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Warren Fabricating Eyes Major Expansion -- But Where?
By Dan O'BrienWARREN, Ohio -- Warren Fabricating Corp. is considering a massive expansion project in Hubbard Township that could bring at least 100 new jobs to the area.However, the Toledo Blade has reported the company is also considering a brownfield site along the Maumee River in Toledo, promising as many jobs to that city.Mark Zigmont, a planner with the Trumbull County Planning Commission, confirms the company recently requested tax incentives of 100% over 15 years to cover more than $200 million of new investment in the project. The request was forwarded to the Hubbard Board of Education for its review, he said.Warren Fabricating would spend $9 million to $10 million on building a 530,000-square-foot plant along Chestnut Ridge Road and another $116 million to $120 million in new machinery and equipment, Zigmont reported.Inventory is expected to be between $75 million to $80 million."They'll be putting in a whole new line" to serve the new operations, Zigmont added. In return for the tax incentives, Warren Fabricating has pledged to create a minimum of 100 jobs within three years of the project's completion.According to Zigmont, the new facility will receive imported steel, re-heat the material and perform additional fabricating before shipping the finished product to customers in North America.Warren Fabricating is importing the steel because domestic makers do not manufacture the specific type and grade of steel Warren Fabricating needs, he said.The company manufactures replacement parts, refurbishes equipment and fabricates a number of different components for industrial concerns such as the steel industry. Warren Fabricating operates facilities in Hubbard, Niles and Warren.Calls to the company seeking comment were not returned.Total investment in the project is anticipated between $200 million and $210 million, Zigmont noted. "We're also looking to get a Foreign Trade Zone designation there," he added. Foreign trade zones, or FTZs, allow companies to forego paying taxes on imported inventory. Parts of the Youngstown-Warren region is designated as within FTZ 181, administered by the Northeast Ohio Trade and Economic Consortium, or Neotec. "With an FTZ in place, the tax incentives covering this is probably moot," Zigmont said.Most of the land around the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport is part of an FTZ. Land in North Jackson in Mahoning County has also been awarded FTZ status. The project must be approved by Hubbard Township trustees and Trumbull County commissioners. If the project proceeds, construction can begin in March.Regardless, Warren Fabricating may well be reviewing other sites for the project. Last September, The Blade reported that Warren Fabricating and two other companies -- BOC Group and Buckeye Pipeline -- were considering a joint manufacturing project on land formerly occupied by an oil refinery on the east side of Toledo.That project, the paper reported, called for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority to purchase the 212-acre site first and then sell the land to Warren Fabricating. The land once held oil refineries owned by Gulf Oil and then Chevron Texaco. Jim Hartung, president of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, said he is not familiar with all the details of the project, but added development officials were "still in discussions with the company." The brownfield site meets many of the company's requirements and needs, he said, especially since it rests along the banks of the Maumee. The Maumee flows into Lake Erie, which provides access to international shipping routes in the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence Seaway.Contact Dan O'Brien at [email protected]"