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Leaders fear stalled cleanup cash Local officials worry over state’s new criteria for brownfield fund By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
The Clean Ohio Fund, a state loan and grant program created to help cities clean up environmentally contaminated properties, is stuck in limbo in Columbus. And that is causing anxiety among local officials who hope to tap into the fund but are worried about the rules that
may govern access to its dollars in the future. The program is on hold until the Kasich administration parcels out responsibility for the state’s economic development programs between the new JobsOhio economic development nonprofit and the remains of the former Ohio Department of Development that is evolving into the state Development Services
Agency. Cities use Clean Ohio money to test for and remove hazardous waste at what are called brownfields. Especially in older cities, it’s a critical phase in bring in new businesses to a community. Brownfields are older factories, gas stations, dry cleaners and anywhere chemicals may have washed into the soil. The grants or low-cost
loans made by the Clean Ohio fund help make these properties attractive to a new or expanding business that would pass up a purchase if the company had to bear the cost of cleaning up a property, as required under environmental laws. Gov. John Kasich and his economic development team announced last month that they have begun to lay out the division of duties between JobsOhio and the new development
INSIDE A new tune in battle over admissions taxes Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson introduces a new plan to tax the city’s music venues, where club owners have been trying to ease the tax burdens they face. PAGE 3 ALSO: Meet Team NEO’s point man for the oil and gas boom. PAGE 3
See CLEANUP Page 7
Indictment pokes holes in story of Zai’s success As businessman rose, some who dealt with him describe unease By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
In 2008, The Cleveland Group of Companies — the company at the lead in A. Eddy Zai’s business domain — was awarded the top spot on the Weatherhead 100, a prestigious list of the region’s fastest-growing companies. The list was based on five years of sales verified by the nominated company’s accounting firm, and to win the top spot, Cleveland Group was able to show 8,026% sales growth from 2003 to 2007. In a December Zai 2008 article in Inside Business that was part of the magazine’s Weatherhead 100 section, Mr. Zai described how fast the company’s growth had become by 2007. “We spent more than $100,000 overnight (on equipment) to become a big player” in the public construction business after winning several key contracts, Mr. Zai said in a story that recounted his rapid rise in local
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See ZAI Page 18
JANET CENTURY
Mark Dent, the general manager of Turner Construction Co.’s Cleveland office, at the site of Cleveland’s medical mart and convention center downtown. The company has 106 full-time professional employees, up from 45 in 2008.
WHEN NEEDED, TURNER TURNS IT ON Veteran construction company credits mobility in meeting needs of newest big projects
By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
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ix work stations on the Hanna Building’s 14th floor sit empty in the dark, as has been the case for a half-year at Turner Construction Co.’s Cleveland office. But it isn’t for a lack of work at the giant construction firm. Instead, the cubicles serve as a swing area where Turner’s field employees land between construction jobs. All Turner’s local field staff is now on job sites in Northeast Ohio that range from the $465 million Medical Mart and Convention Center in downtown Cleveland to a multimillion-dollar job replacing the high school in Westlake. Turner’s empty desks are testimony to the Dallas-based contractor’s ability to carry and shift personnel as local markets and specialized projects ebb and flow. See TURNER Page 17
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