Council Approves Loan To Help Call Center Acquire Former Medusa Building

Cleveland Heights approved a $500,000 loan to help Medusa Holdings, LLC acquire a building located at 3008 Monticello Blvd. at the regular meeting Monday night.

Medusa Holdings, LLC plans to open a call center and renovate the former , most recently owned by . According to council documents, the business will create 120 full-time jobs by 2016, at least 51 percent of which will be made available to or held by people with low to moderate incomes.

Medusa has a purchase agreement for the property and a "closing date is fast approaching," Mayor Ed Kelley said.

The call center was previously interested in the on 1700 Crest Road, which about what would happen to the empty Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District property.

Mayor Ed Kelley confirmed the call center was moving to Monticello instead at a .

Medusa Holdings, LLC applied for a loan under the city’s commercial revolving loan fund program, which helped businesses like and get started in Cleveland Heights, said Vice Mayor Dennis Wilcox at a council meeting in May. The federal program replenishes itself as merchants who have borrowed money repay loans.

The loan carries certain terms and requirements — $300,000 of the loan will carry a 3.5 percent interest rate and a 10-year repayment schedule after a one-year’s deferral. And up to $200,000 of the loan may be forgiven at a rate of $50,000 per year for each year prior to 2018 during which 100 full-time equivalent jobs are maintained at the call center, according to council documents.