Byline: JOEL HAMMOND
Ron Clutter has been asked the question so much he now beats people to it.
'People ask me, 'Why Geneva?' Mr. Clutter said last week at the Geneva area Recreational, Educational, Athletic Trust, or GaREAT for short. 'Well, why not Geneva?
Mr. Clutter, an Ashtabula native and serial entrepreneur, is the mastermind and driving financial force behind GaREAT, a sprawling, 40-acre athletic complex just north of Interstate 90 in Ashtabula County.
The site currently features a 215,000-square-foot building split up into soccer and volleyball/basketball fields, and a 250,000-square-foot building with a 300-meter indoor track, full-length football field, state-of-the-art batting cages (including video screens capable of simulating any situation) and a 30,000-square-foot banquet facility.
In the middle with a press box and luxury boxes looking out from the soccer building sits a 5,500-seat football stadium and outdoor track. A 160,000-square-foot aquatics center, for which ground will be broken in the coming days, should be completed by spring.
Oh, and there's about 120 acres the nonprofit owns around those facilities, on which it plans to add hotels and office and retail space. Mr. Clutter, the president of HDT Engineered Technologies of Solon which in February bought Mr. Clutter's Nordic Air, a maker of air conditioning units for extreme environments, such as steel mills and military outposts said last week he and his staff are actively negotiating with developers and expects some commercial development to begin by next summer.
The final price tag of the athletic facilities will approach $60 million, financed all through private donations. Mr. Clutter said he and his wife provided a large seed donation, the amount of which he would not disclose. Others have supported the project as they have learned about it, Mr. Clutter said.
GaREAT's impact already is being felt in the area, said Mark Winchell, the executive director of the Ashtabula County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
'Our typical season is Memorial Day to Labor Day, Mr. Winchell said. 'Now they're bringing indoor events all winter. Parents are coming here as captive audience. They might not be here for recreational opportunity, but our goal is to convert them into future consumers.
The complex currently plays host to, among other things, youth clinics and tournaments, high school team camps and adult basketball, soccer and volleyball leagues. In a few weeks, Geneva High School will begin playing its home football games there. Wine festivals have been held in the aforementioned banquet facility.
But the goal is much bigger: Mr. Clutter & Co. intend to attract higher-profile acts, such as the USA junior men's volleyball team, in town last week and this week to train for an upcoming world championship qualifying tournament in Quebec. Stu Cordell, Mr. Clutter's lawyer from Ashtabula-based Warren and Young PLL, said the group also might target college conferences, such as the Mid-American, Big Ten and Big East.
On the flip side
Mr. Clutter makes no bones about his optimism, both generally and specifically with GaREAT. He says he wanted to show developers something, to have events before asking them to commit.
'They see grand plans every day that never happen, he said. Mr. Clutter also is a staunch advocate of regionalism, and he cites GaREAT's potential to Ashtabula County and Northeast Ohio as a whole for his work on and financial stake in the project.
'I believe we have a moral obligation to share in our success, Mr. Clutter said. 'Everyone loves regionalism if it's in their town; we wanted to find a way for everyone to play together. A good business or community maximizes its assets.
That's not to say reaching the group's lofty goals will be easy. While land acquisition was relatively cheap $10,000 to $15,000 an acre, according to Mr. Cordell, who said GaREAT had to do some sewer line work on the property and the site is just steps away from an I-90 interchange, it's facing an uphill battle, said Alec Pacella, a senior vice president at commercial real estate broker NAI Daus.
The I-90 corridor in which it sits, from western New York to Detroit, 'isn't the most economically viable, he said.
Plus, one needs only to look 60 miles west, Mr. Pacella said: In Avon, officials are working on a mixed-use development around the $12 million All Pro Freight Stadium, home of the independent Lake Erie Crushers. A $14 million, 66,000-square-foot YMCA is open, but other progress has been slow-moving.
'Ashtabula County isn't growing (like) eastern Lorain County, and it's taken a while (in Avon), Mr. Pacella said. 'I'm not saying (development at GaREAT) can't happen, but the complex would have to be well established. It becomes a chicken-or-egg type thing. Hotels aren't going to build there for two or three events a year.
Meanwhile, major college conference tournaments most often are held on member campuses. The Cleveland-based MAC, for instance, in 2010-11 will hold 17 of 23 championship events on campuses, and three others at professional facilities. Eighteen of 22 Big Ten events are on campus, with three in Indianapolis and another at Huntington Park in Columbus, home of the Indians' Class AAA affiliate, the Clippers. The Big East, meanwhile, holds nine of 15 events on campuses, with two others taking place in pro facilities.
'It gives schools a chance to show off campuses, and from our perspective, it certainly takes a burden off us from a planning and staffing standpoint, said MAC spokesman Ken Mather.
Copyright 2010 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved.
