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7/8/2016
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VOL. 37, NO. 28
JULY 11 - 17, 2016
Business of Life
FOCUS
Small Business Cleveland’s maker movement shows no sign of slowing down Pages 13-18
Passion for fly fishing recasts into business
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Page 21
Source Lunch
Chris Thompson, CEO of Regional Physics. Page 22
RNC | SUPPLIERS
Vendors busy, but bottom line unclear
BUSINESS OF SPORTS
Investments worth a shot
By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh
The Republican National Convention is going to make the week beginning July 17th a busy week at FastSigns Downtown. And at Event Source JBK Group Inc. And at GOP Convention Strategies. And at Rock the House Entertainment Group Inc. All of these businesses — and, of course, dozens of restaurants, hotels and more — are bracing for a hectic but profitable time beginning when delegates to the Republican National Convention start flooding into Northeast Ohio. Beyond the basic lodging and feeding of the 2,472 delegates and a similar number of alternate delegates, an additional 45,000 people are coming to town. Some will be wined and dined, while others will be doing the wining and dining. Of course, about 15,000 media workers will be
Food trucks: Fixed and mobile zones for RNC announced. Page 8 Distributors: Supplying downtown restaurants presents logistical challenges. Page 9 covering the convention activities and the wining and dining. They, too, will need to eat and be amused. Hundreds of vendors are involved in all of this, and these four companies, which represent the range of businesses that will be working overtime that week, corralled some of that work. Although the companies generally are pleased with the level of activity they see for convention week, executives of all four said it was too early to know exactly how much of a boost to revenue the convention will offer. Final orders haven’t been placed, and some customer events
SEE GOP, PAGE 7
Boulder Creek. (Contributed photo)
RNC | TECHNOLOGY
Carrier upgrades aim to avoid RNC cell hell By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com @ChuckSoder
Will your cell phone work during the Republican National Convention? The wireless carriers aren’t the only ones who think the answer will be, for the most part, “yes.” Because of the RNC, the top four carriers are making significant upgrades to their wireless networks in downtown Cleveland. And the vast majority of those upgrades are complete. Granted, there’s a good chance
that your cell phone didn’t work all that well if you were standing in the ridiculously large crowd that flooded the city for the NBA championship parade on June 22 — even though some of the upgrades were already in place by then. But the carriers say that they should be able to handle the estimated 50,000 people coming to town for the RNC. And two telecommunications experts say that they’re probably right. Though they weren’t familiar with the specific upgrades the carriers have made, both experts said that
In rough golf biz, two courses are making upgrades By KEVIN KLEPS kkleps@crain.com @KevinKleps
The Northeast Ohio golf business has experienced its share of divots in the last decade-plus. Competing in an uncertain industry wrought with declining participation and revenue numbers, at least two local golf courses are going in a different direction. Boulder Creek in Streetsboro and StoneWater in Highland Heights are making significant investments in their food and events businesses in an effort to boost their bottom lines and get more people to their clubs. Boulder Creek, which commercial developer Joe Salemi designed him-
self prior to its 2002 opening, has a new grill room and bar. Later this year, a new men’s locker room will be added. In 2015, the public club completed an event center that can accommodate up to 175 people, and Salemi said another event center that would allow Boulder Creek to host weddings and parties with up to 350 guests is in the works. The picturesque course was also remodeled, with the layout extended to almost 7,500 yards. “We did a complete rebuild,” Salemi said. StoneWater, a semi-private club owned by a group that includes golf pro and media personality Jimmy Hanlin, brought in former Anthony & Sylvan Pools CEO Stuart Neidus as
SEE CELL, PAGE 6
Entire contents © 2016 by Crain Communications Inc.
The clubhouse at StoneWater. (Contributed photo)
an investor, and to lead a revamp of the entire business. StoneWater has new event, planning and catering services led by Neidus’ three daughters, and the club recently debuted a new restaurant and bar, plus an expanded events space. “We were golf guys trying to do events. That doesn’t work,” said Hanlin, who hosts three golf shows on Fox Sports Ohio and SportsTime Ohio, plus a weekly radio program on ESPN Cleveland. “Now we have somebody in here who knows what they’re doing, and it’s a completely different world.” Neidus’ oldest daughter, Whitney, had her own events business, and the youngest sibling, Kathryn, launched a catering business two years ago. Instead of working on various events together, as they had been, the pair wanted to find a more permanent setup. Their dad, with the help of friend and longtime business partner Steve Calabrese, searched for a spot without much success — until they settled on the obvious choice, one for which Calabrese is a part-owner. “We were having dinner and cocktails one night and said, ‘You know, why aren’t we using StoneWater? This is crazy,’ ” Neidus said. Eventually, they did. SEE GOLF, PAGE 23