WARREN — A home improvement retail chain investing nearly $52 million to build a manufacturing and distribution center in Portage County west of Newton Falls was awarded a state tax credit to further the project.

The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a 1.164 percent, seven-year credit for Wisconsin-based Menards, which expects to create 90 full-time jobs with an annual payroll of $3.5 million at the center on state Route 88 in Ravenna.

The estimated worth of the Job Creation Tax Credit is $250,000 assuming all elements of the agreement are met, according to Lisa Colbert with Ohio Development Services Agency. The credit is performance-based, so the actual value is based on verified new jobs and payroll.

As part of the agreement, Menards is expected to maintain operations at the site for at least 10 years.

Menards, which has 300 stores across the U.S., including its Elm Road NE, Warren, store, plans for the center to service its northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania stores.

The facility will be a truss plant, concrete plant, bagging plant, transload operation and a crossdock distribution facility on a 65-acre site to support the company’s expansion in the Midwest. The company’s fixed-asset investment would be toward building and land costs and new machinery and equipment.

Already, Menards received $175,000 from the Ohio Rail Development Commission to build rail infrastructure at the site. The company is contributing $315,000 of the $490,000 rail project that also about a mile of track rehabilitation.

Ravenna’s planning commission has approved plans for the facility and Menards has a 100 percent, 15-year local tax abatement on the project.

The state tax credit was among 15 the tax credit authority board approved Monday for projects across Ohio. Its projected those projects will create 1,653 jobs and retain 1,676 jobs and result in more than $99 million in new payroll and spur more than $304 million in investments, according to the state.

The other northeast Ohio awards were for Tiger Pistol Inc. in Cleveland, a developer of social advertising platforms, for a new project in Cleveland, and Union Home Mortgage Corp. in Strongsville for an expansion project there.