TJX Reassessing Plans for $160M Lordstown Project

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Officials with TJX Companies Inc. are reassessing their plans for a proposed $160 million distribution center, Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill said.

TJX notified him Friday morning that the company was “taking time to assess” its plans, he said. He said he believed TJX was just going to review other sites but could not speak for the company.

A village planning commission meeting set for 6:30 p.m. Monday has been canceled.

Contacted via email late Friday, a TJX spokeswoman said the company “wouldn’t have any additional comment at this time.”

TJX representatives participated in meetings last week and this week to outline plans and respond to questions concerning a 1.2-million-square-foot distribution center to serve its HomeGoods stores it wants to build on 290 acres in Lordstown. The center is expected to create 1,000 jobs, including about 150 professional-level positions.

At the occasionally raucous March 12 meeting, several village residents expressed concerns about the development project encroaching on residential areas.

The Lordstown site consists of seven parcels that are zoned residential. For the distribution center to be built, the land would have to rezoned industrial. Several residents have said they would launch a petition drive to put the rezoning on a referendum ballot, which could delay TJX’s timeline, assuming it still wanted the Lordstown site.

Following the March 12 meeting with residents, the company made some alterations to its plans, according to the Youngtown/Warren Regional Chamber, and this week representatives met privately with residents who would be affected by the project. TJX was expected to make further changes following that meeting and present them before the planning commission Monday.

The village has “a group of people who want nothing,” Hill said Friday. “This is a great project, but [they] don’t want it where it’s at,” he said.

The mayor previously stated that TJX also likes a site in east central Pennsylvania — it’s “second choice,” he said.

James Dignan, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, told the Western Reserve Port Authority at its meeting Wednesday that things were “looking good” for the Lordstown project and cited the company’s interactions Tuesday with residents.

The Regional Chamber has worked with TJX for two years on identifying a site and lining up incentives for the project.

“I am aware that Monday’s meeting has been canceled. As the team from HomeGoods has said, they are considering the feedback from the community,” Sarah Boyarko, the chamber’s senior vice president for economic development, said Friday evening .

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