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Fees from online reservation sites have restaurant owners rethinking use of booking services — P. 5 How Andy Simms went from student to owner of a sports firm that handles 40 NFL players — P. 6
Port is riding swell of prosperity Cleveland dockyard to get $8 million in upgrades - including a warehouse - as cargo ship traffic increases By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
With the shipping season off to a fast start — nine vessels already have docked at the Port of Cleveland in the first two weeks of the season — the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is gearing up for a busier cargo business this year and beyond. Last Wednesday, April 22, the port authority’s board of directors approved plans for nearly $8 million in improvements on the docks,
including construction of a warehouse and the purchase of cranes and other support equipment. Last year at this time, seven ships had been in and out of the lakefront docks, and that was up from four in 2013. “Business at the port is as strong as we have seen in many years, and we expect it to keep growing,” port authority president and CEO Will Friedman told the board. Friedman quoted from an economic study released earlier this month by the American Associa-
Athersys stem cells still show potential By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com
There’s still a chance — just a chance — that Athersys’ stem cell therapy could turn into a blockbuster stroke drug. The Cleveland company’s MultiStem therapy technically failed a recent clinical trial: There wasn’t a significant difference between the stroke patients who received stem cells and those who received a placebo. That sounds like bad news for stroke patients, who have very few treatment options. But it’s not the whole story. A subgroup of patients who received MultiStem sooner “exhibited substantially better recovery” than
the placebo group, according to a presentation given by Dr. David Hess of Georgia Regents University. He led the clinical trial. Granted, the sample size was small: The subgroup included just 27 of the 65 patients who received MultiStem. Even so, a few stock analysts and doctors told Crain’s that the data look promising. Investors must disagree: Athersys’ share price fell by nearly 55% during the week of April 13. The stock price — which started sliding well before the company issued a news release containing data from the trial — stood at $1.28 at 2 p.m. last Friday, April 24. The stock’s 52week high is $3.43. But do those investors really unSee ATHERSYS, page 30
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Vol. 36, No. 17 Entire contents © 2015 by Crain Communications Inc.
tion of Port Authorities that found that the economic impact generated by all U.S. ports has increased 43% since 2007, a reflection of growing international trade. A consequence of that robust international trade though, is congestion at the docks on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which is benefitting the Cleveland port. Because of the heavy volume of ship traffic on the coasts, and occasional work stoppages, shippers can’t count on predicable movement from ship-to-rail, or truck-to-in-
land, destinations. Another part of the optimism from Friedman is based on the early returns of an entrepreneurial risk the port authority took last year. The port agreed to financially subsidize regular cargo service between Cleveland and Antwerp, Belgium, operated by the Spliethoff Group, a Dutch shipping line. It was the first time in decades that importers and exporters of auto parts and consumer goods in Ohio and beyond could count on regular, timely cargo service through a
port on the Great Lakes. Bart Peters, the manager of Spliethoff’s America Service, told the board last Wednesday that while the initial plan had been to put two ships on what is called the Cleveland-Europe Express this year, providing bi-weekly dockings and departures at the Cleveland port, he expects that because of an anticipated increased volume of cargo as many as four ships may be making the trans-Atlantic run. “The market is strong, especially See PORT, page 28