The State of Ohio has recently established the Job Ready Site (JRS) program as a means to help fund and develop an inventory of job-ready sites around the state. These job-ready sites will enable Ohio to attract and secure more business by having facilities ready for immediate use. While some aspects of the program are still under development, the program is well on its way to a successful future. The JRS program was created after Ohio voters approved a $2 billion public works and economic development bond package. The JRS program evolved as a result of Ohio’s past economic development experiences that strongly indicated the state’s need to have sites immediately available for business and industrial development.

Purpose

The JRS Program will allow for development, maintenance and aggressive marketing of a database of fully developed, “certified” sites ready for immediate business and industrial development. The JRS Program will help Ohio avoid losing future business investment opportunities solely because fully developed, immediately available sites were not available, and will also make Ohio an attractive location for business investment projects facing tight time deadlines.

Administration

The JRS Program will be administered by the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD), Economic Development Division (EDD). The main contact person for the program will be Jeff Harris, who can be reached at 614.387.1498 or jharris@odod.state.oh.us.

Program Offerings

Funds, in the form of grants, will be available to assist in developing parcels of land and/or buildings for large, regional economy-shifting business and industrial development sites. A total amount of $150 million will be available over the next seven years to financially assist in the development of job-ready sites throughout Ohio. The funds availability will be “front loaded” with a total of $90 million available in the first three years of the program. To “kick-off” the program, two funding rounds will occur in calendar year 2006.

Eligibility

Those who may participate in the program include county and municipal governments, townships, port authorities, local non-profit economic development organizations, and local non-profit business associations. However, it is likely that local community applicants may be permitted to partner with private entities in the completion, or eventual use of the site.

Requirements/Limitations

While many of the specific guidelines are still being currently developed, the following requirements and limitations have been established:

1. Applicants must intend that the funded sites be marketed, and eventually used, exclusively for one of the following purposes: manufacturing, distribution, research and development, or corporate office-type operations.

2. A maximum grant award of $5 million per project is available.

3. Awarded grant amounts cannot exceed 75% of eligible sites’ total costs of improvement.

4. Allowable costs, on which actual grant amounts are based, include costs incurred in acquisition, construction, and site and infrastructure improvements.

5. All grant recipients must provide a local match equal to 25% of the allowable costs. The local match may be a financial match (including local, federal or private funds, but not including state funds) or an in-kind match.

6. Once completed, each site must obtain “certification” that it conforms to a set of predefined site development standards (These standards are still being finalized). A mechanism will be in place to recover JRS Program funds from sites failing to meet the “certification” standards.

Project Funding

Similar to the Clean Ohio Fund Program, the Ohio Public Works Commission (OPWC) will be involved in the original scoring and selection of sites on a local level. All applications will be submitted to one of the 19 OPWC districts, which will rank and score the applications based on criteria that have yet to be developed. Each OPWC district can then forward up to three of its “most qualified” applicants to ODOD for final ranking and selection based on the total pool of applications throughout the state.

Application Deadlines

ODOD is still in the process of establishing the timeframe for calendar year 2006, but tentatively, ODOD has indicated that the first round of applications for 2006 will be due sometime between April and July with awards announced in August. ODOD anticipates that the second round of 2006 applications will be due sometime between July and October with awards announced in November. Since these dates and timeframes are still a “work in progress,” please consult ODOD’s website for current information.

Additional Information

• Applicants cannot obtain JRS Program funds to “close the gap” in funding for a site receiving other state moneys, or use other state moneys as the local match.

• There will be a “site size/acreage” component to participate in the JRS Program, but this does not mean that only “mega sites for mega projects” will receive funding. The first version of the House Bill included a 250-acre size limitation, but that limitation was removed in the Senate.

• Existing buildings, irrespective of the amount of acreage on which they stand, are appropriate sites to qualify for participation in the JRS Program.

• Existing fully developed business and industrial sites may possibly obtain a similar “certification,” even if the JRS Program does not fund those sites. ODOD is currently evaluating this possibility in its implementation guidelines.

Reprinted from Finley’s Ohio Municipal Service, with the permission of the publisher and copyright owner, West Group.