2023 saw the beginnings of two multimillion dollar developments in the Mahoning Valley.

In North Jackson, a shortage of suitable distribution / warehouse and light manufacturing buildings in the region set into motion a plan to build a new industrial park on 45 acres on Mahoning Avenue.

“There doesn’t seem like there is a lot of Class A, clean industrial buildings out there,” said Greg Toporcer, owner of Top Property Holdings LLC, the real estate investment company behind the project planned near the Macy’s distribution center, in July.

At a groundbreaking ceremony for the project in October, Toporcer said the first building at the site is planned to be 80,000 square feet with 32-foot clear height ceilings, eight loading docks and four drive-in bays. It can be leased in 20,000-square-foot options or as a structure.

Earlier this month, Toporcer said the contract for construction of the first building was awarded to Hively Construction Co. of Canfield.

“We’re hoping to get started in March and be done at the end of next year,” Toporcer said.

Toporcer said existing structures are not marketable for one reason or another, so the plan was to build new, flexible space attractive for investment.

“The broad plan is to create five lots that can hold up to one 80,000- to 100,000-square-foot building,” Toporcer said in July. “We’re looking to set up the buildings in 20,000-square-foot increments, so someone can come lease 60,000 or 100,000 (square feet), 40,000, 20,000, or they can lease the whole 100,000,.”

He said the site is an ideal space for manufacturing as it is located within a few short miles of Interstates 76 and 80.

It’s hoped the first building will be move-in ready by October or November 2024. Phase two will start in 2025, and the plan is to have the park fully developed in the next five years, Toporcer said.

“We’re sending out stuff now for final bids and stuff like that,” Toporcer said. “So we can start getting started in that time frame. We’re basically still on pace, we’re doing pretty good.”

Toporcer said space in the first building is already being advertised for sale in increments of 20,000 square feet. He said Platz Realty Group of Canfield will be advertising the space.

“We’re on schedule to try to get phase two done for 2025,” he said.

The company has been working closely with Jackson Township, Mahoning County, the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, Western Reserve Port Authority, JobsOhio, Team NEO and the Ohio Department of Development, among others.

Toporcer’s Top Property Holdings was awarded a $2 million loan from the state to help finance a warehouse and light manufacturing building. The money also will be used to support building roads and utility infrastructure.

The funding is through the state’s Rural Industrial Park Loan Program, which provides low-interest, direct loans to finance development and improvement of industrial parks and related infrastructure.

WARREN

In Warren, ground was broken in August on the first building of the West Warren Industrial Park, located at the former Westlawn Neighborhood on the city’s southwest side.

Building 1 is set to be a large-scale multimillion dollar development suitable for mid-sized modern manufacturing, warehouse / distribution and research / development, according to one of the developers.

Developers said to expect “moving and shaking,” in spring 2024.

“You’ll see a building here over the summer, and we hope to have it delivered to a tenant at the end of 2024, early 2025,” Mike Martof, a partner in West Warren Development LLC, the company developing the site, said at the time.

The first building planned is a 100,000-square-foot structure with 32-foot ceilings. The initial investment is more than $10 million.

An end-user has yet to be identified, but marketing to secure a tenant is expected to start in early 2024.

Construction on building No. 2 is expected to begin shortly after the first is completed, Martof said.

At the time, Martof said the Mahoning Valley deserves more Class A space –which is considered top of the line, a high-quality structure — as can be found in Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

The site of the West Warren Industrial Park is the former Westlawn neighborhood that was built in the 1940s to house workers from the former Ravenna Army Ammunition Plant just west of Newton Falls. By the 1980s and 1990s the area had fallen on hard times, notorious for drugs, crimes and fires.

The area was cleaned up and the homes, mostly if not all multi-family concrete slab units, were demolished in the 1990s.

The 30 or so acres that were owned by the school district had been the site of Western Reserve High School, and later middle school after the district combined the Warren Western Reserve and Warren G. Harding high schools in the early 1990s. Alden Elementary School also was at the site.

The middle school was demolished in August 2010 and Alden followed in June of the same year.

In February, West Warren Development LLC, an affiliate of Warren-based Sapientia Ventures, acquired the land from the Western Reserve Port Authority, which acted as a conduit to pass it along from Warren and Warren City Schools to the company.

The port authority, using special powers in Ohio law that allows port authorities to acquire and sell property without going to bid, accepted the land in January.

West Warren paid $195,000 for land, about 50 acres of which belonged to the city.