MIDDLE MARKET HIGHLIGHT, MARCH 2006

YOUNGSTOWN
Karen Stone, CCIM

Growth in logistics and distribution has made industrial development the hottest commercial real estate sector in Youngstown. General Motors completed a $1 million upgrade of its Lordstown complex at the end of 2005 in an effort to ready the plant and its 6,000 employees for the production of the new Chevy Cobalt. This has spurred growth in suppliers, whose businesses depend on close proximity to the production plant.

Intier Automotive has built a 90,000-square-foot facility that came online at full capacity at the end of 2005. The plant currently employs more than 200 people and was designed by Davis International of Youngstown. Auto Modular, a seating component manufacturer, relocated to the area in late 2004 and now occupies a $6.5 million, 80,000-square-foot facility that employs 55 people.

The Youngstown Chamber of Commerce's Economic Development Action Team, headed by Walter Good, is marketing Aero Park, a multi-modal industrial park located adjacent to the Youngstown/Warren Airport. Since the park's dedication in 2001, more than $1 million in private and public investment has been pumped into this 500-acre enterprise zone. “Aero Park has exceptional air and trucking facilities and has a number of shovel-ready sites for companies that want to fast track development of facilities,” Good says. In the past 2 years, Delphi Packard Electric Systems has occupied a $58.5 million, 193,000-square-foot facility; Timkin Latrobe has begun production and distribution operations in a $22 million, 183,000-square-foot building; and Pittsburgh Forest Products has begun production of laminated kitchen products in a 229,000-square-foot facility.

Although Youngstown is still feeling the impact of the off-shore move of traditional manufacturing, the area is seeing an upward swing in its growth curve as its economy continues to diversify with the addition of smaller, non-steel related companies. “Toys ‘R' Us, Things Remembered and Kaufmann's (now Macy's) all have logistic distribution plants in this market, totaling approximately 2 million square feet,” Good notes.

A special niche for call and service centers is filling some of Youngstown's vacant space. In 2004, West Corporation opened a call center in a vacant Kmart facility and now employs 1,500 people, making it one of Ohio's largest employers. Cellular One recently expanded its in and out-bound customer service center to 200,000 square feet. InfoCision Management originally moved into existing space and then built an additional building in 2005, bringing its operations center to more than 200,000 square feet.

Cultural rebirth is coming to Youngstown's downtown with the completion of the $45 million Chevrolet Centre, a mixed-use entertainment facility that opened in mid-2005. Home to the minor league hockey team, the Steel Hounds, the facility seats 7,000 people and is managed by Global Entertainment Corporation.

An aggressive and exciting redevelopment plan, known as the Wick District-Smokey Hollow initiative, is planned for the area bordered by Walnut Avenue to the west, Madison Avenue to the north, Andrews Avenue to the east and Rayen Avenue to the south. The plan for the mixed-use neighborhood includes the construction of approximately 500 housing units, 40,000 square feet of retail, 175,000 square feet of commercial, tech and industrial space, and approximately 10 acres of parks and green space. Funding sources for the redevelopment are currently being reviewed, but those participating in the project, including Youngstown State University, interested developers and town residents, hope all final approvals will be obtained by mid-year.

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