When Heidelberg Distributing wanted to combine two of its local divisions into one, the company had several key demands for any new building.
The family-owned distributor of wine and beer needed its own driveway and parking lot and at least 160,000 square feet of space with 30-foot-high ceilings to stack pallets four high. And most importantly, Heidelberg wanted to own the building.
It was a tall order.
Originally, Heidelberg, which has operations throughout Ohio, including Independence, Dayton, Columbus and Toledo, considered building something new on greenfield space. So company officials contacted Team Lorain for assistance.
“This story is not a traditional attraction where we have a company coming from Europe,” says Steve Morey, president and CEO of Team Lorain County, a business attraction, expansion and retention organization for the county. “[Heidelberg] could have gone anywhere in Ohio or even in adjoining states and still been able to serve their market.”
Kevin Knight, vice president and general manager of Heidelberg Distributing, says the company considered options outside of Lorain County, including simply folding
Goodman Beverage of Lorain and Mid-Ohio Wines of Norwalk into Heidelberg’s existing operations.
“But with the economy and the cost of new construction that would meet their needs, [the company] shifted to try to find an existing structure that they could modify,” says Mary Cierbiej, manager of attraction and expansion for Team Lorain County.
As the single point of contact for a company looking at Lorain County for expansion, Team Lorain County keeps a database of all the available properties in the county and helps match them with spaces.
Knight calls Lorain County the “epicenter” of Heidelberg’s local operations, which represent about 45 percent of the company’s business. A consolidation to a larger space would give Heidelberg added inventory and delivery efficiencies.
Based on Heidelberg’s requirements, Team Lorain County helped the distributor find what it thought was the perfect site: the former Ford Lorain Assembly Plant on Baumhart Road in Lorain.
There was just one catch: It wasn’t for sale.
“Heidelberg liked the location of the Ford Plant,” Cierbiej says. “But IRG had only ever leased space to companies. They had never actually sold any portions of the building to anyone. And Heidelberg’s big thing was they wanted to own their facility.”
It was a challenge Team Lorain had never faced before in an attraction deal.
So Morey and company stepped in to discuss possible solutions with California developer Stuart Lichter, whose IRG Lorain owned the plant.
“Once a company decides on a site, then we bring together expert teams from within the county to help close the deal,” Morey says.
In the case of Heidelberg Distributing, that meant marshaling the resources of the Lorain County Growth Partnership and getting the city of Lorain to pass new legislation giving the company 15 years of tax rebates to help seal the deal.
“The incentive definitely played a role in the decision,” Knight says.
Today, Heidelberg owns 16 acres and a piece of the plant. It has been completely parceled off with a new driveway and parking lot installed.
Besides meeting the company’s basic needs, Knight says the building had other advantages. It’s close to state Route 2 and the Ohio Turnpike.
The move retained about 100 local jobs, and the larger space leaves room for growth.
When Heidelberg Distributing finally moved in and held the official ribbon-cutting ceremony in September 2010, Morey says, his team felt a great sense of accomplishment.
“It’s so clichéd for folks to say that you need to make it easy to do business,” Morey says. “But when you really deliver on that — and look at it from a project management, customer service standpoint — doing what’s right for business and moving at the speed they’re used to, it will draw success.
“Then success breeds success,” he continues. “That’s the most important thing we’re trying to do now.”
Finalists
Greater Akron Chamber, city of Akron, Summit County and FirstEnergy
Project: Attraction of Involta
Companies can have a lot of stringent requirements when looking for the perfect site to build or renovate. But Involta, a data storage and protection company, gave the Greater Akron Chamber one of its biggest site challenges yet.
Involta wanted to build a new site in an area that could be guaranteed to never disrupt their operations. That meant it couldn’t be in a flight path or flood plain, next to a freeway or railroad, or anywhere near companies that process dangerous chemicals.
Involta chose an 18-acre site in South Akron that, in fact, had been the original headquarters of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. The company will build new, next to the historic building.
Integral to completing the deal was the Ohio Department of Development’s approval of a 45 percent job creation tax credit worth $309,000.
Multiple entities in Akron pulled together to get the deal made, including AT&T and FirstEnergy, which helped ensure the fiber network and electric capacity met Involta’s needs.
“Without the assistance of Summit County, the city of Akron and Greater Akron Chamber, this project never would have made it past the idea stage,” says Bruce Lehrman, Involta’s CEO.
Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and Trumbull County One-Stop
Project: Attraction of Ultra Premium Oilfield Services
When TMK-IPSCO wanted to open a new business, Ultra Premium Oilfield Services, near the Marcellus Shale natural gas field, it didn’t consider any location other than Pennsylvania. The field spreads through eastern Ohio as well, but TMK-IPSCO already had operations in Pennsylvania and felt comfortable with business regulations there. So even when a real estate agent found an Ohio site, company management was not interested in it.
That’s when the real estate agent contacted the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. Sara Boyarko, the chamber’s business manager, located a site in Brookfield Township, near the Ohio/Pennsylvania border, that needed very little modifications to meet the company’s needs. She coordinated with the company and the state, Trumbull County One-Stop, the property owner and other officials. Within 10 days of the visit, the chamber put together an incentive package that included job creation tax credits totaling $872,000 from the Ohio Department of Development and training funds from more than one organization.
The new $10 million state-of-the-art facility began production last May. The plant expects to produce 100,000 tons of threaded pipe each year. The project created 120 new jobs for Ohio.