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5/11/2012
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Appetite for industrial real estate returns Rebound in steel and auto, reshoring efforts have property owners again in driver’s seat By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
JASON MILLER PHOTOS
Dr. J. Eric Jelovsek, medical director of the Multidisciplinary Simulation Center at the Cleveland Clinic, says its “patient simulators” — seen below and in the background above — are intended to “re-create the cockpit of the aircraft.”
SMARTER BY SIMULATION Clinic expands lab that uses human-like dummies to train staff in real situations By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com
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hey pee, bleed, cough, convulse and even scream out in agonizing pain, but they’re no dummies. OK, maybe they are. These rubbery humanoids — or “patient simulators” that cost more
Unlike most people in the real estate business, Terry Coyne wishes, in at least two respects, that he could go back a few years to the Great Recession. The Newmark Grubb Knight Frank executive managing director recalls industrial buildings he sold at bargain prices a few years ago and would like to have that inventory now — as well as the ability to sell them at higher prices. “If you have a crane building, I can sell it in the blink of an eye,” Mr. Coyne said, referring to factories that offer large cranes on their ceilings to move products and equipment from one end to the other. Likewise, Bob Garber, a principal
at the Cresco real estate brokerage in Independence, said he has been astounded by the number of times he has callers ask about a building that was sold or leased recently, especially if it just went off the market. Although Northeast Ohio’s industrial real estate market in the last few years has taken some big hits, such as closed auto plants in Twinsburg and Lorain, it generally has bounced back — and quickly — to the point where industrial space is becoming tight in a number of cities. The rebound is due to a combination of factors. The steel and auto industries are humming again. Activity by industrial property users has picked up as manufacturers bring work home from foreign markets, See INDUSTRIAL Page 32
ON THE WEB
than an average home in the Cleveland area — are part of a multimillion-dollar investment by the Cleveland Clinic to better train clinical personnel without the risk of, well, killing someone. The health system recently opened 10,000 square feet of space so it can create a slate of medical scenarios —
Tour the casino! Come along on a tour with Crain’s video editor Steve Bennett of Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, which opens to the public at 9:30 tonight. Visit www.Crains Cleveland.com/casino for the tour. For more casino views, turn to Page 10 for photos of the interior of the new space in the old Higbee’s department store.
See DUMMIES Page 8
As electric deregulation takes effect, FirstEnergy, AEP drop gloves With monopolies out, powers take to other’s back yard to win business By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
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Two of Ohio’s most powerful companies have taken to fighting each other like children. At least that’s what it looks like in the television ads. But in reality, American Electric
Power Co. of Columbus and Akronbased FirstEnergy Corp. are engaged in a very adult fight over millions — perhaps billions — of dollars. Each wants to come out on top in the battle to sell power to the state’s commercial, industrial and residential electric customers.
The two companies, along with Dayton Power & Light and Duke Energy, long have been lumped together as Statehouse powerhouses, able to bend the General Assembly and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to their will when it comes to setting the price of electricity for
business and residential customers in the state. That was when they had monopoly territories and had no reason to fight among themselves. Now, however, deregulation is taking hold in Ohio, and the power companies are invading each other’s territories and challenging each other’s rate plans before the PUCO. In mid-April, AEP took the fight to
the airwaves with a television ad that portrayed itself as a pony-tailed little girl quietly running a 5-cent lemonade stand until an ominous man in a business suit — called the “infamous middleman” in the voiceover — comes by, buys her whole pitcher of lemonade and opens up shop across the street selling lemonade for 25 cents a glass. See ENERGY Page 6
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SPECIAL SECTION
Crain’s identifies and profiles some of the region’s top health care professionals ■ Pages H1-H11
Entire contents © 2012 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 33, No. 20