Civil Municipal View Feb2023

51 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2 Harrison Mayor William Neyer shares that the community is looking forward to the completion of a 535,000-square-foot building, located within a quarter mile of I-74, which will be a draw for distribution or light manufacturing. Working with regional economic development organization REDI Cincinnati, in partnership with Jobs-Ohio, Harrison is connected with companies who are seeking requests for information (RFI’s). Economic Development Director, Shannon Hamons reports, “We’ve recently responded to five RFIs,, and all five companies would take the entire building and employ anywhere from 250 to 400-plus employees. It just so happens that most of these companies that are looking at this building are all high-tech manufacturers. That would be a great boost for our local economy, and our local city budget as well.” This relationship with REDI Cincinnati and Jobs Ohio has also helped to secure $700,000 in grants for roadway improvements which will facilitate an expansion at Harrison’s largest employer, HARR I SON, OH JTM Foods. “They employ 600 people, and they completed an $80 million expansion four years ago. Now they are getting ready to launch a $50 million expansion, and they’ll probably go from 600 to 700 employees,” reports Hamons. Other employers in the community include Crown Plastics, manufacturers of high-tech materials, who are also planning an expansion in 2023. Cincinnati Test Systems, providing critical leak testing, data management, and analytics to manufacturers, is preparing to add 30,000 square feet to their facility, while Stop Stick, makers of tire deflation devices used by law enforcement, and Heartland Steel, are both considering growing their operations in Harrison within the next year. “Those are some things that are looking very positive for the community in job creation. We have some other sites as well, that could also contain industrial or warehousing distribution facilities in the neighborhood of 200,000 to 400,000 square feet,” Hamons adds.