HomeGoods warehouse in ‘home stretch,’ company official says

March 07-- Mar. 7--By Ed Runyan

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WARREN

The Trumbull County commissioners approved a 75 percent, 10-year tax abatement on Wednesday for the proposed TJX/HomeGoods distribution center on Ellsworth Bailey Road in Lordstown.

The project is expected to produce 1,000 jobs within three years of starting construction and is an investment of $140 million to $170 million.

Groundbreaking on the 1.2-million-square-foot facility could take place in early April if two more approvals are given in the coming weeks.

Wednesday's approval was the second this week and means the project is "heading down the home stretch," said Mark Walker, TJX/HomeGoods vice president for real estate.

Walker told the commissioners during a public hearing that took place before the commissioners meeting that 20 months ago, when HomeGoods was looking for a site, the "starting point really was kind of eastern Pennsylvania."

But Mahoning Valley economic development officials told the company they would help reduce HomeGoods' costs in order to encourage the company to locate here, Walker said.

"Roll the tape ahead 20 months, we're here today. This will offset costs we will bear that we normally would not have borne if we were elsewhere," Walker said of the tax abatement. He called the abatement "compensation for locating the unit in Northeast Ohio."

Lordstown and the Lords-town schools reached a revenue-sharing agreement that provides the school district some of the income-tax money the village would normally collect to offset the property taxes the school district will give up through the abatement.

The next approval needed will be Monday at the 6:30 p.m. village planning commission meeting when the company's site plan will be reviewed. Walker hopes the commission will approve it that night.

Then the company needs approval from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corp of Engineers for environmental issues associated with the site.

Lordstown council gave a crucial 5-0 approval Monday for the relocation of part of Hallock Young Road for the project.

Commissioner Dan Polivka thanked Walker for "sticking with us through the many hurdles," which included a failed voter referendum on the zoning change village council has approved for the site and subsequent legal action filed by opponents of building the project at that location.

"With the idling of [the Lordstown General Motors assembly plant], I think this is even more pronounced that we need these jobs," Commissioner Dan Polivka said. The warehouse is slated to be built just across Ellsworth Bailey Road from the GM plant, where the final Chevy Cruze was built Wednesday.

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