New factory eyeing Marion

Car-part plant interested in Dual Rail Park

By Jake Goshert, The Marion Star Staff Writer

Kellogg Parkway could soon have another factory-warming party.

A Dayton-based company is seeking local and state tax breaks for a proposed factory that would be built in Marion’s dual Rail Industrial Park.

Marion Industries, Inc., a subsidiary of Ernie Green Industries, is scheduled to go before the state’s Tax Credit Authority Board Monday seeking a 60 percent, eight-year tax credit on state income taxes, said Gail Crawley with the Ohio Department of Development.

According to the department, Marion Industries’ 144,000 square-foot plant, which would go between park tenants LTV Steel and US Yachiyo, would build automotive components for Honda’s Accord, Civic and Acura models.

The suspension components have been built in Honda’s Anna engine plant in western Ohio. The proposed factory would take over some of those assembly activities while all Anna employees would remain there to work on car engines.

The proposed new Marion factory could create 115 new full-time jobs within three years of the initial startup. The average wage would be $11 an hour.  

Along with state tax breaks, the company is also looking for about 50 percent tax abatements locally on personal property and real estate taxes.

Marion City Council will take up the issue Monday, the county commissioners a few days later.

City councilwoman Aimee Davis, R-Ward 4, chairwoman of the council’s Jobs and Economic Development Committee, said she hopes all of the tax breaks go through and the factory is able to be built.

“I think it’s great,” she said. “I think they worked very hard to try and get that Dual Rail park, all those properties sold. They’re doing a terrific job. They’re falling in line.”

“I’m really excited,” she said. “It’s impressive to see Marion get factories in the automotive industry.”

But the fact that car parts is the business of all three of the rail park’s residents, US Yachiyo, LTV Steel and now possibly Marion Industries, also worries Davis.

She would like to see more variety among future factories in the industrial park.

“I hope there’s a combination so we’re a little more diversified,” she said.

The owner of Marion Industries, Inc., Ernie Green Industries, was started in 1981 and now has plants in Florida, Kentucky and Ohio that make parts for all the major automobiles manufacturers.

Marion’s site has been in competition with ones in Kentucky and Michigan.