CASTLO News!

"Brownfield 'Recycling' proves productive for CASTLO tenants"

~ February 6, 2005, The Vindicator, Special Edition, Business outlook
 

STRUTHERS- "Reclamation of brownfields (abandoned or under-utilized industrial properties) is recycling on a grand scale," explained William DeCicco, executive director of the 120-acre CASTLO Industrial Park in Struthers, former site of Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co.'s Struthers Works. "It generates new jobs and sources of revenue, renews community vitality, and safeguards rural and suburban greenfields."

Brownfield reclamation, now fashionable nationally, has impacted multiple sites in the vicinity of CASTLO industrial park. Youngstown Performance Place welcomed expansions for Exal and Cantar Polyair; Lowellville attracted two expanding businesses. Screen Technologies and Garland Welding; and in Campbell, Allegheny Heat Treat and Impact Metals Corporation now operate at Casey Industrial Park.

In November, a $171,000 USEPA Brownfield Assessment grant was activated for a Phase II environmental assessment on CASTLO's western 80 acres, as was a Clean Ohio grant of $201,091 to help remediate of the park's easternmost vacant 40 acres for potential future development. DeCicco points out that three Clean Ohio grants have been awarded in the Mahoning Valley, all in the MRCO acreage, demonstrating how great the need is.  He notes in 2005, both CASTLO and the MRCO intend to pursue Clean Ohio funds to remediate any problems identified via ongoing environmental assessments.

CASTLO looks forward this summer to completion of a new 380-foot bridge from Walton Avenue to the brownfield corridor's center. With Dr. David A. Sampson, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration, and various MRCO participants, CASTLO took part in last September's groundbreaking for the bridge that will facilitate economic development for the city of Campbell similar to that already realized via Astro Shapes and CASTLO in Struthers and Performance Place in Youngstown..

Also, with 4,400 feet of frontage on the Mahoning River, CASTLO works actively with the Mahoning River Consortium to foster relationships between environmentally-aware businesses, open spaces and the waterway which is planned for eventual restoration by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Further, as part of its commitment to the Youngstown 2010 regional initiative, CASTLO is a participant on that organization's Natural Amenities subcommittee.

A good neighbor for more than 25 years, the economically self-sufficient CASTLO supports the surrounding community with its own real estate taxes as well as the state, municipal and school taxes paid on the nearly $6 million annual payroll of its tenants' employees.