COLUMBIANA, Ohio (WKBN) – Work has begun on a new development in Columbiana.
The location near the intersections of state Route 7 and state Route 14 will be transitioned into a shopping and dining area. Developers have expressed preserving one particular decade for the new design and they also wanted to keep local Harvey Firestone in mind.
“As part of the project, we also are going to move Harvey Firstone’s barn, beside us here, which I am really excited about. It was built in 1880 when Harvey was a young man growing up in Columbiana, before he went off to Akron to start the Firestone Rubber Company,” said developer Tom Mackall, owner of Firestone Homestead LLC.
Firestone Homestead purchased the undeveloped property at sheriff’s sale in April 2012.
About 39,000 square feet of the project is planned to be opened by the fall of 2016.
“We have been working for three years to get started and I have said all along it is a 10-year project. So, it will take 10 years to build out all the buildings that we are going to build here,” Mackall said.
He said all the buildings will look like it is 1930.
“We are going to have a Firestone-themed restaurant in our first building. So I think that is the most important part, the most exciting part for me, to teach the wonderful history and legacy Harvey Firestone left Columbiana,” Mackall said.
Firestone’s barn also will be preserved and made into a pub or museum. Columbiana City Manager Lance Willard said this will bring people to the community.
“I hope people get to experience Columbiana. It will be a nice draw for that and at the same time, attract jobs,” Willard said.
One resident is excited about the new development.
“I think this new development is going to be one of the best things to hit Columbiana. And should help Columbiana County too. If they are going to put high end stores in here, I believe it might be the new Boardman,” Patricia Moore said.
