Garland Industries moves headquarters to Independence
by Erica Peterson
Garland Industries, a 125-year-old commercial building firm, has moved its corporate offices from Cleveland to Independence.
A majority of its operations remain in Cleveland, but the company moved its headquarters to a 6,700-square-foot space in a building it owns at 4500 Rockside Rd. It brings a $4-million payroll to Independence.
Independence Economic Development Director Jessica Hyser said the city started negotiating with Garland Industries before she came aboard in June, and she spent her first days in the new job finalizing an incentive deal for the move. The company was eyeing several locations for its headquarters.
The city’s competitive package included a relocation and job creation grant, equal to half of the payroll tax collected by the city for five years, estimated to be $40,000 per year. In return, Garland Industries commits to keeping a minimum $4-million payroll over that time, anticipating an increase to $5 million after five years.
It also commits to spending $600,000 in building upgrades. Hyser said since Garland took ownership in 2014, it has already put a lot of money into the Rockside
Road building, which houses other tenants.
Garland Industries includes 20 companies employing more than 1,300 people across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, and it sells products to more than 40 countries.
On Oct. 14, Garland Industries President and CEO David Sokol was on hand for the ribbon-cutting at the new offices, along with vice presidents Dick DeBacco and Bill Oley.
The Independence offices and lobby is decorated with artwork and photographs from around Ohio and includes space for “visiting staff,” looking ahead to when work practices return to “normal” after COVID-19.
Although the pandemic has been a challenge for some businesses, Hyser said commercial developers and brokers are seeing a lot of movement in the market.
“COVID has given a lot of companies the opportunity to think about their locations in a strategic way,” she said. “A lot of them had been talking about relocations in the past, but because of the way the economy was working, they just didn’t have the time to really evaluate those options.”
With the pandemic slowing things down, Hyser said, companies are able to take time for long-term planning. “While it might seem dire to a lot of communities, that things are really bad, we are seeing a lot of good movement in our real estate market,” she said.
Feature image photo caption: Independence Economic Development Director Jessica Hyser (l) and Garland Industries President and CEO David Sokol celebrate the opening of Garland’s corporate headquarters. Photos courtesy the city of Independence
