Eaton Submits Site Plan for New $170M HQ

Vince Adamus, economic development director for the city, tell GlobeSt.com that though a few minor variances are being sought, he doesn't see any potential difficulty with the project going through. "This is a tremendous opportunity for us," he says. "When we put the Chagrin Highlands park together 15 years ago, we were trying to attract a large project with Figgie International that never happened. This is the first project that has come along for that parcel that's even close."

The Richard E. Jacobs Group is the developer of the 525,000-square-foot office building. Jacobs officials did not return a call for comment for this story.

Eaton announced in September 2008 that it planned on making the move from downtown Cleveland to Beachwood. The company is receiving more than $76 million in state, county and local incentive funds to build the facility, though the firm is meeting the $115 million minimum investment level required under project financing agreements.

Though it's losing the headquarters, the city of Cleveland will still benefit from the move. The city had been the owner of the 53-acre site the building is going on, so it received money from the land sale, and has a deal that gives Cleveland 50%o of the employee withholding taxes from people working at the new Beachwood headquarters.

The new building will hold roughly 700 employees, including workers from the downtown HQ, the Telecomputer Center in Eastlake, OH and the Learning and Technology Center in Willoughby Hills, OH. The company's North American Financial Services Center in Brook Park, OH will not be affected by this consolidation.

A firm spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com that the city will begin infrastructure work on the site in June, and Eaton will break ground in early 2011. The move into the new building is expected in late 2012, though these dates are tentative, she says.

The Chagrin park is largely undeveloped. However, Adamus says there is other development activity going on. Lifetime Fitness just built one of its large gym facilities in the park, and Ahuja Medical, part of the University Hospitals health system, is building a 355,000-square-foot hospital and 60,000-square-foot medical building there for $150 million.