YOUNGSTOWN - Exterran Energy announced Monday that it plans to open a manufacturing site in Youngstown this year. The $13 million facility will produce equipment that compresses, processes and treats natural gas after it has been extracted from the earth by hydraulic fracturing.
Susan Moore, spokeswoman for Exterran, said a series of meetings Monday in Columbus addressed state expenses and cleared the final hurdles to the project.
The facility will be built in the Salt Springs Road industrial park and is expected to bring 103 new jobs to the area, she said. Plans also call for an office building to be constructed on the property once owned by LaFarge.
The preliminary terms reported late last year state that the 65,000-square-foot facility comes with an agreement for the city to provide a 20-acre site for Exterran Energy Solutions as well as a 10-year, 75-percent tax abatement on real property improvements.
Moore said there have been no changes to these terms that she is aware of.
Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor will be in attendance at the site today at 2752 Salt Springs Road, along with Exterran executives and local government and development officials. They will officially announce the project at 11:45 a.m. and hold a groundbreaking ceremony.
Moore said she does not know exactly when construction will begin but that the company expects to have the facility operating before year's end.
"We certainly hope to be operational in the fourth quarter," she said.
Houston-based Exterran has locations in 30 countries and 10,000 employees, according to its website. It has locations in 20 states, including Summerfield in Ohio, and three in Pennsylvania, in Wexford, Ind., and Williamsport.
Councilman Michael Ray, D-4th Ward, where the project is located, said last year that he likes the project because it is a complement to the V&M Star expansion to build a new mill to take advantage of the natural gas drilling boom.
''It complements what else is being done in that industry,'' Ray said in December. He reiterated those sentiments in a brief call on Monday.