‘New Show in Town’: “We cater to all
the folks,” goes the slogan from Lima’s legendary Kewpee Hamburgers.
With developments such as Crossroads of Northwest Ohio in nearby
Cridersville, expansions from such companies as P&G and Pratt Industries
and the pure Americana of such events as the Celina Lake Festival, the
10-county region of West Central Ohio is living by those words.
Mixed-Use Project Aims for Destination
Status: With The Crossroads of Northwest Ohio, as
with his own medical practice, Dr. Craig Nicholson and his team are
looking to maximize bandwidth, in this case for an entire region.
P&G Investment Headlines Region’s Strong
Industrial Momentum: Hear from the plant manager
himself about the company’s $501 million investment in Lima, and learn
how community infrastructure and work ethic are attracting other
investments and expansions to West Central Ohio.
Associate Editor Alexis Elmore chronicles the projects, heritage, assets
and lifestyle across the 120-mile crescent from the Piedmont Triad to
Fayetteville.
San Juan organizations received 13 of the 39 CDFI Fund Technical Assistance
awards going to Puerto Rico organizations overall.
Photo by Sean Pavone, iStock
Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development
Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced that 218 organizations received $27.57 million in
Technical Assistance awards to build their capacity to provide
services to low-income and underserved people and communities across
America. The awards were made through the fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding
round of the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI
Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program).
We grabbed the data from all 218 awards and broke it out by top states
and top cities (below). The 39 awards to Puerto Rico than doubled the
number awarded in No. 2 New York and totaled more than $4.8 million out
of the $27.57 million awarded nationally (17.4%). Most of the amounts
were $125,000, with some up to $150,000, primarily awarded to savings
and credit unions. However, some organizations stand out from the crowd
with names more directly aligned with economic development, among them:
Apex Fund for Economic Opportunities (Akron, Ohio)
Chautauqua Opportunities for Development (Dunkirk, New York)
Business Expansion Funding Corp. (Charlotte, North Carolina)
Renewable Manufacturing Gateway dba Community (Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania)
Gulf Coast Economic Development District (Houston, Texas)
Since its creation in 1994, the CDFI Fund has awarded more than $5.5
billion to CDFIs, community development organizations, and financial
institutions, said the announcement. The fund also “has allocated $66
billion in tax credit allocation authority to Community Development
Entities through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, and closed
guaranteed bonds for more than $1.8 billion through the CDFI Bond
Guarantee Program.” — Adam Bruns
Top States/Territories, Number of FY 2022
CDFI Program and NACA Program Technical Assistance Awards
State/Territory
No. of Awards
Puerto Rico
39
New York
19
Texas
15
California
12
Illinois
8
Ohio
7
Missouri
7
Florida
7
Pennsylvania
6
Michigan
5
Top Cities, Number of FY 2022 CDFI Program and NACA
Program Technical Assistance Awards
The City of St. Petersburg, Florida, is releasing an RFP for the
development of the Historic Gas Plant District site, currently home to
Tropicana Field. The RFP for the 86-acre site calls for additional
emphasis on equitable redevelopment, a 17.3-acre carve out for a
baseball stadium, specific requirements for affordable and workforce
housing and new details that respond to current economic and societal
conditions and community sentiment. The RFP can be found here: www.stpete.org/Residents/Current%20Projects/docs/HGPD-CC.pdf.
This week is Manufacturing Week, and tomorrow, Friday,
October 7, is Manufacturing Day, an initiative of
The Manufacturing Institute (the workforce development and
education partner of the National Association of
Manufacturers), with the Fabricators & Manufacturers
Association as a founding partner. Literally thousands of
manufacturers across the country (and one company in
Germany) will be showcasing what modern manufacturers
do … not to mention what they pay. For more
information about manufacturing in the U.S. today, check out
the U.S. Census Bureau’s resources,
which include stats showing a decided uptick in female
manufacturing employees over the past decade.
PROJECT WATCH
Romania
In Bucharest in late September PepsiCo announced this $100 million
investment in three operational production lines and a new automated
warehouse, automation capabilities and a new masterplan for its factory
in Popești-Leordeni. The investment is due to be completed by 2024,
resulting in the doubling of production capacity. “PepsiCo has been
operating and investing in Romania for almost 30 years and we remain
committed to further developing the business in the country,” said
Silviu Popovici, PepsiCo’s CEO for Europe, according to a Google
Translate translation of the company’s Romanian-language news release.
“As a production and distribution center for Central and Eastern
European markets, Romania represents an essential market in Europe. High
quality agricultural products and talented people are the basis of the
growth of our business in the region.” The company recently completed a
five-year, $40 million investment in its Dragomirești soft drinks.
PepsiCo has directly invested $320 million in Romania over the past
decade.
As reported in The Gleaner, a Jamaican newspaper established in 1834,
Caribbean Flavours & Fragrances Ltd. (CFF) has completed a two-year
process investing nearly $40 million into machinery and modernization at
its factory on Spanish Town Road in Kingston. The investment has
included an in-house product development lab completed last year.
Through its parent company Derrimon Trading Group, CFF has been
expanding its distribution throughout the Caribbean and beyond,
including “the distribution of its sorrel, ginger beer, homemade
lemonade and pink lemonade concentrates through New York, United
States–based speciality supermarket and food distributors FoodSaver New
York and Good Food for Less, to widen its revenue stream,” The Gleaner
reported from the company’s general meeting in September. Derrimon
operates retail groceries, is one of the largest rice distributors in
Jamaica, and is an authorized Jamaican distributor of Nestlé products.
In May Derrimon reported a 39% increase in revenue for the year ended
December 31, 2021.
Innsbruck-based ATP architects engineers reports that the campus the
firm designed for plant-based nutritional supplement and cosmetics
company Ringana in St. Johann in der Haide, Austria, has been honored
with multiple awards, including the German Design Council’s Iconic Award
in the Innovative Architecture category and the BigSEE Interior Award.
“With its modern administration, high-tech production and logistics
areas, the RINGANA campus convinces visitors with its bright and
friendly fresh atmosphere,” says ATP. “Ecological responsibility coupled
with elegant design – the RINGANA Campus demonstrates how beautiful
sustainability can be,” said ATP’s Lead Project Manager Thomas Wirth.
Pictured here is a bathing pond that, along with 160 deep piles for
geothermal energy, PV panels on every roof and significant rainwater
collection, improves the microclimate of the campus.
