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While there are hundreds of pieces of news each day on Cleveland, we have curated the information and selected key bits of information that highlight the city’s growth and economic and investment opportunities.

September 24, 2024: New Amtrak Service from Cleveland to Miami begins November 10th.  New service begins 10 Nov 2024, linking Cleveland and Florida. The new route, called the Floridian, will connect Cleveland to cities currently not served by direct train service from the city, including:

Raleigh, NC
Cary, NC
Columbia, SC
Savannah, GA
Jacksonville, FL
Orlando, FL
Kissimmee, FL
Tampa, FL
Okeechobee, FL
West Palm Beach, FL
Deerfield Beach, FL
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Hollywood, FL
Miami, FL

List of all stations here.

August 16, 2024: Improving Athletic Performance and Health and Creating the Largest Repository of Sports Health and Performance Data.  Sports Data Labs of London and San Francisco is moving its headquarters to Cleveland and will partner with the Cleveland Clinic.  From the Cleveland Clinic: “Cleveland Clinic and Sports Data Labs, Inc. (SDL) are partnering with the goal of creating the largest compilation of sports health data, which will be used to develop new technology-driven tools and services. As part of the partnership, Cleveland Clinic will also invest in SDL, a leader in AI-based collection, analysis, and distribution of real-time human data from on-body sensors and other sensing systems.”  The partnership is a key element of the work and research to be done at the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center (GPPC), which is expected to open in The Flats 2027.

July 12, 2024: The Pan-American Masters Games kick off! The Pan-American Masters Games is part of the International Masters Games, an Olympic-style global competitive sporting event. The 2024 Cleveland games include thousands of athletes representing 70 different countries in 29 sports. The 2024 Games in Cleveland marks the first time the event was ever held in the United States. The future games, in 2025, 2026, and 2027, will be held in Tapei; Abu Dhabi; and Kansai, Japan, respectively. The Games run ten days from July 12 to July 21, 2024.

June 13, 2024: Forbes: “America’s New Startup Boom Emerges In Legacy Cities”. Story from Forbes about the entrepreneurial opportunities in tech in the City of Cleveland that are often not included in city-by-city analyses as funding for new startups in Cleveland and other legacy cities often come from outside the typical VC-funding ecosystem, and where a few large deals or market exits (like CoverMyMeds, Onshift and CardioInsight) can skew annual data. Link.

June 4, 2024: Fortune 500 List for 2024 Released. Fortune’s famous Fortune 500 List, updated for 2024, was released today. Cleveland is home to nine companies on this list. Statewide, Ohio had 27 companies, with the remaining 18 companies spread throughout the state including in Cincinnati (7 companies), Columbus (5), and Toledo (4). Ohio ranked as having the 5th most Fortune 500 companies amongst all states. Cleveland’s nine Fortune 500 Companies, by 2024 rank and revenue, are as follows:

62 Progressive - $62.1B
176 Sherwin-Williams - $23.1B
185 Cleveland-Cliffs - $22.0B
204 Goodyear Tire & Rubber - $20.1B
216 Parker-Hannifin - $19.1B
331 FirstEnergy - $12.5B
386 KeyCorp - $10.4B
450 Avery Dennison - $8.4B
492 RPM International - $7.3B

On the Fortune 1000 List, Cleveland has 16 companies, which are the nine companies above as well as: TransDigm Group, Applied Industrial Technologies, Lincoln Electric Holdings, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Avient, MasterBrand, and Nordson.

March 1, 2024: To accommodate growth in Cleveland, a new area code, 436, enters service today and will be used in the Eastern and Western suburbs, overlaying the existing territory of the 440 area code. Effective today, the Cleveland market is served by the following five area codes:

• 216 - City’s core

• 440 and 436 - Eastern and Western suburbs

• 330 and 234 - Southern region

February 14, 2024: Frontier Airlines adds ten new routes to/from Cleveland. As Frontier builds out its new crew domicile in Cleveland announced this past November, the airline just loaded new routes to the city. Most of the cities did not have non-stop to or from Cleveland. The new routes, frequency, and start date are as follows:

• CLE-Houston (IAH): 4x weekly, effective 17 May 2024

• CLE-New Orleans: 4x weekly, effective 22 May 2024

• CLE-Charleston: 4x weekly, effective 17 May 2024

• CLE-Jacksonville: 4x weekly, effective 22 May 2024

• CLE-Salt Lake City: 3x weekly, effective 16 May 2024

• CLE-Austin: 3x weekly, effective 16 May 2024

• CLE-Savannah: 3x weekly, effective 16 May 2024

• CLE-Pensacola, FL: 3x weekly, effective 21 May 2024

• CLE-Baltimore: 3x weekly, effective 16 May 2024

• CLE-Myrtle Beach, 3x weekly, effective 21 May 2024

December 22, 2023: Newly-released Economic Data Shows Cleveland’s Economy Grew Significantly in 2022, Surpassing Growth Rates of NYC, Chicago, and other Key Cities.  Cleveland’s economy is on a roll with a 3.3% annual growth rate from 2021 to 2022, based on the latest US government data. Cleveland surpassed the growth rate of all of the city’s standard benchmarking cities—Detroit (2.5%), New York (2.3%), Philadelphia (2.3%), Chicago (2.2%), and Pittsburgh (1.0%). More…

December 21, 2023: Travel Article: “I’m a Parisian and I LOVE This Overlooked Midwest City.” Fodors, a deeply respected source on global travel, published a great and accurate piece today on Cleveland depicting the oft-overlooked wonders and amazing cultural elements of the city. It begins: “The wine and conversation are flowing in the buzzy candlelit dining room at L’Albatros on a frigid November evening as happy diners tuck into the French classics. Heads turn as a waiter wends his way between tables deftly balancing a bountiful cheese platter. And my teenage daughter, a Parisian born and raised, is lapping up the last winey drops of her coq au vin with crusty bread. But this is not Paris, this is Cleveland…” See the full article here.

December 20, 2023: Embraer to open a new facility in Cleveland. Brazilian jet maker Embraer announced it will open a new Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport to support its corporate jet fleet operations in the US. Link.

December 14, 2023: New flight, Montego Bay, Jamaica - Cleveland, announced. Frontier Airlines, which in November announced they are building a new crew domicile in Cleveland, stated today that they will soon offer nonstop Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ) - Cleveland service. Service will begin on March 9, 2024 and will operate three times weekly, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. The flight represents the third international destination on Frontier Airlines from Cleveland; the other two are Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and Cancun, Mexico.

December 5, 2023: New potential inter-city rail services for Cleveland. Two new Amtrak routes serving and terminating in Cleveland have been awarded $500k each for further study by the US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The routes were selected via a competitive FRA process called the “Corridor ID Program” seeking new routes throughout the United States. The two new Cleveland routes would be:

• Cleveland—Detroit  

• Cleveland—Columbus, Ohio—Cincinnati (sometimes called the “3C” route)

The Cleveland-Detroit route would include a station at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and the Cleveland-Cincinnati route would include a station for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The new routes, if implemented, would expand rail service from the city. Direct Amtrak rail service currently operates between Cleveland and Chicago; Buffalo; Pittsburgh; Washington, DC; New York; and Boston.

November 21, 2023: Travel+Leisure Magazine recommends Cleveland, along with Paris, Istanbul, and Montreal on their list of big cities to visit in 2024. Begins the write-up on Cleveland: “The year ahead has the Land set to shine, thanks to national and international events, world-class cultural expansions, and the rebirth of historic hotels. It all starts in April, when the NCAA Women’s Final Four comes to the state-of-the-art Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and a total solar eclipse sweeps over the city on April 8, 2024. Cleveland will see even more action when the Pan-American Masters Games crisscross the city July 12-21….” Read the full article here.

November 8, 2023: Frontier Airlines to open a new crew domicile at Cleveland. Frontier Airlines announced today it will open a crew base for pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE). Planned to open in March of 2024, the base will initially have 110 pilots, 250 flight attendants, and 50 maintenance personnel in its first year, with plans for growth. Cleveland is currently the 9th largest station for Frontier. The new crew domicile will enable to the airline to grow at CLE, increasing frequency on existing routes, adding new routes, and improved operations reliability. Reflective of the strong passenger demand and healthy economy in Cleveland, Frontier has grown rapidly in the city, currently serving 17 non-stop destinations. In November of 2023, the airline will have 518 departures, up from 342 the previous November. Next month, the airline will have 540 departures, up from 370 the previous December. Frontier’s crew domicile will be the second crew base in the city. United Airlines maintains a pilot and flight attend base at Hopkins as well.

July 21, 2023: Cleveland MSA expands. The federally-defined Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area has been expanded from five to six counties. The new county is Ashtabula County. Outlying counties to a city are added if it is established that the “territory has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured by commuting ties” (U.S. Office of Management and Budget). Accordingly, the Cleveland MSA is comprised of Cuyahoga (the center) and five outer counties: Lorain, Medina, Geauga, Lake, and Ashtabula. Summit and Portage Counties, to the south and southeast of the city, while part of “Greater Cleveland” or “Metropolitan Cleveland,” are not included in the official Cleveland MSA depsite a high degree of social and economic integration, given that, by Federal OMB definitions, those outer counties have their “own” principal city—Akron—and hence refers to those counties as the “Akron MSA” instead of being part of the Cleveland MSA.

March 30, 2023: Accelerating biomedical discoveries: first deployment of an onsite private sector IBM-managed quantum computer in the United States. “Cleveland Clinic and IBM officially unveiled the first deployment of an onsite private sector IBM-managed quantum computer in the United States. The IBM Quantum System One installed at Cleveland Clinic will be the first quantum computer in the world to be uniquely dedicated to healthcare research with an aim to help Cleveland Clinic accelerate biomedical discoveries.” LINK

March 23, 2023: English firm selects Cleveland to build its first astronaut training center near Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center. Blue Abyss Diving Ltd., based in Cornwall, England will construct its first US-based research, development, and training center that would include a 164-foot deep pool, microgravity center, astronaut training center, and a hotel. News Link and Animation of their UK center as envisioned.

January 12, 2023: Cleveland ranked as the #2 hottest real estate market in the US for 2023, according to real estate research, data, and listing firm, Zillow. Zillow’s annual predictions for the hottest markets of the year are based on an analysis incorporating expected home value growth, projected change in owner occupancy, changes in job growth, and amount of new construction. Cleveland ranked #2 in the US, after Charlotte, which took the top spot. Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Nashville, TN came in third, fourth, and fifith, respectively. LINK

October 18, 2022: IBM and the Cleveland Clinic begin installation of a the Cleveland Clinic-IBM Discovery Accelerator, the first private sector onsite, IBM-managed quantum computer in the United States. The System will be on the main campus of the Cleveland Clinic and leverages the technical expertise in quantum computing of IBM with the medical and medical research expertise of the Cleveland Clinic. “The current pace of scientific discovery is unacceptably slow, while our research needs are growing exponentially,” said Lara Jehi, M.D., Cleveland Clinic’s Chief Research Information Officer. “We cannot afford to continue to spend a decade or more going from a research idea in a lab to therapies on the market. Quantum offers a future to transform this pace, particularly in drug discovery and machine learning.” LINK

October 13, 2022: New York Times: “Leaving New York for Cleveland? Here’s How Far Their Money Went.” Article on the value of Cleveland, particularly in housing, compared to New York City. “Until Cleveland called, Sarah Scaturro thought she had it all…..” LINK

Sept 28, 2022: Aer Lingus announces new Cleveland-Dublin service. Irish-flag carrier Aer Lingus will begin nonstop service 4x weekly between Dublin and Cleveland, beginning May 19, 2023. Flights will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays using an Airbus A321LR aircraft, a longer-range variant of the A321neo. LINK

Sept 27, 2022: Cleveland Home Prices Continue to Rise as US-wide Market Falls for First Time in a Decade. Based on Data released Sept. 27, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index indicated US home prices falling in July—the first time in a decade. Prices for 20 large city index fell 0.44%. However, in Cleveland, prices continued to rise, pointing to the city’s resiliency and demand from people moving to the city. Cleveland home prices rose 0.96% in July (up 9.57% YTD), while cities such as Boston, New York, Washington, and Los Angeles changed -0.27%, 0.16%, -0.72%, -1.60%, respectively. LINK

Sept 5, 2022: Forbes: “Cleveland: The Next Venice?” LINK

January 2022: Sherwin Williams breaks ground on its new 36-story Downtown Cleveland Headquarters on W. 3 St. In the recent era during which companies are struggling against work from home preferences of workers and offices buildings worldwide face vacancies, the company is confident in its future office needs. The company plans to move into its new tower in late 2024. LINK

Oct 2021: Cleveland Clinic opens new 22,000SF Biorepository at E. 101 and Cedar on its Campus. “Cleveland Clinic and Brooks Automation have opened a biorepository that will increase the storage capacity for biologic samples at Cleveland Clinic, while enhancing researchers’ study of human tissue samples to more rapidly translate laboratory discoveries into new treatments for patients. LINK

Feb 2021: Home values increasing rapidly in Cleveland from exceptional demand to live in Cleveland. In 2020, home values in the City of Cleveland increased 16.5%, compared to 8.8% for the US overall, and 3.3% in New York and 6.2% in Chicago. Value in the Cleveland suburbs grew exceptionally as well, growing 10.1% in 2020 compared to 8.7% for the US overall, and 8.8% in New York and 5.8% in Chicago. LINK

Jan 2021: Cleveland Clinic to launch new Global Center for Pathogen Research & Human Health. “The center will be organized around six collaborative programs with experts in virology and immunology, personalized medicine and genomics, population health, drug discovery, diagnostic development, and integration of big data with patient care.” “In addition to supporting research advancements in infectious diseases, the center will create new startup tech companies and generate an estimated 1,000 new jobs at Cleveland Clinic by 2029.” LINK

Jan 2021: These Are the Cities Techies Are Really Moving to, According to New LinkedIn Data (Austin Isn't on the List) LINK

Oct 2020: In 2019, The London Stock Exchange announced Cleveland will be the Americas Headquarters of its Elite program. LSE has postponed the opening of its Cleveland Office to 2021 as a result of delays from Covid-19. The Elite program helps develop small and medium-sized businesses.

Click HERE for general information about the city,

Quick Facts

Metropolitan Cleveland is the largest population and economy in the state of Ohio. (Ohio is the 7th largest state in the US by population and economy.)

Population (Metropolitan): 2.9 million for the immediate 8-county area; 4.9 million for the full economic area.

Air Market Population: 4.93 Million

Media Market Population (DMA) (per Nielsen Media Research): Cleveland ranks as the 19th largest in the US with 1.6 million households (3.9 million population).

GDP: $207 Billion (2022) (25th Largest in US) (immediate 7-country area only). Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis

GDP per capita: $62,200

Major Industries: Healthcare, aerospace, biotech, medtech, tech, advanced manufacturing, law, materials science

Cleveland Area Codes: Country Code: +1. Cleveland has five local area codes:

• 216 - City’s core

• 440 and 436 - Eastern and Western suburbs

• 330 and 234 - Southern region

Time Zone: US Eastern. Currently Eastern Stamdard Time (EST): UTC-5

Date founded: 1796

Notable Global Cultural & Educational Institutions: Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Museum of Art, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum, Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University, Oberlin College, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and the largest theater district in the United States outside of NYC.

Professional Sports Franchises: The City of Cleveland is home to five professional sports teams: Cleveland Guardians [Cleveland Indians] (Baseball), Cleveland Browns (American Football), Cleveland Cavaliers (Basketball), Cleveland Charge (Basketball Minor League), and Cleveland Monsters (Hockey).

Geography: The Cleveland Metropolitan Economy is comprised of two US government-defined “metropolitan statistical areas” (MSA’s), the Cleveland MSA and the Akron MSA. This area is made up of Cuyahoga County (of which Cleveland is the center) and the seven outer counties: Lorain, Medina, Summit, Portage, Geauga, Lake, and Ashtabula. Metropolitan Cleveland comprises the largest population and economy in the state of Ohio.