YOUNGSTOWN City Council today will consider a development agreement with a Houston company that wants to build a shale-related business on Salt Springs Road.
Terms of the agreement call 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.
The project is expected to add 103 jobs and cost just more than $13.2 million.
Susan Moore, a spokesman for Exterran Energy, declined to comment.
The proposed facility would serve Exterran's manufacturing and service operations. The facility would produce equipment that compresses, processes and treats natural gas after it comes out of the ground during the hydraulic fracturing process.
Councilman Michael Ray, D-4th Ward, where the project is located, said he likes the project because it is a compliment to the V&M Star expansion to build a new mill to take advantage of the natural gas drilling boom.
''It compliments what else is being done in that industry,'' Ray said.
Ray said the project is an example of the type of economic development the city needs to help get back on its feet again.
Plans also call for an office building to be constructed on the property once owned by LaFarge.
Exterran has locations in 30 countries and 10,000 employees, according to its website. It has locations in 20 states and one in Ohio in Summerfield and three in Pennsylvania in Wexford, Indiana and Williamsport.
Officials in Mahoning and Trumbull counties are bracing for a windfall from the shale drilling frenzy. They point to increased construction jobs to build the new V&M mill along with rail improvements on the site and elsewhere.
On Tuesday, Trumbull County commissioners talked about properly collecting the county's hotel bed tax because of an expected influx of people traveling and staying in the area for shale related business.
Exterran recently began promoting new equipment to help in processing natural gas after it leaves the ground. The company says its new equipment allows for faster delivery of the gas to market.