Richland Area Chamber lays out 2025 economic development, workforce and housing priorities

The Richland Area Chamber and its partner organizations told the Richland County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 21 that they will focus in 2025 on business attraction and retention, workforce training and local redevelopment projects.

The chamber's presentation detailed last year's work — nearly 110 events connecting businesses, loans and workforce programs — and highlighted specific expansions, training grants and planning projects the chamber said it will carry forward in 2025.

Barrett Thomas, the chamber's senior economic development director, said local companies are expanding. "They've got 55,000 square feet that they're using there," Thomas said, describing an expansion at the 905 Hickory property by a tooling manufacturer. Thomas also reported that Northcentral Fabrication has roughly doubled plant capacity and that a separate manufacturing expansion in Shelby represents about $45 million in capital investment and 30 new jobs.

The chamber described several workforce efforts aimed at filling skills gaps. Jessica Gribben, speaking about career events, said, "We had about 50 students this year," referring to an Aviation Career Day for upperclassmen; she said the chamber expects to double that attendance in a future year. The chamber reported it spent just over $200,000 on incumbent worker training in 2024 and said an additional roughly $250,000 of training funds is available to use through June 30. The chamber also said it secured an $80,000 grant to develop in-home behavioral health care professionals and obtained a Microsoft TechSpark grant to support technology upskilling and classroom-teacher boot camps.

On redevelopment and housing, presenters said the land bank and partners have identified a greater redevelopment capacity at an old YMCA site on Park Avenue and that the Shaw Building on Main Street in Shelby has received a $20,000 JobsOhio planning grant (matched locally) to advance design work that could lead to a larger revitalization grant later. The chamber said several housing projects are in early stages and that a community housing-study group continues to meet monthly to coordinate strategies.

The chamber also described a planned request for state funding for broadband along U.S. 30. Presenters said they will submit a formal request to the Ohio House of Representatives by the end of the week and indicated the ask to the state would be $20 million to fund the full corridor project.

Commissioners pressed the presenters on metrics and measurement. A commissioner asked how the chamber determines net job gains for the county; presenters said available measures include payroll and sales-tax trends, unemployment rates and third‑party data sources but acknowledged that estimating net county-level job changes is difficult and often requires multiple data sources.

The presentation reiterated ongoing regional partnerships — including with JobsOhio, Team NEO and local municipalities — and said the chamber will continue programs such as site-readiness planning, business loan facilitation and career-exploration events.

The presentation closed with a calendar of upcoming events and invitations to commissioners for a Discover Richland tour and an economic development forecast breakfast on Feb. 4.

Background: the chamber said the Richland Area Chamber in Economic Development is a partnership among three organizations: the Chamber, the Richland Community Development Group and the Mansfield Richland Area Educational Foundation. The presenters said the branding work begun in 2019 has produced marketing assets that are being adopted across the county and will be deployed in 2025 to support talent attraction and community promotion.