Just beyond Downtown Cleveland’s Public Square at the west end of Euclid Avenue towers the new Sherwin-Williams headquarters. But whether it will have more company and when probably won’t be known until after all of its employees move into it and the new Brecksville research center next year (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Downtown, Brecksville, other sites in flux
The rumor mill is always churning around Sherwin-Williams’ plans for handling its growing number of employees at its soon-to-open new headquarters in Downtown Cleveland, its new research center in suburban Brecksville and at its other other facilities. But that rumor mill has quieted down in recent months, until now.
Two well-placed sources who spoke to NEOtrans on the condition of anonymity said that Sherwin-Williams’ C-suite executives are going to approach their office and lab space situation as they usually weigh all company decisions — conservatively. The company wants to evaluate how its $600-plus million investment in new facilities will be used before deciding whether to invest in more.
Both sources say that executives are going to wait and see how the global coatings giant’s new 1.1-million-square-foot office tower in Downtown Cleveland and its 600,000-square-foot research center in Brecksville fill out once everyone has moved in next year. NEOtrans has also heard from many employees who say their existing Cleveland-area buildings are seldom fully occupied by people due to remote and hybrid work although their desks and furniture are still there.
Shared office spaces are how Sherwin-Williams might fit 2 million square feet of office and lab spaces in Greater Cleveland into as little as 1.7 million square feet of newly built facilities. But it doesn’t take into account additional corporate growth or the reported relocation of Valspar’s offices and labs from Minneapolis that could affect decision-making regarding a second office tower downtown, dubbed HQ2.
Located off Interstate 77 in Brecksville, Sherwin-Williams’ new research center is nearing completion. This aerial was taken last summer above the Valor Acres development at Miller and Brecksville roads. A residential portion of Valor Acres can be seen at the upper right (Property of Sherwin-Williams Co.).
Evaluations of space usage may not be complete until sometime in 2026, one of the sources said. That is a cause of frustration to some employees, including those at Valspar who shared with NEOtrans last winter that they believed that they were bound for Cleveland sometime in the near future. They said they want to hear some direction from the company.
NEOtrans reached out by e-mail to Sherwin-Williams corporate communications staff last week for comment. The e-mail was opened but not responded to prior to publication of this article.
In the past year, spokespersons said the company is focused on getting 3,500 headquarters employees from the Landmark and Skylight office buildings at Tower City Center moved into the new 36-story office tower and its attached two-story pavilion west of Public Square. About 100 office workers will come from the Automotive Finishes-Technical Center in Warrensville Heights.
Another 600-plus research workers will come to Brecksville, divided roughly equally from Automotive Finishes and the Breen Technology Center in the downtown Flats. However, Sherwin-Williams has officially said Brecksville will have 900 employees. It isn’t clear where the other 300 workers would come from — be it Valspar’s research center in Minneapolis, company growth or something else.
The 616-foot-tall Sherwin-Williams global headquarters in Downtown Cleveland is nearly finished on the exterior but the interiors are still being built out. Employees will be moved next year into the new building over the course of about six months as their offices are completed (KJP).
There is a rumor that some of Brecksville’s employees could come from the old corporate headquarters downtown. The reason, said one source, is because Sherwin-Williams owns the land in Brecksville on which the research center sets. The company bought 119 acres in October 2020 at Interstate 77 and Miller Road for $15,192,200.
In Downtown Cleveland, Sherwin-Williams sold a 90-percent stake in the still-under construction headquarters tower in December 2022 to Florida-based Benderson Realty Development Co. for $210 million. But the company retains full ownership of 2.9 acres of undeveloped land along West 6th Street and St. Clair Avenue.
That land wraps around the new headquarters tower and its 920-space parking garage. Sherwin-Williams intends to develop an L-shaped, 1-6 acre parcel immediately next to the parking deck with mixed uses, including a newly rumored hotel.
The other parcel, a rectangular, 1.3-acre property at the northeast corner of West 6th and Superior is where the company proposed a second office tower for future expansion in its long-range site plan it presented to the City Planning Commission in 2021.
A suburban-like setting surrounds Sherwin-Williams’ flex office space on Hinckley Industrial Parkway in Cleveland. The company has continued to add space here and apparently has no plans to close this facility and relocate workers to its new buildings downtown and in Brecksville (LoopNet).
Downtown Cleveland employment growth is supported by a city grant that reimburses Sherwin-Williams for 15 years at 50 percent of income taxes from new jobs created at its Cleveland headquarters. The maximum payout is $11.5 million.
Since it was built in 1930, the 900,000-square-foot Landmark Office Building, 101 W. Prospect Ave., has been the headquarters of Sherwin-Williams. It and the coatings firm’s research complex, the 140,000-square-foot Breen Technology Center, 601 Canal Rd., were acquired by affiliates of Detroit-based Bedrock. Bedrock gave Sherwin-Williams tenant rights to both for an unrecorded period of time, according to their recorded leases.
Other downtown offices are in leased spaces at the Skylight Office Tower, 1660 W. 2nd St., built in 1991 and owned by Hertz Investment Group. Sherwin-Williams recently extended its lease of 100,000-square-foot of space there until Oct. 31, 2025 due to a delay in the construction of the new headquarters tower.
But the big surprise in the past year was Sherwin-Williams adding 212,000-square-feet of space at the Higbee Building, 100 Public Square. The 1931-built former department store, home of the JACK Cleveland Casino, is owned by an affiliate of VICI Properties. It is also where nearly 500 employees Sherwin-Williams employees work on several floors sub-leased from KeyCorp.
Sherwin-Williams’ new robotics center is located in the newly built Sapphire Corporate Center in Middleburg Heights. It moved in there in early 2023, shortly before this streetview was taken from Engle Road in July 2023 (Google).
Other company locations in Greater Cleveland include the 152,000-square-foot flex office space at 4780 Hinckley Industrial Parkway in Cleveland. Sherwin-Williams leases it from IRG Dayton I LLC and has been there since 2017. More recently, Sherwin-Williams leased 75,000 square feet at the Sapphire Corporate Center, 6825 Engle Rd. in Middleburg Heights from Harsax Management for a robotics center.
In early 2023, the coatings company started using the Middleburg Heights site for the assembly of robotics for use in all of the company’s distribution centers. In a report to the suburb’s City Council in 2022, Mayor Matt Castelli said the Engle Road facility will also house a “mock distribution center demonstrating the various robotics.” About 30 employees work in the robotics center.
Until it moves into Brecksville in the coming months, Sherwin-Williams will continue to occupy its Automotive Finishes-Technical Center in Warrensville Heights after selling it nearly a year ago to Industrial Commercial Properties. The Mayfield Heights firm acquired the 105-acre site and its 435,000 square feet of offices, labs and research facilities for future redevelopment.
In Minneapolis, Sherwin-Williams’ Valspar affiliate, which it acquired in 2016 for $11.3 billion, has 170,000 square feet of research facilities and another 131,000 square feet of administrative offices. Both are set on the eastern fringes of Downtown Minneapolis, across 11th Avenue South from US Bank Stadium.
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