Sherwin had publicly announced in September that it was seeking a new HQ and R&D building and that it was exploring options both outside of downtown Cleveland and outside of Northeast Ohio. While the announcement sent minor shockwaves around Cleveland, there was a general feeling in quotes from the Greater Cleveland Partnership and elected officials that there wasn’t too much to worry about. This was due diligence, after all, and with a project that size at a company with that many employees and a $1 billion price tag for a decision that they’ll have to live with long into the future, exploring all options and, more directly, securing the best location with the healthiest amount of incentives, was the natural move.
And a full-court press from state, county and local officials was organized to ensure that Sherwin stayed home.
“A campaign to retain the HQ+R&D facilities in Cleveland was formed under the leadership of Gov. Mike DeWine and overseen by retired Forest City Enterprises CEO Albert Ratner,” Prendergrast reported. “That campaign reportedly has amassed $200 million in pledged public incentives to SHW, a source said. Such an amount represents an insurance policy against any incentive package offered by other cities or states to pay what would have been SHW’s substantial relocation costs.”
An announcement will be made near the end of the month, Prendergrast reported.
Sherwin is considering four plots of land as of now. The two leaders in the clubhouse at the moment, he reported, are the parking lots on the western edge of Public Square owned by the Jacob Group and Weston Group and riverfront land between Huron and Canal owned by Bedrock (Dan Gilbert). The lakefront and the southern portion of the flats round out the options, but are far below the other two in consideration.
Sign up for Scene’s weekly newsletters to get the latest on Cleveland news, things to do and places to eat delivered right to your inbox.
This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2019.
AMAZING!!!! This is HUGE for Cleveland!
I hope Weston and Jacobs will be very cooperative in having them build west of Public Square. It is a fantastic location just waiting to be filled. It can’t be overstated as what this means to downtown’s future development. More housing will be needed . This will attract even more young professionals like nothing else could. Cleveland is starting to have that big city feeling. Lets just hope it moves forward rapidly. This should help jump start Nucleus and other projects in the waiting.
They should just be the ones to build the nucleus full of office buildings. Wasnt there an option where there was two buildings?
I pray to the (bleep)ing GOD it’s at Public Square! Ever since Ameritrust Center was cancelled when Society (now KeyCorp) bought it out in 1991, we’ve had to look at that U-G-L-Y parking hole ever since the older two properties were demolished. The tower proposed for that spot at the time would have been a gamechanger: 60 stories tall–cementing CLE with the tallest-in-OH award for decades to come!
I doubt that any of this will happen until our crooked city and county leaders get their kickbacks and hand-outs first!!!
I wonder what plans they have for there current riverfront headquarters?
I , and everyone I talk to, hope they build west of Public Square. It would be such a nice fit for them to be right on the Square. There old headquarters building would make a terrific apartment complex, connected right to Tower City and Rapid Transit. It would be great to turn the Riverfront headquarters into a beautiful Park. We all hope this is direction that they choose.
Minimum height requested @ 1,200 feet, thank you SW.