Etna Corporate Park expanding

• The Etna Corporate Park on U.S. 40 is expanding again.
• Plans have been announced for a new 658%2C000-square-foot building.
• Work on the new multi-tenant building is slated to start this spring.

ETNA – The Etna Corporate Park continues to be the primary hub for economic development in the township, according to local officials.

Construction on a sixth spec building at the corporate center is expected "to start this spring," Etna Township Administrator Rob Platte said.

The corporate park, located on U.S. 40, just west of Ohio 310 in the township's western corridor, has been a boon to the local economy, becoming a major warehouse and distribution center anchored by Prologis, a global developer and operator of industrial real estate.

Prologis Park 70 Etna already features multiple leased buildings, the smallest measuring 410,000 square feet and the largest measuring 766,000 square feet. Tenants include Speed FC, Menlo Logistics and Jeld-Wen Inc.

Two of those buildings can be expanded in the future, but Platte said Prologis intends to break ground on a 658,000-square-foot building on the south side of U.S. 40 this spring. Work crews already have cleared the ground and built stormwater retention basins.

Construction could have started sooner, but the winter weather postponed it.

"They got most of the groundwork done, but the winter got bad and they pulled out," Platte said.

Aside from constructing the new building, Platte said Prologis also will be expanding the intersection at U.S. 40 and Etna Parkway. Another turn lane will be installed to allow traffic to turn into the new site.

Platte said the new building will be a spec building.

That meshes with what Prologis has done in the already-developed corporate park on the north side of U.S. 40.

One of the park's existing buildings could be adding a new tenant.

"They are working on a tenant, but they've not told us who it is," said Platte, adding the tenant could fill 150,000 to 200,000 square feet of space in the most-recently-completed building.

The corporate park was developed over a decade ago and has also been something of a tax-maker for the township when voters approved creation of a small income-tax island in the center. The Joint Economic Development Zone is one of two associated with the corporate center. They are the last, however, that can be created after the Ohio General Assembly passed a law last summer that puts tighter restraints on townships to create such tax generators.

Meanwhile, Etna officials are promoting a 1.5-mill road-and-bridge levy that will be on the May 5 ballot as something of an economic incentive. Members of the Etna Township Economic Development Committee agreed with Platte that the measure would improve township highways to not only serve residents but also commercial traffic and businesses. Platte said the township plans to educate residents about the tax issue through various Homeowner Associations located in township subdivisions.

Platte said some residents commented the last time the measure was on the ballot that their opposition stemmed from their belief that levy funds would go toward replacement of the Ohio 310 bridge over Interstate 70.

Platte said using township funds for the state project "is not only illegal" but that the levy money also will not go toward any bridges. He said the "county does bridges and the township only does culverts."

State law still mandates the measure be called a "road-and-bridge levy." The economic development panel suggested township officials organize a public "question-and-answer" meeting to help residents better understand the measure and implications of its passage.

Township voters have defeated similar measures recently by landslides margins. This latest attempt will have its own burden since it, unlike its failed predecessors, is a permanent measure, meaning it remains in effect forever unless officials vote to repeal it. The other levies had a time-frame of five years before they would go before the voters for renewal.