Monday, December 29, 2014WARREN, Ohio -- Technology and education are driving recent and upcoming initiatives in this city.
Among the highlights of 2014 Mayor Doug Franklin cites is the relocation of Laird Technologies from Sharpsville, Pa., bringing 200 jobs here including 50 new jobs. “They’re a global leader in remote technologies in harsh environments,” he said. “It’s very cutting-edge technology and the growth expectations are off the charts basically.”
The mayor reflected on what he’s seen in his city in an end-of-the-year interview.
Already the company is “up to full speed” and its parking lot full of cars, “which is a great sight for my eyes to see,” he remarked. The gain of those jobs – they pay $65,000 a year and up for the positions that moved into the city and new positions start at $55,000 – compensate for some of the losses Warren suffered from the closings of RG Steel and General Electric’s Ohio Lamp plant.
As Franklin enters the fourth year of his first term as mayor, the start of 2015 brings the debut of two key economic development projects in the downtown. The Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center – or TBEIC, pronounced tee-bike -- makes its long-awaited opening and Eastern Gateway Community College open its larger Warren campus in the former Mickey’s Army-Navy Store.
“TBEIC has been, for lack of a better term, sort of a rollercoaster ride for the past four years since its inception,” Franklin reflected. TBEIC officials have been courting tenants the past three years, “but it’s very challenging when you’re doing that without an actual building. So that big piece of that puzzle is going to be fulfilled in the next few weeks,” he said.
What’s exciting about the TBEIC project, he continued, is how the project is redefining and the city and making it more diverse, allowing Warren to add to its tax base so it includes small energy and fuel-cell companies. The city has formed partnerships with the Valley Alliance for Science and Technology, Youngstown State University and NASA. “There’s a lot of great things on the horizon but we need to open the doors of that building,” he said.
The mayor also is eagerly anticipating the impact of Eastern Gateway’s relocated and larger Warren campus. “That’s very exciting because, first of all, it’s going to bring jobs and young people and young adults downtown,” he said. Among the benefits will be increased use of the downtown parking deck and more foot traffic for downtown merchants, particularly with the addition of evening classes.
“As you know, downtown practically closes at 5 o’clock so we’re going to see a different clientele and a different citizenry in our downtown in the evenings,” he said.
“Everybody is pretty excited,” remarked 4th Ward Councilman Greg Bartholomew. “We’ll hopefully see the fruits of this within the next month or two when everything gets started. I’m not sure how full TBEIC is but they’ve already had companies signed up with contracts. … I know a lot of the food merchants are very excited for this.”
Even beyond TBEIC, there is considerable activity downtown and interest in properties there, Franklin stated. “There’s probably not a week that goes by that I don’t get a call or an interest from somebody who’s looking for downtown space,” he said, “particularly for retail business.”
One recent addition to the downtown is the Shortcut, which cuts through the National Fire and Water Repair Building and links the municipal parking deck to Courthouse Square. The Sweet Spot by Shirley, operated by General Motors Lordstown retiree Shirley Brady, specializes in nostalgia candies and was the first shop to open in the Shortcut. The store opened Labor Day weekend.
“I knew I needed to so something after I retired and I’ve always been interested in the revitalization of downtown Warren,” she said. I think every downtown should have a candy store.”
“I didn’t expect a lot of traffic but it really has been pretty good,” Brady said. She anticipates business from the various downtown festivals as well as the opening of TBEIC and the Eastern Gateway Warren Center.
Paul Clouser, who owns National Fire and Water Repair and with whom the city worked closely to create the Shortcut, “has been nothing short of a godsend in terms of his development with his own money,” Franklin remarked. Clouser put $800,000 into his building downtown, the mayor estimated, and also created “a great living space for his family” there as well as additional apartments downtown.
“We want to focus also on residential in downtown because we know if you can bring people downtown and have people living downtown,” Franklin said, businesses will follow.
“There’s a lot of young people who desire to live in downtown. Our challenge is to accommodate them, given our building codes and trying to streamline that process to make it easier for developers to create living space downtown with our older historic buildings,” he added. “That process, it’s been fruitful but we have a lot of work to do and we’re going to continue to push forward on that initiative.”
Bartholomew – who lives in an apartment above his All American Cards and Comics store – also expressed interest in expanding the number of residences downtown. City officials have met with other developers about converting other downtown buildings into apartments.
Initiatives for 2015 include working with the Regional Chamber and the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. to market properties in Warren Commerce Park, “We’ve upgraded our website so that we’re marketing our city and our availability of space and buildings 24/7 around the globe,” he said. “We’ll continue to do that and we’re getting better at it, and that was one of the initiatives that helped us land the Laird Technologies [project.] We plan on doing more of the same.”
In addition, the Franklin administration is exploring potential joint economic development districts with neighboring communities including Vienna, Howland and Warren townships. “Warren is pretty much landlocked but we do have an abundant supply of water and we have a good cooperative relationship with our surrounding communities,” Franklin said. The city also is working with the Western Reserve Port Authority on brownfield development, including within the Golden Triangle, which houses several industrial businesses.
“They need some infrastructure upgrades for ingress and egress issues with a lot of truck turnarounds. The goal obviously is to not only retain jobs but create new jobs as well, and assist those existing businesses so that they can prosper and grow more jobs from their employee base,” the mayor said.
“True economic development really happens when you help existing jobs flourish and create new jobs,” he declared. “We’re always going to have a two-pronged approach with attracting new businesses, but we have to take care of those businesses that that are existing in our community and help them grow and flourish.”
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'3 Minutes With' Warren Mayor Doug Franklin
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