CASTLO News!

"CASTLO, at 25,'Comes of Age', with New Building"

~ January 12, 2006, The Business Journal
 

Industrial park tenants collectively employ 150.

New year. New building. New tenant.
" After years of retrofitting buildings for various tenants, in 2005 we welcomed a tenant to its first new building," boasts William D. DeCicco, executive director of Castlo Community Improvement Corp. and its l20- acre industrial park in Struthers.

The new tenant, Youngstown Class "B" Baseball Inc., signed a three-year lease. With this addition, DeCicco says, "there is now activity at the park during the evenings and weekends. "

But that wasn't the only landmark accomplishment achieved last year. In May, the Castlo Industrial Park located on the former site of Youngstown Sheet &: Tube Co.'s 'Struthers Works, celebrated its 25th anniversary:
Other new tenants at the industrial park include Marblehead Equipment LLC, painters of large tanks; JPI Painting, which refurbishes its equipment in space leased at Castlo; and StateLine Paving LLC, a paving contractor.

 

Nextel is expected to build a tele- communications tower in the park this year, joining American Tower Corp. and T-Mobile, which have towers in the park, DeCicco says.

Anchor tenants Industrial Timber & Lumber Co., Aqua Ohio Inc., the Drywall Barn and Valley Recycling remain as strong as ever, he says. Fast-Cast, a steel foundry; recently expanded operations, he notes, and with the leases signed in 2005, the park has brought its number of ten- ants to 22.

Remediation was completed on the park's eastern edge, which once served as a materials yard for Youngstown Sheet &: Tube Co. , DeCicco says. The cleanup was completed using funds from a $201,091 Clean Ohio brownfields grant. Now that the contaminants have been removed, Castlo will undertake efforts to redevelop this portion of the industrial park. According to the master plan, this 40-acre site could accommodate six new buildings, he notes.

Other remediation activities included completing environmental analyses on 80 acres on the park's westside. Areas there identified as needing attention will be the subject of future grant applications.

The city of Struthers, on Castlo's behalf, recently applied to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a Brownfield Petroleum Grant to remove several abandoned fuel storage tanks and adjacent con soils, DeCicco continues.

Last year, Castlo spent money to remove all asbestos from Building H. As a result, the 12 original Youngstown Sheet and Tube buildings are completely free of hazardous materials.