SitemapRegional economic development partners, elected officials and other area leaders this month raised a glass to toast a $155.7 million grant application to the state that, if successful, would fund transformational projects across four northeast Ohio counties. The celebration, however, was less about filing the mega request with the state’s Appalachian Community Grant Program, and more about the 13 months of collaboration among people in Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties to develop the 41-project list. “It is out of the ordinary to have a major event for a grant that is only just now being filed. We are not celebrating the grant application. We are celebrating the fact this community came together, identified our top priority and reached a consensus around how we tackle that priority,” Guy Coviello, president / CEO, Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, said at the event at America Makes. “I don’t believe anything like this has ever happened before in the Mahoning Valley.”
There have been other instances where the community rallied around a cause — Operation SOAR, an effort to save the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna from closure or base realignment and Drive It Home Ohio, an effort to repurpose the General Motors plant in Lordstown — but, Coviello said, those causes were forced upon the Valley. “In this case, we have a blank canvas. In this case, instead of sending dozens or hundreds of disjointed applications, I believe we set ourselves apart from other communities by pulling together public, private and philanthropic organizations to submit one transformational application,” Coviello said.
The grant program is funded with $500 million in American Rescue Plan dollars given to Ohio to invest in transformation projects across the 32-county Appalachian region in Ohio. The priorities are workforce, infrastructure and health care.
Awards are expected to be announced in February. The projects must be delivered by October 2026.
The submission includes projects from downtown development and infrastructure improvements to financial support for business incubators and health care to riverfront revitalization and workforce development. They were vetted by a team of regional partners, including the regional chamber, Eastgate, Western Reserve Port Authority and business and philanthropic leaders. “What is transformation to the city of Girard may be a $3 million enhancement project. What is transformation to the region could be investing in YBI (Youngstown Business Incubator),” Jim Kinnick, executive director, Eastgate, said. “We tried to balance that. We wanted to make sure we helped our communities with an eye on the bigger picture, too, for regional prosperity.”
Among the project list are:
• $28 million to help fund a $37.5 million project to redevelop the peninsula, a stretch of land prime for development on West Market Street in Warren.
• $5.5 million to reconfigure the downtown Warren headquarters of BRITE Energy Innovators to add more workforce training space.
• $3.5 million toward a $5 million streets improvement project in Girard and $694,440 toward a $22.9 million project there to develop the Leatherworks Trailhead.
• $2.5 million for a $12.4 million workforce development project by the port authority, the YNG Aviation Education Campus.
• $10 million toward a $30.2 million to help YBI portfolio companies expand into new space.
• $5.5 million of a $28.1 million project for downtown streetscape enhancements in Youngstown.
• $5.2 million to help pay for a $12 million project to redevelop buildings for Youngstown Flea.
• $5 million for a $114 million project to help Mercy Health-Youngstown expand stroke care at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. This project is the largest among the 41.
“Specifically, these grant funds would enable Mercy Health to add additional infrastructure and technology to care for more patients in need of complex stroke treatments,” Dr. John Luellen, president, Mercy Health-Lorain and -Youngstown, said.
•Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation has a $4.9 million request to help along a $10.3 million project to continue its work on improving Glenwood Avenue in Youngstown.
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