Pittsburgh businesses roar into Cleveland
Pity the Cleveland Browns fan who treks about two hours on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for today's game against the Steelers in Heinz Field.
The reminders of Pittsburgh — which has won 11 games in a row — are everywhere.
Howard Hanna sale signs fill the lawns of the Cleveland suburbs. So do Giant Eagle supermarkets. By the middle of next year, PNC Bank branches will flood northern Ohio.
Are Pittsburgh businesses following the lead of the beloved Steelers?
Take Howard Hanna Real Estate Services Inc., which built a strong northeast Ohio presence by acquiring major real estate companies there since 2003.
"I get that question a lot from Clevelanders — why are Pittsburgh companies buying there," CEO Howard W. "Hoddy" Hanna III said. The Cleveland area accounts for nearly half of Howard Hanna's business. Based in O'Hara, Hanna is the nation's fourth-largest real estate company.
Giant Eagle Inc. ranks as Cleveland's No. 1 grocery chain, spokesman Dick Roberts said. The food retailer, based in O'Hara, bought Riser Foods Inc. markets in 1997, and acquired 18 Tops Markets three years ago. It boasts about 60 supermarkets in the Cleveland-Akron area.
There's PNC Financial Services Inc., which bought National City Corp. in December and just hung its own signs on the former downtown Cleveland headquarters.
Pittsburgh-based PNC picked up 116 National City branches across northeast Ohio.
"Cleveland is now PNC's largest market, by revenue," PNC spokesman Fred Solomon said, declining to give details. PNC, which is Pennsylvania's biggest bank, ranks as Ohio's biggest bank.
Business leaders and economic experts asked to mull over Pittsburgh's seeming dominance say the spate of corporate acquisitions in recent years is part coincidence, part good fortune.
Pittsburgh never hit economic highs or lows, while the Ohio city has struggled more in the recession.
"Cleveland was ground zero for the foreclosure crisis," said Christopher Briem, a regional economist with the University of Pittsburgh.
While National City was caught in the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, PNC stayed strong through the economic downturn, experts said. And for strong Pittsburgh banks, retailers and restaurant chains, it's a natural move to expand across the border.
Dollar Bank, based Downtown, has 22 branch offices and loan centers in Cleveland. Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, based in Homestead, has eight restaurants and three dining contracts there. And the Sheetz Inc. convenience store chain of Altoona has a strong presence there.
Cleveland was a model of success in the mid-1990s.
"Now it's trying to figure out how to emulate Pittsburgh," said Harold Miller, president of the Future Strategies LLC management consulting firm.
Still, there are plenty of examples of Cleveland businesses buying here. Forest City Enterprises' real estate holdings stretch across Western Pennsylvania, including at Station Square on the South Side. From a banking standpoint, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland includes Pittsburgh in its territory.
And in 1995, long before PNC absorbed National City, the Cleveland-based bank bought the Integra Bank chain here.
Judith Malone of the Greater Cleveland Partnership isn't keeping score.
"We prefer to talk about collaborative efforts," she said, citing an effort called the Tech Belt Initiative begun a year ago to foster technology businesses in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Youngstown.
Briem and Duquesne University marketing professor Audrey Guskey say the cities benefit by being viewed as one metropolis. "Cleveburgh" Briem called it, while Guskey said Pittsburgh does appear to be taking the lead.
"If I was a Cleveland person, I probably wouldn't be too happy," she said.
