Northeast Ohio: The 'Heart of the Heart'

Ohio markets itself as the "heart of the market." Northeast Ohio is the bullseye on the target, sitting centerpoint in the nation's heaviest concentration of industry.

The area surrounding Northeast Ohio ranks among the top five U.S. population centers, behind New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles and ahead of Washington, D.C. Thus, the area is within one day's drive of four of the top five population centers in the U.S.

In a surprising turn-about from the Rust Belt economy of yesteryear, the region is now one of the hottest areas in the U.S. for business investment.

Northeast Ohio accounts for a large percentage of new business formations in the state and has one of the highest levels of investment in new plants and expansions. Two metro areas (out of 330) ranked in the top 10 in Site Selection's 1994 tally of industrial investment. Cleveland's No. 3 ranking and Youngstown-Warren's No. 9 show the enormous industrial power of Northeast Ohio.

The area is laced with transportation advantages: three interstates, three commercial airports, ports on the Great Lakes and on the Ohio River and mainline trackage of three railroads.

To tap the potential of those transportation assets, six northeastern counties recently formed NEOTEC (Northeastern Ohio's Trade and Economic Consortium). The consortium coordinates intermodal shipping opportunities from the region to the world. The idea is to provide a seamless intermodal transportation network and a one-stop shop for distribution services.

It is expected that the far Northeastern Ohio counties bordering Lake Erie will join NEOTEC, adding an ocean shipping dimension to the air-truck-rail-river barge package.

The NEOTEC area encompasses a population of about 1.6 million. The area runs from the suburban counties southeast of Cleveland down to Columbiana County, the northern-most point on the U.S. inland river system for access to New Orleans and South America.

NEOTEC came about as an initiative from Gov. Voinovich's office to develop intermodal shipping opportunities and international trade along regional lines.

Four pieces comprise NEOTEC's intermodal package:

• An international cargo airport at Youngstown;
• A new rail-truck transfer facility at Massillon;
• An industrial park on Conrail's main east-west line in Columbiana County and an intermodal industrial park on the Ohio River in Columbiana County; and
• Rail -- A commuter rail line connecting the population centers of Canton, Akron and Cleveland and east-west freight and passenger rail links between Canton-Akron and Youngstown-Warren.

Throughout the region are several Foreign Trade Zones and subzones. The availability of the zones mean large savings in costs and in time for international shippers, who are often delayed at congested East Coast ports. Shippers can bring a bonded container by rail or truck from an East Coast port to one of the NEOTEC intermodal sites, break customs at the site and get back to the East Coast quicker than clearing customs and devanning in, say, New York.

The international jet cargo airport at Youngstown-Warren will be one of the first components of the NEOTEC confederation. An existing 9,000-ft. runway will be expanded to 15,000. Another runway will be added, so that the superport will be able to accept the largest cargo craft now in use, as well as those planned for the future.

The surrounding 5,000 acres -- all level terrain -- provide space for development of a distribution hub.

The jetport sits just off the four-laned Route 11, a few miles south of Interstates 80 and 76. It's within 50 miles of Cleveland and Pittsburgh and within one day's drive of 65 percent of the nation's population.

It is intended to have the air cargo port in operation by 1997.

Air transport is, of course, the carrier of choice for time-sensitive, high-value, light-weight parts, components and finished products. The availability of the cargo airport at Youngstown dovetails strongly with one of the strengths of Northeast Ohio: the polymer institute at the University of Akron and the Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University. The universities are seeking joint ventures and strategic partnerships with international companies to manufacture the commercial products flowing from the research labs.

Youngstown-Warren Airport is the site of a new air cargo superport.

Kent State in Portage County patented the liquid crystal technology now licensed all over the world for use in flat panel displays in such products as wrist watches and lap-top computers, among many others.

Flat panel displays are expected to be a $20 billion a year industry by the end of the century. Companies will be looking for sites where they can tap the technology at the universities and which have good access to the air cargo jetport at Youngstown, for import and export of the parts and products.

In Stark County a state-of-the art rail-truck intermodal facility was just completed at Massillon. The facility can service double stack railcars, containers or truck trailers on flat cars and standard tractor trailer units. Intended as a Just-in-Time operation, the facility can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It will have the capability to service a 50-rail car train as staged within four hours.

The rail cars, delivered to the intermodal site by the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad, connect with Norfolk Southern and Conrail at the site, giving shippers a choice of carriers.

The facility also has a foreign trade zone and can handle ISO containers or truck trailers.

In Columbiana County, a 100-acre rail-truck-barge intermodal industrial park and Foreign Trade Zone will be developed on the Ohio River. A second 150-acre industrial park with Foreign Trade Zone is on Conrail's main line just south of Youngstown.

Bulk materials and large items, such as steel billets, can barge up the Mississippi from New Orleans under bond and break customs in the Foreign Trade Zone. River shippers thus not only save on costs by delaying payment of customs duties, they also save on transportation costs -- shipping by barge is about eight times cheaper than any other mode of transportation. Columbiana's East Liverpool river port is the largest in Ohio and one of the largest in the U.S.

The Columbiana County Port Authority expects to have the intermodal site in operation by 1997.

Tying Columbiana even tighter to Northeast Ohio are improvements in State Route 30. The road will connect the Midwest to the Port of East Liverpool via Canton, providing the shortest four-lane route to Chicago from the Pennsylvania border.

The fourth piece of the transportation picture is the linkage of Canton, Akron and Cleveland -- one of the fastest growing corridors in the state -- by commuter rail. Under the governor's regionalized development plan, this is the state's No. 1 public transportation project involving rail.

	East-west passenger and freight service through Summit, Portage, Mahoning and Stark counties is also a priority. The Summit County Port Authority owns the track, with the Wheeling & Lake Erie short line providing the rolling stock and transportation services.
The Ohio River adds a low-cost barge shipping dimension to Ohio's distribution picture.

Summit County is home to the University of Akron and Portage County to Kent State University. The passenger service will allow students to take classes at both universities via a 15-minute train ride. This is important because of synergies between the two universities in polymer and liquid crystal research.

Summit County already has one of the largest concentrations of distribution facilities in the state, a legacy of the time when the county was the capital of the tire industry. The rail line will put Akron area manufacturers within an hour of the cargo airport at Youngstown.

Businesses are already beginning to reactivate their usage of the short line for freight shipments. Rail freight tonnage will no doubt increase with development of several Foreign Trade Zone sites in the central and northern portions of Summit County.

Summit County also has a Foreign Trade Zone at Akron-Canton Airport. The 143-acre zone, which includes the CAK International Business Park, is operated by ASW Services.

ASW Services manages over four million sq. ft. of manufacturing and distribution space in Northeast Ohio and the Detroit metro area. In addition to design/build and property management capabilities, the company is a provider of warehousing, shipping, inventory management and other logistics services to many Fortune 500 companies and others.

Beginning business as a public storage warehouser, ASW has added a large line of services, including plastics manufacturing and processing, material refining and packaging, trucking, transloading and equipment leasing.

First tenant in the Foreign Trade Zone business park is Norwe, a German manufacturer of coil formers for electrical machinery. ASW has another 250,000-sq. ft. building under construction.