Strategic Business Investment Division

Ohio Job Ready Sites Program

Program Concept:
The State will sell $150 million in bonds during a seven-year period to fund the availability of JRS Program grant awards.  Each grant is capped at $5 million and may be used to offset costs traditionally incurred in industrial and commercial site development, from acquisition of real property to utility upgrades to construction build-out of speculative facilities.
Funds are directed strategically to achieve two equally important objectives: (1) to create sites filling gaps in Ohio’s current site inventory and (2) to foster unique, catalytic re-investments in developed areas of the State.  As such, JRS Program funds are available each year to a limited number of sites that offer Ohio’s best opportunities for future large-scale development and/or re-use.

Obtaining Funds:
Grants are awarded to applicants through both a competitive application process and via direct application to the Director of the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD).
Under the competitive application process, an applicant submits materials describing site ownership, layout, and the proposed plan for improvements.  After an initial review and recommendation by the State’s Public Works District Integrating Committees, ODOD convenes a team of agency staff and outside site selection consultants to review each application and conduct site visits, selecting those sites best positioned for future large-scale development.
The Director’s discretionary allocation process makes funds available to improve sites for speedy development by identified large-scale end users which intend to occupy the properties.

Program’s First Funding Round:
A team comprised of ODOD staff and professionals from The Austin Company, a Cleveland-based nationally recognized site selection and engineering firm, reviewed a total of 63 qualified applications (52 competitive and 11 discretionary applications) submitted for the program’s first funding round.  After a comprehensive review and scoring process during the period September to December 2006, the team identified twenty projects for funding assistance, awarding a total $60 million at an average $3 million grant per project.  Funded projects included those proposing to create sites of 200+ acres, with rail service, for large-scale manufacturing; 1,000+ acres for so-called “mega” manufacturing for use by steel mills, auto assembly plants and similar large end users; and research and development and “smart” office parks each comprised of at least 150,000 sq ft. of commercial space.