UPDATE (6/4/2013 12:00 pm ET): The Ohio Commerce Center has improved vastly in the past three years, thanks in part to shale development.  Owners George and Spiro Bakeris purchased the park three years ago and have since invested millions of dollars to improve infrastructure and attract new tenants.

Workers are continuing construction on new rail infrastructure improvements, which have actually brought in a new tenant from the oil and gas industry. Salt Lake City-based Savage Services, a materials handling and management company, has come to transload bulk materials to and from rail to accommodate oil and gas operations in eastern Ohio.

Infrastructure improvements to the park include pavement of all the park’s major roads and a 12,000-foot-long rail loop that allows for fast, efficient loading.  The loop allows the park to accommodate unit trains, which hold around 100 cars. Another loop track is being planned, and will allow the park to handle between two and three unit trains per day.

With more companies coming into the park, more investment might go to storage silos, flat storage, and eventually crude oil tanks to serve Ohio’s oil and gas industry.

The infrastructure improvements come mostly from a $2 million Job Ready Sites grant from the state and a 30 percent match from the park’s owners.  Now, with improvements, the park is about 60 percent leased.  With such vast improvements, it’s doubtful more companies won’t make the park their home.

- Original post from November 27, 2012 -

Last week, we reported on the incredible investments the Wellsville Intermodal Park has attracted from the oil and natural gas industry as interest in leasing space at the facility continues to grow.  As one might expect, Wellsville isn’t the only industrial park filling up in Ohio thanks to the development of the Utica Shale.

READ THE REST: http://www.eidohio.org/mahoning-valley-industrial-parks-filling-up-...