Crain's Cleveland Business

VOL. 37, NO. 38

SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2016

Source Lunch

Business of Life Big national tiny house trend hits Cleveland Page 27

Kip Clarke, Key Community Bank

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Page 28

The List Largest suburban office properties Page 31

DEVELOPMENT

Hotels in Cleveland: Is the sky the limit?

By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter

The onslaught of new hotels in downtown Cleveland looks to keep on coming.

Surprisingly, following the run-up of hotels that expanded the room count 55% the last four years, particularly with the addition of the publicly funded 600-room Hilton Cleveland Downtown at the convention center, worry about oversupply seems to be a passing fancy. Real estate developers have plans for four more hotels, another 750 rooms, if they all get built.

Or at least the worry is relegated to some wintry day when the Huntington Cleveland Convention Center and Global Center for Health Innovation is dark or when there’s little else to fill rooms in the city. And days might mount to weeks. Several hotel owners, operators and experts — but not all — expect the softening to be temporary as the city rebuilds its convention business from scratch.

Richard Pace, president of Cleveland-based Cumberland Real Estate Development, plans to develop a 175-room boutique hotel near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Great Lakes Science Center as part of a lakefront development with Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. on city of Cleveland-owned land.

Pace said he has been cautious about hotel development and concerned about whether the city may be at a point soon of overbuilding hotels. However, a study shows that because of its lake and city views and tourist attraction neighbors, the lakefront developers could make a go of a hotel they hope to start in 2017, and Pace’s outlook has evolved.

“I feel our convention business, especially after the Republican National Convention business, is taking off,” Pace said. “We’ve proven we can handle a gigantic event.

We’re already getting more bookings than before.”

SEE HOTELS, PAGE 6

Going up Cleveland central business district hotels, which includes Independence, have seen an increase in occupancy in the last decade.

Total rooms are also up, from 6,034 in July 2006 to 7,048 in July 2016.

Occupancy rates by year, July YTD

60.0%

67.7%

’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 Source: STR Global

Photograph by David Kordalski

Entire contents © 2016 by Crain Communications Inc.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS l SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2016 l PAGE 3

Football is the way of life for Phil Steele

By KEVIN KLEPS kkleps@crain.com @KevinKleps

Phil Steele took a huge step — at least for him — with the 2016 edition of his annual college football preview magazine.

For the first time since the popular magazine debuted in 1995, the Cleveland native let a few of his staffers write the initial drafts of the team previews for 30 to 35 programs.

Granted, Steele’s publication has in-depth stories, charts, rosters and statistics for each of the 128 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and he still took over the writing for the second and third drafts of those 30plus clubs (none of which qualified for a bowl game last year). But delegation doesn’t come easy for the 55year-old Westlake resident, whose college football obsession knows very few bounds.

“I put so much pride in this. My name is on it,” he says of a magazine that continues to thrive in the digital era.

It’s a name — Phil Steele’s College Football Preview — that is almost as synonymous with the sport as bowl games and furry mascots.

“It’s the (college football) Bible,” said Michael Reghi, a former Cavaliers play-by-play voice who broadcasts college football and basketball contests for ESPN3. “My peers, I think virtually to a man or woman, everyone finds it a must-have. His detail is second to none. He accounts for every player on every roster.”

The painstaking manner in which Steele and his staff of 15 to 20 gather information for the annual magazine, which spanned 352 pages when it was released in June, is the key to

its success, says the man who produced an eight-page college football newsletter when he was 21.

“When I first started the magaSteele zine and I put this layout in for each, I said, ‘Somebody’s going to catch up to me. Somebody’s going to figure out that this is definitely the best layout,’ ” Steele said.

The design, he admits, isn’t the prettiest on the shelves of the seven major retailers that sell his publication. And the writing isn’t quite as esteemed as the publisher himself.

It’s the total package, though — the information overload — that puts the magazine, in its 22nd year, near or at the head of its class in the industry.

“No one puts this amount of work into it,” Steele said.

‘Every box score’ matters Debbie Corrigan, who has worked for Steele’s publications since the magazine debuted in 1995, says football is “a way of a life” at the office, which is located on Detroit Road in Westlake — about four minutes from Steele’s house.

“It’s a lot of hours, yes,” Corrigan said. “It’s fun. A lot of stats-compiling and a lot of proofreading. After so many years, it’s kind of second nature.”

The hours Steele keeps — he says he works 102 hours a week during the football season, 100 hours a week during the

‘Ridiculous’ schedule

Phil Steele watches as many as 12 games at once. (Kevin Kleps) lead-up to the magazine’s publication and 70 hours per week earlier in the “offseason” — might seem exaggerated. But his coworkers say the numbers, like the thousands of stats Steele publishes in his magazine, are legit.

“His preparation and the way he appreciates it, it’s really phenomenal,” said Reghi, who assisted Steele for five months this past winter and spring, during the hectic days when the magazine was being compiled.

“He pores over every box score and every word. It’s unbelievable.”

Once you ask Steele about his daily routine, it’s not difficult to see how he gets to 100 work hours in a week.

He says he wakes up every morning at 4:45 and rides an exercise bike for an hour.

Since almost every second needs to have an additional purpose, he reads multiple newspapers and watches college football while he works out.

During the week, he publishes his newsletter — Inside the Press

Box, for which subscribers pay $19.99 a week or $149 for the season — and grades every team’s performance from the previous weekend. He also hosts a weekly podcast with Reghi, makes scheduled appearances on a bunch of radio shows and is entering his third season of an ESPN contract. (He writes a weekly betting guide, and appears on podcasts and TV shows for the Worldwide Leader.)

That’s tame, though, compared to the weekends.

Steele’s office has a 12-TV setup to allow him to watch as many games as possible. He stays there until about 7 p.m. on Saturdays, then retreats to his eight-TV home office and doesn’t call it a day until the last of the late games has concluded.

On Sundays, Steele watches the NFL games, while poring over the college play-by-play sheets and box scores from the day before.

“I’m operating on a couple hours’ sleep (on Sundays), which stinks,” Steele said. “But in the same token, I know that maybe I’ll take a nap on Monday, when my daughter has Irish dance class.”

Yes, Steele has a family — Rebecca, his wife; Sierra, his 22-year-old stepdaughter; and Savannah, his 10year-old daughter.

He talks with great pride about Sierra making the Dean’s List at the University of Dayton, and gushes about Savannah. But he is well aware that his crazy schedule is difficult on his family.

Steele’s only real hobby aside from the tremendous amount of reading he does (almost all work-related) is basketball, which he tries to play with friends on Wednesday nights at the gym in his house. Those games, though, often have to take a back seat to work.

“It’s seven days a week,” he says of his work routine. “When I finished the magazine this year, that Saturday, I took a day off. It was my first day off since Christmas. And Christmas was my first day off since (the previous) July.”

In Steele’s mind, there’s always work to be done and teams to study.

More than 300,000 copies of the 2016 college football preview were distributed. Corrigan said the publication’s sell-through rate (the number of shipped units that are sold) is 45%, which is 20% ahead of the industry average.

Down the road, he envisions handing the majority of the first drafts of the team previews to his staff, “because working these amounts of hours is ridiculous,” but he’s not ready to do that yet.

“I was worried somebody was going to catch up, but then I realized nobody would be stupid enough to do this,” Steele said. “I don’t do anything else besides football.”

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Construction survey says concerns are up

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Northeast Ohio construction contractors and real estate developers remain optimistic about the prospects for more projects, but they’re increasingly hearing the call of out-of-town opportunities as large local projects finish and the region’s economy remains lackluster.

That’s the conclusion from Solonbased Skoda Minotti accounting, business and financial advisory firm’s just-completed 2016 survey of the construction and real estate industries.

“Everyone is looking for their next sandwich,” said Roger Gingerich, partner-in-charge of the construction and real estate group of Skoda Minotti. “The world feels a little shaky. And in an election year, especially in this presidential election, there is uncertainty about the future, and government has a lot of bearing on the construction business.”

Or it may be that the building-related firms have a little hangover after the Republican National Convention. Massive mega projects around town, from the $267 million Hilton downtown to American Greetings Corp.’s new headquarters in Westlake, are done or soon will be. The next round of massive projects is not yet set, even though smaller projects, especially apartments, abound in city neighborhoods and suburbs, while the health care and education markets remain busy.

Skoda Minotti’s survey shows 46% of the construction firms are seeing more opportunities over the next three years in Northeast Ohio, a big drop from 69% in 2015 who saw more opportunities in the region.

Those seeing fewer opportunities doubled to 16% this year from 8% a year ago.

Among real estate companies, from property owners to service firms, 53% see more opportunities in the region over the next three years,

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Construction workers install a wall panel on the 11th floor of The Edge, a 263-suite student apartment building that is going up at 1750 Euclid Ave. near Cleveland State University. (Stan Bullard) compared with 71% last year.

Both expect to find more opportunities the next three years outside the region than in it, at the rate of 74% of real estate firms and 54% of construction firms. Gingerich believes this reflects that contractors and developers grew used to the idea of traveling to find projects during and after the 2008 financial collapse.

Company owners and workers in both sectors are also seeing improvements in business fundamentals and the problems they have are, in the end, good problems to have compared to the lean years.

For instance, the 2016 survey shows construction firms are competing against fewer firms and are going after larger jobs than in the past. This year, 56% of the respondents — the highest number since the accounting and consulting firm started the survey in 2009 — said they are bidding against one to four bidders. Moreover, 98% of the firms surveyed are bidding against fewer than 10 competitors, an increase from 93% a year ago.

Gingerich views reports of diminished competition as a sign that the building market is healthy as contractors are finding more than enough work to go around, and fewer out-of-town contractors are com-

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ing here because they are finding plentiful work at home.

More than half of the builders reported their average job size increased this year; just 10% reported their average job size is smaller.

In terms of threats to their business, securing skilled labor is the biggest threat to 46% of the construction firms that responded to the survey, while 13% cited the cost of labor and 12% cited lack of work as their major concern.

Gingerich said labor is a concern for construction firms because workers left the business during the downturn and are slow to return to it, the baby boomers are retiring and too few young people are entering the building business.

“Hearing about pension problems at unions does not attract young people to construction,” Gingerich said, nor does high-paying construction jobs being overlooked by educators or parents pushing a college education.

Among real estate owners and operators, the good news is that they are finding rents increasing, although tenants will not see it in such a positive light.

A majority of respondents reported increases in rents for commercial, industrial and residential properties, with 82% of the respondents reporting that apartment rents will rise this year, compared with 56% last year.

Increasing sale prices for most commercial properties are also providing real estate operators exit opportunities for projects with insufficient cash flow. Attempting to sell such a property is the choice of 58% of the respondents this year, compared with just 23% last year.

CLEVELAND BUSINESS 700 W. St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113 Phone: (216) 522-1 1383; www.crainscleveland.com

Reprints: 212-210-0750 Krista Bora kbora@crain.com, Customer service and subscriptions 877-824-9373 Volume 37, Number 38 Crain’s s Cleveland Bus sines ss (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 441131230. Copyright © 2016 by Crain Communications Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio, and at additional mailing offices. Price per copy: $2.00. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Crain’s s Cleveland Bus sines ss, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48207-2912.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS l SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2016 l PAGE 5

Cleveland Plan’s progress is slow, steady

By RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

This November, Cleveland residents will have a big choice to make.

No, not just who they want running the country, but whether they want to renew the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s 15-mill levy, which its proponents stress is critical to the district’s efforts of improving its schools.

Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, as it’s officially known, was implemented in 2012, the same year the levy was first passed.

District CEO Eric S. Gordon tried to highlight what made this plan different than the plans of the past during his State of the Schools address on Wednesday, Sept. 14, noting that the district had seen 14 superintendents or CEOs in 35 years.

The Cleveland Plan, he said, was based in more knowledge of what was working in school reform. Under it, the district had more flexibility than under previous plans, thanks to legislation passed in Columbus, and it had the financial support from the levy to invest in the plan.

Four years later, that levy is up for renewal, leaving voters to decide if their investment has led to enough progress for their liking.

And last week was a significant one in this respect, as — in addition to the annual State of the Schools ad-

dress — the Cleveland Transformation Alliance, the group charged with overseeing the plan, released its second report on that plan’s progress and the state released its report cards for the 2015-2016 school year.

They painted a muddled picture.

The Cleveland Transformation Alliance report found progress in the plan, albeit slow, and signs of optimism. For instance, the district had acted on the recommendations from the 2015 report and graduation rates had increased from 56% in 2011 to 66% in 2014.

Shana Marbury, general counsel and vice president of strategic initiatives and research at the Greater Cleveland Partnership — and a member of the Cleveland Transformation Alliance board — found the increased enrollment and waiting lists for some schools indicative of increasing faith in the schools from the community. Gordon said the enrollment was the highest since at least 1991, and possibly since desegregation. For the 2014-2015 school year, enrollment was 38,555, up from 37,967 the year prior.

But changing state tests and standards have made it difficult to track a significant statistic that was omitted from the alliance’s report: the number of seats in “quality schools” in Cleveland. It also has made it difficult to track improvement in the corrective action schools, Gordon said, though grad-

uation rates are up, and the overall trend — despite the trouble of tracking it “apples to bananas to cherries” — is positive.

And the changing state standards may have also contributed to the striking results on the district’s state report card, released Thursday, Sept.

15. In a news release, superintendent of public instruction Paolo DeMaria reminded people that the report cards “reflect a system in transition” with “new tests, higher achievement targets and more challenging expectations.”

The district received F grades in all possible categories, from overall achievement on the state tests to student progress throughout the year. Though its graduation rate continued to increase, the rate of 69.1% of students graduating in four years for 2015-2016 was not high enough to earn the district something above an F. In an emailed statement, the district called the results “disappointing” but “not unexpected,” pointing to a drop in scores across the state after the third change in tests in as many years and noting that its decline in performance-index scores was similar to other urban districts. The district highlighted improvements in the graduation rate and the average daily attendance.

“The data for Cleveland is particularly disappointing, given the fact that our educators and students have worked so hard to raise

achievement and we have seen so many other signs of our improvement,” the statement read. “We are reviewing the data carefully in our efforts to continually assess which of our Cleveland Plan strategies are working and to affirm or adjust our priorities.”

Encouraging words Alex Johnson, president at Cuyahoga Community College and ex officio member of the district’s school board, said intermediate results can’t be used to make conclusions about the ultimate goals of the plan. The district didn’t fall prey to its challenges overnight, and they won’t get fixed overnight, he said.

“This is not a sprint,” he said.

“This is a marathon.”

Sajit Zachariah, dean of the College of Education and Human Services at Cleveland State University, had a similar outlook. The students in Cleveland face socioeconomic challenges, like poverty, outside the schools that “play a big role in whether kids learn,” he said.

“We’re not going to see significant changes and progress overnight,” said Zachariah, who is a member of the alliance board.

But, he said, the Cleveland Plan does provide a road map for those necessary changes.

Helen Williams, program director for education at the Cleveland Foundation and an alliance board member, was on the committee

that helped create the Cleveland Transformation Alliance report.

She said it was an “honest assessment” of where the district is now.

There’s been slow, steady progress, she said, and the systems to implement the plan are being put in place.

Ann Mullin, senior program officer of the Gund Foundation and member of the alliance board, also pointed to the significance that the plan is actually being implemented. For example, she said, the district is starting new schools, filling high-performance schools to capacity, giving more autonomy at the school level and enacting a student-based budget system.

“There’s evidence of that,” Mullin said.

And she thinks there’s evidence of slow improvement, too, by the numbers and by the culture at the schools. Williams said the schools aren’t where they should be, but that there’s a sense that they’re getting better.

“I think the progress is enough for people to vote affirmatively,” she said.

And that will be the big question.

The district could have gone for a 10-year or a permanent levy, but Gordon said the decision to opt for a four-year levy renewal was purposeful. It lets the community hold the district accountable.

“Change takes time, and we all acknowledge that,” he said.

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HOTELS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 A 279-room hotel also is planned as part of the remaking of the former Huntington Building at 925 Euclid Ave. as the Union Trust project with offices and apartments expected to start by next April. The other proposed hotels are at nuCLEus, the proposed 52-story mixed-use complex proposed by Stark Enterprises of Cleveland and J-Dek Investments of Solon, and, long term, as part of Jacobs Entertainment’s proposed reworking of the Nautica Entertainment District as a live-work-play environment.

Even more also are rumored.

A running start The first inn to join the run-up of hotels since 2012 is the Aloft at the Flats East Bank Neighborhood, which opened in 2013. George Kimson, chief operating officer of Moreland Hills-based Heritage Development Co., said he’s pleased with the river district’s hotel’s performance since the Hilton opened in June, but it’s going to get more challenging. “In order for the convention center to be what we want it to be for the city, we have to have citywide conventions. My sincere hope for the city of Cleveland is that we are able to deliver citywide conventions that will bring in conventioneers in by the thousands, not by the hundreds.�

Others are more sanguine.

Gil Blutrich, chairman of Toronto-based Skyline International Development, heads a concern that bought The Arcade, which houses the Hyatt, at a 2006 sheriff’s sale and doubled down last year by buying the 500-room Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. Prior to the opening of the Hilton, Renaissance Cleveland was the city’s largest hotel. “For me, it’s the big picture,� Blutrich said. “It is not a few percentage changes in occupancy or average daily rate the next few years. I think the city is past the tipping point. We see the energy.�

Art Falco, president of PlayhouseSquare Foundation, heads the nonprofit which manages Cleveland’s restored theaters and owns substantial property in the neighborhood, including the Wyndham Cleveland. The ac-

countant turned theater and development corporation executive knows the market has to grow to accommodate new entries and existing hotels.

He looks at transformation the city’s hotel market has already undergone to clear the path to this point. “Twenty years ago, average occupancy was in the 50s,� Falco said. “Now we’re in the high 60s with more inventory.�

CLE as a landing spot How things fare from here depends in large part on Destination Cleveland, which markets the region for leisure, business and convention travelers, and Cuyahoga County’s operators of the convention center and Hilton, SMG, the Philadelphia-based meetings and events firm and Hilton Worldwide.

As senior vice president of convention sales and services at Destination Cleveland, Mike Burns is in the center of that fight for business. Besides the addition of the 3-year-old convention center and Hilton, there is an advantage to the addition of five other hotels downtown and nearby, as the meeting planners see things.

In the past, Burns said, there were times the hotel and tourism marketing group did not get the rooms it needed to go after bigger convention because hotels did not have adequate inventory to provide it. “Add the supply we did and now you have to ‘group up’ to get conventions,� Burns said. “Look at the match — a 55% increase since 2012.

Short of Boeing moving its headquarters here, business travel will not increase 55%. We’re having 5% increases in leisure travel, that’s fantastic. With a lot of inventory, the way to fill it is with group travel.

Now it’s become uber collaborative. Get the community together and we will win together.�

Hotel insiders say the city needs to land at least a dozen citywide conventions of three days in length to make a go of the situation.

Burns is optimistic based on what he has — so far. He estimates there are about 15 opportunities for citywide events, if not conventions, in 2017. And that does not include the chance the Cavaliers will be in the NBA Finals next year. “It’s by far a number four times greater than any year since I’ve been here,� said Burns, who joined Destination Cleveland in 2012.

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The convention center’s role Although SMG has been operating the convention complex just since 2013 and began marketing to groups that could use rooms generated by the Hilton when it began construction, Mark Leahy, general manager of the center and its health innovation center, draws on his 40 years of experience in the business and opening three other convention centers to Cleveland.

In terms of citywide conventions, Leahy is confident the convention center can in a few years “easily� exceed a dozen conventions that will fill 1,500 rooms for several days and believes 15 is within reach.

Huntington Convention Center’s staff of six sales people already has a new goal with the addition of the Hilton next door, Leahy said. In 2015, the goal was to book enough events to sell 92,000 hotel rooms. With the Hilton open, that goal became 130,000 room nights in 2016 and following years.

The challenge will be getting large conventions that book three years ahead of time, a group that targets second-tier cities such as Cleveland rather than the conventions that book five years out that go to first-tier convention cities from New York, Orlando and Chicago to Las Vegas.

However, even among smaller markets such as Pittsburgh, Columbus and Minneapolis, he said, competition for Cleveland is sharp. “We can pull in citywides in 2018, 2019 and 2020,� Leahy said. “Looking at our booking pace, I’m very pleased.� He estimates the center will land 20 such conventions in 2017 and believes the city will land 30 or more for the years 2019 to 2021.

This is all in a city that virtually “had no convention business� in 2013. “Hotels are about profit. They make rooms available to conventions when they don’t sell them,� Leahy said. “In Savannah, Ga. (where he opened a center), group business was seen as a competitor to leisure travel. Here we have great cooperation from the hotels and the community, greater than I have ever seen.�

The other challenge local hotel operators cite is that the city’s market for conventions and large group

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

The Wyndham Cleveland is owned and operated by the Playhouse Square Foundation. (David Kordalski)

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was converted back to apartments and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel effectively became the property serving what’s now the Jack Cleveland Casino when it was acquired by a partnership led by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert and his partners. The Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza went out of inventory at the same time as it was rebuilt as a 484-room Westin that opened in 2014.

A less difficult scenario emerges when you examine the city’s hotel market through statistics by STR Global, a Hendersonville, Tenn.based hotel consulting firm.

When the Hilton joined the market in June following the opening of the Kimpton, Drury Plaza and Holiday Inn Cleveland Clinic, the supply of available rooms climbed to 218,488 monthly or about 2.62 million rooms a year. In 2011, before the Embassy Suites closed, supply was 2.16 million rooms a year, STRS reports. That is about a 22% increase in supply, and more doable, although the figure also includes the Independence submarket.

The going price

Kimpton is the latest luxury hotel chain in the Cleveland market. It’s in the restored Schofield building on East 9th Street. (Stan Bullard)

meetings is historically April to October. It’s a very small window to dive through, although it’s created by unpredictable Cleveland winters.

Leahy turns that argument around.

He notes that with the attached Hil-

ton, weather becomes less an issue for getting to the center. But even an improved city image burnished by RNC may only go so far.

Destination Cleveland’s estimate that the market has expanded 55%

The Metropolitan at The 9 on East 9th Street. (Stan Bullard)

since 2012 may be an example of setting the bar too high.

Blutrich, Greenbaum and others emphasize the city lost three hotels for conventions before the upswing.

The 275-room Embassy Suites hotel

The other part of the equation is how much room rates increase — and how much hotels drop rates when little is going on in the market, particularly at the Hilton, the city’s largest hotel.

According to Trivago, the hotel booking metasite, the Hilton will make rooms available for as little as $199 each — rather than its $329 normal rate on Monday, Jan. 9, 2017.

That figure is more than offers the same day from Holiday Inn Cleveland Clinic, Hyatt, Kimpton, the Metropolitan, Renaissance Cleveland

|

PA G E 7

and 12 other downtown or University Circle hotels.

Teri Agosta, Hilton general manager, said the $199 figure is likely as low as the hotel will go except for some weekend getaways designed to attract locals.

However, Agosta argues that it’s a mistake to insist all conventions want low rates. “They want an experience with great views, food and meeting rooms and something they’ve not seen before. And they want t good value.”

Agosta isn’t daunted by Cleveland’s need to land more than a dozen city wide conventions each year.

“It’s extremely realistic,” she said.

“We have great cooperation with Destination Cleveland, the Westin Hotel and others. But it’s going to take a lot of work. The future is bright.”

Taking the opposite view is Vern Fuller, president of Marathon Associate Hotels of Mayfield Heights, who has 30 years of experience in the city’s hotel market. He said insiders privately are worried, particularly at smaller hotels. Changing the city’s market will not be easy, and historically conventions have been “the cherry on the sundae.”

“Anyone who is going to build a hotel downtown better have a lot of cash,” Fuller said, since profits will prove difficult to get. He is glad empty offices at Cleveland Athletic Club, 1118 Euclid Ave., will be replaced by apartments instead of a planned hotel.

However, Agosta feels the city’s hospitality future is bright. She said the hotel is already bringing in groups the city has not seen before.

But her true measure of success for the city?

“The jobs that are being created in this industry,” she said.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Report shows evolving scope of manufacturing

By RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

440.352.4700

19 Ways to Put Accounts Receivable on Autopilot E-Book

Manufacturing productivity in Northeast Ohio is expected to continue to rise in the next nine years, but employment in the sector is projected to stagnate, according to a new report from Team NEO. The economic development organization highlighted manufacturing in its most recent quarterly economic review, making the case that while the industry isn’t the force it once was, it’s still a significant part of the region’s economy.

In 1970, manufacturing made up about 58% of the employment in the region’s traded industries, or the industries producing goods and services, some of which may be exported. In 2015, the manufacturing sector made up about 26%. Team NEO likes to see this type of diversification, said vice president of strategy and research Jacob Duritsky.

“It makes us more resilient to things like recessions,” he said.

The industry makeup has changed in that time, too.

In 1970, the top three sectors by percentage of employment were motor vehicle parts, iron/steel mills/ferroalloy and foundries. In 2015, the motor vehicle parts sector was still in the top three, joined by plastics products and machine shops.

Manufacturing is one of Team NEO’s targeted industries, Duritsky said. It’s about retention, but also about leveraging the base to attract

suppliers and emerging industries.

The report highlighted manufacturing segments expected to see high growth from 2015 to 2025. The standouts for expected growth are all relatively high-tech: semiconductors and other electronic components and navigational/measuring/electromedical/control instruments are two expected to see growth above 80%.

The computer and peripheral

58%

Percentage of employment in 1970 in Northeast Ohio’s traded industries — those producing goods and services — that were manufacturing jobs.

26%

Percentage of employment in 2015 in the same sector that were manufacturing jobs.

“We are doing a lot more with less people.”

— Jacob Duritsky, Team NEO vice president of strategy and research equipment sector is expected to grow by 104% in that time, but the total growth to the region may not be huge. It’s expected to grow from a $40 million industry to an $85 million one, Duritsky said. North Can-

ton-based Diebold Inc. is the company driving the main growth in this sector in the region, he said.

Overall, the report found employment in manufacturing has been relatively flat since 2009, following a drop that started around 2000. And that trend is expected to continue through 2025. But productivity for manufacturing has been rising slowly but overall steadily since 1990 and sharply since about 2009. The industry’s productivity is expected to continue to increase significantly through 2025.

“We are doing a lot more with less people,” Duritsky said.

Ethan Karp, CEO and president of Magnet, the manufacturing advocacy and growth network, said that the loss of low-tech jobs in manufacturing and that the migration into higher-tech jobs is a positive for the economy.

Team NEO’s report cited data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages that showed employment in the region overall had improved year to year in 2015. In the fourth quarter of 2015, the region averaged a total employment of about 1.9 million, an increase of almost 15,000 jobs from the same time in 2014. The service sector saw a year-over-year increase of about 12,000 jobs in that time, while manufacturing lost about 1,700, the report stated.

Duritsky said this was the first drop for manufacturing in quite a while, as the industry had been growing pretty steadily year-overyear since 2009. Construction was flat.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

The Week

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S E P T E M B E R 19 - 2 5 , 2 016

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PA G E 9

Nominate Your Best for the

Distinguished Marketing and Sales Awards

Willoughby-based K&D Group purchased Terminal Tower last week.

THE BIG STORY

With plans for a $100 million project, Willoughby-based K&D Group, on Thursday, Sept. 15, purchased the 52-floor Terminal Tower from longtime owner Forest City Realty Trust Inc. Doug Price, K&D CEO, said in a Thursday afternoon interview, “We’re pretty excited.” He said K&D paid $38.5 million for Terminal Tower. Cuyahoga County assigns the structure at 50 Public Square a value of $23 million for property tax purposes. K&D has ramped up for running the half-million-square-foot building. “We have a group of 12 people we are sending over tomorrow to operate the property,” Price said. “Most of the people are new hires we brought on after a wide search. We’ve had them in training for the last three weeks.” Forest City can keep its corporate headquarters in the building until the middle of 2018. However, the publicly traded company has as many as four options of six months to extend its stay in case it goes into a newly constructed building. Forest City occupies a substantial part of the space on floors four through 15 that will become apartments, so renovation can’t begin until the company’s headquarters moves.

Recognize the achievements of a top sales or marketing professional with a nomination for the Sales & Marketing Executives of Cleveland’s prestigious Distinguished Marketing and Sales Award (DMSA).

If selected, your nominee will join the 2017 Business Executive of the Year, Fred DiSanto, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ancora, as well as other outstanding DMSA winners on the stage at the 56th Annual Distinguished Marketing and Sales Awards gala banquet, Thursday, February 16, 2017 at Westin Cleveland Downtown.

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ADDED SECURITY

Securus Medical Group raised $10 million in an investment round led by Boston Scientific. The Cleveland company also announced that it has received regulatory clearance that would allow it to begin selling its first product: a temperature-monitoring device intended for use on the esophagus.

The money will be used to continue product development and clinical testing, according to a news release from Securus. Boston Scientific now holds a seat on Securus’ board. Securus also raised money locally: The Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center, a state-funded economic development organization led by the Cleveland Clinic, contributed capital, as did RiverVest Venture Partners, which has an office in Cleveland. RiverVest invested in Securus alongside JumpStart in 2011, and it invested more capital in 2013, when Securus raised $6.5 million and hired Steven Girouard as its CEO.

SLAM DUNK

Supply chain management company National DCP, which provides products to Dunkin’ Donuts franchisees nationwide, said it plans to open a distribution center in Twinsburg that will employ about 50 people. The center will deliver ingredients, food products, beverages and supplies to the nearly 400 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in the region, DCP said. A company spokeswoman said in an email that the Twinsburg center represents an $11 million investment for National DCP. The Twinsburg center will be 81,000 square feet and will have 19 truck docks. The distribution center “will also save 1.2 million miles driven

by NDCP trucks annually as a result of the more centralized new location,” the company estimated. The Twinsburg center, 8794 Independence Parkway, is scheduled to begin distribution in late October.

TOUGH GRADERS

The Ohio Department of Education on Thursday, Sept. 15, released the 2015-2016 report cards grading the performance of the state’s schools and districts on measures like graduation rate, overall achievement and progress.

The results were not positive for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, which received Fs in all possible categories. For the first time, districts are receiving letter grades for overall categories on the report cards, in addition to the components within them. The guide to the report cards notes that the state’s assessments are “in transition” and urges the results to be reviewed with that in mind. Districts, teachers, principals and students currently have “safe harbor” from many consequences of the tests, giving them time to adjust following the transition to new math and English language arts tests in the 2014-2015 school year.

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Book an ad and submit an article in this upcoming custom supplement by Crain Content Studio – Cleveland in conjunction with Crain’s 52 FastestGrowing Companies.

Issue date: November 14 Ad close: September 19

A NEW MARKET?

Athersys Inc. received permission to begin testing its adult stem cell therapy on stroke patients in Japan — a country that could be key to the Cleveland company’s future. If MultiStem performs well in the Japanese clinical trial, regulators there will give Athersys and its commercialization partner, Healios K.K., permission to begin selling the therapy in Japan, CEO Gil Van Bokkelen stated in an email message. That approval would give Athersys access to “a multibillion dollar market opportunity” while also “redefining stroke care in Japan,” he stated. The trial will be run by Healios, a young Japanese company that in January bought exclusive rights to commercialize MultiStem for ischemic stroke patients in Japan. If the trial goes well, it also could help Athersys win approval from regulators in other countries.

Advertising Information: Nicole Mastrangelo 216.771.5158 nmastrangelo@crain.com

PA G E 10

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Opinion Personal View

Economic growth, not population growth, will drive Cleveland’s comeback

By RICHEY PIIPARINEN

Bigger is often perceived as better. For regions experiencing population loss, then, the collective response is framed through the lens of what’s wrong. That is, Cleveland shrinks because it’s lacking, and thus people flee.

The solution to shrinkage is varied, such as the attraction of immigrants. Yet there’s little evidence local strategies can reverse population decline, particularly when it’s driven by macroeconomics, like deindustrialization in Cleveland.

Still, absent in the “grow or die” lens is whether population growth is even a sound metric of regional well-being. In a 2012 study called the “Relationship Between Growth and Prosperity in the 100 Largest U.S. Metropolitan Areas” in the Economic Development Quar- Percentage of Greater terly, the author examined rates of Cleveland’s workforce unemployment, poverty and income with an advanced growth across the nation. The study degree, according to a found that the slowest growing met- recent Cleveland State ros outperformed the fastest growing University report. in every category and averaged $8,455 more in per capita personal income.

“Fast-growing metro areas may be viewed as being prosperous simply Percentage of Greater because people are moving to them,” Cleveland’s workforce the author notes, “but the data show with an advanced that these fastest-growing areas end degree in 2000. up with lower levels of prosperity.”

In Ohio, a similar dynamic is playing out when comparing Cleveland and Columbus. While the Columbus metro’s population is nearing Cleveland’s, the average income of a Greater Cleveland worker, $47,000, is greater than one in Columbus, $45,000, according to data by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

This is despite the fact the regions’ incomes were equal a decade ago.

A driver of the metro’s income growth has been the change in the composition of the workforce from lesser- to higher-skilled. A recent report by the Center for Population Dynamics at Cleveland State University found that 17.8% of Greater Cleveland’s workforce has an advanced degree, up from 10.6% in 2000.

This combination of increased wealth and productivity with attendant population loss has been dubbed “growth without growth” by the Brookings Institution.

At this moment in the region’s redevelopment, then, the demographic factors driving the region can be categorized as quality over quantity, with the goal of increasing the region’s knowledge economy jobs to a point where a multiplier effect takes hold — as every high-skilled job created five additional jobs in the local economy, be it a carpenter, barber or bartender.

In this respect, economic growth is the cause of (not the effect of ) population growth. “The successful economic development program is one that creates new jobs,” explains one scholar. “The new jobs tend to stimulate growth as people move into the area seeking to take advantage of the new employment opportunities.”

So, what affects job growth? One factor in particular is important: levels of educational attainment. Locally, one demographic group excels in this regard — Cleveland’s immigrants.

Cleveland is now one of the top metros in the nation for most educated immigrants. According to recent Census data, the metro ranks eighth out of the largest 40 metros in the percent of SEE GROWTH, PAGE 12

17.8%

Editorial

Bad profits

10.6%

these institutions’ marketing gimmicks and The recent closure of ITT Tech — a jugger- Of course, not all take note of the bevy of flexible nonprofit naut in the for-profit education space — was options in Northeast Ohio. A nonprofit edua win for students and, more broadly speak- for-profit education cation, of course, comes at a far more reaing, taxpayers. The school, like many of its sonable price, though we realize it still can counterparts in the predatory, for-profit ed- options are inherently be out of reach for many. ucation space, saddled its students with inevil. Trade schools — Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, surmountable debt (born on the back of taxthe business community should outright repayers) often with little to show for their truck driving schools, ject these institutions. We’re not asking work, assuming they even graduated. business leaders to be selective in how they Of course, the school’s closure left thou- for example — have a embrace the free market. What we’re calling sands of Ohioans enrolled in ITT’s programs role in society. We’re for is support of ethical institutions. And in a lurch. But thankfully, as Crain’s reporter Rachel Abbey McCafferty detailed last week, taking objection to the we’re not just calling on hiring managers and the C-suite but also developers and many of the region’s fine nonprofit instituproperty owners willing to sell space to ortions, particularly the community colleges, large diploma mills preying on young people lookare opening their doors to the displaced stuthat put unsuspecting ganizations ing to better themselves. dents so they can continue their path toFor the most part, many of the for-profit ward a more prosperous future. students under the options in Northeast Ohio have shuttered.

Over the last eight years, the Obama adThe University of Phoenix a few years back ministration has been especially hard on the illusion that they’re its physical locations in the region in for-profit education sector. But given the receiving a respectable closed favor of focusing on its online business. On a possibility of a Donald Trump victory in Nosmaller scale, Chancellor University — what vember, the current administration appears education. was once known as Myers University, a to be ratcheting up its oversight of these inCleveland institution that in some form had existed for 165 stitutions in the waning days of the Obama presidency. After years — folded a few years after converting to a for-profit enterall, Trump himself dipped his own toes in the for-profit educaprise. tion realm with Trump University (and we know how that The region’s nonprofit educational sphere is still imperfect. turned out).

The cost of a public education is rising at an unsustainable rate, Of course, not all for-profit education options are inherently and our nonprofit institutions need to do more to control their evil. Trade schools — truck driving schools, for example — have cost structures. Moreover, they’re not terribly adept at keeping a role in society. We’re taking objection to the large diploma pace with the rapidly changing needs of industry. mills that put unsuspecting students under the illusion that What’s clear is that the concept of profits over people never they’re receiving a respectable education. works. A lopsided investment in marketing and the classroom That said, the onus shouldn’t just be on the government to only spells trouble in overcoming our greatest challenge: develtemper these predatory institutions.

On the most fundamental level, students should wise up to oping tomorrow’s workforce.

Publisher and Editor: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Managing Editor:

Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)

Sections editor:

Timothy Magaw (tmagaw@crain.com)

Contact Crain’s:

216-522-1383

Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited. Send letters to Crain’s Cleveland Business, 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113, or by emailing letters@crain.com. Please include your complete name and city from which you are writing, and a telephone number for fact-checking purposes.

Sound off: Send a Personal View for the opinion page to emcintyre@crain.com.

Please include a telephone number for verification purposes.

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Personal View

Rising above millennial stereotypes

By JOSH WOMACK

in the job you have. A pleasant demeanor and responsiveness go a long way. Hit the deadlines quicker than expected, send helpful links to colleagues and keep the communication open.

When millennials are looking for other work, there’s a tendency to bury your head in the computer or to isolate yourself from your present environment. Continue to show up, stay late and give effort to your current employer who helps you keep the lights on.

The word millennial gets a bad rap. Most of the time, it’s associated with entitlement, selfies and a me-first attitude. For those reading this in the 18-34 year-old age range, there is hope.

We’ve grown up with technology that gives us instant gratification. The likes and retweets come pouring, and we love it. As a millennial and young professional, you can start stockpiling real-life likes with small acts of kindness.

Call the people who Here are five millennial stereotypes and how you can rise above still like to be called. them: Like your mom. If it’s

4) Never picks up the phone: Most young professionals prefer to text or meet in person for happy hour or lunch. A phone call is that weird in-between place that’s slowly becoming extinct.

1) Me, Me, Me: With Facebook, your buddy from high Here’s your chance to shine.

Twitter and Instagram, self-promoCall the people who still like to be tion and selfies are constantly in school who has two called. Like your mom. If it’s your your face. Your social media habits kids and limited free buddy from high school who has are how others perceive you. You two kids and limited free time, a can build followers, but you can also time, a text check-in text check-in is fine. If somebody build character in your workplace. takes the time to call you and leave Buy a different coworker coffee is fine. a voicemail, give him or her a call once every two weeks. When you back even if it’s a two-minute conversation. Phone see what people spend money on, you can see what calls still hold value with the older generation. they value. Value the people you work with every day and treat them to something that they’ll remember 5) Value of hard work: Millennials are hardwired and that won’t break your bank. with different skills. Older generations are probably handier when it comes to changing the oil or fixing a 2) Too focused on technology: For a corporate leaky sink (I’m generalizing here, but you get the point). job, you obviously will be in front of your computer.

The skills their parents taught them were more hands Mix that with the time you spend looking at your on, whereas our generation grew up with the computer. phone and your day becomes all screens.

Spend time with an older relative or coworker and Take 10-15 minutes and engage a coworker in converexplain technology to them. If you’re a social media sation (as long as you’re not interrupting them when strategist, open up Google Analytics and give them an they’re obviously busy). If you want to start smaller, just overview. The disconnect may be that the older generget up and stretch your legs. When you’re walking down the hallway, be the first to say hello, smile and hold eye ation doesn’t understand the mental grind that you go contact. This sounds so elementary, but so many of us through. Give a few minutes of your time, and they’ll head straight to our computers. A recent article said beappreciate the respect and begin to understand how your world works. Then take a selfie together. ing likable is about being accessible. So true.

Just kidding!

3) Impatient job-hoppers: This is a tricky one as opportunities are more visible than ever with LinkeJosh Womack is a copywriter for Progressive Insurance dIn, Indeed and even your friends shooting you a and head writer for Laugh Staff. He wrote this piece for quick text about a recent opening. We all have that the Crain’s young professional blog. If you are a young inclination that the grass is greener somewhere else. professional interested in submitting a blog post, If you are looking to make a job switch, be present contact Michelle Sustar at msustar@crain.com.

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immigrants with a bachelor’s or higher (41.7%), just behind Washington, D.C., but ahead of Seattle. When it comes to the percent of immigrants with a graduate or professional degree (22.3%), Cleveland ranks sixth.

The metro’s immigrants also are increasingly wealthy. In 2009, there were more employed Greater Cleveland immigrants making less than $25,000 a year (25.2%) than over $75,000 a year (20.9%). By 2014, those numbers have reversed, with nearly 26% of immigrants now making over $75,000. The vast majority of these immigrants are employed in the “eds and meds” and advanced manufacturing.

This is a much different picture than Donald Trump’s view of America.

Trump envisions building walls so immigrant labor can’t drag cities down via a glut of low-wage work. But the opposite is true in Cleveland.

Immigrants are creating jobs and birthing new firms. This is not demagoguery. This is reality. And it should be a welcome one in a region that has had to fight its way back into global relevance.

Now, how do we catalyze this high-impact group? Again, the focus should be on economic growth as opposed to population growth.

Here, “welcoming” doesn’t mean rolling out a banner that says “Come to Cleveland. Grow our headcount and fill our vacant houses.” This is less a strategy than a projection of desperation. Instead, we must welcome through engaging those here but not necessarily with us.

“I was very active in London. Here, it is somehow very difficult to know what is happening, who is in charge and who to contact if I want to participate,” noted recent arrival Mythili Ramakrishna Bhat, an Indian-born dentist who graduated from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

There are thousands of Mythilis in Cleveland, or those educated, networked and hardworking but who lack a civic support system that can tap them in locally. Through the nonprofit Global Cleveland, this can and must change.

But it will only change if we understand that population growth is an end, not a means. Only by dropping the Rust Belt fixation on getting people from “there” to “here” will we stop overlooking the people here that can get you to there.

Richey Piiparinen is the director for the Center for Population Dynamics at Cleveland State University.

Re: Sizzling Lakewood housing market As a near-lifelong resident of Lakewood, I can attest to the market. We recently bought here (after five years of renting) and we’re shocked at how quickly properties are going. We almost didn’t get to see the house we are now in and we had to go well above our initial ceiling (though still affordable).

We’ve also been told we could sell our house now for $20K+ more than we paid two months ago. I think it reflects well on Lakewood. — Willis We sold our Lakewood home in July. It was on the market for nearly three months. The comment about being updated was the challenge. We were told our kitchen needed at least $25K of updates and we had no AC. A friend said that folks have watched too many TV shows about dream houses and flipping. Our home was 107 years old. As it was, we got our once-revised asking price.

Thanks for the comments on Lakewood’s growth and renewal. However, the hospital’s closure and upcoming vote may yet change that story dramatically. — Dave

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS l SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2016 l PAGE 13

Home Savings preps for future with growth today

By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile

Expect even bigger things from Youngstown’s Home Savings and Loan Co. in the coming months.

The banking unit of United Community Financial Corp. (UCFC) has come quite a long way since its stock tanked to a paltry 51 cents in the throes of the last recession, largely on the heels of a narrow lending portfolio that relied too much on residential loans.

Earlier this month, the company announced that it’s buying a $320 million-asset bank in North Cantonbased Premier Bank & Trust, the banking subsidiary of Ohio Legacy Corp. It’s the bank’s first acquisition in 14 years.

In the overall banking sector, it’s a relatively small acquisition.

But beyond the inherent benefits of the merger, this acquisition shows the bank is ready to make its presence better known in Northeast Ohio’s competitive and fragmented banking market by executing on a growth strategy that wouldn’t have come to fruition without years of work to truly evolve Home Savings from a floundering thrift to a diversified and well-capitalized community bank.

“The future is looking bright,” said UCFC president and CEO Gary Small.

The $40.3 million acquisition, expected to close in March 2017, will elevate Home Savings to just shy of $2.5 billion in total assets. It also establishes a physical presence for the bank in the Akron/Canton region, though — Home Savings absorbs Premier’s four branches comprising two in North Canton, one in Fairlawn and another in St. Clairsville — in addition to restoring fee-generating wealth management and trust services via a business Premier operates in Wooster.

UCFC sold off its wealth management division while keeping itself afloat in the recession.

The timing, meanwhile, makes perfect sense considering the volatility in the market right now coming from the recent merger between Huntington Bancshares and Akron’s only (former) hometown headquartered bank in FirstMerit Corp.

“There is still a huge market share presence with the new Huntington,” said Charlie Crowley, managing director at Boenning & Scattergood Inc. “But banks like UCFC and First Commonwealth (Bank) … feel they can get a toehold and compete effectively for some customers in light of the potential for some fallout.”

First Commonwealth, based in Indiana, Pa., acquired 13 bank branches from Huntington mostly in the Canton market that the Department of Justice required the company to sell off ahead of its FirstMerit acquisition in order to alleviate antitrust issues and break up Huntington’s control of the market.

The shakeup in Akron spells opportunity for surrounding banks large and small.

“We’ve always been interested in that market,” said Small, referencing the Akron-Canton market where the bank currently had about $100 mil-

“This does solidify you as a legitimate buyer in the marketplace.

Community banks who might be in that mindset in the next couple months or couple years, we’ve gotten on their radar screens very clearly.”

— Gary Small, UCFC president and CEO lion in loans prior to the merger announcement. However, he said “a finer point is put on it when something like (the FirstMerit sale) happens. There will be disruption, and there will be both customers … and talented individuals who will be in play.

“We could never get more out of it as we could currently.”

Small has said the bank is targeting an asset size between $3 billion to $5 billion to achieve a comfortable level of scale. With organic growth expectations tacked on to this acquisition alone, the bank could surpass $3 billion by the end of next year — or, be “darn close to it,” at least, Small said.

Notably, the market likes Home Savings these days. As of last Thursday, Sept. 15, the company’s stock was three cents shy of $7 a share — an eight-year high — reflecting an uptick of about 7% following the merger announcement. Several analysts, including Boenning & Scattergood Inc., are viewing the stock as an outperformer.

And there are no plans to stop growth here. Indeed, the merger is a likely harbinger of more deals to come.

Small told investors recently the bank has additional M&A plans and strong capital levels to support those, which could facilitate another one or two deals of a similar look and feel to Premier.

What’s more, there’s a sense that making the Premier deal positions Home Savings as an attractive partner for other banks who may be looking to sell.

Small said that following the Premier announcement, he fielded fresh calls from interested banks.

“This does solidify you as a legitimate buyer in the marketplace,” he said. “Community banks who might be in that mindset in the next couple months or couple years, we’ve gotten on their radar screens very clearly.”

As Home Savings settles in with its Premier acquisition, talks for other deals won’t slow down even though it’s most likely another deal won’t happen until the Premier deal is closer to integration.

How this acquisition positions the bank not only for future margin growth but as a dealmaker through the Northeast Ohio corridor is the real story here.

“We have our eyes on tomorrow,” Small said. “We don’t assume anything. But if we continue down the same path, we will continue to see the success we’ve had continue.”

Home Savings’ stock is at an eight-year high. (Contributed photo)

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS l SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2016 l PAGE 15

MEETING & EVENT PLANNER

Robin Heinrich, production manager of the Community Arts Festival of the Cleveland Museum of Art, produces some chalk art on the square. (Marc Golub for Crain’s)

A renewed Public Square becomes Cleveland’s hippest events venue

By MARK OPREA clbfreelancer@crain.com

Roughly two months after a renovated Public Square reopened in late June, Felton Thomas, director of the Cleveland Public Library, lead a dozen Clevelanders on a Walk and Talk with the spirit of a land surveyor. As the caravan circled the esplanade, passed stretching yoga practitioners and resting workers sun bathing, Thomas, a stately man in a polo shirt and a Indians “C” cap, made a hard-hitting point about the square’s appeal.

“People are starting to realize that they want meeting places in their communities,” Thomas said.

“They’re asking, ‘How can we bring mass groups of people out from other communities to see how many amazing things we have going on?”

Standing in front of the bronze statue of former mayor Tom L. Johnson, Thomas opens up the floor.

Artist Wendy Mahon of Parma brightens up a tree base during a recent arts event on the square.

Organizations of all stripes are hosting events on the square following its $50 million makeover.

Richard Trojanski, council president of Maple Heights, agrees wholeheartedly.

“The development that’s happening here?” he said. “It’s on our radar.

It’s putting it on our consciousness, ‘How do we want to start reinvesting in our city?’”

Reinvestment is exactly what those behind Public Square’s transformation say is its lasting promise.

Of the $50 million spent to make over the central park, a small portion was left over for maintenance and programming for the rest of 2016.

Launched almost immediately after the July 30th opening, a five-person committee — a branch of the Group Plan Commission — was created to manage ongoing events hosted on its ground, dubbed Public Square Cleveland. From blues bands to bocce ball to Paul McCartney pregames, the overarching mission of the group was not just to entertain passersby with free music, host occasional food trucks. It was much

more: to create a continual, substantial draw back to Cleveland’s downtown core, its heart.

“You can’t exist if your heart is failing,” Thomas said, capping his speech that afternoon. “A strong city is built upon having a strong heart.

And sentimentally, people still have great love for downtown.”

An original purpose Though the story is similar to those of other American cities, the tale of Public Square as a hub of activity is centuries old. New England in design, marked first by Moses Cleaveland’s surveying party, Public Square was born in 1796 as the New Connecticut Land Co.’s basis for what eventually became Cleveland.

Populated mostly by chatting agrarian types, the square began as a four-quadrant area for Jacksonian Era debate, a front yard for residents of the old Dunham Hotel. As decades SEE SQUARE, PAGE 16

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MEETING & EVENT PLANNER

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Public Square changes wildly depending on the organization hosting an event. The Cleveland Museum of Art recently hosted a chalk fest. (Marc Golub for Crain’s)

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SQUARE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

went by, the square’s role as city center increased. It was used as the main greeting space for returning Civil War vets, where Abe Lincoln’s body was displayed, where electric streetlights were debuted, and the one-time host of the infamous 1986 Balloonfest, in which a reported billion or so helium-filled balloons were sent skyward (a colorful spectacle that resulted in sizable lawsuits).

And these days, months after debates and protests broke out during the Republican National Convention in a beautified square, its initial function is as pivotal to its popularity as ever. “I see the square as it was originally meant to be,� said Sanaa Julien, head of Public Square Cleveland. “A gathering place, a neighborhood, and center for public speech and debate.�

A seasoned marketing professional, Julien appears to be an ace director in Public Square’s pep team and programming dream team. Influenced greatly by the GPC’s vision, Julien’s inspiration from other American spaces — like in New York or Chicago — makes her a kind of curator for a venue that’s never really boasted one before.

With her “very strategic� planning, Julien’s tactic is to draw folks to the square not just via quantity of events, but more by their diversity.

All of her upcoming lineups fit into a preplanned, seven-category system, from Arts to Recreation, while still

“providing tranquility and open space enjoyment without it becoming too over programmed.� Too dense, she said, and it can backfire.

What that magic number of events can do for a city is what, in Julien’s mind, makes Public Square a beacon for the rest of Greater Cleveland.

While neighborhoods like Collinwood and Shaker Heights are taking the hint, businesses like Melt or Key Bank are investing in property or partnerships — undeniably an effect of the square’s revelry. As per Julien’s belief, the more people downtown, the more engaging in business, the more money for the city. Her role? To be the backbone of

the content.

And risk-taking is necessary — “educated guess experiments,� in Julien terms. Some events, yoga for example, started with five or six members, grew slowly into two dozen. Others are more of a gamble.

To carry on a tradition of Guinness World Record-making, Julien, hearing about the 2016 World Yo-Yo Championship back in August, thought she’d ride the wave of excitement, and weave the event into her own lineup. Public Square Cleveland purchased two thousand Duncan Spin- and Tetra-tops solely for the occasion. “We had about 1,800 people show

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up to yo-yo on a Saturday night,” she said. “Who would have thought in the past, before the renovation, to bring their families down here to yoyo?”

The lasting effect Although Public Square — and Cleveland as a whole — has endured one of its most successful summers in recent memory, its back-to-back event success isn’t guaranteed for the long run. The few million dollars the Group Plan Commission allotted and grants from arts organizations only cover so many Pride Fests or Walk and Talks. It’s why Julien is constantly searching out potential investors to support future programs, pining for a sustainable model for long-term funding. Maybe, she said, it can be like 3CDC, the Cincinnati development corporation that sources $600,000 annually from parking garage fees. Or a Quicken Loans-like partnership, like in Detroit. Whatever the source is, Julien is confident surrounding business will have a part to play.

Walking through the square on a clear-sky day, it’s clear Julien and Public Square Cleveland only need to do so much to prop up its popularity. The square, to a point, is its own draw. Any day of the week, one can stop by to nap on Overlook Hill, watch the kids hop on the plastic frogs and snails in the spitting fountain. Nearby parents snap photos, some barefoot in the water. Others munch Super Noodles outdoors at the adjacent Rebol cafe.

One of those couples is John and Habeebah Grimes, Shaker Heights residents who took a trip to Public Square with their two boys for the first time since the renovation began in 2014.

“Now we’re coming up to other cities’ standards,” John said, sitting around the fountain. “It’s putting us on the map. Now, if only the Indians could win one.”

When asked about Public Square’s winter events, the soon-to-be installed ice rink, John added, “Maybe my kids, yeah. But me? Ain’t no way you catching me on skates.”

Like Julien says, it’s finding the perfect balance. Some come for the arts, others for the sake of their children.

At a mid-September chalk fest sponsored by the Cleveland Museum of Art, a half-dozen artists sketched for hours, colorizing the grey pavement near the fountain.

Wendy Mahon, an art educator from Trinidad who spent hours in the sun doodling around a tree, said that if it wasn’t for both the square’s open area and the pep behind its events, she might not rave so much about it in the first place.

The square’s fitting atmosphere makes it the perfect setting to create. More so than where she lives in Parma.

“There’s nothing like this there,” she said, sketching. “That is, a public gathering space to do chalk. In the future, maybe, yeah. But all this activity going on here in public, this is why I love Cleveland.”

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Q & A: Marcie Goodman Executive director, Cleveland International Film Festival After 13 years of good grub and intimate chats, the Cleveland International Film Festival is rolling the credits on its Film Feasts series. Instead, it will launch CIFF Presentations — a series designed to connect larger audiences year-round with independent films and filmmakers. The series kicks off Sept. 29 at the Capitol Theatre with an evening screening of the best of the short films from CIFF40. On Nov. 5, CIFF will host an encore presentation of the most celebrated film from CIFF40, “Romeo is Bleeding,” at The Breen Center for the Performing Arts. Also on Feb. 10 at the Breen Center, CIFF will host its annual Get Shorty program, which lets audiences preview some of the short films to be screened at CIFF41. Crain’s recently chatted with Goodman about the change, the future of CIFF and what we can expect with CIFF41, which takes place March 29-April 9 at Tower City Cinemas. — Timothy Magaw So why kill the Film Feasts and go with this sort of program?

The film feasts were fantastic and great fun, but after 13 years, we thought maybe we should do something that focuses a bit more on our mission. Each Film Feast had a name of a movie as the title of an event but really had nothing to do with film. Most of them tried to introduce our audience to the community.

So, this means fewer events?

We usually had 10 or 12 Film Feasts, but with Presentations, right now we have three scheduled. It’ll be less labor intensive for our small staff. The presentations that are scheduled accommodate a much larger audience than our Film Feasts would, which would max out at about 50 people. At the Capitol Theatre, we can host about 400 people. We’re probably reaching more people with fewer events.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS l SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2016 l PAGE 19

Why is it important to keep in touch with your audience throughout the year?

The film festival is 12 days out of the year. We like to have consistent awareness that we are a year-round operation — that was one of the reasons behind the Film Feasts. We want to have a yearround presence with Presentations. But all roads lead to the festival, so all of the films have been in or will be shown at the film festival.

People have demanded encore presentations for a long time, correct?

Absolutely. We’re bringing back our Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award winner (“Romeo is Bleeding”), and we’ve been asking for years to do this. It’s going to be fantastic to work with those filmmakers again. Depending on the films’ availabilities each year, hopefully this will be an annual thing people can count on.

So, with CIFF41, what can we expect?

Our focus is always on better, never bigger. We always work hard on making the festival a better experience for our audience year after year, But sometimes bigger goes hand in hand. Moving ahead, we always try to do some new things. We’ll have some new programs, but I can’t get into those yet.

There’s a new landlord at Tower City Cinemas given the sale to a Dan Gilbert-led venture. How’s that going?

We’ve had great meetings with our new landlords. The new owners have been positive and supportive. The sale happened before last year’s festival — the week before we opened — and the new owners took advantage of it and experienced the festival from the sidelines. They’re getting to know us, and we’re getting to know them. So far, so good.

Actually, so far, so great.

Your organization throws one of Cleveland’s best parties of the year. What would advice would you share with other event planners?

No matter how hard you plan, there’s so much you can’t control — and you have to be OK with that. We’re very good with attention to detail and at thinking through every possible scenario.

But more than anything, the key to our success is customer service. That’s the most important thing about this event or any event. If you see a film at the festival you don’t like, chances are you’ll come back to try another. If you have an unpleasant experience with staff or a volunteer, we’ll maybe never see you again. Kindness, grace and gratitude — we talk about those things a lot.

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MEETING & EVENT PLANNER ADVISER: Todd Schwartz

In 2017, let’s scrap the checklist and start the partnership With the Republican National Convention now in our wake, let’s also put behind the title “event coordinator” and instead embrace “event partner” with regards to how events are conducted.

Long gone are the days that event coordinators were hired as logistical personnel for organizations planning their parties or training programs in the conference room down the hall. Today, these professionals can bring so much more value.

Local companies, associations and nonprofits need to embrace these hardworking professionals as their strategic business growth partners. After all, a well-executed event can bring growth to an organization — and I’m not just talking about through their holiday shindigs.

So, what can an event coordinator do to bring more to the table than managing company travel? Name tags? Ordering promotional pieces? A lot.

Todd Schwartz is a certified meeting planner and president and founder of The Professional Planner Group, a full-service, Cleveland meeting, event and incentive management company.

Organizations must look for program managers who multitask and problem solve versus event coordinators who handle more than just logistical needs. They come with certifications, experience, and — most importantly — passion and desire to do more then just send out invites and coordinate company gatherings.

It doesn’t matter if they are seasoned or green. If they have the desire companies should harness it and expand their breadth of skills.

With the rise of technology — especially real time communications and the everchanging social media landscape — there is no reason companies shouldn’t challenge their status quo of having their event representative do more.

Now it’s time to have a discussion.

With the rise of technology — especially real time communications and the ever-changing social media landscape — there is no reason companies shouldn’t challenge their status quo of having their event representative do more. Once the event needs are communicated, strategize and come up with a 30-60-90 day plan and implement accordingly.

Use your event coordinator as a strategic partner in your programming needs — not as simply a task master. Collaborate in cross-team environments. Don’t hand your

Innovation Center

event professional a ‘to-do’ list — instead work with him or her to troubleshoot the event to get more profits, awareness or whatever you’re trying to achieve out of it.

Next, define your event — and define it again. Spell it out, dumb it down and explain it at its most basic level so that there is no question about your event. Everyone will then be on the same page and expectations can be set acordingly. I’ve been personally involved in many corporate and nonprofit scenarios where the event/meeting/conference was identified to be “X” but once on board, it was quickly interpreted to be “Y” if not “Z.” When defining your program, it’s important to think about the goal, the stakeholders, the budget and sponsorships (if applicable). In addition, are there mandates, policies or guidelines — corporate or otherwise — that need to be implemented?

Procurement responsibilities? It’s also important to identify early where there’s an opportunity to develop a new or tweak an existing strategy.

Are your higher-ups willing to em-

brace change with impactful strategic mapping and event management? Or are they just creating the vision and looking for an event planner to handle a checklist? If they are looking for a change, it’s critical they are comfortable turning the reins over to an experienced and trusted events professional and don’t fall back into the old and often tired ways of doing things.

Growth necessitates change. This happens in every industry, and event management is no different. As your company changes and grows, so should event strategy and implementation. Strategic planning can lead to the success of all involved.

No matter whether you’re a global corporation or a small nonprofit, you have to work well with your vendors when mapping out your event programming. Everyone wants value. But it’s important that everyone also needs to make money. Caterers, hotels, destination management companies, entertainers, speakers and equipment suppliers play critical roles in a successful event. If your company or event stakeholder treats them poorly, relationships are strained and bad reputations can spread.

Lastly, communication is key. Be open and transparent when working with everyone, and you and your team will get to the finish line collectively. Your goals concerning profits, marketing, relationship building or another objective will be realized if you treat others with respect, communicate and create a strong event partnership for all involved.

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Century-old City Club rolls with changes

By DOUGLAS J. GUTH

The City Club no longer restricts its programs to its headquarters on Euclid avenue. The institution hosts events throughout the city, including along the Cuyahoga River. (Donn R. Nottage)

clbfreelancer@crain.com

For over a century, The City Club of Cleveland has engaged the community as a “Citadel of Free Speech.”

However, a venerable history of civil and civic dialogue doesn’t mean standing still.

City Club is evolving in how it engages its audience. That shift includes more and varied programming, robust social media integration and hosting programs at venues outside its Euclid Avenue headquarters. The changes reflect a strategic plan adopted this summer that emphasizes increased outreach over an all-encompassing organizational focus.

Dan Moulthrop, named City Club CEO in 2013, said the reconstituted mission also harkens to the organization’s founding purpose as an impartial place for debates that benefit the wider community.

“Learning something new and asking questions is still sacred and fundamental, but there’s no reason to put limits on it,” said Moulthrop, formerly the founding host of ideastream’s public affairs program, “The Sound of Ideas.” “Those conversations need to resonate beyond our four walls and beyond the boundaries of the city of Cleveland.”

City Club is facing a reality where it needs a dynamic program portfolio to attract a diverse audience and garner fresh revenue streams in addition to long-standing membership and sponsorship dollars. Over the last fiscal year, the club hosted 130 programs, as compared to the 80 to 100 events it averaged before 2013. Panels or single-speaker programs may draw only 50 people, but it’s those smaller events that make the larger happenings possible, Moulthrop said.

“Everything we put on the calendar we ask, ‘Does this advance a conversation we’re already having?’” he said. “But we have to figure out a way to balance the budget with big and small ticket sellers.”

In recent years, City Club has enhanced its connections with civic and community entities, with resulting forums taking place at non-traditional venues. For example, an Oct. 4 talk on U.S.-Mexico relations hosted by the Happy Dog at Gordon Square will see City Club partner with the Cleveland Council on World Affairs and other groups.

The pivot in modus operandi meets a potential audience where it lives, while keeping to a legacy sustained since City Club weekly forums began in 1912.

“There’s not much science to it; you ring the gong and hope 50% of the program is questions taken from the audience,” said Moulthrop. “You can do that at Happy Dog, Market Garden Brewery or on Public Square.

City Club can happen in a lot of different places.”

Expanding its reach Diversity in programming is another touchstone of the organization’s evolution. Having more women and people of color at the podium helps belay the “too old and too white” reputation that has at times described City Club.

“We’re shifting programming to better reflect the community we serve, which is the entirety of Greater Cleveland,” Moulthrop said. “Having conversations on important issues like racial equity is at the top of the list. When you program more young people or people of color to speak, audiences that look like those people tend to show up.”

Though the organization doesn’t survey age of its members, anecdotally, at least, that figure has dropped significantly, said the organization CEO. City Club restructured its pricing suite from $200 annually for standard membership to half that number. Students pay $25 yearly.

“We partner with many young professional organizations, especially the Cleveland Young Professional Senate, and not only do we see them come through the door, we see their names among our members,” Moulthrop said. “We literally lowered the barriers for entry because we want to make it as easy as possible for people who care about the issues to join others who care.”

City Club partner PNC convenes on programming that senior vice presi-

Happy Dog is a regular spot for City Club events. (Donn R. Nottage)

dent and managing director Kristen Baird Adams said must continue to reach new communities while broadening participants’ horizons.

“City Club has always played a role in putting together forums on topics relevant to the region, nation

and world,” said Baird Adams. “I’ve seen that programming become more diverse, with the intention of reaching diverse communities. That work is never done.”

Outreach also means engaging technology, noted Moulthrop. City

Club captures all events in high definition for later posting on YouTube.

Forums are available in podcast form as well, while older talks are being digitized and archived for future consumption.

Social media has become City Club’s major outlet for content distribution. The club’s Twitter feed, currently at over 13,500 followers, allows audience members to share hashtags and opinions even during live events.

“When doing digital content you need as big a footprint as possible,” Moulthrop said. “In the 1940s questions would go out by phone. To accept questions via Twitter through a streaming audience makes us more relevant to more people.”

Ultimately, City Club will continue to address the day’s most important topics, helmed by an engaged leadership unafraid of change.

“When I meet people passionate about issues, I say ‘This is my tribe and this is what City Club is all about,’” Moulthrop said. “We are all passionate nerds about what makes this community work better.”

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

MEETING & EVENT PLANNER

Inspiration for the office party planner BOSS-PRO-Karting’s cars can reach speeds of up to 50 mph. (Contributed photo)

T

he office party planner — often the person charged with team-building activities — is a thankless job, but someone has to do it. After all, it never hurts to build a little camaraderie in the office given that employee engagement could always improve. According to recent study from Gallup, for example, the percentage of U.S. workers considered engaged in their jobs averaged a dismal 32%. The majority of employees — 50.8% — were considered “not engaged” while another 17.2% were “actively disengaged.”

So, we at Crain’s thought we’d throw out a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing again. Here are some options, al beit a few offbeat ones, which might be a bit more appealing than a lame potluck in the office conference room. — Timothy Magaw

TREAT YOUR GUESTS TO THE EVENT OF A LIFETIME

Hospitality@ProFootballHOF.com | 330-456-8207 ProFootballHOF.com/host-at-the-hall

Step on it: If you’ve got a high-octane crew, perhaps set them loose on powerful go-karts than can reach speeds of up to 50 mph. Yes, it’s safe and legal. Located at 18301 Brookpark Road near state Route 237 in Cleveland, the brand new BOSS PRO-Karting offers the perfect facilities for corporate outings with conference rooms, catering and a racetrack. Elements of corporate training and team building, the company

boasts, are blended together around the hallmarks of both business and racing: discipline, teamwork, speed and creativity. www.bossprokarting.com; 216-938-6335 Lego have some fun: In many parent-child relationships, Legos can be the great equalizer. The same could be said for the workplace. Bricks 4 Biz (which also organizes kid-friendSEE PARTY, PAGE 24

In search of ‘Who to Watch in Education’ candidates

Send your suggestions by noon on Monday, Oct. 17.

Crain’s final “Who to Watch” section of 2016 — “Who to Watch in Education” — is scheduled for publication on Dec. 5. It will highlight up-and-comers and innovators in Northeast Ohio’s education sector, and we’re looking for suggestions.

If you think you know who will be among those leading the Northeast Ohio education sector of the future, drop an email to sections editor Timothy Magaw at tmagaw@crain.com. Please put “Who to Watch in Education” in the subject line.

Quite simply, the people featured in this section are working to make their mark in this field — whether it’s in the classroom, in an administrative role or behind the scenes.

Send your suggestions no later than noon on Monday, Oct. 17. Please include the person’s name, position, and a few paragraphs explaining why he or she stands out.

There are no hard and fast requirements for this section, other than that the candidate needs to exhibit the kind of potential that makes him or her someone to watch in the field of education.

20160919-NEWS--23-NAT-CCI-CL_--

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20160919-NEWS--24-NAT-CCI-CL_--

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

MEETING & EVENT PLANNER

Bond over beers on a boat with BrewBoat CLE. (Contributed photo)

PARTY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22

Everything you need for a great meeting is right in front of you.

SM

ly programs as Bricks 4 Kidz) in Westlake offers custom team-building activities — during a lunch time break or even a half-day seminar — involving the world’s favorite plastic bricks. “It’s non-threatening, it’s fun and it’s universal,” said Janice Buildt of Bricks 4 Biz. “It really taps into your childlike side, and the word ‘Lego’ means ‘play well.’ It’s taking the adult side of that and explores how you can play well in the workplace.” www.bricks4kidz.com; 440-892-0900 Get me out here: If your crew isn’t too claustrophobic, consider letting Escape in 60 in downtown Cleveland lock you in one of its four escape rooms. Depending on your employees’ taste level, consider the company’s Death Row scenario that accommodates up to eight of your employees. The premise: With minutes until your execution and loved ones watching, an opportunity presents itself for your loved ones to save you. You have 60 minutes to stop the execution or be prepared to say your goodbyes.” Eek. www.escapein60.co; 216-307-5444

We’re on a boat: For the livelier crew, consider blending two of Cleveland’s loves: beer and boats.

BrewBoat CLE’s pedal-powered party boat ferries up to 14 guests at a time aboard its two-hour-ish cruises on the Cuyahoga River. The cruises are BYOB and its organizers also encourage attendees to bring snacks and a killer playlist. Hard to peddle?

Not at all, its website proclaims. But no worries, each voyage is helmed by a U.S. Coast Guard certified captain. www.brewcle.com; 440-941-6690 Row, row, row your boat: If the waters of the Cuyahoga are calling but you’re looking for a more intense activity, consider a corporate rowing program led by the Western Reserve Rowing Association. Experienced rowers are, of course, welcome but so are novices. The custom programs include an introduction to rowing class, a tour of the boathouse, practice on some indoor rowing machines and a voyage on the Cuyahoga River. “A lot of the team-building euphemisms you hear all come from rowing, so it’s perfectly suited,” said Megan Patton, director of outreach and adaptive rowing for the WRRA. www.westernreserverowing.com; 216-302-8399

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS l SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2016 l PAGE 25

Party planner app gets boost from county

By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh

A young software app firm has won a Cuyahoga County economic development loan that will help it grow as it pursues a patent that is the foundation of its software that helps restaurateurs, caterers and their potential customers make the right connections.

Called Wheedle, the app vies for the attention of consumers and businesses on either side of transactions involving hospitality searching (such as Yelp), restaurant reservations (think Open Table), Eventbrite (event ticketing) and Groupon (discount promotions).

A consumer planning a night on the town or a future event logs onto Wheedle to find the right place for the occasion. The consumer enters the city and then picks a preferred part of town, a date and time, the number of people involved, how much the consumer and guests plan to spend. Then the consumer picks from a roster of events that now offers the choice of getting drinks, having a meal or needing a private room, catering, VIP bottle service or entertainment.

The app would, for example, allow the father of a groom-to-be to seek bids from restaurants or catering firms for a place that could cater for vegetarians in a specific part of town for a wedding rehearsal dinner at a certain price point.

The software will store a member’s currently booked events and past history on the site.

“The IP (intellectual property) is around both creating the individual request for proposal for such events, but also in allowing the merchant to respond with a custom offer,” said Brian Stein, president of Hospitality Engagement Corp., which has developed Wheedle.

“The specific language of the (patent) filing is a system that broadcasts an event request for proposal to which a merchant (using a) mobile device can selectively respond to and can be customized for the event request for proposal,” Stein said.

The company earns a per person transaction fee from merchants when a consumer accepts an offer from an establishment using Wheedle.

The company has 250 active users in the region and has filled 2,400 requests since going live last year.

“Our plan is to continue scaling up in Cleveland and be selling in Chicago this winter,” Stein said. “At the end of 2017 we hope to be up to scale in Cleveland and Chicago and open two new markets, in New York and San Francisco.”

There are services that consumers can use in those cities for parts of the Wheedle package, Stein said, “but nothing as comprehensive. Those that do compete only go after dinner, or theater tickets or bottle service.”

The company has only two employees, Stein and his partner, CEO J.P. Weston, whose background is in the hospitality industry. But Stein said the company anticipates creating two jobs soon. Its proposal to Cuyahoga County projects the company will create 84 jobs, with a payroll of $2.5 million, over five years.

Flashstarts Inc., a business startup accelerator and venture fund, has taken the young business under its wing.

Flashstarts, housed in Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland, offers young software companies an investment of $25,000 in office space and a variety of mentoring and other services.

“We think they’ve nailed a real opportunity,” said Charles Stack, a cofounder and CEO of Flashstarts.

“The first time I looked at the thing, I said, ‘Oh well, somebody else must be doing this.’ Well, not true, we found after doing the due diligence on the concept.”

Stack said Wheedle allows venue operators to interact with their customers and react to their customers’

needs, unlike Open Table.

The young company is also getting advice from Jumpstart Inc., the Cleveland nonprofit entrepreneurial consulting and investment organization.

“Wheedle’s management team are true subject matter experts and their service is very unique in that it’s valuable to both the consumers who are going out for dinner, drinks and events, as well as the businesses who are trying to engage with those consumers,” said Jon Grimm, a venture partner at JumpStart.

According to the county’s loan proposal, the pair raised at least

$385,000 before seeking the county loan, which runs for four years and has a fixed rate of 5%. The company will make quarterly interest-only payments until the loan comes due or until Hospitality Engagement raises an additional $1.5 million.

The loan is from the county’s North Coast Opportunities Technology Fund, which invests in highgrowth technology companies in Cuyahoga County. The North Coast fund provides low-interest loans of up to $125,000 to help companies create new jobs, attract additional capital or complete specific projects.

Hospitality Engagement meets all three of those criteria, the last because it is working to get its patent.

Since its creation in 2008, the North Coast fund has made $3.6 million in loans to 38 companies. According to the county’s development department, these companies have raised nearly $50 million in additional funding, generating more than $18 million in revenue and creating or retaining more than 140 jobs. It’s part of the county’s Western Reserve Fund, the $100 million financial backing for the county’s five-year economic development plan.

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Selected jams for your next office party

T

hrowing a corporate party? You’ve got the venue, the food and, of course, the drinks. The music selection, however, can be a bit more difficult to pull off. When bringing together a group of people whose interests beyond the office can run the gamut, it can be difficult to craft a crowd-pleasing playlist.

For that, we’ve turned to Ryan Kelly with The East/West Collective, a Cleveland-based DJ company that recently teamed up with Cleveland’s DJ Goodwin to form The Music Faire.

“It’s important to cross as many types and genres as possible, without throwing a fullon dance party,” Kelly said.

“Lots of toe-tappers and lip syncing.” — Timothy Magaw

Ryan Kelly’s Top 10 For the full playlist on Spotify, check out CrainsCleveland.com 1. “Too Much Time On My Hands” by Styx “It’s a toe tapper for sure, and fulfil ls the ‘80s rock dad quota. Any Styx can ful l this requirement, though.”

2. “Philosophy” by Ben Folds Five “It’s just a fun background song with a great rhythm.”

3. “Remember The Time” by Michael Jackson “Throwing MJ in there is a no-brainer. But a known song but not an ultimate dance hit is key.”

Ryan Kelly of The East/West Collective. (The Music Faire)

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4. “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over” by Lenny Kravitz “Another laid back, background song. People wil l lip sync the hel l out of this chorus.”

5. “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World “Arguably one of the best pop songs of al l time.

Nobody dislikes this song.”

6. “Disco 2000” by Pulp “A great song that can cover your ‘I listened to Pulp in the 90s’ quota. Can also use Blur for this.”

7. “Under Pressure” by Queen/ David Bowie “Timeless classic. Another great lip syncer.”

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8. “Since I Left You” by The Avalanches “Let’s be honest, you can put any song by this band on, and it’s just pure background joy.“

9. “Everyday Will Be Like a Holiday”

by William Bell.

“One of my favorite songs and fits anywhere.

Classic R&B vibe with a bril liant beat.”

10. “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder “One of the best toe-tappers. Can’t go wrong with Stevie.”

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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S E P T E M B E R 19 - 2 5 , 2 016

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PA G E 2 7

Business of Life

This Detroit Shoreway home squeezes two bedrooms and plenty of other amenities into its 538 square feet. It’s expected to hit the market for about $119,000. (Contributed photos)

A very, very, very small house

No cats in the yard, but without these tiny homes, life used to be so hard

By LYDIA COUTRE lcoutre@crain.com @LydiaCoutre

Tim Nevits may be one of the only people who would use the term “palatial” to describe his 130-squarefoot home.

But, compared with the 77-squarefoot apartment he had in New York City before moving back to Ohio, the tiny home he has lived in for the past four years offers plenty of space.

“Maybe someday in the future I’ll upgrade to maybe like 200 square feet,” he said. “I could be in this house for the rest of my life and be content.”

For a while, Nevits lived in the only known tiny house in the area. But a couple more have popped up, and a partnership between Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization and Citizens Bank brought two new tiny homes online this year through the Citizens Tiny House Experiment, a housing pilot project to explore the viability of affordable, sustainable, small-scale living.

For Nevits, tiny living has meant better living. Less cleaning, yard work and shopping — given that he doesn’t have space to store much — has cut back on his expenses, allowing him to work fewer hours and dedicate more time to writing.

“Being in a tiny house doesn’t de-

fine my life. It frees my life for other things,” he said.

The newly constructed Detroit Shoreway homes, coming in at 538 square feet, each have two bedrooms, an additional room for guests or a study, a full bath, an open kitchen and living area and room for storage — and they feel surprisingly spacious.

Through a design-and-build agreement with Sutton Builders, Detroit Shoreway Community Develop-

ment Organization and Sutton each owned one of the two homes.

Sutton’s was listed for $149,900 and was on the market for about a month before renting it out. Detroit Shoreway’s was expected to be put on the market last week for about $119,000.

The cost may give some people sticker-shock, considering the tiny homes they’re used to seeing on TV can come in at a fraction of that cost, said Adam Davenport, project and

The tiny house that is hitting the market has an open kitchen and living area.

operations manager for Detroit Shoreway Community Development.

With a foundation and utility hookups, the cost of the land and the cost of labor, there are some inherent costs regardless of home size, he said, adding that the energy-efficient features should bring some substantial savings. He estimates that heating and cooling will be about $500 a year.

Davenport hopes the houses will start a conversation about housing

The Detroit Shoreway homes also have two bedrooms.

density in the area, during a time when development is headed west and more people are looking to move into neighborhoods.

Nevits bought the plans for his home from the Tumbleweed Tiny House Co. and hired a contractor to build it.

Since 2012, when he moved in, there has been a growing awareness about tiny houses. He no longer has to explain what a tiny home is, thanks to more articles and even TV shows focused on them.

“I don’t know if zoning has caught up yet, but the consciousness of the communities has caught up,” he said.

“When you say a tiny house, they know what you’re talking about.”

Zoning remains a big hurdle for people looking to build tiny homes.

For the two homes in the Detroit Shoreway, both located on West 58th Street in EcoVillage, the zoning codes, permits and design were “pretty laborious,” Davenport said, but it will get easier as more pursue it.

For those who are “pursuing the tiny house dream,” Nevits said he recommends taking other steps to become minimal in the meantime, like moving to a smaller apartment or downsizing belongings.

“It’s about simplifying your life and limiting the things that occupy your time so you can do more of the more meaningful things in life,” he said.

PA G E 2 8

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S E P T E M B E R 19 - 2 5 , 2 016 |

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

BUSINESS OF LIFE

Source Lunch With some two decades at Cleveland’s largest hometown bank, Kip Clarke has played a pivotal role in KeyBank’s development of and within Northeast Ohio. Today, Clarke is a couple months shy of his two-year anniversary as Cleveland market president for Key Community Bank, where he’s shaping the direction of leadership teams beneath him as they develop their business in the company’s hometown market — one with plenty of competition from other banks.

Crain’s sat down with Clarke to talk about his time with the company, what he’s learned over the years and what generally influences his management approach in furthering Key’s presence in Northeast Ohio and redeveloping their approach to business banking. — Jeremy Nobile

You’re closing in on two years as the Cleveland market president and 20 years with the company.

What’s something novel you’ve learned since taking this role?

I don’t think I realized how truly differentiated KeyBank is from other banks, due to the natural connections between our businesses and how we combine them for the benefit of our clients. For example, we can assist a law firm with commercial financing and treasury management while providing financial and tax planning for the partners. Key can offer the same firm discounted banking products including HSAs and financial education for employees. Beyond banking, we can make introductions to potential partners and work together with joint events. This approach is the same across the bank and across industries — we have had small businesses come to Key through our branch network and helped them grow to multi-billion (dollar) corporations. Our personal, private, commercial and investment bankers all do the same things.

Through natural connections and combined expertise, we’re able to bring the entire bank to each customer. Internally, we call this an enterprise approach.

You’ve overseen some changes to the way Key and its various teams serve this market. What are some of the most important changes you’ve made, or initiatives you’ve set into motion, and why are they so meaningful?

It all starts with developing and executing the right strategy. We’re focused on aligning our expertise around our clients based on their

unique needs. We’ve built teams to serve specific industries like technology, professional services and family offices. With a more targeted approach we’re able to offer our clients the full range of products and services. I’ve also spent a lot of time investing in training and coaching our talent. We have a lot of young professionals with great ideas. I’ve worked to open up lines of communication to help bubble up new ideas and philosophies.

I imagine overseeing the hometown market for a large bank like Key must carry a certain element of responsibility. Candidly, how does that affect your approach to running the business?

I’m mindful of how important it is to be very respectful of the many and deep ties that Key has to the community. Our relationship to the city of Cleveland and surrounding communities is not just business. It’s personal, emotional. We’re not just a major company and a major employer. We see ourselves as a catalyst and a force for good in the community, empowering businesses to succeed, neighborhoods to thrive, and individuals to achieve their goals.

With that in mind, I run the operation in a way that encourages us to take an enterprise approach and to speak as one organization with one voice, versus as a collection of different departments and business lines.

You seem to be quite interested in charitable efforts between your work at Key and your own founding of the Flashes of Hope nonprofit. Why are these

philanthropic initiatives so important to you?

I learned at an early age the importance of giving back. In middle school, I used to ride with my dad to volunteer at the Cleveland Free Clinic. The summer after ninth grade, I started to take the bus downtown to work and volunteered for the Playhouse Square Foundation. As a co-founder of the clinic, my father instilled in me the value of taking initiative where you see a need, and that’s how I’ve chosen to live my life.

After our family’s battle with pediatric cancer, my wife and I founded Flashes of Hope out of a tiny closet off our bedroom. The nonprofit has raised more than $3 million for pediatric cancer over the past four years.

Are there any new goals or initiatives you can share with us that are coming down the pipe?

What’s something new we can expect from the bank?

We are rapidly growing in Akron/ Canton and Youngstown. We recently expanded our presence in the region with new leadership and multiple new hires. In Cleveland, we are becoming even more deeply involved in revitalizing neighborhoods. We have deep ties to hundreds of local companies, including mid-sized companies that have good jobs they need to fill, and we know there are many people in our neighborhoods seeking meaningful employment. We are exploring ways to further leverage our relationships and community ties to help connect businesses that need workers to individuals who need jobs.

Kip Clarke BANKING

Five Things: LAST BOOK READ “Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World” by retired U.S. General Stanley McChrystal

OTHER READING I read a lot of magazines and newspapers to stay current.

My favorite is The Economist, but also The Times, The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.

HOBBIES I love skiing, travel and watersports — things like surfing, waterskiing, sailing, wind surfing. I’m trying to learn how to kite surf right now.

That’s my latest foible.

PERSONAL FACTS I spent a year trekking around Mt. Everest and Nepal in the early ’90s. It was part of two summers I spent traveling around, living out of a backpack in Europe after college and business school.

OTHER CAREER? Professional outdoor fishing or skiing guide

Lunch Spot The Burnham Restaurant The Hilton Cleveland Downtown 100 Lakeside Ave. East, Cleveland 216-413-5120

The meal Each of us had a Brussels Caesar salad, one with salmon and one with shrimp, with water and an Arnold Palmer. We split the grilled octopus.

The vibe

We sat outside at on a spacious patio that offers a great view of the lake. The inside was bright, upscale and lively. The menu is diverse, but features a variety of seafood. I know what you’re thinking — the octopus was great.

The bill $49 + tip

20160919-NEWS--29-NAT-CCI-CL_--

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS l SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2016 l PAGE 29

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FOR RENT

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Copy Deadline: Wednesdays @ 2:00 p.m.

All Ads Pre-Paid: Check or Credit Card

BUSINESS SERVICES C.W. JENNINGS INDUSTRIAL EXCHANGE Global Industrial Consulting Construction • Acquisitions Exporting • Financing (855) 707-1944

FINANCIAL SERVICES

FLYNN ENVIRONMENTAL UST REMOVALS • REMEDIATION DUE DILIGENCE INVESTIGATIONS

(800) 690-9409

Haul-My-Mess.com Full Service Junk Removal and Mini Dumpster Rental "We haul away your unwanted stuff"

216-469-7081 ǁǁǁ͘K, ƵĐƟŽŶƐ͘ŶĞƚ

dŚŽŵĂƐ ƵĐƟŽŶƐ >> dŚŽŵĂƐ ^ĞĂŵĂŶ͕ >ŝĐĞŶƐĞĚ ƵĐƟŽŶĞĞƌ

OFFICE/WAREHOUSE SPACE

CLASSIFIED

Commercial/Industrial Truck Parking Lot 27,608 S.F.

Call: 216-431-6633

Class A building. 1,368 sq. ft.

6-person suite within an established law office includes 2 lake-view offices. Access to conference rooms and other services.

Newly furnished.

Building amenities include fitness center and parking garage.

Call Barbara @ 216.357.2091

for more information.

CALL TODAY 216-799-9911

Chief Financial Officer-KSU Foundation Institutional Advancement [Job #995860] Kent Campus – Kent, OH

MISCELLANEOUS

Opportunity to direct the overall accounting, treasury, risk and liability management, tax/regulatory compliance, real and other property, gifts and grants, trusts and annuities of Kent State University Foundation.

Direct the business affairs for the Kent State University Foundation.

Manage and oversee the Foundation department staff.

L/P, Electric, Diesel, $3,900 & Up, Cushion, Pneumatic. We Also Have Used - New Pallet Racking, also Mezzanies’

Qualifications: Bachelor’s Degree in accounting, finance or relevant field and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) are required. A minimum of six years of accounting or finance experience. Demonstrated record of successful leadership with multitasking complex issues and projects.

Experience in hiring and effective management including mentoring and developing staff. Demonstrated strategic insight with the ability to conceptualize organizational issues and develop strategic plans at all levels. Must possess a broad institutional strategic perspective and have excellent analytical and problem solving skills. Must have a proactive style of leadership that encourages teamwork and interaction.

Documented experience in conveying vision, strategy, and objectives across a variety of stakeholder groups/organizations.

Preferred Qualifications: Master’s Degree in a relevant field. Strong technical knowledge of government/not-for-profit accounting, financial reporting and management experience at mid/large sized organizations/ foundations. Technical experience with a proven client-service focus.

Application Process: Please apply online and include a resume and cover letter. You will find additional information about the division and a list of current open positions in Institutional Advancement by visiting our website at www.kent.edu/advancement.

For a complete description of this position and to apply online, visit our jobsite at https://jobs.kent.edu.

Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer/Disabled/Veterans

USED FORKLIFTS

216-641-7897 sales@stysinc.com

BUSINESSES FOR SALE BUSINESSES FOR SALE Electrical Contractor $1.7M Printing $488,672 Moving Company $889,510 Services for Universities $6.5M Machine Shop $584,179 Manufacturer/Ceramics $2.4M mike@empirebusinesses.com www.empirebusinesses.com 440-461-2202

FOR SALE SHOREWAY BEVERAGE & LIQUOR Sheffield Lake, Ohio (440) 539-3864

20160919-NEWS--30-NAT-CCI-CL_--

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SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2016

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

ADVERTISING

Crain’s People on the Move promotional feature showcases Northeast Ohio job changes, promotions and board appointments.

Guaranteed placement in print, online and in a weekly e-newsletter can be purchased at www.crainscleveland.com/peopleonthemove.

NONPROFITS

NONPROFITS

Susan Davis

William T. Mahoney

Manager, Membership & Volunteerism

Managing Director

ASM International

ASM International

Susan Davis has joined ASM International as their Manager of Membership and Volunteerism. In this role she will have overall responsibility for the membership of some 81 ASM chapters world-wide and six affiliate societies, totaling some 25,000+ members. ASM is the world’s largest metals and materials-focused organization for engineers and scientists. She comes to ASM from the Cleveland Engineering Society where she served as Executive Director and past President of the Board.

ASM International welcomes William T. (Bill) Mahoney as Managing Director. Mahoney was recently appointed by the ASM Board of Directors after an extensive nationwide search. He is formerly the CEO of the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), a post he held for eleven years. Under Mahoney’s leadership, SCRA annual revenues from its applied research and commercialization services operations grew by over 500%. Mahoney brings his leadership to ASM International, a materials engineering society.

For more information or questions regarding advertising in this section, please call Lynn Calcaterra at 216-771-5276 or email: lcalcaterra@crain.com

CLEVELAND BUSINESS 700 W. St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113-1 1230 Phone: (216) 522-1 1383 www.crainscleveland.com Twitter: @CrainsCleveland Publisher/editor Elizabeth McIntyre Managing editor Scott Suttell Sections editor Tim Magaw Creative director David Kordalski

Senior reporter Stan Bullard Real estate/construction Reporters Jay Miller, Government Dan Shingler Energy/steel/auto

Web editor Damon Sims Associate editor/Akron Sue Walton

Rachel McCafferty Manufacturing/energy

Assistant editor Kevin Kleps

Events manager Jessica Rasmussen Integrated marketing manager Michelle Sustar Managing editor custom/special projects Amy Ann Stoessel Advertising director Nicole Mastrangelo Senior account exec. Dawn Donegan Account executives Lindsie Bowman

Jeremy Nobile, Finance Lydia Coutré, Health care Data editor Chuck Soder Cartoonist Rich Williams

FOR SALE

New Office Building with Attached Manufacturing and Distribution Space

• 260,000 SF facility situated on 12 acres • 7 docks with levelers; 3 drive-ins • Office Building constructed in 2014

John Banks Laura Kulber Mintz Office coordinator Denise Donaldson Production director Craig L. Mackey Production assistant/ video editor Steven Bennett

18301 ST. CLAIR AVENUE CLEVELAND, OHIO

• 480V 3-Phase Power • Convenient Access to I-90 and Downtown Cleveland • Located in City of Cleveland CONTACT :

Chris Livingston David Horowitz Managing Director Senior Associate 216.609.0304 216.609.0309 chris.livingston@avisonyoung.com david.horowitz@avisonyoung.com www.avisonyoung.com/offices/cleveland

Digital strategy/audience development director Nancy Hanus Billing Peter Iseppi Credit Rod Warmsby

CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. Chairman President Treasurer CIO CFO Group publisher Senior Executive VP

Keith E. Crain Rance Crain Mary Kay Crain Anthony DiPonio Bob Recchia Mary Kramer William A. Morrow

Exec. VP/director of strategic operations Chris Crain Exec. VP/director of corporate operations KC Crain VP of production and manufacturing Dave Kamis *** G.D. Crain Jr., Founder (1885-1973) Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr., Chairman (1911-1996) *** Reprints: 212-210-0750 Krista Bora; kbora@crain.com Customer service and subscriptions 877-824-9373

20160919-NEWS--31-NAT-CCI-CL_--

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1:59 PM

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CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CLEVELAND BUSINESS l SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2016 l PAGE 31

The List

LARGEST SUBURBAN OFFICE PROPERTIES Ranked by Net Rentable Square Footage NET RENTABLE SQUARE FEET

NAME THIS ADDRESS YEAR PHONE

SQUARE FEET AVAILABLE

RENT PER SQUARE FOOT (IN DOLLARS) MAJOR TENANTS

OWNER

MANAGEMENT LEASING AGENT COMPANY PHONE NUMBER

Summit Office Park 4700 Rockside Road, 2, 3 and 4 Summit Park Drive.

Independence 44131 (216) 642-1105

492,936 NA

NA

Cigna, SAI Global, Mutual of Omaha, AJ Gallagher, Verizon

Summit Cleveland Realty LP

CBRE Inc.

1

Brian A. Hurtuk (216) 239-5060

2

Park Center Plaza I, II & III 6100-6150-6050 Oak Tree Blvd., Independence 44131 (216) 520-5028

422,259 33,516

23.00-25.00

Jackson Lewis, GrafTech, Regus, CBiz Inc., GSA, Lifeline Screening, University Hospitals, Travelers, Microsoft, Longbow

Riverview Realty Partners LP

CBRE Inc.

Doug Leary, Bob Leibold Steve Ross (216) 687-1800

3

Landerbrook Corporate Center I, II, III 5900-5910-5920 Landerbrook Drive, Mayfield Heights 44124 (216) 831-9330

338,939 39,057

21.50-23.50

Progressive Casualty Insurance, Linsalata Capital, Primus Venture Partners, Dinn Hochman & Potter

Hudson Americas LLC

CBRE Inc.

Doug Leary, Bob Leibold (216) 687-1800 Dan Rose (216) 658-6119

4

Embassy Corporate Park 4000-4040-3875-3737-3700 Embassy Pkwy., Akron 44333 (330) 668-4000

320,716 NA

NA

Merrill Lynch, Hanna Campbell & Powell, Virtual Hold Technologies, Buckeye Health, Maxim Healthcare Services

Embassy Park Akron LP

CBRE Inc.

Lisa S. Gould (330) 668-4000

5

Great Northern Corporate Center I, II & III 24950-25000-25050 Country Club Blvd., North Olmsted 44070 (216) 687-1800

270,000 NA

NA

United Transportation Union, Palmer Holland Inc., Advanstar Communications, Cargill Inc., FM Global

PWA Great Northern Corporate Center LP

NA

Dan Rose Steve Ross (216) 658-6119

Crown Centre 5005 Rockside Road, Independence 44131 (216) 447-9200

253,115 26,976

22.00-24.00

The Fedeli Group, EMS, Hewitt/AON, GSA, Zurich, Neace Lukens, NES/Hondros, Strategic Wealth Partners, PS Offices, Windstream

Rockside 77 Properties LP

6

Prestige Management

Thomas M. West (216) 525-1475 Bill Saltzman (216) 525-1499

230,765 51,749

16.50-18.50

Independence Bank, Hurricane Labs, Zig Marketing, Hylant Group Inc., Xerox Corp.

Time Equities Inc.

7

Freedom Square I, II & III 4401 & 4511 Rockside; 6000 Freedom Square Independence 44131 (216) 687-1800

Jones Lang LaSalle

Doug Leary, Bob Leibold Steve Ross (216) 687-1800

8

Commerce Park IV & V 23240-23250 Chagrin Blvd., Beachwood 44122 (216) 504-4820

230,000 NA

19.00-22.00

NAI Daus Inc., Howard, Wershbale & Co., C.C. Hodgson Architects, Prime Conduit, Point to Point Marketing, University Hospitals

Commerce Park IV & V Associates LLC

Commerce Park Management

Cyndie O'Bryon (216) 831-3310

9

Corporate Plaza I & II 6450-6480 Rockside Woods Blvd. South, Independence 44131 (216) 520-5028

226,498 69,914

20.00-22.00

Fleet Response, Voya, GSA, Ratliff & Taylor, Ross Brittain & Schoenberg, EMC Corp., TTI Inc., Advizex

Riverview Realty Partners LP

CBRE Inc.

Doug Leary, Bob Leibold Steve Ross (216) 687-1800

One and Two Chagrin Highlands 2000-3000 Auburn Drive, Beachwood 44122 (440) 871-4800

224,785 18,956

27.00

10

Penske Logistics, Regus, Intellicorp, Cole Eye Institute, RAV Financial, Edge Point Capital, Select Restaurants, University Hospitals, Arch Eagle

Chagrin Headquarters Venture Ltd.

Jacobs Real Estate Services

John L. Klayman Cindy Greiner (440) 808-7492

11

6200 Oaktree Blvd.

6200 Oaktree Blvd., Independence 44131 (440) 823-1039

223,000 NA

17.50

iHeartMedia, T Mobile, TransUnion, Sirva, Apple American, Dental One

JDI Oak Tree Holdings LLC

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank

David Hollister Terry Coyne (440) 823-1039

12

South Hills Office Park I, II, III South Hills Blvd., Broadview Heights 44147 (216) 861-3040

202,000 77,606

21.00-23.00

Fisher Phillips, Janik LLP, MetLife, John Hancock, Time Warner Cable

Joseph Skilken Co.

Joseph Skilken Co.

Jeffrey D. Cristal (216) 453-3050

13

DDR Office Building 3333 Richmond Road, Beachwood 44122

177,000 4,858

26.50-28.50

Singerman Mills Desberg & Kauntz, Malrite Co., TOA Technologies, Chase Properties

DDR Corp.

DDR Corp.

Doug Leary, Bob Leibold (216) 687-1800

1925 Enterprise Parkway 1925 Enterprise Parkway, Twinsburg 44087

175,000 20,000

NA

NA

Twinsburg Equities Group LLC (1); Twinsburg Kingsbridge LLC (1)

NA

Bill Saltzman (216) 525-1499

14

King James Office Park Bldgs. III and IV 24500-24600 Center Ridge Road, Westlake 44145 (440) 892-1100

175,000 40,000

10.50-12.50

NA

Westlake KJ4 LLC Westlake KJ3 LLC

Ogle Enterprises

Douglas Wentling (440) 892-1100

16

Tower East 20600 Chagrin Blvd., Shaker Heights 44122 (216) 640-8700

171,585 14,000

17.00-19.00

Equity Engineering, Dingus & Daga, Dise & Co., TemPay, Mid-Continent Coal & Coke

E2G Properties LLC

Playhouse Square Real Estate Services

Joseph P. Fegen (216) 640-8722

17

Eastpoint I & II 6085 & 6095 Parkland Blvd., Mayfield Heights 44124 (216) 687-1800

168,589 15,128

20.00-23.00

TMW Systems, Austin Building & Design Inc., NCA Financial, Danaher Power Solutions, Moreland Management

FFIII OH Eastpoint LLC

CBRE Inc.

Susan Fegen (216) 363-6442 Dan Rose (216) 658-6119

18

Metropolitan Plaza 22901 Millcreek Blvd., Highland Hills 44122 (216) 831-9330

163,105 5,957

22.00-24.00

Victoria Fire & Casualty, Pfizer Inc., Sedlak Management Consultants, Metlife

Hudson Americas LLC

CBRE Inc.

Doug Leary, Bob Leibold (216) 687-1800; Dan Rose (216) 658-6119

19

Euclid Office & Medical Plaza 26250-26300 Euclid Ave., Euclid 44132 (216) 289-8500

158,000 20,000

12.00-15.00

Medical, dental and professional offices

EOM Properties Co. Ltd.

Circle Management Corp.

Eric M. Schreibman (216) 525-1471

20

Plaza South Office Park 7251-7261-7271 Engle Road, Middleburg Heights 44130 (440) 838-1400

150,000 29,000

15.50-16.25

Associated Software Consultants, Crawford & Co., Dial America, Verantis Corp., Phoenix International, Quadax

Flair Corp.

Flair Corp.

Marc Braun (216) 453-3014

21

Millennium Place I & II 25111-25221 Country Club Blvd., North Olmsted 44070

140,000 40,000

NA

Moen, Star Processing/First Data

Tech Park Associates Ltd.

Kennedy Wilson of Ohio

Bill Saltzman, Rico Pietro (216) 525-1499

22

Genesis Building 6000 Lombardo Center Drive, Seven Hills 44131; (216) 447-0070

138,492 21,630

22.50-23.50

New York Life, Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield

Genesis Building Ltd.

Dalad Realty

Jason Laver (216) 447-0070

23

Beacon Place 6055 Rockside Woods Blvd., Independence 44131 (216) 447-0070

134,099 4,200

22.50

Air Gas Great Lakes, Wegman, Hessler, Vanderburg, Brown and Caldwell

6055 Properties Ltd.

Dalad Realty

Jason Laver, Ryan Burrows (216) 447-0070

24

Rock Run Center & North 5700 Lombardo Center, Seven Hills 44131; (216) 687-1800

126,588 13,916

16.00

NA

Rockside Equities LLC, c/o Time Equities, Inc.

Jones Lang LaSalle

Douglas Leary, Steve Ross (216) 687-1800

25

Orangewood Place 3690 Orange Place Drive, Beachwood 44122; (216) 861-7200

126,000 NA

17.00-20.00

NA

3690 Orange Place Holdings LLC (2)

NA

Marc Braun (216) 453-3014

Corporate Circle South and West 30050-30100 Chagrin Blvd., Pepper Pike 44122; (216) 920-7777

125,000 NA

NA

Huntington Bank, UBS Investments, Wells Fargo, Visconsi Cos.

30050 Chagrin Boulevard LLC

Lee & AssociatesCleveland

Jeremy Steiger (216) 920-7777

Rockside Center III 5990 West Creek Road, Independence 44131; (216) 447-0070

124,610 6,700

18.00

Farmers Group; Aerotek; ViaSat, Inc.

Rockside Center Ltd.

Dalad Realty

Jason Laver (216) 447-0070

14

26 27

RESEARCHED BY CHUCK SODER Source: Information is supplied by the companies unless footnoted. Crain's Cleveland Business does not independently verify the information and there is no guarantee these listings are complete or accurate. We welcome all responses to our lists and will include omitted information or clarifications in coming issues. The Book of Lists and enhanced versions of most lists, with more companies, are available to purchase at www.crainscleveland.com.

(1) From Summit County property records. (2) From Cuyahoga County property records.