courtesy Alison Matas, The Canton Repository
The Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce, with the support of Strengthening Stark, intends to hire the Ohio River Corridor company.
It might look like the oil and gas boom is over, but economic development leaders say for Stark County, things are just getting started.
The Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce, with the support of Strengthening Stark, intends to hire the Ohio River Corridor company, which will market the Akron-Canton region to businesses that use plastic in their manufacturing.
The move comes in anticipation of a new Shell cracker plant opening in Pennsylvania in the early 2020s. Earlier this month, the idea got the OK from Strengthening Stark’s oversight body and was recommended for funding.
Strengthening Stark is a countywide economic development effort that has three main goals: develop a strong workforce, market available sites and attract and retain businesses. It began in 2017, with a report that determined the county was getting older, less-populated, and less wealthy.
Since then, foundations have pooled funds to hire two consultants, and the consultants assembled a team of community leaders to start coming up with solutions.
One of the business sectors Strengthening Stark is focused on is oil and gas, and the most recent recommendation made is that $50,000 should be invested to make Stark County competitive in anticipation of the Pennsylvania cracker plant opening and a proposed cracker plant along the Ohio River.
Dennis Saunier, president and CEO of the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce, said he assembled a group that included the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce, Team NEO and the Stark Economic Development Board.
Everyone agreed the region needed “boots on the ground on a day-to day basis,” and hiring the Ohio River Corridor seemed like a sensible next step.
The opportunity
About 70 miles away from Canton, there’s a Shell cracker plant under construction in Monaca, Pa.
When it opens sometime in the next few years, it will turn ethane (a component of natural gas) into a petrochemical used to manufacture everything from trash bags to diapers. What that means is that plastics companies can slash costs by setting up near the cracker, instead of shipping product from the Gulf Coast.
Ray Hexamer, president of the Stark Economic Development Board, recently traveled to Houston on an invitation from Encino Energy, which has Stark County operations. He met with one of Encino’s larger customers, whose current process is to take product from Encino, pipe it to a cracker in Houston, and then have the plastic pellets shipped back to the Midwest. The company owner told Hexamer if Stark County markets to companies that use a similar process, those companies could save big on transportation costs.
“I think we’re situated in a great location,” he said.
Within a 100-mile radius of the plant, the most-populated areas are Pittsburgh (with a county population of 1.2 million) and the Stark-and-Summit-counties region (with a combined population of about 913,500).
Bryce Custer — a Stark County native and a real estate broker — thinks Stark County should try to attract a share of those businesses.
Custer is a principal at Ohio River Corridor, a petrochemical site selection and commercial real estate services company that focuses along the Ohio River.
He sees Stark County as a great spot for a business looking to relocate because of its proximity to the cracker, its affordable cost of living, its nightlife, its universities and its infrastructure. He’s offering to market the region at expos and trade shows, get companies to visit Stark County and help them find places to set up business.
Hiring Ohio River Corridor and paying for marketing materials for one year will cost $50,000. The Akron and Canton chambers of commerce secured some of that funding, but there was a $26,000 gap. That’s where Strengthening Stark comes in.
The governance committee
Strengthening Stark won’t be committing any money to the oil and gas consultant, but its team of community leaders was tasked with making a recommendation to the funders who might.
Earlier this month, the governance committee of Strengthening Stark voted to endorse Custer’s hiring. They don’t have any funds to assign to specific projects, and they’re not giving approval to allow anyone to do anything. Part of the idea behind the governance committee — which is composed of elected officials and nonprofit and business leaders — is to be a clearinghouse for proposals.
Before the vote, members of the governance committee had a lot of questions: Who holds Custer accountable? What are the metrics that will define success? How much of what he’s doing will focus on Akron versus Stark County?
The proposal, with the OK from Strengthening Stark, heads to a new economic development fund in the hopes that it will award the remaining $26,000 needed to hire Custer.
What’s next?
Custer is clear that he doesn’t intend to market specific sites to potential companies. He wants to tell the story of Stark County and get people interested in the region. Once he can convince a company to come visit, he’ll send them to the Stark Economic Development Board for help finding a place to locate.
A sheet provided to the Strengthening Stark governance committee said his goal would be to contact 50 properties and get one site visit in the first year.
Saunier, with the Canton chamber, said he hopes to gather research and more information during the year about the kind of work that could be continued long-term and about ways to support petrochemicals companies.
“This is one of those things, I think, from my standpoint and hopefully others, is we need to always be thinking differently and not just rely upon the status quo but thinking big, and if we do that, I think there’s opportunity out there for continued growth in the community in ways we haven’t yet uncovered,” he said.
Reach Alison at 330-580-8312 or [email protected].
On Twitter: @amatasREP