BUILDING COMMUNITY WEALTH TOTRANSFORM CLEVELAND AND CHANGE LIVES

GREATER UNIVERSITY CIRCLE INITIATIVECREATING CLEVELAND’S 21ST CENTURY COMMUNITY

Create Jobs for the Underemployed

Generate Wealth for Low-Income Residents

Stabilize Neighborhoods

University Circle Traditional Boundary

TRADITIONALBOUNDARY

GREATER UNIVERSITY CIRCLE “New Geography of Collaboration”

WADE PARK / HERITAGE LANE

EASTERN HOUGH/UPPER CHESTER

EASTERN FAIRFAX

BUCKEYE / SHAKERST. LUKE’S POINT

EAST CLEVELAND

ClevelandClinic

VAHospital

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ST 7

9th S

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CIT

Y L

INE

CIT

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SUPERIOR AVENUE

BUCKEYE / WOODLAND

LITTLE ITALY

Neighborhood Challenges

Neighborhood Challenges and

Indicators

NEIGHBORHOOD CHALLENGES

VACANT LAND

POOR & UNSOUND BUILDING CONDITIONS

WATER SHUT OFFS / TAX DELIQUENCIES / FORECLOSURES

NEIGHBORHOODS AT RISK

OUR STRATEGY

1. Focus anchor institution purchasing locally

2. Create new community-based businesses

3. Make it GREEN

4. Ensure financing to move to scale

INITIAL OPPORTUNITIES

Planning & Development • Institutional Records Retention • Home Care• Succession planning towards employee ownership• Light manufacturing

Launching in 2009-2010 1. Evergreen Cooperative

Laundry2. Ohio Cooperative Solar3. Community Voice (newspaper)4. Green City Growers

GOALS• Demonstrate feasibility of developing start-up cooperative linked to purchasing needs of

GUC anchors• Greenest commercial, industrial-scale laundry in NE Ohio• Hire 50 GUC residents - who will become Coop owners• Living wage salary; benefits; asset accumulation through equity ownership

PROGRESS

• Launch: July 2009; first employees now hired; build-out complete; equipment installed• 60% of commitments/contracts towards break-even in place• Management: Operations manager ran Akron General Laundry; CEO with 20 years of

employee ownership experience in steel industry • Secured $5.8 million of financing: $1.5 M HUD/ City, $1.8 M New Markets, $750,000

Cleveland Foundation; $1.5 M from 2 banks

Concept: – Cooperative for-profit enterprise– Based in neighborhoods around University Circle (inner-city Cleveland)– Owned/operated by local residents– Business installs/owns PV projects– Initially serving large institutional customers in nearby area (4MW in 5 years)

Outcomes:– Training and employment opportunities for low-income citizens– Wealth creation for local residents– Creation of installation capabilities to meet state-wide solar requirements– First installations this summer

Ohio Cooperative Solar

• Year-round hydroponic vegetable greenhouse in heart of downtown Cleveland

• 14 acre facility; 5 acres under “glass”

• Provide produce to large anchors and other institutions; > 800,000 heads of lettuce a year per acre

• Energy efficient and renewable energy sources

• Employ 40+ neighborhood residents as coop owners

• Become a major player in regional food distribution network

Green City Cooperative Growers

COMMERCIALFOOD PRODUCTION GREENHOUSE

LAND TRUST

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS

Hold up to 20% of Land for Job Creation

Hold up to 20% of Land for Job Creation

And Economic Development

And Economic Development

EVERGREEN CRITERIA

• Business plan that projects profitability• Hires majority of employees from GUC

neighborhoods• Located in or nearby GUC neighborhoods• Matched to procurement needs of anchors• Pays a “living wage”• Green• Builds toward 100% employee ownership• Contributes % of profits to Cooperative

Development Fund

• Create new jobs for neighborhood residents• Anchor productive capital within poor

neighborhoods• Promote asset accumulation for low- and

moderate-income residents• Build viable, locally-owned economic enterprises

that can help stabilize the neighborhoods • Ensure income diversity and permanent housing

affordability

GOALS

COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT FUND

EVERGREENFUND

COOPERATIVELAUNDRY

COOPERATIVESOLAR COOPERATIVE

AGRICULTURE

FUTURE COOP

FUTURE COOP

FUTURE COOP

KEYS TO SUCCESS

• Convener/catalyst with stature and resources• Community Wealth Building Roundtable to create a

shared vision among key stakeholders• Buy-in from the anchors and City Hall• Deep-dive interviews and survey of anchor needs• Strategy tailored to local needs/opportunities • Multi-faceted implementation team with necessary

expertise (both local and national)• Multi-year commitment• Leverage grant/PRI funding to access additional sources

(NMTC, EQ2, state simulus loans, HUD108)

Our Team

• The Cleveland Foundation and other funders (local and national)

• The Democracy Collaborative• Ohio Employee Ownership Center• Towards Employment• Hudson Consulting Group• National experts (solar, hydroponics, land trust, etc.)• Entrepreneurs for each business• City Hall (Dept. of Economic Development)• Anchor institutions (“eds and meds”)• Community-based organizations (CDCs, nonprofits)