"The U.S. remains the biggest market in the world," said Tom Waltermire, chief executive of Cleveland-based Team NEO. "Our job ... is to seek new business from wherever we can find it."
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TEAM NEO's efforts aim to attract new businesses to Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The regional effort to draw new business is about to broaden its scope -- to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Team NEO, the region's business-attraction group, is launching a two-year, $1 million program to draw foreign businesses. Europe will be the initial target of the effort, to be funded by the Cleveland Foundation.
"The U.S. remains the biggest market in the world," said Tom Waltermire, chief executive of Cleveland-based Team NEO.
"Our job . . . is to seek new business from wherever we can find it."
The initiative will face numerous challenges, not the least of which is launching in a roiling European economy, several business experts said. They also wonder whether two years is enough time to lure substantial business projects.
Team NEO and Cleveland Foundation officials believe they'll find success, based on the growing number of international business leads that Team NEO is developing.
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If deals blossom, the Cleveland Foundation could continue the funding, officials said.
The overseas effort is an outgrowth of the Cleveland Foundation's belief that the region must strengthen its global business links. The foundation previously helped pay for Mayor Frank Jackson's trade missions in 2008 to Germany and Costa Rica.
"We've done some smaller things to test the waters," said Robert Eckardt, senior vice president at the foundation. "The goal was someone like Team NEO would see the potential and play the lead role they are playing now."
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View full sizeBernardine van Kessel
Team NEO announced the hiring of a Dutch-born economic development professional to lead "Cleveland Plus Business Europe." And it enlisted the help of a consulting firm based in Germany. They will focus on biomedical and advanced energy, emerging industries in Northeast Ohio.
Bernardine van Kessel, one-time development director for Hudson and former director of the region's International Trade Assistance Center, will work with Northeast Ohio's region's big cities, chambers of commerce and Ohio Department of Development.
The goal over two years is to land three or four deals with companies that commit to a minimum $1 million investment here and would generate at least 20 jobs over three years, officials said.
Challenges include competition from other U.S. cities and regions already on the hunt for new business, as well as a European economy that's turned dicey in recent weeks.
Randy Nemetz, a foreign-business specialist for a local manufacturing advocacy group, suggested success might come easier in more stable markets, such as Israel and South America, particularly Brazil.
Team NEO's Waltermire said Beachwood and Akron are already attracting Israeli businesses.
The European market remains by far the largest foreign investor in the United States, Waltermire said, and the one with the most opportunities for this region.
Several European-based companies have invested here under deals Team NEO had a hand in, he said.
The mayor's trips to Germany, Italy and France resulted in leads and relationships that Team NEO can act on, said Chris Warren, Jackson's chief of regional development.
None of those trips have resulted in new business investment here.
Still, business and civic leaders "have moved to the recognition that we need to put more resources into the effort," Warren said.
Jackson's hoped-for Costa Rican deal, in which a half dozen or more specialty-food companies would open a trade office here by 2009, has resulted in only one company operating here so far.
The other companies are watching "with great interest and remain interested," Warren said.