recalled with a chuckle.