Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
YBI to Seek Additional Funds for Its 5th Building
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The $1.5 million allocated in the proposed state capital budget provides a “good start” for a fifth building on the Youngstown Business Incubator campus, YBI’s chief operating officer says, but the project will need to raise about $6 million.
YBI sought $5 million in state capital funds for its proposed fifth building, which Barb Ewing said would cost about $6 million. YBI plans to use the old Vindicator building downtown, which would provide "acceleration space" for YBI’s existing companies and space to attract new companies. The $1.5 million in state funding was announced yesterday (READ STORY) as part of the capital budget recommendations agreed upon by Gov. John R. Kasich and leaders of the Republican Party, which controls both houses of the state legislature.
“We’re obviously going to go after additional finding,” Ewing said Tuesday during a break from the semiannual project review meeting of America Makes, formerly the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. The state money can only be used for renovations and not property acquisition, so YBI will need to seek additional funds to purchase the building from The Vindicator, she stressed.
YBI has been working with Dave Kosec of the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp., which will lead the redevelopment of the new YBI building. “Now that we have the initial funding in place, we’ll begin the process of doing the bids and going through the entire design process from start to finish,” Ewing said.
“It’s got great space that we can use for additive manufacturing equipment, so it would be a mix of light industrial and office space,” Ewing added.
In addition to being America Makes’ landlord, YBI, in collaboration with partners including the American Foundry Society, ExOne, Humtown Products, Janney Captial markets and the University of Northern Iowa, was awarded funding in America Makes’ second project call to help integrate additive manufacturing into the metal casing and foundry industry.
“We’re seeing a lot more materials being used, a lot more applications being developed,” said Scott Deutsch, manager of communications for the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, the program manager for America Makes. “Every day it seems that we’re finding some new application for how 3-D printing is being used somewhere to save someone’s life or make some food or improve the quality of someone’s life.”
America Makes’ model is built on collaboration “so this is a great moment for everyone to get together,” find their project partners, or fill in gaps in their projects or proposals, Deutsch remarked before Tuesday's meeting, which was closed to the press. “It’s a great time for the whole community to come together and find one another and build on their collaboration.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our free daily email headlines and to our twice-monthly print edition.