Port Authority picks strategic plan consultant

Lake County’s Port Authority recently turned 10 years old and on March 22 it selected a consultant to help shape its next 10 years.

Cleveland-based Silverlode Consulting was chosen by the Lake County Ohio Port and Economic Authority Board to take on the project.

The Port Authority received five proposals for the strategic plan and the two finalists presented before the board at its March 22 meeting.

Silverlode’s work will cost $44,050. Port Authority Executive Director Mark Rantala said all five proposals were within 10 percent of Silverlode’s cost.

The other finalist for the project was a partnership between Cleveland State University’s Center for Economic Development and Kirtland Consulting.

Both finalists had about half an hour to make a brief presentation and field questions from

the board.

Silverlode has been in business for about 15 years and has done about 60 economic development plans, Founder and Principal Dennis McAndrew told the board. A majority of the company’s work is in the private sector, about 60 to 80 percent. On the private side, Silverlode has recently worked on projects for La-Z Boy and Luis Vutton. In the public sector, it has worked on projects from around the U.S. Locally they’ve worked with communities like Cuyahoga Heights and Cleveland Heights. Nationally they’ve worked with St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation among others.

Before board members voted, the Port Authority’s staff spoke in favor of Silverlode.

Rantala said Silverlode’s site selection experience will be invaluable to the Port Authority in understanding what they need to compete in to get people to come to the county for work.

“I think they give us an insight nobody else we got a proposal from has because they were by far the most deeply involved with site selection,” he said.

Rantala added that Silverlode offers a national view and give a perspective that CSU/Kirtland won’t have.

“I think some of the best practices from Georgia and South Carolina that Silverlode is seeing with their site selection work will give us an incredible edge up,” he said.

Coastal Development Director Peter Zahirsky said he spoke to one of the references for Silverlode, which was a town in Ohio he was familiar with, Lancaster in Fairfield County. He said it was a town that at one time was one of the leading cities in America and has since fallen on “very hard times.”

Silverlode looked at the heritage of the town and how that could be revitalized, which was the glass industry, most of which has left. They found a way to build on what was there and reach a new market, Zahirsky said. He added the town has come a long way in the past few years.

The board made its decision in a rare non-unanimous vote. Chris Madison, the only remaining original Port Authority board member favored CSU/Kirtland.

Madison said what is critical is “big-data type information.”

“What is the direction of our population and why? Is there anything we can do about it and if there is let’s focus on that. That’s where I’m thinking even though it’s academic, I think if we’re stepping back and looking big picture that’s the kind of information I’d like to get. I think in my opinion we can get a little bit deeper and broader of a picture out of CSU than we will with Silverlode.”

The rest of the sevenperson board was in favor of Silverlode. The Board’s Vice President Rita McMahon said Silverlode offered a more practical approach.

“The two comments I wrote down were CSU was more research-based; Silverlode was pragmatic,” she said.

McMahon said she didn’t want someone to tell them what to do but rather to give them the tools to make the right decision on what to do.

The strategic plan will be produced in six to eight months, Rantala said. It starts with interviews of board members, the Lake County commissioners and community stakeholders.

Silverlode has been in business for about 15 years and has done about 60 economic development plans, Founder and Principal Dennis McAndrew told the board.