Aug. 31, 2010
                YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Syncro Medical Innovations Inc., a company with offices at 20 Federal Place downtown, is getting help from the state to expand its production and distribution capabilities.

The Ohio Department of Development announced Monday that the Development Financing Advisory Council has recommended that Syncro receive $490,000 from the state’s Innovation Loan Fund to help with the project.

                The loan is to be used to protect intellectual property and to acquire tooling, molds, machinery and equipment, software and computer equipment.

Syncro designs and manufactures the BlueTube, a magnetically guided feeding tube used in hospitals, including the Brooke Army Medical Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Recently, the company secured an additional $800,000 line of credit through its venture capital partners so it could ramp up marketing and research work.

                The Syncro expansion is expected to cost $654,000, create 30 jobs and retain four. Calls to Syncro were not returned.

                Since it was formed in 2005, Syncro has received $2.1 million in federal defense earmark appropriations and another $350,000 in grants from the Ohio Third Frontier program.

                The Syncro project is among nine companies funded across the state awarded a total of $41.5 million in grants Monday that are expected to leverage another $59.6 million in private investment and create 687 jobs.

                Also yesterday, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved tax credits for a company locating to Campbell, which has pledged to create another 19 jobs in the Mahoning Valley.

                The authority awarded a 45% job-creation credit to Magnetic Lifting Technologies LLC, which is estimated to reduce its state tax bill by $72,186 over six years. The company, privately owned, manufactures, repairs, inspects, provides service for, and re-manufactures industrial electro-lifting equipment.

                The company is to lease a 33,000 square-foot building for manufacturing and repairing heavy magnets, the Department of Development reported.

Copyright 2010 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.