‘We should be encouraging the business leaders that we trust and look up to and admire to speak out for Cleveland,’ Mayor Justin Bibb said.
CLEVELAND — Mayor Justin Bibb and members of Cleveland City Council are calling out the region’s business leaders, saying they aren’t doing enough to attract business to Northeast Ohio. They’re also calling out the Greater Cleveland Partnership for not fighting to keep the Browns‘ stadium downtown.
The targeted remarks were made Tuesday at council’s first budget hearing for the year.
“It looks like the GCP is more worried about the ‘G’ than they are the ‘C,'” Ward 16 Councilman Brian Kazy said, suggesting GCP cares more about Greater Cleveland as a whole than the city itself.
Kazy also wants the organization to back the Cleveland in keeping the Browns on the lakefront. The Haslam Sports Group is currently working on a high-profile $2.4 billion plan to build a new domed stadium in Brook Park.
In response to Kazy’s sentiments, Bibb said he “completely agree(d).”
“I’ve been very frustrated — and so has the council president (Blaine Griffin) — I’ve been very frustrated with the lack of support from some of our most prominent business leaders in town talking about the importance of keeping the Browns downtown,” he said. “We have to be our own salvation when it comes to this. We should be encouraging the business leaders that we trust and look up to and admire to speak out for Cleveland, because we are all taking notice. I’m taking notice.”
On Wednesday, 3News asked GCP for reaction, and CEO Baiju Shah sent us a statement reading:
“GCP and its Board are committed to both a world-class lakefront and a world-class stadium. Public leaders and the team have been working together to determine the best path forward, and GCP has supported those discussions. We are encouraged by the Governor’s proposal for increasing State funding for sports facilities as those dollars will be helpful to local communities. We are working with the parties to craft a solution that delivers long-term and lasting benefits to downtown, the city, and the region.”
Team NEO, another regional economic development group, was also called out at the hearing.
“I think Team NEO has failed us over the years on really focusing job attraction in Northeast Ohio,” Council Majority Leader Kerry McCormack said. He then asked Bibb, “How do we ensure that Northeast Ohio stops getting skipped over when we hear about these manufacturing investments that are going on in Central Ohio?”
Bibb responded, “I’m excited that Matt Dolan is taking the helm at Team NEO. I have a meeting with him scheduled for the next couple weeks I believe, and my message to him is going to be very simple: I think No. 1, Team NEO needs to prioritize Cleveland better than they have before.”
The mayor also said that they need, “a very consistent core value proposition of what’s the business case of, ‘Why Cleveland?'”
3News invited Dolan, Team NEO’s new CEO and a former state senate senator, to WKYC Studios to defend himself.
“I understand the comments of ‘What is Team NEO doing?’ because I’ve seen in my three weeks that we don’t promote what we’re doing, and we have a vision that’s going to come out at the end of this month where we are going to take responsibility for this region,” Dolan told us. “We cannot perform at the level we are performing now. We will underachieve.”
He then explained what Team NEO does.
“We have got to tackle the one big area that everyone is tackling, and that is the talent development in Northeast Ohio,” he began. “We’ve got to make sure that we are meeting the speed of businesses. We site properties that businesses need. Now, we’re not like Columbus. We don’t have a blank canvas that we can say to people, ‘Here’s a thousand acres.’ But we do have a lot of strategic sites that we need to build for the sectors that we are responsible for to come to Cleveland.”
Dolan added that at the end of the month, Team NEO is launching the Vibrant Economy Indicators Tool, a public interactive platform which tracks over 600 economic indicators across key pillars like talent, equity, innovation, resilience, competitiveness, and prosperity. He says this tool will showcase how regional partners can leverage actionable insights to align strategies, measure progress, and drive transformative growth for Northeast Ohio, helping to accelerate the region’s economic vibrancy.
Dolan also shared that in 2024 along (prior to him become CEO), the nonprofit awarded 19 small business grants to Cleveland businesses, creating 61 jobs and $3,033,387 in payroll. Following this conversation, we asked McCormack what he’s specifically looking for from Team NEO.
“Take all of the leadership of the five-county region — so both business, political, and civic, organize folks together — understand what our key assets are, what’s being done — for example, here in Cleveland around sites — and really pair that with investment coming from not only out of state, but around the world into Northeast Ohio,” he answered. “It’s got to be a priority of Team NEO to recognize local leadership, to assist them to find opportunities to organize that local leadership from a regional economic development perspective. And that’s why I believe Sen. Dolan is the right person for the job, because he can reach across party lines, he knows local leaders, and he can really rally folks together to present that united front.”
We asked the mayor’s office if they had anything else to say on this discussion about GCP and Team NEO.
“The point the Mayor was making is that we are being as proactive as possible to keep and attract businesses in Cleveland,” spokesman Tyler Sinclair said. “Economic development, job creation, and business growth are a top priority for Mayor Bibb and his administration. The proactive approach we are taking will help us achieve those goals; sitting on the sidelines will not.”