The City of Cleveland is offering roughly $25 million total in grants in the proposed incentive package for the construction of a new downtown Sherwin-Williams headquarters.
The deal, announced Thursday would include $13.5 million for construction, and a job creation incentive grant capped at $11.5 million over 15 years. The city is also offering a 30-year non-school TIF (Tax Increment Financing), which would provide Sherwin-Williams a rebate estimated at $2 to $2.5 million annually.
鈥淲e鈥檙e using the same tools that we鈥檙e normally using,鈥� said Cleveland鈥檚 Director of Economic Development David Ebersole. 鈥淭his is just a significant project, so the numbers are a little bigger.鈥�
The construction grant would be tied to the retention of Sherwin-Williams jobs, Ebersole said.
The high dollar amount will be made up by the revenue brought in by the new headquarters, said Mayor Frank Jackson.
鈥淲e will be retaining all of the headquarter jobs, and we will be getting at least 140 additional jobs as associated with the headquarters,鈥� Jackson said.
The new jobs are expected to bring in about $12.5 million annually for the city, Jackson said, although those numbers are based on preliminary estimates and could change as the development moves forward.
The number of new jobs coming to Cleveland is less than what鈥檚 expected for the research and development plant announced for Brecksville, Jackson said. Cleveland did compete for the R&D facility, he said.
鈥淏ut the logistics of having 70, 80 acres of land, plus another large acreage for a headquarters, we just couldn鈥檛 do it in Downtown Cleveland,鈥� Jackson said.
Money for the incentives package will come from the Economic Development department, Jackson said, which pulls from the city鈥檚 General Fund. The city is considering using bonds for some of the grant money.
Cuyahoga County is considering its own Sherwin-Williams incentive package, including a $14 million grant toward construction. The State of Ohio and City of Brecksville are working on their own incentives.
Cleveland City Council still needs to approve the proposed incentive package. The city expects to introduce it next week and it will get 鈥渁t least two committee hearings and a thorough consideration by council,鈥� according to a statement from a council spokesperson.
Sherwin-Williams鈥� new headquarters is slated to take the place of three parking lots in Cleveland鈥檚 Public Square. The city is working with the Greater Cleveland Partnership to assess the parking needs of downtown as those 800 to 1,000 spots are removed, Jackson said.
But the new building will be better for the city than the parking lots, he said.
鈥淚 know there鈥檚 always been a conversation, when I was in council, about surface parking lots downtown and how, were they the highest and best use of our prime real estate in Downtown Cleveland,鈥� Jackson said. 鈥淭hat question has been addressed at this point, because that鈥檚 where this project will go.鈥�
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