LORAIN, Ohio — Lorain is ramping up pressure on a company it said has become an eyesore and nuisance in recent years. The idle Republic Steel site spans 435 acres on the city’s south side.
“All you see is it abandoned and dirty. You don’t see anybody working on it, you don’t see anybody back there,” said Michelle McGuinness, who can see the massive campus looming just beyond her backyard. “It’s sad because a lot of jobs at one time were occupying there and it helped a lot of families in Lorain.”
Republic Steel scaled down its operations at the plant in 2016, staffing about 100 employees until all work was paused in 2022. Since then, city leaders say the facility has fallen into disrepair.
“We’ve been trying to get in touch with Republic Steel for about two years and it was radio silence. So we have to get their attention, and we want to talk to them,” said Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley.
The mayor said growing frustration over the decaying property led the city to purchase a drone so it could take a closer look at the site without trespassing.
Recent footage from the new tool revealed crumbling buildings, collapsing roofs and piles of debris.
“From the sky, it paints a worse picture of those buildings and the facility overall,” said Matt Kusznir, the director of Lorain’s Department of Building, Housing and Planning.
The video evidence was enough for the city to obtain a search warrant, so Kusznir’s team, along with the fire department, engineering department and county public health department, could inspect the site more closely this week.
“The conditions were deplorable,” Kusznir said. “It just looks like it’s been unkempt for years."
He explained the group discovered flooded basements, crumbling foundations and vegetation inside buildings. The multiple inspectors found multiple violations, all of which the city plans to prosecute and pass along to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Bradley said he would prefer to work with Republic Steel rather than through the courts, but it’s become a desperate effort to see the site remediated.
“Now that we’ve found out that they have violated many, many of the ordinances—not only in Lorain but in Ohio and the United States—we want them to take care of those problems they’ve created,” Bradley said.
The site itself represents a huge economic opportunity for the city. The massive property not only has access to State Route 57, but also a railroad line along its perimeter and access to the Black River and the only deep water port between Toledo and Cleveland.
“It’s one of very, very few sites in the city that we can do some really, really impactful economic development on,” said Kusznir. “It is poised for some large-scale economic development. But before we can get to that, we need to get it cleaned up.”
Bradley said several companies have expressed interest in the site, but conversations with Republic never panned out any agreements.
“We don’t want to go away as enemies. Hopefully we can get this settled,” he said. “We’re going to use all the tools that we have in our toolbox to make Republic Steel pay for what they’ve done to our city.”
Neighbors told News 5 they’d like to see progress at the site sooner rather than later.
“If they can clean this part up, my backyard will look nicer for sure. And it will help with bringing jobs to Lorain, as well,” McGuinness said.
News 5 reached out to Republic Steel for comment on this story, but we have not heard back.
