How much of a Rust Belt state is Ohio? Not that much of one, if you ask Chuck Meyer, senior managing director with RED Capital Group in Columbus.
Problem is, too many outside investors look at Ohio and all they see are towns struggling to cope with manufacturing losses. They don’t see the diverse industries powering the economies of Cincinnati and Columbus. They don’t consider the new Medical Mart project or new casino coming to downtown Cleveland. And they don’t consider the power of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, the largest single-site employer in the state of Ohio and an Air Force Base that is actually expanding, not contracting.
Investors probably don’t even care about the Great American Tower at Queen City Square, the new 1.089-million-square-foot mixed-use development in downtown Cincinnati.
Unfortunately, this short-sightedness can make life difficult for those developers trying to find financing for their Ohio-based projects.
“When a lot of out-of-state investors look at the Midwest or Ohio, they paint with broad brushes,” Meyer said. “But to truly understand a state, you have to look at the individual submarkets. You have to dig down into that detail. It matters.”
Out-of-town investors, for instance, may look at Columbus and think of farms. Meyer, who works in the market, knows that Columbus has much more than that to offer. Fortune-500 companies, after all, are headquartered in the city.
Ohio, of couse, isn’t alone in this fate. Outside investors give little thought to much of the Midwest.
“Large parts of the Midwest — Indiana, Ohio, Michigan – are looked down upon by investors who haven’t taken the time to really study the submarkets,” Meyer said. “When investors talk about the Midwest, they talk about Chicago and Minneapolis as if they are the only two cities worth focusing on. That’s just not true.”
Will this change any time soon? Probably not. But that doesn’t change the fact that investors are missing prime opportunities when they are so quick to dismiss the Midwest and its varied markets.
