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$2.00/FEBRUARY 24 - MARCH 2, 2014
Insurer’s founder fighting tender offer Spachman says American Financial’s bid for National Interstate isn’t adequate By SCOTT SUTTELL ssuttell@crain.com
The board of specialty insurance company National Interstate Corp. officially is taking no position on a
$283 million tender offer for the company’s common stock by a unit of Cincinnati-based insurance giant American Financial Group Inc. But that’s not stopping National Interstate’s founder, Alan R. Spach-
man, from staking out a position opposing the deal — and raising questions about the fairness of the entire offer process. In a filing last Wednesday, Feb. 19, with the Securities and Ex-
change Commission, Richfieldbased National Interstate said its board “has determined not to express an opinion on the tender offer and to remain neutral with respect to the tender offer” from
Great American Insurance Co. Great American, a subsidiary of American Financial, on Feb. 18 increased to $30 a share its tender offer for the common stock of National Interstate that it doesn’t already own. It didn’t say why it raised the offer. See OFFER Page 7
Historic property soon will hit market Maker of Kleenex lays plans to sell National Terminal apartment complex By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
JANET CENTURY
Chase Pinchot, general manager at Bunker Hill Golf Course in Medina, plays on one of the six indoor simulators located at the golf club.
THE GAME WITHIN THE GAME
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Golf course operators exhaust every option to get customers through door in bad weather
By KEVIN KLEPS kkleps@crain.com
W
hen Mother Nature rains down on Northeast Ohio in the spring, summer and fall, and buries it with snow and ice in the winter, golf courses try everything and anything to get customers through the door.
Ultimately, though, there are only so many food and drink specials, golf course simulators, weddings and gimmicks such as comedy shows — yes, comedy shows — to offset the greens fees that never materialize on Mom’s bad days. “If you lose a day (because of weather), you’re done,” said David Kinnell, head pro at Pine Hills Golf Club in Hinckley. “There is no way you can make up for it.” See GAME Page 8
The National Terminal Warehouse Apartments, a trailblazing, 250-suite complex that helped establish downtown Cleveland as an apartment market in the 1990s, is about to go up for sale. Real estate insiders quietly have been looking at the complex for months. Brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap plans to start marketing the property for sale if the loft building’s owner wins approval from Cleveland City Council to repay on an accelerated and discounted basis city loans that helped finance the old warehouse building’s conversion to apartments in 1996. See PROPERTY Page 19
INSIDE Huge step Streetsboro-based toy manufacturer Step2 is making major strides in its efforts to do big business in China. PAGE 5
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HIGHER EDUCATION Aspiring college presidents sometimes chart their own paths to the top job ■ Pages 13-18 PLUS: DIVERSITY PROGRAMS ■ AD CAMPAIGNS ■ & MORE
Entire contents © 2014 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 35, No. 8