Posted: 5:37 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016

Could Middletown win a new corporate headquarters?

By Chelsey Levingston

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

After beating other sites to win construction of AK Steel’s new $36 million Research and Innovation Center, as well as securing investment of an approximately $645 million natural gas-fired power plant under construction now by NTE Energy, city and business leaders are saying why not?

Why can’t Middletown try to win back the business that got away — AK Steel’s headquarters?

It’s a hard-to-forget turn-of-events in the city’s over 100-year relationship with the Fortune 500 steelmaker and its predecessor company American Rolling Mill Co., founded in Middletown more than a century ago.

“People are still upset about the fact that they left town,” said Steve Bohannon, a newly-elected city councilman, owner of Bohannon Roofing Co. Inc., and chairman of Middletown Real Estate Investors Group.

On the campaign trail last fall, Bohannon vowed to do what he could to bring AK Steel’s headquarters back to Middletown. The new politician can share his ideas with city staff and show the city cares about business by being responsive to requests, he said.

In 2007, AK Steel announced plans to move its headquarters from the historic site on Curtis Street to a newly-built facility several exits south in growing West Chester Twp. About 300 employees made the move, according to the company’s release at the time.

Since then, AK Steel has not quite reached, but is approaching 10 years since it leased the West Chester space.

The company has not made any announcements regarding a headquarters relocation nor made any related discussions publicly.

“We continue progress on construction of our AK Steel Research and Innovation Center in Middletown, however there are no plans to move our headquarters to Middletown,” said AK Steel spokeswoman Lisa Jester in an email.

Middletown is still home to AK Steel’s largest steel plant, and AK Steel is still the city’s largest employer of about 2,100 hourly and salary workers at the steel plant and the existing research center. However, Bohannon wants to see the high-paying office jobs come back.

“I don’t know if AK would even want to be interested in coming back to Middletown,” Bohannon said this week, acknowledging that during his campaign he didn’t know all the reasons the headquarters left in the first place.

The point of bringing it up now, Bohannon says, is Middletown needs to attract more corporate office jobs from either AK Steel or another company or companies.

“We need a corporation of a large magnitude with large salaries to come to this town to put us back on the map in an economic standpoint,” he said.

Here are the reasons AK Steel gave for moving in 2007 in a release: state-of-the-art technology, more convenient face-to-face interaction with customers, suppliers and other constituents; and attraction and retention of top professionals “who desire proximity to the abundant amenities and services available in the West Chester and northern Cincinnati area.”

The city would like to win back AK Steel’s headquarters, but there’s not any contemplation of it that Mayor Larry Mulligan Jr. said he’s aware of. But he agrees with Bohannon that winning any headquarters or major corporate back-office or support-office would be a boost to the city.

“AK was a wake-up call… to make sure we’re paying attention to all companies large and small,” Mulligan said.

Since AK Steel announced intentions to move its headquarters, Middletown has stepped up its game to be more competitive, Mulligan said. For example, the city is now conducting retention visits of existing businesses with The Chamber of Commerce Serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton. Also, the city acquired about 18 acres of land east of the interchange with Ohio 122 to help attract more development, he said.

“We just need to make sure we’re staying close to the business community on all fronts,” Mulligan said. “When AK was ready to consider doing the research facility, we were ready to move on it.”

The AK Steel headquarters office building located on Centre Pointe Drive is owned by the Massachusetts-based real estate investment trust Franklin Street Properties Corp., according to property records, and the trust’s website, ir.franklinstreetproperties.com.

“West Chester is a partner in the region’s economic development ventures,” said township Administrator Judi Boyko in a written statement. “West Chester openly competes for market projects, but does not poach projects or companies. Rather, West Chester focuses on enhancing those amenities and attributes which attracted quality residents and corporate citizens in the first place; and focuses attraction efforts on ‘new to market’ investors and companies actively seeking alternatives to their current locations.”

“AK Steel is a valued stakeholder and the premier Fortune 500 corporate citizen in West Chester,” Boyko said. “AK Steel identified West Chester’s amenities and accessibility as valuable to their operations and West Chester continues to invest in these attributes not just for the benefit of AK Steel, but for all our corporate neighbors and residents.”

THREE WAYS THIS MATTERS TO YOU

1. TOP EMPLOYER. AK Steel is still Middletown’s largest employer with about 2,100 workers in the city, according to the company. That’s followed by Atrium Medical Center, which has approximately 1,500 workers, according to the hospital. AK Steel announced in 2015 plans to build a new $36 million Research and Innovation Center in Middletown and started construction on the project that has been seen as a positive development in the city’s and steelmaker’s relationship.

2. MORE JOBS WANTED. The whole city has seen employment grow to an estimated 19,800 working residents in November, which grew 7.6 percent from a low of 18,400 employed residents at the beginning of 2013, according to Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

However, employment is still 18.5 percent shy of the 24,300 working residents on average in 2005 before the national recession — and the lockout of union workers at Middletown Works — started, according to the state estimates.

3. NEW FACES. The new year brings new faces on Middletown City Council such as Steve Bohannon and Talbott Moon. Meanwhile, Middletown is interviewing candidates for a new economic development director. New council members and a new development director could lead to new strategies for business recruitment.

Also, AK Steel is under new leadership of Chief Executive Officer Roger Newport.