CONNEAUT – Conneaut’s location in the State of Ohio’s sharpest corner often means it gets overlooked by the outside world.
A perfect storm of factors coupled with its location could make the city a perfect location for developers to bring massive projects.
“The types of developments that we’re starting to see are really resonating out of work that we did a couple of years ago with the Risberg Pipeline project,” Greg Myers, executive director of Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County, said. “Whether you’re doing manufacturing development in today’s environment or whether you’re doing technology-related projects or power generation, energy is key. It’s the key to help you compete.”
That project has led developers to consider bringing projects to Ashtabula County and, specifically, Conneaut.
“Because of that investment, it’s really created a competitive landscape for us because we have so much energy in the form of natural gas and in the form of electric power, in not just your community here in Conneaut, but countywide,” Myers said. “That’s really spurred some really interesting discussions and, beyond discussions, investments that are starting to be made within the community, within the county, that, knock on wood, will potentially result in some projects down the road.”
The confluence of a number of factors, including access to Lake Erie, railroads, Interstate 90, the Risberg Pipeline and lines transmitting high volumes of electricity make Conneaut a prime location for developers.
“Energy is sort of driving a lot of these opportunities with the Risberg line in place and First Energy’s transmission lines,” Myers said. “South of Route 90, we’ve got these transmission lines (for electricity). Think of transmission lines as the energy highway. Those transmission lines carry a tremendous amount of power from outside the state. The nexus is where the natural gas pipeline exists. So, ‘X’ marks the spot in Conneaut on power generation where you have the gas pipeline coming through and the existing transmission lines that First Energy owns.”
That nexus could lead to development of any number of properties in Conneaut that could potentially generate billions of dollars.
Though Myers could not divulge the kind of development that could happen, he did say that data centers and power generation were at the forefront, with more development to happen after.
“I will say the driver right now is power generation and data centers, but that’s leading to some of the other things that we’re talking about, which is redevelopment on the docks and some of these other properties that are revealed,” Myers said. “That discussion is definitely happening.”
For a more in-depth story on potential economic development in Conneaut, see next week’s edition of The Gazette.
