SiteOhio is marking 10 years of helping Ohio communities and companies find the right fit. JobsOhio’s best-in-class site readiness program evaluates a site’s potential, closes infrastructure gaps, and connects the right community partners so projects can move forward successfully.
Part 2 of 4: North Central Ohio Industrial Park (Huron County)
Furniture Parkway got its name honestly. The road leads to Norwalk Furniture, the high-end manufacturer that’s called Huron County home for generations. It’s also home to one of the first sites JobsOhio ever authenticated, and has become a true success story.
This year marks 10 years since SiteOhio launched, and North Central Ohio Industrial Park has been a pioneering example of its effectiveness—a decade-long case study in what happens when a community and a program grow up together.
Doing the Homework
That’s the backdrop for North Central Ohio Industrial Park, which sits along Furniture Parkway and is surrounded by soybean fields. In 2016, during SiteOhio’s inaugural “wave” of sites, the industrial park was one of the first in the state to earn authentication. At the time, the property was still in a family trust, and the family, while motivated, wasn’t equipped to move fast. A group of private investors stepped in to fund the required due diligence studies, putting a lien on the property with the understanding they would be repaid once the land was sold.
JobsOhio came out with the program and gave local leaders a toolbox, something turnkey to advance site development,” said Sarah Ross, executive director of Huron County Growth Partnership, who joined the organization in 2021. “That’s really what we needed.
The SiteOhio process also surfaced a problem with North Central Ohio Industrial Park nobody had flagged: an old land survey that left it unclear whether the site’s access road was public or private — just the kind of detail that quietly kills deals.
The Power of Authentication
Once that issue was resolved and a development group acquired the site, things moved forward quickly. Three companies have located there since authentication: a professional services firm, a highway construction company, and an international plastics manufacturer — creating roughly 175 new jobs, with two of those wins landing in just the last three years.
Authentication did more than open doors with prospects. It gave the county something harder to create without planning: full transparency.
It’s a cut-and-dry, impartial way to prioritize business development,” Ross says. “It’s not political, who owns the site or what city it’s in. An authenticated site checks all the boxes.
That data-backed case also helped the site turn a near-miss on the All Ohio Future Fund into a $2 million roadway extension award, now underway to open the remaining 80 acres.
Ross remembers one site visit that captures the difference authentication makes. A company from Texas was touring in the dead of winter, with most of the visit confined to a conference room. Because of the authentication, JobsOhio had supplied drone footage of the site, which played across the TV screens.
Right away, the visitors were engaged,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Okay, we’re looking at that part, and here’s what we’re thinking for layout.
The company also received a packet of materials “that answered 90% of their questions," Ross said. These small details ultimately made a big impact — typical of what helps set an authenticated site amid a crowded field of competitors.
Huron County has two new sites in Wave 6 of the SiteOhio process, with a new round of property owners. No matter how they fare, Ross said the community no longer has to work as hard to sell its case because it has a decade of visible wins as proof.
We’ve had this brand and this label and the SiteOhio flag for 10 years. Everyone who lives here has talked about that first site. The win doesn’t belong to one family, one mayor, or one local developer—it belongs to the whole community.
Learn more at www.jobsohio.com/site-selection
