Louisville City Manager Tom Ault says his town created a 290-acre industrial park two years ago with help from former-Governor  Ted Strickland’s administration.

“Never did we imagine that the entire site would go to one user like this.” 

Chesapeake names its field offices after geologic formations, not states or cities. This one will be the Utica Field office because that’s the shale formation Chesapeake and other drillers plan to tap most often for oil and gas in Ohio.

The company isn’t saying how many employees will work at the Louisville site but it is planning to construct several buildings.  Ault says the city will give the energy company a tax abatements based on the number of employees.

"The only tax incentive provided to the company is a credit against income tax withholding.   They will get 25% of the income taxes that they pay through withholding back over a period of ten years beginning in 2016. “

While most of the Chesapeake jobs are already in the region, Ault expects spinoff jobs to be created in his city of 92-hundred people.

“Support-type businesses: pipe, welding, the type of things they’re going to have to maintain their equipment and vehicles. We know there’s going to be a great number of truck-driving jobs in the this area as a result of this.”