CLEVELAND — The Sherwin-Williams Co. recently held a groundbreaking ceremony to signal the official start of construction for the company's new global Research and Development Center. Part of the Building Our Future project, the 600,000 square-foot facility located in Brecksville, Ohio, will bring chemists, engineers, technicians and support teams together into a state-of-the-art hub for innovation and development of the company's future products and services. The new R&D Center will support product development, coatings research, color technology and process engineering.

"This is a monumental day for our organization," said John G. Morikis, Sherwin-Williams Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "This new R&D Center will be the global innovation epicenter for creating solutions that solve our customers' problems, as well as a key to us to retaining and attracting top talent. We're also celebrating the broad and diverse group of companies and individuals that will be working on this project, along with the ongoing impact the project will have on the community and region for years to come. And we're proud to be building it right here in Northeast Ohio, our home for more than 155 years."

The Building Our Future project includes both the new R&D Center in Brecksville and a new global headquarters in downtown Cleveland, which will be approximately 1,000,000 square-feet in size. Sherwin-Williams plans to invest a minimum of $600 million to build both the headquarters and R&D facility.

Together, the two facilities will house more than 3,500 employees with room to accommodate future growth. Sherwin-Williams estimates it will add a minimum of 400 jobs at these facilities over time, an increase of 11% to the company's current local workforce. Many of these jobs will include professional staff, engineers and chemists.

In addition to Governor Mike DeWine, County Executive Armond Budish and Mayor Jerry Hruby, Sherwin-Williams other public dignitaries provided remarks at the ceremony. They included Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator Rob Portman, State Senator Matt Dolan and State Representative Phil Robinson.

The R&D Center is expected to open by the end of 2024.