The Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund is an independent nonprofit organization. In addition to bringing good jobs to neighborhoods, we expect our work to reduce blight, promote environmental sustainability, and help residents build wealth.
Mayor Justin Bibb campaigned for office with an expectation of promoting economic recovery, not just from the Covid pandemic, but from decades of disinvestment. He also promised to modernize government services and bring growth to the neighborhoods of Cleveland.
Once in office, he joined with City Council to deploy Cleveland’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) allocation as strategically as possible. They shared a goal of addressing what had historically seemed the intractable challenge of industrial brownfields. In May of 2023, they agreed to dedicate $50 million of ARP dollars to seed this work. They set a goal of reactivating up to 1000 acres and creating 25,000 jobs.
The Mayor and City Council created the Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund to advance their vision. Together, they set additional goals, appointed the board, and established a services agreement with the Cuyahoga County Land Bank. The organization formally launched in August of 2023.
The Site Readiness Fund works closely with the Cuyahoga Land Bank as our execution arm and we partner with the City of Cleveland, JobsOhio, Team Northeast Ohio, Cuyahoga County, The Cleveland Foundation, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the Fund for Our Economic Future, Ohio Means Jobs, and community development corporations across the city. We maintain close ties with neighborhood groups to ensure that development is consistent with the aims of residents. We also nurture relationships with real estate developers, financiers, and impact investors across the region and country.
The Site Readiness Fund is an independent nonprofit organization. In addition to bringing good jobs to neighborhoods, we expect our work to reduce blight, promote environmental sustainability, and help residents build wealth. To advance that latter objective, our financing model is set up to ensure that a share of the wealth generated by the fund stays in the neighborhoods where we work.
Cleveland was once one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the nation. It was a veritable who’s who of industrial America. The city grew up as a “walk to work” community with manufacturing facilities nestled within neighborhoods. Since the 1950’s, however, Cleveland has experienced outmigration and industry downsizing. The result has been the loss of good jobs which in turn has contributed to dramatic population loss, high poverty rates and chronic disinvestment. The city, which once boasted a population of 970,000, currently has 370,000 residents and Cleveland lost over 300,000 jobs over the same period. Currently, over 20% of Cleveland’s 77 square miles of land mass sits vacant, with much of it unusable in its present form due to brownfield blight.
But within the nearly 10,000 acres of vacant land lies enormous opportunity. Greater Cleveland is still a national center of manufacturing innovation. Within Ohio, itself ranked third nationally for manufacturing jobs, the Cleveland MSA ranks first statewide in manufacturing jobs and GDP, exceeding the next closest Ohio MSA by 50%.
Concurrently, a massive realignment of manufacturing and production is occurring across the country and globe. Manufacturers, scarred by pandemic-induced disruptions and global trade uncertainties are reshoring supply chains. The reinvention of the automotive and energy industries along with the constant innovation within healthcare and electronics has resulted in massive capital investment, all of this spurred by trillions of dollars of public investment through the Inflation Reduction, CHIPS, and Bipartisan Infrastructure Acts as well as ongoing investment in the Defense industry.
If Cleveland can create job-ready sites that match market needs, we have the people, the know-how, the proximity, and the business infrastructure for growing companies to prosper and create opportunities for Cleveland’s residents.
Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund
812 Huron Avenue, Suite 280
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
