Crain's Cleveland Business

 Union Home Mortgage is expanding Strongsville headquarters, could reach 2,000 total employees in three years. PAGE 5

CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM I FEBRUARY 22, 2021

FOCUS | HIGHER EDUCATION

IVORY TOWERS A Crain’s special report examines how higher education is failing Black Americans in the Midwest

I

ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREA LEVY FOR CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSIENSS

n three Midwestern cities, there are broad disparities in who is going where in higher education — and who is going anywhere at all.

Black Americans in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as the nation, remain underrepresented at our best colleges and overrepresented at some of our worst.

Take Cleveland, for example, where nearly half of the residents are Black.

Case Western Reserve University, the city’s most selective college, reported only 6% of its population was made up of Black students in 2018, a number that’s barely budged since 2000.

The issues add up to stubborn gaps in who’s getting a degree.

PAGES 10-12

REAL ESTATE

HEALTH CARE

Cleveland could require licenses for short-term New Medicaid rule expands rentals, public hearings for full-time Airbnbs pharmacist reimbursement City councilmen introduce new legislation to bring more regulation

BY MICHELLE JARBOE

Two Cleveland councilmen are taking another run at reining in short-term home rentals, a growing segment of the lodging economy that has been a boon to pandemic-weary

travelers but a bane in some city neighborhoods.

Under legislation introduced at Cleveland City Council this month, the city would require hosts to pay for an annual license. Unlicensed hosts would be subject to fines. And opera-

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tors who otherwise run afoul of city laws could have their licenses revoked and face possible criminal charges.

The proposal also would require full-time hosts in largely residential areas to appear before the Cleveland Board of Zoning Appeals to have their rentals reclassified as “lodging houses.”

That prospect, that vocal neighbors at a public hearing might prevent a host from accepting transient tenants, worries investors like Billy Fronimo. His Lakewood-based business, the House Hotels, owns and manages roughly 30 such rentals, including a dozen units in Cleveland.

See RENTALS on Page 19

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Measure would allow pharmacists to bill state for other services, could improve bond with patients

BY LYDIA COUTRÉ

Though pharmacists are among the most accessible health care professionals, many patients may be hard pressed to name the medication expert who fills their prescriptions.

“If you ask a patient to name their dentist, name their physician and name their pharmacist, it’s harder for them — unless they go to an independent pharmacy — to name their pharmacist,” said Ernest Boyd, executive director of the Ohio Pharmacists Association.

A new rule from the Ohio Department of Medicaid may provide

opportunities for them to strengthen their relationships with patients by allowing reimbursement for pharmacists performing certain clinical activities.

Their services have evolved and expanded over the years, but the mechanisms through which pharmacists are paid have been limited largely to dispensing drugs and administering vaccines.

The state Medicaid department last month rolled out a system for pharmacists to enroll as recognized providers and bill the department for a number of new services.

See PHARMACISTS on Page 20

2/19/2021 2:23:45 PM

FINANCE

Regional banks continue trimming branch networks

COVID-19 crisis accelerates trend as customers rely more on technology to do their banking

BY JEREMY NOBILE

With customers venturing out less and relying more on technology to do their banking, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented a prime opportunity for many regional banks to speed up strategic branch closures, shaving off costs along the way.

Where each company stands with their branch strategies varies. Some are still adding locations, sometimes while simultaneously closing others.

However, the overall theme in the Ohio market is still one of consolidation, as dozens of offices were permanently shuttered in the past year, including several in Northeast Ohio, according to filings from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

KeyBank president and CEO Chris Gorman has said the Cleveland-based bank is looking to reduce its total branch network by 7% in 2021. The bank closed two branches in 2020 and is working to close another in Fairlawn. Key has so far applied to shutter four more this year so far, all in the Dayton area, with more likely in store.

“I’ve said I thought digital advanced five years in five months,” Gorman said last month. “What you’re finding is you probably need fewer branches today than we would’ve thought even five months ago.”

Huntington Bank has been closing in-store Giant Eagle branches, such as this one pictured pre-pandemic, as part of its branch consolidation efforts. | CONTRIBUTED

With 422 locations as of mid-2020, Huntington Bank runs the largest branch network in the state. The second-largest branch operator in Ohio is PNC Bank with more than 300 locations at the same time last year.

With the acquisition of Detroit’s TCF Bank, Huntington rolls up another two dozen Ohio locations.

Huntington announced plans in late 2019 to close some 30 in-store Giant Eagle branches in the following year. Inclusive of grocery store loca-

Celebrating

tions, Huntington closed 32 branches in Ohio in 2020 and has closed another 23 so far in 2021. It’s applied to open two new ones this year, though, with one in Columbus and another in Westerville.

Independent of the Huntington deal, TCF closed one branch in Youngstown last year, but opened one in Cleveland.

Huntington president and CEO Steve Steinour told investors during earnings last month the company is

10

planning to consolidate at least 198 branches across its footprint following the TCF deal. The bulk of those will be in Michigan.

The company is also cycling out of multiple Meijer locations. While Steinour said the company has been well-served by in-store branches, trends in customer preferences and more consumers opting for grocery delivery justifies closing some of those locations.

PNC Bank shuttered branches at a similar clip as Huntington last year. It closed 36 branches in 2020 and another couple this year. OCC applications show it’s applied to close another five more in 2021.

PNC chairman and CEO William Demchak told investors at a Barclays conference last September the bank would close 160 branches in 2020 and 120 more in 2021. Digital sales are increasing at a rate strong enough to justify closing those locations.

Citizens Bank — which is ramping up digital efforts and promoting its digital bank, Citizens Access — closed seven Ohio branches last year.

Fifth Third Bank closed a dozen locations in Ohio in 2020 and three so far this year. It has another two closures in the works so far.

“As part of our overall strategy to provide the best customer experience, we’ve been in the process of

repositioning our branches, closing about 37 branches in the Midwest and opening another 30 to 40 primarily in the growing Southeastern market this year,” said Fifth Third spokeswoman Laura Trujillo. “We are also relocating some branches where we have an opportunity to create a smaller footprint, be more efficient and technologically advanced.”

She noted that about two-thirds of the banks transactions go through digital channels now and that more than half of checks are deposited electronically, which includes both ATMs and mobile deposit.

US Bank, the largest bank in Ohio by deposit market share, shuttered 25 Ohio branches in 2020 and 14 in January. Another five are slated to close by this spring.

The company announced in early 2019 it was looking to optimize its branch network due to changing customer preferences. While it’s closed a number of branches since, it’s opened a few new tech-focused financial centers, including one in Parma.

Amid the pandemic, though, U.S. Bank said it would close another 10% to 15% of branches across its footprint, in part permanently closing some that were shut down temporarily due to COVID-19.

See BRANCHES on Page 19

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EDUCATION

Pandemic uproots higher education’s academic calendar

Recent changes could have long-lasting impacts on Northeast Ohio colleges and universities

BY AMY MORONA

On a college campus, academic calendars reign supreme, dictating basically everything that happens at an institution. In addition to serving as an internal and external schedule, calendars power a lengthy list of a campus’ activities, ranging from being the foundation of information systems to making sure students log enough instructional days to hit financial aid requirements.

For the most part, calendars remained unchanged at many institutions — until, of course, the pandemic.

“It’s caused us to take a more indepth look at what our calendar has looked like in the past and then to consider what types of adjustments might not only be helpful to students during the pandemic, but also post-pandemic,” said Laura Barnard, Lakeland Community College’s executive vice president and provost.

And while the past year has offered, or in some cases required, opportunities for innovation, recent calendar tweaks could have long-lasting impacts on campuses here in Northeast Ohio and nationwide.

At Lakeland, Barnard said officials saw a big uptick of interest in an eight-week session near the end of last semester, despite the Kirtland campus’ total fall 2020 full-time enrollment dropping 19%. Those accelerated courses are shorter than a traditional 16-week class but cover the same amount of material.

Barnard thinks that enthusiasm came in part due to uncertainty. Students may have been waiting to enroll until once their kids’ own school

Like many colleges nationwide, the University of Mount Union canceled its traditional weeklong spring break. | UNIVERSITY OF MOUNT UNION

schedules firmed up or a turbulent job market settled down.

Those attending a community college often have lots going on outside of the classroom, as national data shows their average age is 28 and 64% of them attend part time. Nearly 60% are women and more than half are students of color, both groups that have been disproportionately impacted by the effects of the pandemic.

Weaving in those eight-week classes can be a pipeline to help get people to work more quickly — such as a welding course where students earn an industry-ready certification after its completion. These opportunities can be more attractive to employers.

After all, Barnard said, workforce needs don’t always align with a college’s academic calendar.

The campus is launching a new pilot program next fall. Lakeland will add a 12-week “late start” session, hoping it hits a sweet spot in length and pace.

This will give students four separate chances to start classes that semester.

“The more entry points for students, the more opportunities they have to earn the courses that will get them the certification and the degrees that they’re seeking, because they don’t have to then delay,” she said.

Other schools have embraced similar strategies. A community college in Arizona offers about 40 start dates in an academic year, while Maryland’s Community College of Baltimore County has more than a dozen to pick from.

Another change campuses nationwide implemented this year was canceling weeklong spring breaks. The University of Mount Union did just that, moving to weave in a handful of “spring relax days” throughout the schedule instead. It will allow the university to end this semester a week early while still hitting those instructional time requirements.

University registrar and assistant vice president for academic affairs Bryan Boatright suspects Mount Union will go back to a traditional break schedule in the future.

“Having that break to just kind of stand back a little bit and then jump back in really does make a huge difference,” he said.

But one of the recently implemented shifts he’d like to see permanently adopted at the Alliance campus is some type of shorter winter term.

Mount Union offered one for the first time this academic year. About 90 students enrolled in the six-week session between the fall and spring semesters.

“Not only did it help a lot of students get caught back up if they had maybe not done so well on something during the pandemic or just took some time off, but it also was a great revenue stream for the institution,” he said.

Even before the pandemic, Boatright wanted to take a closer look at ways to improve Mount Union’s calendar. He has eyed differences at other institutions — later start times here, longer holiday breaks there.

But plotting out the calendar is like putting together a puzzle. Different schedules and initiatives must align.

A variety of stakeholders, such as accreditors and faculty, need to give feedback and approval. And it’s a bit of a long game, too, as decisions on this front are typically made and agreed upon years in advance.

Rick Staisloff, founder and senior partner at college consulting firm RPK Group, points out that while the pandemic brought along a sense of urgency, some schools have already been experimenting with other models.

There are initiatives such as block scheduling, which divides a semester up into smaller chunks to allow students to dive deeper into a subject, or programs that embrace the co-op model to better connect to the working world.

But those can be the exceptions, not the rules. He said there’s a reason why lots of national attention on this front goes toward places like Arizona State University’s multisession semesters or Western Governors University’s emphasis on competency-based education.

“It’s because there’s not hundreds of examples of innovation in higher ed,” Staisloff said. “So they’ve been operating more at the fringes, although with good success. I think the fringe is, in essence, going to get bigger. You’re going to see more flexibility get built in around the academic calendar within the overall industry, but you’re still going to have a pretty healthy percentage in the core that that’s going to stick to the traditional model, because it’s what people know.”

Staisloff added that many of those models are built for 18-year-old, fulltime students, a “shrinking” population of the overall industry.

“We need to better respond to the need for post-secondary credentials across a broader part of our population in this country, and that’s where I think the demand is going to come from for these more flexible models,” he said. “Smart institutions, I think, will start to look to how they can capture more of that market.”

Amy Morona: amy.morona@crain. com, (216) 771-5229, @AmyMorona

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MCX Technologies Corp. sees opportunity in Cleveland Tech services firm plans to grow after move from California

BY RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY

Matthew Kruchko thinks Cleveland is a great place to run a company.

The cost of living is manageable and the inventory of housing is strong, he said. There are high-quality education options at the post-secondary and the K-12 levels.

And the region is the “hub” of both manufacturing and the middle market for the U.S., Kruchko said.

That’s why he moved technology services firm MCX Technologies Corp. here in November.

Kruchko is president and CEO of MCX Technologies and of its subsidiary, The Collective Experience.

MCX Technologies got its start as a professional services company known as MCorpCX in San Francisco. Kruchko took on the leadership role at MCX about a year ago and began working to turn the company toward its original goal of being “technology-centric,” he said. To start, it divested its professional services firm this past summer, changing its name to MCX Technologies.

Then, in November, Kruchko moved the company to Northeast Ohio, where he’s lived for about five years.

MCX Technologies, which is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture Exchange and the OTC market in the United States, is what Kruchko calls a “business transformation company.”

Companies have all had to become experts in e-commerce, particularly since the start of the pandemic, but many aren’t set up for that. MCX’s goal is to help companies make that transition in a variety of ways, from setting up the website customers will see to putting the necessary back-end processes into place.

“Business transformation, the way we’re defining it for MCX, is transformation to transaction,” Kruchko said.

MCX Technologies will approach that through three divisions: digital transformation, currency and decentralized finance. Kruchko said the goal is for all three of these divisions to operate as separate subsidiaries headquartered in Cleveland.

So far, it has one such subsidiary: The Collective Experience.

The Collective Experience is in charge of the company’s digital

One way MCX Technologies is trying to stand out with its customers is by offering more than just services; it’s also creating technology solutions. Kruchko said the addition of different technologies will happen organically and through acquisitions.

Already, the company can offer data science and analytics products to customers through The Collective

“BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION, THE WAY WE’RE DEFINING IT FOR MCX, IS TRANSFORMATION TO TRANSACTION. DATA IS THE THROUGH LINE OF EVERYTHING WE’RE DOING.” — Matthew Kruchko, president and CEO of MCX Technologies

transformation work, which includes everything from analytics to marketing, to cloud technologies.

And it’s already working with a broad range of clients, from manufacturers to technology companies.

One of those companies is Universal Fibers Inc., a maker of polymer fibers for flooring based in Virginia.

Universal Fibers has been working with The Collective Experience on marketing efforts for about a year, said president Phil Harmon.

One of the big projects has been overhauling the website for Universal Fibers. Harmon noted that an important part of that work has been thinking about the site in terms of the different customers who might interact with it, from designers to company executives.

Universal Fibers maintains a small in-house team in the marketing space, Harmon said, and working with firms like The Collective Experience helps him reach a “level of talent I probably wouldn’t have access to otherwise.”

Experience. And it’s working to grow in the future currency and decentralized finance spaces.

“Data is the through line of everything we’re doing,” Kruchko said.

Kruchko said the products MCX Technologies will offer have typically been made available to large Fortune 500 companies. But he sees a lot of opportunity in the middle market, and locating in the Midwest gives MCX access to a lot of those midsize companies.

The company is at 2529 Detroit Ave. in Cleveland. The city will serve as the company’s headquarters, but even before the COVID-19 pandemic, MCX was building up its workforce remotely, Kruchko said.

At the moment, MCX Technologies is small, employing about 10 people. But Kruchko said he sees that total growing to about 50 in Cleveland in the next three to five years, with total employment growing to about 150 to 200.

Rachel Abbey McCafferty: (216) 771-5379, rmccafferty@crain.com

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FINANCE

‘Thriving’ Union Home had revenue jump 152% in 2020

Mortgage company is expanding Strongsville headquarters, could reach 2,000 total employees in three years BBY KEVIN KLEPS

Last year, as the Cleveland marathon opened discussions with potential title sponsors, the race’s organizers had a handful of qualities they believed would make for a “perfect” partner.

The marathon, which had been tied to CVS and Rite Aid over a span of two-plus decades, was hoping to align with a local company. In Union Home Mortgage, a rapidly growing Strongsville company, it found “a natural fit,” said Jack Staph, the marathon’s executive director and owner.

On Feb. 9, the marathon announced that Union Home Mortgage was its new title sponsor. The threeyear deal was “comparable and better” to the previous agreement with Rite Aid, Staph said.

The deal is a crucial one for the marathon, which is in its 44th year and is coming off a 2020 in which its road races were forced to a virtual format because of the pandemic.

For Union Home Mortgage, it was yet another foray into sports sponsorships.

Within the last year, the company has inked sponsorship deals with golfer and Northeast Ohio native Jason Dufner, former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar and Indians playby-play voice Tom Hamilton. In October, Union Home Mortgage became the title sponsor of the Gasparilla Bowl, a college football game that is held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. Earlier in 2020, Union Home became the Indians’ first official partner in the mortgage category, and the company began sponsoring the Professional Bull Riders circuit.

Sports sponsorships, Union Home Mortgage president and CEO Bill Cosgrove said, are an effective way to reach a wide range of demographics and add to the company’s name recognition.

Lining up the right sponsorship can be “a balancing act” for a company that has more than 150 branches in 44 states, Cosgrove said. But Cleveland, the Bedford native said, is home.

workforce (about 1,400 at the time) to remote. The “seamless” transition was completed by 5 a.m. the following Wednesday, Cosgrove said.

‘Attacking opportunities’

Union Home Mortgage’s Strongsville campus will open a third building — its “crown jewel” — in May. | DIMIT ARCHITECTS RENDERING

“Strongsville, Greater Cleveland, is our headquarters, and as we continue to grow our business and support different events throughout the country, we really focus on Northeast Ohio,” Cosgrove said. “We want to continue to expose the company, expose the brand, to the region, because we plan on hiring 500 people over the next three years.”

‘Thriving’ business Union Home Mortgage might not be a household name in the region, but that could be changing — and quickly.

The company, which was founded in 1970 and purchased by Cosgrove in 1999, is expanding its Strongsville headquarters with the addition of a third building. The project was approved for a 10-year, 1.477% Job Creation Tax Credit by the state last July.

At the time, UHM said it expected to create 450 full-time positions that would generate $29.3 million in new annual payroll. The third building, described by Cosgrove as “the crown jewel” of the company’s campus, will open in May and feature fitness and corporate training centers, as well as a cafeteria.

UHM has more than 1,500 em-

ployees, about 500 of whom are based in Northeast Ohio, Cosgrove said. He expects the total employee tally to exceed 2,000 within a few years, thanks in part to a 2020 that

“WE WANT TO CONTINUE TO EXPOSE THE COMPANY, EXPOSE THE BRAND, TO THE REGION, BECAUSE WE PLAN ON HIRING 500 PEOPLE OVER THE NEXT THREE YEARS.” ——Bill Cosgrove, Union Home Mortgage president and CEO

was historically good for mortgage companies.

The combination of record-low interest rates, more people working from home, and more customers looking to refinance their current home or search for a new place to live led to a 152% bump in revenue for UHM. The company generated $488 million in revenue in 2020, which was up $294.1 million year-over-year.

And those gains were on top of a 2019 in which Union Home’s revenue soared 25% to $193.9 million.

When Crain’s compiled its list of the largest private companies in Northeast Ohio in 2020, Union Home checked in at No. 55. The rankings were based on 2019 revenues, and UHM’s 2020 figure of almost half a billion would have been good for a top-30 showing the previous year.

In 2016, UHM reported a five-year revenue growth of 210% to a total of $69.5 million in 2015 — or about 14% of its revenue for 2020.

The company expects its lending volume to exceed $13 billion this year.

“The last five years, the company has really been thriving,” Cosgrove said.

The UHM president and CEO said the profits are reinvested into the business in three ways: people, technology and brand.

The first has meant an increase of about 900 employees since 2016. The third element has led to an array of sports sponsorships that spans football, baseball, golf and even bull riding.

And the technology aspect was never more critical than last March, when UHM made the decision on a Thursday night to switch its entire

Cosgrove mentioned the word “culture” five times during a conversation with a Crain’s reporter.

That might seem like corporate speak, but Staph, the Cleveland marathon’s executive director, and Jessica Colombi, the executive director of career services at Cleveland State University, say it’s legit.

Colombi lauded UHM for the manner in which the company transitioned its summer interns to remote work last year. The company, in addition to giving students meaningful tasks, “went out of their way to make sure students’ social and emotional development was attended to as well,” the CSU career services director said.

Kristen Orosz, Union Home’s campus recruiting team lead, told Crain’s that the company’s 85 summer interns (its largest class yet) had a laptop, monitor, mouse, headset and a welcome bag of “goodies” shipped to them. UHM also has had 55 interns work with the company during the school year, and it’s expecting its summer class to jump to 115.

The employees, Cosgrove said, learn about a culture that starts “with attacking opportunities and attacking problems, not attacking each other.”

The formula has worked, and with all of that success comes questions about taking the company public.

Though he would “never say never with anything,” that’s not anywhere near the top of Cosgrove’s to-do list.

“The size and the growth of the organization has never been impeded by a lack of capital,” Cosgrove said.

“We run the business the right way; we run it conservatively. We’ve always had the resources to reinvest the profits back in the business.”

Kevin Kleps: kkleps@crain.com, (216) 771-5256, @KevinKleps

HEALTH CARE

Cleveland Clinic will ring in Founders Day with virtual event, docuseries The Clinic will begin its centennial celebration on Feb. 26 by discussing next 100 years of care BBY LYDIA COUTRÉ

Cleveland Clinic is celebrating its Founders Day this month, marking 100 years since the opening ceremony of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation on Feb. 26, 1921.

Clinic co-founders Drs. Frank E. Bunts, George W. Crile Sr. and William E. Lower served together in World War I and later recruited the fourth co-founder, John Phillips. At the opening ceremony, the four doctors addressed 500 physicians in attendance, sharing their vision of a new model of care in Cleveland. The Clinic opened its doors to patients two days later.

“They came back to the United States and decided that there was a better way to practice medicine, and that was through essentially teamwork, team-based care,” said Dr. Jim

Merlino, the Clinic’s chief clinical transformation officer.

They put a stake in the ground in Cleveland to build the model that has evolved and innovated to “set a new standard of care around the world.”

The Clinic wants to celebrate its history in big ways and small — literally. Every baby born at the Clinic on Friday, Feb. 26, Founders Day, will receive a custom onesie.

On Feb. 26, the Clinic launches its centennial year with a virtual presentation at 6 p.m. It will feature a keynote address from Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Dr. Tom Mihaljevic and appearances from supporters of the health system. Cleveland Clinic leaders from across its international network will discuss the next 100 years of health care.

The event will also include the world premiere of “A Century of

The original Cleveland Clinic building (shown here in 1921) is still a part of the system’s main campus today. | THE CLEVELAND CLINIC CENTER FOR MEDICAL ART & PHOTOGRAPHY

Care,” a docuseries produced in collaboration with CNN’s branded content studio. With firsthand accounts from patients and caregivers, it explores the Clinic’s innovation and commitment to patient care.

“A Century of Care” features four

installments that are combined into a 30-minute feature film, which will premiere on Founders Day. The film will air on CNN’s Headline News at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 27, and the entire series will be released online at 7 p.m. on Feb. 26. The first epi-

sode, “Innovation in Our DNA,” already is available.

Special tributes from Goo Goo Dolls’ lead singer Johnny Rzeznik and members of the Cleveland Orchestra will close the virtual event.

The values and mission of the Clinic imagined a century ago remain true at the Clinic today, Merlino said.

The team-based model was seen in simulation rooms where caregivers strategized how to stretch ICU supplies; in the collaboration required to stand up a temporary surge hospital in the early weeks of the pandemic; and in countless other examples of caregivers stepping out of traditional roles to work across the system to help manage the surge.

“The underpinnings of who we are came together every single day during the pandemic and continues to come together to meet those needs,” he said.

Lydia Coutré: lcoutre@crain.com, (216) 771-5479, @LydiaCoutre

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AKRON REAL ESTATE

Smithers cancels move into former ABIA building

Testing services company will look for another area property to consolidate its operations BBY DAN SHINGLER

Downtown has had a setback in terms of getting the former Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA) building back into full use.

Smithers has confirmed it has canceled its plans to take over the downtown Akron building and do a $16.9 million renovation.

The company, which provides laboratory and testing services for industries ranging from health care to transportation, said it has decided not to use the six-story building at 47 N. Main St. to consolidate its operations.

Previous plans called for Akron-based Smithers to renovate and move its headquarters, now at 121 S. Main St., into the former ABIA site, along with a lab now housed on West Market Street and about 200 employees.

Responding to inquiries at the end of January, Smithers issued a statement saying the project was “no longer moving forward due to the impact of COVID-19 on the financial arrangements established as part of the project.”

Smithers said in a statement to Crain’s: “Despite the best efforts of Smithers, Akron Children’s Hospital, the city of Akron and Summit County, the COVID-19 pandemic made the project untenable when everyone’s focus needed to be on the health and safety of their employees, clients and communities.”

While the decision is a disappointment for some downtown backers, all is not lost, according to Smithers and local officials who had been working with the company.

“Smithers has initiated a comprehensive search for a new campus to bring our Akron-based employees together in a transformational new home designed for agile operations

The former site of the Austen BioInnovation Institute will now be put up for sale at a market price by Summit County. | CRAIN’S FILE

and growth. The strategic reasons for a new Smithers global operations hub remain unchanged,” the company stated.

Summit County is already working with the company to find a new site, county chief of staff Brian Nelson said.

It would like to see Smithers remain in Akron but, barring that, will work to keep them in the county, Nelson said.

However, the county will not offer the company incentives to get it to move from one Summit County community to another, he said.

Smithers’ decision to pull out was a disappointment, but not one the county, city and the Development Finance Authority of Summit County (DFA) were unprepared for, Nelson said. All three entities worked with Smithers on the project. The building is owned by the DFA, but it will revert to county ownership if someone oth-

er than Smithers wants to purchase it, Nelson said.

“It’s disappointing,” Nelson said.

“We negotiated and worked with them and a number of partners, including the city, DFA and JobsOhio, for two years putting that project together. But all along the way as we worked through how to retrofit that property there were always hurdles. …

We always had a plan B, knowing that if for some reason this didn’t come off, we’d need to look at other options. So, while it’s disappointing, it really doesn’t leave us in a worse position.

We’re already in discussions to do something else with the property.”

Nelson and James Hardy, Akron’s deputy mayor for integrated development, said the city and county are already fielding inquiries from other interested parties, including one Hardy said is considering buying the build-

ing to use as traditional office space.

“The city is aware that the project to put Smithers at 47 N. Main St. in downtown Akron will not be moving forward. … That said, the city is in communication with Smithers to assist in staying and growing right here in their hometown,” Hardy said in an email. “Further, we know there is still market interest in 47 N. Main St. from a redevelopment perspective, so we remain optimistic that we can achieve a ‘win-win’ outcome. We don’t have a firm end use just yet, but I am aware of inquiries to repurpose the space for more office use.”

The county has already freed up the building by paying off about $6.5 million of debt in the form of a loan from the state of Ohio and some bonds set up by DFA, which were secured by the property. So the building will now be put for sale at a mar-

ket price, Nelson said. As part of its efforts to incentivize Smithers to move in, the county had agreed to sell the company the building at a discounted price of $750,000, he said.

Nelson, Hardy and DFA president Chris Burnham all said the building, which sits at a prime spot near the intersection of North Main Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard, remains in good shape, and they expressed optimism it will sell.

“You have a building with unbelievable highway access and a 200-space parking lot,” said Burnham, who added that he has seen other companies cut back their development plans recently due to the pandemic.

The county now might even get more selling the building at something like its appraised value.

“Now, I think we’re hoping to get market rate out of it — the last appraisal that was done was about $4.5 million,” Nelson said.

In the meantime, he and other local officials are scouring town for a new potential site that will fit Smithers’ needs — not an easy task for a company that needs both a laboratory facility and a lot of space.

“I think what they need is a 60,000to 70,000-square-foot building … and what they need is very specific. They need lab space for more than half that total space,” Nelson said.

The former ABIA building is now about half full. Burnham said it houses the DFA on one of its six floors, while Akron Children’s Hospital occupies two others and part of a third. Together, the two take up nearly 30,000 square feet of the 68,615-square-foot building, Burnham said.

Dan Shingler: dshingler@crain.com, (216) 771-5290, @DanShingler

REAL ESTATE

Best Buy scopes out Richfield Township for big warehouse move BBY STAN BULLARD

Resurgent electronics retailer Best Buy occupies a big distribution center in Streetsboro that’s just 10 years old. However, Best Buy is the prospective tenant for one rising in Richfield Township that stands to double its size.

The warehouse that Becknell Industrial of Carmel, Ind., is starting to build will encompass 750,000 square feet under roof. The retailer’s current operation is in a new-breed, high-ceilinged property of 368,000 square feet in size. In other words, the new building could house 13 football fields instead of a little more than six.

George Pofok, a senior vice president at Cushman & Wakefield Cresco of Independence, said the project is important for the region because it’s typical of the properties built in bigger logistics centers than Northeast Ohio, such as Cincinnati, Columbus and Indianapolis.

“It’s a sign we’re seeing the market evolve with buildings larger than 300,000 square feet,” Pofok said.

“Normally this type of building in our

The Best Buy flag will move to Richfield Township from a warehouse in Streetsboro.

Public records say the company is the tenant for a $40 million project that is under construction near Brecksville Road and the Ohio Turnpike. | COSTAR

market is 100,000 to 200,000.”

It’s a new wrinkle in the rapidly expanding industrial real estate market.

It’s far from the biggest in terms of size, however, as developers on behalf of Amazon have put up one-millionsquare-foot properties at three former mall sites. It’s in the range of the massive headquarters and warehouse that Hudson-based Arhaus moved into on Hines Hill Road in 2016.

The warehouse that Becknell is constructing in Richfield Township

will bring about 200 jobs new to Summit County with it, according to Bryan Herschel, a community and economic development manager for the county.

Summit County has approved a tax increment financing development for Becknell that will reimburse it for $4.5 million for constructing a halfmile roadway, sewer and water lines that will open the 70-acre site for the $40 million project.

“We’re told this is due to growth of

the retailer in the region,” Herschel said.

Herschel declined to identify the proposed tenant for the structure by name. However, minutes of a presentation to the Summit County Planning Commission identify Best Buy as the occupant of the proposed building.

Minutes of a Summit County Council meeting on Dec. 7, when the TIF was approved, also identify Best Buy as the tenant, although the actual legislation only names Becknell.

The site of Becknell’s project is on the east side of Brecksville Road north of the Ohio Turnpike. It is one interchange west of the Ohio Turnpike’s Streetsboro interchange. It is near two large FedEx warehouses located in the village and is in the Joint Economic Development District of the township and Richfield Village.

While the new project is Richfield and Summit’s gain, it’s a loss for Streetsboro and Portage County.

Streetsboro Mayor Glenn Broska said he was disappointed with Best Buy’s looming departure, which will take its jobs from his town.

“We have land available that could have accommodated them,” Broska

said. “But we felt we did not get to really make our case.”

Best Buy will be vacating a Streetsboro warehouse owned by Monmouth Real Estate Investment Trust based in Freehold, N.J. Becknell, which confirmed the project is the developer’s first in Northeast Ohio, has a posting on its website about the project but declined to discuss the development.

Best Buy did not reply to an email about the project.

Becknell, through an affiliate, owns the building’s proposed site. Last Dec. 1, it paid $6.6 million to J.J.J. Properties of Valley View for the 60-acre parcel, according to Summit records.

Richfield Township trustees did not respond to two email requests for interviews about the project.

Melinda Rezec, township administrator, said the project was approved by the township’s zoning commission without variances, but some minor ones are now being sought.

“This project came together very quickly,” Herschel said.

Stan Bullard: sbullard@crain.com, (216) 771-5228, @CrainRltywriter

6 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | February 22, 2021

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PERSONAL VIEW

Do we need a council committee on inequality?

RICH WILLIAMS FOR CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

BBY ROLDO BARTIMOLE

EDITORIAL

On the roads again T

he Ohio Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers has released its 2021 report card for Ohio’s infrastructure, and the organization gave the state an overall grade of “C-” across 16 categories.

Not great. But this report card, the first from the group for Ohio in 10 years, does stand out in one way: The organization’s most recent national report, issued in 2017, gave the country a “D+,” so relatively speaking, Ohio’s on more solid ground than other states.

Still, you wouldn’t want to bring these grades home to your parents. And note that two of the areas receiving the lowest grade of “D” are roads and transit — big-ticket items that are important to maintaining a strong economy.

If your roads are deteriorating, and transit is inadequate, it’s hard for people and goods to get from one place to another, and that curtails economic activity. The report found that 17% of the state’s nearly 123,000 miles of public roads are in poor condition.

State and federal fuel taxes pay for most roadway and bridge improvements, accounting for about 98% of revenue for the Ohio Department of Transportation, according to an analysis IF YOUR ROADS ARE by the Dayton Daily News. But DETERIORATING, AND with people driving less as a TRANSIT IS INADEQUATE, result of the pandemic, ODOT from last March to November IT’S HARD FOR PEOPLE received $198 million less in AND GOODS TO GET FROM fuel tax revenue than anticiand that trend is likely ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER, pated, to continue.

AND THAT CURTAILS It will fall on the federal government to address the biggest ECONOMIC ACTIVITY. infrastructure woes. Ohio’s U.S. senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman, have been strong advocates for the state to get necessary road and bridge funding. The government more broadly, though, has failed to pass a comprehensive infrastructure bill in recent years. If the new Biden administration is looking for a cause that can win bipartisan support, a smart, targeted infrastructure bill might do the trick and could give the economy a needed jolt.

The civil engineers group in its Ohio evaluation called attention

to an “extensive and long-term lack of transit funding” — something Gov. Mike DeWine is not helping to improve with his budget proposal for 2022-23, which would cut annual state funding for public transit agencies to $7.3 million from $70 million a year in the current two-year budget. The governor wants to reach outside the state with a $50 million marketing campaign to attract workers and companies to Ohio. Failing to support transit infrastructure is not the way to send a message that this state is a place to be.

In its report, the civil engineers group made a few recommendations, one of which strikes us as particularly notable: “Improve land use planning at the local level to consider the function of existing and new infrastructure, the balance between the built and natural environments, and population trends in communities of all sizes.” A thoughtful approach to infrastructure involves more than just building, and it sure doesn’t involve more sprawl.

With deeper consideration of our infrastructure strategy, the grades on the next report card can be a whole lot better.

Same old A

fter U.S. Sen. Rob Portman announced in January that he wouldn’t run for re-election in 2022, we expressed hope that Ohio voters will be able “to pick a workhorse rather than a show horse” to succeed the Cincinnati Republican. So far on the GOP side, things aren’t looking promising.

Two high-profile Republicans already have said they’re running for the seat, and their sparring involves trying to prove who is the bigger fan of Donald Trump, and who can attack former Ohio Gov. John Kasich more vigorously.

“We can’t let America become a socialist country,” former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken said in announcing her candidacy. She said she “cleaned house of the Kasich establishment who tried to elect Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden” and “unified the party and delivered a second, decisive Ohio win for President Trump.” Former State Treasurer Josh Mandel vows to “fight for President Trump’s America First Agenda” and cited Trump’s impeachment as his impetus for running.

Socialism. Trump. Grievance. It’s all the same playbook.

Seems to work for them, but Ohio deserves better.

Executive Editor: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com) Managing Editor: Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com) Contact Crain’s: 216-522-1383 Read Crain’s online: crainscleveland.com

On Jan. 15, Cuyahoga County paid $6,145,133 on bonds owed for the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, according to an email response from a county official.

The bonds relate to overruns on the arena built in the 1990s, almost three decades ago. There are two annual payments remaining.

The county had to pay the full amount, In past years, the city’s admissions tax paid Bartimole wrote the larger portion. Due to the pandemic, and published a admissions tax revenue was unavailable. political This payment is an example of the subsi- newsletter, Point dies available from local governments for of View, from private businesses, a form of wealth trans- 1968 to 2000. It is available on fers resulting in our growing inequality.

It plays a role in the serious problem Cleveland State of economic inequality. Most people University’s cannot avail themselves of someone else Memory Project website. He now paying their bills.

The sports facilities, in addition to occasionally funding via taxes, were blessed with state writes for the legislation, pushed by Cleveland and Have Coffee Will county officials, to fully exempt them Write website. from property taxes.

The Cleveland schools would have received at least half of that total with no balancing compensation.

Some years ago, I asked the county to provide information on the property values and the lost income of the three sports facilities for the Browns, Indians and Cavaliers.

The response revealed the cost in lost tax revenue: The Browns stadium, now FirstEnergy Stadium, should have paid for a two-year period, $16,055,034 on the stadium alone. The city itself actually pays taxes on the land.

The arena, now Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, should have paid $7,582,482 for the same two-year period.

And Progressive Field, where the Indians play, should have paid $9,700,620 for that same two-year period.

That would total more than $33 million for the three sports venues for a two-year period.

This, of course, has been going on for not years but decades. And continues presently. The major loser has been the Cleveland school system. It would receive more than 50% of the property taxes. The Cleveland schools, however, receive none of this forgiven property tax income.

The deflection of property taxes reached an apex recently when Cleveland City Council voted to add 30 years to an already 30-year tax-increment financing agreement for the Flats East Bank development alongside the Cuyahoga River.

And it comes when interest rates are historically low for developers.

Sixty years is a long time. The council members who voted for this measure likely won’t be alive for the duration.

The TIF is a form of property tax abatement that allows a portion of due taxes to be directed toward infrastructure improvement needs rather than to the usual public uses.

Only schools retain the taxes due. City, county and libraries tax shares are diverted.

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 ClevEdit@crain.com. Please include your complete name and city from which you are writing, and a telephone number for fact-checking purposes.

MOST PEOPLE CANNOT AVAIL THEMSELVES OF SOMEONE ELSE PAYING THEIR BILLS.

See BARTIMOLE on Page 16

Sound off: Send a Personal View for the opinion page to emcintyre@crain.com. Please include a telephone number for verification purposes.

8 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | February 22, 2021

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OPINION

Inventing incrementally: From startup to $486 million in 25 years Radical innovation. Disruptive innovation. Venture capital. Angel capital.

Business people use these terms frequently and somewhat indiscriminately. But, the thing is, for better or worse, Ohioans excel at a less sexy, different type of innovation — incremental innovation — and they excel at raising a different type of financing: angel customer capital. I love that two Clevelanders, John Haugh and Mike Shaughnessy, epitomize how to do incremental inventing and angel customer financing right. My publishing company commissioned them to write "SALES FIRST!: Growing a Company the Old-Fashioned Way, the ColorMatrix Story," to recount their experience.

In 2006, Haugh and Shaughnessy recapped their company, ColorMatrix, for $175 million, and in 2011, when they still owned 14%, PolyOne acquired it for $486 million. The two entrepreneurs accomplished this growth success without taking on venture or angel capital (albeit, in the recap, they took on expansion-related, private equity capital). How’d they do it? For the answer, we need to go back to the mid-1980s.

In 1985, Shaughnessy and Haugh were sales representatives who drove their beat-up cars around and sold chemical additives to plastics processors. One day, they came across a little, Chicago company that was trying to commercialize a totally new liquid colorant for plastics.

Until then, processors added color to plastics by using powders and pellets, which were messy and inefficient.

“This could be a gold mine,” Shaughnessy told Haugh.

Having no capital, and having families to support, the men stuck with their day jobs while also licensing the ability to sell the liquid colorant technology in the Ohio Valley area.

That was STEP ONE in how they did it. They LICENSED TECHNOLOGIES instead of developing them in house.

They then asked a few of their customers from their sales rep job whether they’d consider replacing their existing pellet-or-powder colorants with the new liquid technology. The customers said they’d be happy to take that risk. These were what’s known as Braun is angel customers. They paid for an unpresident of Braun Ink, which proven, new product, and they did so with goodwill and a culture of mutual publishes the Braun Collection innovation. Mike and John pulled this off because of their preexisting presof True Business ence in the industry and obsession Adventure Tales. with good customer relationships.

That’s STEP TWO in how they did it. They CULTIVATED ANGEL CUSTOMERS. Shaughnessy and Haugh never developed product improvements ahead of stated customer needs. Instead, they drove around the Ohio Valley as, basically, selling machines.

They stopped in to see prospects all the time, they worked constantly to refine their sales pitch so as not to commoditize their innovation, they listened to the market, and they continually developed relationships with customers that were characterized by collegiality and experimentation.

When they needed more sales firepower, they aggressively added sales people to their team, additionally putting in place top-notch sales and customer service training.

That’s STEP THREE in how they did it. They SOLD LIKE CRAZY.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Attorney advises how to keep employees unhappy In response to the Feb. 14 opinion piece “Is your nonunion company ready for new administration’s labor agenda?,” I would like to make a few things clear that Marc Bloch conveniently ignores in his writing.

Bloch’s piece shamelessly serves as an advertisement for his union-busting services and clearly ignores the reality working people face in our economy. His advice is tone deaf to working people seeking a better life and to the American public in general who overwhelmingly support unions.

Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows nearly half of non-union workers would vote to join a union today. That’s tens of millions of people. Last year, Gallup found that union approval stands at 65%, one of the highest marks in a half-century.

Somehow, Bloch was able to write his piece and not even mention the pandemic that workers are living and working through, not to mention those who have gotten ill or died as a result of workplace exposure to the coronavirus. Union density rose in 2020 amid the pandemic and the failed federal response to it. Now, more than ever, working people view unions as a means toward ensuring safety in the workplace, in addition to getting the pay and benefits we are due.

Bloch advises readers to not assume that their employees are happy, and he’s right on that point. Between 1948 and 1973, when New Deal era laws expanded and enforced collective bargaining, hourly wages rose by more than 90%. But over the next 40 years — from 1973 to 2013 — hourly wages rose by just over 9% while productivity increased 74%. This does not make anyone happy, except for those who profit by holding workers down and infringing on our collective bargaining rights.

As it is, workers are not getting paid a fair share of what we produce. It’s unjust, and it’s unsustainable.

The renewed push to make the process for organizing a union fairer with passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is a logical reaction to the circumstances that American workers are faced with in these times. No matter how hard Bloch tries to frighten employers into buying into his services, working people know that there is strength and security in a union. We deserve a level playing

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PERSONAL VIEW

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field, and together, we’re going to build one.

Dan O’Malley, Executive secretary, North Shore AFL-CIO

Time to relinquish the ‘pity city crown’ The Crain’s Cleveland Business Feb. 1 front-page package on the Cleveland Innovation Project hit a nerve for me. It brought to life how Cleveland, the country’s former sixth-largest city, has evaporated into the city with the nation’s highest poverty rate. I believe that I know how we earned this regrettable distinction and how to correct it.

Cleveland is a city that remarkably cares, but since its downturn, it has become a city that chases shiny objects instead of promoting itself as grounds for abundant opportunity. Crain’s cover stories shined an all-too-familiar light on various economic generators’ efforts to “reinvent”, “research” and “resuscitate” their mission. Successful investors unearth future opportunities versus chasing the next big bets.

Last month’s Federal Reserve Beige Book (Jan. 13) found “flat to slightly falling momentum” for the city, a demarcation that highlights little exceptional-interest accomplishment within the pandemic.

Instead of identifying another economic entity to “research” and “reach out” to indiscernible opportunity, let’s “polish” and “promote” what we successfully have, namely a fantastic freshwater city with steadfast people, a great location and easy access to resources. America’s most extensive cultural arts district (Wade Park), a gold-medal park system (Cleveland Metroparks), the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (global fintech), world-renowned health care, NASA Glenn Research Center (propulsion and energy), the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (teach and inspire rock and roll), and the most extensive U.S. performing arts center outside of New York.

Its time to “polish”, “package” and “promote” Cleveland’s lucrative wealth in talent and treasure. Post-pandemic recovery might not bode well for top-tier cities (New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago). Let’s support civic visionaries that unearth and expand our unbelievable distinctions.

Greg Coloian, Cleveland

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HIGHER EDUCATION

IVORY TOWERS Black Americans remain underrepresented at our best colleges and overrepresented at some of our worst.

10 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | FEBRUARY 22, 2021

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ILLUS

2/18/2021 3:13:08 PM

How higher education is failing Black Americans in the Midwest ``BY AMY MORONA | Roughly 17,500 students enrolled at

the University of Chicago this past fall. Eight hundred and twenty eight of that group, just 4.7% of its total population, are Black, including Claire Shackleford.

The 21-year-old detailed an experience where required reading lists lean heavily into works by white male authors. There are fewer professors of color, so students instead befriend Black cafeteria workers or custodians for support. It’s common, she said, to be the only Black student in a classroom.

“The burden of being a student of color at a predominantly white institution is that you’re often expected to speak on behalf of your race,” she said.

In three Midwestern cities, there are broad disparities in who is going where in higher education — and who is going anywhere at all. Black Americans in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as the nation, remain underrepresented at our best colleges and overrepresented at some of our worst.

Take Cleveland, for example, where nearly half of city residents are Black. Case Western Reserve University, the city’s most selective college, reported only 6% of its population was made up of Black students in 2018, a number that’s barely budged since 2000. The school declined to be interviewed for this piece.

The record of nearby public universities doesn’t fare much better — just 8% at Kent State and nearly 15% at Cleveland State in 2018.

The story is similar in Detroit, where nearly 80% of its residents are Black, but Black students made up just 15% of Wayne State University’s population three years ago and just 11% at the University of Detroit Mercy. Roughly a third of Chicago’s residents are Black, but Black students made up just 6.9% of Loyola University Chicago’s population that same year.

Students at selective institutions have higher chances of graduating.

Those campuses also reportedly spend about three times more per student on instructional and academic support compared with open-access schools, the institutions where students of color enroll at much bigger rates. Those places, including community colleges, historically receive less funding and have fewer resources.

But Black students are overrepresented at for-profit colleges — where the rates of debt tend to run high and the graduation rates tend to skew low — by more than 12 percentage points

in Ohio and more than 15 percentage points in Michigan, according to one recent estimate.

And some of the most problematic outcomes are linked to students at those institutions. Many have a long history of predatory practices. Students there tend to graduate with more debt and are more likely to go into default than their peers who enroll elsewhere.

What this all adds up to is stubborn gaps in who’s getting a degree.

In each of the counties that house Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit, the rates of white people with bachelor’s degrees are more than double the number of Black Americans with those same credentials.

“These systems were created to keep people of color out, so I think we have to shift our paradigm,” said Ryan Fewins-Bliss, the executive director of the Michigan College Access Network. “We think about it as like the system is failing, when actually the system is really, really successful because it was designed to keep these people out. And it’s keeping them out.”

See FAILING GRADE on Page 12

“WE THINK ABOUT IT AS LIKE THE SYSTEM IS FAILING, WHEN ACTUALLY THE SYSTEM IS REALLY, REALLY SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE IT WAS DESIGNED TO KEEP THESE PEOPLE OUT. AND IT’S KEEPING THEM OUT.” ——Ryan Fewins-Bliss, executive director of the Michigan College Access Network ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREA LEVY FOR CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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February 22, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 11

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FOCUS | HIGHER EDUCATION

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FAILING GRADE

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He added, “We have to do systems-level change at the K-12 level and definitely at the higher ed level in order to see these problems be fixed.”

These stark enrollment and attainment gaps have far-reaching impacts.

Earning a bachelor’s degree, of course, affects one’s personal earning potential, but research also shows having higher levels of education creates healthier and more engaged citizens.

“Education in the African American community changes generations,” said Laura Williams, president of the Cleveland Council of Black Colleges Alumni Association. “It is a game changer for individuals. It is a game changer for families.”

It’s also vital for the economic health of a region. A 2015 report from The Brookings Institution found that a bachelor’s degree holder contributed more than $278,000 in lifetime direct spending to a local economy compared with a high school graduate.

And those economies are changing, placing more emphasis on earning higher credentials. By 2050, the bulk of residents in Chicago are forecast to be people of color. There are expected to be fewer jobs in manufacturing and transportation, but increased opportunities in industries such as finance, real estate and other professional/technical services.

Michigan is pushing for 60% of its residents to have a postsecondary credential by 2030. Sixty-five percent of Ohioians are expected to need either a two- or four-year degree or “marketable skill” by 2025.

In Cleveland, high school senior Nia Babley is researching colleges right now. She plans to major in biomedical engineering, a sector that’s expected to see growth over the next few years. She’s looking at the demographic makeup of each campus on her short list.

“I want to understand the college and I want the college to understand me, all at the same time,” she said.

She’s also pushing for a full ride.

Higher education is expensive. A 2019 report from The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, reinforced a link between student debt and the racial wealth gap, finding that Black families “rely more heavily on student debt, and on riskier forms of student debt, than white families do.”

Black Americans who take on student loans are also more likely to “never” be able to repay that debt, according to a 2020 report from the JP Morgan Chase Institute. Those findings noted that this is due in part to Black borrowers making about 22% less than their white counterparts, as well as being less likely to receive financial help from family members or friends to pay for their education.

Overall, Babley said she feels lucky to attend a high school with a strong college-going culture. She feels supported. But she knows that not all students have that experience.

For those who don’t, Cleveland resident Jowan Smith helps families fill in the gaps through her grassroots group Getting Our Babies to College 101. She said she finds that many institutions, especially the top ones, seem to have requirements in place that can diminish Black students’ applications from the beginning.

High school students might not be able to fulfill community service hours because they’re working, or they may be at a lower-performing

“WHEN THEY LOOK AT THE TEST SCORES OF OUR AVERAGE STUDENTS, THEY DON’T SEE SUCCESS. THEY DON’T EVEN GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO COME AND TRY AND GROW AS A STUDENT.” — Jowan Smith, fonder of Getting Our Babies to College 101

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland’s most selective college, reported only 6% of its population was made up of Black students in 2018, a number that’s barely budged since 2000. | CONTRIBUTED

“TRUTHFULLY, THE WAY WE SHOULD BE FUNDING THESE INSTITUTIONS SHOULD BE FLIPPED. WE PROVIDE THE MOST RESOURCES IN HIGHER EDUCATION TO THE STUDENTS WITH THE MOST ADVANTAGE, AND WE PROVIDE THE LEAST RESOURCES IN HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THOSE STUDENTS WHO ARE MOST DISADVANTAGED.” — Wil Del Pilar, vice president of higher education, The Education Trust.

high school without resources. Research shows students of color have fewer opportunities for advanced classes or gifted programs.

“When they look at the test scores of our average students, they don’t see success,” Smith said. “They don’t even give them a chance to come and try and grow as a student.”

According to The Education Trust’s Wil Del Pilar, if institutions’ admissions offices are placing a higher priority on opportunities that Black students have less access to, they’re systematically disadvantaging them.

“That is why students end up at community college or for-profit institutions, because we’ve effectively shut the doors to our best and best-funded institutions to the majority of those students,” the vice president of higher education at the national nonprofit educational advocacy group said.

Black students, along with Hispanic students, are reportedly three times more likely than their white peers to enroll at a for-profit college.

A Bryant and Stratton outpost in Cleveland, a barber college 30 minutes outside of Chicago and a beauty school in Detroit each reported Black people made up at least 80% of their total enrollment in 2018.

“I think they reach a population that feels like they cannot access college, that college isn’t for them, by telling them this is different, this is better, this is newer,” said FewinsBliss in Michigan.

And while not all jobs require a four-year degree, MCAN’s FewinsBliss said that some credentials issued by for-profits aren’t actually industry recognized.

“It’s not stackable, so you can’t take it to the institution down the road and stack credits on top of that to get an associate degree or a bachelor’s degree,” he said. “So students get done and they’ve paid $30,000 for a two-year certificate that doesn’t get them anywhere.”

When it comes to closing the overall gaps, some work is being done on these fronts. College scholarship opportunities linked to cities’ K-12 systems have been established, including Cleveland’s Say Yes to Education, the Detroit Promise and the STAR scholarship in Chicago.

Michigan’s Wayne State University touted an uptick in enrollment for firsttime Black college students this past fall. The University of Chicago, which didn’t respond to interview requests for this story, reported that the freshman class of 2024 is “most diverse student body and freshman class” in its history, according to the university’s independent student newspaper. The publication added the university has used similar language to describe other classes before.

But for sustainable progress to be made, Ed Trust’s Del Pilar recommends more accountability fall on states and cities, along with giving more thought to funding formulas.

“Truthfully, the way we should be funding these institutions should be flipped,” he said. “We provide the most resources in higher education to the students with the most advantage, and we provide the least resources in higher education for those students who are most disadvantaged.”

Amy Morona: amy.morona@crain. com, (216) 771-5229, @AmyMorona

12 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | FEBRUARY 22, 2021

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FOCUS | HIGHER EDUCATION

LCCC tackles COVID with upgraded services, fast-tracking Community college was addressing the affordability issue long before the pandemic hit

BY BOB SANDRICK

When COVID-19 shuttered school buildings throughout Ohio last March, Lorain County Community College was prepared to carry on, even though it couldn’t have known the nature of the health crisis beforehand.

By that time, LCCC already had introduced some online courses. The college used its 10-day spring break in 2020 to expand its online offerings, converting most of its in-person classes to virtual instruction. Today, about 80% of LCCC’s classes are online, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

LCCC also launched a fast-track program, in which online students can earn a degree or certificate within 16 weeks. The college now has 21 new short-term courses of study designed to help students obtain jobs in high-demand fields.

The efforts are paying off. Last spring, LCCC graduated the largest class in the school’s history. It awarded more than 2,500 degrees or certificates to more than 2,100 students.

The college did experience a 2.3% enrollment drop in fall due to the pandemic, but in comparison, total enrollment in two-year public colleges throughout the United States decreased by 10% in 2020, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

“COVID-19 has hit all colleges hard, but especially community colleges,” said Dave Jenkins, senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center at Columbia University. “Community colleges were hurt because they serve students and families who often work

From left, Shamonica Davis, Commodore Cupboard worker and LCCC student, and Charlene Dellipoala, coordinator of Commodore Cupboard, a program that offers help to students who are food insecure. | LCCC

front-line service jobs while they’re studying. When COVID-19 hit, those jobs disappeared, and they could no longer afford college.”

LCCC president Marcia Ballinger said the school was addressing the affordability issue long before the pandemic. And when students’ needs increased because of COVID-19, the college upgraded its existing wraparound services, which include providing laptops, food and even assistance with utility and health care bills for students in need.

“I pledged from the beginning that no student would go without food or technology,” Ballinger said. “We know that if they don’t have their basic needs met, they won’t have the ability to pursue a degree and succeed.”

LCCC’s efforts have been recognized. Last February, Achieving the

Dream — a network of more than 200 community colleges focused on helping low-income students — gave LCCC its annual Leah Meyer Austin Award for showing continuous improvements in student outcomes and success.

Responding to need Ballinger said that from the outset of the pandemic, she and her staff emphasized health and safety above all else. Classes they were unable to switch to online — in the nursing, dental and police academy programs, for example — now include safety protocols, like mask wearing and social distancing.

Tracy Green, LCCC’s vice president of strategic and institutional development, said the school established its fast-track, 16-week

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programs because people were losing jobs during the pandemic. LCCC consulted with local employers — especially those in health care, manufacturing, business and information technology — to understand their workforce needs.

Then the college designed fasttrack courses of study that would allow students to qualify for those positions. Amazingly, the fast-track courses were tuition-free for students, thanks to financial assistance from the state of Ohio.

Meanwhile, LCCC beefed up a computer recycling program, started by two professors, that provides students with free laptops if they can’t afford them. Local employers donate the old computers, and the college also received federal CARES Act money to purchase additional computers.

Assisting students in need is more important than ever at LCCC, but it’s nothing new there, officials said.

Ballinger said she was hosting a student forum about five years ago, before she was college president, when a student leader asked her how she might gain access to food.

“She said she came to school hungry every day,” Ballinger said. “That was eye-opening for me.”

Ballinger learned that students were skipping meals to pay for tuition and books, and in some cases, were dropping out. That led to the opening of Commodore Cupboard, an on-campus food pantry for students and community members living at or below 200% of the poverty level. The pantry, funded through charitable contributions, has stayed open through the pandemic, al-

though it now provides only curbside service by appointment.

“When we created the food pantry, we surveyed our students and asked if they or their family members had experienced food insecurity in the previous month,” Ballinger said. “Sixty-three percent said yes.”

LCCC students can also seek help at the school’s Advocacy Resource Center, which gives emergency financial assistance for students behind in utility, medical and child care bills, or rent. Late last year, the center opened the Commodore Career Closet, where students can select two professional outfits they will need for job interviews.

Ballinger said LCCC is not standing still because the COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the college landscape. For example, LCCC hosted COVID-19 vaccination clinics in late January and early February.

Meanwhile, health sciences students are conducting research with a professor who’s also a virologist.

Ballinger said she continues to talk to students through online chats so she can stay informed of experiences and struggles. And the school is revising its strategic plan and will announce changes to it in spring.

“In all of this disruption, there is also opportunity for new possibilities,” Ballinger said. “What will the impact on telemedicine be in our training? We want to harness that and create a better community college and a better community coming out of the pandemic.”

Contact Bob Sandrick: clbfreelancer@crain.com

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14 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | FEBRUARY 22, 2021

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FOCUS | HIGHER EDUCATION

Northeast Ohio colleges get creative with fall recruiting

Pandemic prompts schools to connect in new ways, such as drive-in events and tuition deals

BY DOUGLAS J. GUTH

Last fall, Kent State University took recruitment to the drive-in, inviting hundreds of prospective students to watch campus tours and a movie about the admissions process.

A drive-in event at North Ridgeville’s Aut-O-Rama in November drew 150 families, with smaller crowds attending similar get-togethers in Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo.

It’s unknown how the events translated to admissions, but university officials expect to revisit the drive-in later this year as part of its fall recruitment campaign. Freshmen and overall enrollment across KSU’s eight-campus system dropped by 3% in autumn 2020, a downturn attributed mostly to pandemic uncertainty.

The school averaged about 4,200 incoming freshmen in the five years prior to the COVID era, a figure that will take some work to recoup.

“We recognize we’re still in a pandemic, and students will be making decisions (about college),” said Sean Broghammer, associate vice president of enrollment management and admissions at KSU. “A good goal for this fall would be getting as close as we can to our previous numbers for a first-year class.”

Observers said the pandemic is only accelerating local college enrollment problems caused by Ohio’s shrinking pool of high school graduates. Regional admissions offices are preparing for fall 2021 via “testing optional” admissions, reconfigured tuition initiatives and various out-ofthe-box recruitment endeavors.

about value,” said Wehner, pointing to CSU’s annual tuition of $11,000. “It has to be clear that we have expectations for students to be successful. As it looks like we might be living with the coronavirus for a while, we said let’s run the program again this fall.”

Navigating a difficult time

A Kent State staff member holds a virtual appointment with a student. The pandemic has prompted schools to change their recruiting methods. | KENT STATE UNIVERSITY

Cleveland State University recently announced it will continue its 2-1 Tuition Promise program for freshmen enrolling in the fall 2021 semester. Unveiled in June 2020, the program doubled the university’s admission applications from the same period in 2019, CSU vice president and dean of admissions Jonathan Wehner said.

First-time participants who finish the semester with a 3.0 grade-point average or better will receive additional financial aid through the program. These dollars will cover any remaining spring 2022 tuition not handled by the student’s initial financial aid package.

Though the initiative is designed to provide crucial financial support for struggling families, qualifying learn-

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“WE DIDN’T WANT THIS TO JUST BE ABOUT VALUE. IT HAS TO BE CLEAR THAT WE HAVE EXPECTATIONS FOR STUDENTS TO BE SUCCESSFUL.” — Jonathan Wehner, CSU vice president and dean of admissions

ers still must pave their own pathway to completion, Wehner said.

“We didn’t want this to just be

Fall 2020 admissions at CSU fell 2% from the prior autumn, for a total enrollment of 15,500. While undergrad enrollment dropped by 4%, the institution did enjoy a 5% increase in its graduate studies programs and a 12% population jump at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. “When the economy is bad, you get people returning to school for graduate and law degrees,” Wehner explained.

However, the pandemic has exacerbated an ongoing decline in enrollment, dating back to 2015 when CSU had about 17,000 students on its rolls.

“The real challenge with the virus has been an inability to make oneon-one connections with students,” Wehner said. “Normally, we’d be going to high schools, or meeting with students and their parents at college fairs. How do we develop those connections and demonstrate the opportunities students can have here?”

Campus tours returned to CSU last fall after a COVID hiatus, albeit with smaller, socially distanced groups.

Officials also quickly pivoted to virtual tours that included campus walkthroughs and counselor meet-ups.

Similarly popular are online panels in which prospective enrollees talk

shop with current students.

“We’ve been getting 300-350 students for these webinars — it feels great to attract that kind of audience,” Wehner said. “When making these decisions, students are asking if they can see themselves at a college or university. That’s hard to do now, so these sessions give individuals an opportunity with students and faculty who can talk about their campus experience.”

John Carroll University had 631 incoming freshmen in the fall, a drop from 725 in 2019. As a private, Jesuit institution, JCU has recruitment inroads with Catholic high schools — St. Ignatius, St. Edward and Walsh Jesuit, to name a few — that comprise around 65% of enrollment.

That hasn’t stopped officials from redoubling fall admissions efforts, said Stephanie Levenson, JCU’s vice president for enrollment management.

The University Heights campus reopened for visitors in June, with new in-person events already scheduled for this spring. Virtual events, meanwhile, will focus on athletics, the campus ministry and similarly focused points of interest for participants battling Zoom fatigue.

“This year’s crop of seniors and their parents have had a really difficult year,” Levenson said. “They’ve missed so many milestones, and that’s a thing we want to navigate with them. We’re trying to make admissions as special as possible with the constraints we’re all working under.”

See RECRUITING on Page 16

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BARTIMOLE

RECRUITING

From Page 8

There’s an advantage to be able to hire lawyers to make laws that are self-benefiting.

Back in the late 1970s, the then Squire, Sanders & Dempsey law firm wrote the state law allowing tax abatements. National City Bank at East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue became the first recipient. The abatement was for 20 years but with a sliding reduction of 25% every five years.

Thereafter, abatement flowed in downtown Cleveland at 100% of the value and for a 20-year duration. That included the now Key Tower, the Marriott, the Ritz-Carlton and the Wyndham hotels and others.

Developers were on a roll. There seemed to be no resistance to the diversion of the tax revenue.

Real estate interests had already gotten a major cut in property taxes.

It seemed to have been forgotten.

What city leaders apparently had forgotten was the 1950s version of tax reductions for commercial property. At that time, commercial and industrial properties were taxed at 49% of market value and homes at 35% of their value, or a 14 percentage point difference.

An Ohio Supreme court decision — the Park Investment Co. case — leveled the playing field. All property thereafter was taxable equally, giving commercial and industrial a break, narrowing the 14 percentage point difference of the past.

It wasn’t surprising, then, recently when the Park Building at Public Square — the same “Park” in the Park Investment case — revealed in 2009

From Page 15

Old challenges remain

On Jan. 15, Cuyahoga County paid $6,145,133 on bonds owed for Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, according to an email response from a county official. | KEN BLAZE FOR CRAIN’S

that it had converted from offices to housing with, of course, tax abatements of 12 years.

Developers, as sports owners, had become intoxicated on government subsidies.

What does this say about local governments?

It says they have become a major factor in the growth of inequality — giving to the wealthy, taking from the rest.

The ordinary person doesn’t have batteries of consultants, lawyers and associations creating and propelling mechanisms through state legislatures that push special tax breaks.

So they end up paying the full price and the share bestowed on developers eventually.

One can see the result by actions that increase taxation at the other end.

The city, by a close vote, raised the city income tax by 25% in 2017 from 2% to 2.5% of job earnings. No small

amount — $80 million a year.

The city also enacted a garbage collection fee of $8.75 a month, or $105 a year per housing unit.

The county, without a vote, raised the sales tax in 2007 to pay for a convention center and medical mart. It lifted this most regressive tax to 8%. It raises some $40 million a year.

These people taxes add up.

Of course, regressive sales taxes are used to finance the sports stadiums. In the first 15 years, voted in 1990, “sin” taxes raised $240 million.

The latest monthly report shows that the sin tax, extended 20 years by vote in 2016, raised $14,730,110 in 2020.

Our legislators spent too much time worrying about how wealthy interests fare and much too little time worrying about their average constituent.

That propels the inequality that no one wants to notice.

Maybe we need a city council committee on inequality for balance.

During the pandemic’s early months, institutions including CSU and Case Western Reserve University waived standardized test scores as an admission requirement, citing test center closings and a deluge of postponements. CSU will relinquish standardized testing requirements through at least the fall, using metrics like online tests around math and English to determine student placement.

COVID-19 is highlighting challenges tuition-dependent colleges both locally and nationally have been facing for years, particularly a shrinking high-school graduate pool. According to data from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, about 109,600 students will graduate from Ohio’s high schools in 2032, down from roughly 137,100 graduates in 2011.

“Sensitivity to tuition, reduction in public funding sources and declines in enrollment,” said Rick Staisloff, founder and senior partner at college consulting firm RPK Group. “The pandemic created urgency around this set of long-term issues.”

Nationally, undergraduate enrollment at private, nonprofit fouryear institutions is down 2% compared to fall 2019, while public universities have seen a 1.4% decline, per data from the National

Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Freshman enrollment declined 13.1% from fall 2019 to fall 2020, a gap that research center officials attribute to COVID-19 and the attendant recession.

To reverse this trend, schools should widen their recruiting net beyond the traditionally young undergraduate student, Staisloff said.

Adult learners ages 25 and older encompassed about 35% of those enrolled in higher education as of 2018, according to the Education Writers Association.

“There are lots of adults who have some college and no degree, or need credits to be successful in a chosen career field,” Staisloff said. “Smart colleges are recruiting more broadly across the markets they serve.”

Broghammer at KSU said the university is taking additional steps to remove barriers for first-generation learners and other underrepresented populations.

Outreach means assisting with student aid applications or directing individuals to various scholarships.

Some COVID-inspired recruitment changes will remain even once the pandemic recedes, said CSU’s Wehner.

“We’ll never get away from some of the digital initiatives we’ve introduced,” he said. “We’re going to keep them as part of our recruiting toolkit, because we’ve found it’s easier to engage with some students this way.”

Contact Douglas J. Guth: clbfreelancer@crain.com

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CRAIN'S LIST | LARGEST PHILANTHROPIC GIFTS OF 2021 Ranked by gift amount RECIPIENT

DONOR (CONNECTION TO RECIPIENT)

AMOUNT

DATE

WHAT THIS GIFT WILL SUPPORT

DEVELOPMENT CONTACT

The MetroHealth Foundation

JoAnn and Bob Glick

$42,000,000

Oct. 2020

Health programs for underserved residents and a Case Western Reserve University nursing professorship

Kate Brown 216-778-7509

Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Anonymous

$15,000,000

July 2020

Hillcrest Hospital

Lara Kalafatis 216-445-8695

University Hospitals

Anonymous

$12,000,000

Dec. 2020

Angie Fowler Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Institute

Sherri Bishop 216-983-2200

Cleveland Foundation

Anonymous

$11,488,363

Jan. 2020

A named fund to support various 501(c)(3) organizations

—

Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Howley Foundation

$10,696,684

Oct. 2020

ASPIRE Nurse Scholars Program

Lara Kalafatis 216-445-8695

Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio

Mackenzie Scott

$10,000,000

Dec. 2020

Expansion of the the organization's impact throughout its 10 county region

Maureen Ater 330-445-1032

Stark Community Foundation

Anonymous

$10,000,000

Nov. 2020

Endowment fund to support the donor’s charitable passions

Bridgette Neisel 330-454-7992

Akron Children's Hospital

Richard and Barbara Altman; Louis and Christine Altman; Jane and Michael Zoldan

$9,881,738

March 2020

Akron Children's Health Center, Portage

Shelly Brown 330-543-8900

9 10 10 12 13 14 15 15 17 18 19 19 21 22

Cleveland Foundation

Anonymous

$9,456,595

Dec. 2020

A donor advised fund

—

Case Western Reserve University

Anonymous (Alumni)

$7,500,000

April 2020

Neurodegeneration research, care and education at the School of Medicine and Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing

Abby Mitchell 216-368-4352

University Hospitals

Steve and Loree Potash (Board member - Steve Potash)

$7,500,000

Dec. 2020

Steve & Loree Potash Women & Newborn Center, UH Ahuja Medical Center

Sherri Bishop 216-983-2200

University Hospitals

Joseph and Kimberly Wesley

$7,000,000

Feb. 2020

Wesley Center for Immunotherapy, UH Seidman Cancer Center

Sherri Bishop 216-983-2200

Cleveland Foundation

Anonymous

$6,012,414

June 2020

A donor advised fund

—

Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Anonymous

$5,500,000

Nov. 2020

Cardiovascular medicine

Lara Kalafatis 216-445-8695

Case Western Reserve University

Anonymous (Trustee)

$5,000,000

March 2020

Scholarship in honor of Barbara R. Snyder

Abby Mitchell 216-368-4352

The Goodwill Industries of Akron, Ohio, Inc.

MacKenzie Scott

$5,000,000

Dec. 2020

Expand mission to help individuals prepare for, find and retain employment

Jennifer Bako 330-786-2519

Cleveland Clinic Foundation

The Lord Foundation of Ohio

$4,609,367

Dec. 2020

Research, innovation and education

Lara Kalafatis 216-445-8695

University Hospitals

Florence Brewster Rutter (Rainbow Foundation trustee)

$4,533,282

Sept. 2020

UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and UH Cleveland Medical Center

Sherri Bishop 216-983-2200

Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Paul E. Offutt

$4,000,000

June 2020

Digestive Disease and Surgical Institute

Lara Kalafatis 216-445-8695

Summit Lake Park

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

$4,000,000

Sept. 2020

Redevelopment of the area around Summit Lake

—

Suite 1300 Services Inc.

Cleveland Foundation

$3,792,000

March 2020

Neighborhood Connections: Strengthening Cleveland's civic infrastructure, capacity building and health equity

—

Akron Children's Hospital

Adena Development; Randy and Lisa Payne; Jim and Ann Schmidt

$3,768,100

Oct. 2020

Donation of Akron Children’s Health Center, Wooster building

Shelly Brown 330-543-8900

23 24 24 24 27 28 29 29 29 32 33 33

Case Western Reserve University

Cleveland Foundation

$3,080,000

Sept. 2020

CWRU/CSU Northeast Ohio Internet of Things Collaborative

Abby Mitchell 216-368-4352

Case Western Reserve University

Anonymous (Alumnus)

$3,000,000

Aug. 2020

Scholarship in honor of Barbara R. Snyder

Abby Mitchell 216-368-4352

Community Hall Foundation (dba Akron Civic Theatre)

John S. & James L. Knight Foundation

$3,000,000

Dec. 2020

Payment on a $4 million commitment to the Akron Civic Theatre's restoration and expansion project

Lisa Martinez 330-535-3179

Western Reserve Historical Society

Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation

$3,000,000

April 2020

Major renovation of WRHS Library public spaces and staff offices

Glenn Anderson 216-721-5722

Famicos Foundation Inc.

Cleveland Foundation

$2,946,000

March 2020

Youth Development Strategy: MyCom and its partnership with Say Yes to Education

—

Stark Community Foundation

Anonymous

$2,807,925

Dec. 2020

Endowment fund to support the donor’s charitable passions

Bridgette Neisel 330-454-7992

Case Western Reserve University

Ann Amer Brennan

$2,500,000

June 2020

Scholarship at the School of Law

Abby Mitchell 216-368-4352

Case Western Reserve University

The Shaughnessy Family

$2,500,000

Dec. 2020

The Marian K. Shaughnessy Nurse Leadership Academy

Abby Mitchell 216-368-4352

University Hospitals

Ken and Martha Taylor

$2,500,000

June 2020

Lung Cancer Research, UH Seidman Cancer Center

Sherri Bishop 216-983-2200

Case Western Reserve University

The John A. Hartford Foundation

$2,400,000

March 2020

Age-Friendly Health Systems, Ambulatory Care Continuum implementation

Abby Mitchell 216-368-4352

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

Cleveland Foundation

$2,250,000

April 2020

Legal aid for people with low-income facing eviction; launch of Cleveland's new Right to Counsel program

Melanie Shakarian 216-861-5217

University Hospitals

Linda and Howard Dickey-White (UH physician - Howard Dickey-White)

$2,250,000

Dec. 2020

Blair Dickey-White Sexual Assault Survivor Program and Endowed Director

Sherri Bishop 216-983-2200

RANK

1 2 3 4 5 6 6 8

Researched by Chuck Soder (csoder@crain.com) | Donations to religious organizations are not included. Includes commitments that have not yet been paid. Information is from gift recipients, philanthropic organizations and Crain's research.

Download 72 gifts over $1.5 million in Excel or PDF format. Become a Data Member: CrainsCleveland.com/data February 22, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 17

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INDUSTRY ACHIEVERS ADVANCING THEIR CAREERS

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RENTALS

From Page 1

“I feel like there’s a target on these short-term rentals because it’s more in the news,” he said, alluding to headlines about raucous parties at properties listed on Airbnb, a popular booking platform. “But I feel like, per capita, they don’t cause any more problems than the regular rentals do.”

Cleveland has been grappling with how to treat properties like Fronimo’s since 2016, when the Republican National Convention boosted demand for lodging of all sorts. The city isn’t alone in its struggles. Municipalities across the globe have imposed restrictions on the industry, and lawmakers have negotiated with San Francisco-based Airbnb and Vrbo, a competitor, to collect and pass along local lodging taxes from guests.

Four years ago, Cleveland council members approved a basic regulatory framework for short-term rentals, which the city defines as properties where the contract between host and guest lasts fewer than 31 days. But some council members have complained for years that the city’s laws have no teeth when it comes to weeding out irresponsible hosts and problematic addresses.

When the novel coronavirus began spreading across Ohio nearly a year ago, prompting stay-home orders and statewide business shutdowns, hosts saw a surge in parties. Neighbors, fed up with the crowds, loud music and piles of trash, called the police.

“We had tons of residents in the community who were saying, ‘What the hell are you doing about these outof-control Airbnbs?’ We didn’t have a good mechanism for dealing with them,” said Councilman Kerry McCormack, who fielded complaints from homeowners in Ohio City in particular.

He and Councilman Tony Brancatelli, whose ward includes Slavic Village, first proposed mandatory licensing and penalties in June. But their initial draft — a starting point for discussions — never got a public airing. Since then, they’ve conferred with city lawyers and talked to representatives from Airbnb.

Airbnb, which went public in December, didn’t make anyone available for an interview. The company, which reported 1,600 active listings in Cleveland at the beginning of 2020, would not say how many local hosts it has today.

“We are reviewing the proposed ordinance and look forward to working with the city to ensure short-term rentals can be an important part of Cleveland’s post-pandemic recovery,” an Airbnb spokesman wrote in an email.

“Countless families depend on Airbnb to pay their rent and stay in their homes, which has become even more important amidst the current crisis.”

A spokeswoman for Expedia Group Inc., the online travel company that owns Vrbo, did not respond to an inquiry. Hosts like Lauren Crom-

BRANCHES

From Page 2

In last month’s earnings discussion, US Bank president and CEO Andy Cecere said the company had effectively concluded its closure plans in the last few years. Those effectively trimmed the total branch network by 25% to some 2,300 total locations.

JPMorgan Chase Bank is reworking its branch network as well, closing nine Ohio locations in 2020 while

Realtor Lauren Cromwell has transformed three of the four units in a Detroit-Shoreway property, which she calls the Grey Barn, into short-term rentals. A one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit has rents that start at $79 a night, though the total price actually comes to $141 with taxes and fees, including a cleaning fee. | DEREK LINDSAY, VISTA DESIGN PRO LLC

well, who puts up travelers in a fourunit house she calls the Grey Barn in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, accept bookings on both platforms.

“I’m on year three for the first one, year two for the second one and just started the third one,” said Cromwell, a real estate agent, of her short-term rentals. Her guests range from pet owners looking for dog-friendly digs to out-of-state patients in town for appointments at the Cleveland Clinic.

“If all this burns out, and it seems like they’re going to legislate the crap out of it and make it hard to run, then so be it,” she said, adding that if she’s pushed out of the business, she’ll simply convert the units into longer-term rentals.

Brancatelli worries about companies buying up houses as short-term lodging. But he said the city isn’t trying to run investors or travelers out of town.

“This is not so draconian that we’re going to eliminate Airbnbs in the city of Cleveland,” he said, stressing that he and McCormack are planning additional talks with Airbnb and will

Airbnb’s logo is displayed on a smartphone. The popular home-sharing company has become synonymous with the short-term rental business.

GABBY JONES/ BLOOMBERG

welcome input from local hosts at public hearings that could kick off in early March.

Some aspects of the legislation still need fine-tuning, he acknowledged.

Under current law, homeowners or

renters in Cleveland who occasionally take bookings at their primary residences don’t have to do anything, as long as they aren’t renting out their homes for more than 90 days a year.

Real estate investors and more active hosts must list their properties on the city’s rental registry each year and pay a fee. Compliance with that registry is low, both among shortterm rental operators and traditional landlords.

Full-time Airbnb listings fall into murky territory. Technically, McCormack and Brancatelli point out, such rentals in residential districts are tantamount to hotels, requiring potential rezoning for a commercial use.

But the city hasn’t chased down landlords or forced them offline.

The new legislation sets firmer boundaries.

If it passes, every host will have to obtain a license and pay a fee. Parttime hosts will pay $50 a year. They’ll have to provide the city with an Ohio driver’s license or state ID card and documents proving they own the property or, in the case of an apartment, have the owner’s permission to rent it out.

Investor-owned properties would be reclassified as lodging houses, a new category in the city’s zoning code. Hosts would be required to pay heftier fees, from $150 to $550 based on the number of bedrooms in a building.

Properties would be subject to city inspections. And neighbors would have the opportunity to weigh in during zoning board hearings. It’s unclear whether existing short-term rentals would be grandfathered under the law, exempt from some of the new rules.

McCormack said he and Brancatelli don’t want to burden homeowners renting out space to pay the bills.

“But if you’re buying a home or townhome … to rent out full-time for limited lodging, there’s a safety consideration there,” he said. “The other thing is, what is your responsibility to the neighborhood around you?”

In North Collinwood, on the city’s East Side, Neris Klimas hosted her first guests one year ago. She wasn’t planning to run a full-time Airbnb when she bought the house next door to her own. But circumstances changed. Kli-

establishing six others. It’s closed three so far this year while applying to close two more.

“We still continue to invest in our branches as we expand to new states across the country, but we’re now able to enter a new market with fewer branches than we did five or 10 years ago, while serving just as many customers — if not more,” said Chase spokeswoman Carlene Lule.

She added that the bank, the largest in the country, is being mindful of underserved communities. She noted how the company announced in

October it would open 100 new branches in low- to moderate-income areas as part of its market expansion initiative, though how much that might include Ohio is to be determined. So far this year, the bank has opened new offices in Westlake and Sylvania.

Bank of America, meanwhile, is looking to open a number of new branches in Ohio this year in a previously disclosed bid to claim some market share in the Buckeye State.

The bank established three new branches here in 2020, including in

Woodmere and Mayfield Heights, and has been approved by the OCC to open another 16 more, including five in Cuyahoga County. This will more than double the bank’s brickand-mortar presence in the past two years.

The company said it is on track to open 20 branches in the Buckeye State this year. Some of the OCC-approved branches that have not opened have been impacted by construction delays amid COVID-19 and recent winter weather.

“We have to get to that high-touch

“IF ALL THIS BURNS OUT, AND IT SEEMS LIKE THEY’RE GOING TO LEGISLATE THE CRAP OUT OF IT AND MAKE IT HARD TO RUN, THEN SO BE IT.” ——Realtor Lauren Cromwell

mas, a real estate agent, turned to Airbnb to supplement her income and generate cash to spruce up the two-bedroom cottage near Lake Erie.

“While there are hosts that are running a very shrewd business through Airbnb, I’m not one of them,” she said.

Most of her guests aren’t tourists.

They’re road-trip travelers passing through or families of patients at local hospitals. Curious about city neighborhoods, though, they’re not keen on staying at traditional hotels.

A $150 licensing fee wouldn’t discourage her from hosting, Klimas said, but she’s leery of the process of navigating zoning approvals.

“All of my neighbors are great and super cool and very enthusiastic to meet whatever guests I have, and be friendly and nice,” she said. “But I don’t know if that’s the common reaction to having an Airbnb next door.”

Cromwell and Fronimo both said that parties have been a challenge for hosts.

Airbnb barred large gatherings even before the pandemic and suspended or banned more than two dozen listings in Cleveland late last year in response to complaints.

Cromwell now declines booking requests from local guests who are new to Airbnb. She lives in the Battery Park development, not far from her rental, and keeps a close eye on the property, where one long-term tenant also lives. But she has still encountered problems, including reservations carrying the wrong phone number and one party that prompted her to call the police.

“The benefits far outweigh the nuisance factor,” she said.

Fronimo, who got into the business almost 10 years ago, saw questionable booking requests for his Ohio City rentals spike during last spring’s lockdown. The partying fell off during the summer and resurged in November, when Gov. Mike DeWine instituted a curfew that closed restaurants and bars at 10 p.m. The culprits tended to be guests in their early 20s.

Now Fronimo is installing cameras on the porches and in the backyards at his units. He’s invested in technology to monitor how many cell phones are in a house and purchased gadgets that will notify him if guests are being too loud. His office manager is vetting suspicious booking inquiries by phone.

After reading the new legislation, Fronimo bemoaned it as punitive and not proactive. He said he isn’t opposed to regulation. But he’s skeptical about the current proposal and its emphasis on fees, penalties and public meetings.

“I put a lot of money into my properties,” he said. “I furnish them. I have a cleaning staff. I do it full-time.

Unintended guests come in, and things happen. So where do you draw the line when you call somebody a bad apple?”

Michelle Jarboe: michelle.jarboe@ crain.com, (216) 771-5437, @mjarboe piece, which means financial centers in some of these key markets,” Jeneen Marziani, Ohio president for Bank of America, told Crain’s in spring 2019.

“And Ohio is one of them.”

The pandemic hasn’t ultimately impacted those goals, speaking to the value physical locations still have in claiming market share as many large banks look to reduce physical footprints, at least for a company relatively new to the market.

Jeremy Nobile: jnobile@crain.com, (216) 771-5362, @JeremyNobile

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PHARMACISTS

From Page 1

Enrolled pharmacists with provider status can manage medication therapy in collaboration with a prescribing medical professional and administer a wider range of immunizations and certain injectable medications.

Ohio is one of a only a few states to pay pharmacists as providers.

Within the first month of the application process being available, more than 100 individual pharmacists registered, said Maureen Corcoran, the state’s Medicaid director.

The option allows the department to use every resource available, Corcoran said, noting that there are more pharmacies than doctor’s offices in rural areas, and patients may interact with pharmacists more frequently than their doctor.

It’s another step in the team-based care that the industry has been emphasizing for years. Boyd said it signals that the insurance industry is finally recognizing that pharmacists have the education and training to be medication experts, as well as the trust of the community.

More than dispensing When most people think of pharmacies, their minds probably immediately go to pills inside of a bottle, said Jason Briscoe, Discount Drug Mart’s director of pharmacy operations.

“The dispensing function of a community pharmacy and pharmacist cannot be understated,” said Briscoe, who also is part of the Ohio Pharmacists Association’s provider status task force. “It’s paramount that we’re dispensing your medications safely, accurately and in a timely manner. That has us being important in some ways, but what will have us being relevant now and to the future is all the other great services that we can provide in a very accessible way.”

Mike Roaldi, CEO of the UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio, said he’s been interested in evolving the way the insurer works with pharmacists — a critical touch point within communities — for a long time.

UnitedHealthcare started a pilot last year with two pharmacies, offering pharmacists a new way to bill for services beyond dispensing medication, which is the bulk of how pharmacists have historically been reimbursed.

Though it’s early, preliminary data show a reduction in overall cost and an improvement in medication adherence, Roaldi said.

“It’s an opportunity to close a gap in care or connect with them about their overall health, and that’s really what we think is powerful about it and we think will impact outcomes,” he said.

Other Medicaid managed care plans have been rolling out similar pilots. Roaldi said that better understanding of the state’s parameters has allowed UnitedHealthcare to home in on its own best model going forward.

Barry Klein, a second-generation president and pharmacist at Klein Pharmacy in Cuyahoga Falls, is in a managed care Medicaid program pilot for provider status with Molina.

It’s important to leverage pharmacists’ training, “especially when you look at the statistics of the primary care shortfall that they’re expecting in the next 10-15 years,” Klein said.

Nearly a dozen pharmacists across Klein Pharmacy’s three locations have been submitted for provider IDs. Before provider status was implemented, an earlier law allowed phar-

Discount Drug Mart pharmacist Larissa Venditti spends time with a customer. | DISCOUNT DRUG MART PHOTOS

to address, especially if other payers follow Ohio Department of Medicaid’s lead.”

He said this is an encouraging development, and the Clinic looks forward to continuing high-quality care with the new rules.

New revenue

Gloved and masked Discount Drug Mart pharmacists Ashini Kapadia and Larissa Venditti provide vaccines as well as dispense precriptions.

macists to add, modify and discontinue medications when authorized by a physician and certain other providers, said Mary Ann Dzurec, a clinical pharmacist at MetroHealth.

Her work includes assessments with patients to discuss their social habits (do they smoke, drink, etc.) and go through their medications, as well as any barriers, such as costs or getting to the pharmacy. She was thrilled to see Medicaid offer reimbursement for such services, but found out that her work isn’t included as it’s covered by a different funding mechanism within the clinic where she works.

She hopes that pharmacy and its reimbursement will continue to evolve, because she’s seen firsthand patients benefiting from having time with a pharmacist, she said.

By compensating a pharmacist to be “accessible as a decision maker,” Medicaid’s new rule improves the efficiency and efficacy of patient care, wrote Sam Calabrese, Cleveland Clinic’s chief pharmacy officer, in an emailed response to questions.

For instance, a diabetic patient may indicate to their pharmacist that their blood sugars have been out of control. If the pharmacist has an agreement with the patient’s physician, he or she can add, modify or remove medications for specific conditions and medications, he wrote, noting that previously, this type of work was largely uncompensated.

“The pharmacist would get paid

for dispensing the insulin, but not for making sure it’s dosed optimally for the patient,” Calabrese wrote. “That gap is what this rule has the potential

“THERE’S VALUE ASSOCIATED WITH TIME, AND IF THE REIMBURSEMENT DOESN’T COMPENSATE FOR A PORTION OF THE TIME, IT’S NOT GOING TO BE SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE A BUSINESS CAN’T SURVIVE IF IT CAN’T COMPENSATE FOR THE LABOR COSTS TO PROVIDE THE SERVICE.” ——Barry Klein, president and pharmacist at Klein Pharmacy

These days, with the advent of mail-order and other disruptive models, it’s very difficult to remain viable as a pharmacy that only dispenses medication, Briscoe said, noting that reimbursement for dispensing medications continues to compress.

“And that’s nothing that we’re here whining about; it’s just the nature of the business that we’re in,” he said.

“If we’re going to get our foot in the door with patients, based on the dispensing function, although that might not be a profitable endeavor, what other great things can we do for our patient that also generate revenue?”

He notes, though, that the law signed in 2019 that put this into motion added language to potentially recognize pharmacists as providers but in no way compelled any payer to have a structure to reimburse for any services beyond what insurers currently cover.

The payment model is still being developed — what will be allowed, what will be paid and how it’s going to be paid, Klein said. Without knowing the final reimbursement model, he can’t determine what impact this will have on his pharmacy’s finances.

“There’s value associated with time, and if the reimbursement doesn’t compensate for a portion of the time, it’s not going to be successful because a business can’t survive if it can’t compensate for the labor costs to provide the service,” Klein said.

He also is eager to know how commercial payers are thinking about the model, because for it to really take hold, they’ll need to jump on board as well, he said.

Klein said he’s constantly evaluating which services the pharmacy offers and how to keep the doors open.

Health care, after all, is a business, and he focuses on managing that business so it can continue to meet its ultimate goal: taking care of patients. Depending on how the rules

ultimately take shape, it could support that goal.

Briscoe also said it’s too soon to know what the financial impact may be for Discount Drug Mart, but establishing provider status is a sign that the industry is heading in the right direction.

Corcoran said she believes that, at least initially, the program may reduce costs for the state Medicaid department. Over time, she expects it to increase costs, but it’s a cost that’s “well worth it,” she said.

Boyd, of the Ohio Pharmacists Association, said he expects it to save costs overall. Avoiding a hospitalization or preventing one ER visit “pays for most pharmacy services for a patient for probably six months or a year, because you’re not getting out of that hospital for under $10,000 bucks, right?” he said.

With 55% of people taking their medications incorrectly, pharmacists coordinating, managing and monitoring medications and being reimbursed for that is critical in reducing medication waste — and therefore, costs — and hospitalizations, he said.

Corcoran said the costs could swing either way.

“Generally, in health care, when you add something as a reimbursable service, your cost goes up,” she said.

“Now, is it money well spent? Well, of course it is...We’ll see how it unfolds, like we do with every new service.”

If the department feels it’s being overused (such as pharmacists sitting down with every patient, even those who may not need that level of service), they’ll deal with it then, she said, noting that she’s working with the pharmacists association to understand how the model is being used.

Briscoe is hopeful that COVID-19 will help prove the value of paying pharmacists for clinical services.

During the pandemic, pharmacists have been brought into efforts to first test and now vaccinate communities.

“I think this pandemic is going to be a catalyst for the advancement of provider status,” he said. “And the light bulb will go off with even more people about wow, we do need to lean on and leverage pharmacy even more than we already are.”

Lydia Coutré: lcoutre@crain.com, (216) 771-5479, @LydiaCoutre

20 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | February 22, 2021

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THE WEEK CRAFTING A NEW FUTURE: Hudson’s JoAnn Stores is going public. The company, which sells arts, crafts and sewing supplies from 855 stores in 49 states, announced Feb. 16 that it has filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company has yet to say how much it will raise in the offering, or what the price of its stock will be. It will determine those figures based on investor demand for the stock and via negotiations with selling shareholders, the company said in its SEC filing. The company said it plans to list on NASDAQ under the symbol JOAN. Jo-Ann’s largest shareholder, California private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners, will retain a controlling stake in the company after the offering’s public shares are sold.

CHANGE AT THE TOP: Regenerative medicine company Athersys Inc. of Cleveland is in the market for a new CEO. The developer of the MultiStem cell therapy announced Feb. 16 that Dr. Gil Van Bokkelen has stepped down as chairman and CEO, effective immediately. Van Bokkelen co-founded Athersys in 1995.

Athersys said its board of directors appointed William (B.J.) Lehmann, the company’s president and chief operating officer, as interim CEO. Lehmann has worked with Athersys since 2001 and has served as COO since June 2006.

Dr. Ismail Kola, lead director of the Athersys board, now is its chairman.

The board “is commencing a comprehensive search process to identify a permanent CEO” and “intends to identify and select a CEO who can guide Athersys in the commercial stage.” Separately, Athersys said it entered into a “cooperation agreement” with Healios K.K., its largest shareholder and one of its commercial partners, and Dr. Hardy TS Kagimoto, a member of the company’s board and the chairman and CEO of Healios. The agreement is “intended to reaffirm the mutual commitment to collaborative development of MultiStem in Japan,” Athersys said.

ICAHN APPROACHES: FirstEnergy Corp. on Feb. 18 announced mixed earnings re-

BRAUN

From Page 9

When it comes to the topic of sales and selling, did you know that most business schools have no class whatsoever in sales or generating revenues? They have classes in most topics related to business — raising venture and angel capital, marketing, social media, finance, investing, entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, goal setting, you name it — but nothing that teaches the importance and basics of the most critical, defining part of any business: sales.

When the two Cleveland entrepreneurs needed to grow to $10 million in revenues, and then $100 million, they did so by being obsessed with capital efficiency. They partnered with entrepreneurs in Europe, out-licensing to the Europeans the technology and processes for production rather than building from the ground up in Europe. They used that partnership and the overall template of stepwise partnering and out-licensing as powerful forces for growth, forging similar structures in Asia and South America. When they needed to keep adding new technologies to their bag of tricks, in order to always stay at the front edge of the industry, they in-licensed new technologies rather than building from scratch. They did this,

COMPANIES ON THE MOVE

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On Call Meal Solutions

Hudson-based Jo-Ann Stores operates 855 retail stores in 49 states. The company announced plans to go public. | JO-ANN STORES

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TAKING FLIGHT: MedPilot, a Cleveland software company that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the process of patient billing, moved here from New York in 2018 and kicked off a significant growth period. The company is now looking for its next growth stage, with a new owner. MedPilot announced Feb. 17 that it’s going to be acquired by Vytalize Health, which is based in New Jersey and describes itself as “a new kind of

COVID-19 has impacted the National School Lunch ProMedicare ACO,” or accountable care C R A I N ’ S C L E V E L A N D B U S I N E S S | S E P T E M B E R 3 - 9 , 2 018 | PA G E 3 7 gram. Schools offer a pick-up organization. The transaction has option although the truth is been approved by both companies’ many children are continuboards of directors, subject to shareing to go hungry, for various holder approval, and is expected to close soon. Vytalize combines a Medireasons: children in need often care ACO, virtual doctors’ office and a decline to join the pickup line digital health platform to serve its netto avoid social stigma and work of physicians. MedPilot in the working parents are unable to last few years has grown to more than pick up meals during required For more information, 35 employees. times. OCMS works with contact Debora Stein at lunch programs to ship food BIGGER LINEUP: Progressive Corp. is dstein@crain.com directly from our kitchen to the expanding its commercial lines or submit directly to student’s front door, allowing products with the acquisition of an CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM/COTM kids to learn safely from home Indiana company in a deal valued at about $338 million. The Mayfield Vilwhile meeting their nutritional lage-based insurance giant on Feb. needs.

16 announced it entered into a definitive agreement with Protective Insurance Corp. under which Progressive will acquire all of Protective’s Class A and Class B common shares Advertising Section outstanding for $23.30 per share in cash. The acquisition is expected to close before the end of the third quarter. Karen Bailo, president of the Commercial Lines business at ProTo place your listing in Crain’s Cleveland Classifieds, gressive, said the deal “allows us to contact Ainsley Burgess at ainsley.burgess@crain.com add products that will help us support larger fleets and brings expertise in workers’ compensation coverage ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY for the transportation industry, which are new areas of business for Strategic Buyer Wanted us and can help us to meet the needs For Batch Powder of our commercial customers.”

for instance, with British Petroleum and Coca-Cola.

When ColorMatrix managers requested investments to create new products, Shaughnessy and Haugh made an ironic motion of pulling a wallet out from their back pocket and doling out dollars. Their point: We don’t have the capital. We need a customer to pay us to do that.

That’s STEP FOUR in how they did it. They were OBSESSED WITH CAPITAL EFFICIENT GROWTH strategies.

Eventually, at about $100 million in revenues, they needed to inject more capital than the capital-efficient growth plan and sales-first obsession could enable. So, they had the business recapped, maintained a significant equity stake, became co-chairmen of the company, and enjoyed learning how professional managers grew it from $100 million to $200 million in revenues. Within five years, ColorMatrix was the largest plastic liquid colorants business in the world. When it was sold for nearly $500 million, the two co-founders felt uncomfortable with the free time on their hands and the fact that they had ample capital to play with, but also humbled by how the path they intuitively took had worked out so well. In particular, they had loved helping Cleveland’s denizens find jobs at ColorMatrix and giving them resources to develop into

good and sometimes great business people.

The punchline here is that taking 25 years to reach a $500 million valuation would be an abject failure for the Silicon Valley venture capital industry. The industry needs at least billion-dollar companies, in short timeframes, to make an investment worthwhile. That’s why the ColorMatrix story is a classic, industrial Midwest/Cleveland story. It plays on Ohio strengths of hustle, selling, efficiency (capital, operational, etc.), inventing incrementally, and partnering with sizable companies with moderately adventurous spirits. Yet, I’ve looked at popular business tales and business school case studies alike, and I’ve found that they over-represent (as compared to GDP) coastal companies, venture capital as a financing tool, and radical, disruptive technologies.

That over-representation means that millions of rising and current business people come across too many stories about radical innovation on the coasts and not enough stories about incremental innovations elsewhere. The stories we tell and consume affect the way people do business, and so in my view, the over-representation, on the one hand, and under-representation, on the other, is a problem for business in general, and for the U.S. economy.

sults that reflect its recent decisions to forgo some profit-propping subsidies in Ohio. It also announced the appointment of a new vice chairman, John Somerhalder, to help rebuild its relationship with regulators and stakeholders in the wake of the recent House Bill 6 scandal. Meanwhile, the Akron-based company has attracted the attention of billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who the company disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing told FirstEnergy that he plans to purchase more than $184 million worth of shares. For 2020, the company reported full-year 2020 GAAP earnings of $1.1 billion, or $1.99 per basic and diluted share of common stock, on revenue of $10.8 billion. In 2019, the company reported GAAP earnings of $908 million, or $1.70 per basic share ($1.68 diluted) of common stock, on revenue of $11 billion.

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FEBRUARY 22, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 21

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ACCOUNTING

Somich & Associates CPAs Somich & Associates is pleased to announce that we have added David Silverman, CPA, JD, to our growing team. David brings over nine years of experience working with privately-held businesses and individuals. David specializes in estate & income tax planning, business formation planning & consulting, organization & entity selection, and tax-efficient growth. David graduated from Kent State University and earned his law degree from Ohio Northern University, where he specialized in Tax.

Advertising Section

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

To place your listing, visit www.crainscleveland.com/people-on-the-move or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com.

BANKING

FINANCIAL SERVICES

FINANCIAL SERVICES

LAW

S&T Bank

Ancora

Ancora

Matthew Tuohey has joined the S&T Bank commercial banking team in northeast Ohio as senior vice president. With 26 years of banking expertise in C&I lending, including contractor and equipment dealer lending, Matt will service the greater Cleveland and Akron areas. Matt is a graduate of the University of Dayton with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in business administration from Cleveland State University.

We are pleased to announce that Ms. Brittney Garrett has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer of Ancora. Brittney joined Ancora in 2020 as a Vice President and Business Analyst and has served as a strategic partner for the firm while transitioning towards the CFO role. She has nearly a decade worth of corporate finance experience at two Fortune 500 companies after earning a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Miami University. We wish Brittney success in her new role and offer our congratulations.

Ancora would like to announce that Mr. Brad Zucker, CPA has been promoted to Chief Administrative Officer with a focus on Ancora’s Alternatives. Brad joined Ancora in 2001 and previously served as Chief Financial Officer. Brad has many years of relevant experience. He earned a Business degree from Emory University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. Our congratulations to Brad on this exciting new role.

Bonezzi Switzer Polito & Hupp Co. L.P.A.

ADVERTISING / MARKETING

Bonezzi Switzer Polito & Hupp Co. L.P.A. is pleased to announce Jane F. Warner, Shareholder, has joined the firm. Jane has been practicing as an attorney for eighteen years and focuses primarily on defending doctors, nurses, hospitals and nursing homes against claims of medical and nursing negligence.

Previous to her legal career, Ms. Warner practiced for thirteen years as a registered nurse in intensive care and cardiology.

For more information, visit www. bsphlaw.com.

Falls Falls announces the promotion of Tricia Tomko to Chief Financial Officer.

Over the past two years, Tricia guided the firm through the integration of financial and system operations during the mergers of three companies, Falls Communications, Falls Digital and Wyse Advertising, as well as combined two physical office spaces. Her exceptional work ethic, leadership and expertise allowed the firm to thrive during a transition period and positioned Falls for continued growth. www.

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CONSTRUCTION

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Tober Building Company Dave Elsey, LEED AP BD+C joined Tober Building Company in 2021 and serves as Project Executive. He has successfully managed and contributed to more than $650M of work, including the $360M Cleveland Convention Center & Global Center for Health Innovation in downtown Cleveland, and the $220M Hilton hotel in downtown Cleveland. He has served in both field and office operations, providing direction and support to construction, as well as monitored progress from pre-construction to project closeout for over 14 years.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

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Ancora

Bonezzi Switzer Polito & Hupp Co. L.P.A.

We are happy to announce that Ms. Sonia Mintun has been appointed to serve on Ancora’s Executive Committee.

Sonia is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager who joined Ancora in 2008. She leads the firm’s Dividend Value investment team and has over 28 years of industry experience. She is a CFA and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Lehigh University. We look forward to the guidance and new perspective that Sonia will bring to the Executive Committee and congratulate her on this appointment.

Bonezzi Switzer Polito & Hupp Co. L.P.A. is pleased to announce Katie E. Epperson, Associate, has joined the firm. Katie focuses on general liability insurance defense and employment law.

She graduated from Cleveland Marshall College of Law and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 2019. She comes to us from an employment based law firm. Ms. Epperson was part of an award-winning Moot Court Team and externed for the United States Attorney’s Office. For more information, visit www. bsphlaw.com.

Brouse McDowell LPA Gina Bevack-Ciani joins Brouse McDowell’s Cleveland Office as a Partner in the firm’s Trusts & Estates Practice Group. She focuses on estate and gift tax planning, avoidance and minimization of probate and succession planning, and implementation of wills, trusts and other sophisticated plans.

She often acts as a fiduciary in estate and guardianship cases.

Gina earned her JD from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and her BA from John Carroll University.

ADVERTISING / MARKETING

Falls Jason Fotter joins Falls as Associate Creative Director, bringing two decades of large agency and account experience to the team. With roles at DoeAnderson, The Richards Group and Leo Burnett, he has worked on well-known brands in areas including: spirits, food and beverage, home improvement, transportation, personal care, healthcare, entertainment, nonprofit, finance, and more.

Jason is a graduate of the University of North Texas with degrees in Psychology and Journalism. www.WeAreFalls. com

FINANCIAL SERVICES

LAW

Ancora

Bonezzi Switzer Polito & Hupp Co. L.P.A.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Ancora Ancora is happy to announce the promotion of Mr. Anthony “TJ” DiSanto to a Senior Vice President and Family Wealth Advisor. TJ joined Ancora in 2017 and serves Ancora’s clients as an advisor and relationship manager. Prior to joining Ancora, he was a Senior Internal Wholesaler for Bank of New York Mellon/Dreyfus after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from John Carroll University. We congratulate TJ on his continued growth and success in his role and look forward to the future.

22 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | February 22, 2021

Ancora is happy to announce that Ms. Lauren Turkisher has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Ancora’s Alternatives. Lauren joined the firm in 2018, bringing significant operations experience within the financial services industry. She earned a Business degree in Finance Investment and Banking from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. We offer congratulations to Lauren and wish her continued success in this new role.

Bonezzi Switzer Polito & Hupp Co. L.P.A. is pleased to announce Donald J. Richardson, Shareholder, has joined the firm. Don has extensive litigation and trial experience in the areas of nursing home liability, medical malpractice defense of physicians, nurse practitioners and private practices, premises liability and product liability. Don is currently the Chairperson of the Medical Negligence Committee of the Ohio Association of Civil Trial Attorneys. For more information, visit www.bsphlaw.com.

LAW

Weston Hurd LLP Weston Hurd LLP is pleased to announce that Joshua M. Miklowski has been named a Partner of the Firm. Josh focuses his practice on insurance defense, insurance coverage, employment, and commercial litigation. Prior to joining the firm in 2017, Josh served as a law clerk to several federal judges, including Judge Lesley Wells, Judge Dan Aaron Polster, and Judge Jonathan D. Greenberg.

Josh earned his J.D. from Loyola New Orleans College of Law.

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