20121217-NEWS--1-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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$2.00/DECEMBER 17 - 23, 2012
Last of Duke portfolio may be sold Sources say N.Y. firm in talks for REIT’s 11 NE Ohio office sites By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
Duke Realty Corp.’s long goodbye from Northeast Ohio soon may become a final farewell. The Indianapolis-based real estate owner and manager is in talks to sell its last 11 suburban office buildings here to Och-Ziff Real Estate, the
property affiliate of big hedge fund firm Och-Ziff Capital Management of New York. Och-Ziff Capital is an institutional alternative asset manager with more than $30 billion in investments under management. Two sources said Och-Ziff and an operating partner are pursuing the purchase of the group of properties on and near Rockside Road in Inde-
pendence and Seven Hills, perhaps in hopes of a year-end close of the purchase. The sources asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak for the parties involved. The properties are blue-chip office buildings that total 1 million square feet. They include the three Park Place buildings in Indepen-
dence that Duke itself constructed, as well as office buildings such as Corporate Place I on Rockside Woods Boulevard that it acquired to enter the Cleveland market in 1996. If the deal is concluded, Duke would complete the departure from Northeast Ohio that it began in 2005. It sold its substantial industrial portfolio in 2005, its portfolio of nine office buildings in the eastern suburbs in 2007, and three office buildings in
INSIDE ‘Mompreneur’ ranks are growing More mothers — such as Cindy Perry of Avon Lake, who launched Pello last January — realize they can start a business and be a parent. PAGE 3 PLUS: ■ East Cleveland-based GE Lighting finds room for LEDs in the industrial market. PAGE 3
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Fiscal cliff impacting charitable gift giving Donors gauge effects of potential tax changes; groups push for clarity By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com
This December, the month when many charities raise the bulk of their donations, uncertainty about the tax climate in 2013 is driving some donors to increase their gifts — because at least they know how their income and gifts will be taxed this year — while others are outright delaying gifts until more clarity is had. Lawmakers are working to resolve the so-called fiscal cliff, and they’re weighing whether the charitable deduction should be limited, plus other options that would diminish the tax breaks one can reap for giving to nonprofits. Charities aren’t taking it lightly. United Way of Greater Cleveland on its website asks people to write members of Congress and urge them to preserve the charitable deduction, not “reform taxes on the backs of the poor.” And the Cleveland Foundation hosted two presentations about charitable giving strategies in uncertain economic times, one in midNovember for about 80 professional
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A vision of what a new Cuyahoga County headquarters could look like at the south end of the former Ameritrust complex on East Ninth Street.
Ameritrust deal won’t be market panacea Empty office space already absent from vacancy rates, which industry observers use to judge metros’ real estate health
By STAN BULLARD and JAY MILLER sbullard@crain.com, jmiller@crain.com
The proposal by developer Geis Cos. to buy the former Ameritrust complex for a mixed-use project that would include a new headquarters for Cuyahoga County should do downtown Cleveland a lot of good by injecting life into the intersection of East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue, real estate types agree. However, the potential deal’s
ANALYSIS impact on the office market, statistically speaking, would be nil at best — and could have negative implications for Cleveland due to the tendency of outsiders to gauge the health of a metropolitan real estate market by its vacancy rates. Under its plan, Geis would turn the 29-story Ameritrust Tower into 210 apartments, would renovate the See OFFICE Page 4
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SPECIAL SECTION
2012NEWSMAKERS Profiles of the individuals who made the biggest headlines over the last year ■ Pages 11-16
Entire contents © 2012 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 33, No. 49