LOCAL BUSINESS
Steelastic to relocate in Akron
An Akron company is moving from one industrial area in the city to another.
Steelastic, which makes equipment for the tire industry, will make a new home in the city’s Ascot Industrial Park off State Road. The company is currently located on Industrial Parkway off Tallmadge Avenue.
The Akron City Council approved the sale of 7.3 acres of city-owned land in the Ascot Industrial Park to Akron Properties LLC, which is the developer for the project, for $131,400.
Steelastic has pledged to transfer 77 jobs to the new site and create 10 more in the two years after its new facility is completed. The company plans to construct a 95,000-square-foot building.
Church leases Chapel Hill site
The Word Church, a mega-church headquartered in Warrensville Heights, has leased the former Handy Andy and Office Depot space at Akron’s Chapel Hill area.
The Brittain Road building is more than 75,000 square feet, and the church is making significant improvements to the property, according to Jennifer Fernandez, with NAI Cummins real estate of Akron. Work on the roof, heating and air conditioning and parking lot is planned.
Fernandez represented the Word Church in negotiating the lease deal, and NAI’s Tom Fox represented the building’s New York landlord.
The Word Church has local services at Akron’s North High School. It has offices at 608 E. Cuyahoga Falls Ave. in Akron.
The Word Church has campuses in Warrensville Heights, East Cleveland at Shaw High School and in Cleveland at East Tech High School and Lincoln-West High School.
New website on water quality
The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation has started a new website on Ohio water quality and nutrients.
The OHWATER page is at http://ofb.ag/ohwater. It offers a look at Ohio agriculture’s efforts to improve the quality of water in the state’s lakes and streams. The page compiles content from universities, news media, farm and environmental organizations, government agencies, individuals and federation sources.
The new website comes with Ohio agriculture under fire for practices that increase water quality problems including harmful algal blooms in Ohio streams and lakes. The page’s Twitter hashtag is #ohwater.
Energy program extended
American Municipal Power has extended a contract for an energy efficiency program with Vermont Energy Investment Corp. The new contract will run from January 2014 through December 2016.
The Efficiency Smart program was launched in January 2011 and provided an array of energy-savings steps. It includes 49 AMP member communities in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Local members are Cuyahoga Falls, Hudson, Wadsworth, Orrville, Brewster, Beach City and Lodi. The program has saved participants more than 81,000 megawatt-hours of energy.
To date, 34 participating communities have reached at least 70 percent of their energy savings goal. A total of 22 of those communities have exceeded 100 percent of their savings target.
The costs to participating communities will be lower under the new contract.
REAL ESTATE
Average mortgage rate drops
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on the 30-year loan slipped to 4.37 percent. That’s down from 4.51 percent last week but is still near the highest level in nearly two years.
Just two months ago the rate was 3.35 percent, barely above the record low of 3.31 percent. Rates had surged in recent weeks amid concern over the Fed’s bond purchases, which have kept interest rates low.
Compiled from staff and wire reports