MANSFIELD — Tim Bowersock, economic development director, is keeping busy these days.
In fact, he hasn’t been this busy since 2005 or 2006, he told council during its regular meeting Tuesday night. The majority of the increased activity is good news for the city.
Bowersock overviewed a number of economic development projects slated to occur in the near future — including the addition at Mansfield Motor Group.
MMG is expanding the far west section of its facility on Park Avenue West and investing $1.5 million into the project. Construction is expected to begin immediately, Bowersock said.
This addition will create eight full-time jobs in the first year.
“That will add about $355,000 a year to payroll,” Bowersock said. “If you do the math, that comes out to about an average of $21 an hour.”
Council approved legislation Tuesday night authorizing the mayor and safety service director to enter into an enterprise zone agreement with Schluter Realty, Inc. for certain tax incentives for the construction of this new addition.
“Schluter Realty is one of the real estate holding companies for Mansfield Motor Group,” Bowersock said. “This is the first significant project they’ve had in the last five or six years.”
Bowersock briefed council on other ongoing projects, including the expansion at Newman Technology, Inc. The company’s 80,000-square-foot addition is almost complete, according to Bowersock.
“It’s moving along rather nicely,” he said.
Jay Industries is also completing a small addition onto the northeast corner of the East Longview Avenue facility, he said.
Bowersock said he’s working with a number of smaller businesses looking to relocate to newer and/or larger facilities.
“There are three that are industrial,” he said. “I can’t give you their names at this point, but for one I’m pretty sure I’ll be back within the next two to four weeks with that project because I know they’ve got their purchase agreement on the building settled.”
The company will be moving into one of the vacant buildings in the Industrial Park at the end of Sawyer Parkway, he said.
In addition, a new machine shop is moving into the former Ohio Brass property sometime within the next month, Bowersock said.
“Their plans are to occupy the buildings that are there initially, but also they hope to attract other suppliers or companies that are similar to basically make that a small inner-city industrial park,” he said.
Bowersock also mentioned that he, along with some city officials, intend to meet with the Mansfield Correctional Institution’s warden and state officials to discuss the MANCI farm closure. The transition of hundreds of acres of government-owned land to private use could present opportunities for local companies to expand or new businesses to move to Mansfield.
“Frankly, I think some of that land will be very highly sought after,” Bowersock said.
“I love it when you come here full of good news,” At-Large Councilman Cliff Mears told Bowersock.
