Why Businesses Are Choosing Avon Lake

The City of Avon Lake needs to keep several rolls of red ribbon in stock and its pair of scissors sharpened if it continues to welcome new businesses and celebrate company expansions as often as it has lately.  

“People who live in Avon Lake support Avon Lake businesses. There is a tremendous amount of pride in this community for both big and small companies,” says Ted Esborn, community development director for the city of Avon Lake. “As a business, when you come to Avon Lake, you will feel that support. You will have the full resources of not only local government, but all our partners.”

Esborn lists that positive business environment as the main reason businesses come and stay in Avon Lake. But there are other important reasons, including an available workforce.

“It’s been shown many times in the past few years that this area, on the eastern edge of Lorain County, has a great, talented, flexible workforce. The three cities that make up this edge, Avon Lake, Avon and North Ridgeville, have a combined population of almost 100,000 people, and they are still growing,” says Esborn. “And that’s not to mention the nearby urban centers like Lorain and Elyria.”       

Avon Lake is also only minutes away from I-90 and its connections. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is less than a half hour away. In addition, Esborn points to the community’s high median household income, quality schools and solid housing values as incentives for residents and companies wanting to do business in the city.

“Those factors are big deals, especially for larger employers looking out for their employees,” says Esborn.

Planning for the Future

To ensure that Avon Lake will continue to prosper, the city commissioned the consulting firm Kleinfelder Inc. to present the Avon Economic Recovery and Resiliency Plan. The comprehensive study, released in 2025, covers economic development strategies and ideas for attracting new businesses. It also touches on environmental and infrastructure matters, according to Esborn.

Plan recommendations include greater use of the city’s existing Community Improvement Corporation and creating a strong City of Avon Lake marketing brand, among others.  

With its current economic course enhanced and energized by the new plan, the community is looking forward to more ribbon cuttings. Since becoming mayor of Avon Lake in 2024, Mark Spaetzel has presided over more than 10 ribbon-cutting ceremonies in the community — and counting.  

Job Growth Incentive Program

Avon Lake’s Job Growth Incentive Program provides an incentive to each business in the city of Avon Lake, regardless of size, in the amount of 35% of the additional income tax paid as compared to the previous year, according to city documents. (Home-based businesses do not qualify, and $50,000 per business is the maximum annual benefit.)

Avon Lake’s economic development leaders believe when a company pays more in income tax, it means additional employees have been hired, current employees are working more hours and are earning higher wages, or the company is new to Avon Lake. The business incentive program is considered “sharing the success.”

“Our two primary incentive programs are the Jobs Growth Incentive Program and the Community Reinvestment Area (CRA),” says Esborn, noting that the second provides funding and advisory services to citizens and businesses. “Port Authority Construction Financing is also available.” 

Here’s a look at just a few companies that have benefited from the Job Growth Incentive Program.

Integrated Network Concepts 

When Integrated Network Concepts, a full-service IT company, moved to Pin Oak Parkway in 2024, it spent some time settling in and adjusting to its new location. So, it’s no wonder that the business, founded in 1991, wasn’t aware of everything the city of Avon Lake could offer — including the Job Growth Incentive Program.

“We had no idea about the program until they just showed up at the door with a check,” confesses Wesley Parrott, company owner.

“It was a nice surprise,” adds Leroy Ladyzhensky, also an owner.

But Avon Lake officials knew Integrated Network Concepts existed, according to Parrott. The previous city in which the company was located, “did nothing for us,” he says. 

“We have gotten to know the people who manage the city of Avon Lake, and they seem to be very interested in what we are doing and are very supportive,” says Ladyzhensky.

Integrated Network Concepts offers design, implementation, training and maintenance of complex data solutions. That includes hardware and software, disaster recovery, cyber security, business integration and more. It serves the manufacturing, retail, health care, legal and city government sectors, among others.

“What we do can be complicated, and educating businesses can be a challenge, especially because a lot of business owners and upper management are not necessarily IT people,” explains Ladyzhensky. “It’s also a slower business because it’s not like we are taking a catalog order. There are a lot of meetings, discussions, proposals and adjustments.”

But that personal attention, the respect shown by the company’s team for its clients and its ability to supply support 24/7 has earned Integrated Network Concepts loyal customers and continuing expansion, according to Christina Wade, the company’s vice president of sales.

Ninety-five percent of the company’s clients are located in Northeast Ohio. But those with branches or offices outside the region, including Europe and South America, are also supported.    

Watteredge

Watteredge is a 71-year-old designer and manufacturer of high-performance conducting equipment. Today, the company (named after founder Henry Watterson), focuses on making custom cables, bus bars, bus tubes, laminated shunts, braided connectors and industrial switches.   

“These are essential components in industries such as steel, shipbuilding, energy, utilities and medical technology,” explains Jennifer McGovern, human resources manager. “Our customers must perform under extreme conditions, and we take pride in not only supplying parts, but also providing repair services and technical expertise to keep their operations running smoothly.”

NESCO Inc. has owned Watteredge, located on Miller Road, since 2020. Each year since then, the number of employees has increased, going from 70 to over 120. McGovern also anticipates increases in the workforce for the next two years. That success, of course, makes the company a perfect candidate to be recognized by Avon Lake’s Job Growth Incentive Program.

“The location of our Avon Lake facility allows us to recruit talented, skilled labor from Lorain, Cuyahoga and Erie Counties. This regional reach ensures we have the expertise we need to meet the demands of our customers while creating stable career opportunities close to home,” says McGovern. “For Watteredge, being in Avon Lake means we can thrive as a business while contributing to and benefiting from a strong, vibrant community.” 

Watteredge collaborates with Lorain County Community College to host an internship program allowing students to gain real-world experience. In addition, the federal government has recognized Watteredge for the past several years because of its superior support of veterans’ causes.

All Pro Freight Systems

The Cleveland Premier Pickleball Club has 600 members and a 96% renewal rate. Not bad for a facility that just opened in September 2024. A game for players five to 95 years old, pickleball is the fastest-growing game in the United States, according to building owner Chris Haas.

Haas is the president and CEO of All Pro Freight Systems, a full-service transportation and logistics management company. He founded his then one-man operation out of his basement with a $500 loan from his mother. Currently, Haas owns 1 million square feet of space in several facilities, including his headquarters in Westlake and the warehouse area in Avon Lake.

A 200,000-square-foot addition has been added to Haas’ 126,000-square-foot building on Pin Oak Parkway to expand operations and to house 15 indoor pickleball courts, two indoor golf simulators and one padel court. (Padel is the fastest-growing racket sport in the world and is a combination of tennis and squash.) This latest entry into the sports world isn’t really that much of a stretch for Haas. Always looking for creative ways to fill his vast buildings, he has added soccer and basketball facilities to some of his properties in the past.

“I used to live in Avon Lake before we moved to Florida. Pickleball originated in Naples, Florida, in 1965, and I saw the growth and all the excitement there. I knew it hadn’t grown to that extent up north, and I started thinking about putting in pickleball courts and beating the rush,” says Haas, who joined forces with his partner, pickleball expert Justin Hellinger, and the director of operations, his daughter, Steph Haas.

“Avon Lake is a great city and a great city to work with,” says Haas, who holds tournaments and open play activities at the club. “They were expeditious no matter what (building) issues came up. They were with me hand-in-hand all the way. Working with the city was just unbelievable. They knew that once I get going, I am a fast-track guy.”

Northern HammerWorks

President and CEO Nick Yarham opened his residential remodeling business, Northern HammerWorks, in 2011. Yarham, who has lived all his life in Avon Lake, found an eager market, remodeling houses that were built in the community in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and into the 2020s. Many residents outgrow their homes but want to stay in the city. Others think about buying another existing or newly constructed house but instead choose to stay where they are and remodel, according to Yarham.  

The remodeler understands why people want to remain in the city.

“Avon Lake is a special city where people really do want to help other people,” says Yarham, noting about 70% of his customers live locally. “We want to help, too, and have done especially well because of it. I have customers who I have worked with since I started the company. We’ll do the kitchen and come back and do the bathroom. It’s important for us to hire only people we trust, because most of our customers hand us the house keys in the morning and leave.”

As a Job Growth Incentive Program recipient, Yarham enjoys a little bit of friendly family competition. His brother, Brian, is owner of Eyring Movers in Avon Lake, and has also benefited from the program. 

“Every year that we both get checks, we call each other to see who gets the bigger one,” says Yarham, who added multiple new buildings to his Miller Road property. “His business is growing like ours is.”

For the past decade, Yarham has also been highly involved with the city’s NorthCoast Christmas Light Up the Park, a popular festivity that is a fundraiser for the Avon Lake Historical Society. He also supports Avon Lake’s Beach Park Railway Museum.

Avon Lake Business by the Numbers

• In 2024-2025, the city added three new coffee shops: Emilie’s Coffee House, Elysium Café and Biggby Coffee.

• Have a pet who needs some TLC? Avon Lake Animal Clinic is one of the largest employers in Avon Lake and is still growing. More than 200 full- and part-time employees make up its three divisions, including veterinarian services, pet resort and daycare, and salon and boutique. Dogs and cats are expected, but the clinic also welcomes exotic pets. It even has a world-renowned skunk expert on staff.

• Two Eleven Health, offering direct primary care, is one of the city’s newest businesses. The company is named after the owner’s son’s birth date.

• Since 2022, almost 500,000 square feet (that’s about 8.7 football fields) of new development has been built on Pin Oak Parkway, Avon Lake’s industrial parkway that opened in 1974.  

• Located in Avon Lake, Sheffield and Sheffield Lake, the Ford Ohio Assembly Plant is eying a $1.5 billion expansion.

• Discount Drug Mart/Drug Mart Solutions on Walker Road is the centralized fulfillment center that provides items for the company’s Ohio-based stores and mail orders. That’s a lot of antibiotics.

• Avient Corp., a global manufacturer of specialized polymer products, ranked 863 on the Fortune 1,000 list in 2024, making it one of the largest American companies by revenue.