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Regional Chamber Names Boyarko Development Chief
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – For Sarah Boyarko, information is one of the most essential tools she needs when she works with companies looking to bring operations to the Mahoning Valley.
“The [requests for information from companies] are much larger now and more specific,” said Boyarko, named Monday as the new vice president for economic development, business retention and expansion, for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
“We’ve received numerous positive comments from officials from Columbus to Cleveland regarding her contributions to our economic development efforts in the Mahoning Valley,” Tom Humphries, chamber CEO, said in announcing the appointment.
Boyarko, who received undergraduate and graduate degrees in criminal justice from Youngstown State University, has been with the chamber since 2006 and in 2009 became manager of business development. In her new position, she will oversee its economic development office and meet with businesses to discuss local opportunities for expansion projects as well as oversee the chamber’s business attraction efforts.
The key to the chamber’s attraction efforts is its database. Requests for information, or RFIs, from companies are “becoming so specific,” Boyarko observed. “We’re drilling down to utility line sizes leading to a site or the gas line going to a building” as well as “all kinds of additional information that we didn’t see as frequently before,” she said. Other information companies seek includes data on utility costs, workforce availability, wage information and labor climate.
Boyarko noted that the region's developing oil and gas industry requires the chamber to expand its database that catalogs available buildings and land. Among those sites in demand are locations with ready freeway access and, increasingly, rail. “Every inquiry I’m getting nearly wants rail,” she remarked.
The Mahoning Valley has long touted its location within an hour’s drive of Cleveland and Pittsburgh and within a day’s drive of New York and Chicago. Many businesspeople "look at northeastern Ohio as being a good location for distribution and manufacturing of their products," Boyarko said.
According to the chamber’s recently released economic development report card, its economic development office assisted with projects totaling more $1.06 billion in investment in new and expanded facilities over the past three years; 2,914 jobs created and 4,232 retained. That includes $207.64 million in investment last year, and 833 jobs created and 1,048 retained.
The economic development team conducted more than 800 retention visits to companies last year, Boyarko reported. The initiative “gives us the opportunity to find out about expansion opportunities in the Valley in addition to providing a variety of resources to companies,” she said. “We are also able to build strong relationships with those companies.”
The chamber development staff collaborates with the other private and public economic development entities in the Valley. The eight-month process of encouraging Exterran to select Youngstown for a new plant provides an example of such collaboration, Humphries said. During the chamber’s recent annual meeting, he disclosed that a last-minute problem with Exterran's intended site in North Jackson endangered the project’s local chances before an alternate site was made available in Youngstown, which Exterran ultimately selected.
Exterran was “a perfect example of how things go,” Boyarko said. “It was very seamless. When there was a hiccup or a question that needed to be addressed, very quickly we were able to work with our partners in getting the needs met in a timely fashion.”
“I think she will do an outstanding job,” said Boyarko's predecessor, Walt Good, now director of business development for Team NEO/JobsOhio. “She knows the network that’s in place there, she knows the companies and she’s got some excellent project experience as was seen in her leadership in landing the Exterran project.” In assessing her role in Exterran’s decision to site its new manufacturing facility in the Mahoning Valley, she “more than exceeded” the company’s expectations, Good observed.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.