A few months ago the folks from Trumbull County Family Fitness (the former YMCA) asked me to make a few after dinner remarks at their annual dinner, regarding the state of economic development in Warren. In preparation I called or emailed a dozen or so people from the organizations engaged in that work locally and asked them about recent projects of note. From those responses I made a list of projects and quickly realized that in all of Warren, only one of them was located outside what we commonly consider to be “downtown.”
Then I took a hard look at the downtown list and scratched off anything that was more than two years old, and the list still filled a two-column page, which you can read below. Economic development is a hard topic to get your arms around; it means different things to different people. But what this list says to me is that the growth in downtown is undeniable, and downtown is clearly the engine of economic growth for the entire city. This is not uncommon, as the authors of “Our Towns” found when visiting more than 50 smaller cities in researching their excellent book (see the two previous posts).
I’m sure it isn’t complete, but the list of projects follows. If you want a copy you can download it here: downtown projects
- eBay: “Retail Revival” mostly downtown businesses
- Nova Coffee: now 1 year old
- Speakeasy Lounge
- Modern Method Brewery: 50 local investors
- Thom Duma: beginning another remodeling of his jewelry store
- Blush: new retail
- Beautiful Whirld: in the Short Cut.
- Paint and Pints
- Tom Crowley’s Jewelry Shop
- Warren Homecoming: largest single Warren event downtown
- Grohl Alley upgrades and new Wean Grant
- TBEIC: now fully occupied
- Octoberfest
- Best Western Park Hotel: $1 million renovation.
- Jeff Goodman buys building at SE corner Park and High. renovating apartments and near having tenant for restaurant and old TNP office
- YWCA: new stem lab, new housing and health facility coming
- Rotary: improvements to courthouse square
- Packard Music Hall: elevator and other accessibility improvements
- Main Library: is planning their expansion
- Kinsman House: interior restorations, handicap accessible restrooms and elevator
- Amphitheater: additional seating and improved handicap accessibility.
- River Rock returns. Italian Fest stays
- Mahoning Building: complete make over with new commercial and residential space
- Atrium: 100% occupancy. Coleman PS expands to 27 employees downtown
- The Downtown Grooming Lounge: new barber shop in the Atrium
- The North Park Condominiums: June completion. five new warehouse style condos
- The Copper Keg Irish Pub: 124 North Park opening in June
- Winery: Fall 2018
- The Robins Theatre. January 2020
- New Christmas lighting event. 2500 people
- Lime Tree: new owners
- Saratoga: over 100 years and counting
- Sunrise: new owners
- Horse Shoe: new owners
- Curated, one man’s collection of interesting things
- Five Grand. new storefront