California technology company sets Chardon operation

Bala Ramaiah, CEO of ISSQUARED Inc., is putting so much into the company’s new operations and training center in Chardon that he said, “I’m building it all over from scratch.”

Ramaiah wasn’t referring to his business, which will continue to remain headquartered in Westlake Village, California. He was referring to his family life. He moved his wife and two pre-teen kids to Chagrin Falls from their home in Thousand Oaks, California, after setting the deal in motion to buy the contemporary office building at 100 Seventh Ave.

The three-story building was purchased late in 2020 for $1.3 million from an affiliate of the Dolan family, which includes the Cleveland Guardians baseball team among its holdings.

“This is an important move for ISSQUARED,” Ramaiah said, as the company, which provides a variety of information technology services, intends to initially invest some $5 million into the property and ramping up operations here.

The new location will serve as a beachhead for the firm’s expansion through the eastern U.S. Its existing offices are in 10 cities in the western U.S. and five cities around the world.

ISSQUARED landed in Northeast Ohio because of easy access to the eastern U.S., school systems, colleges, diversity and distance from “tornado alley” in the South and Midwest. And the climate? He said the weather here is a plus, because the company plans to establish a data center at the Chardon building, and being in a cooler climate is beneficial.

“I feel a lot of things are falling in place for Ohio’s future, so I see a lot of opportunity here,” Ramaiah said. “It’s also a good place to raise a family.”

Plans call for ISSQUARED to add infrastructure to serve the company’s core cybersecurity business, renovating the building’s third floor and parts of the first to serve its staff, an executive briefing center, a technology demonstration center and a training center.

Ramaiah is in the process of hiring the company’s first 10 staffers, both here and through relocation, who will be based at the Chardon building. As it adds new products for its corporate clientele, he said ISSQUARED may grow to as many as 150, perhaps with a physical expansion on more of its six-acre site. The company, which Ramaiah launched a decade ago in his garage, has a current staff of more than 500. As a private company, sales were not disclosed.

David Hollister, a managing director in Newmark’s Cleveland office, said he was pleased to find a buyer for the building for the Dolan family, who will invest in the only Class A-rated building in Geauga County.

“Chardon looks like a sleepy community, but we had multiple buyers for the building,” Hollister said. “This one started out with the information that a company with corporate clients was searching for an office to add geographic diversity.”

In an emailed statement, Matt Dolan, a state senator seeking Rob Portman’s U.S. Senate seat, wrote, “Our family is pleased to sell our building to ISSQUARED, which is going to occupy a large portion of the building bringing new jobs and commerce to Chardon and Geauga County.”

Ramaiah said he is discussing incentives with government agencies but has been impressed by his contact with the city of Chardon over the mechanics of updating the building. He noted he was assisted in his search by JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development concern.

JobsOhio, in an email last Wednesday, Jan. 19, confirmed its work with the company and said Northeast Ohio’s talent and ingenuity attracted ISSQUARED.

Bill Koehler, Team NEO CEO, said that the “region’s commitment to its growing technology sector,” along with other factors, helped attract the company here.

Randal Sharpe, Chardon city manager, said in a phone interview that if the company meets its growth projections for the future, it could be “very significant for us.”

Asked if he was surprised a California tech company would land at the building, Sharpe said, “I did not at all anticipate a bunch of high-paying IT jobs coming to the community. It’s a dream come true.”