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Haltec, Pennex add jobs in Leetonia

LEETONIA –An estimated 120 new jobs are expected to be created at the Columbiana County Port Authority’s World Trade Park following action taken at Monday’s meeting.

Three months after relocating to its industrial park here, the port authority board is moving again, this time to make room for a proposed expansion by Haltec Inc., which is expected to create up to 75 new jobs.

The port authority board also agreed to sell another 20 acres to an existing WTC tenant, the Pennex Aluminum Corp., which is also planning an expansion of its own. Port Authority Director Penny Traina said this expansion is expected to creat at least 45 new jobs.

“It is great news: Business expansions and economic development for Columbiana County,” she said.

Located in Butler Township, Haltec had considered expanding at its existing facility on North Price Road but it required running a 4,500-foot waterline from Salem’s water tower. The company chose the WTC for its expansion instead, but the existing facility will remain.

“We’re staying where we are currently but we’re going to expand to the new location,” said Todd Dow, Haltec’s director of procurement.

Haltec is a leader in the tire valve industry. According to a company news release, the expansion will allow Haltec to streamline manufacturing processes, expand research and development, and allow for future growth.

“The World Trade Park is ideal for Haltec to expand, as it is a foreign trade zone and is located just two miles from state Route 11 and eight miles from the I-76/80 interchange west of Youngstown. Over 25 percent of the company’s sales are exported,” the company stated.

To facilitate the expansion, the port authority is selling 17 acres to Haltec, which includes the office building housing the port authority and Humtown Product’s 3-D mold printing operations. Traina said Haltec will assume the lease with Humtown.

Haltec, in the name of Watershed Realty Holdings, has agreed to pay $2.3 million for the 17 acres and the office building. The company expects to close on the purchase within 90 days.

The port authority board then agreed to sell 20 acres located around Pennex Aluminum to Leftonia Leasing for $497,850. Pennex, which is expected to issue a news release in a day or two, needs the additional ground for a planned expansion that will create 45 jobs initially, Traina said. The aluminum extrusion-and-fabrication facility undertook a $38 million expansion just three years ago, adding two new press lines and 65 new jobs, bringing the total to about 140 at that time.

Traina said they already have a verbal commitment from the Ohio Development Services Agency to provide $100,000 in state funding to Haltec for water and sewer and $150,000 to Pennex to help with site development. She said they are working with both companies in pursuing whatever deferred tax breaks are available to help offset expansion costs.

So what becomes of the port authority, and the county development department, which moved to the WTC with it? The board agreed last night to purchase the former unemployment office (OneStop) on Lincole Place in Lisbon for $758,050 from Dickey Sylvester Land Development. The 14,000-square-foot office building consists of a vacant first floor for the port authority and development office, while the basement is being leased by the Community Action Agency, “and we will assume that lease,” Traina said.

The sale is contingent upon the sale to Haltec going through.

County commissioners talked several years ago about moving the port authority to Lisbon because it is the county seat and centrally located, and port authority board President Charlie Presley said that is what they have accomplished with this move.

“It gets us in a good building at a good location,” he said.

After the port authority’s five employees moved to the WTC, Traina was amazed by the dramatic increase in the number of business people who called or stopped by to inquire about what they had to offer compared to when they were in East Liverpool, but she never dreamed they would have to move so soon.

“We enjoyed our time in Leetonia … but were looking forward to settling down,” she said, adding some of the boxes from the May move were yet to be unpacked.

These transactions will leave the port authority with 45 acres of undeveloped property at the WTC.

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