Economic Development

Village of Grafton

The BEACON of Lorain County Ohio

Grafton founded in 1817, celebrates more than 200-years of progress and is well known for its historic downtown business district where visitors are reminded of small-town Americana and enjoy Grafton’s traditional home-town ambiance, showcasing Grafton as one of many Ohio’s communities to live, work, own a business and raise a family!

Grafton is committed to creating business opportunities through strategic public-utility planning for sustainable economic growth and constant maintenance and expansion of electric power generation, power capacity and load, and sanitary sewer infrastructure improvements.  Grafton, a Public Power Community is home to Northeast Ohio’s largest Renewable Energy footprint through the 2019 construction of a 35-acre 4MW Solar generation facility that included updating and expanding both electric substations…. with future plans to expand solar generation as load growth comes online.  Additional infrastructure improvements include expansion of Grafton’s water supply-distribution utility as seen in the 2018 construction of a second elevated tank in the Downtown District, construction of a new S. Main St, water booster pump facility, and the 2019 complete restoration of Grafton’s N. Main St elevated tank.  Each improvement designed to the water supply demands of a growing community for decades to come.

Welcome to the Village of Grafton… let us share with you all we have to offer.  A growing community with can-do possibilities designed to benefit your business needs!

Grafton, Ohio, situated in Lorain County (known for its beautiful shoreline of Lake Erie), is a great place to call home. Besides our quick access to the lake shores, Grafton is centrally located with strategic access the major highways and thoroughfares of Northeast Ohio. Grafton is intersected by OH-57 and OH-83 and within 4-minutes of OH-303 with U.S. Routes 10 & 20 just a seven-minute drive from downtown, while Interstates 80 & 480 are within a 10-minute drive and Interstates 80/90, 71, 76, 77, and 271 interchanges are within a 30-minute drive at multiple points.  Cleveland-Hopkins Airport is an estimated 18-minute drive; Toledo, Ohio is 1.5 hours West and Detroit, Michigan within a 2-hour drive.  Other cities such as Lansing, Michigan; Cincinnati, Ohio; Parkersburg, West Virginia; and Buffalo, New York can all be driven in less than 4 hours.  Notably the Village of Grafton is centrally located between the cities of Lorain and Medina Ohio and within a short drive of western Cuyahoga County and northern Medina County.

Grafton is proud of its parks – North Park, Willow Park, Reservoir Park, Reservoir Park Trails, Bicentennial Park and the Lorain County Metro Parks walking trails. Together they provide multiple picnic shelter, restrooms, playgrounds, basketball court, baseball diamonds, and a community center.

Mobility improvements through Grafton began in 2014 and continues today.  Grafton N. Main St reconstruction (completed in 2015) added sidewalks from the northern corporation limit south to Erie St.  The 2019 NOACA funded Transportation for Livable Community Initiative study created the vision and funding to one day make all of Grafton walkable.  The 2022 Envision Main St Phase 1 project added sidewalks and improved sidewalks from Erie St south to Mechanic St.  This project also added railroad crossing sidewalks at Erie St, Main St to Cleveland St and Cleveland St to Main St.  The 2023 Envision Main St Phase 2 represents the final leg of Main St sidewalks from Mechanic St to the southern corporation limit of the Village, making it possible to walk end to end of Main St within the Village without walking in the street with the exception of intersection crossing in marked crosswalks.    

Grafton touts an excellent school system in The Midview Local School District, Lorain County JVS, Oberlin College and Lorain County Community College is a short 10 minute from Grafton and the Ohio State University Extension of Lorain County adds a variety of educational program opportunities.

Grafton is home to industries such as General Plug, Eaton Fabrication, Grafton Ready-mix, and Grafton Midview Public Library. Grafton invites you to join us, too. Grafton Commerce Park offers available sites with water and sewer infrastructure completed.

Consider Grafton… as your next opportunity for growth, you will like what you see!

For more information about opportunities in Grafton contact;

Joe Price, Village Administrator

jbprice@villageofgrafton.org

440.926.2401

Linda Bales, Projects Coordinator

lsbales@villageofgrafton.org

960 Main Street

Grafton, OH 44044-1496

 

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY LISTINGS

DOWNTOWN GRAFTON RESTAURANT/ENTERTAINMENT DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY – For more information contact Administrator Joe Price at Grafton Village Hall 

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508-516 N. MAIN ST – CORNER OF MAIN ST AND VIVIAN DR

FULL REAL ESTATE LISTING CLICK HERE

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2019 Transportation for Livable Community Initiative Study

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Northeast Grafton Utility Map – Parcel 1 (150 acres), Parcel 2 (200 acres) and Parcel 3 (180 acres)

Southeast Grafton Utility Map – Parcel 4 (143 acres) & Parcel 5 (110 acres)

PARCEL 2 SITE INFORMATION

PARCEL 4 SITE INFORMATION

GRAFTON PUBLIC POWER HIGHLIGHT – LOWER COST RENEWABLE GENERATION

REDUCE YOUR COMPANY’S CARBON ENVIORNMENTAL IMPACT HERE IN GRAFTON OHIO

For more about GRAFTON’S 35-ACRES of SOLAR, CLICK HERE for a short video!

WATCH GRAFTON 1 SOLAR REAL-TIME GENERATION HERE – 1 MW

WATCH GRAFTON 2 SOLAR REAL-TIME GENERATION HERE – 3MW

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Available for Light Industrial Development – Municipal land

154 Acres Zoned Light Industrial located on the Northwest corner of Capel Rd and Island Rd

(Additional land sites listed below)

Village of Grafton Ohio…Celebrating 200 years of progress and economic growth!

Available for Light Industrial Development – Municipal land

370 Acres Zoned Light Industrial located on the Southeast corner of Avon Belden Rd (OH-83) and Capel Rd and spans to Island Rd.

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Available for Light Industrial Development – Municipal land

143 Acres Zoned Light Industrial located East of Avon Belden Rd (OH-83) and South Capel Rd.

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TRANSPORTATION for LIVABLE COMMUNITY INITIATIVE

2018/2018 Strategic Planning Study to connect all Grafton neighborhoods, parks, businesses and Grafton’s Historic Downtown District

Aiming Higher 

    

                             

     

                                     

 

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PUBLIC UTILITIES

GRAFTON IS A PUBLIC POWER COMMUNITY

Member of American Municipal Power Since  1972

https://www.amppartners.org/

ELECTRIC; Grafton Public Power and Light is a municipally owned and operated electric system.  The Village of Grafton is a participating member of AMP Ohio.  As a PUBLIC POWER PARTNER, Grafton is one of 135 AMP members in nine states including Ohio (84), Pennsylvania (29), Michigan (6), Kentucky (6), Virginia (5), West Virginia (2), Indiana (1), Maryland (1) and the joint action agency in Delaware.  Public partners each develop municipal power purchase portfolios which stabilizes and diversifies power purchase costs, assures power purchase availability and collaboratively develops industry strategies, material and equipment purchasing and organizes mutual aid to electric systems experiencing sudden system outages and damage often due to severe weather conditions.

PUBLIC POWER – GRAFTON PUBLIC POWER & LIGHT:

One of only 4 Public Power Communities in Lorain County, GPPL provides electric power to most residential and commercial customers within the Village of Grafton.  GPPL is a member of American Municipal Power, a consortium of public power utilities that organize, develop strategic policies, address legislative impact on public power operations and costs, owns and operates power generation facilities, and purchases power from other electric power generators to assure each community with sustainable and affordable power supply.  The Village of Grafton maintains a power purchase portfolio designed to supply Grafton’s electric power demand.  GPPL department employs state certified electrical lineworkers, offers a state certified in-house 4-year lineman apprentice program, and all GPPL employees are represented by collective bargaining through the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1377.   GPPL owns, maintains and operates;

  • 2 electric substations.
  • Public Power electric system transmission grid, utility poles, and most power transformers.
  • Roadway Street Lighting System (updated to energy efficient LED lighting 2015, 2016, and 2017).
  • PROJECT BEACON Solar Development – December 2018, GPPL has entered into a 30-Year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with EITRI FOUNDRY LLC for the construction of a 4WM Solar Power Generation facility within the Village of Grafton and the purchase of low-cost RENEWABLE ENERGY and a fixed price for the full term of the PPA.  EITRI FOUNDRY LLC will maintain ownership and maintenance of the Solar Power Generation Farm, located on 36 acres of Village publicly owned land, leased to EITRI FOUNDRY LLC for the term of the PPA.
  • The FUTURE OF PUBLIC POWER is BRIGHT with GRAFTON’s PROJECT BEACON.  4MW SOLAR DEVELOPMENT underway:975 Capel Rd, Grafton, OH 44044Project Developer – EIRTI FOUNDRY   https://www.eitrifoundry.com/Generation Provider – SAFARI ENERGY    a PPL Company https://www.safarienergy.com/

Power Purchaser – Village of Grafton

 

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WASTE WATER TREATMENT & SEWER:

Grafton Sewer Department is a full service sewer utility that provides a sewage transmission conduit system delivering all residential and commercial raw sewage to the Grafton Waste Water Treatment Plant for processing.  Grafton Sewer owns, maintains and operates;

  • Waste Water Treatment Plant (WTTP) facility, processing up to 1.5-million gallons of raw sewage daily.  The Grafton WTTP is designed for future expansion to treat 2.25-millions gallons of raw sewage daily when needed. The Plant is automated and operates 24/7.  The facility is maintained in-house, improvements and update occur as needed and operation improvements are planed as technology advancements in treatment become available.  The Grafton WWTP is scheduled for such an improvement in 2019 with an estimated project cost in excess of 1.3-million dollars.
  • Grafton sanitary sewer system.  All system conduit sewers including sanitary manholes, and 4-sewage lift stations.
  • 5,000,000-gallon Equalization Basin (EQ Basin).  The EQ basin pulls from the sanitary sewer system raw sewage in heavy rain fall events, stores the sewage for the duration of the weather event, then pumps the sewage back into the system for treatment.  Dated sewer systems often lack separation of sanitary sewage and storm water.  Although current regulations now require separation to prevent heavy inflow and infiltration (I & I) of stormwater into the sanitary system during weather events, many older residential properties still have cross-connections.  When an I & I event happens, some homes experienced sanitary sewage backup due to system backup from flow that exceeded the capacity of the sewer conduit system.  The EQ Basin was engineered and constructed in 2014 and in service since 2015, to pull system capacity overloaded into the basin.  When automatically activated sewage is pumped (sucked) from the sanitary system into the EQ Basin, stored then treated in the days following the event.  This has eliminated the sanitary sewer backups, system overloads and has prevented the WWTP from being stormwater compromised during a storm event.

Grafton Water provides potable water service(s) to residential, commercial and industrial customers.  All potable water is supplied delivered to Grafton by RLCWA.  Grafton Water owns, maintains and operates;

  • Water Pump Station (constructed 2018, in-service December 2018) to maintain and regulate system water pressures on demand, including any power-outage event as the Pump Station operation includes power-generation backup.
  • Water storage system includes the North Tower (constructed in 1993) stores 300,000 gallons of potable water, and the Downtown District Tower (Constructed 2018, in-service December 2018) stores 200,000 of potable water.
  • Water distribution system and provides fire water supply to all Village Fire Hydrants.

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New Business Celebrations

GRAFTON WELCOMES DISTILLED INK

924 MAIN ST, GRAFTON OHIO 44044

https://distilledinktattooparlor.com/

 

FARMERS INSURANCE 955 MAIN ST

 

 

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Commercial Properties currently available in Grafton

569 Main St., Small retail strip-center For Sale Call 440-984-3266

http://www.cbhunter.com/bill.latrany/Property/OH/44044/Grafton/569_Main_St

Professional Office / Retail Space 516 Main St. Grafton, Ohio 44044.  For more information please call 440-366-2241 (Photo attached)

1019 Commerce Dr – For additional information please call 440-323-5700

(Photo attached)

Commercial/Industrial Property FOR SALE 1152 Elm St, Grafton, OH 44044

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/19593367/1152-Elm-St-Grafton-OH/

(Photo attached)

FOR LEASE – 903 Main St. 1644 Sq. Ft. of Prime Retail Space in Grafton’s quaint Historic Downtown District.

For more information CALL 440-935-4788

Photo 1

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