YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Construction is approaching completion on the first building in the new North Jackson Commerce Park. The shell of the 80,000-square-foot structure is nearly complete, and the building itself should be completed in December, developer Greg Toporcer reports.

Construction of that building will be followed by a second building of 100,000 square feet.

“It’s Class A space that doesn’t really exist in this market,” he says.

It’s the lack of such modern spaces for manufacturing and warehousing that has spurred business park development at sites in northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

“Industrial parks with ready sites or buildings are attractive options for companies in comparison to a location that requires quite a lot of additional investment,” says Sarah Boyarko, vice president, economic development for Lake to River Economic Development. “We are lucky to have the speculative development that is currently underway throughout the region and would support additional opportunities to create such parks.”

North Jackson Commerce Park is among the new business and commerce park projects launched in recent years. Ground was broken in October 2023.

Logistically, the site is “perfect,” with its proximity to Interstate 76, Toporcer says. The building now under construction – which is designed to accommodate another 20,000-square-foot addition – will be leased in 20,000-square-foot increments.

“We’ve got some good leads right now, so hopefully we’ll finalize with one of them,” he says.

Wiley Runnestrand, a partner in West Warren Development LLC, reports interest is strong in the building the partnership is developing in the new West Warren Industrial Park. Several companies are interested in the 98,000-square-foot building that should be substantially complete by late July.

“The reason we chose to build speculatively is because tenants want their spaces probably on 12- to 18-month timelines, and construction timelines are 18 to 30 months, depending on what someone needs to build,” he says. “That really hurts a region like ours, where we don’t have any excess capacity.”

Like Toporcer, Runnestrand says the kind of available space many companies are looking for doesn’t exist locally, and the Mahoning Valley has lost deals to other areas of northeastern Ohio because of it. Some of the key items that tenants want include modern sprinkler systems, higher clear heights to permit higher stacking and denser use of space, and other amenities that just make their jobs easier.

“We’ve seen a lot of people coming to the site and taking a look. There’s a lot of positive interest in the area, which is pretty exciting,” he continues. “Such interest bodes well for projects two and three on the site,” which hopefully will be announced toward the end of 2025.

“There’s a lot of interest around the West Warren and Top Properties developments,” Lake to River’s Boyarko says. “We’re constantly submitting those for inquiries, and we hope to have a user in those two spaces soon.”

Inquiries for West Warren are coming from industry sectors tied to Ultium Cells, Foxconn and the recently announced Kimberly-Clark Corp. plant, Runnestrand says. As a result, the spaces being constructed on the site are specifically targeted to the supply chains of those kinds of regional anchors, he says.

“That’s kind of the way the economic model is supposed to work,” he says. “We will put a lot of effort into making that process smooth for businesses and it’s working.”

Niles Project

Elsewhere in Trumbull County, site work should be complete by the end of June at Federal Street Business Park in Niles, developer Jason Altobelli says. FSBP Corp. is repurposing General Electric’s former Mahoning Glass Plant, which closed in 2010 and which FSBP acquired in 2021.  Much of the plant was demolished and about 25% of the 69,000-square-foot structure that remains is being used for storage.

The property also is close to other economic development taking place in the area and has rail and roadway access.

“There’s high demand for 10,000- to 20,000-square-foot Class A space with the proper ceiling heights,” Altobelli says. He also was encouraged to move forward with the project because of tax and energy incentives offered by the city.

After completing the requirements to secure a “no further action” letter from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, FSBP is working on installing needed infrastructure at the site including fiber, gas and three-phase electrical service, to develop commercial/industrial lots at the site.

Site work also included addressing the property’s stormwater management to maximize its developable footprint. “So, when somebody comes along and really wants a shovel-ready site, they really have nothing to do but put their building up because we’ve already accounted for all the storm water,” Altobelli reports.

The next phase for the business park will be to consider spec buildings for the site, something that likely won’t happen before next year. “We’ve got to catch our breath,” Altobelli says.

Lake to River currently is receiving more inquiries for land than for existing buildings, with about half the total inquiries in need of rail service, Boyarko says. The average site size is 140 acres, and the average building size is 175,000 square feet.

“Approximately 75% are considering the entire region for their investment, while the remainder are considering one or two of the four counties in the [Lake to River] region,” she says.

Western Pennsylvania

Development leaders and business park operators in western Pennsylvania are experiencing the same situation as their northeastern Ohio counterparts.

Greenville-Reynolds Development Corp. in Greenville, Pa., continually receives inquiries from companies looking for space, Brad Gosser, executive director and vice president, says. Companies generally are looking for 20,000 to 40,000 square feet.

“Most often, you have to have the building in existence and available to attract a business,” Gosser says. “Typically, a new business coming into an area doesn’t want to wait 24 to 36 months to have it constructed.”

Greenville-Reynolds is preparing to seek bids for site development work on the former Damascus Steel property, Gosser says. The work will involve removing the old foundation and concrete floors to install a new, larger pad and a stormwater management system over the next 12 months to accommodate a 62,000-square-foot building.

Once the site work is complete, the property will be marketed as site ready, he continues. “If we do not get a taker, it’s a spec building,” starting at 16,000 square feet with potential to expand to the full 62,000 square feet, he says.

“I need the product to support the growth we have in the county right now,” Ben Bush, executive director of Forward Lawrence, says. “Most of what we have we consider Class B or Class C, and in today’s market people really are looking for Class A space. If I don’t have the product that folks are looking for, I can’t win a project.”

Just over a year after ground was broken on the former Stonecrest Golf Course in New Beaver Borough, Pa., infrastructure has been installed and site pads have been graded at what will be Stonecrest Business Park, according to Bush. Roadway improvements are underway in front of the park, which is being developed by LaCarte Development Co. of Charleroi, Pa.

“We should be completely finished here by June and ready to go vertical,” Bush says. “We have a few interested parties, one that we’re very close with and hope we can announce soon.”

Prospects include a couple of local companies. There has also been conversations with some larger users for a lot that can accommodate a building of up to 1 million square feet.

Pictured at top: Construction continues on the first building in the new North Jackson Commerce Park.