Cuyahoga County’s economy surges

Multiple construction cranes preside over the Cleveland Clinic’s Main
Campus near University Circle. In the foreground is the site of one of
the largest building projects in Ohio — the 1-million-square-foot
Neurological Institute on Carnegie Avenue. It is eclipsed only by
the Sherwin-William headquarters downtown. In the distance are
two cranes for the Cleveland Clinic’s new Global Center for
Pathogen Research & Human Health measuring nearly 300,000
square feet (Courtesy, clevelandskyscrapers.com).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In the spirit of Oscar Wilde, one could say that a year’s worth of economic output data might be considered a curiosity. But multiple years may be considered a trend. Last year, the growth of Cuyahoga County’s gross domestic product (GDP) ranked 10th among Ohio’s 88 counties and was the best performer among Ohio’s most populous, urbanized counties. according to new data released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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Cuyahoga County OK’s first microgrid utility in USA

Compass Energy Platform was chosen to serve as the utility opera-
tor for Cuyahoga Green Energy to serve Greater Clevelanders
(Shutterstock). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

This week, Cuyahoga County has launched the first microgrid electrical utility in the United States. Cuyahoga Green Energy (CGE) has contracted with Compass Energy Platform to serve as the operator for the county-run utility.

Cuyahoga County Council unanimously approved the 10-year contract at its Dec. 5 council meeting. Together with $1.8 million of Department of Energy funding secured by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, Compass Energy Platform will bring its own capital and engineering partners to develop and finance the utility’s first three projects planned in Euclid, Brooklyn and the Aerozone region adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

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BrandMuscle opens new Cleveland hub

BrandMuscle opened its new office hub yesterday in Downtown
Cleveland — one of two for the marketing technology company.
Their new spot is the Post Office Plaza in the Tower City Center
complex. The other is located in Chicago (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

The bad news is that a Downtown Cleveland employer has reduced its office footprint. The good news is the company, BrandMuscle, a mid-sized marketing technology firm, opened a new office yesterday downtown. The better news is that BrandMuscle kept Cleveland as one of its two remaining office hubs along with Chicago, while closing other offices in Austin, TX and Kansas City, MO after switching to a largely remote-work culture.

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Birthing Beautiful Communities to rise on Chester

Northeast Ohio’s first stand-alone birthing center, in what would be a visible
and accessible location, is designed to help reduce Cuyahoga County’s
nationally high infant mortality rates (City Architecture).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

For the non-profit organization Birthing Beautiful Communities (BBC), their mission is often noted in news stories detailing Cuyahoga County’s infant mortality crisis. Sadly, the county has had one of worst infant mortality rates in the country and is a symptom of much larger problems including poverty, poor nutrition, inadequate housing and unaffordable health care. Much of the need is in Cleveland’s inner city and especially on the East Side. So, to meet the need, BBC is seeking to construct Northeast Ohio’s first free-standing birthing center in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood, on the north side of Chester Avenue, between East 63rd and 65th streets.

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Cabinet-maker MasterBrand to move HQ to Beachwood

North America’s largest cabinet maker MasterBrand Inc. will move its
corporate headquarters and dozens of jobs from Jasper, Indiana to
3300 Enterprise Parkway in suburban Beachwood (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A newly independent corporation with 13,600 employees company-wide in more than 20 manufacturing facilities and offices is relocating its headquarters to Greater Cleveland — specifically, Beachwood. While a 26-year-old, three-story office building at 3300 Enterprise Parkway will be its new corporate headquarters, MasterBrand’s operations center will remain in Jasper, Indiana along with a production facility and training center.

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Amtrak expansions to Cleveland win funding

Amtrak service in North Carolina has broken new ridership records with state-
supported services including 10 daily trains linking Charlotte and Raleigh at 79
mph. This is an example of the kind of Amtrak expansion of Ohio is reportedly
reportedly seeking (NCDOT). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown announced today that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has selected four key routes in Ohio as priorities for Amtrak expansion and directed $500,000 to draw up construction-ready plans for each. Once those plans are finalized, then those routes would be eligible to apply for federal construction funding.

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Sherwin-Williams to move Valspar to Greater Cleveland

The name “Valspar” was removed from its headquarters and research center
near downtown Minneapolis, replaced by Sherwin-Williams’ name several
years after the Cleveland-based company bought its rival in 2017. But now,
sources say that most if not all 700 of the former Valspar employees
 will be moved to Greater Greater Cleveland (Google).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Within the next few years, Sherwin-Williams reportedly intends to relocate most, if not all of Valspar’s headquarters and research jobs, or up to 700 employees, from Minneapolis to Greater Cleveland, according to a highly placed source. Global coatings giant Sherwin-Williams acquired its former rival in 2017 for $11 billion, setting off a remarkable growth trajectory for both companies. That is resulting in the construction of a Downtown Cleveland office skyscraper, the gobbling up of more existing office space downtown, a new suburban research center and the start of planning for significant additional downtown office space.

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