City Approves V&M Project Modifications
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Rail relocation work should be completed by late summer at the Brier Hill Industrial Park, where V&M Star is completing work on its new $650 million mill, the city’s chief engineer said.
The Norfolk Southern portion of the rail relocation work still has to be completed and some additional work is being done for V&M on one of the tracks. “All that will be approved by [the Federal Highway Administration] and we can get back to work,” said Chuck Shasho, deputy director of public works.
The city’s Board of Control approved a pair of items related to the work at the V&M site. A $20,456 adjustment was made to the $14.4 million rail modernization project. Additionally, the board rescinded the reimbursement agreement between the city and V&M approved at its Jan. 17 meeting and approved a new agreement.
The new agreement contains “minor” language changes requested by V&M, said David Bozanich, city finance director. Those changed related to the reimbursement to Norfolk Southern for the track relocation and the final use agreement permitting other parties to use the track.
“What happens is V&M ships this out to their Houston attorneys and they ship them out to Paris and everybody takes another bite out of it,” Bozanich said.
Following the meeting, T. Sharon Woodberry, city economic development director, said work is on hold on the former Wean United property adjacent to the central business district pending discussion with two companies that have expressed interest in the site. Demolition work had been planned at the site, but that won’t get under way until the scope of work is determined. The city was awarded $2.4 million in Clean Ohio funds for the project.
The city is in discussions with two potential industrial users for the site “in terms of what their needs are for the building,” Woodberry said.
“We can’t move forward … until we know what the end use of the property is going to be,” she continued. “There have been discussions with the companies about demolishing part of the structure, keeping the entire structure.” The city has an extension until the end of this year to delay commencement of the work, which was supposed to get started at the end of 2012, but still must have the work completed by the end of 2014. Given such projects typically take 16 to 18 months, “to get the work done within the timeframe, we anticipate May or June is when we need to know the direction we’re going,” she said.
In either case, the city will require the company using the property to address the shell of the building “so there will be a significant improvement to that building and whatever is left of it,” she noted.
Copyright 2013 The Busienss Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.