Port unveils new 5-year plan

Name change, business financing in play

Shifting duties, helping businesses grow and a slight name change are part of the future of the Lorain Port Authority, according to a new strategic plan for the agency.

On Nov. 27, the Lorain Port Authority board and staff unveiled a new five-year strategic plan for the future of the Port, and, by extension, for the benefit of Lorain city and county.

The plan was developed over 10 months with the Council of Development Finance Agencies, or CDFA, a Columbus-based nonprofit group.

The process was intensive but now the Port has a guiding document for the next five years, Port Executive Director Tom Brown told a crowd of at least 45 people who came to the presentation.

“It’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of baring your soul, it’s a lot of seeing what you’re good at, what you’re bad at and what you want to become,” Brown said.

Studying Lorain, the Council of Development Finance Agencies team found out “everything there is to know about Lorain,

The Port has touched the surface of business financing and will do more of that with the help of CDFA, Brown said.

the good, the bad, the negative, the positive, the ups and downs,” said company President and CEO Toby Rittner. He said he was born in Cleveland and grew up in Findlay, but he had never been to Lorain.

“What we found is, there’s a lot of hope, there’s a lot of potential in this community and when you start to feather through all of the material you find that there’s a lot more positive than there is negative and you get to experience the good things about your community,” Rittner said.

Under 30 years of leadership by retired Executive Director Rick Novak, the Port became good at two parts of its mission, Brown said.

“We’re really good at public access and we’re really good at keeping the maritime going in Lorain and our harbor, and we’re going to continue to do that and I think you’ll see that in our plan,” Brown said. “That’s the easy part.”

The Port has touched the surface of business financing and will do more of that with the help of CDFA, Brown said.

The plan has three visions for the Lorain Port Authority. Each vision has up to six action items with specific objectives for the action items.

Change could come quickly because the plan suggests a number of action items take place in 2019, including

a new formal relationship between the Port and City Hall, better marketing and changes to the Port’s governance.

The visions are:

Vision 1

The Port will establish itself as the community and economic development leader in Lorain.

Some people might say the Port already is doing that, Rittner said. But that should be codified with a three- to five-year formal partnership with the Port and City Hall to make the Port the economic development leader for the city, he said.

That won’t come cheap, Rittner said, and it will require an updated process for staff to work with business leaders and more marketing.

The Port also should establish a formal partnership with Lorain County, Rittner said. The Lorain Port Authority can do deals in all of Ohio’s counties and that help provide revenues that sustain the organization, he said.

The vision includes a recommended name change to become the Lorain Port & Finance Authority. The original name does not indicate the financial ability of the Port to help businesses move to Lorain or grow there, Rittner said.

The Port should maximize the physical locations to support, encourage and catalyze waterfront activities and waterborne commerce, according to the plan. “This physical location is unbelievable,”

Rittner said.

Vision 2

The Port will utilize the finance capacity allowed under Ohio law to development finance programming and investment.

The vision is a long one that can be summarized easily, Rittner said.

For business financing, “really what it comes down to is, you’re not using the tools in the toolbox to the extreme that you can,” he said.

Summit County is an example of how a port authority can run the financial programs that local governments use to attract businesses and help them grow, Rittner said.

“They are super active in finance,” he said, and that money sustains the agency and then the community. The Port has 500 acres. “Develop it, get it going, move it, figure out that you have an amazing asset that you could move forward,” Rittner said. “If you have to give it away to developers, who cares? Give it away. That’s a little facetious. But the point is, you’re sitting on an asset that doesn’t do you any good just sitting there.”

The plan will help activate the land as an asset, Rittner said.

Vision 3

The Port will make governance, efficiency and leadership a key strength that drives waterborne commerce and economic development.

The organization needs some policies and procedures

to streamline and improve board action and staff daily efforts, Rittman said.

“You’ve got really good folks here, put them out here and let them do what they’re supposed to be doing, not spending a lot of time on the things that can be handled administratively by someone else,” Rittman said.

The Port board also needs to cultivate relationships among members and potential new members to come on when terms expire for current members.

No one spoke up against the proposals, and Rittner noted Port board Chairman Brad Mullins was skeptical about the planning process.

The Port facilities are beautiful, but they do not generate tax dollars, so that’s why Lorain needs jobs, Mullins said.

When Brown proposed the plan to the Port board, it was a tough pill to swallow, Mullins said.

“But I think we see what the potential is and we are all working diligently, but Tom’s leading the charge,” Mullins said.

The crowd included Cleveland businesswoman Radhika Reddy, whose company Ariel on Broadway LLC is leading the effort to rejuvenate the Broadway Building, 301 Broadway.

At the groundbreaking of that project, Reddy thanked everyone involved — and everyone there realized how much cooperation is needed to get a project started, said Lorain County Chamber of Commerce President Tony Gallo.