City acts to keep 200 jobs in city

YOUNGSTOWN —The city’s board of control approved a lease renewal today to keep an AT&T service and maintenance center, which employs about 200, in Youngstown for at least another five years.

The deal also includes an option after five years to extend the contract another five years.

AT&T, and its predecessors including Ameritech and the Ohio Bell Telephone Co., have rented the 20-acre parcel off of Salt Springs Road near Meridian Road for the past 15 years.

The rent paid to the city by the company during the past 15 years went towards the cost of construction, said city Finance Director David Bozanich, a board of control member.

AT&T paid about $680,000 annually in rent when the original 15-year lease expired May 31, he said.

The new deal calls for AT&T to pay $411,400 in the contract’s first fiscal year, retroactive to June 1. The company’s annual rent increases to $491,661 in the 10th year. Over the 10 years, AT&T would pay $4.5 million to the city.