The nation's second-largest greeting card maker still hasn't decided where to build its new world headquarters, but said it expects to spend tens of millions on the project.
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Five cities are vying to be the home of American Greetings Corp.'s new world headquartersBROOKLYN, Ohio - American Greetings Corp., which has been very quiet about its plans to build a new global headquarters somewhere in Northeast Ohio, now says it expects to spend tens of millions of dollars on the project starting in 2012.
Chief Executive Zev Weiss announced March 7 that the company was staying in Greater Cleveland instead of going to Illinois, after receiving a state aid package worth up to $93.5 million over 15 years.
But he hasn't said where the company would build its future headquarters, and officials from some of the cities hoping to attract the nation's second-largest greeting card maker say they haven't heard anything, either.
The aid from the state of Ohio, most of which is in the form of job retention tax credits for keeping 1,750 jobs at its headquarters, begins Jan. 1, 2012 and runs through Dec. 31, 2026.
In an annual report filed late Friday, American Greetings said that "While the state of Ohio has committed to a number of tax credits, loans and other incentives to encourage us to remain in Ohio, we expect to spend tens of millions of dollars of our own funds on the project, the majority of which are expected to be incurred after fiscal 2012," meaning after February 2012.
Spokeswoman Patrice Sadd said Monday that "at this time, American Greetings has not made a decision regarding our world headquarters location."
"The statement in our 2011 annual report . . . is meant to convey (that) whether we renovate or relocate, the majority of spending would occur over the next few years," she said via e-mail.
American Greetings has not publicly said when it would decide among the five cities vying to host its new headquarters.
Company officials said the company could stay in Brooklyn, where it currently owns and occupies 1.7 million square feet, or build a new facility from scratch in Beachwood, Brecksville, Independence or Westlake.
Ron White, the City of Independence's economic development director, said he hasn't heard anything from the company regarding when it will pick a new home.
"If that's their timetable (after fiscal 2012), I don't know if that's a move-in date or when they start actual construction," he said.
Fran Migliorino, economic development director for the City of Brooklyn, said the company hasn't responded to the city's offer of incentives to stay at One American Road.
"I can't speculate what they're going to be doing, but obviously, I would love it if they were going to commit to staying in Brooklyn," she said. "They just haven't made a decision."
Beachwood Mayor Merle Gorden said: "I would imagine that Beachwood is probably on their radar, but I've had no discussion with them.
"Right now, the ball is in their court, and they need to decide who they want to be entertained by. If they are having conversations on the side, it's not with me," he added.
Westlake and Brecksville city officials could not be reached on Monday.
American Greetings officials told its nearly 2,000 headquarters employees in January 2010 that it might move its offices and $157 million payroll out of Brooklyn because residents had voted to raise the city's income tax from 2.0 percent to 2.5 percent.
But executives later said other factors also played a role in its decision to look elsewhere, including the costs of renovating their deteriorating 53-year-old building, increased competition and challenges in the greeting card industry, and the need to recruit and retain its creative work force.
Under the terms of its state aid package, American Greetings would have to stay in its new headquarters for at least 18 years.
American Greetings is also getting a $15 million low-interest state loan, a $2.5 million grant to help with construction and a $1 million grant for infrastructure improvements.
The state aid package was made possible after Ohio passed a law, formerly called House Bill 58, that was crafted specifically to keep American Greetings and Diebold Inc. of Summit County from leaving Ohio for other states.
The package also requires the companies to make at least $25 million in capital improvements over three straight years.
Diebold, which makes and services ATMs and bank security systems, said it expects to decide within the next several weeks among three to five unnamed sites it is considering in Summit and Stark counties.
Diebold received $56 million in state incentives not to go to Virginia or North Carolina and said it expects to spend $100 million on a new high-tech headquarters and global campus.