The company that now owns the former Chillicothe paper mill announced the site will add several new tenants, creating hundreds of jobs in the southern Ohio community.
The Pixelle Speciality Solutions plant closed last year, costing the community about 800 jobs. A data center, amphibious airplane manufacturer and a previously announced medical glove company aim to partially fill the void left by the longtime economic anchor of the Ross County seat and former Ohio capital.
The U.S. Paper Mill Company LLC announced its plans in a press release last week through the Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce. The owner of the plant is working with Amphibian Aerospace Industries, Inc., U.S. Medical Glove Company, Aligned, and U.S. Box Company to build out the campus with an estimated $1.5 billion in investments.
In all, the chamber of commerce expects the glove company to bring in 150 permanent jobs while the airplane manufacturer could create between 150 and 200 direct advanced manufacturing jobs and more than 500 indirect jobs in the supply chain.
Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mike Throne said these new tenants could help fill the void left by the paper company while providing a stable business that can last into the future.
"What we wanted for the site was always to have forward-looking industry there. We knew paper making had come to an end. We wanted to see things that would give us more of an approach that would last," Throne said.
The company said its partner Aligned plans major investments in advanced technology infrastructure by deploying semiconductor hardware and technology from AMD, an American semiconductor company. This will result in what it calls a high-performance computing campus on the property.
"The project represents an anticipated $1.5 billion investment and would establish the campus as a strategic hub for artificial intelligence infrastructure, advanced computing and next-generation technology jobs," the press release said.
Amphibian Aerospace Industries will establish the country's first aircraft fuselage and component manufacturing facility to build its Albatross aircraft, which can land on water.
The U.S. Paper Mill company also announced plans to fabricate and manufacture modular artificial intelligence pods that support enterprise, AI computing and data processing.
Federal officials recently announced one of the world's largest data centers in nearby Pike County.
Throne said he's excited Chillicothe is getting in on a boom of new data centers in Ohio as well. He said the community may be skeptical of a data center, but he hopes they'll come around and support the project.
"We're not taking farmland for that. We're taking residential land for that, and so that might make it a little more palatable," Throne said.
Throne said he hopes the site's new tenants can help to contain and mitigate the spread of the underground chemical plume that the paper plant helped manage. The fate of these chemicals was left up in the air and the Ohio EPA had to step in to figure out a plan if the plant closed.
"There was always going to be a conversation around what amount of water keeps the plume at bay and keeps things out of the water table. So I think, ultimately, what we're going to find is that if there's a good usage of water, that we'll be in pretty good shape," Throne said.
Throne said there are still conversations with different environmental companies to assist with remediation of the chemicals.
Long term, Throne said he sees the potential for a large scale manufacturing boom in Chillicothe and the region. He said he'd like to see manufacturers bring back paper production to the community by producing the paper boxes that house the medical gloves being made there.
