Port Authority Sets Aug. 23 Financing Seminar
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Western Reserve Port Authority and the Development Finance Authority of Summit County will conduct a half-day seminar on the financing tools port authorities can provide to private business, governmental entities and non-profit organizations Aug. 23 at the Kent State University Trumbull Campus in Champion.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, and a panel featuring finance and development experts will headline the "Financing Our Future" event, which will take place in the Workforce Development Building on the Kent Trumbull campus.
The Western Reserve Port Authority has unique powers and capabilities to enable it to help businesses, governments and nonprofit entities of all sizes, said Rose Ann DeLeon, the port authority’s executive director.
“From providing businesses with bond funding at competitive rates and access to the capital markets, to working with municipalities and development agencies to identify and secure funding for critical infrastructure projects, to leading efforts to clean up and redevelop brownfields, we provide solutions that help our partners compete and succeed in the global economy,” DeLeon said.
In addition, the port authority offers professional consulting services that enable business owners and managers, elected officials, and the leaders of nonprofits to navigate the bureaucracy that can make accessing public financing a daunting task.
“Our combination of innovative finance tools, expertise, and partnership opportunities enables us to offer development solutions that create jobs and economic opportunity,” she said. “We’re inviting anyone interested in taking advantage of those solutions, including CEOs, CFOs, elected officials, development, banking, and finance professionals, and leaders of non-profits to attend Financing Our Future and learn more about the many ways the WRPA can help them compete and succeed.”
“Across Ohio, port authorities are serving as dynamic catalysts for growth and development,” said Scott Lynn, president of WRPA’s board of directors. “The WRPA is committed to playing the same role in the Mahoning Valley. We’re involved in a number of promising partnerships and projects, but in order to increase the positive impact we’re having in the communit,y we want to make sure the people who are driving the economy in our region know about us and the services and financing options we provide. That’s what "Financing Our Future" is all about.”
In addition to DeLeon, scheduled panelists include Christopher Burnham, president of the Development Finance Authority of Summit County; Mike Conway, executive director of Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp.; Michael DiPerna, president of DiPerna & Co.; David Rogers, a partner in Frost Brown Todd LLP; and Annette Stevenson, a partner in the Cleveland office of Novogradac & Co.
Sponsors of the program, which is offered at no cost to those attending, in addition to MVEDC and Novogradac, include the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative.
The seminar will take place 8:15-11 a.m., with registration beginning at 8 a.m. Those interested in attending may call the WRPA office at 330 259 7671 or email DeLeon.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.