Business Hall of Fame: Brian M. Zimmerman

Brian M. Zimmerman began making a name for himself at Cleveland Metroparks while he was still a finalist for the job of its chief executive officer. Bruce Rinker, then recently appointed to the three-person Board of Park Commissioners responsible for filling the position, remembers hearing that the Wisconsin native, chief of operations for Milwaukee County Parks, Recreation and Culture, was visiting Metroparks reservations and striking up conversations with employees and visitors.

“The feedback was, ‘This was someone who really wanted to be engaged in our park system,’” says Rinker, now board president. “At the end of the day, that gave us all a sense of confidence that (he) was the right choice.”

Zimmerman has confirmed the board’s faith in him. Since he assumed the CEO post in 2010, the Metroparks, which hosts about 21 million visits a year, has grown into a park system with over 25,000 acres of green space, including 18 reservations, nine golf courses and the Metroparks Zoo. It has twice won the National Gold Medal Award for park management under his leadership.

Rinker credits that willingness to listen and collaborate — with local, county, state and nonprofit partners, and with the Metroparks' roughly 1,900 employees — for both the projects and the money behind them.

Zimmerman first demonstrated his ability to work and play with others by brokering a 2013 deal in which the Metroparks assumed responsibility for six city of Cleveland parks on Lake Erie whose operation had been leased to the state of Ohio since 1978: Edgewater, Euclid Beach, Wildwood, Villa Angela, the East 55th Street park and marina, East 72nd Street and a portion of Gordon Park. At the time, the Metroparks’ only lakeside location was the Huntington Beach Reservation in Bay Village, a minimal presence that represented what Rinker calls “a missing link” in the famed “Emerald Necklace” encircling Greater Cleveland.

“By the time Brian came on board, it was evident that the parks that the state was managing really needed energy — they needed a new life,” he adds.

Zimmerman secured the $14 million present value of the leases from the state and signed a 99-year lease with the city to not only take over management but begin making improvements. Just as important as adding amenities such as the Edgewater Beach House bar and concession stand was changing maintenance standards — raking beaches every day, for example — and deploying Metroparks police to ensure visitors’ safety.

“(The state) did a tremendous amount of infrastructure improvements,” he says. “Our employees changed the narrative of the culture of care. Our mantra was ‘Clean and safe. People will come back.’ … We created something where the visitation numbers are absolutely off the charts.” 

The Metroparks continued stringing gems onto the emerald necklace — over 4,000 acres to date, by Zimmerman’s count. He points to Whiskey Island, ownership of which was transferred from Cuyahoga County to the park district in 2014, and the former Acacia Country Club, now the bucolic 155-acre Acacia Reservation in Lyndhurst, as examples.

Sixty-plus miles of trails have been added to better connect reservations to the communities they serve. The latest addition: the 0.3-mile Old Lorain Connector Trail, which links Cleveland’s West Park and Kamm’s Corners neighborhoods to the Rocky River Reservation and 33-mile Emerald Necklace Trail. 

“Whether you’re 8 years old or 80 years old, we’re trying to get you to an 8-minute walk or ride to a park,” he says.

Similarly, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has added a number of marquee attractions during Zimmerman’s tenure. He mentions the African Elephant Crossing, Rosebrough Tiger Passage, Asian Highlands and Daniel Maltz Rhino Reserve. The $120 million-plus Primate Forest, the first phase of which is scheduled to open this fall, represents the largest capital improvement project in the Metroparks’ history.

Zimmerman notes that the first phase brings the zoo’s orangutans outside for the first time. He believes the second and final phase housing gorillas will be “the best gorilla exhibit in North America.”

Perhaps the most visible example of the park district’s expansion under Zimmerman’s leadership, however, is the $18.5 million Patrick S. Parker Community Sailing Center at the East 55th Street park and marina, right off Interstate 90, that opened in June. The location, operated in partnership with The Foundry nonprofit community rowing and sailing center in The Flats, will offer youth and adult sailing classes, competitive racing opportunities and sailboat rentals. It also houses a year-round restaurant and meeting/activity spaces. 

“We are going to slowly chip away at this mantra that we can’t get to the lake,” he says. “We can get to the lake. We are working to improve access to our greatest asset.”

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