Chamber Names Cafaro’s Enterprise Park for Amazon’s Consideration

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber says it has chosen the Cafaro Co.’s Enterprise Park at Eastwood site “as the preferred property to submit for consideration for Amazon’s second corporate headquarters.”

In announcing the choice, the chamber said the site, 5555 Youngstown Warren Road in Niles, was selected “in partnership with the chairmen of the Mahoning and Trumbull boards of county commissioners, and the mayors of Youngstown and Warren.

Enterprise Park at Eastwood comprises 105 greenfield acres in Trumbull County and is adjacent to the more than 100-acre Eastwood Mall Complex, the chamber noted.

“After reviewing Amazon’s criteria for HQ2 and our available property options in the Mahoning/Trumbull market, we chose Enterprise Park as the top site, as the property is closest to meeting the specifications and best suited for the project at hand,” said Sarah Boyarko, senior vice president of economic development.

Among the qualities Amazon is seeking for its future headquarters is a metropolitan area with more than 1 million people, 500,000 square feet of building space with room for up to 8 million square feet for expansions, a 45-minute drive to an international airport, immediate access to highways and mass transit, and “quality of life and cultural community fit.”

No site in the Mahoning Valley meets all those requirements, the chamber has acknowledged.

In explaining the chamber’s selection of the Enterprise Park at Eastwood site, Boyarko cited the property’s size, walkability, sense of place and access to highways. The corporate giant announced last month that it was seeking a location for its second headquarters in North America and would invest $5 billion and create 50,000 new jobs over 10- to 15 years with the new campus.

The chamber will submit the Enterprise Park at Eastwood property to Team NEO and JobsOhio, which has an existing relationship with Amazon and is coordinating the submissions to the company from across Ohio.

Submissions are due to Amazon by Oct. 19, and the company will choose and announce the location in 2018.

Pictured at top: Rendering of Enterprise Park at Eastwood.

Copyright 2020 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.