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$2.00/AUGUST 13 - 19, 2012
Suburban mayors eye plan worthy of casino cash BROOKLYN
County exec FitzGerald has stated goal for tax dollars to ‘transform’ By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
M
ayors from some of Cuyahoga County’s inner-ring suburbs want to convince County Executive Ed FitzGerald and members of the County Council that their communities should share in any plan for the casino tax dollars that come to the county. A group of mayors and a city manager from suburbs that are members of the First Suburbs Consortium met last Monday, Aug. 6, in Warrensville Heights to start hammering out a proposal that will satisfy Mr. FitzGerald’s desire to use the casino tax revenue — an amount that could be nearly
New lease at Steelyard could spur second phase
$10 million dollars a year when all four of the state’s gambling halls are in operation — for projects that are “transformational.” “The message is: ‘We don’t want you to forget about us’” said Mayor Brad Sellers of Warrensville Heights, who chaired the committee. “This is found money; let’s make sure we get bang for our buck.” Members of the committee are Mayor Sellers; Mayor Richard Balbier of Brooklyn; Mayor Earl Leiken of Shaker Heights; Mayor Michael Summers of Lakewood; and city manager Henry Angelo of Bedford. The First Suburbs group is composed of 19 cities, most of which were filled out by the post-World War
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Steelyard Commons, the big shopping center near downtown Cleveland, appears on the verge of its first major expansion since it opened in 2007 on the site of a former LTV steel mill. First Interstate Properties Inc. of Lyndhurst, the developer of Steelyard Commons, has leased land to Burlington Coat Factory, a national off-price department store chain,
for a 77,000-square-foot store to be built north of the Walmart Super Center. The lease is a breakthrough for First Interstate as it looks to launch a long-planned second phase of Steelyard Commons, which brought a contemporary, big-box retail center within the city limits. “We’re working on launching phase two,” Mitchell Schneider, CEO of First Interstate, said in an interview last Friday, Aug. 10, as he See STEELYARD Page 17
SHAKER HEIGHTS
OD WO E K LA
See CASH Page 18
Mineral rights deals now done at ‘rational’ pace
INSIDE
Landowners partner to secure favorable terms
Burlington would anchor 200K-square-foot center By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
BEDFORD
MARC GOLUB
Wary of welder shortage Community colleges are adapting their curricula to help ease area manufacturers’ fears of a dearth of welding specialists. PAGE 3 PLUS: ■ The Cleveland Clinic sues a Fla. company relating to a callback software system. PAGE 3
By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com
If you thought the land rush was over and that shale gas drilling companies are done buying up mineral rights in Ohio, think bigger. It’s true that, compared with six months ago, the county recorder’s offices in eastern Ohio finally are catching their breath and dealing with fewer oil companies filing new
mineral rights leases. But there still are substantial mineral rights available for lease in Ohio, often by landowner groups, conventional drilling companies and others that each hold thousands of acres. “I call it the ‘rational phase’ of leasing,” said Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. “And that’s not a bad thing at all.” Look no further than Geauga County for an example. The county, on the northern edge of the Utica shale play that is driving Ohio’s oil and gas industry, is home See LEASES Page 17
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SPECIAL SECTION
SMALL BUSINESS At some local companies, hiring family members tops the priority list ■ Page 11 PLUS: CSAS BENEFIT FARMERS ■ ADVISER ■ TAX TIPS ■ & MORE
Entire contents © 2012 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 33, No. 31