YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Mahoning and Shenango valleys saw economic development wins, job losses, a deadly plane crash, leadership changes, hospital openings and closures and the entry of data centers in 2025.

General Motors Co. announced in late October its plans to cut 550 jobs at its Ultium Cells plant in Lordstown, with another 850 to be placed on temporary layoff. 

Company officials reported the company was assessing its electric vehicle capacity because of a slowdown in EV sales. GM plans layoffs at other plants as well.

Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, however, believes the announcement must be viewed with perspective.

“When Ultium came, they promised us 1,100 jobs, and there are currently 2,200 people working there,” he points out. “In a layoff of 550, which I think is coming in January, their job number will still be way more than they ever promised.”

And he believes the 850 workers being furloughed will be called back by the middle of next year.

“That’s an industry that one could say was falsely propped up by government incentives, instead of letting the market progress at an organic pace,” the Chamber CEO says. “And so, there’s a scale back because those government incentives went away. But the market is still going to grow. We’re still moving toward electric vehicles, and it’ll just grow at a more natural pace, which means these furloughs are short lived.”

Also, GM is taking the time to make improvements at the plant so the company will be more resilient in the future, he says.

Kimberly-Clark Corp.

One of the Valley’s most impactful economic development stories of 2023 and 2024 also carried into 2025 and is expected to continue at least through 2027. Construction of the 1-million-plus-square-foot $800 million Kimberly-Clark advanced manufacturing plant at the former Republic Steel site on Pine Avenue near downtown Warren started in May with about 300 construction workers onsite. When the plant is complete, it’s expected to employ about 500.

“That’s a project that, in the past, we would see, every seven to 10 years, whatever that might look like in timeframe,” says Sarah Boyarko, vice president of economic development at Lake to River Economic Development. “But we’re seeing those types of projects more frequently, so that’s a good thing for our community. And I would say that is, by far, the largest that we experienced this year.”

The paper-based consumer goods and personal care products manufacturer also is considering building a $160 million distribution center adjacent to the plant. A decision is expected soon.

If approved by company officials, construction of the distribution center would start in early 2026. It would create 65 more jobs at the site.

Many more projects in the region are in the pipeline.

“With Lake to River opening its office on May 1, 2024, we’ve worked really, really hard to build this pipeline,” Boyarko says. “Obviously we’ve had some immediate successes over this past year or so, but a lot of our work has been behind the scenes building that pipeline. So, we look forward to many of those projects being announced.”

Coviello says one of the things that distinguishes the Kimberly-Clark project is the level of cooperation it involved among multiple parties including Lake to River, the Chamber, Western Reserve Port Authority and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.

With some projects in years past, communities battled over which would provide services and which would collect taxes, Coviello says, listing the Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Austintown as an example.

With the Kimberly-Clark project, “even though there were multiple jurisdictions that were part of the process, no serious issues ever surfaced,” the Chamber president says.

The project is also significant because it puts the property, a portion of the former BDM Steel property, back into use, he says.

Data Centers

In late September, Foxconn EV Property Development LLC’s ownership of the former Lordstown General Motors assembly complex was transferred to SoftBank Group Corp. affiliate Crescent Dune LLC. The sale price for the building and land was $88 million. 

SoftBank and joint venture partners Oracle and Open AI plan to develop an advanced data center in a portion of the plant to support its Stargate initiative.

Coviello views it as the biggest story in the area in many years.

“It truly is a $3 billion investment,” he says. “We’ve never hit that number before. I think the biggest one so far is Ultium and it’s right around $2.1 billion. So, this is significantly bigger than that. This is by far the biggest investment we’ve probably ever seen.”

But the prospect of data centers doesn’t sit well with everyone. Lordstown Village Council approved a ban on data centers in November, grandfathering in the SoftBank project. Residents expressed concerns about data centers’ water and energy consumption. 

Bristolville 25 Developer LLC in late October said it planned to build a $3.6 billion data center along state Route 45 in the village.

The village, however, rescinded the ban legislation earlier this month. Instead, council in January will consider a 180-day moratorium on the centers. The Chamber has offered to help village officials and facilitate discussions about the data center industry with what it calls neutral, third-party experts. 

“I think that communities are wisely evaluating and making sure that they do things correctly” regarding data centers, Coviello says. “And I think that there are certainly plenty of communities out there that see the value and will embrace data centers that are done the right way. And I think McDonald is a shining example of that.”

A subsidiary of Applied Partners, AP McDonald LLC, owns 52 acres of what once was U.S. Steel Corp.’s McDonald Works at 100 Ohio Ave. Developers are negotiating a deal that would lead to the construction of a $1 billion data center on former steel mill property in the village. 

Plane Crash

On June 29, six people were killed when a Cessna 441 flying out of Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport crashed in Howland shortly after takeoff.

James Weller, 67, Veronica Weller, 68, John Weller, age 36, and 34-year-old Maria Weller, were the four passengers who died along with pilot Joseph Maxin, 63, and co-pilot Timothy Blake, 55. James Weller was the president and CEO of Liberty Steel Industries Inc. Maxin was the director of compliance at Western Reserve Port Authority, which manages the airport and the lead flight instructor at Youngstown State University’s new flight school at the airport.

According to reports at the time, the flight took off at 6:53 a.m. for Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport in Montana and crashed seven minutes later in a wooded area behind a residential Howland neighborhood.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. A July preliminary report from the agency found that the plane reached only 100 feet before crashing.

Witnesses northwest of the accident site reported hearing the sound of an airplane initiating its takeoff roll, then heard a “noticeable pitch change” in the sound of the engine. The airplane never appeared above the tree line, and the engine was “roaring,” they reported.

Soon after, they heard trees breaking followed by an explosion and saw smoke rising from the area where the plane had gone down, the preliminary report said. 

Leadership Changes

This year also saw leadership changes including a new Youngstown mayor elected, a new director of the Youngstown Symphony and an interim director appointed at the Butler Institute of American Art.

In November, political newcomer Derrick McDowell, owner of the Youngstown Flea, defeated two-term incumbent Jamael Tito Brown to become Youngstown’s mayor, effective Jan. 1.

Earlier this month, Butler trustees announced that Larry W. Jones had been appointed interim director of the museum. Louis Zona, executive director for 44 years, moved to director emeritus and the museum’s board is searching for a permanent director. 

In September, Erik Ochsner was announced as the new music director and conductor of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. At the same time, Stambaugh Auditorium was announced as YSO’s new owner/operator.

McDowell says a recurring theme he heard from residents while canvassing the city door-to-door during his campaign was a wish for a real choice and for change.

In many of the previous elections, residents didn’t view their candidate options as a real choice, he says. “And the other side of that is that they didn’t believe in some of the things that were presented as the change that we needed to see for the city of
Youngstown.”

McDowell says people in the city were familiar with him as a change agent before his campaign. He listed his work for his business and the building he owns downtown as well as his efforts to keep the peace during the 2020 George Floyd march in downtown Youngstown.

Part of the change he plans to institute as mayor is transparency.

Community members “want to have a full conversation with planning for the future of the city of Youngstown, not just being told what’s going to happen, or oftentimes not being told what’s happening,” the mayor-elect says. 

One of the areas where he plans to focus first is the efficiency and effectiveness of city hall.

“I believe City Hall has been dysfunctional in how it’s responded to the needs of the community,” McDowell says. “I believe it’s been dysfunctional in how it’s operated internally [with] individual departments and cross department cooperation and communication.”

He also wants more focus on economic development. Under Brown’s administration, the chief of staff doubled as the community planning and economic development director. McDowell believes those are separate roles.

Another issue he’s seen surrounds construction and road projects which have often been perceived as pain points instead of progress.

“We’ve got to do a better job of making sure this city is tracking with us where we’re going,” McDowell says. “If there’s a road project, they understand why it’s happening and the need for it.”

He points to the islands installed on Mahoning Avenue and the bicycle lanes added on Midlothian Boulevard as examples. Information about why they were put in wasn’t communicated to the public. 

“And so that’s what we’re missing – conversations, communication, connectivity, all of that,” McDowell says. “But I would say to you, in that first 90 days, it’s really making sure that we have a functional, effective and efficient city hall, because out of it will flow the quality of life that we’re looking for.”

Hospitals

The 2024 Steward Health System bankruptcy’s effects reverberated in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys throughout 2025.

But the year ended very differently for the former Steward hospital in Warren versus the one in Sharon.

Sharon Regional Medical Center in Sharon, Pa., reopened for emergency services in March operated by Tenor Health Foundation after being closed for about two months. More services have been added since.

Insight Hospital & Medical Center Trumbull in Warren though closed in March and reopened in mid-October, only to suspend operations and cease admitting new patients in late November. That decision came after indications the Ohio Department of Health would revoke the hospital’s license in mid-December.

A November statement from Insight said regulatory hurdles and barriers from ODH affected the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services certification even after affirming compliance with the state hospital license on Oct. 14 and prior to reopening.

Rick Hernandez, Trumbull County commissioners’ chairman, says he’s reaching out to other hospitals in the hope that one of them will be interested in operating in the county in case Insight is unable to reopen.

He’s reached out to both the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, he says. “We need another hospital here,” Hernandez says.

In Sharon, Pa., governmental entities, state and local elected officials and nonprofit organizations cobbled together an $11 million loan and helped Sharon Regional Medical Center and Tenor Health Foundation Sharon LLC reopen the hospital, restore most health services and bring back more than 575 employees, beginning in March. 

Rod Wilt, executive director of Penn-Northwest Development Corp., which was involved in the effort, says besides Tenor, Medical Properties Trust which owns the real estate, and the commonwealth also were instrumental.

“All of the things started to align, and it seemed to be everyone working together to make it happen,” he says. “And so ultimately the hospital reopened with some skeleton services and over the last eight, nine months, it’s just been a steady climb back from the abyss.”

Besides providing health service to the community, the hospital’s reopening packs economic impact. Wilt says it’s estimated between $110 million and $140 million.

“There’s a lot of utilities being purchased,” Wilt adds. “There’s a lot of supplies and food products being purchased. There’s a lot of payroll that goes out the door and into the community and multiplies over and over again. There’s just a viability around the hospital for places for people to grab coffee and get lunch and things like that, so that’s positive.”

Pictured at top: Construction began in May on Kimberly-Clark’s $800 million manufacturing plant near downtown Warren.