This is a rendering of the proposed peninsula project near downtown Warren spearheaded by Warren city officials and the Fund for Warren’s Future, which is led by community activist Dennis Blank.

WARREN — Representatives from Fund for Warren’s Future met with Warren City Council members Monday to discuss plans and informally request money for its peninsula project.

The meeting, hosted in the conference room of Covelli Enterprises on East Market Street, allowed for council members to hear directly from Dennis Blank, administrator of Fund for Warren’s Future, as well as Mayor Doug Franklin and Anthony Payiavlas, president and CEO of AVI Foodsystems Inc., regarding what the public-private organization is hoping to do in the section of the city known as the peninsula.

Fund for Warren’s Future is requesting $2 million in American Rescue Plan funds from city council.

The meeting allowed for the representatives to discuss how Warren can become the “Capital of Voltage Valley.”

Blank pointed to several key points of development near Warren in recent years — the availability of the RG Steel property, the arrival of Foxconn and Ultium Cells in Lordstown, millions of dollars that have been spent in blight remediation — and he questioned how the city can take advantage of such growth.

“Warren proper is not going to be the place where anybody comes in and builds a new factory of scale,” Blank said. “We simply don’t have the accumulated land necessary. Our old buildings are of the wrong size and scale. It’s just not what modern manufacturers are looking for. We (are) going to have to find another way.”

Blank said while the city does not have the means needed to house factories and manufacturing directly, Warren still can take advantage of economic development in the Valley by becoming the top place for employees of Foxconn and Ultium Cells to live and recreate.

“To take advantage of that we (are) going to have to market the assets we do have,” Blank said. “(Warren) (is) going to have to be the place that those factories relied upon for places for their employees to live, places to be entertained and recreate and enjoy life, for the people who aren’t interested in living in a cornfield in Lordstown.”

Blank said plans for the peninsula project centered around catering to younger, better educated, technologically oriented professionals who may work near the city.

“They like an urban environment, they like the walkability that Warren offers, they want to have easy access to restaurants, bars, a brewery,” he said.

Blank said the city has a shortage of modern, multi-family housing properties that such individuals prefer. He said Warren needs affordable housing in its immediate downtown area.

According to the ARP request, Fund for Warren’s Future wants to develop the peninsula to consist of more than 200 market-rate housing units and more than 100,000 square-feet of commercial and retail space, including the potential for a parking deck, hotel, extended stay living and a food hall.

The plan also includes significant infrastructure improvements to the peninsula area, including sewer, water and wastewater infrastructure, improved and enhanced hardscape on West Market Street, which would be reduced to two lanes, better Wi-Fi capabilities and improved electric and gas lines.

The officials from the organization said the $2 million requested from council, as well as $2 million that previously was requested from the Trumbull County commissioners, would mainly go toward those infrastructure improvements.

“That $4 million that we’re asking the county and the city for is all for infrastructure, things that would typically be government responsibility,” Payiavlas said.

Councilwoman Helen Rucker, D-at Large, said she supported the plan but brought up concerns regarding how citizens of Warren would respond to the development plans.

“The people of Warren cannot feel that we’re doing huge projects for other folks,” she said. “They have to be included in that, they have to be invested in that … I’m on board and I think this is fabulous. But us council people have to also think about the transformation of our neighborhoods.”

Franklin said the peninsula plan will help to better connect the various areas of the city.

“This plan connects our downtown to the west side,” Franklin said. “So you could see some organic growth to the west side because you finally have that connection. This will be a new neighborhood with mixed-use development options.”

Councilman Greg Greathouse, D-3rd Ward, compared the plan to another Ohio city.

“If you look to Cleveland, that west side, look what that city has done with the Flats,” he said. “Then you start looking at the west side and Tremont … That didn’t transform in a year or in five years. That’s gangbusters what they have going on up there right now. They’ve knocked slums down and they’ve got condos going for $250,000 up there … As best we can to learn from their successes and failures, I think that’s a nice part of the mix.”

Franklin believes each ward in Warren would benefit from the peninsula project and further development.

“If we do this, every single ward will be impacted by it,” he said.

Along with the combined $4 million sought from Warren and the county, Fund for Warren’s Future also is seeking $30 million in funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Community Grant program through Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.

The representatives of the organization said there are a lot of moving parts in the timeline of the project, but the project developer, Larry Dillin of Dillin Corp. of Springboro, has an “ambitious timeline.”

Payiavlas said for the peninsula project, there is hope that there could be “shovels in the ground” by early 2025.

Franklin said legislation to formally request the funds from Warren council will come at some point during the first quarter of 2024.

Blank closed the meeting by stressing the importance of moving forward with the plan.

“The other thing for the county that we stressed is that if we’re not successful in making Warren the capital of the Voltage Valley, the winner isn’t going to be Cortland or Leavittsburg,” Blank said. “It’s going to go to Mahoning County. This is a battle we’re in. This is competition. We need to fight for our place in the future of this area.”