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WARREN – The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has given the former Republic Steel site a clean bill of health, a distinction that makes the vast expanse of land even more marketable for redevelopment.
Owner BDM Warren Steel Holdings LLC has completed the remediation of the site on Pine Avenue SE and has received a do not prosecute from the state agency, which protects the owner or future owners from being legally responsible to the site. ‘Status of further environmental investigation and cleanup.
The protection becomes part of the title to the property and is transferred to the future owners. It can last forever as long as the property is used and maintained under the terms of the covenant, depending on the state.
It applies to approximately 825 acres that BDM Warren Steel Holdings is donating to the Western Reserve Port Authority, which plans to market the land – stretching nearly two miles along Pine Avenue SE and including portions of Warren, Niles, Howland and Warren. Canton – for redevelopment.
“It has water, sewers. It’s all over it, “ Port Authority CEO John Moliterno said. “Everything is already there and now you get this EPA certificate of good health. It is very important for the future of the site.
It was in January when the port authority announced it and BDM was in talks for BDM to donate the land – one of the largest, if not the largest, ready-to-dig sites in Ohio – to the port authority.
Last month, Moliterno said BDM wanted to give the port authority an additional 200 acres adjacent to the site. The port authority also plans to accept these lands, but not without having passed a first environmental assessment, which is currently underway.
This land would be used to connect the 825 acres to points to the west, including prime industrial development and a transportation corridor in Lordstown.
Moliterno said Thursday that the roughly 1,000 acres could be transferred over the next two weeks.
The property was used to produce several forms of steel from 1912 to 2012. The last steel producer was RG Steel, which sold the plant to BDM in 2012, when RG Steel went bankrupt. BDM immediately started looking for a new buyer. With nothing in sight, BDM auctioned off parts of the factory in the spring of 2013 and began demolishing the buildings and began marketing the land. The blast furnace, the last of Trumbull and Mahoning counties, was demolished in 2017.
BDM hired a certified environmental professional to assess the property and address environmental issues. The soil has been excavated, moved and consolidated to meet standards. The landowner will also monitor the groundwater to verify that the surface water conditions of the Mahoning River remain within standards, according to the state.
The property can be used for commercial or industrial purposes, but groundwater cannot be extracted from the site, according to the state.
“This is positive news. It is now one of the largest, if not the biggest shovel ready site in Ohio, ” Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, said. “With this release from the EPA, nothing is stopping the efforts to bring development to this place.”
Also earlier this year, a subsidiary of MegaJoule Ventures, an energy storage investment firm that is part of BRITE Energy Innovators in Warren, purchased the former Republic Steel office building at 999 Pine Ave. SE for $ 750,000.
MegaJoule is redeveloping the building for product development and additional space for other BRITE affiliates, Megajoule President Herb Crowther has publicly said.
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