(Henry J. Gomez, Plain Dealer Reporter)
Efforts are under way to transform a sprawling section of Mayfield's Beta Drive business corridor into a technology-based office park.
Village Council this week approved a $50,000 development agreement with newly formed Panzica Investments, which has recruited three tech firms to open offices in the complex. Up to 200,000 square feet owned by parent company Panzica Group is available for the project.
Tony Panzica, president of the construction-services firm, is teaming with Cathy Horton, a lawyer with Cleveland's Thompson Hine LLP, to manage the tech park.
If it seems like an unusual marriage, that's because it is. The business partners, who hatched the idea shortly after their first date last fall, will tie the knot as life partners next month.
Panzica described it as love at first sight - "kind of fairy tale-ish, ya know?"
Mayor Bruce Rinker hopes it's happily ever after for Mayfield, too.
He said that while the eastern suburb is known for its office parks that house large public companies, such as insurance giant Progressive Corp., "stuff like this illustrates that we always look at smaller business as essential to the economy."
Under council's agreement, the village immediately will advance a quarter of the $50,000 to Panzica Investments.
The rest will be released in three $12,500 increments over the next nine months.
The village also will work to secure money from the state.
"Beta is kind of like the land that time forgot," the mayor said, noting that the loss of industrial offices has dealt a blow to the L-shaped industrial-office corridor off Wilson Mills Road. "To me, this is a very pragmatic way to provide an opportunity."
The tech park's inaugural tenants will be Akron software developer Ayalogic Inc., which plans to bring two employees, and Euclid software security firm PreEmptive Solutions LLC and startup Internet telephony outfit VoxTel LLC
- both of which will bring 10.
"We're on a month-to-month lease and running out of space where we're at now," said Gabriel Torok, president of PreEmptive, which is in the Euclid Medical Plaza. A chunk of the tech park's proposed space is occupied by nontech
companies, but Panzica said he will explore moving them to other Panzica Group properties or not renewing their leases.
By offering half-off rent discounts - $6 to $8 per square foot - and by seeking angel investments, Horton and Panzica hope eventually to land 24 tenants.
They will look primarily for local businesses that want to open additional offices or out-of-region firms.
"It's going to look a bit like a marble cake," Horton said.
"We want to have a dry cleaners, a Starbucks - everything strung together on one campus here."
Horton also envisions the tenants contributing to a group-rate buy of professional services such as clerical workers, human resources and legal counsel. That's where Thompson Hine comes in. Horton joined the law firm two weeks ago, coming from Akron's Roetzel & Andress.
After spending 20 years in London, where she worked for Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP and had a private tech consulting practice on the side, Horton returned to the region in 2003.
With her she brought some of the development ideas she saw while working with British Prime Minister Tony Blair's team of technology advisers. Horton said Thompson Hine, which is one of Cleveland's biggest law firms, expressed
an interest in hiring her away and piggybacking her project. The interest was mutual.
For Thompson Hine, it provides an opportunity to support economic development and a chance to offer legal services to tenants in the tech park, said Alvidas Jasin, the firm's director of business development.
While the firm isn't underwriting any of the tech park efforts, Jasin said Thompson Hine is compensating Horton for her work on the project in exchange for corporate sponsorship rights. The firm also is sponsoring "Red Room Dialogues,"
a series of tech-related discussions with local civic and business leaders at Cleveland City Hall.
Despite its involvement, Horton said the firm must avoid conflicts of interest, particularly when it comes to providing counsel to tech park tenants.
"The tenant would have to handle all leasing issues with another firm," Horton said.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: hgomez@plaind.com, 216-999-5405
Copyright 2005 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
April 23, 2005 Saturday
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