HOWLAND — Kimberly-Clark, a Fortune 500 paper products producer, could grow its presence in Trumbull County through the creation of a new facility in a once-vacant area of the township.
Trustees at Wednesday’s meeting authorized the Texas-based company’s proposal to construct a state-of-the-art 1.1 million-square foot industrial production facility on Pine Avenue within Warren and Howland townships.
“This project is not at the goal line yet, but it is getting close,” said Howland Trustee Matt Vansuch.
He said Kimberly-Clark’s board of directors still has not signed off on the Trumbull County project. However, trustees granted the company its requested 10-year, 60% property tax abatement, which still needs approval by Warren Township trustees and Trumbull County commissioners.
“That was one piece of the puzzle they were looking for, from what I was told by the Western Reserve Port Authority,” Vansuch said.
The WRPA is the primary agent for the project.
The Ohio Controlling Board on Monday released $17.2 million from the Department of Development’s All Ohio Future Fund to prepare about 1,000 acres at the site to entice major new industries to locate there.
State Rep. Nick Santucci, R-Niles, said the money will provide regional transportation access and remediate the brownfield site. The work will facilitate new economic development and job creation.
“Specifically, the project will fund the construction of a regional industrial access road serving the project site and the closure and capping of several existing oil and gas wells,” Santucci said.
The Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber said it was thankful for the state’s investment to support transportation and infrastructure improvements, as well as brownfield remediation.
“We are confident that through the same coalition of partners that helped the project secure the funding, the site will again become a dynamic job-creation and serve as the backbone for future, lasting economic development in the region,” said Lyle Huffman, the Regional Chamber’s executive vice president, Government Affairs and Community Impact.
The project will feature a total investment between $680 million to $875 million through its new construction, installation of equipment and machinery. With that and approximately 491 new full-time and permanent jobs within five years expected to be created, the project will create $49 million in estimated additional payroll.
Chuck Smith, Kimberly-Clark’s director of strategic capital project management and network design, explained to Howland trustees the project was the product of several years of due diligence and working in a “low-key manner” with key local and state officials, as well as the Western Reserve Port Authority.
“We felt very welcome, very impressed with the community business climate, so we’re very pleased to be in front of the Howland Township trustees and request this incentive, which we expect will help the financial case for this proposed project,” Smith said. “On behalf of all employees of Kimberly-Clark and myself, we thank you for your consideration.”
The targeted property formerly housed the RG Steel site, which includes 560 acres of land that the company purchased. The company purchased the land for $9.9 million from the port authority in December 2023.
Since then, Kimberly-Clark representatives have been to the site to conduct engineering studies, Anthony Trevena, the port authority’s executive director, said Monday.
Vansuch recalled when RG Steel’s final furnaces went out for the final time more than 12 years ago.
“We got a call from the late Paul Heltzel, (county) commissioner, that somebody was buying that property and was looking to scrap. And Howland Township put in a demolition requirement,” Vansuch said. “When you’re taking buildings down, you can’t just leave scraps like we’ve seen along 422 and the Mahoning River.”
Vansuch said they were criticized for it in the newspaper, but explained they were doing it because they felt the property shouldn’t have been left to the public to clean up.
“I know this is just one piece of the puzzle, but I want to thank Kimberly-Clark,” Vansuch added. “I didn’t think I would see this day where we would be considering this and that site would be strongly and actively being considered for long term development that will change the landscape of this area’s industrial future.”
The agreement, which features a 60% real estate tax abatement for a 10-year period, isn’t the last one they’ll consider, he said.
“I’m going to suspect that, based on the size of that project, you plan on being around longer than 10 years,” Vansuch said. “We’ve never given willy-nilly tax abatements or gone along with things for projects we didn’t think were going to make it.”
Vansuch also thanked the state’s delegation for helping to get $17.2 million to assist in renovations, construction and transportation improvements for the project, too.
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