ELYRIA — The city of Elyria secured a $580,000 state grant that it needed to help keep ARNCO Corp. from leaving the city.
Awarded through the Ohio Department of Development, the grant will be used to demolish a building on the former Progressive Products site at 856 Garden St., one of the final obstacles to ARNCO moving its operations there from its current location at 860 Garden St.

“We’re hoping to get moving on this in the next few months as ARNCO has been waiting to get this one building demolished before they move,” Mayor Bill Grace said. “This really is a valuable piece of funding, needed to make the next move in improving the site. We believe it will be a catalyst for more development on the site.”

Officials for the company have said they need to expand the company’s operations from the 150,000 square feet of space it now has spread across three buildings. ARNCO plans to consolidate its operations into a single 211,000-square-foot building on the old Progressive Processing property.

That would allow the company to keep its current employees in the city and add 30 new jobs over the next three years.
Nonetheless, those plans had been put in jeopardy by what city officials called “miscommunication” in regards to the project.

Elyria nearly lost an opportunity to apply for the grant after Elyria Economic Development Director Don Brackenhoff failed to get the application into the hands of county commissioners before the March 20 deadline.

Each county eligible for the Ohio Department of Development grant can only submit one application, and the commissioners, assuming there were no other applications, decided to seek the grant for the Lorain County Regional Airport.

But once it was learned that ARNCO possibly would leave Elyria if the money was not secured, the commissioners tossed aside the airport application and instead backed the Elyria application.

The commissioners were ecstatic to learn their decision paid off.

“The board of county commissioners are thrilled that through this cooperative effort with the city of Elyria we were able to put together an attractive package which was successful to help a local company not only to stay here, but to expand as well,” Commissioner Ted Kalo said.

Brackenhoff estimates that the entire project, which also includes working with the CSX Corp. to upgrade a rail spur, will cost an estimated $3 million.

“We were one of 11 municipal projects in the state to apply for the grant within the 40 eligible counties,” he said “We were one of six that were actually awarded, and we’re hoping this will put us in a better position to receive another grant that is $2 million or $3 million in total.”

This newest target is the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant, also administered through the Ohio Department of Development.

With it, the city is hoping to clean up a 13-acre site adjacent to the old Progressive Products site. The building on that property is long gone, but the site is likely contaminated and in need of remediation, Brackenhoff said.

However, the ARNCO deal is not contingent upon the city getting the CORF grant, which has a July 24 deadline.

“It would be nice if we could get both, but we are not even counting on both as a part of this deal,” Brackenhoff said.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. If you aren't already registered, click here.
If you are registered, click here to log in.
Need help? Email Us.