YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Ohio Tax Credit Authority will consider a proposal to provide incentive to Kimberly-Clark USA LLC as the company mulls whether to move forward with a proposed plant on property it bought in late 2023 in Howland and Warren townships.
Further details were not available Friday about the level or length of the proposed incentive, which tax credit authority members will take up at their meeting Monday morning.
At separate meetings April 16, the Western Reserve Port Authority and Trumbull County Board of Commissioners approved providing assistance for what is anticipated to be a 1.1 million-square-foot plant expected to cost between $650 million and $875 million.
The WRPA board approved executing a ground lease agreement with Kimberly-Clark, which purchased 560 acres of the former BDM Steel property in December 2023 for “proposed construction” of a plant, warehouse and offices.
The board also approved selling an additional 5.3667 acres, the former Linde Gas & Equipment property, to the company for $1,000 per acre for future potential developments that the company would like to consider at the site and entering into an agreement with Norfolk Southern for a new southern access to the BDM property. The board also discussed road and bridge upgrades to be funded by a $17.2 million All Ohio Future Fund grant.
“This is one element of a number of pieces of incentive packages that need to come to fruition to be able to evaluate the financial economics of a potential investment within this community,” Chuck Smith, director of strategic capital projects with the consumer paper products manufacturer, said at the port authority meeting.
Whether Kimberly-Clark moves forward with a project at the site will be at the discretion of the company’s board of directors, he added.
After the port authority meeting, Trumbull County commissioners approved an enterprise zone agreement with Kimberly-Clark that would provide a 10-year, 60% tax abatement for new construction at the site. Trustees in Warren and Howland townships previously had approved the abatement.