City Approves P&S Grant, Has Another in Works

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – City officials say they are in talks with a company to provide a job creation grant that would incentivize the business to move into Youngstown.

The business would be the fourth to receive the grant – which is paid as a rebate on new income taxes generated – since the first one was approved in 2022 for Steelite International, which relocated its global headquarters to Youngstown.  

At its meeting Thursday morning, the city’s Board of Control approved a job creation grant worth an estimated $98,000 for P&S Wholesale Baking Co., which plans to add 40 jobs at its Salt Springs Business Park plant.

Under the terms of the grant agreement, which City Council approved a week ago, the new positions will generate additional payroll of not less than $4.3 million by December 2025. The grant will provide annual payments for a three-year period based on payroll withholdings generated by the expansion starting at 100% of the payroll withholding collected by the city for the first year and declining to 50% the final year. 

In addition to Steelite and P&S, the city previously approved a similar grant for Trivium Aluminum Packaging USA Corp.

The city is in talks with a company currently located outside the city that has expressed interest in entering into a grant agreement as an inducement for it to move its operations into Youngstown.

“We are working with another one,” Youngstown Finance director Kyle Miasek confirmed. “We cannot make the announcement because the entity has not made an announcement is potentially moving to the city yet.”

Neither Miasek nor Mayor Jamael Tito Brown were willing to say how soon an announcement might be forthcoming.

“They want to make sure they have everything in place.” Brown said. “We have a tool that we want to offer them. We know this is something that attracted them.”

Also during the meeting, the board members approved a contract worth $545,716.52 for restoration work on sections of East Federal Street and Market Street that were damaged by the May 28 natural gas explosion that damaged the Realty Building and the building demolition that followed.

The restoration should be completed within the next couple of weeks, depending on weather, Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works, said. Work began earlier this week and he is trying to coordinate with the paving subcontractor, which also is doing work on West Commerce Street.  

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.