Chamber Event Highlights Trumbull County’s Progress

HOWLAND TOWNSHIP, Ohio – Three portfolio companies of Brite Energy Innovators, a clean energy incubator based in downtown Warren, are seeking to expand operations somewhere in the Mahoning Valley, the organization’s president and CEO said Thursday.

“They’re looking for buildings about 50,000 square feet,” Rick Stockburger said after addressing a large crowd at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s Good Morning, Trumbull event. “They’re looking for sites to expand.”

Stockburger declined to name the companies but noted that building inventory in the region that would suit their needs is tight. “We need more buildings,” he said.

Stockburger was among the key speakers at the event, held at the Grand Resort pavilion. Also delivering presentations were Trumbull County Commissioner Denny Malloy and Youngstown State University President Bill Johnson. Sponsors included Akron Children’s Hospital, Foxconn, Southern Ohio Chamber Alliance, Boak & Sons, Professional Engine Systems and Berk Enterprises.

In 2023, Brite Energy’s startup ventures engendered $236 million in economic impact across Ohio, Stockburger said. Moreover, these businesses created 1,417 jobs.

“We’re not a technology-focused organization,” Stockburger said, explaining that much of that development is left to the expertise of scientists. “What they always forget to do is that they make science projects that aren’t good businesses. That’s our role – to help people make good businesses.”

Brite fills this void by working with companies to improve their access to capital and customers, Stockburger said.

“Last year, we helped companies in the state of Ohio get $110 million in venture capital,” he said. “We brought that money from the coasts.”

Stockburger said Brite was able to secure these funds through a venture network that consists of 150 investment groups that pay close attention to the incubator’s portfolio companies. “It’s been a great program.”

Brite also sponsors efforts to raise capital for its companies through its federal funding initiatives, Stockburger said. “There’s a ton of federal money to adopt clean energy technologies, to advance clean energy technologies – we have a program that helps companies gain access to that program.”

Brite contracts with former administrators in the U.S. Department of Energy to help develop grant and loan proposals for its portfolio companies, he said. So far this year, Brite has helped secure $50 million in federal dollars for its firms.

The organization is currently awaiting word on a grant application it helped develop for Graphite One. In March, the Vancouver-based company announced it is considering investing $435 million to build a new synthetic and natural graphite anode materials plant in Weathersfield Township.

Stockburger said he expects a decision on the award – the application targeted approximately $120 million – could come in either November or December.

The Good Morning, Trumbull event attracted 222 attendees, the most ever for a Good Morning breakfast, according to Kim Calvert, the Regional Chamber’s vice president of marketing and member services.

Johnson presented an update on the university, citing enrollment during the fall semester of 2024 is more than 10% higher than the same period last year. “For the first time since 2019, Youngstown State’s enrollment is going to pop out over 12,000,” Johnson said. “We’re up around 12,200-plus as I speak to you today.”

He said that number is likely to increase as additional international students obtain their student visa credentials.

“We’re financially sound; our enrollment is going in the right direction; and we’ve got great partners here in this room and across the Valley,” Johnson said.

Business is also gaining traction across Trumbull County, Malloy said, pointing to prospective projects such as a potential Kimberly-Clark operation on former steel mill property in Warren and major companies such as Foxconn in Lordstown.

“We recently had a business forum on Mosquito Lake that was well attended,” Malloy said. “We have things going on in all parts of our county.”

He also praised the community for uniting behind the effort to keep Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland open in the aftermath of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. On Tuesday, the bankruptcy court approved a deal that allows Insight Health System, based in Flint, Mich., to manage the hospitals.

Malloy said the deal saved close to 1,000 jobs. “They are under control of the hospital as of this morning. We look forward to working with them to make this a successful venture.”

He also highlighted the success of the Eastwood Mall Complex, improvements at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Airport – most recently with the announcement of a new flight school and expansion of the Pittsburgh Institute of Aviation.

“Collectively, we’re all working together to ensure a Trumbull County we can all be proud of – a county where we have a secure future and a place where we can thrive and not survive,” Malloy said.

Pictured at top: Rick Stockburger, president and CEO of Brite Energy Innovators.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.