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$2.00/JANUARY 21 - 27, 2013
Vol. 34, No. 3
Airports could be on borrowed time Study will determine needs of publicly owned aviation spots By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
Some of Ohio’s 97 public general aviation airports may be running out of runway. The state has embarked on an 18month study to examine the economic impact and money needs of
its publicly owned general aviation airports. The Ohio Department of Transportation says the review — dubbed the Ohio Airports Focus Study — is designed to see what roles these airports play in their communities and to identify the kinds of improvements that can be made with limited state and federal funds.
Because airports rely on public money for capital improvements, available funds could be focused only on the more robust airports, which could force some of the underused airfields to close. Among the airports that will be included in the study are Ashtabula County Airport, Burke Lakefront
Airport in Cleveland, Kent State University Airport and Lorain County Regional Airport. The study brought more than 75 airport managers, business owners, pilots and public officials to the Brecksville Community Center last Monday, Jan. 14, for a meeting to hear what ODOT expects to accomplish. It was one of six such sessions this month around the state.
INSIDE The ones to watch From Magdi H. Awad, right, to Dr. J. Brandon Walters, we highlight promising individuals in the Northeast Ohio health care sector. PAGES 11-15
See AIRPORTS Page 17
Commercial real estate hits 5-year sales peak Dollar volume of deals up 73% in 2012; ‘new normal’ may be in place By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
Sales of commercial properties in Northeast Ohio soared nearly 73% to $702 million in 2012, the highest level since such sales reached the stratospheric height of $1.3 billion in 2007 — the last year before the financial crisis struck and the nation entered the recession. That’s the finding of a survey of sales of income-generating commercial properties by Alec Pacella, a vice president of the NAI Daus real estate brokerage who has collected such data for years. Last year’s dollar volume of apartment, industrial, office and shopping center properties that sold at prices of more than $1 million was well ahead of the $405 million recorded in 2011, according to Mr. Pacella’s report. The pace of sales in 2012 surpassed that of 2008, when dollar volume hit $696 million as the financial crisis struck that October and lending dried up almost overnight. “This is the new normal, I guess,” Mr. Pacella said. “I don’t know if we will ever get back to the 2007 sales figures. It was so frothy it bordered on an unhealthy situation.”
GOODWILL EXPEDITION Natural history museum’s $125M campaign taps business community
By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is going on an expedition — not for dinosaur or woolly mammoth bones, but for big-dollar donations from the wallets of Northeast Ohio’s business leaders. The museum recently launched a $125 million capital campaign to finance an exhaustive renovation and expansion
program over the next five to seven years. It’s the museum’s largest fundraising effort in its 92-year history, and it’s going to take some major bones to make it happen. So, for the first time, the museum is making a concerted pitch to the region’s business and philanthropic community that links an investment in the museum to an investment in the region’s future work force. See MUSEUM Page 9
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See SALES Page 4
MCKINLEY WILEY
Lubrizol CEO James Hambrick, center, is shown with A. Chace Anderson of CM Wealth Advisors and Evalyn Gates of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
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Learn how shale oil and gas development will transform Ohio’s economy Tuesday, Feb. 5
Registration deadline is near! See page 2