Plans for hundreds of housing units for young professionals in the valley

More housing for workers is coming to the Mahoning Valley. Eastgate Regional Council of Governments and the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber are working with cities and townships to break ground on condos, townhouses and single family homes. 

“All across the board we just need housing,” Brenda Linert, the Director of Community Impact at the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber said. 

The homes are expected to be filled with young professionals who work at some of the valley's largest employers like Mercy Health and the soon to be Kimberly Clark Corporation plant.

“They want to live, not in a development, more of a townhouse or a condo and they want to be able to bike to work or walk to work and have all the essentials right there,” Jim Kinnick, the Executive Director of Eastgate Regional Council of Governments said about young professionals. 

Some areas where the new developments could go is by Girard Lake where the city is working to develop more than 100 acres, in Howland Township along North River Road and the Bolindale area, and in Warren where hundreds of units will be built as part of their multi-million dollar Peninsula Project. 

“It actually creates a foot space where everybody can live, work and play and also enjoy a really high, quality of life experience,” Mayor Doug Franklin said about the 400 units that will be developed in the city. 

At least one of the areas is expected to be culturally specific. Ultium cells employs almost 400 Korean workers who have to commute into Lordstown. Eastgate is still narrowing down a place in the valley to build condos just for those employees. 

“We want them to feel comfortable, we want to welcome them into our community and we want to try and give them housing that they need,” Linert said. 

Most of the developments are expected to take years to complete. Warren hopes to see a groundbreaking on it's project in 2026.