New Flowers Bloom on Cleveland's Westside

A story unfolding in Cleveland's west side Stockyards neighborhood illustrates how grassroots business leaders can transform companies and neighborhoods, and that high-tech firms can be incubated from almost any platform, including manufacturing. For those of you looking for a ray of hope for business development in the central city, this is one you should examine.

The Stockyards neighborhood has a rich history including the days when livestock was herded across West 65th Street to meet its fate at the Swift Premium Meats packinghouse. That was some time ago. Since the 1950s, metalworking and metal finishing; along with food processing and distribution have redefined the commercial uses in this neighborhood. Today's news begins a new chapter in the neighborhood's development.

Frank Fanta, President of Fanta Equipment Company, a family owned firm in the metal finishing equipment industry established a new beachhead in the high technology sector of analytical and scientific software. Mr. Fanta established a relationship at Case Western Reserve engineering school with Tom Riegler through a co-op program. Mr. Riegler upon graduation, went to work for Agilent Technologies formerly Hewlett Packard and continued his education at Stanford University. In a case of Cleveland brain gain, Mr. Riegler returned to Fanta Equipment Company in 1998 to start up Zeta Technologies, where he is now President. The firm has grown to 4 employees and operates out of Fanta Equipment Company's Storer Avenue facility across the street from the former Union stockyards.

The primary product of Zeta-Tek is called Spectrum Works. Spectrum Works controls radio frequency measuring monitoring hardware. Zeta-Tek has recently completed a sale of systems to the Federal Communications Commission. The new systems will be located throughout the United States and neighboring countries.

Zeta-Tek recently sponsored and presented at a United States Telecommunication Training Institute in Washington DC to representatives from 13 developing countries. As a consequence, Spectrum Works has gained international recognition as can be seen by a newly installed system in Greece.

The technology of Spectrum Works has a far-reaching application base from manufacturers, installers, and operators of wireless equipment. Spectrum Works simplifies the complex measurements required to be made before, during, and after installation.

About the West Side Manufacturing Initiative

Fanta Equipment and Zeta-Tek are examples of hundreds of successes, large and small, taking place on Cleveland's west side. WIRE-Net's West Side Manufacturing Initiative, supported by the City of Cleveland, and the Generation, Gund and Cleveland foundations includes four programs to build on the manufacturing strength of Cleveland's west side:

1. Help businesses develop strategies focusing on product and market innovation. Eight Cleveland manufacturers employing 600 people are among the firms already participating in WIRE-Net's Manufacturing Innovation Initiative.

2. Redevelop existing land & building so cost effective space is available in Cleveland for growing companies.

3. Reinvest in Cleveland's infrastructure so companies have excellent access to customers, suppliers and employees.

4. Share experiments, successes and challenges with the broader northeast Ohio community by promoting business success stories and attracting new investors to the area.

I had the pleasure of working with WIRE-Net on its most recent strategic plan update. I am quite impressed with what the organization has accomplished by using "collaborative advantage" strategies to attract new resources and opportunities to Cleveland's westside.