Statewide demand for $50 million in brownfield remediation money was so great that the online application portal closed about an hour or so after it opened when requests hit the $125 million cap.

While the Mahoning County Land Bank successfully applied for all five of its projects, Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership was able to submit applications for only two of four projects it sought through the program.

The portal opened at 10 a.m. Feb. 18 and was expected to stay open until 4 p.m. Friday, according to a statement from the Ohio Department of Development, which oversees the Brownfield Remediation Program.

But the DOD’s statement added that “due to the limited funding availability, the application portal will close once grant requests reach $125 million. Applications will be reviewed in the order in which they are received. Not all applications will receive funding. The maximum grant award per application is $2.5 million.”

Matt Martin, TNP’s executive director, said that first-come, first-serve “is not a great setup. If your WiFi goes out for that hour, then you can’t submit. There’s a better way to do it. This has happened before. I’d be shocked if they don’t adjust it.”

Martin said TNP submitted requests for two projects and were in the process of turning in information for two other projects when “it got shut off.”

Asked if the process was fair, Debora Flora, executive director of the Mahoning County Land Bank, said, “I don’t know if I’m in a place to judge it. The way the state Legislature set it up is it’s a first-come, first-serve basis. There is so much need in Ohio — brownfield and residential — that need is going to outpace the funding amount. An element of that might change in the future.”

Flora said the land bank was fully prepared for the brief opening of the portal.

Brian Bohnert, a DOD spokesman, said the $125 million cap was hit just a couple of hours after the online application portal opened.

“This isn’t unusual for the program,” he said. “It’s always been in high demand and we’ve seen requests max out within hours in previous rounds as well.”

Those receiving grants from the program have to provide a 25% local match.

It isn’t known when the state will announce which projects are receiving funding from this latest $50 million allotment. But an email sent by Krissy Wahlers, environmental programs manager of DOD’s Office of Community Infrastructure, informing those requesting grant funds that the portal was closed, states: “You can expect to hear from our team soon.”

Since the Brownfield Remediation Program launched in 2021, it has awarded $657.5 million to support 630 projects in Ohio.

That includes about $12.7 million for eight projects in Mahoning County, most notably $6.9 million for 20 Federal Place in downtown Youngstown. Trumbull has received about $9 million for nine projects from the program, including $3.4 million for the former St. Joseph Riverside Hospital in Warren.

The program helps communities clean up industrial, commercial and institutional brownfield sites that are abandoned, idled or underutilized due to a known or potential release of hazardous substances or petroleum, according to the DOD.

“Many communities have brownfield sites that are too costly to clean up on their own,” said Lydia Mihalik, DOD director. “We are helping bridge that gap, empowering our local partners to transform these sites into fresh spaces for new businesses, housing and economic growth.”

MAHONING REQUESTS

The land bank submitted five requests on behalf of its partners.

Flora said that included: $1,065,851 for the Youngstown Business Incubator’s innovation hub for aerospace and defense project to renovate the former Vindicator building in downtown Youngstown as well as $1,052,700 to remediate the fifth through the 13th floors at the former Mahoning National Bank building, also in downtown Youngstown.

The bank building is undergoing a $16.5 million improvement project to remake the 13-story structure into 71 residential units with commercial space on the first four floors.

YBI is awaiting word on a $26 million state funding request to create the innovation hub that has an $11 million local match.

The initiative’s impact would be $191.7 million over the next four years with the creation of 271 jobs, including about 150 at the former Vindicator building.

The other funding requests, Flora said, are: $434,059 for remediation of the basement and upper level at the Central YMCA in downtown Youngstown; $299,856 for remediation of the Casey Drive Industrial Park in Campbell, that used to house Youngstown Sheet & Tube’s Campbell Works; and $146,400 for Ursuline High School in Youngstown for remediation to develop part of the school’s campus for student and neighborhood use.

TRUMBULL REQUESTS

The Trumbull requests, Martin said, are $2 million for the former McDonald Steel plant, which was previously owned by U.S. Steel, on Ohio Avenue in McDonald for a cleanup to turn it into commercial space, and $641,000 for asbestos and lead abatement for 210 High St. NW in Warren, which used to be Trumbull Family Fitness and before that a YMCA, for a mixed-use project.

The proposal at the former Trumbull Family Fitness-YMCA is to turn it into a commercial and residential structure.

The initial plan was for 110 housing units with a $40 million investment, announced in September 2023. In October, it was downsized to 42 units — 36 planned in the part of the structure that was built in 1928 and six new town homes on land on the north end of the parking lot — along with a restaurant, retail and commercial office space at a cost of about $20 million.

Built in 1918, U.S. Steel closed its McDonald location in 1979 after the company determined it was too old and inefficient to operate profitably. A group of local investors and entrepreneurs bought the mill, reconfigured staffing and operations, and began producing hot rolled steel shapes in 1981.

McDonald Steel closed in November 2023.

AP McDonald LLC of New Jersey purchased the 650,000-square-foot facility in July for $3.2 million with plans to redevelop it.

TNP also wanted to submit requests for another assessment of the McDonald Steel property and an asbestos abatement request for the former Delphi administration building in Warren, Martin said.

“We had it in the order of our priority and it got shut off after we submitted the first two,” he said.