BY RICHELLE THOMPSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- A shortage of workers in Warren County means a Massachusetts-based catalog company will not move its operations and an estimated 1,400 jobs to Lebanon, a city leader said Thursday.
However, the Tristate still is the favorite of International Cornerstone officials. The Boston firm is considering Butler County's Union Township or a spot in Northern Kentucky as a site for a distribution center, Lebanon City Manager Richard Hayward said. That operation is now in Boston.
Lebanon officials were optimistic that International Cornerstone, a mail-order company that owns several specialty catalogs, would relocate here. It already has a division in Lebanon called Cinmar. That company, at 2800 Henkle Drive, publishes the Frontgate catalog of upscale home and garden goods and employs about 270.
However, the city will suffer a double whammy: Not only will it not land Cornerstone, Mr. Hayward said, it also is losing Cinmar's jobs within two years as Cornerstone consolidates all operations at the new site.
Cinmar's President Paul Tarvin said he hopes to announce a new site by month's end. He declined to elaborate.
Curt Arulf, Butler County's economic development administrator, said Cornerstone is considering a site along Union Centre Boulevard. That is where a $24 million interchange on Interstate 75 has opened up 2,000 acres for commercial and industrial development.
Already, several companies have announced plans to move operations there, including Procter & Gamble Co. and Totes-Isotoner Corp. P&G plans to relocate about 85 technical and administrative jobs from its Winton Hills Technical Center to the interchange. Totes has plans for a $75 million headquarters-warehouse.
Union Centre is the first new interchange in Southwest Ohio in two decades. It is expected to attract more than $500 million in commercial investment.
Because the new interchange is already seen as a magnet for commercial and residential development, the Ohio Department of Transportation plans to add one lane in each direction on I-75 between Glendale-Milford Road and Ohio 63 in 2002. The overpasses will also be redone.
Mr. Hayward said Cornerstone did not think the labor pool in Lebanon and the surrounding area was large enough to fill all the proposed jobs.
The county's unemployment rate in February was 3.4 percent. That compared with 3.7 percent in Butler County and 4.1 percent statewide.
About 45,000 people live in Union Township; 13,000 in Lebanon. "It's unfortunate to lose the jobs," Mr. Hayward said. "But there's a silver lining: There will be a vacant building. Most companies coming to Ohio are looking for already-existing buildings. We'll at least have the opportunity to replace those jobs."
Lebanon City Councilwoman Mary Ann Cole viewed Cornerstone's decision as a Catch-22: "On the one hand, the city would be sorry any time they would lose a good corporate citizen. At the very same time, it would seem to be a good thing that we are at such low unemployment."
Enquirer reporter Steve Kemme contributed to this report.
