CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Sherwin-Williams Co. confirmed Thursday morning that it is planning a new downtown Cleveland headquarters and a research and development center in Brecksville, in a set of projects expected to bring hundreds of new jobs and a corporate investment of at least $600 million to Cuyahoga County.

In a news release, the company said that its new, 1-million-square-foot headquarters will rise from parking lots just west of Public Square, a short walk from Sherwin-Williams’ longtime home at the historic Landmark Office Towers.

The R&D center, which will replace the company’s downtown Breen Technology Center and a facility in Warrensville Heights, will be the 500,000-square-foot anchor for the redevelopment of a former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital property off Interstate 77 in Brecksville.

“Our plans to continue investing in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio build on our 154-year legacy as one of the region’s top employers and drivers of economic activity,” John Morikis, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in the news release. “Driven by our continued need to serve our customers at the highest level and retain and attract top talent, we intend to create a next-generation workplace environment that ignites creativity, collaboration and industry-leading innovation.”

The company won’t move into the new buildings until 2023, at the earliest. And Sherwin-Williams noted that its plans are contingent on various approvals, including an incentive package that is sure to involve participation from both cities, the county and the state.

Thursday’s announcement ends years of rumors and months of speculation about the intentions of the $51 billion publicly-traded company, which acknowledged in September that it was considering sites across the region and out-of-state. The deals will keep thousands of jobs in Northeast Ohio; will bring an employment hub to Brecksville; and, perhaps, yield a long-term gain in jobs for Cleveland, despite the company’s decision to move its main research facility and just over 300 jobs from the city to a suburb.

Sherwin-Williams considered sites in Cleveland for its R&D operations but struggled to find a suitable location downtown due to building-code issues, safety requirements and other challenges. Workers at the Breen Technology Center, off Canal Road behind Tower City, focus on product development, coatings research and other processes that don’t necessarily fit well into a dense, urban environment. The Warrensville Heights facility, near Jack Thistledown Racino, deals with automotive finishes.

During a brief news conference Thursday afternoon, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said Cleveland struggled to offer up a site large enough to accommodate a joint headquarters-and-research facility, with room for Sherwin-Williams to grow. A map released by Sherwin-Williams indicates the R&D project in Brecksville could take up more than half of the 100-acre former VA campus.

JobsOhio, the statewide economic-development corporation that works to attract and retain companies, hasn’t said what it’s putting on the table to keep the Fortune 500 employer here. In an email Thursday, a spokesman confirmed that JobsOhio plans to provide aid for the project, but details won’t be public until after a final deal is signed.

“We are pleased to be a partner with Sherwin-Williams on this highly competitive project,” Gov. Mike DeWine said in the company’s news release. “The state of Ohio, JobsOhio and our regional and local economic-development partners have been focused on keeping one of Ohio’s leading companies right here where they belong.”

Sherwin-Williams employs approximately 6,000 people across the state, 4,400 of them in Northeast Ohio. The new headquarters and R&D facilities collectively will house more than 3,500 workers, though a spokeswoman couldn’t provide a more detailed breakdown of how many people will be in Cleveland or Brecksville. By the time Sherwin-Williams settles into its new buildings, the company could have 400 additional employees in the region, according to corporate projections.

At this point, Sherwin-Williams isn’t planning to move operations to Cleveland or Brecksville from other locations, including the former Valspar Corp. headquarters in Minneapolis, a spokeswoman said. The company acquired Valspar, a major rival, in a blockbuster deal that closed in 2017.

Though the state’s role in keeping Sherwin-Williams likely won’t be clear for months, information about what the Cuyahoga County, Cleveland and Brecksville are offering will be available much sooner.

The first details about the county’s incentive proposal are expected to pop up on a Cuyahoga Council Agenda on Friday afternoon. Brecksville’s timeline is unclear, but the suburb is expected to move quickly. Legislation could be introduced at Cleveland City Council within weeks, though detailed hearings likely won’t take place the beginning of March, at the earliest.

Jackson wouldn’t delve into the city’s proposal Thursday, saying the details are still being finalized. But he believes the package will be the largest deal - in terms of dollars and duration - that the city has offered since he took office in 2006. For past corporate deals, Cleveland has provided tax credits tied to job creation; construction loans and grants; and tax-increment financing, redirecting the non-school portion of new property-tax revenues generated by a project to paying for infrastructure and other project costs.

Sherwin-Williams said, based on city estimates, that Cleveland’s schools will receive an estimated $3 million more a year in tax revenues once the new headquarters opens.

In addition to government officials, the team working on the project includes Team NEO, the local economic-development organization that serves as JobsOhio’s arm in the region; the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which is the local chamber of commerce; the Downtown Cleveland Alliance; and the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, which plays a hand in financing development deals.

In the company’s news release, Jackson, Brecksville Mayor Jerry Hruby and Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish cheered the potential for growth.

“This project again demonstrates that our region can compete on the national stage, and we intend to use this model as an example for other companies to locate in Northeast Ohio,” Budish said.

Hruby, whose staff has been working with the DiGeronimo Companies of Independence on a mixed-use redevelopment plan for the former VA property, described Sherwin-Williams’ R&D center as “a catalyst” for attracting additional projects, from offices to retail, housing and hospitality uses.

Though Sherwin-Williams outlined the sites where it intends to locate, the company did not provide descriptions or images of planned office buildings or research facilities. Any such plans will require public reviews and approvals, including vetting by design-review committees and the Cleveland City Planning Commission.

The downtown parking lots earmarked for the headquarters project are zoned to allow towers as tall as 900 feet. Those properties, owned by the Richard E. Jacobs Group of Westlake and Warrensville Heights-based developer Weston, Inc., have been the subject of three decades worth of unrealized development plans, featuring everything from dramatic skyscrapers to lower-slung apartment buildings.

In brief statements Thursday, both Jacobs and Weston confirmed that they’ve entered deals with the paint company. “We have reached an agreement to sell our Public Square West property to Sherwin-Williams for the construction of its new global headquarters. The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions," James Eppele, president and chief executive of Jacobs Real Estate Services, wrote in an emailed statement.

“We have had a vision for this part of downtown since acquiring our first lot there many years ago,” read an emailed statement from Weston, which owns the parking lots bounded by Superior and St. Clair avenues and West Third and West Sixth streets. “Over time, Weston has worked to assemble multiple parcels in this area and [is] proud that an iconic local company is staying in Cleveland and realizing the great potential of this site.”

Neither property owner disclosed what Sherwin-Williams will pay for the land, a nearly 7-acre area in the core of downtown. A Sherwin-Williams spokeswoman said it’s too early in the process to confirm details about the real estate deals.

The company said it has made no decisions about the future of its existing headquarters and R&D properties. The mammoth Landmark Office Towers complex, which the company has occupied since 1930 and owned since 1985, would be eligible for historic-preservation tax credits for redevelopment. The Breen Technology Center, also company-owned, sits on roughly 10 acres of waterfront land on the east bank of the Cuyahoga River.

Read more Sherwin-Williams coverage:

Sherwin-Williams’ new HQ should create positive ripples in Public Square, downtown Cleveland

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