Paulding County Economic Development Press Release September 9, 2025
PAULDING – The Paulding County Economic Development (PCED) Board of Directors held their bi-monthly meeting this week. The Board held in-depth discussions on the potential for speculative commercial development at the 52.958-acre Gasser Road industrial park in Paulding. The team recently received a letter from the Army Corps of Engineers confirming the site is free of wetlands and ready for construction.
To date, there has not been any serious interest shown in the property, which has led to further discussion if an existing building would be more enticing to interested parties. Economic Development Director Tim Copsey shared that there have been several recent calls looking for existing buildings that serve 5-10,000 square feet and have a truck dock. Due to the lack of available buildings with truck docks, these opportunities are often lost.
The Paulding Community Improvement Corporation owns a nine-acre parcel on the west end of the Gasser Road property and 19.978 acres on the east end, and has an option to purchase 23.98 acres privately owned in between. The Village of Paulding, Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative, Ohio Gas, and MetaLink Technologies all have utilities to the site. The PCED board will continue the discussion and try to understand speculative development building funding options.
Discussion then turned to residential development. With the new Vantage Career Center built home starting in Latty, the Welcome Home Ohio (WHO) Grant funding appropriated to the county Land Bank for adding ten livable homes to the county, and upcoming Ohio Department of Development grants for residential infrastructure, there is a sense of excitement around residential development.
Many individual projects were discussed in regard to building homes on open lots and types of new housing or rehabilitated homes that could be offered. This could include clustered developments or as fill-in housing on open lots in villages. The hope is that interest rates will slightly drop soon to entice buyers for the affordable grant-funded projects.
Other items discussed in the meeting included:
- Marketing Committee shared information on a new marketing grant opportunity and what that could look like for the office. They also noted they are acquiring quotes to identify the new company vehicle with a PCED wrap, or at least window cling identification when staff are out in the county.
- Shared updates on the completed hotel feasibility study. The interest seems to be in identifying partner businesses that would be built beside a potential hotel at the US24/Highway 49 intersection in Antwerp.
- Updated about the ongoing progress with the Grover Hill Wind Turbine project, with 16.5 of the new 23 windmills completed.
- Shared thoughts about what the potential absence of property taxes would look like in the county and the PCED office.
- Was notified that the OhioMeansJobs/PCED commercial advertising will carry on through the 2025-26 sports season on Mysports.Live
- Went into executive session to talk about personnel and land acquisition, with no decisions on either subject after coming out.
The next PCED board meeting will be held as the annual Member Business and Industry Appreciation banquet on November 18, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. at Grant’s Catering in Antwerp, Ohio. For details about the banquet or to explore development opportunities in Paulding County, contact the PCED office.
