Staff report

WARREN — BDM Warren Steel Holdings LLC, which owns the former Republic Steel and RG Steel property, and the Western Reserve Port Authority have an agreement to donate the large swath of land to the port authority.

“We are going through our due diligence as we speak,” said port authority CEO John Moliterno, who the port authority board in January authorized to negotiate terms of the gift.

The property with a rich steelmaking past is nearly 1,000 acres that stretches almost 2 miles along Pine Avenue SE and includes portions of Warren, Niles, Howland and Warren Township.

The port authority became involved at the urging of JobsOhio, the state’s private nonproft economic development agency.

“They told us they had very few sites on their listing statewide that are this size, and their encouragement came with the stipulation that as we move forward on this project, they will be able to assist us with JobsOhio dollars to be able to bring this piece of property back to life and hopefully create jobs on it,” Moliterno said.

Moliterno also said at Wednesday’s port authority meeting it is open to talks with Trumbull County commissioners and the planning commission regarding accessing a piece for a bicycle trail. According to Trumbull County Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa, who attended the meeting virtually, some portion of the land infringes on a leg of the trail.

The site for more than 100 years churned out steel, employing thousands in the Mahoning Valley, but in the mid 1980s, started to experience trouble.

Republic Steel assumed the name of the mill in 1930 and merged with LTV in 1984, but two years later, the company filed bankruptcy. The Renco Group Inc. bought the mill and renamed it Warren Consolidated Industries Inc., or WCI.

Over the coming years, WCI filed bankruptcy, from which it emerged in 2003, and sold the mill to OAO Severstal in 2008.

RG Steel LLC, a new entity of the Renco Group, bought the mill in 2011. In September 2012, RG Steel declared bankruptcy, leaving 1,200 employees out of work. BDM Warren Steel Holdings bought the mill later that year and started looking for a new buyer, but with no buyers in sight, it auctioned parts of the mill in spring 2013 and began tearing down buildings and started to market the land.

The blast furnace, the last remaining blast furnace in Trumbull and Mahoning counties, was torn down in 2017.

Also Wednesday, the board agreed to a new three-year collective bargaining agreement with Ohio Council 8 and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2312, which represents five maintenance workers at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

The agreement gives them a 4 percent pay raise in the first year. There is no pay increase in years two or three.

The contract expires March 31, 2024. Local 2312’s previous contract did not contain pay increases.

“These folks at the airport have really done a good job for us … so I’m glad this is getting done,” Marty Loney, port authority board chairman said.

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