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VOL. 36, NO. 46
NOVEMBER 16 - 22, 2015
35th Anniversary
TECHNOLOGY: Big bucks Chinese investor targets NEO firms P. 4
Business of Life Monastery Greetings Entrepreneur’s spiritual journey proves fruitful
AUTOS: Leading ladies Local execs make prestigious list
P. 26-27
P. 5
The List
FINANCE: Farmers’ push
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Small towns present huge chance P. 6
Downtown Cleveland apartments P. 31
County goes to work on jobs Budish moving forward with program that aims to get two sides of ‘house’ to team up
BY JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh
Since his inauguration as Cuyahoga County executive, Armond Budish has talked about breaking down the walls between the social services that are the mainstay of the county’s work and the county programs that create jobs. Now, with his budget for the next two years approved last week by county council, he’s ready to move ahead with a plan to invest $6 million to connect those silos — or in the words of John Corlett, president
and executive director of the Center for Community Solutions, “marry the economic development side of the house with the poverty-elimination side of the house.” The plan springs from Budish’s observation that while there are thousands of jobs that are going unfilled, there are thousands of others who are unemployed and wanting to work. State labor market statistics report the county has 31,400 people unemployed, and Budish believes there are at least that many jobs that go unfilled. An August 2014 report from the Center for Community Solutions, for instance, estimated that the Cleveland metropolitan area had
7,400 unfilled manufacturing jobs. Budish said the program, which is being called Cuyahoga Works, is “a bridge to a better life.” It is designed to expand the reach and the income limits of public assistance programs to put unemployed people on a stable career path. Budish is working with the state to allow Cuyahoga County to loosen the requirements for some state public assistance programs — for providing subsidized day care, for example — so that the financial boost of getting a job isn’t offset by the loss of public support, which makes it harder to stay in a job. The heart of the program, and the
largest local cost, is a team of what Budish and his chief of staff, Sharon Sobol Jordan, call “coaches.” The goal, Jordan said, is to create a system where a coach would stick with a person who is newly employed as he or she tackles the obstacles to staying with the job. “That might mean continuing some level of public assistance that, with a job, the person no longer would qualify for,” Jordan said. “Then sticking with that person to help them find training that will enable them to find the next job and then the next job.” That takes a commitment to help SEE COUNTY, PAGE 29
Hall’s vision is expansive, bright Renovation plans at Canton landmark keep growing, as does the optimism BY KEVIN KLEPS
SHANE WYNN
kkleps@crain.com @KevinKleps
FOCUS: SMALL BUSINESS Smaller enterprises are helping fuel the revitalization of downtown Kent — Page 13 Entire contents © 2015 by Crain Communications Inc.
When David Baker looks out the windows of his office at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he doesn’t just see excavators, torn-up turf and mounds of dirt. The president of the Canton landmark thinks about jobs, tax revenues, tourism and teamwork. The Hall of Fame Village — a $476 million project that consists of eight major improvements to the 52-yearold home of football history — is a massive undertaking that started with a simple question. Stuart Lichter, the president of Los Angeles-based developer Industrial Realty Group LLC, was meeting with Canton Mayor William J. Healy II a couple years ago when the big picture started to come into focus. “He tossed out a generic question,” Lichter said of Healy. “ ‘If you were in my seat, what is the one thing you would do to help turn the city around in the future?’ I basically spun out all the things that could be done with the Hall of Fame. This is one of the biggest brands in the country, and nobody has done anything with it.” In January 2014, during his third day on the job at the Hall of Fame, Baker met with Lichter, whose development deals include Goodyear’s
new Akron headquarters and Canal Place, a Rubber City business park. What started as the Hall of Fame’s need for a four- or five-star hotel to house the NFL players who compete in the annual kickoff of the league’s exhibition season turned into a project that is estimated to create an economic impact of more than $15 billion in the next 25 years. In the next four years, in addition to the hotel and renovations to the museum and Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, a 35,000-square-foot conference center, an indoor and outdoor NFL activity center, nine youth fields, an assisted-living center, an athletic training and educational complex, and retail, restaurant and office spaces are expected to be added. “When our players play in the (Hall of Fame) game, they have to stay in Cleveland,” Baker said. “When we do the rookie symposium, they stay in Aurora. So I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had a hotel right here?’ Then you thought, ‘Well, if you had a hotel, wouldn’t it be great to have a conference center?’ Then it was, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have some restaurants?’ ” Baker, whose imagination is every bit as expansive as his enormous 6-foot-9 frame, relates every part of the project back to the most popular sport in the country. “The game that we represent is a great metaphor for how this project SEE HALL, PAGE 30