Buzz

Chesapeake Energy will use downtown Canton as a center of operations in its bid to extract oil and natural gas from the Utica shale formation that lies under eastern Ohio, reports The Canton Repository.

The company has leased space in the Cornerstone Building at 400 Third St. SE, next to the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation offices, where it will set up a field office with more than 70 employees.

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Oil and gas well drilling reached a modern-day low in Ohio last year. But most experts see that trend reversing as development of shale formations in eastern Ohio begins to ramp up, reports The Plain Dealer.

Ohio Department of Natural Resource records for 2010 show a lull in new well drilling activity across Ohio, likely brought on by wholesale natural gas prices, which have dropped more than 50 percent since 2008. But many see a drilling boom on the horizon as energy companies fan out across the eastern Ohio countryside to sign leases for land atop energy-laden Utica and Marcellus shale formations.
 
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Devicor Medical Products, a private equity firm and a GTCR company, has completed its previously announced acquisition of the neoprobe gamma detection system products and related assets from Neoprobe of Dublin, Ohio, reports HealthImaging.com.

Financial terms of the agreement included $30 million cash at close plus up to an additional $20 million in royalties based on revenue milestones. The sale was approved by Neoprobe's shareholders on Aug. 15.

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The city of Huber Heights, along with developer 201 Corridor Management LLC, will launch a $223 million retail and office project projected to create more than 2,000 jobs, reports The Dayton Business Journal.

The Heights development at Interstate 70 and Brandt Pike is expected to create 2,175 jobs, including 200 temporary construction jobs. Huber Heights city documents list a potential total economic impact of $1 billion during the next 30 years from the project.

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Officials say a Chinese tire manufacturer plans to open a U.S. research and development center and sales offices in Ohio, with an initial 30 employees, reports the Associated Press.

The Triangle Group, based in Weihai, China, will locate in Akron. City Mayor Don Plusquellic says the facility results from a partnership between Akron and the city of Weihai, in eastern China's Shandong province.

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Cleveland, Ohio was unrecognizable even to his own citizens as it was transformed into a fake New York City street and then blown up on the first day of filming for The Avengers, reports the Daily Mail.

But the transformation only added to the excitement, as fans thronged to see the action -- filling rooftops to gasp at NYC cabs and cars being blown in the air near the city's Grand Central Market.

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Eleven Ohio businesses in fields from manufacturing to software made Inc. magazine's list of America's 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies, reports the Dayton Business Journal.

Product Movers, a manufacturing company in Holland, ranked No. 101 and was the top-ranked Ohio company with a 2,659 percent growth rate, according to the magazine's report. The magazine ranks companies by their three-year percentage growth rate.

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