WARREN — Trumbull County commissioners unanimously voted to approve an enterprise zone request by Yellowstone Industrial LLC to allow the company to receive a 10-year, 75 percent abatement needed to rehabilitate and upgrade the former Syro Steel plant, 1170 North St., Girard.

“It will be recommissioning that facility,” Nicholas Coggins, a representative of the Trumbull County Planning Commission said. “The company will bring in several million dollars in the remodeling of the hot dip galvanizing facility and start bringing in highway guardrails manufactured in Pennsylvania to start galvanizing them.”

The former Syro Steel facility also made highway guardrails.

Yellowstone Industrial LLC purchased the former Syro Steel plant in April 2022.

The project is expected to have a cost of between $6.8 million and $8.3 million to make improvements to the existing building, and bring in machinery and equipment, and inventory. Most of the work has been completed.

From September through December 2025, 20 full-time jobs will be created, which, once complete, will establish an annual payroll of $1,097,850.

The company is seeking an annual tax incentive on real property of 75 percent for the 10 years of the agreement.

David Price, founder and owner Yellowstone Industrial LLC, said the company has been working with Jobs Ohio to further the company’s expansion.

“We are a highway guardrail manufacturer,” Price said. “We also manufacture bridge rails and sign beams. We are an AISE approved fabrication shop.

“Ninety-nine percent of the product we produce gets hot dip galvanized after fabrication,” he continued. “We have been experiencing tremendous growth in the last 10 years and we want to expand on that. Having to get outside galvanizing limits that growth.”

Price said the company eventually wants to do its own galvanizing of the guardrails it builds.

“The Girard facility became available to us a little over one-and-a-half years ago and we jumped on it,” he said. “It provides us the opportunity to grow our business. We want to be a national, not regional, guardrail manufacturer.”

The company will keep its footprint in Pulaski, Pa., as well as having the Girard site.

“We want to run our own products,” he said. “In the first five years, this will bleed us alive.”

Price said the company’s Girard facility will not be profitable for the first five years because of the cost and everything to get the facility going.

“We have the product,”he continued. “It can be done. It just takes time to get us to full-scale operation, including three turns.”

Once the Girard facility is fully operational, Price noted the company then will create a fabrication bay at the site to create more product, instead of transporting it from Pennsylvania.

“We want it to be independent and to feed itself and not depend on product from from outside fabrication,”he said. “That will take, at least, five years.”

“We are looking for any kind of financial help,” he said.

Commission President Denny Malloy said it was a joy to hear the company is working to bring more jobs to the Mahoning Valley.

“We appreciate the investment,” commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said.

HOTEL PROJECT

Commissioners also heard a presentation from Steel and Liberty LLC., which also is seeking a 10-year, 75 percent property tax abatement for the construction of a hotel next to the Metroplex Expo Center.

The company is looking to build a 55,000-square foot extended stay hotel by Marriott that will have between 89 and 99 rooms. The project cost is expected to be between $8 million and $12 million.

It is projected to begin in June and be completed in December 2024. It will create 48 full-time jobs, with an annual payroll of $1.1 million and 36 part-time jobs with an annual payroll of $588,0000, plus 75 temporary construction jobs. The complete job creation period will be through July 2026.

Steel & Liberty LLC acquired nearly 5.1 acres at 1610 Motor Drive in December from the Trumbull County Land Bank, according to a record with the Trumbull County Auditor’s Office. The land bank acquired the property in 2015 from Girard Hospitality LLC.

James Taylor, vice president of the Western Reserve Building Trades, asked the commissioners and Liberty to be mindful in hiring local labor to do the construction of the project.

Brian Collier, of Bricklayers and Tilesetters Local 8, said they love to see new projects coming into the area.

“There are lots of great contractors that are local,”he said. “If there is going to be some kind of tax abatement, we love to see some type of process to require local hires for the construction. There are 10,000 members of Western Reserve Building Trades and we would love to be involved.”

Nisarg Patel, president of Steel and Liberty LLC, noted the company will bid out for companies to do the various jobs needed to build the hotel site.

“Having someone local is always helpful,” Patel said.

Patel said the company has done a project in Boardman.

Maureen Lloyd, treasurer of the Liberty Local School District, said the district wants the hotel project to be a success, but is concerned that the school district was not brought into the conversation about the tax abatements until late in the project.

“We are concerned with education and having the proper funding,” she said. “In the future, the school board would like to be involved a little sooner in the process. These decisions were made without consulting the school board.

“We truly wish them the best in the construction and the process of this and hope it will bring jobs to the area,” she said.

The commissioners did not vote on the hotel project, but said they will take the information under advisement.

rsmith@tribtoday.com