COLUMBIANA, Ohio – Development of Columbiana County business and industrial parks faces several challenges, according to local officials.
But that doesn’t stop manufacturers and developers from contacting officials, searching for the best location.
The Columbiana County Port Authority has about 45 acres of shovel-ready land in the World Trade Park in Leetonia, according to Brittany Smith, executive director. The port authority owns and manages the park on Industrial Drive, off of Route 344.
Pennex Aluminum and Haltec Corp. each lease a building in the park.
At the Wellsville Intermodal Facility, also owned by the port authority, about six acres are available for industrial use, according to Smith. The Wellsville Intermodal site offers the flexibility of being located on the Ohio River and along railroad tracks, enabling materials and products to be transported by barge, train or trucks.
However, Smith says all of the buildings in both parks are full.
“We get calls regularly for businesses looking for space and so we’re just trying to identify opportunities throughout the county to market and to attract business,” says Smith.
But challenges come with development.
“Utilities are definitely, definitely a challenge – just the planning dollars required to do all the preparation for those utility build outs,” she says.
Another is convincing landowners, who often have had the property in the family for generations, to sell it for industrial use, she says.
The Lake to River Economic Development, established in 2024 through JobsOhio, is a good partner for the port authority, assisting with business retention and expansion efforts, Smith says.
She also touts access to ZoomProspector as a marketing tool. The national website makes it easier to market what is available for businesses. The website also provides searchable demographic information about the population and potential workforce for any given area.
For instance, ZoomProspector reports that there were 3,947 manufacturing jobs at 174 establishments in Columbiana County in 2025 and 39% of the workforce is blue collar.
Columbiana
City Manager Lance Willard touts the city’s relationships with both the Columbiana County Port Authority and Lake to River, working with their partners to help develop more properties for use in the near future.
He says there are several industrial zoned properties for sale in Columbiana and the city is eager to work with interested industries and welcome them to the community. Two prime areas for industrial development with land available are along the state Route 14 corridor and state Route 344.
“Columbiana’s industrial park is currently at capacity and when an opening does occur, it is not on the market for very long,” Willard says.
For that reason, Willard says for several years, Columbiana’s strategic plan has included a second industrial park as a critical need for strategic planning and development.
“The biggest obstacle we face is not having a readily available spec building for potential industry,” Willard says. “Through working with our county and regional partners, we feel confident that if a developer were to invest in the city of Columbiana by building a spec building for industrial use, we could have a tenant for the building upon the announcement of construction.”
Salem
Julie Needs, executive director of the Sustainable Opportunity Development Center in Salem, says the need for creating shovel-ready sites in Salem remains a priority.
But with green spaces and new property tough to find, Needs said the city is also looking at redevelopment of existing sites.
Needs says the Columbiana County Land Bank recently was awarded funding to demolish and clean up the site of the former Miller-Holzwarth property. That company closed in 2012 and Needs says the SOD Center wants to repurpose it.
“Those are the kind of things we have to do now, because we don’t have 500 acres that we can develop,” Needs says. “Where we can, we get creative. What sites can we redevelop and repurpose?”
Once cleaned up, the site will be made available for manufacturing.
Additionally, she says SOD officials are looking at land near industrial parks and environmental testing is being conducted to see if the land may be developed. If so, a site plan and budget will be created and funding sought.
Needs believes there’s enough demand that a company will be willing to build.
“We just have to make sure the site is ready, accessible and with utilities and roads,” Needs says, adding that can even mean talking to manufacturers to see if some of their property or space is being underutilized.
Additionally, some Salem manufacturers are interested in expanding, but the city lacks available sites. She prioritizes companies in Salem, preferring to see them expand instead of locating elsewhere. She also would like to make things easier for those businesses.
“We’ve had conversations with our local manufacturers,” Needs says. “‘Who is in your supply chain? Who would be close who’s a potential customer who could be in this market? How do we tighten your supply chain? How do we bring your customers closer?’”
Although there is a lot of land around the Salem bypass, it’s agricultural and in Perry Township. That makes utility access more challenging.
“We really wanted to focus on land within the city that had ease of access to utilities, because that lowers the cost to develop the land,” Needs says. “So if we can focus on those sites [inside Salem], get those sites into a site-ready status, then we can start looking beyond our boundaries.”
In May, Salem unveiled its five-year economic development plan, which includes attracting and expanding manufacturing and industrial sectors in the city. It lists approximately 65 acres within the Salem Industrial Park that have completed environmental testing.
East Palestine
East Palestine Community Improvement Corp. officials plan to build an industrial park.
Village Manager Antonio Diaz-Guy says testing for a site north of the village has been completed and the results show it’s suitable for building. The city and CIC have a one-year option to buy the 85-acre mostly vacant residential and agricultural property from its owner. He is unsure how soon the option will be exercised but plans call for construction of a business park.
“We are looking at between 400,000 and 800,000 square feet under roof space with substantial parking and yard space as well,” Diaz-Guy says. “There are a handful of developers who have expressed interest in either building there or occupying space there, but clearly we can’t put somebody in a building that doesn’t exist.”
While many businesses would be interested in moving to Columbiana County or western Pennsylvania, but there are not many suitable spaces available. Too many of the manufacturing and industrial spaces are older and need work.
“You need to have modern and appropriate space for them and a lot of times that looks like somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 square feet of uninterrupted floor space,” Diaz-Guy says. “And that’s pretty hard to come by.”
Additionally, two of the vacant industrial buildings in East Palestine remain involved in litigation following the February 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment. Diaz-Guy says there have been companies interested in leasing the buildings, but with the litigation it may take time.
Although he says many are not fans of speculative building, he believes that once construction starts in the new business park, the spaces will be sold or leased before it is finished. However, he believes no one will take a risk when the buildings are not built yet.
“From the village’s perspective, we secured funding to do the design for the sanitary and water expansion to that business park,” Diaz-Guy says of the next step, which could take about 12 months to complete.
If it is financially feasible, he would like to see the utility loop go north from where it ends at 1151 Howell Ave. to the proposed business park and then west along state Route 14, to Brookdale Avenue. There it would turn back south into East Palestine. However, depending on the cost, it may be necessary to only go west as far as North Market Street and route the loop back into town.
Diaz-Guy says he is preparing a request for qualifications for an engineering firm to complete the design.
Pictured at top: The former Miller-Holzwarth Inc. property has been vacant since 2013. Through grant money, the buildings are to be razed and the brownfield cleared for new industrial development.
