YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The region’s contractors are likely to have their hands full this season – not to mention over the next several years – as some major building projects take shape and others finish up.
Building contractors report there is a solid backlog of work in both the public and private sectors. These order books are likely to grow in the future as development projects such as the $800 million Kimberly-Clark manufacturing plant in Howland and Warren townships take hold.
“It’s looking good,” says Larry Lencyk, president of Lencyk Masonry, Boardman. “There seems to be plenty of work out there. We’re bidding a lot and we’ve picked up a lot of work as well.”
Lencyk says his crews are busy working on several school projects, including the $11.4 million training hub at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center. That center will be dedicated to programs such as AI systems and software engineering; welding and industrial maintenance; electricity and automated systems; robotics and engineering; computer networking; and cybersecurity.
“We’ve also got a project at Crestview [Local Schools] going on right now, and we just finished up another one at United Local Schools,” Lencyk says. “There are some other school projects still out there,” such as a new addition for the Mollie Kessler School in Youngstown.
Lencyk’s company performs the brick and block work on building projects throughout the region. He says new academic buildings and high school athletic complexes have kept his team busy all year. Moreover, construction work in the health care sector has also led to additional jobs that Lencyk has successfully bid.
“We’re doing the Lifepoint-Mercy Health Behavioral hospital in Liberty Township right now,” he says. “We did the first building last year and now we’re on the other building.”
The total project includes a physical rehabilitation hospital and behavioral hospital at the site of the former Kmart department store in Liberty. Lencyk completed work on the rehabilitation hospital last year and is now working on the behavioral health center, he says.
Other health care related building projects include a new addition at the Surgical Hospital at Southwoods in Boardman and a proposed 30,000-square-foot Mercy Health emergency clinic slated for Champion Township. At the same time, the company is working on a large project on a FirstEnergy building at the Performance Place business park in Youngstown.
Critical to moving forward, Lencyk says, is having the qualified workers on hand to staff these projects. “It’s always a challenge, especially when we start some of the bigger projects,” he acknowledges. “But we’re doing OK.”
Lencyk says the company started an in-house apprenticeship program last fall, reaching out to young people in the local career and technical centers and other school districts. “So far, we’ve had 12 come through,” he says. “We have a good team in here and we just make it happen.”
Lencyk reports there are approximately 100 of his workers out in the field. That number is likely to increase to about 150 once other projects get underway this season.
“We have our share of work, and there’s plenty in the pipeline,” Lencyk says. “So, we might be a little more selective because of manpower issues, but right now we’re doing very well.”
Building Numbers Rise
Kevin Reilly, executive vice president of the Builders Association of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, reports that man-hours in the construction trades are up approximately 5% so far this year compared to the same period in 2024. Dollar values on building projects are also robust through the first three months of calendar year 2025, he says.
“For nonresidential construction, it’s up,” Reilly reports. Through the first three months of 2025, commercial and industrial construction stood at $25 million, compared to $16 million during the first three months of 2024.
Dollar values are reported as the projects are announced, Reilly says. The Kimberly-Clark project was announced May 1, so it’s construction valuation will likely be included in that month’s report.
Other major construction projects slated for the future include Youngstown State University’s proposed aviation training center at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, and a redesign and construction of YSU’s Kilcawley Center.
“That’s a much-needed project and that will be big for us,” Reilly says.
These projects and numbers bode well for contractors across the region, Reilly says.
Still, such a large job portfolio could potentially put strains on the existing workforce – an issue that the Builders Association has worked with trade organizations to alleviate.
Initiatives such as the annual Skilled Trades Expo at the Canfield Fairgrounds, a guidance counselor breakfast each spring and a pre-apprenticeship program that includes 19 schools throughout the region, are part of the builders association’s and the building trades’ efforts to increase their workforce.
Projects such as Kimberly-Clark and Lordstown’s Ultium Cells provide opportunities for local builders that in turn impact the community.
“Ultium was fantastic as far as using local contractors,” he says. “You’re keeping a lot of those construction and maintenance dollars in the community, which benefits the community,” he says.
Tucker Cope, president of C. Tucker Cope & Associates, Columbiana, says much of the work in progress now is in the public sector. The company is ranked as the 15th largest metal building contractor in the country, he says.
“There’s plenty of work out there, but a lot of it is in the public sector,” Cope says. The company is building an archives and record storage building for Columbiana County in Lisbon, as well as an addition to the Health and Community Development Center in Campbell, he says.
Another public project is a new building for the Mathews School District, Vienna.
Private developments such as warehousing and manufacturing are relatively slow now, Cope says, mostly because of the uncertainty related to trade issues. “Everyone’s waiting to see the outcome of the tariffs,” he says. However, once these issues are settled, Cope believes the private sector will experience extraordinary growth.
“You’re going to see plenty of work next year, maybe even later this year,” he projects.
The Trump administration’s global tariff policy has not yet had an impact on materials pricing for C. Tucker Cope’s business. “Most people have enough material and product in the pipeline, so they haven’t really reacted yet,” he says.
The company’s market encompasses the Cleveland and Pittsburgh corridor but it’s taken on out-of-town projects as well. “We built an extrusion plant in Michigan a couple of years ago,” he says. “Right now, we’re building a large manufacturing plant in West Virginia.”
Cope, who sits on the national board of directors for the Metal Building Contractors & Erectors Association, says private sector business should rebound by next year, since the Trump administration is aggressively attempting to redirect manufacturing back to the United States. “We believe that there’s going to be a lot of trickle-down from that,” he says.
Pictured at top: Crews work on Ohio Edison Co.’s new service center under construction at 1100 Performance Place in Youngstown. The FirstEnergy subsidiary purchased the former Weathersfield building there for $9.1 million in 2023.