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Alan Warren | The Ann Arbor NewsAnn Marie Sastry (left), CEO and co-founder of Sakti3, answerBusiness - cleveland.com: Economic development
Cleveland Ohio Business News: Latest Local Business, Financial and Economics News
- Tech start-up company buys Hill Floral building in Midtown Cleveland
A tech start-up and a software company plan to open offices next year in a now-vacant building in Midtown Cleveland, just south of Euclid Avenue. Ardent Products Corp. has purchased the former Hill Floral Products distribution building, at 6401 Midtown Commerce Park Drive, for $665,000, according to property records.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A tech start-up and a software company plan to open offices next year in a now-vacant building in Midtown Cleveland, just south of Euclid Avenue.Ardent Products Corp. has purchased the former Hill Floral Products distribution building, at 6401 Midtown Commerce Park Drive, for $665,000, according to property records. The sale closed Dec. 15, and Ardent and a new software company anticipate that they will renovate the 23,524-square-foot building and move in by August.
Ardent is a new technology business with roots in Greater Cleveland and Taiwan. The company, which is working with LED lighting, 3-D technology and handheld devices for business, will share its local offices with Silico Inc. -- a company being created by former local software executives and Ardent founder Sue-Fen Chen.
Chen came to Cleveland from Taiwan in 1989 to get master's degrees in physics and electrical engineering from Cleveland State University. She has worked for several manufacturing and distribution companies in the Midwest and divides her time between Northeast Ohio and Taiwan.
A few months ago, she created Ardent, which is establishing manufacturing operations in Taiwan and will have offices and distribution space in Cleveland. Chen said she eventually would like to bring some manufacturing to the United States, but she is starting the hands-on work in Taiwan because of lower costs and her connections there.
"All of these are new product lines," she said. "Right now, we will know how cost-effective it will be in Asia, get into it, then determine how much it will cost to put them here."
Ardent's first products, including technology to make two-dimensional pictures appear to be three-dimensional without the aid of 3-D glasses, could hit the market in March. But the company will show off some of its ideas in early January, at the widely watched International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Chen hopes Ardent will employ about 15 people by the end of next year.
The city of Cleveland's economic development department is reviewing an application from Chen for a city loan designed to help developers and businesses that buy and revitalize vacant or underused properties. The Hill Floral building has been empty for more than two years. It sits between expansion sites for Pierre's Ice Cream Co. and American Sugar Refining Inc., just off the Euclid corridor and not far from the Cleveland Clinic and technology incubators in University Circle.
Tom Gustafson and Kevin Riley of the Colliers Ostendorf-Morris brokerage represented Ardent in the building purchase. Scott Garson, of the NAI Daus brokerage, represented Hill Floral.
- Cleveland Foundation slashes its contribution to the Fund for Our Economic Future
Leaders of a regional philanthropy pumping money into an array of economic development groups fear those efforts are threatened with the Cleveland Foundation's decision to give only a fraction of what it contributed previously.
Leaders of a regional philanthropy pumping money into an array of economic development groups fear those efforts are threatened with the Cleveland Foundation's decision to give only a fraction of what it contributed previously.
The chairman of the Fund for Our Economic Future said he was unhappy with the Cleveland Foundation's announcement Thursday that it would send only $300,000 to the fund's next three-year effort, after committing $22 million the previous six years.
"I'm very disappointed that the board of trustees of the Cleveland Foundation would so deeply slash support for a unique and nationally acclaimed collaboration," said David Abbott, the future fund's chairman and executive director of the George Gund Foundation. "This comes at a time when we need more collaboration in our community, not less."
But a top leader with the Cleveland Foundation said its commitment to economic development in the region has not waned.
Six key organizations that had received money from the future fund, including JumpStart, Team NEO and NorTech, can apply directly to the Cleveland Foundation for grants, said Robert Eckardt, senior vice president for programs and evaluation.
"I'm not sure they will see a significant decline as a result of us working directly with them as opposed to working directly through" the future fund, Eckardt said.
He acknowledged that it could be a strain on time and resources for the organizations to now apply to two nonprofits, instead of one, for funding.
"We're not trying to impose additional burden," Eckardt said. "It could be perceived that way, I suppose. But we've worked with all these organizations in the past and will going forward."
Eckardt said there were a variety of reasons the Cleveland Foundation trustees voted to greatly reduce funding to the future fund.
For one, he said, the future fund broadened its focus to efforts like stimulating governments to cut costs by combining services.
"We signed on to do the work" of building the economic development groups, Eckardt said. "It's not why we joined the fund."
At the same time, the Cleveland Foundation is among nonprofits that have seen their assets, including investment portfolios, take a hit during the recession, while the community's needs have grown.
"Given our focus as a community foundation and increased demands in basic human needs, we should work directly with the [economic development organizations] and could have a bigger impact working that way," Eckardt said.
Future fund officials had asked the Cleveland Foundation for $10 million for the next three-year phase. The foundation's contribution of just $300,000 leaves the future fund nearly $9 million short of what it had hoped the Cleveland Foundation could give.
The $22 million given previously was more than one-third of some $60 million the future fund has raised over its first six years from more than 100 foundations, organizations and individuals.
The reduced contribution to the future fund means the six economic development organizations could receive from one-third to one-fourth less than they receive annually now.
The looming funding gaps could mean "anything from serious cutbacks to these [economic development organizations] and their ability to create a more entrepreneurial and vibrant economy," Abbott said. "Or you could have them simply having to spend more time raising money, and they could end up getting it."
Abbott said there has been tension between the future fund and the Cleveland Foundation over how the pooled money should be spent.
The Cleveland Foundation was the future fund's largest contributor, by far, and helped launch it six years ago.
Eckardt said tension over the future fund's decisions on how the pooled money was spent was not a factor in the Cleveland Foundation's greatly reduced giving.
The head of Team NEO, the region's business-attraction group, said it was too early to gauge the impact of the Cleveland Foundation's funding decision.
"This is a change and we're all going to see how it plays out," said Tom Waltermire, Team NEO's chief executive. "To the extent we have less from the [future] fund, we'll have to go to work. I'm sure we'll find a satisfactory solution."
- Team NEO gets $1 million Cleveland Foundation grant for attracting foreign companies
The Cleveland Foundation has given Team NEO, the region's business-attraction group, $1 million to draw international business here.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The region's leading business-attraction organization now has $1 million to take its efforts global.
The Cleveland Foundation announced the big-ticket grant today for Team NEO, which for three years has led a campaign to draw new companies to a 16-county swath of Northeast Ohio.
Regions throughout the country have launched international marketing campaigns, said Tom Waltermire, Team NEO's chief executive.
"So it's time that Northeast Ohio put its best foot forward internationally for business attraction," Waltermire said.
The two-year grant allows Team NEO to hire a specialist in international business development and to pay for marketing, consulting and travel, Waltermire said.
The focus will be attracting companies that align with emerging industries here, including medical devices and advanced energy. European companies, particularly Germany and Spain, will be targeted, along with China and Canada.
Team NEO has already played a role in drawing a few foreign-based companies. Those include Proxy Biomedical Ltd. of Galway, Ireland, which has an office in Cleveland, and Xchanging Inc., a London-based company that wants to open back-office operations here.
Overall, Team NEO reports that it has attracted 29 companies, resulting in 3,100 jobs and $95 million in pay