$750K State Allocation Accelerates Innovation Hub Project

By Michael Moliterno, The Business Journal, Youngstown Publishing Co.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A $750,000 allocation in Ohio’s capital budget will help accelerate renovations at the future Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense, allowing project leaders to move more quickly to create manufacturing space for companies looking to expand, relocate or enter the defense and aerospace sectors.

The funding will support the first phase of renovations at the second Vindicator Printing Co. building, a key component of the innovation hub initiative that is expected to strengthen the Mahoning Valley’s advanced manufacturing ecosystem and create new opportunities for businesses across the region.

“The thing everybody should understand is that we cannot possibly move as quickly as we need to to get the 107 Vindicator Square building renovated,” said Barb Ewing, CEO of YBI. “We know that there are opportunities on the table, both our local startups that would like to grow and expand there and opportunities to attract companies from outside the region.”

The funding builds on the state-backed Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense, announced by Gov. Mike DeWine as part of Ohio’s Innovation Hubs Program.

The initiative is designed to help manufacturers commercialize new technologies, enter defense and aerospace markets and capitalize on the region’s nationally recognized expertise in additive manufacturing.

“Every day that we delay is just another opportunity to have something fall off the table,” Ewing said. “Having such a significant contribution from the state of Ohio just allows us to make sure that we get at least phase one underway very quickly.”

The first phase will focus on creating manufacturing-ready space in the building’s high-bay and low-bay areas, providing room for heavy equipment and early-stage production activities.

Ewing said the investment could also allow portions of future phases to begin sooner, including plans for additional high-bay manufacturing space in the building’s basement. Depending on the needs of companies looking to occupy the facility, future work could shift to upper-floor manufacturing and office areas before returning to the basement phase.

For Megan Malara, director of the Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense, the funding will help advance efforts to grow the region’s defense and aerospace manufacturing base.

“Our Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense goal really is to accelerate market-ready technologies for the defense industrial base,” Malara said. “Really helping businesses scale their technology and help participate in our aerospace and defense economy.”

The hub is managed by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, which also oversees America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute headquartered in downtown Youngstown. Both organizations operate on the YBI campus, where YBI serves as a key partner responsible for renovating and operating the future innovation hub.

Malara said that the relationship gives companies access to a network of resources that would be difficult to find elsewhere.

“One of our key partners in executing this innovation hub is YBI,” she said. “When we talk to folks across the state of Ohio, or in other states, it really becomes evident how well our groups collaborate here, all in support of the businesses that locate here.”

She said the new funding will help transform a massive industrial building into space that companies can occupy more quickly.

“When we tell other communities about this facility, they are quite impressed, even at the scale of it,” Malara said. “There’s 130,000 square feet of manufacturing space. That’s a behemoth of a building, and that’s a great opportunity for us.”

The need for space already exists. Malara said companies from the Valley, across the United States and even internationally have expressed interest in locating operations in the building once renovations are complete.

“We have people who are looking to relocate and are asking when they’re going to have space available,” she said. “We have businesses here that are looking to expand, and we also have companies from across the country that are looking to locate here.”

Stephanie Gaffney, YBI chief manufacturing officer, said the investment will help manufacturers access the resources needed to enter the defense and aerospace sectors and expand their capabilities.

She described the facility as the centerpiece of a “hub and spoke model” that will bring together economic development organizations, technical experts and business support services under one roof.

“We’re really helping to simplify the process of getting into a heavily complicated market sector of defense and aerospace,” Gaffney said.

Gaffney said the hub will build on programs already helping regional manufacturers commercialize technologies, secure certifications and access technical assistance needed to compete in aerospace and defense markets.

For Heidi Ruby, YBI vice president of operations, the project represents the latest chapter in the incubator’s physical growth. Ruby has overseen the finishes and final design touches that helped define the look and feel of Tech Block Building 5 and YBI’s headquarters, transforming former industrial and retail spaces into modern homes for entrepreneurs and manufacturers.

Looking at the future innovation hub facility, she said the project dwarfs anything the organization has tackled before.

“When we did TBB5, [the original Vindicator building] that was built in the 1930s, I thought that that would probably be our final building on campus,” Ruby said. “The 107 [building] said, ‘Hold my drink, I’m coming in with 130,000 square feet.’”

While discussions about finishes, furnishings and the details that ultimately give a building its character are still ahead, Ruby said she hopes those decisions arrive sooner rather than later as renovation work moves forward and the facility begins taking shape.

“The sky’s the limit here,” Ruby said. “We stand up this facility, fill it from top to bottom, and who knows where it’ll take us from there.”

The project is now moving from planning into construction.

Construction work, overseen by DeSalvo Construction, is expected to begin with replacement of the building’s roof, the first priority in the renovation process. After the building is secured, project leaders plan to move into remediation and demolition work and will pursue additional funding through a brownfield application expected to be submitted in August.

Reaching this point required months of work by local and state leaders during what Ewing described as a difficult budget cycle.

Ewing credited state Sen. Al Cutrona of Canfield, R-33rd, and state Rep. Lauren McNally of Youngstown, D-58th, for helping advance the request through the legislative process.

“In order to get funding, you had to have support from both your state senator and your state representative, so their support was absolutely critical,” Ewing said.

She also credited the broader Lake to River legislative delegation, including state Reps. Nick Santucci, R-64th; Tex Fischer, R-59th; Monica Robb Blasdel, R-79th; Dave Thomas, R-65th; and Sarah Fowler Arthur, R-99th.

“We also worked very closely with the rest of the Lake to River delegation,” Ewing said. “They are a great core team that comes together regularly to understand the community’s priorities and advance them.”

Cutrona worked alongside local stakeholders throughout the budget process, while members of the delegation helped reinforce the project’s regional importance as lawmakers weighed funding requests from across Ohio.

“With there being so little that people can agree on these days, the fact that we are one of those projects that people do agree on really means a lot,” Ewing said. “I think it’s great to be able to say that to the community that truly our delegation came together, put aside whatever partisan differences that they had to help make this happen.”

Looking ahead, Ewing hopes the investment will help redefine how people view the Valley and cement its reputation as a center for advanced manufacturing.

“It is truly my hope that when people start to think about Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, they don’t think about all of the things that historically we have thought about,” she said. “I really want them to see us as the defense and aerospace hub. We have so much happening right now, and this building is just a focal point for it. For me, it’s a symbol of the great things in aerospace and defense that are happening. That’s what I want people to see.”

Read at The Business Journal