Attracting businesses and manufacturers to the area is not a random process.
It requires a dedicated team working with state and local officials to identify available space and incentives to land a firm, which usually brings along a certain number of high-paying employment opportunities.
“There are so many places to choose from; I think that’s why our organization exists,” says Nico Samaniego, Director of Economic Development at the Greater Sandusky Partnership. “We believe we live in such a unique place that offers experiences and communities unlike others. It’s our role, along with our other partners, to lean into those assets and make sure the world knows about it.”
The Greater Sandusky Partnership (GSP) is a patchwork of economic development organizations in Erie County, according to Samaniego. The idea was to align the strategies of the different organizations to have a greater impact on the community, rather than what was being done individually.
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Nico Samaniego“This has been a conversation for a long time and there were a lot of people who always felt that this was the best path forward,” he said. “I think we were in a unique environment that allowed for more open-mindedness and a willingness to actually make those tough decisions and accomplish this broader goal.”
The Huron County Growth Partnership is another organization that arose out of other economic development groups to focus on the entire county over the narrower focus of what used to be known as the Norwalk Economic Development Corporation.
“We’ve all put our egos aside in pursuit of the mission,” says Executive Director Sarah Ross. “When we became the Huron County Growth Partnership, it was a partnering of Huron County Development, Norwalk Development and the Huron County Chamber of Commerce. We are trying to build support for that and put together a plan to see if people would be willing to follow it.”
There’s also built-in synergy between the Greater Sandusky Partnership and the
Ottawa County Improvement Corporation (OCIC), starting with an infrastructure that has State Route 2 and the Ohio Turnpike traversing both counties from east to west. Then there’s Lake Erie, one of the largest bodies of freshwater in the country. Also,
Erie and Ottawa Counties make up the Sandusky Metropolitan Statistical Area.
“When you look at the eastern half of Ottawa County combined with what happens in Erie County along the lake from Vermilion to Sandusky and Bay View, there are no two counties in Ohio, in my opinion, that have more in common than we do,” says Chris Singerling, OCIC executive director. “There are plenty of counties that have agriculture and manufacturing or this and that, but the one thing that makes us so unique is the impact that tourism and the lake have on our two communities.”
In Erie County
GSP is the result of the integration of several entities including Erie County Chamber of Commerce, Huron Chamber of Commerce, and Erie County Economic Development Corporation and its programs like Firelands Forward Workforce Development and the Regional Incubator for Sustainability & Entrepreneurship (RISE).
Workforce Development at GSP is a tri-county initiative to attract, retain and develop talent in the region. Huron County Growth Partnership, Ottawa County Improvement Corporation and others from Erie, Huron and Ottawa counties are involved in this initiative supporting the programs mission of connecting a stable, skilled and supported workforce to meaningful and sustaining employment.
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Chris SingerlingGSP and HCGP also partner on a second initiative, Regional Incubator for Sustainability and Entrepreneurship (RISE), which provides support for aspiring entrepreneurs and existing small business owners in Erie and Huron counties.
Organizations such as GSP often work as a clearing house to guide prospective businesses through the myriad of federal, state and local incentives. That work was instrumental in bringing
Aligned Data to the old New Departure site, which included lining up a variety of incentives from Perkins Township, the Erie County Port Authority, the Brownfield Remediation Grant Program, and the State of Ohio to purchase and clean up the property, redevelop it and to recently break ground on its first new data centers facility scheduled for the property.
Another effort was keeping the American Colors headquarters in Sandusky.
“They were looking to do an expansion and when a company like that is looking to do an expansion, they look at all of their sites and find where the expansion best fits,” Samaniego says. “When that decision-making process is coming, they reach out to local economic development organizations like ours and talk through the process. Based on the capital investment, the jobs created, the payroll associated with the jobs being created, the existing payroll, we helped identify incentives for them to make a decision to expand in the region instead of other locations.”
A big part of the economic development picture in the area is the availability of space or buildings to accommodate the business or manufacturer, along with local infrastructure and Lake Erie. After that, a higher quality of living in the communities that make up the county and its schools plays a factor.
“It’s rare to find a community of this size where you can get to know people so well at the same time having some of the amenities that, quite frankly, you don’t have in some big cities,” Samaniego says. “I like to think the lake is a huge asset, but once you come here and feel that sense of community while having some great experiences that make you think you are in a big city, that is truly what makes people want to stay here and grow here.”
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Sarah RossIn Huron County
While agriculture is an important part of the economy in Erie and Ottawa counties, it is a primary focus in Huron County. However, it’s not the only thing produced there.
More than 600,000 hamburger buns are supplied to McDonald’s restaurants from the
New Horizons Baking Co. in Norwalk, while the
Stanley Black & Decker plant in Willard manufactures riding lawn mowers and snow blowers. Willard is also home of
Lakeside Books, which printed the first eight million copies of the Harry Potter series, as well as the
Pepperidge Farms facility that produced more than 200 million pounds of the company's popular Goldfish crackers in 2023.
The county has also been recognized in consecutive years on the Top 100 Micropolitan list, compiled by Site Selection magazine. The list is created by comparing job creation projects in smaller communities.
“One of the things that we have always lived by is the main way we attract business is by retaining our current businesses, so the best thing that we can do is provide the best possible customer service to our current businesses,” Ross says. “That’s really important to us. Not only that they thrive here, but also because their customers and suppliers are our best chance if we’re going to attract new businesses.”
Combining the efforts of the Norwalk Economic Development Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce allows the Huron County Growth Partnership to expand its reach throughout the county. That is the focus of Andrea Welfle, marketing and community outreach coordinator.
“We are really providing as many resources and tools as we can to businesses that are already here, to provide value to them, to make it apparent to them as to why they chose this location, and then build on what we are able to provide them as far as resources, funding and workforce talent pool,” Welfle says. “Then use their knowledge and expertise to attract other businesses to this area.”
Ross and her team also rely heavily on The Ohio State University Extension office for its agricultural expertise and available funding.
“We are full-time dot connectors, as I like to say,” Ross says. “That is definitely what we do the most of and we have the vision to grow the tools in our own tool belt. We have local tax incentives on property tax and income tax, we look to grow that with more loan and grant programs and more actual incentives that we can administer.
“But at the end of the day, as long as we’re allowed to leverage our resources and leverage funding for our businesses, it doesn’t matter if it comes from our pocketbook or someone else’s. We just want to get the right people connected in the right places.”
In Ottawa County
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Andrea WelfleOttawa County is blessed in its geography. Its western end of the county is heavily agricultural but still is just minutes away from downtown Toledo, with Detroit located just another hour away to the northwest. Tourism is a big part of the draw to the eastern section of the county with its proximity to the islands and the attractions of Sandusky, while probably not much more than an hour's drive east to Cleveland.
The county also has
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station along the lake near Oak Harbor, a thriving industrial park between the power plant and Port Clinton and the
Erie-Ottawa International Airport, which has a customs office and is able to receive passengers from abroad.
“We can position ourselves for some opportunities, but we also want to make sure it’s what our communities want as well,” Singerling says. “What we know from history and economics in general, when you’ve got diversity in your communities, that is what attracts people. We have good schools, we have the assets, so now it’s positioning each of the municipalities and townships that want to be involved in these efforts to do so.”
Resources such as the Jobs Ohio Network provide a database to list property, whether it be land or buildings, along with access to infrastructure, such as transportation and basic utility hookups. Those databases are then used by national site selection firms, which match potential clients with the locations and the property entities to begin the process.
Availability always plays a large role.
Logistiq, a division of the Sandusky-based firm
LEWCO, moved to the Lake Erie Business Park west of Port Clinton because the building was there to house the operation.
“They were growing very quickly with that Logistic division with its hybrid custom e-commerce conveyor belt systems that they are building,” Singerling says. “There are also local incentives specifically around enterprise zones and reinvestment areas where you can do tax abatements for a certain amount of time.
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Courtesy of Huron County Growth PartnershipA mural in downtown Norwalk“What I’ve found is site selectors are keen on those things, so when a business is looking they are going to be looking for those things.”
A high quality of life and a strong workforce are other considerations for businesses when thinking about relocation. Good schools, strong communities and partnerships such as Firelands Forward Workforce Development are key elements.
“I’d argue that our workforce, our midwestern work ethic, is part of it, as is our geography, our natural assets with the lakes and the islands and the things that come with that,” Singerling says. “I think all of those things come into play.”
All For One
Competition to bring a new business or manufacturer is intense. The firms can move anywhere and are looking, not only for the best fit but also for the best business deal it can get.
However, the interesting thing about economic development is that any success has a ripple effect that is felt throughout the area. It’s not uncommon for workers at a company in one county to live in another, bringing along with them their paychecks and their children.
“When you think about the last five people you spoke to, how many live and work in the same community?” Ross asks. “We’re all crossing borders every day but sometimes we have to do our work according to boundaries you see on a map because of funding. Because we’re all private non-profit agencies, we’re able to think a little broader than the black lines you see on a map.”
“We work very closely with Huron County, Ottawa County, Sandusky County and even Seneca County as we navigate our unique region and unique attributes to the broader state and broader country,” Samaniego adds. “We want to make sure we’re all singing the same song as to why this region is a great place to invest in.”