During his State of the City address earlier this month, Mayor Frank Jackson raised expectations with the announcement that Cleveland Public Power commissioner Ivan Henderson was in China “finalizing” a deal for an LED lighting company to establish its U.S. headquarters here.
That deal with Sunpu Opto Semiconductor could create as many as 350 “green” jobs to Cleveland, the mayor announced.
“This spring, we will submit the project for approval to Cleveland City Council and I look forward to working with them to help turn this vision into reality,” Jackson said in his speech.
Finalizing might have been a small rhetorical leap by the mayor, but city officials say work continues to bring the Ningbo-based company here.
Henderson’s March trip to China was his third since last year. He first made contact with Sunpu Opto officials in August during a trip to Japan and China to study waste-to-energy technology and returned to China in December to continue talks with the company.
The city and Sunpu Opto signed a memorandum of understanding during the March visit. That memo lays out how negotiations with the company will proceed, Jackson said in an interview Thursday. Henderson will brief City Council on the negotiations next week.
“This actually reverses jobs going to China from the United States,” Jackson said. “It’s no different than what happened in the auto industry, when many cars people were buying were being made in other countries and they moved manufacturing facilities to the United States.”
Henderson said Sunpu Opto could begin manufacturing LED lights in Cleveland within three to five years. There is further hope that the presence of Sunpu Opto here could lure other related businesses, furthering Jackson’s aim to create a sustainable city and economy in Cleveland by 2019.
“This company has a history in the last 10 years of growing rapidly,” Henderson said in an interview. “They have a very good product.”
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Article courtesy cleveland.com
