For Canadian Manufacturers
Landing in Ohio, without landing on the wrong lease.
Tariffs and new customs rules are pushing Canadian manufacturers to put production on U.S. soil — fast. The space decisions made in that first year set your cost base for a decade. We help you get them right, representing you and never the landlord.
Free advisory guide — no gate, no form.
Source: KPMG in Canada survey of 275 manufacturers, fielded May 2026 (released July 7, 2026).
Why the clock is running
A trade problem is becoming a real-estate problem.
The June 3, 2026 Executive Order on strengthening customs enforcement changed the math. To keep importing into the U.S. under your own name, a foreign-headquartered company now needs a minimum level of tangible U.S. assets. Without them, you're forced to rely on your U.S. customers as importer of record — a position no manufacturer wants to negotiate from. For most, the cleanest answer is physical U.S. operations. The question stops being whether to take space and becomes how fast, and on what terms.
That speed is exactly where first-time entrants overpay. A compressed timeline, an unfamiliar market, and a landlord's broker across the table is how a ten-year cost base gets set in ninety days.
Inside the guide
What a Canadian manufacturer needs to know before signing anything.
01The customs-enforcement clock
What the June 2026 order actually requires, how the tangible-U.S.-assets test works, and the timeline pressure it puts on your site decision.
02U.S. vs. Canadian lease structures
Triple-net economics, escalations, and the operating-cost exposure that surprises first-time U.S. tenants — and how they differ from what you know at home.
03The incentives you'll under-claim
JobsOhio grants and loans, the Job Creation Tax Credit, and Community Reinvestment Area abatements first-timers leave on the table because the clock to apply closes before the lease does.
04The leverage trap
Why negotiating against the landlord's broker — with no one representing the occupier — quietly costs more than the rent line you're focused on.
Why Ohio
A day's drive to 60% of North America — and a market still in your favor.
- Central logistics: most of the U.S. and Canadian population and manufacturing base sits within a one-day truck haul.
- Active, balancing industrial market — Cleveland vacancy at 4.1% in Q3 2026, with 642,000 SF of new supply under construction, up nearly 70% quarter-over-quarter (CBRE).
- A deep, incentive-backed manufacturing workforce across Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, and Western Pennsylvania.
- State and local programs built to court exactly the project you're planning — if you engage them before the site is locked.
We represent occupiers. Never landlords. Ever.
Mohr Partners is a tenant-only advisory firm, 40 years in business. That means when we run your site search, lease economics, and incentives strategy, we have no stake in where you land — only in the terms you land on.
CRE market intelligence exclusively for corporate occupiers across Ohio, Michigan, and the Midwest — powered by Mohr Partners.
Contact: scott.pollock@mohrpartners.com · Scott Pollock · (440) 821-8149 · mohrpartners.com →
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