YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The developer of a 25,000-square-foot speculative building in Austintown said he expects to break ground on the project in the spring.
The plan is to break ground on the Silica Road project “as soon as the weather breaks” and once all the necessary permits are approved, said Joe Cetor, co-owner of GSP Land Holdings, North Jackson. The first of possibly three buildings for the proposed 20-acre industrial park, he estimated the cost for the initial building at nearly $3 million, including the land.
The Mahoning County Board of Commissioners approved an enterprise zone agreement with GSP that provides a 60%, 10-year real property tax abatement to support the project. The agreement previously was approved by the Austintown Township Board of Trustees.
“We’re definitely supportive of new businesses,” Austintown Trustee Robert Santos said. The township has a lot of developable areas and is a “prime spot,” he said.
“It’ll be a modest industrial park, but it’s in a good location, so it’ll be very marketable,” said Sarah Lown, public finance manager for the Western Reserve Port Authority. The port authority provides economic development services to Mahoning County.
“The abatement is going to help us be able to develop it and bring in, obviously, a lot of small companies or a larger company,” Cetor said. “The whole objective is to be able to build such an expensive building and still be able to make it affordable for local businesses to thrive here in our area.”
JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development corporation, awarded a $500,000 Site Inventory Program grant to support the project in October.
Officials with Lake to River Economic Development, the JobsOhio partner that helped secure the grant, commended the township trustees and county commissioners for supporting the speculative development.
“Without public engagement and the use of their economic development tools, investments like this may not happen,” said Sarah Boyarko, vice president of economic development for Lake to River. In addition to helping secure the grant, Lake to River also supported GSP’s efforts to locate a property and do appropriate due diligence.
Construction of the building should take about nine months, Cetor said. The plan is to put up another one to two buildings, based on “how the land will lay out, according to what kind of tenants we can get in there.” Other parks GSP operates locally already are at full capacity, and the company is turning down prospective tenants until it has more buildings to accommodate them.
“We have taken the necessary steps to begin marketing this development to a wide range of potential industrial users throughout the region and beyond, in the hopes of identifying the appropriate tenant, possibly before the building is completed,” Boyarko said. The proposed building is “right in the sweet spot of the properties that are limited in our market relative to some of the inquiries we’re receiving,” she added.
Pictured at top: The site of the planned speculative building in Austintown.