Friday, June 25, 1999
Cushion-maker moving to Norwood for bigger plant
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NORWOOD — A longtime Elmwood Place company has bought the former Berger-McGill company building on Regent Avenue. .
Easy Way Leisure Corp. is expected to move into the vacant three-story brick building east of Montgomery Road in south Norwood later this year.
Easy Way, which has been in Elmwood Place about 50 years, makes cushions for lawn furniture and school buses and other vehicles as well as restraints for buses designed for the disabled, said Jon Randman, the company's president.
Mr. Randman and an investment group took control of the company in 1996.
Norwood Community De velopment Director Rick Dettmer said Tuesday that city council plans to approve a 50 percent tax abatement for 10 years on future improvements to the building, equipment and inventory, and the arrangement complies with an agreement between the city and the Norwood school district regarding tax incentives to lure business.
“This is an older building that has had several additions over the years. Part of it was built around the turn of the century, and there was a (large) new addition about 30 years ago,” Mr. Dettmer said.
“It is an industrial ... facility ... (that) has been vacant for about six months,” Mr. Dettmer said. Finding a new occupant willing to improve the building and bring about 50 jobs into Norwood is economically advantageous and worthy of the abatement, he said.
Mr. Randman said the company will buy the building for about $180,000 and plans to make significant improvements to it including a new heating and air conditioning system, roof and truck docks. The company's initial investment will total about $1.2 million, he said.
Elmwood Place Mayor Richard Ellison said there was no room for the company to expand at its present Blade Avenue facility and he recognizes Easy Way's need to move.
“Any time you lose a business, it is not a good thing,” Mr. Ellison said. “But we are a landlocked community, and there is no place to expand — no place to buy any additional property (to grow) — and that's the case here.” The Blade Street building is within the Elmwood Place enterprise zone and eligible for tax incentives. The village will aggressively work to find a new owner, he said.
Mr. Randman said the Regent Avenue building is about 100,000 square feet on three floors, but his company, at first, intends to occupy only the first floor — about 60,000 square feet.
Because a great deal of the company's work is seasonal — involving lawn chair cushions — Mr. Randman said he is looking at diversifying the operation and is investigating the possible purchase of another business to provide steady work. He declined to divulge the nature of the business he is pursuing.
Mr. Dettmer said prior to Berger-McGill — a commercial printing business — the building was occupied by Metropolitan Printing; prior to that, Palm Brothers Decal Co.
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