International Food Solutions
Mostly ready-made Asian and Latin meals for thousands of schools will be produced in IFS' facility off East 55th and Central Avenue.
International Food Solutions, Inc., which produces ethnic meals, has centered production outside of Cleveland but with the state's help will create a brand new $65 million facility off East 55th in Central, replacing the old Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland building that's sat vacant for years, and will bring 220 jobs to the city.
Other awards were handed out to Dough Go's, a Canton pizza dough company; Philomena Bake Shop, a vegan bakery in Ohio City; and Vienna Beef, a Chicago-style hotdog company that is eyeing a 100,000 square-foot vacant building in Newcomerstown for their next pickles and cold storage facility.
IFS' interest in Central checks of a list of boxes in-line with City Hall's development wishes for the long-ignored southeast side. Just last Thursday, in Mayor Justin Bibb's third State of the City address, he announced that "cranes are coming to the" area. A total of $100 million in slated investment.
In a release Monday, Bibb hinted at IFS' choice to build in Central as a key node in his Southeast Side Promise plan.
“This project will not only create over 220 new jobs in our growing food processing industry, it also represents a massive investment in the Central neighborhood,” Bibb said in a statement. “We are also grateful for International Food Solutions’ commitment to a comprehensive community benefits agreement that represents a new gold standard for employees and neighbors.”
That new Central facility joins Northeast Ohio's 500 other food processors, and will distribute ready-to-go meals mostly to schools, hospitals and military bases around the region.
In a similar rehab of a vacant facility, Vienna Beef's pickle plant in Newcomerstown will be the Chicago-based company's first processing facility outside of Florida and California.
It will also, Marla Akridge, director for the Tuscarawas County Economic Development Corporation, said, revive manufacturing job hopes for the small village of 3,652. A sort of reversal of the rusted image of the defunct Simonds plant that idled in 2012.
Vienna's plant "will serve as a huge boost to the area, bringing with it long- term employment and short-term work for local contractors tasked with preparing the facility for occupancy," she said, in a release. "We look forward to eating a lot of pickles.”
Grants from the Ohio Department of Development include $50,000 one-offs to the Philomena Bake Shop to Dough Go's in Canton. Both grants will help fund four to five jobs in each business.
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