EATON CORP. MOVE PREORDAINED BY FORBES, VOINOVICH in 1980s

The move of Eaton Corp. out of downtown Cleveland was preordained back in the late 1980s by Mayor George Voinovich and Council President George Forbes. They opened the land to development as both of them were preparing to leave their respective offices.

That’s when they began the process of opening up Chagrin Highlands to development. The city owned the property - situated in prime development land - in surrounding suburbs.

Of course, we know that the deal and the land ended up in the hands of Dick Jacobs, Forbes closest business buddy, and with Voinovich’s former law firm in on the sellout of Cleveland.

In a December 17, 1988 issue (Vol. 21, No. 9) of Point of View, a newsletter that I wrote, cited a study that the development at Chagrin Highlands “could encourage business to move from downtown Cleveland,” and that it could, as I wrote, “Could hurt development downtown and jobs.”

It was obvious that opening virgin land in the Chagrin Road area would cause direct competition to downtown Cleveland as a site for office space development.

Voinovich and Forbes didn’t care. They were taking care of the people who took care of them.

Voinovich, as governor, also helped enhance the land for development by state spending of more than $100 million on I-271 improvements and an interchange to make the land more accessible.
I wrote in 1988, "Cleveland wants to lease this metropolitan area’s last, largest, best-sited and enticingly developable acreage to a corporation with close ties to Mayor George Voinovich’s former law firm, Calfee, Walter & Griswold.
"That – and the lack of public examination – raises red flags for the development package of 630-acres of Warrensville Township land to be developed exclusively by Figgie International, a company slated to move here…" (Figgie essentially went out of business and unknown at the time, Forbes had inserted developer Dick Jacobs into the deal.)

Developers, then as now, are the real government in Cleveland.