Allegro, Verdantas, McCabe Companies, Chicago Title, win RFP bid
Team NEO and partners – including The Fund for Our Economic Future, Cuyahoga County, Summit County, the City of Akron, the City of Cleveland and the Greater Akron Chamber – have selected the team of Allegro Real Estate Brokers & Advisors, Verdantas, McCabe Companies, and Chicago Title to conduct site assessments and development analysis in Cuyahoga and Summit Counties.
Team NEO requested proposals for a third-party real estate consulting team as part of one of its core strategies to grow a robust, dynamic inventory of attractive sites that will enable the Northeast Ohio Region to be more competitive and offer more equitable opportunities when competing for strategic business investment projects.
The team selected was chosen for their more than 15 years of experience working together to develop real estate strategies that support economic development.
“This team has completed similar projects with a similar scope of work for a wide range of organizations,” said Team NEO Chief Executive Officer Bill Koehler. “Their collective knowledge and proven, data-driven methodology make us confident we will successfully identify many high priority sites and a clear implementation plan that will make Northeast Ohio more effective in attracting strategic business investment.”
“We’re eager to get started on the site assessment and development analysis for Team NEO,” said Michael Cantor, President and Chairman of Allegro. “We’ll be looking to identify a long list of potential sites, narrowing down to a smaller set and focusing on the feasibility of short-listed sites – to ensure the best decisions are made for Cuyahoga and Summit Counties. This project builds upon Team NEO’s collaborative work such as RightSites and Job Hubs.”
This initiative will increase Northeast Ohio’s competitiveness in economic development by improving the commercial real estate asset inventories for manufacturing, logistics, distribution, and light assembly in high-potential locations. The team will leverage site selection, graphic information system mapping, planning, and development capabilities within each of their organizations with the goal of creating sustainable and efficient development opportunities near existing infrastructure and available workers.
Other partners commented on the selection:
“Summit County is excited to continue working with our local partners on another initiative to help us grow and compete for economic development opportunities. This initiative will bring future sites into focus to help Summit County and Cuyahoga County remain competitive in this ever-changing landscape.”
- County Executive Ilene Shapiro, Summit County
“Cuyahoga County is excited to have Allegro Real Estate Brokers & Advisors, Verdantas, McCabe Companies, and Chicago Title as consultants to attract new businesses here as we look to grow our economic landscape. Working with Summit County and Team NEO, this partnership will ensure we have the best available sites in both counties fully prepared and marketable for possible development as opportunities arise.”
- County Executive Armond Budish, Cuyahoga County
“This strategic site development work is greatly needed. Building an inventory of ready sites in Cuyahoga and Summit County will provide competitive options for companies looking for great places to locate, with access to strong pools of talent, and in alignment with increasingly prevalent equity, sustainability and governance goals.”
- Bethia Burke, President, The Fund for Our Economic Future
“The ongoing lack of ‘shovel ready’ sites continue to severely limit our ability to compete for economic development opportunities whether they are domestic or international. This unique regional initiative with Allegro will identify competitive, in-demand, priority sites and spur economic development across a wide swath of Northeast Ohio.”
- Gregg Cramer, Vice President of Economic Development, Greater Akron Chamber
This effort complements other programs and initiatives Team NEO is implementing to build a pipeline of attractive sites, including NEO RightSites and Job Hubs. Most recently, Team NEO’s RightSites Council (RSC) – comprised of regional leaders from real estate, construction, development, finance, and utilities – took a deep dive on equity, sustainability, and talent implications to site selection, providing a perspective that guided work on the Where Matters Report coauthored by the Fund for Our Economic Future. Where Matters was used as the foundation to build an innovative, first-of-its-kind Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) site selection tool that enables businesses to compare development sites across Northeast Ohio against factors related to racial equity, climate change, and access to talent.
The team will provide a recommendation by 2Q 2023. This analysis will enable the team to confidently pursue the opportunities that best align with the economic development goals of Cuyahoga and Summit Counties.
About Team NEO
Team NEO is a private, nonprofit economic development organization accelerating business growth and job creation throughout the 18 counties of the Northeast Ohio Region. As the designated JobsOhio Network Partner, we align and amplify local economic development efforts in the region’s 18-counties; we conduct research and data analysis to inform local conversations and influence solutions; we market the Northeast Ohio Region; and we work to increase access to jobs, education and training for the region’s 4.3 million people. We do this to build a more vibrant regional economy; one that is more talented, equitable, competitive, innovative, resilient and prosperous. For more information, visit teamneo.org.
About JobsOhio
JobsOhio is a private nonprofit economic development corporation designed to drive job creation and new capital investment in Ohio through business attraction, retention and expansion. The organization also works to seed talent production in its targeted industries and to attract talent to Ohio through Find Your Ohio. JobsOhio works with six regional partners across Ohio: Dayton Development Coalition, Ohio Southeast Economic Development, One Columbus, REDI Cincinnati, Regional Growth Partnership and Team NEO. Learn moreatwww.jobsohio.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.