Hemisphere: About Us

CASE STUDY: Tinkers Creek

DETERMINATION AND CREATIVITY RECLAIM COUNTY’S LARGEST BROWNFIELD

For nearly two decades, the 50-acre former S.K.Wellman facility stood as one of the largest undeveloped sites in Cuyahoga County. Located on Egbert Road in Bedford, Ohio, Brush Wellman operated the site as a major manufacturing facility from 1952 to 1986. However, numerous unresolved environmental issues branded the site undevelopable. While many parties, including the city, evaluated the site for acquisition, ultimately no party was willing to tackle the site’s inherent complexities and risks. As this property was the last significant parcel of land for commercial development in the City of Bedford, identifying a developer capable of tackling the property’s challenges was core to the city’s economic development strategy.

Hemisphere Leads Redevelopment Effort
Hemisphere forged a public/private partnership consisting of the City of Bedford, Cuyahoga County, the State of Ohio and HUD, to resolve all historical environmental issues hindering the site’s redevelopment. These issues included the existence of former underground storage tanks, a PCB spill area, metals and VOC contamination from manufacturing operations, a captive landfill, former waste lagoons, a significant wetlands mitigation project and nearly 500,000 square feet of historical building foundations requiring demolition.

Hemisphere developed a plan to turn this site into a highly competitive commercial/industrial park to retain and attract new businesses to the area. The plan includes expansion space for Ben Venue Laboratories, a subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim and Ohio’s premier pharmaceutical company, a state of the art headquarters and manufacturing facility for Taylor Chair Company, Ohio’s oldest continuous manufacturing company, operating in Bedford for over 100 years, and a facility for Hemisphere’s headquarters. Without this project, the City of Bedford faced the threat of losing Taylor Chair to a neighboring community due to the lack of developable land in the city.

Landmark Grant Aids in Funding
Despite several funding setbacks, Hemisphere doggedly pursued its development strategy. Working with Cuyahoga County, Hemisphere won a nationwide competition and was awarded a $2 million Brownfield Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) grant from HUD and a $4 million Section 108-guaranteed loan to the project. This project was the only development in Ohio to receive such funding. Hemisphere’s structured financing also included funding tranches from the State of Ohio and Cuyahoga County.

Generating Economic Opportunity
With its completion, this project will provide a tremendous economic boost to the City of Bedford, resulting in the creation of up to 965 new jobs in an area hit hard by unemployment, generating significant new tax revenues for the area.