Civil Municipal - May 2024

Known for years as “The Community of Homes,”Mayor Matthew Burke explains how city leadership sought to alter Garfield Heights’ trajectory five years ago by attracting new industry. He imparts, “We realized to ease the tax burden on the residents, we had to have businesses coming in.” ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION “We identified a couple of areas of the city that really could be developed and utilized for industrial purposes,” Mayor Burke continues, sharing the transformation of a rundown shopping center as one example. Recognizing the strategic location and transportation advantages of Garfield Heights, Real Estate Developer, Industrial Commercial Properties LLC, purchased and rebranded the center as Highland Park, focusing on industrial use. “In that corridor of Garfield Heights, it’s easy access to I-480. If you’re trying to move products from a distribution or a manufacturing standpoint, you hit all the major metropolitan areas within a two or three-hour radius,” says Burke. One of the first companies to take root in the industrial park was Mpac Switchback, a designer and manufacturer of innovative packaging equipment. “They also have plants in Asia, they have plants in the UK, and they have a plant in Canada. It’s truly an international company,” shares the mayor. With the potential for future expansion, Mpac has indicated the need for a skilled workforce, and Garfield Heights is prepared to meet this need. Working in partnership with the company’s director for the US market, Burke says,“One of the things that our economic development team has done is to take that Director and partner him with universities like Case Western Reserve University, our local Cuyahoga Valley Career Center, and the local high school, to start the process of recruiting these young, talented individuals who aspire to become your engineers, or HR people of tomorrow, to help develop that workforce in the Cleveland region.” Innoplast, manufacturers of visionary products for vehicle and facility protection was the next company to establish a presence in Highland Park, followed by M Tech who specialize in maintenance vehicles for 91 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 05 GARF IELD HEIGHTS, OH