Economic Development
538 N. Market St., PO Box 1128
The 2024 Housing Opportunities Update below shares a summary of the several new housing projects underway in Wooster and the multiple City programs available to support…
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Welcome to the City of Wooster - your partner in building a thriving community! We're here to help everyone who calls Wooster home or visits our community in creating a stronger and more prosperous future! The City of Wooster's Office of Economic Development works to foster opportunities for prosperity with the following efforts:
- Reinvestment Help: Through programs such are the Community Reinvestment Program and also CHIP, we help local property owners with financial tools to help in rebuilding within our community. CHIP provides direct grants to low-to-moderate-income homeowners to repair their homes, while CRA is a property tax exemption available to anyone rehabilitating or rebuilding a home in our historic neighborhoods.
- Research Support for Industry: Our Office provides local businesses, start-ups, and prospective industry with local data that can be helpful in making decisions to expand, launch, or reinvest. From assistance with research to help with marketing or finding a space for lease or sale, our local development is available to explore opportunities for businesses navigating changing markets.
- Infrastructure Grants: Did you know that Ohio is a "Donor" State, where residents pay more in federal taxes than they receive back? We work to leverage state and federal grant resources to lower the cost of infrastructure for residents. From sidewalks, to road construction, to bike trails, and community facilities such as fire stations and parks, we work to bring federal dollars back to work for your community.
- Community-Owned Business Park: Only a few years ago, Wooster did not have available sites with utilities measuring over 30 acres, whereas most major business expansions require 40 or more. Though Wooster Growth, the City's community improvement corporation, our city-owned business park allows Wooster to work with the State of Ohio to certify the Wooster Innovation Park and field inquiries from major business expansions, from food processing to research and development to advanced manufacturing. Already, the effort has allowed mainstay firms such as Wooster Brush and Frito-Lay to expand within their hometowns rather than elsewhere.
Learn about Wooster's latest economic development projects and efforts below!
Downtown Streetscape Expansion & Utilizing TIF Expand Further At a Lower Cost: The City of Wooster is embarking on expanding its walkable Downtown Streetscape along South Market Street! This major project follows our our citizen-led 2024 Comprehensive Plan and the intent is to connect Public Square to Mulberry Street with inviting new sidewalks, benches, planters, and electrical infrastructure. Downtown Streetscape helps to ensure safety, boost visibility and value for businesses, and encourage more visitors, shoppers, and diners to Wooster. While City funds historically have covered all decorative elements and the wider portion of sidewalks, a small percentage of every streetscape project is funded through assessments to property owners who are benefitting from new sidewalks and driveway approaches, this helps to fund the project, but is also essential out of fairness to other businesses and residents beyond Market and Liberty have to fund sidewalks and drive approaches on their own. The City is exploring the use of a Parcel TIF to keep costs low for everyone and to enable enough funding to perform the expansion of streetscape. TIF will allow Streetscape to unlock new sites for redevelopment while also helping to build up the tax base, which results in a lower overall tax bill for all residents and businesses in the long-term. Learn more about this project here:
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South Market Street TIF Project Proposal |
Silver Road TIF - Expanding Public Infrastructure with Private Development: The City of Wooster has prepared a new Economic Development Plan for Silver Road which will support our community's second-largest industrial center, enable the creation of 108 new homes, and expand walkability using TIF, or Tax Increment Financing. TIF is a financial and legislative tool to temporarily redirect a certain portion of property taxes to cover public improvements, such as roadway reconstruction. The Developer and future property owners residing within a TIF see no change in the property taxes they would otherwise have been charged. (TIF is not an abatement. TIF is a financing method for the City.) However, the community benefits from new and needed public infrastructure without instituting taxes, cutting budgets for other services, or raising fees for utilities.
While philosophies differ from community to community, Wooster does not permit TIF to fund a Developer's on-site public infrastructure. This is to protect the financial well-being of all other Wooster taxpayers and to allow market-driven investment. Instead, homebuilders are responsible for building their own internal roads, sewer lines, and waterlines, even if these are proposed to become public in the future. All City TIF improvements are for the general public's use and are not intended to benefit a single development alone but instead solve existing concerts while also serving a larger neighborhood. Past TIF projects have included the reconstruction of Long Road and the creation of roundabouts and walking trails around once-problematic intersections along Oak Hill. Learn more about the Silver Road Economic Plan here:
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Silver Road TIF Incentive District (New Infrastructure) |
C-PACE financing, or Commercial Parcel Assessed Clean Energy, allows businesses to request a special assessment to help fund a major building rehabilitation or new construction project. The special assessment is collected and pays debt on energy-efficient materials or upgrades, such as a building's HVAC system, windows, roofing, or insulation. Because C-PACE secures a tax assessment, the business gains additional off-the-books collateral for their project and can often receive lower interest rates. Businesses wanting to obtain C-PACE financing may work with their own lender (most major Ohio banks utilize the program), or seek the services of a port authority, such as the Summit Development Finance Authority. Businesses then perform an energy audit or analysis on their project and complete an application to join their city's Energy Special Improvement District. The City of Wooster is presently working to establish the Wooster ESID, joining 161 other Ohio communities that make this special financing tool available. Learn more through our Explainer below!
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C-PACE Opportunities for Wooster |
Whether finding a new home for a major manufacturing firm, working to launch a new company, or even reinvest in rehabilitating a home, the City of Wooster offers the perfect place to live, grow, and thrive. Working with our partners across the City, Wayne County, and the State of Ohio, Wooster offers businesses and residents a unique set of tools to build a prosperous future.
For Business
Continually ranked as the Top 10 Micropolitan in the nation, Wooster offers a world-class assortment of tools to assist our firms with growing their business. Our office, as well as our economic development partners, are available to provide local economic and market data. For Wooster firms seeking to expand their boundaries, or for prospective new businesses, the City offers Enterprise Zone and also Community Reinvestment Area incentives to aid in real estate development. Wooster also offers a Job Creation Tax Credit. Discover the opportunity Wooster offers for growing businesses.
For Residents
Everything around and available to us in the economy started as one person's idea, and grew from a tremendous amount of work, partnerships, and sacrifice. Such is true of many Wooster firms, which today employ people or sell products all across the globe. With a strong collection of vibrant and local organizations offering networking and mentoring resources, in addition to financing and loan opportunities such as the Wooster Opportunity Loan Fund, learn about how Wooster is a great place to start your newest venture.
For Start-Ups
Economic development, investing in the future, starts at home. The City of Wooster offers tools designed to help individual homeowners, or those seeking to become homeowners, invest in themselves and build a stronger financial future. Providing real estate tax savings, the Community Reinvestment Area program provides opportunities for property owners reinvesting in their one and two-family homes within Wooster's historic neighborhoods. Providing forgivable loans and small grants, the City also works to achieve grants to assist low income homeowners with emergency repairs through its CHIP Program. To learn more, please click here.
Wooster Innovation Park Sites
The Wooster Innovation Park is a community-owned business neighborhood featuring large lots up to 31 acres in size with a full suite of utilities and public infrastructure. Centered in Wayne County's largest employment center, site neighbors include Daisy Brand, The Wooster Brush Company, Scannell, and Schaeffler USA. Flat topography with no known environmental issues (Phase I available upon request), zoned I-2 General Industrial, and with recently-constructed heavy roadway infrastructure, the Wooster Innovation Site provides excellent opportunities for businesses expanding to Northeast Ohio.
Traffic Counts
Providing valuable information on site visibility, local traffic count data is available through the Ohio Department of Transportation's online Transportation Data Management System. This listing provides average daily traffic counts taken along various sections of roadways, both as part of ODOT's annual road survey and also from each traffic study conducted as part of a proposed development or roadway improvement.
Available Sites & Properties
View other commercial and industrial properties listed for sale and lease in the City of Wooster. This service which is made possible through JobsOhio with assistance from organizations including the City of Wooster and partner nonprofits Wayne Economic Development Council and TeamNeo. For questions on public infrastructure capacity or development proposals, or to have a Wooster site listed on this service, please contact us (330.263.5250 | Jmillea@woosteroh.com) and we will be happy to provide additional information.
Discover Wooster's excellent quality of life, with entertainment offerings, boutique shopping, unique places, and excellent restaurants. VISIT WAYNE by the Wayne County Convention and Visitors Bureau provides the best resource for exploring all that Wooster and its neighboring communities have to offer. From a top 100 Things to Do list to a recommended tour itinerary to our region's best tour guide, there is a lot to find on visitwaynecountyohio.com.
Visit our Partner resource, WORK IN WAYNE by WEDC, to learn why Wooster is the best place to grow your career or business. Discover our top-ranked schools K-12 throughout our greater micropolitan region in addition to our exceptional college and university offerings, our cultural amenities from the award winning Ohio Light Opera to sprawling Wooster Memorial Park to thriving downtowns and bright village centers, and our vibrant quality of life supported with excellent healthcare, transportation, exceptional safety, housing opportunities, and civic groups (with opportunities to volunteer!) dedicated to improving the quality of life for all.
Discover the unique advantages of Downtown Wooster with our 501c3 community partner, Main Street Wooster. From a wide array of celebrations and civic events at the heart of Wooster, to a network of partners with resources helping every day to grow opportunities for entertainment, shopping, and quality of life, learn how the Downtown is supporting all businesses throughout the Wooster and Wayne County region welcome new visitors, customers, and residents to the region.
Wooster participates in the Community Development Block Grant program that brings federal tax dollars back to our community in order to support our residents! On average, Wooster's CDBG programming supports $360,000 in local funding annually for safety and quality of life projects. Projects in recent years have enabled the City to move forward with fire stations, sidewalks, individual home repair projects, downtown redevelopment efforts, transportation for elderly and disabled residents, and public services addressing mental health and homelessness. Grants are often competitive and must address a national objective. The City partners with the Ohio Department of Development in utilizing these funds.
- Learn about our CDBG Program from our 2026 CDBG Public Hearing I Presentation available here.
- Learn more about our 2026 CDBG Active Grant pursuit from our Public Hearing II Presentation.
- Learn about CHIP, our CDBG-funded program for low-income homeowners in need of repair assistance, at www.woosteroh.com/chip.
- Learn more about Fair Housing, which the City promotes as part of its CDBG mission, at www.woosteroh.com/fair-housing.
The City of Wooster has launched an Economic Development Strategic Plan to help chart a long-term strategy to bolster prosperity for its residents. We have a vibrant ecosystem with several independent and government-sector organizations working to support new, existing, and expanding businesses, creating job opportunities and positive wage growth for our community. We wanted to learn what more could we be doing as a City to better serve our residents and businesses. Read our recently completed plan to learn more about some of the opportunities we have to cover gaps, such as supporting entrepreneurship, place-making, quality of life as our best incentive, communication, and branding. We are excited to have a roadmap for the future! And thank you the many different agencies and nonprofits which contributed to this plan for our City.
