Robert Higgs, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- City Council on Monday approved hiring a company that specializes in giving new businesses a boost as part of Mayor Frank Jackson's revitalization efforts in Glenville.

Gener8tor Management, a Wisconsin-based company that has business accelerator programs in nine cities across the country, will serve as a source of expertise and capital to startup businesses.

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The businesses will get their start in mixed-use building that is under construction on East 105th Street north of University Circle. It is expected to be finished by June.

The ordinance was approved 17-0 by City Council. The city will commit $225,000 in an economic development grant to Gener8tor to fund its project, so long as the company raises an additional $185,000.

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City of Cleveland

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What's the program?

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The Glenville project is part of Jackson's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative to spark development in areas where private investment has been unwilling to get involved.

The initiative targets neighborhood corridors where many residents still live in poverty -- East 105th and East 93rd streets and the area around the Opportunity Corridor on the East Side and the Clark-Fulton area on the West Side.

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John Kuntz, cleveland.com

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The initiative is an effort to stimulate business growth and wealth in those neighborhoods and allow residents to share in prosperity that other parts of the city have experienced -- something that Jackson often has said is needed before Cleveland can become a great city.

Cleveland committed $25 million toward the plan -- money carved out of a $100 million bond issue from 2015. Cleveland's major banks -- Huntington National Bank, PNC, Key Bank and Fifth Third Bank -- committed another $40 million in financing support for the plan.

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What's this project?

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The hiring of Gener8tor is part of the first development site in the initiative -- the building under construction on East 105th Street.

The goal is to find small locally-owned new businesses to take part in an incubator program to help them grow.

Those that are selected will get subsidized rent from the city and its partner, the Cleveland Citywide Development Corp., for two years and assistance setting up their commercial space and getting the business open.

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Construction is well underway at a mixed-use building on East 105th Street. The building is expected to be finished in June. Robert Higgs, cleveland.com

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Once they get established, the city will help them move to new quarters to make way for new startups in the East 105th Street building.

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The Glenville project, led by the Finch Group development company, is in an area the city has labeled Circle North, just a few blocks north of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center and University Circle, where tens of thousands of people are employed.

Immediately across the street is the construction site for the Fisher House, a project to provide lodging for families of veterans in the VA center for treatment.

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The project, costing $14 million to $15 million, will have about 13,500 square feet of commercial space on the first floor and more than 60 apartments in the upper floors.

A park also will be developed at the site

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The city hopes to land a restaurant as an anchor tenant for the 4,300 square feet of incubator space. The rest of the space will be used for smaller storefronts.

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Construction of the Fisher House, which will serve as a guest house for visitors at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, is directly across the street from the Finch Group project. Robert Higgs, cleveland.com

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