Trumbull OKs Tax Break for Anderson-DuBose Expansion
WARREN, Ohio – Trumbull County commissioners Wednesday granted a 10-year, 75% tax abatement to Anderson-Dubose Inc. for its 55,000-square-foot addition and renovation of its warehouse in Lordstown.
The abatement will support the company’s entry into supplying bakery products to the McDonald’s restaurants it serves, a local economic development specialist said. Anderson-Dubose projects adding 20 positions as a result.
Lordstown Village Council approved the abatement when that body met Monday.
According to Trumbull County documents, Anderson-DuBose plans to spend between $9.45 million and $15.28 million on the project, which includes $7 million to $10 million on additions and new construction and $2 million to $4.15 million on new machinery and equipment.
The abatement is the second for Anderson-DuBose, which consolidated its warehouse and distribution operations and relocated its headquarters to Lordstown in 2012. A similar abatement was granted in May 2011.
As of Dec. 31, the company reported new real estate investments of $20.26 million, new personal property investment of $15.41 million, the creation of 71 jobs and the retention 113 more, documents submitted to the county show.
“Anderson-DuBose has exceeded expectations in the past” and looks to do so again, said Nicholas Coggins, a planner with the Trumbull County Planning Commission.
“These are the kind of companies we like to help,” Commissioner Frank Fuda remarked before the vote. “When we give them a tax abatement, they follow through and usually go beyond the amount of jobs that they indicate they’re going to create.”
Anderson-DuBose is a full-service distributor for McDonald’s and Chipotle restaurants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It supplies food and paper products to fast-food restaurants in the region.
Genna, Trumbull County business development manager for the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber, who is working with Anderson-DuBose, said she could provide few details about the project because of its “extremely confidential nature.”
McDonald’s drives the expansion as it changes the process involving its bakery products. “The new space will enable the company to add bakery items to its distribution list,” she said.
The company awaits more information before it completes its plans but likely will begin construction this year, Petrolla said. She continues to work with various partners on securing financial assistance for the project, she said.
In other business, the commissioners authorized the county engineer’s office to apply for an Appalachian Regional Commission Rapid Response Grant that would fund improvements to Mill and Supreme streets in the Golden Triangle within Howland Township.
The engineer’s office is authorized to apply for 50% — or $140,800 – of the estimated cost of the improvements, which include widening and resurfacing the two streets, drainage upgrades, waterline extensions and the installation of two fire hydrants.
The project is an outgrowth of a needs assessment of infrastructure in that area, said Gary Shaffer, deputy county engineer. Howland Township, the lead agency, initiated the study with the participation of the county engineer’s office, the commissioners and the city of Warren.
“Right now, we’ve been awarded funding through the Ohio Public Works Commission and Eastgate to upgrade Dietz Road Northeast,” Shaffer said. “With that, we hope to leverage federal economic development money to do an access road.”
Among the Golden Triangle businesses the improvements would help is Flex-Strut Inc., which last year announced the fifth expansion to its business. The company is completing that expansion, its president, Dale Gebhardt Sr., reported yesterday.
Pictured: Anderson-DuBose warehouse in Lordstown.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
