According to data released last week by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), Ohio's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped from 7.1 percent in March 2013 to 7.0 percent in April 2013, while the U.S. unemployment rate dropped from 7.6 percent in March to 7.5 percent in April, a press release from the department said. The number of unemployed workers in the state decreased by 7,000 in April to 400,000. During that time, the state's nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 7,600. For more, including employment figures by industry, read the full press release.

Last week, the Ohio Senate passed S.B. 112, which will provide a two-year extension to the Enterprise Zone program.  According to the Gongwer Ohio Report, the program is intended to encourage business development in distressed communities. Proponents of the program described it as a "valuable economic tool" that is sometimes the best way for many communities to attract new business, while opponents remarked that the program failed to meet its initial goal and was instead encouraging development in "more affluent suburban areas," the article said. For more, read the full text of S.B. 112.

The Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance, a nonprofit economic development agency, announced last week that homeowners working to make energy efficiency upgrades as part of its Home Performance with Energy Star Program will now have financing available for their projects through the agency's new Greater Cincinnati Home Energy Loan Program, Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The agency is putting $1 million into the program's fund, which will be used to provide low-interest loans that will enable homeowners to finance their home energy efficiency projects. The projects must, at a minimum, cause "a 15 percent reduction in their home's energy usage," the agency said on its website. For more, read the full Cincinnati Enquirer story and the full Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance story.

Regional economic development organization Team Northeast Ohio (Team NEO) released a report last week finding that during 2012, the 18-county Northeast Ohio region added 36,383 jobs, $1.7 billion in capital investment and $1.6 billion in payroll, The Vindicator reports. The report credited Ohio's shale boom with bringing more than $5 billion in pledged investments to the area and noted that the national shale boom is causing a resurgence in that region's manufacturing sector. The report also mentioned the state's healthcare/biotechnology sector as a source of “amazing” growth related to the commercialization of new products. For more, read the full article and report.

As the Kasich administration works to attract capital investments in Ohio companies, Mark Kvamme, the former JobsOhio chief, co-founded the Columbus-based Drive Capital fund last year with plans to raise $300 million mainly for investments in Ohio and the Midwest, Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Meanwhile, Dan Gilbert, general partner in Detroit Venture Partners – "a venture capital firm that backs seed and early stage companies" – launched a tech-based accelerator in Detroit and Cleveland known as Bizdom that "gives portfolios $25,000 in seed funding." The firm is considering creating a third accelerator in Cincinnati, the article said. For more, read the full story.

Chief Executive magazine's annual survey found that Ohio has the most-improved business climate of any state, jumping 13 spots from 35th to 22nd, The Plain Dealer reports. State officials welcome this heightened appreciation of Ohio, as gleaned from the 700 chief executive respondents, but insist that more work must be done to get the state into the top 10. For more, read the full story.

Bricker & Eckler associate Caleb Bell recently served as a panelist at the Central Ohio NAIOP's Six Pack for Lunch event that took place on March 20, 2013, at the firm's main office in Columbus. A member of the firm's Public Finance group, Caleb explained the meaning and uses of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing, which is a unique option for financing energy efficiency and alternative energy projects. Bricker & Eckler is Ohio's leader in PACE law. For more, watch the full video.

The Columbiana County Port Authority and the Ohio Development Services Agency are butting heads over whether the port authority must repay a $305,000 state grant, Salem News reports.  The 2007 grant was for the port authority’s role in the Baard Energy project, a coal-to-liquid fuel plant in Yellow Creek Township. Under the terms of the award agreement, according to the article, the project was required to create 200 new jobs. The port's CEO, Tracy Drake, contends that the port authority cannot be held responsible for Baard’s failure to create jobs.  DSA disagrees but will "delay seeking reimbursement if the port authority secures a new job-creation commitment on the property by Dec. 31 and 'enters into a revised agreement with the (DSA) to reflect the new job creation commitment,'" the article said. For more, read the full story.

Christiane Schmenk, former director of the Ohio Development Services Agency, has joined the law firm of Bricker & Eckler as of counsel to the firm's public finance group. She will be a member of the economic development and public sector groups and will serve as senior vice president for Argus Growth Consultants, the firm's wholly-owned subsidiary focused on economic development consulting services. For more, read the full press release.

"Investing in Brownfields: The Economic Benefits of the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund," a study released recently by the Greater Ohio Policy Center, found that 21 Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund projects that received $49.3 million in grants "produced $1.16 billion in one-time contributions to Ohio's gross domestic product and $1.4 billion in annual contributions," Columbus Business First reports. Clean Ohio has given $315 million in grants to "support the cleanup of 160 brownfield sites since 2002," but "time and resource constraints" forced the Greater Ohio Policy Center to utilize a representative sample of only 21 projects instead of analyzing all of them, the article said. For more, read the full story and the full report.

The state's Edison Technology Incubator Program is now under the authority of the Ohio Third Frontier, but the Ohio Development Services Agency left three ideas for the commission to consider that would significantly change how Ohio's business incubators receive state money, Crain's Cleveland Business reports (See our Apr 26, 2013, blog post for more information). As they stand, the ideas would allow other incubators to compete for the program's state money; require the incubators to push "more mature companies" out of the incubator within a certain amount of time; and require incubators to direct one-third of all operating funds "directly to the startup companies they support."  Although the changes are meant to encourage startup companies to become "thriving, independent job creators" within three to five years, representatives for several incubators are expressing concern that these proposals fail to take into account the specific circumstances that can prevent a startup from leaving within three to five years, and the fact that services would likely be reduced should one-third of operating funds be directed to startups, the article said. For more, read the full story.

Out of the 282 entities that applied for more than $21.9 billion from the federal New Markets Tax Credits program, five Ohio groups received $145 million, The Plain Dealer and Business Courier report. The program, which "helps attract investment in underserved regions that would otherwise suffer from a lack of financing," awarded the following to Ohio organizations: the Cincinnati Development Fund received $35 million to invest in "brownfield redevelopment, nutritional access programs and educational improvement efforts"; the Kroger Community Development Entity received $20 million to help "attract investment in underserved regions"; the Cleveland Development Advisors – an arm of the Greater Cleveland Partnership – received $30 million to "shore up real estate projects in low-income pockets" of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County; the Ohio Community Development Finance Fund received $40 million to "help finance local community development projects, cultivate economic growth, and create jobs"; and the Dayton Regional New Market Fund was awarded $20 million to invest in "comprehensive neighborhood redevelopment projects." For more, read the full Plain Dealer story, the full Business Courier story, and press releases from U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) announcing the awards for the following areas: Northeast Ohio, Dayton, Cincinnati and throughout Ohio.

The Ohio Third Frontier Commission is contacting 10 Edison Technology Incubators across the state to discuss potential funding changes related to the transition from oversight by the Ohio Development Services Agency's Industrial Technology and Enterprise Advisory Council to oversight by the Third Frontier, The Vindicator reports. The move aims to align the Edison program with the Third Frontier’s technology-centered efforts, which represent “the future of the state's economy.”  For more, read the full story.

New analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals that the "dollar amount of first-quarter venture capital investments in Ohio sank" in 2013 to its lowest level since the first quarter of 2011, Business Courier reports. The report found that in the first quarter of 2013, venture capital firms invested $35.3 million in 17 Ohio companies – a plunge of 73 percent from the previous year.  One large deal, however, inflated 2012's figures. For more, read the full story.

The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber reports that an era of productivity and growth is sweeping the Mahoning Valley with the chamber working on "five projects likely to bring in $30 million in investment and jobs" since January, The Business Journal reports. $759 million worth of "projects in the pipeline" should translate into 1,200 new jobs in the 12-18 months, according to the report. Approximately half of the projects currently underway are related to the oil and gas industry, with others in food manufacturing and distribution, aluminum, and service-related industries, the article said. For more, read the full story.

BioLOGIC, a life science biotech incubator and accelerator in Covington, Kentucky, has announced a new partnership with Cincinnati-based Innov8 for Health. Innov8 for Health helps build health care startups by connecting entrepreneurs, investors and health care executives, and by providing "mentoring and seed capital from an Ohio New Entrepreneurs (One) fund," Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The new collaboration aims to provide BioLOGIC's owner, global technology and investment management group SIDIS Corp., with additional investment opportunities, while also providing "a possible landing pad" for Innov8 for Health's startups to accelerate their ideas, the article said. For more, read the full story.

In an effort to further Gov. John Kasich's Medical Corridor Initiative, the Ohio Development Services Agency’s Industrial Technology and Enterprise Advisory Council (ITEAC) announced last week that it has "approved $2.27 million for the Ohio Clinical Trials Collaborative," The Plain Dealer and a press release from the governor's office report. The initiative is designed to pool the strength of clinical research among eight institutions across Ohio in order to "increase the competitiveness of the state's biohealth industry." Case Western Reserve was awarded just over $1.98 million to lead the collaborative; BioEnterprise was awarded $187,450 to coordinate the Choose Ohio program for increasing sales of Ohio biomedical products nationally; and $100,000 was awarded to BioOhio to support collaboration efforts among the state's six pediatric hospitals. For more, read the full story and the full press release.

The Senate unanimously passed an amended version of S.B. 1 last week, creating the OhioMeansJobs Workforce Development Revolving Loan Program and using $25 million from the $200 million in casino licensing fees allocated to economic development to establish a fund for the program, according to the Gongwer Ohio Report. The Board of Regents will administer the program, which will allow public and private colleges, universities, and career centers to apply "for up to $100,000 total and individual student loans would be capped at $10,000 annually." For more, read the full text of S.B. 1.


Meanwhile, Ohio Reps. Dorothy Pelanda (R-Marysville) and Jack Cera (D-Bellaire) recently introduced legislation – H.B. 135 – that would amend the Ohio Revised Code to "authorize a nonrefundable credit against the income tax and certain business taxes for the rehabilitation of a vacant industrial site." For more, read the full text of H.B. 135.

Bruce Langos, chief operations officer of Miamisburg-based Teradata Corp., was recently reappointed to the Third Frontier Commission for a term that runs through April 1, 2016, Dayton Daily News reports. In addition, the Lake County Port Authority decided last week to hire Mark Rantala, executive director of the Nederland Economic Development Corp. in Texas, to serve as the port’s new executive director, The News-Herald reports. For more, read the full Dayton Daily News story and the full News-Herald story.

Cintrifuse, a "regional effort designed to ensure startups get the early stage venture capital they need to survive," announced during a meeting with Ohio Third Frontier officials last week that it expects to close on $10 million in funding from an undisclosed source, Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The entity, which is planning to move into a "40,000-square-foot campus in Over-the-Rhine," expects to eventually raise "between $50 million and $100 million." The funds, some amount of which came from "Procter & Gamble, The University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Western & Southern Financial Group and Duke Energy," will not be directly invested in regional startups – instead, Cintrifuse "will invest in roughly 10 venture capital funds around the country" with the idea being that "the quality of local startups will merit an investment," the article said. For more, read the full story.

Ohio Rep. Ronald V. Gerberry (D-Austintown) recently introduced H.B. 56, which would revise section 5709.73 of the Ohio Revised Code to "allow a board of township trustees to reduce the percentage or term of a property tax exemption granted to a business under a tax increment financing [known as TIF] agreement if the business fails to create the number of new jobs the business agreed to create in the agreement," according to the legislation. For more, read the full Daily Reporter story and the full text of H.B. 56.

A new economic impact study released this week by the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) in collaboration with Information Handling Services, Inc. (IHS) – a leading global research and consulting company – finds that with 89,423 workers, Ohio is second only to Michigan for those employed in making auto parts, Dayton Daily News reports. The motor vehicle parts manufacturers industry "directly employs more than 734,000 American workers and generates nearly $355 billion in GDP contribution, or 2.3 percent of the total U.S. GDP," a press release from MEMA said. For more, read the full Dayton Daily News story and the full MEMA press release.

When international shipping company DHL shuttered its Wilmington freight hub, cutting 8,000 jobs in a city of 42,000 residents, the area garnered international attention with some of the most painful economic stories of the Great Recession. After several years of hard work, the city and its remaining employers are starting to see signs of rebirth, Dayton Daily News reports. Airborne Maintenance and Engineering Services (AMES), for example, plans to hire 259 new employees and to build a $15 million repair hangar on DHL’s former site, now owned by the Clinton County Port Authority. Also, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority recently awarded tax credits to three other projects in the city. The loss of DHL in 2009 – and of the Clinton County Air Force Base in 1972 – has created a "a wider interest today in securing 'diversity'" in the employment base, the article said. For more, read the full story.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently released an announcement reminding qualifying businesses and organizations that May 6, 2013, is the filing deadline for federal economic injury disaster loans.  The loans are available in nine Ohio counties – Athens, Gallia, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Pike, Ross, Scioto and Vinton – as a result of the excessive rain and flooding that occurred on May 2-4, 2012. Eligible entities include "farm-related and nonfarm-related entities that suffered financial losses as a direct result of this disaster," the release said. For more, read the full press release.

Through the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing program, commercial borrowers are "set to receive record loans this year" for solar energy installations, Bloomberg reports (See our Feb 14, 2013, blog post for more information). The decision by two of the nation's largest commercial real estate owners – "Prologis, an international owner of industrial properties, and Simon Property Group, the country's largest U.S. Real Estate Investment Trust" – to use the program to fund projects ranging from rooftop solar panels to energy-saving systems has "radically changed market acceptance," Bond Buyer reports. Simon Property alone recently used $5 million in PACE financing for three energy efficiency projects in Ohio and California.

Although they vary from state to state, most PACE programs feature a municipal government that offers PACE bonds to investors who provide loans to businesses and consumers for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. The government provides financing by creating an assessment district that is added to the tax roll, which the property owner then pays on a tax bill for a period of up to 30 years.

At a time when banks are becoming "less eager to provide long-term capital for renewable energy," it is estimated that more PACE loans will be made in 2013 "than in the past four years combined," and that as much as $150 million in PACE loans will be provided for projects like these, Bloomberg reports. The commercial property side of the program is drawing so much interest, Bond Buyer reports that "market watchers think in a few years enough volume could exist in California to start bundling the currently privately-placed bonds to sell in the public market." For more, read the full Bloomberg story and the full Bond Buyer story.

Bricker & Eckler LLP is Ohio's leader in PACE law. Bricker attorneys assisted in drafting Ohio's PACE law and served as bond counsel for Ohio’s first three issues of PACE bonds, including the energy efficiency bonds for the Simon Properties' project in Lake County, Ohio.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) are teaming up to promote a new initiative directed at helping older individuals start their own businesses, The Toledo Blade reports. Free informational programs on how to secure financing, develop a business plan and make sure ideas are "viable and income-producing" are being offered this month – including one taking place from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Monday, April 29, 2013, at the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce. For more, including registration information, read the full story.

A company known as em3 LLC that was established in Springfield in 2006 closed up after receiving "nearly $1.1 million in publicly funded loans and incentives," Springfield News-Sun reports. Before closing in 2008 due to "multiple financial issues," the call center company received nearly $712,000 in the form of a Small Business Administration loan and $400,000 in local and state funding. For more, read the full story.

A new, in-depth Dayton Daily News investigation found that defaults on the Small Business Administration's largest federally guaranteed loan program, known as the 7(a) program, "cost taxpayers $1.3 billion since 2000." The investigation determined that years of "lax federal oversight," including the use of inflated real estate values and a failure to adhere to SBA standards, allowed lenders to make bad loans to franchises with "extensive default histories." From 1990 to February 2013, the 7(a) program – which is designed to "provide capital for small businesses, including those owned by minorities and women, that have had trouble getting conventional loans" – had a one-in-five failure rate for the nine-county Dayton region. For more, read the full story.

A "nine-quarter streak of increased sales per square footage in Kroger stores nationwide" has helped the company create 20,000 new full- and part-time jobs, including 5,000 in the Cincinnati area, WCPO9 reports. The region has benefitted from this national trend not only through increased store hiring in the area, but also in the Cincinnati headquarters, where employment has doubled since 2002.  For more, read the full story.

Also, Tennessee-based Avure Technologies – the "largest provider of ultra-high pressure systems to enhance material properties, form sheet metal, and pasteurize foods without heat or chemicals" – announced it is renovating a 50,000-square-foot facility at the Midd Cities Industrial Park in Middletown that its food division will use to produce high pressure processing (HPP) systems, Dayton Daily News reports. The facility, which is expected to be operational by the third quarter of 2013, will "house the company food division’s manufacturing, engineering, procurement and customer service operations," the article said. For more, read the full story.

University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono has been named to the Ohio Third Frontier Commission's 16-member advisory board, Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The commission allocates Third Frontier funds throughout Ohio in an effort to fuel innovative, "technology-based products, companies, industries and jobs." With just $118 million of the $1.17 billion spent by the organization in 2012 going toward Southwest Ohio, some in the local business community are optimistic that Ono's appointment will give the region "an influential voice" for funding allocations, the article said. For more, read the full story.

In an effort to "help small businesses establish themselves with government customers," the Ohio Development Services Agency hosted the 8th Annual Ohio Business Matchmaker Conference from March 28-29, 2013, at the Dayton Convention Center, Dayton Business Journal reports. Suppliers and buyers scheduled one-on-one,10-minute matchmaking meetings to "discuss one another's specific projects and capabilities," the conference website said. In addition to these meetings, the conference featured training for small businesses "on topics such as securing business with federal government prime contractors, expanding sales through exporting, opportunities for veterans and other business opportunities," a press release from the DSA said. For more, read the full Dayton Business Journal story and DSA press release, and visit the conference's website.

Ohio State University officials were in São Paulo, Brazil, recently to sign a $1.4 million funding agreement between the school and the state of São Paulo.  Under the agreement, the school and the state will collaborate on new studies that "can help citizens in both countries and people around the world," according to the Gongwer Ohio Report. The two entities, which each contributed $700,000 to kick-start the five-year program, already collaborate in such areas as translational plant science. This new agreement will allow "researchers from any department and discipline at Ohio State and São Paulo" to apply for funds to "begin or expand joint projects," such as for short-term exchanges, conferences, and research into studies of drug discovery; energy production; advanced materials; food security; and culture and history, a press release from the university said. $20,000 awards will be offered during the first year of the program "to encourage the formation of research collaborations," the release said. For more, read the full press release.

The dozen or so Transportation Improvement Districts across Ohio that formerly received "$250,000 in annual funding through an Ohio Department of Development roadwork development fund" must now compete for grants from the Ohio Department of Transportation that cover "10 percent of a project's cost or a maximum of $250,000," Zanesville Times Recorder reports. The Muskingum County TID recently considered going dormant due to this reduction in guaranteed funding, but its board voted to stay active and apply for ODOT funding to replace the Grantcliff Road Bridge, the article said. For more, read the full story.

The Columbiana Port Authority has announced a success toward its efforts at keeping "former industrial sites alive," The Herald-Star reports.  After taking ownership of the 326,000-square-foot former Eljer’s Plumbingware plant in Salem several years ago, the port authority recently transferred the property to Salem Logistics.  The port authority’s ownership of the property in the interim period ensured, among other things, that the dormant industrial site was "eligible to seek state grants to clean up the site" for any contamination that might have been found.  No contamination has been found, and Salem Logistics has made "more than $500,000 in building improvements," the article said. For more, read the full story.

On March 25, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved tax incentives for 13 projects across the state, The Columbus Dispatch and Business Courier report. These projects are expected to create 1,417 jobs and retain 2,995 jobs, while creating $57 million in new payroll and $86 million in investments across Ohio, The Dispatch reports. Among the companies whose proposals received approval for job creation tax credits are Verizon Wireless, Avure Technologies Inc., Control Concepts and Design Inc., Custom Molded Products LLC, DealerTrack Inc., Emery Oleochemicals LLC, Epipheo Inc., Praxair Distribution Inc. and SpeedFC. For more, read the full Columbus Dispatch story, the full Business Courier story and the full Businessweek story.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco overruled a district court last Tuesday when it ruled that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) does not have to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to underwrite mortgages for homes with Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans, Bond Buyer reports. Started in Berkeley, California, in 2008, PACE "allows residential and commercial property owners to use municipal bonds to finance energy efficiency and water conservation projects." Expressing concern over the fact that because "PACE liens are senior to the mortgage," the PACE lender would "be paid ahead of the bank, or Fannie or Freddie, in the case of foreclosure," FHFA effectively halted the program on the residential side in July 2010, the article said. PACE programs have emerged throughout the country to fund commercial, industrial and governmental projects, but FHFA’s position has blocked the use of PACE for residential projects. For more, read the full story (Subscription required).

Following a restructuring of its economic development department, the city of Springfield recently announced that Josh Rauch will serve as the city’s deputy economic development advisor, Springfield News-Sun reports. A Dayton native who received his master's in public administration from the University of Kansas, Rauch will be responsible for "Enterprise Zone and Community Reinvestment Area applications, administering city loan/incentive programs, working on grant procurement, and marketing efforts," the article said. For more, read the full story.

In an effort to become a "resource and facilitator for economic growth" in southern Ohio, Shawnee State University recently formed an economic development team.  The team will work to foster career and educational opportunities for students and staff "throughout the region in both the private and public sectors," Portsmouth Daily Times reports. For more, read the full story.