7 hours ago, Geowizical said:

https://www.crainscleveland.com/health-care/readyset-surgical-moves-downtown-cleveland-expansion

Health tech firm eyes expansion with move to Warehouse District HQ

 

TL;DR

• ReadySet Surgical founded in 2015 and moved to Cleveland roughly three years ago from Cincinnati
• Estimates its workforce will double over the next 3 years (50 currently)
• Recently received $12 mil in financing to grow the company
• Surgical/health care supply chain with an emphasis on cybersecurity

 

Yeah, yeah. I had that story 18 months ago. 😉

https://neo-trans.blog/2023/09/01/readyset-surgical-moves-hq-to-cleveland/

On 2/7/2025 at 1:14 PM, ColDayMan said:

 

I mean, it happens once a day in any random Cleveland thread.  I'll expect tomorrow to click on the Pinecrest thread to see "There are rumors that Red, the Steakhouse is closing all their Cleveland locations and opening in Polaris.  UGH, COLUMBUS!!!"  It just goes with the territory now.

Actually, Its been reported by JobsOhio that Cleveland will move to Columbus. An parcel in the Polaris development next to the Ikea has opened up. 

7 hours ago, KJP said:

 

Yeah, yeah. I had that story 18 months ago. 😉

https://neo-trans.blog/2023/09/01/readyset-surgical-moves-hq-to-cleveland/

I knew it!  When i read the article it seemed familiar. There's alot of "reporting" in the Cleveland media that you have already covered

I may have grudgingly voted for him, but he's getting bad advice on the steel-aluminum tariffs.  Increasing the domestic costs of those materials will make American fabricators much less competitive globally, and they employ a lot more people than the mills do.  Including around here.  When I worked in machining we exported a lot of parts to Mexico and some to China for assembly.

 

Hopefully it's a negotiating ploy.

Edited February 10Feb 10 by E Rocc

1 hour ago, E Rocc said:

I may have grudgingly voted for him, but he's getting bad advice on the steel-aluminum tariffs.  Increasing the domestic costs of those materials will make American fabricators much less competitive globally, and they employ a lot more people than the mills do.  Including around here.  When I worked in machining we exported a lot of parts to Mexico and some to China for assembly.

 

Hopefully it's a negotiating ploy.

You get what you vote for.

https://www.crainscleveland.com/politics-policy/cleveland-business-gains-support-according-gcp-survey

Cleveland's business confidence climbs as more leaders promote the region

Some interesting and (mostly) positive context for regional business perceptions

 

The TL;DR is essentially this graph:

And the easiest way to read this is:

• Promoters of the region have increased by 6% since 2022
• Detractors of the region have decreased by 5% since 2022
• Essentially a net 11-12% swing from detractors to the neutral/promoters categories

Great to see the business momentum shifting. Now, it has to lead to job creation and economic growth.

😂

 

https://theonion.com/joann-fabrics-announces-plans-to-make-mishmash-store-out-of-shuttered-locations-scraps/

 

This is behind a paywall but the cliff notes version is that Bibb and members of council are not happy with our local business leaders (GCP, TeamNEO) for not backing them up on the football stadium or making Cleveland a priority when it comes to economic development. They are optimistic about Matt Dolan at the helm for TeamNEO, though.

 

I understand their POVs as it is their job fight for their constituents but I think the better question is what is the regional growth strategy and is it working? It doesn't seem like other areas are growing and Cleveland isn't.

 

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/02/mayor-council-slam-business-leaders-for-failing-cleveland-in-browns-stadium-battle.html

Edited February 19Feb 19 by coneflower

40 minutes ago, coneflower said:

This is behind a paywall but the cliff notes version is that Bibb and members of council are not happy with our local business leaders (GCP, TeamNEO) for not backing them up on the football stadium or making Cleveland a priority when it comes to economic development. They are optimistic about Matt Dolan at the helm for TeamNEO, though.

 

I understand their POVs as it is their job fight for their constituents but I think the better question is what is the regional growth strategy and is it working? It doesn't seem like other areas are growing and Cleveland isn't.

 

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/02/mayor-council-slam-business-leaders-for-failing-cleveland-in-browns-stadium-battle.html

So that’s why I’m seeing Coyne and others going off. The business leaders seem like they’re getting high on their own supply.

Sherwood Food Distributors is closing in Maple Heights.  They employ 273 people, all of which will be laid off by April 21.  

 

This could be the first of many food distributors to close due to actions at the federal level, but I'm hoping not.

Edited February 19Feb 19 by Oldmanladyluck

5 hours ago, coneflower said:

This is behind a paywall but the cliff notes version is that Bibb and members of council are not happy with our local business leaders (GCP, TeamNEO) for not backing them up on the football stadium or making Cleveland a priority when it comes to economic development. They are optimistic about Matt Dolan at the helm for TeamNEO, though.

 

I understand their POVs as it is their job fight for their constituents but I think the better question is what is the regional growth strategy and is it working? It doesn't seem like other areas are growing and Cleveland isn't.

 

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/02/mayor-council-slam-business-leaders-for-failing-cleveland-in-browns-stadium-battle.html

Given the crickets from GCP, wonder if Dee already has verbal reservations from each of her fellow GCP board members after dangling their choice of prime executive party suites and VIP priority parking at the proposed BP stadium and mega parking lot.  Team NEO it's up to you to answer Bibb's call for action or dissolve and merge with GCP.

TIL something fun —

 

it turns out that lil john, yes of big chuck and lil john fame, is on the board at the hospital in lorain —

 

 

https://givebsmh.org/stories/mercy-health-foundation-lorain-john-rinaldi/#:~:text=Today%2C John is a member,difference for those in need.

Cleveland-Cliffs will remain headquartered in Cleveland if they are successful in acquiring U.S. Steel

 

CLEVELAND — Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves is big on the future of a new era of manufacturing and the role Cleveland can play in it.

 

"Cleveland is the center of the resurgency. Cleveland will be leading what in the next 10, 20 years will be a new United States of America," Goncalves said during a forum at the City Club of Cleveland. It's a future he sees the rest of the world looking to replicate.

 

 

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/cleveland-cliffs-will-remain-headquartered-in-cleveland-if-they-are-successful-in-acquiring-u-s-steel

1 hour ago, Mov2Ohio said:

Cleveland-Cliffs will remain headquartered in Cleveland if they are successful in acquiring U.S. Steel

 

CLEVELAND — Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves is big on the future of a new era of manufacturing and the role Cleveland can play in it.

 

"Cleveland is the center of the resurgency. Cleveland will be leading what in the next 10, 20 years will be a new United States of America," Goncalves said during a forum at the City Club of Cleveland. It's a future he sees the rest of the world looking to replicate.

 

 

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/cleveland-cliffs-will-remain-headquartered-in-cleveland-if-they-are-successful-in-acquiring-u-s-steel

Good news- we hope he means it this time. It is still hard to unhear his definitive sounding statements in January about abandoning Cle and the Cliffs name. Who knows, if he is successful at acquiring all or parts of US Steel later this year, he may walk back his verbal bluster commitment to Pitt all the way - especially if the remotely sited US Steel leadership and HQ staff stay home in their Covid bunkers and don't return to what Lourenco described as an empty ghost HQ office.

Good, but it sounds like he may still be saying the same thing as before. Cleveland Cliffs becomes the mining portion of the company, and it will be headquartered in Cleveland. US steel becomes the steel portion of the company and is headquartered in Pittsburgh. 

 

It sounds like this is basically a nobody will be moving to Pittsburgh, so good, but also nobody will be moving to Cleveland, so not great. No new Cliffs skyscraper in the near future. 

 

Am I reading this right?

 

"Cleveland Cliffs will always be based in Public Square but the Steel company will be headquartered in Pittsburgh," he said. "Cleveland Cliffs will be the holding and U.S. Steel will be part of Cleveland Cliffs."

 

"My house will still be here, [and] my office will still be on 200 Public Square, so there's no reason for concern. Remember, we acquired AK Steel and never shut down the office in West Chester. We acquired ArcelorMittal USA and we never shut down the office in Chicago and the office in Burns Harbor. So we are good at keeping things in the right spot," said Goncalves. "Actually the [U.S. Steel] office that they have over there right now is a ghost. Everybody works from home, the CEO lives in Illinois, the CFO lives in Connecticut and the General Counsel lives in Florida. So we are going to have people full-time over there, I will be part time over there, I will have an office there but my main office will be here at 200 Public Square Cleveland, 44114."

Edited February 22Feb 22 by Ethan
City mistake

It does seem like sort of a mixed bag. There is some clarification that US Steel will be under Cliffs and not the other way around which is how l read his earlier statement. He'll maintain his home here and just be in Pittsburgh part time. I guess we'll have to wait and see. 

 

He reminds me a little of Trump. A lot of words all over the place so you never really know what he's thinking. That, combined with the always potential changes in the business world tells us we can't really count on anything anymore. Such is life.

I believe Goncalves will say whatever his audience wants to hear. When speculating about what somebody like that will do, it's best to think about what is best for him.

I posted this in the regionalism thread because there is a narrow section on the intraregional competition that is holding NEO back, but there's more than enough in this article to chew on in the general business and economic thread. 

 

Gov. DeWine to Cleveland: Up your focus on economic development to compete with Central Ohio

Published: Feb. 23, 2025

By Rich Exner, cleveland.com

 

“A disproportionate amount of this development clearly is occurring in Central Ohio,” he told cleveland.com reporters and editors earlier this month, citing projections that the Columbus region could gain 1 million people in the next two decades.

 

“That’s not what we want,” he said. “What we want is it spread out all over the state.”

 

So why isn’t it? Land availability plays a role — Intel needed space that land-strapped Cuyahoga County couldn’t provide. But DeWine pointed to something else: Central Ohio communities are working together, strategically preparing sites and selling their region’s strengths.

 

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/02/gov-dewine-to-cleveland-up-your-focus-on-economic-development-to-compete-with-central-ohio.html

Some surprising and good news to hopefully break through some of the gloominess on this forum so far this year.

 

This is all taken from BLS data that I hadn't really dug into until now. The data doesn't exist in a single chart, so a little bit of comparison and math is required.

 

Ohio added over 100K to its labor force last year. That sounds pretty good in the abstract, but it sounds a lot better when you learn it was the second highest total of any state, second only to Texas. Not second per capita, but second in absolute terms.  This represented a 1.8% y/o/y growth of the labor force from Dec. 2023 to Dec. 2024. The national rate was 0.7%, so Ohio's labor force grew at over 2.5x the national average rate.

 

"Well, that's all well and good," you might say, "but I'm sure that growth is all concentrated in Columbus." You might say that, but you'd be wrong. Because the y/o/y growth in the Cleveland MSA? It was also 1.8%. Exactly the state average.

 

So in other words, if BLS data is to be believed (and yes, the numbers are always a little suspect), Cleveland's labor force grew at 2.5x the national rate last year.

13 minutes ago, LlamaLawyer said:

Some surprising and good news to hopefully break through some of the gloominess on this forum so far this year.

 

This is all taken from BLS data that I hadn't really dug into until now. The data doesn't exist in a single chart, so a little bit of comparison and math is required.

 

Ohio added over 100K to its labor force last year. That sounds pretty good in the abstract, but it sounds a lot better when you learn it was the second highest total of any state, second only to Texas. Not second per capita, but second in absolute terms.  This represented a 1.8% y/o/y growth of the labor force from Dec. 2023 to Dec. 2024. The national rate was 0.7%, so Ohio's labor force grew at over 2.5x the national average rate.

 

"Well, that's all well and good," you might say, "but I'm sure that growth is all concentrated in Columbus." You might say that, but you'd be wrong. Because the y/o/y growth in the Cleveland MSA? It was also 1.8%. Exactly the state average.

 

So in other words, if BLS data is to be believed (and yes, the numbers are always a little suspect), Cleveland's labor force grew at 2.5x the national rate last year.

Thanks @LlamaLawyer! How does that equate to actual number of jobs in our MSA then? You gave an absolute number of jobs added for the entire state but then only a Cleveland growth percentage %. What percentage of the 100k was here...

Edited February 24Feb 24 by Geowizical

2 minutes ago, Geowizical said:

Thanks @LlamaLawyer! How does that equate to actual number of jobs in our MSA then? You gave an absolute number of jobs added for the entire state but then only a Cleveland growth percentage %. What percentage of the 100k was here...

The labor force is approximately 1 million, so it is approximately 18,000 added to labor force. The exact number per BLS is 18,346. Note that is not *jobs*, it is labor force. So it includes unemployed. Same for Ohio. The 105kish Ohio added to the labor force is not jobs, because it also includes new unemployed people.

 

That being said, we’re at healthy sub 5% unemployment, so adding unemployed people is also good, because it signals that fewer people are side-lining themselves.

Gotcha, so if the region added 18,346 in labor force and lets say 5% of that is unemployed for simplicity's sake, then 17.5k of that is new employment? Not necessarily all new job creation, but also people in the area filling previously empty jobs is how I understand it...

4 minutes ago, Geowizical said:

Gotcha, so if the region added 18,346 in labor force and lets say 5% of that is unemployed for simplicity's sake, then 17.5k of that is new employment? Not necessarily all new job creation, but also people in the area filling previously empty jobs is how I understand it...

So, no, not quite.

 

Per BLS, we added 14,462 employed and 3,884 unemployed. It's not a 95-5 ratio, because the unemployment rate rose during the year from 3% to 3.4%. But again, these are healthy numbers, so I view employment and unemployment both rising as a good thing, even if the unemployment rise is currently outpacing the employment rise. Obviously if you get to like 6-7% unemployment and that's still happening, something is wrong. But we're not even close to there.

 

FWIW, you can find the Cleveland data here: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LAUMT391746000000006?amp%3bdata_tool=XGtable&output_view=data&include_graphs=true

 

It also is important to note that our post-pandemic recovery is still not going as well overall as lots of other places. That's mostly because our pandemic decline was so severe. We lost nearly 8% (!!!) of our labor force from December 2019 to December 2020. By way of comparison, Columbus and Cincinnati lost 1.6% and 2.8% of their labor forces during that same period, respectively.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/02/can-northeast-ohio-sell-itself-new-team-neo-chief-matt-dolan-says-swing-at-the-pitch-thats-coming.html

Can Northeast Ohio sell itself? New Team NEO chief Matt Dolan says ‘Swing at the pitch that’s coming’

 

A couple interesting tidbits from an otherwise puff piece interview that "we need to do better" and that "change is coming":

• “We also have the opportunity to get bigger companies,” Dolan said. “We do have one mega site in Lorain County. So, we are getting that ready.” He declined to specify the location of the site – “that’s for another day” – but he said it involved more than 1,000 acres.
• Setting up a meeting with the heads of the area hospital systems to explore the potential creation of manufacturing jobs tied to the medical field.

I came across this article and was curious if it matters statistically speaking that the Cinci and Columbus MSAs are around 800 square miles larger than Cleveland's. Per square mile of MSA Cleveland actually has more workers in it than the others but this article seems to just take it all at face value.  

 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2025/02/27/cincinnati-tops-columbus-in-number-of-employees-and-gdp-per-huntington/80694707007/

I am hopeful that Dolan will be a more effective business advocate than previous leaders. We certainly need it.

The new push is going to be all about pushing far fringe sprawl. 

17 hours ago, TDi said:

I came across this article and was curious if it matters statistically speaking that the Cinci and Columbus MSAs are around 800 square miles larger than Cleveland's. Per square mile of MSA Cleveland actually has more workers in it than the others but this article seems to just take it all at face value.  

 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2025/02/27/cincinnati-tops-columbus-in-number-of-employees-and-gdp-per-huntington/80694707007/

That sounds about the size of Summit and Portage Counties combined. Go figure...

17 hours ago, Geowizical said:

 

• Setting up a meeting with the heads of the area hospital systems to explore the potential creation of manufacturing jobs tied to the medical field.

 

somebody should start producing sterile saline and related solutions. some ungodly percentage of the national supply is produced by a company in North Carolina that was knocked offline after hurricane helene leading to a protracted shortage. it's going to happen again, no doubt.

 

 

 

Edited February 28Feb 28 by Jax

13 hours ago, X said:

The new push is going to be all about pushing far fringe sprawl. 

The old Twinsburg Chrysler stamping plant, and the Ford engine parcels in Walton Hills and Brook Park have been cut up and recycled into industrial parks with large, nondescript warehouse-like buildings, and can no longer take a huge potential industrial user.  I wonder if what's in those parks is the best use, or maybe it was the only likely use?  There have to be larger parcels in the surrounding counties, sprawl notwithstanding.  Would we turn down an Intel because of sprawl?

 

 

I'm most curious what "secret" 1,000 ac parcel Dolan described is being assembled in Lorain Co.

 

From the site finder in Team NEO website, the only one I can think that somewhat matches the description are Beacon Park N and S parcels next to the correctional facility in Grafton, which when combined total 650 ac.

Could end up being a desirable megasite if promoted aggressively, as Beacon Park and the Intel campus are both about 25 mi driving distance from downtown Cleveland and Columbus, respectively. Plus Lorain Co is one of the faster growing counties in the metro. Maybe this is a site to keep an eye on...

From Crain's....

 

Worthington Steel is permanently shutting down operations at its Samuel Coil Processing plant at 4600 Heidtman Parkway in Cleveland, the company announced this week. The closure will eliminate 55 positions at the non-union site.

It does seem like NEO has been losing a lot more jobs lately than new jobs being announced. JoAnn Fabrics hq is a big number plus smaller closures. 

 

There are headwinds nationally too when you add the Doge cuts along with what appears to be cautious consumer sentiment. Trump may be in a little trouble going forward.

3 hours ago, urb-a-saurus said:

The old Twinsburg Chrysler stamping plant, and the Ford engine parcels in Walton Hills and Brook Park have been cut up and recycled into industrial parks with large, nondescript warehouse-like buildings, and can no longer take a huge potential industrial user.  I wonder if what's in those parks is the best use, or maybe it was the only likely use?  There have to be larger parcels in the surrounding counties, sprawl notwithstanding.  Would we turn down an Intel because of sprawl?

 

I doubt even our powers that be would be quite *that* clueless.

40 minutes ago, KJP said:

From Crain's....

 

Worthington Steel is permanently shutting down operations at its Samuel Coil Processing plant at 4600 Heidtman Parkway in Cleveland, the company announced this week. The closure will eliminate 55 positions at the non-union site.

 

Automotive coil processing operations have been moving closer to the assembly plants in recent years.    In fact that's what happened to Ford Walton Hills (it was a stamping plant not an engine plant) and Chrysler-Twinsburg.   

22 minutes ago, cadmen said:

It does seem like NEO has been losing a lot more jobs lately than new jobs being announced. JoAnn Fabrics hq is a big number plus smaller closures. 

Hopefully we won't need a scorecard to keep track of all the NE Ohio closures & relocations.   So far this year, we have Worthington, JoAnn, Moen and Harvest Sherwood.  And it's only February.   😟

On 2/24/2025 at 8:18 AM, Luke_S said:

“A disproportionate amount of this development clearly is occurring in Central Ohio,” he told cleveland.com reporters and editors earlier this month, citing projections that the Columbus region could gain 1 million people in the next two decades.

I’m sorry, this is an insane statement. There is no world where there is a projected 100% growth.
 

ODOT recently did a population and development study to try and drive future funding planning, and the numbers seemed like such BS. Overall, the current trajectory is showing that the state is and will continue to lose population. But then they just decide “something” will make it better and wouldn’t ya know there’s growth now!

 

Kind of a side note, but with the recent and continuing intel news, I personally am doubtful this project materializes the way they keep saying it will. I think it will be closer to a Foxconn than something transformational.

11 minutes ago, Enginerd said:

I’m sorry, this is an insane statement. There is no world where there is a projected 100% growth.
 

ODOT recently did a population and development study to try and drive future funding planning, and the numbers seemed like such BS. Overall, the current trajectory is showing that the state is and will continue to lose population. But then they just decide “something” will make it better and wouldn’t ya know there’s growth now!

 

Kind of a side note, but with the recent and continuing intel news, I personally am doubtful this project materializes the way they keep saying it will. I think it will be closer to a Foxconn than something transformational.

Adding 1 million people to central Ohio is less than 50% growth over 20 years. It isn’t that unrealistic. There are still plenty of other Ohioans that could move to central Ohio. 

On 2/28/2025 at 10:47 AM, Geowizical said:

I'm most curious what "secret" 1,000 ac parcel Dolan described is being assembled in Lorain Co.

 

From the site finder in Team NEO website, the only one I can think that somewhat matches the description are Beacon Park N and S parcels next to the correctional facility in Grafton, which when combined total 650 ac.

Could end up being a desirable megasite if promoted aggressively, as Beacon Park and the Intel campus are both about 25 mi driving distance from downtown Cleveland and Columbus, respectively. Plus Lorain Co is one of the faster growing counties in the metro. Maybe this is a site to keep an eye on...

 

On 2/28/2025 at 10:47 AM, Geowizical said:

I'm most curious what "secret" 1,000 ac parcel Dolan described is being assembled in Lorain Co.

 

From the site finder in Team NEO website, the only one I can think that somewhat matches the description are Beacon Park N and S parcels next to the correctional facility in Grafton, which when combined total 650 ac.

Could end up being a desirable megasite if promoted aggressively, as Beacon Park and the Intel campus are both about 25 mi driving distance from downtown Cleveland and Columbus, respectively. Plus Lorain Co is one of the faster growing counties in the metro. Maybe this is a site to keep an eye on...

Going to the auto show made us realize what a vast piece of land that definitely is not being to used to its highest and best potential. Between the 160 acres or so that it sits on along with the 160 or so acres currently being pushed for a dome and giant parking lot -  could instead be assembled and offered to an IT, aerospace, or other manufacturer such as what the Columbus region landed for Rickenbacker - 4,000+ Jobs.  While not 500 acres as there, I am sure if it was packaged and marketed it could have been in the running for this or other similar operations reportedly trying to onshore their businesses. Including new US Pharma plants such as the Eli Lilly big announcement this week - https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lilly-plans-more-double-us-manufacturing-investment-2020

 

Attn: Dolan and Team Ohio lets get creative! Why don't you swing at this easy fat pitch right down the center of the plate. Also - GC Partnership, NOACA, Cleveland Foundation,... - use your combined regional muscle and just try while also convincing the Haslams that the most civic-minded gesture they could make is to return to the Lakefront or adjacent Center City where sport-entertainment and related venues belong.

3 hours ago, Willo said:

 

Going to the auto show made us realize what a vast piece of land that definitely is not being to used to its highest and best potential. Between the 160 acres or so that it sits on along with the 160 or so acres currently being pushed for a dome and giant parking lot -  could instead be assembled and offered to an IT, aerospace, or other manufacturer such as what the Columbus region landed for Rickenbacker - 4,000+ Jobs.  While not 500 acres as there, I am sure if it was packaged and marketed it could have been in the running for this or other similar operations reportedly trying to onshore their businesses. Including new US Pharma plants such as the Eli Lilly big announcement this week - https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lilly-plans-more-double-us-manufacturing-investment-2020

 

Attn: Dolan and Team Ohio lets get creative! Why don't you swing at this easy fat pitch right down the center of the plate. Also - GC Partnership, NOACA, Cleveland Foundation,... - use your combined regional muscle and just try while also convincing the Haslams that the most civic-minded gesture they could make is to return to the Lakefront or adjacent Center City where sport-entertainment and related venues belong.

 

Second that. I know it's winter but the whole area around the airport is so.... bleh. There's no reason the IX Center needs to exist. Not only would moving all shows to the LITERAL CONVENTION CENTER benefit downtown Cleveland business even further but it would as Willo said also free up so much space.

 

Oh, and someone needs to get on the phone about repaving 237, smh

30 minutes ago, Geowizical said:

 

Second that. I know it's winter but the whole area around the airport is so.... bleh. There's no reason the IX Center needs to exist. Not only would moving all shows to the LITERAL CONVENTION CENTER benefit downtown Cleveland business even further but it would as Willo said also free up so much space.

 

Oh, and someone needs to get on the phone about repaving 237, smh

Yeah I used to be a defender of the IX, but now that much of the show floor space has been converted to warehousing, there isn't much allure to it.   The convention center has to be similar sized?   

 

 

8 hours ago, Enginerd said:

I’m sorry, this is an insane statement. There is no world where there is a projected 100% growth.
 

ODOT recently did a population and development study to try and drive future funding planning, and the numbers seemed like such BS. Overall, the current trajectory is showing that the state is and will continue to lose population. But then they just decide “something” will make it better and wouldn’t ya know there’s growth now!

 

Kind of a side note, but with the recent and continuing intel news, I personally am doubtful this project materializes the way they keep saying it will. I think it will be closer to a Foxconn than something transformational.

The Columbus region has about 2.1 to 2.2 million people, so as mentioned above that is like 50% growth, also over 2 to three decades, so that's fairly realistic. Also as mentioned above, a lot of Columbus' growth is from the rest of Ohio, so that trend will continue if the other regions don't get their act together.

1 hour ago, Geowizical said:

 

Second that. I know it's winter but the whole area around the airport is so.... bleh. There's no reason the IX Center needs to exist. Not only would moving all shows to the LITERAL CONVENTION CENTER benefit downtown Cleveland business even further but it would as Willo said also free up so much space.

 

Oh, and someone needs to get on the phone about repaving 237, smh

Bleh is spot on!  The dreary feeling increased driving west on 71, south on 237 then winding around to the back entrance of the IX.  Let's be honest, we should not be directing future US and foreign visitors any near this area to attend NFL games or any other entertainment events - not a great first impression to be kind. In fact, while talking to 2 of the pretty auto show spokespeople they commented (and laughed) that they have never seen so many roads in a city with so many potholes. I was surprised when they said they were from Florida.  

21 hours ago, Willo said:

Bleh is spot on!  The dreary feeling increased driving west on 71, south on 237 then winding around to the back entrance of the IX.  Let's be honest, we should not be directing future US and foreign visitors any near this area to attend NFL games or any other entertainment events - not a great first impression to be kind. In fact, while talking to 2 of the pretty auto show spokespeople they commented (and laughed) that they have never seen so many roads in a city with so many potholes. I was surprised when they said they were from Florida.  

Yea, that whole area needs to be cleaned up, or torn down.

 

My dream scenario would be for Hopkins to somehow inherit the land the Haslams want to build a stadium on, demo the IX center, demo the current airport terminal and either build the new terminal where the Haslams want to build the stadium, and a new runway through the site where the  IX Center and current terminal are.

 

Would have to reroute or put 237 into a tunnel, but it gives the airport expansion space. We may not need the space today, but if the thought is that someday we want the region and air travel to grow, it would be nice to at least have the space available.

Wouldn't it be something if the City of Cleveland bought the land in Brookpark the Haslams want for the stadium, therefore blocking that area as a potential stadium site and opening up the land for some other development or Airport expansion?

19 minutes ago, Mov2Ohio said:

Wouldn't it be something if the City of Cleveland bought the land in Brookpark the Haslams want for the stadium, therefore blocking that area as a potential stadium site and opening up the land for some other development or Airport expansion?

I can think of a few parking lots that the City should buy first....

7 minutes ago, Foraker said:

I can think of a few parking lots that the City should buy first....

Lol, I agree 100%, but that would just be awesome to stick it to them like that! Hahaha

joann fabrics destroyed itself by falling for a private equity buyout — 

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG1dg9Jusv1/?igsh=NmNnaWgzZzhsN2po

37 minutes ago, mrnyc said:

joann fabrics destroyed itself by falling for a private equity buyout — 

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG1dg9Jusv1/?igsh=NmNnaWgzZzhsN2po

 

She more or less explains leveraged buy-outs.  They don't always fail; but it's an ugly business.

 

 

Walgreens is about to go the same path. Won't be shocked if they vanish.