THE VISION ISSUE - City of Shaker Heights

a focus on
Business
Development
The Shaker Heights Economic Development Plan lays the groundwork
for creating a healthy tax base – and in many respects, a new city.
BY JENNIFER KUHEL
For the past one hundred years, Shaker Heights has been a suburb admired for its beauty,
progressive values, and commitment to its schools. By the time the City celebrates its
bicentennial in 2112, Shaker Heights’ Economic Development Director Tania Menesse
wants the City to have earned a reputation for something else: being a business-friendly
community.
The City’s Economic Development Plan, now two years in action, provides the roadmap
for achieving that.
“What we have had to deal with head-on is the fact that we have largely obsolete buildings
– from a professional business perspective – and a commercial property tax rate that
makes it really difficult to attract businesses,” explains Menesse. “We had to face that and
then figure out what we were going to do about it.”
What Menesse and others from the Shaker Heights’ Planning Department have done is
to make a commitment to diversify the tax base and to attract enough business to support
the retail and restaurants that residents want.
“There is a point where people can make decisions because they want to support their
community. They want a work-live environment that’s positive, but you have to make the
economics work,” says Menesse. “What I explain to people is that the incentives we’re putting
together level the playing field so that if you want to have your business in Shaker it’s
not so cost prohibitive that you can’t.”
The first step in the City’s Economic Development Plan was to identify the types of
businesses that made the most sense in Shaker Heights. The clear winners were: professional
services, including boutique legal, consulting, human resource, and financial services
firms; ambulatory care, including therapeutic services and geriatric care; technology
companies; and architectural/design firms.
With those business segments identified, in April 2011, the City launched two incentive
programs geared to creating favorable business conditions – the Vision Fund, a forgivable
loan program, and the Ignition Fund, a microfinance program.
continued on page 44
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