CASTLO News!

"Castlo Leaders Keep 'Never Say Die' Attitude"

~ March, 2004, The Business Journal
 

STRUTHERS - To the classic theory that, in the long run, depressed economies regain their equilibrium and straighten themselves out, the economist John Maynard Keynes famously remarked, "In the long run, we're all dead."

 

In the wake of Black Monday, Youngstown Sheet & Tube's retrenchment cast a long shadow over Campbell, Struthers and Lowellville, many residents of the communities CASTLO Community Improvement Corporation would be created to serve believed they had no future.  Short run or long, they saw no recovery.

 

Within a year of that September 1977 day, CASTLO was born.  Its many parents - it has 15 trustees - understood they had to take the long view if their communities were to recover.

 

Today, more than 20 years later, CASTLO Executive Director William D. DeCicco remains as committed as ever to the economic development of the cities of Campbell, Struthers and Lowellville and to Poland and Coitsville townships.  CASTLO's industrial park has quite a bit to show for its efforts, he points out, and its involvement in the Mahoning River Corridor of Opportunity should benefit the region in the long run.

 

Jobs will be measured in the hundreds, not the thousands as they were in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, DeCicco allows.  The site of the former Struthers Works of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. will be the home of more manufacturers and warehouses because of its strategic location served by rail and access nearby to the Interstate Highway System.

 

CASTLO provides 12 buildings, eight with cranes, that offer more than 600,000 square feet under roof.  Should those facilities not offer what a prospective tenant wants, the industrial park offers ample space to build to the tenant's specifications and CASTLO will extend utilities to that unoccupied land, DeCicco says.

 

Among CASTLO's tenants are the first to take up occupancy.  Consumers Ohio Water (soon to be renamed Aqua America), who signed a 20-year lease in 1984.  Another anchor tenant is Industrial Timber and Lumber Co., which employs 60.  The rail access and proximity to Interstates 680 and 80 as well as State Route 11 were attractive, says plant manager Steve Baker, but the ability to occupy "an already functioning wood-working facility, one with lumber kilns," made the CASTLO park more attractive.

 

That the CASTLO park offers a campus setting and is well maintained are additional pluses, he says.

 

"Bill is a tremendous asset," says Struthers Mayor Dan Mamula.  "He landed three or four new tenants last year, and we're looking for more growth."

 

Key to CASTLO's success, as Mamula sees it, "is they are players in a larger effort in this end of the valley.  And CASTLO is not parochial in regional development."

 

While most of DeCicco's focus has been on the industrial park in Struthers, he enjoys the support of Lowellville Mayor James Ludiciani Sr.

 

"We have a proposal for an industrial park on the old Sharon Steel site," the mayor says.  "A Phase I study has been done on 360 acres.  We'd also like to do something with the a Rex Machine site."

 

When DeCicco recalls CASTLO's early days, it's understandable why hope was in such short supply: No budget.  No staff.  And "Sheet & Tube wouldn't sell off any of its properties until it was clear the mills wouldn't reopen."

 

At the time, the Ecumenical Coalition was working to reopen the mills and create employee ownership, something Sheet & Tube opposed because it didn't want to set up subsidized competition.

 

DeCicco, then planning director at Eastgate Development & Transportation Agency, was on the committee that researched and wrote "A Vacant Land Inventory" for Castlo when "I caught wind that Castlo was ready to hire staff."  The future of Castlo was unknown at that point.  Applying for director was a risk, a gamble."  He went ahead anyway and was chosen among a field of 20.

 

CASTLO's first challenge was establishing a source of guaranteed income.  Its assets consisted entirely of $100 in a bank account.  "When you're interested in buying and selling property, $100 isn't much," DeCicco says with intentional understatement.

 

Sheet & Tube wanted $1.8 million for its Struthers works.

 

"The state of Ohio gave us $2.8 million," DeCicco recalls, and $1.5 million went to pay for the 120 acres where 600,000 square feet of space were under roof in 11 buildings.

 

"Ninety percent of the space in the buildings could be retrofitted and we had land to accommodate new structures," he relates.

 

Beside beginning to retrofit the buildings, DeCicco hired staff to oversee extending water and sewer lines and improve or rebuild the roads, many of which were gravel.

 

"It took 1.5 years to develop a master plan," DeCicco says.  "We designed and built 28-foot roadways that are within 100 feet of every building.  And we installed all new gas, water and electric lines.  We invested $200,000 in upgrading the rail system.  Our first tenant of substance, Consumers Ohio Water, is still here."