Crain's Cleveland Business, April 1, 2024

Pressure mounts as enrollment drops

Northeast Ohio colleges are challenged by falling class sizes and rising nancial shortfalls

By Paige Bennett

Construction is well underway on a 100,000-square-foot athletic and event center on John Carroll University’s campus in University Heights. Slated to open in winter 2025, the facility’s features will

include a 200-meter indoor track, multi-purpose courts and a stateof-the-art exercise science lab.

It’s one of several ongoing or recently completed facility improvement projects at the private Jesuit university, and it aligns with the university’s Inspired Fu-

How Joann amassed the debt that pushed it into bankruptcy

By Jeremy Nobile

Amid piles of debt, changing consumer habits, softening sales and rising costs, fabric and craft retailer Joann Inc’s bankruptcy was seemingly a matter of when, not if.

Hudson-based Joann led its prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases on Monday, March 18, to restructure and reduce a nearly $1.1 billion debt load by roughly half.

e business plans to come out

the other side of this restructuring — which does not itself include explicitly baked-in layo s or closures of its roughly 830 stores — with $132 million in new nancing and $505 million less in debt.

With lenders apparently cooperating, the company said it expects an exceptionally quick trip through the bankruptcy process that could wrap up as soon as late April.

See JOANN on Page 17

tures strategy, an initiative introduced by JCU president Al Miciak that focuses on boosting the university’s academic portfolio while enhancing student experiences on campus — for a good reason.

Today, colleges and universities have to be innovative as they

prepare for their futures. Enrollment and nancial pressures, coupled with changing attitudes and demographics, have put signi cant strains on the U.S. higher education sector, particularly

In

a changing landscape for higher education, Northeast Ohio colleges and universities are pivoting to set themselves apart.

PAGE 2

Cavs aim to build momentum with downtown training facility

By Joe Scalzo

When the Cleveland Cavaliers partnered with the Cleveland Clinic and Bedrock Real Estate on a new downtown practice facility, they weren’t just looking to build a training center.

ey wanted to build momentum.

“It’s really about creating sustainable momentum for the

community here, not only in Cleveland but across the entire region,” said Nic Barlage, the CEO of the Cavaliers, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and the Rock Entertainment Group.

“And we want to do it in a way that leaves a positive impression and a lasting legacy for years to come.”

On Tuesday, March 26, the city got its rst look at that vi-

sion as the Cavs, Cleveland Clinic and Bedrock Real Estate revealed the rst o cial renderings of the 210,000-squarefoot Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center, which will be the rst vertical development for Bedrock’s $3.5 billion Cuyahoga Riverfront Master Plan.

The Cleveland Cavaliers unveiled their rst renderings of the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center. |

Colleges work to set themselves apart

Schools are introducing new programs in high-demand elds, enhancing student life and partnering with area institutions

By Paige Bennett

Conversations about how to prepare John Carroll University for the di cult higher education landscape ahead started taking place as soon as Alan Miciak became president of the school in 2021.

It was then that Miciak launched the Jesuit institution’s Inspired Futures initiative, a strategy that includes additions to the academic portfolio and investments in the campus.

“It really tied to the inspired futures of our students and really looking at ‘What do we need to do?’ ‘What kind of investments do we need to make to fortify the university for what is going to be a period of challenge in the marketplace?’” Miciak said.

In a changing higher education landscape, colleges and universities are pivoting by introducing new programs in high-demand elds, enhancing their campuses and student life experiences and forming partnerships with other area institutions.

Industry experts say schools must focus on identifying their value proposition and expect the coming years to lead to some consolidation and closures across the U.S.

Along with a new 100,000 square-foot Athletic, Wellness and Event Center, John Carroll has made capital investments that include the renovations of the D.J. Lombardo Student Center and Dolan and Pacelli residence halls, the addition of two nursing simulation labs in the Dolan Center for Science and Technology and replacement of grass with turf on the baseball and softball elds.

e university is also in the process of a complete renovation of Grasselli Library & Breen Learning Center, including new community spaces. John Carroll has received almost $50 million in donor and grant support since Inspired Futures was announced in 2021, according to the university.

e institution has expanded its academic o erings by adding a nursing major. In December, John Carroll announced plans to establish a College of Health, along with several new programs in health care-related elds. e university saw a 70% increase in applications for nursing year-over-year, with the program launching in 2023, said Carolyn Noll Sorg, vice president for enrollment management.

“We’ve been working on this, I would say, with great intent for the last three years for sure, but it’s not that we weren’t constantly visiting these things,” Miciak said. “We’ve made more direct investments now in the enrollment team and the marketing team to be able to complement some of the investments.”

e university has also ramped up recruitment e orts in some key regional markets, including Chicago, Columbus and Bu alo.

“In some of those markets, we

actually have John Carroll team members full-time working with the high schools,” Noll Sorg said. “I think that’s been a part of that strategy, to make sure we’re serving the regions that have historically driven our enrollment beyond just Northeast Ohio.”

For Jennifer Schuller, who was appointed president of Lake Erie College in July 2023, developing a nancial strategy was an immediate priority. Federal pandemic dollars were running out, and the small college was facing a budget de cit nearly twice as large as the board anticipated.

“ is college has been in existence since 1856,” Schuller said. “We play such a critical role to our community. We’re one of the largest employers, and we provide a lot of income back to the community. We’re of great bene t to so many di erent stakeholders, so I said, ‘Let’s all pull together and see what we can do.’”

at work included communicating with the college’s seven bondholders, pulling in more donors and alumni and working with state o cials and leaders to identify funding opportunities available on the federal and state level.

e institution has implemented a number of initiatives to increase undergraduate enrollment, including hosting on-campus recruiting events, hiring an on-campus visit coordinator and overhauling the campus tour. O cials also revised the college’s transfer policy and reduced the number of required general education credit hours down from 45 to 25-29.

“We had to answer the question of ‘Who are we?’ And I think we’re in the process of identifying that,” Schuller said. “We’re really trying to stake our claim in our business programs, the sciences, education and then, of course, our equestrian program.”

Arts and humanities, she adds, will continue to be a staple of the college’s curriculum.

Lake Erie College has developed partnerships with several Ohio community colleges, including a

partnership with BloomBoard through which the college is o ering an online paraprofessional degree completion program.

Schuller said the college is also focused on making campus life more enjoyable by holding evening and weekend events.

“I would repeatedly hear there’s nothing for (students) to do after 7 p.m.,” she said. “We’ve reinvigorated some of our student organizations, giving some of them new spaces on campus. I reinvested in a couple new hires in student activities.”

Last fall, Lake Erie College switched to a new dining provider, a move that came in response to students’ requests for healthier meal options, Schuller said. Recently, the school received a $1.5 million grant from the Lake County commissioners to add turf and lighting to an on-campus eld that will serve as home to the lacrosse and soccer teams. Schuller said the eld will serve as a recruitment tool for the college, which has a student body consisting of 80% student-athletes.

Mike Brown, vice president of enrollment at Ursuline College, said personal outreach is a key component of the college’s recruitment e orts. Ursuline uses current students to connect with prospective ones, he said.

“We have to be very judicious with our budgets because I don’t have the money to buy all the materials to send (students) 500 postcards,” Brown said. “We’re very intentional about our outreach to students. We connect not only with the students but with the people who in uence the students. e high school guidance counselors. And we reach out to parents.”

In 2023, Ursuline received a ve-year, $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support Project UPWARD, an initiative designed to provide additional services and programs to at-risk, low-income students, as well as better access to data for decision-making purposes.

As part of the initiative, Ursuline

Barbara Mistick, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said institutions are looking to streamline their program o erings to make them meaningful to the regional economy and market at-large.

“During the pandemic, we saw some compressing of programs,” Mistick said. “I think you’ll see that continuing to happen. (Institutions will) be really focused on their value proposition and growing in the marketplace.”

has been working with a company called Gray Decision Intelligence, which tracks data on academic programs across the country, said Kathy LaFontana, provost and vice president of academic a airs at Ursuline. It has given the college insight on demand, enrollment and graduation rates in various academic programs.

“With Project UPWARD, we’re able to do a deep dive into that data,” LaFontana said. “We can get almost instantly information about potential new programs and, really, it’s been such an important and helpful thing for us.”

Ursuline has added a handful of programs to its academic slate in recent years, including exercise science and respiratory care, nutrition and dietetics and a graduate program in physician assistant studies. rough a partnership with Somnia Anesthesia Services, Ursuline o ers a program that enables students to become nurse anesthetists, which LaFontana said is one of the fastest-growing areas in the nursing eld.

David Attis, managing director of research at consulting rm EAB, said today’s higher education landscape lends itself well to partnerships between institutions. e environment also opens up the opportunity for colleges and universities to grow their enrollment in the 25 and over range or students with some college experience but no degree. at could mean o ering more hybrid and online options, night courses or professional master’s programs.

Attis said he expects a handful of small schools in the U.S. to close every year, though he doesn’t believe closures will happen in large numbers. Mergers are a possibility as well, he said, but they are rare because they can be politically and technically complicated.

Across the country, an increasing number of colleges and universities are adding programs in science, technology, mathematics and engineering to meet workforce demands, but developing new programs is no simple feat, said Emily Wadhwani, a senior director at Fitch Ratings.

Despite the challenges ahead, Miciak said he’s optimistic about the future of higher education, though it will be a rough patch for institutions that aren’t prepared to make the necessary investments. Miciak expects the trajectory to be fewer institutions with greater national reach and said that an emphasis on high-quality, hightouch education is essential to success.

Schuller said she sees the role of the presidency changing, especially at small private liberal arts schools. She sees more college presidents becoming involved on the nancial side of operations, working with campus deans and chief nancial o cers and banks and bondholders.

“I think that’s the new wave of the future for college presidents,” she said. “Leadership is going to be critical as we continue to face a demographic cli and have to compete for fewer and fewer students.”

“(Accreditation) can take a while, especially with the medical programs, and can really have a long implementation time before you actually start to bear the fruit of the costs of bringing those programs online and hiring faculty, structure and going through the accreditation process,” Wadhwani said.

e question will be, she said, whether schools can reap the successes of these programs before their operational challenges become too di cult to manage. She anticipates there will be more closures and consolidations in the sector before it stabilizes.

Still, Wadhwani said the need for an educated workforce will remain. Finding success in the new landscape will require schools to identify their core function and build an operating platform that can sustain it.

“ ere is a lot of fundamental strength in the sector,” she said. “ ere are schools that have been around since the 1600s. We fully anticipate that those schools will remain here with us for decades and maybe even centuries to come.”

Ursuline College in Pepper Pike launched in-demand programs to educate physician assistants and nurse anesthetists. | MATT SCHIFFLER

Attis

City Council passes TIF funding ‘shore-to-core-to-shore’ plans

By Kim Palmer

After months of discussion and committee hearings, Mayor Justin Bibb’s shore-to-core-to-shore tax increment nancing (TIF) legislation sailed through a full Cleveland City Council vote on Monday, March 25.

e nal vote was 16-0 (Jenny Spencer, 15th, was absent).

e measure, introduced to council in January, creates anancial tool using tax revenue gains from downtown and the river and lakefront areas to support the infrastructure improvements.

e legislation had passed on an 8-0 vote out of the nance committee earlier March 25.

“ is is part of a broader community development strategy by the administration in partnership with council,” said Je Epstein, Cleveland’s chief of integrated development, who presented it to the Finance, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee before the nal vote.

e legislation spells out that individual TIF spending would need to be vetted by council. Much of the initial funding would help with the city’s “catalytic projects” including the proposed land bridge, the North Coast Master plan and the infrastructure needed to enable the Bedrock riverfront projects.

“ is is a downtown infrastructure-focused strategy, but it is just one piece of our larger strategy,” said Epstein to reassure committee members their district would not be excluded from the expected windfall.

e measure is expected to raise anywhere from $3.5 billion to $7 billion over four decades for targeted public infrastructure investment in both downtown — the core of the city — and the river and lakefront shores.

At the committee meeting, Epstein and the city’s nance director Ahmed Abonamah walked council members through the particulars of the TIF, making the argument that without major public infrastructure improve-

ments property values in are unlikely to increase. “ ere is risk. ere is always risk,” Abonamah said at the March 25 committee hearing regarding using projected tax revenue to back bonds and loans.

“But a riskier proposition is to do nothing,” he concluded.

In February, City Council President Blaine Gri n hit pause on the TIF legislation to give members time to question the administration on the particulars of the legislation as council held budget hearings.

Gri n said the TIF legislation could be a game-changer for the city, but added that he is committed to ensuring every neighborhood in Cleveland reaps the bene ts of the transformational revenue.

Over the many committee hearings, the legislation was amended to include financial reporting back to council every six months and to add the word “neighborhood” to the existing parks and recreation reference to areas where the TIF money can be spent.

Council members had voiced concern about the lack of specifics around proposed spending in the neighborhoods outside of the downtown district and expressed dissatisfaction about the lack of

Final Jersey barriers removed from Public Square for site rehab

Kim Palmer

No tears were shed on Cleveland’s Public Square as a pockmarked Jersey barrier was lifted onto an awaiting truck to be taken far away from the northern curb of Superior Avenue.

“ e day is nally here,” Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb told a group gathered Monday, March 25, at Public Square to celebrate the removal of the last three barriers.

“I wanted to remove them on the rst day I took o ce,” Bibb said, noting that removing the Jersey barriers was a key campaign promise when running for mayor.

The March 25 event marks the launch of work on the “Superior Crossing” funded jointly by an initial $1.5 million from the city of Cleveland, more than $1 million from Cuyahoga County, and $500,000 from the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) for transit-related work.

e barrier removal is the beginning of a two-phase process preparing the site for the installation of a series of retractable bollards and tra c safety barriers called Raptors. Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne said the proposed work will help downtown be more pedestrian-, bike- and transit-friendly.

speci city on future projects.

Councilman Kerry McCormack, who represents parts of downtown and a consistent supporter of the legislation, pushed back on criticisms that investment from the TIF fund would not be bene cial to neighborhoods outside of the city’s core.

“What we have seen is that if there is no intervention there is no investment,” said McCormack, who argued that robust development in Cleveland’s “core” benets the whole city and ultimately the region. “ is mystery money that this council is ghting over doesn’t exist without some sort of intervention,” he added.

e administration will, with the passage of the TIF legislation, look at parallel paths toward capitalizing on the new nancial tool, Epstein said.

“We will meet with the city’s bond team to talk about that path and we will continue to look at the federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program to determine what is best for us in terms of speed, low cost and minimum risk,” Epstein said.

e TIFIA program provides direct loans, loan guarantees, and lines of credit from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help nance projects.

Rebol restaurant, will remain open during the construction phase, while Superior Avenue will be completely closed to traffic for an undetermined time period. The Public Square fountain and splash pad will still open on April 1.

Both removable and retractable bollards will be placed on the Southwest corner of Public Square to help with deliveries, maintenance and renovation work.

“I wanted to remove them on the rst day I took of ce.”

Mayor Justin Bibb

e project work will be done by the Group Plan Commission and James Corner Field Operations, the same landscaping architecture rm responsible for the initial $50 million Public Square revitalization.

RTA general manager and CEO India Birdsong Terry said the Jersey barriers were “the main issue that came up when I rst stepped foot in Cleveland.”

e construction work involving utilities, lighting and the bollards on the square will start April 9. at work is set to commence after the city hosts three big events — the NCAA Women’s Final Four, the April 8 total solar eclipse and the Guardians’ home opener. Parts of the park, including

The unsightly concrete barriers were added to the newly renovated Public Square in 2017, after Cleveland hosted the Republican National Convention. Then-Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration added them as part of a requirement to address safety concerns from the Department of Homeland Security.

Included in the project, a single retractable bollard will be placed in the center of a series to prevent unauthorized parking behind Rebol, according to a statement on the project.

A rendering of a plan to develop Cleveland’s riverfront that could be made possible with the passage of TIF legislation. | BEDROCK; ADJAYE ASSOCIATES

Mayor Justin Bibb | KEN BLAZE

Haslams: Browns considering domed stadium in Brook Park

By Joe Scalzo

Jimmy and Dee Haslam may soon combine Clevelanders’ two biggest passions: the Browns and moving to the suburbs.

Speaking at the NFL’s annual league meetings in Orlando on Monday, March 25, the Browns owners con rmed they’re considering purchasing a 176-acre parcel in Brook Park, which would be the home for a new domed stadium.

e other option is to make $1 billion in renovations to Cleveland Browns Stadium, which was built in 1999 on the same site as Municipal Stadium.

“I think we looked at can we solve all the issues on the waterfront for our fans,” Dee Haslam told a small group of Browns beat writers. “I mean, it’s hard to get into. It’s hard to get out of. We have no parking. I think that was something really important for us is how we solve those issues. And then when you start thinking about what Cleveland can be and what the vision for this city is, I think we underestimate what a great place it is.”

tion is above the other, but I do think that, I think Cleveland deserves to be thought of as this evolving, forward thinking creative city as opposed to not thinking big. I think there’s opportunity here.”

e lakefront stadium’s 30-year lease expires at the end of the 2028 season, although Jimmy Haslam said it could be extended for another year or two if necessary. An executive with the global stadium design rm Populous recently told Crain’s Cleveland that new domed stadiums currently cost around $2 billion, although he noted “the cost could be more.”

“We’re completely open-minded,” said Jimmy Haslam, who added that he expects to make a decision in the next year or two. “We’ve got to really let both options play out and see what makes the most sense. We meet probably every other week with a group of our top people and we are working hard on it, but it’s complicated. It’s hard.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb recently told Cleveland City Council that his administration has been in active negotiations with the Haslams for two years about the stadium’s future.

“It is my vision and hope that we can keep them on the lakefront,” he said.

Dee Haslam said the lakefront needs to be developed regardless of whether the Browns stay downtown.

“I think the lakefront still is a great piece of property and it would be a great place for people to live,” she said. “It could be absolutely amazing. ... It’s really critical to our community. So I think there’s a lot of great plans for downtown.”

e Brook Park location is about 1,000 feet from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, on the other side of State Route 237 and the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. If the Browns do build a dome in the suburbs, it would likely be paired with a larger retail and residential development — something that has become common at many NFL stadium sites

She continued, “And I think there’s an opportunity here to perhaps build a domed stadium that could transform our area. So that’s something exciting to think about. We’re looking at both options. It is not one op-

“I think it’s important to understand the goal is to come up with the best experience we can for our fans, and yet it still has to make sense nancially,” he said. “And so the balancing those two things is something we’re working carefully on and putting a tremendous amount of e ort into.”

“It’s just a huge opportunity to set a vision for Cleveland and what we could be,” Dee Haslam said. “I think it’s really exciting process for us to go through, but really exciting for the community.”

Airport director concerned about Browns’ plans near Hopkins

By Joe Scalzo and Kim Palmer

When it comes to the Cleveland Browns and a stadium by an airport, Cleveland Hopkins director Bryant Francis would prefer to see the team stay put near Burke Lakefront.

Last week, Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam said they’re considering purchasing a 176acre parcel near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in Brook Park, which would be the home for a new domed stadium.

at concerns Francis, the city’s port and airport director, who addressed the issue during a Crain’s Power Breakfast on Northeast Ohio air travel on Wednesday, March 27.

“When I think about the congestion that could be coming if a facility of that size were to be located literally across the street from our terminal campus (it concerns me),” he said. “It is something that we’ll certainly be watching closely. e road access is already inferior.”

e proposed Brook Park location is about 1,000 feet from Hopkins, on the other side of State Route 237 and the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks.

Building a stadium on the site would draw between 60,000 and 80,000 fans on game days, depending on the seating capacity. Current NFL stadiums range in capacity from 61,500 (Chicago’s Soldier Field) to 82,500 (New York’s MetLife Stadium). Cleveland Browns Stadium has a capacity of 67,431.

“What happens on Sundays when there are tens of thousands of cars that have no interest in the airport across the road, but there are many thousands of cars that (have) people who need to get to and from the airport for travel purposes?” Francis said. “It’s something that we’ll certainly continue to watch.”

e Brook Park site is a former Ford Motor Co. site that housed the long-shuttered Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2 and is located south of the automaker’s Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1, which is still operating. If the Browns do build a dome on the site, it would likely include further retail and residential development. e lease on the current stadium expires at the end of the 2028 season.

Next year, Hopkins is expected to begin work on the rst phase of

its modernization plan, which will see a projected increase to around 11 million annual passengers with improvements estimated to cost between $800 million and $900 million.

Francis said there are plans to build up the area outside of the airport’s property, regardless of what happens with the Browns.

“ ere is a lot of e ort being spent on really using the airport as the hub to make some of the developable land or available facilities to raise the visibility for interest in parties who may be outside of this region,” Francis said. “Because of all of that, the more that the area is built up, the more it can support the further growth of the airport. And it’s a symbiotic relationship. It’s winwin. And we want to continue to do our part and to be as good of a partner as we can be for those types of entities because we understand that their success is our success.

“And hopefully as part of our investment in the infrastructure, there may be some other opportunities that are outside of our boundaries, if you will, to improve some of the accessibility by road to our companies.

EDITORIAL

TIF: A big swing this spring

These are the best of times if you're an adherent to a famous comment widely attributed to architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham: “Make no little plans. ey have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized."

Hard to argue with the sentiment. e great cities of the world didn't get that way without a few big swings.

All of a sudden, typically risk-averse Cleveland is awash in big swings — none bigger than a downtown tax increment nance (TIF) district designed to fund sweeping development plans from, as the plan puts it, "Shore-to-Core-to-Shore."

It's ironic, perhaps, that this big swing is even bigger than two projects that can be easily attached to sports metaphors: the future of Cleveland Browns Stadium (whether it's in downtown Cleveland or Brook Park) and the Cavaliers' eyecatching proposed downtown training complex. More on those another time, as they're key components to whatever transformations await for downtown and the city of Cleveland generally. (And take note: Public money from the TIF district can't be used for a stadium project.)

ere's much we don't yet know about the TIF and how it will remake Cleve-

land. Its success will depend on many decisions, made over many years, on spending priorities, and it's more than fair to consider Cleveland's history and have some skepticism that those decisions will be made wisely.

Other big Ohio cities, including Cincinnati and Columbus, have undertaken similarly sweeping TIF initiatives, and we agree with Cleveland City Councilman Anthony Hairston, who said of the plan, "We have to start somewhere. We cannot continue to manage decline. We have to look at, 'How do we grow our city?'"

In a similar vein, Ahmed Abonamah, Cleveland's chief nancial o cer, took note of concerns from some council members about risks in the TIF district but noted "the riskier proposition is to do nothing."

Abonamah added, “We have to invest our way to prosperity,” which might offend the sensibilities of free-market purists but is a reality for cities contending with weakened commercial real estate markets in the post-pandemic period. Most Clevelanders at some point in their lives have looked at the city's waterfronts and wondered why they aren't more dynamic. is new district represents the best shot at changing that, if the public

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Managing Editor: Marcus Gilmer (marcus.gilmer@crain.com)

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infrastructure projects eventuallynanced by TIF revenues — parks, streets, utilities, lake and riverfront access, multimodal transit and more — are smart and oriented to helping spur additional private development of residential and retail projects.

e legislation that council passed on Monday, March 25, did not address future spending plans for targeted public infrastructure investment. It did, though, establish boundaries for the district, which will extend from the lakefront to the Cuyahoga River in the south, and between the Innerbelt to the east to parts of the Ohio City neighborhood to the west.

Mayor Justin Bibb's administration estimates that the TIF district, which uses increases in property taxes to fund additional development, will generate between $3.5 billion to more than $7.5 billion in new revenue over the next 42 years. at enormous range of potential revenue outcomes falls into the category of those things we don't yet know about how this will play out. We don't expect anyone to have a crystal ball with perfect clarity four-plus decades into the future. But it's appropriate to keep that revenue range in mind when calibrating expectations for what the TIF

can accomplish.

e TIF is also something of a bank shot, predicated on big public infrastructure spending along the riverfront, the lakefront and points in between over 10 to 15 years to help spur growth broadly through the city. Separate from and previous to the March 25 legislation, the Bibb administration and council made a deal ensuring 35% of TIF proceeds will go to city neighborhoods.

Council initially wanted that gure to be 50%, but the compromise seems reasonable — as long as the city makes sure to comply with safeguards established to make sure the money gets to neighborhoods. It's a good sign, for instance, that the legislation was amended to include nancial reporting to council every six months and to add the word “neighborhood” to the existing parks and recreation reference to areas where the TIF money can be spent.

is can't be an empty promise to resident of the city; they've had too many of those.

Blaine Gri n, the council president, calls the TIF "a tool that I’m willing to take a risk on.” It's appropriate for the city to move to a long-term growth mindset. Whether that happens over time is all in the execution.

Keep our cars safe — from privacy invasion

ose

us from the “golden age” of American automobile design (think chrome and ns) can rest assured: Manual transmissions still exist.

But today’s drivers seem to value personal comfort more than personal control. Since the 1970s, drivers have embraced the fact that cars are essentially computers on wheels. Initially, solid-state computers primarily controlled the engine’s fuel-injection system and monitored the vehicle’s performance. Now they do almost everything but drive the car (though you can expect self-driving autos to become commonplace in the next “golden age,” around the corner).

One area leaving us especially vulnerable to external in uence and cybersecurity threats is the utilization of open-source technology like RISC-V, also known as Risk 5, an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) that serves as the brain for any chip. Unlike most commercial architectures that are licensed with certain security measures, RISC-V is freely available for anyone to use, modify and distribute. It has gained signi cant traction in recent years due to its open nature and the increasing demand for customizable and e cient computing solutions.

All of this should be of particular interest and concern to Ohioans. Our state long has been a cornerstone in the automobile manufacturing industry, boasting 615 businesses that directly or indirectly supply motor vehicle assemblers and employ nearly 110,000 people — not to mention more than 700 new-car dealers which represent nearly 86,000 jobs with average annual earnings of about $82,000.

While the automobile sector continues to thrive here, the semiconductor industry also has emerged, holding great promise for the state’s economic development. Highlighted by Intel’s $20 billion silicon chip factory in the suburbs of Columbus, the state is well-positioned to be a driving force in the future of manufacturing in the United States. More than ever, the auto and semiconductor industries complement each other, with chips playing a vital role in powering increasingly advanced vehicles.

A decade ago, auto industry professionals were fond of pointing out that the average vehicle had more computing power than the Saturn V rocket that went to the moon. Today, that power has increased tenfold or more. According to Polar Semiconductor, a Minnesota-based silicon foundry with decades of experience in high-performance automotive-grade semiconductor manufacturing, you’ll nd anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 semiconductor chips in an average modern automobile.

While all of this results in comfort, convenience and superior performance in today’s autos and trucks, technological progress also has some unfortunate societal consequences. e Biden administration recently initiated a probe into connected vehicles made with Chinese parts, amid concerns that such products could compromise sensitive personal data of Americans. is action followed President Joe Biden’s issuance of an executive order aimed at safeguarding personal data. Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo expressed openness to barring Chinese companies accessing U.S. data from doing business in America.

Enter China, which has been actively investing in RISC-V technology as part of its strategy to enhance its semiconductor industry and reduce reliance on foreign technologies. Dozens of Chinese state entities and research institutes, many sanctioned by Washington, invested at least $50 million in projects involving RISC-V between 2018 and 2023. Additionally, a Reuters report revealed that among China’s recent advancements, state-owned car maker Dongfeng Motor Corporation developed an automotive MCU (microcontroller unit) chip that employs RISC-V to control a car’s electronic systems.

Clearly, our ability to realize the potential of Ohio’s automotive and chip industries requires elected leaders to appreciate the national security implications of these types of technologies. Responsible actions not only safeguard sensitive data from our biggest threats but also bolster domestic manufacturing, ensuring competitiveness on the global stage.

It is encouraging that Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio’s senior senator and chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, recently convened a hearing on outpacing China in emerging technology. e discussion he led also addressed the signi cant national security challenges inherent in a global economy.

Brown elaborated in a response to me:

“China’s ability to access Americans’ personal data — from apps to semiconductors to EVs — is a threat to our economic and national security,” he said. “China will stop at nothing to undermine American economic leadership — and we need constant vigilance to ensure that American innovation continues to lead the world. We must carefully assess the economic and national security implications of emerging technologies and ensure that our policies protect both U.S. technological leadership and our national security.”

His point is well-taken. We need decisive action before it’s too late and our trade-o for driving comfortable cars is that our data and security are compromised.

Richard Osborne is a retired journalist.

Sherrod Brown lambastes Nippon bid for U.S. Steel

By Dan Shingler

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown came out strongly against Nippon Steel’s bid to buy U.S. Steel Corp. at an event held at Cleveland-Cli s’ big Cleveland Works mill and hosted by the United Steelworkers and Cli s CEO Lourenco Goncalves.

While Brown said he was not pushing the government to approve any speci c buyer for U.S. Steel, he said he is opposed to the Nippon deal after meeting with that company, and his comments seemed closely aligned with positions Goncalves already has taken.

Both Brown and Goncalves said a Nippon deal would be bad for the steelworkers at U.S. Steel, as well as bad for the U.S. economy and national security. Speaking in the historic mill with coils of at-rolled steel being lifted and moved in the background, and United Steelworkers Local 979 members all around them, they both emphasized the potential impact a Nippon deal could have for workers.

“We can’t sell out workers and undermine U.S. trade enforcement by allowing the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel,” Brown said. “We can’t let a foreign company swoop in and ignore the voices of union workers.”

Brown said he met with representatives of Nippon after they proposed buying U.S. Steel in December for $15 billion in cash. He said it was clear to him from that meeting that Nippon didn’t intend to work with the union.

Additionally, Brown said he’s asking the Biden administration to investigate and kill the Nippon deal, something he said the president is on board with. President Joe Biden came out against the Nippon deal on March 14.

e Ohio senator added that he wants to ensure that any company that buys U.S. Steel will put the interest of its workers rst.

While that might not be a speci c endorsement of Cli s’ efforts, it dovetails with Goncalves’ message that he will put his workers’ needs ahead of shareholder returns, and with the USW’s strong backing of Cli s as

the ultimate buyer of U.S. Steel.

“We are one, here, together,” Goncalves said of USW members, his executives, and himself.

“ e time when CEOs went to work for their shareholders and their shareholders only is gone,”

Goncalves added. “Capitalism was not made to create billionaires. Capitalism was made to create the middle class.”

USW District 1 president Donnie Blatts said his union strongly opposes the Nippon bid and favors Cli s because Cli s and Goncalves have worked in close cooperation with the union. U.S. Steel, on the other hand, violated its collective bargaining agreement with the USW by accepting the Nippon o er without consulting the union, he said.

Blatts said he also fears for his members’ pensions if they move to a subsidiary of a foreign company where he and government regulators might not have the transparency necessary to ensure they are funded and safe.

Goncalves defended his previous o er for Nippon, which he said has been undervalued by U.S. Steel and the media. While Nippon o ered cash for U.S. Steel, Cli s had o ered cash and stock that Goncalves said was worth only a little less than the Nippon o er. Had U.S. Steel taken his deal, its shareholders would have done even better though, because Cli s share prices have risen considerably, from about $15 per share to about $22, since it made its o er for USS in August.

Goncalves withdrew his initial offer but now says he will present a new offer if the Nippon deal collapses, as he’s predicted it would since it was announced.

As for antitrust concerns, Goncalves said those can be assuaged by his company making agreements with the government not to take anti-competitive actions if it completes a purchase of U.S. Steel, though he did not mention divestitures.

“I have a plan,” Goncalves said of addressing anti-trust issues the deal might present.

Cleveland-Cliffs could net $575M in funding to reduce emissions

Money will go toward decarbonization efforts at Middletown, Butler works

By Dan Shingler

Two of Cleveland-Cli s’ projects aimed at making the steelmaker less harmful to the environment will receive up to $575 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

e money will go toward efforts in Ohio and Pennsylvania for decarbonization of Cli s’ Middletown and Butler works, respectively. e announcement comes after it was reported on Friday, March 22, that the Biden administration was ready to award as much as $6.3 billion to dozens of decarbonization e orts.

Cli s’ plant in Middletown, between Dayton and Cincinnati, stands to get most of the available funds and could receive $500 million of the total pool, Cli s said in announcing the start of grant negotiations on Monday, March 25.

The company would use that money to replace the Middletown Works blast furnace with a hydrogen-ready direct reduced iron plant and two 120-megawatt electric melting furnaces to feed

approximately 3 million net tons per year but would no longer use coke for iron production.

“ e process will dramatically reduce carbon emissions intensity, and will consolidate Middletown Works as the most advanced, lowest greenhouse-gasemitting integrated iron and steel facility in the world,” Cli s reports.  “ e facility will have the exibility to be fueled by natural gas, which would reduce current ironmaking carbon intensity by over 50%; a mix of natural gas and clean Hydrogen; or clean Hydrogen, which would reduce current ironmaking carbon intensity by over 90%.”

In Butler, Pennsylvania, the company hopes to get $75 million to replace two natural-gas- red high-temperature slab reheat furnaces with four electrified-induction-slab-reheat furnaces, which the company said would bring “optimum e ciency to its production of electrical steels, a critical component of the electrication of America and the greening of the electrical grid.”

company expects the plant improvements would generate about $80 million in annual cost savings and increased yields.  e projects are part of larger e orts by Cli s CEO Lourenco Goncalves to modernize his company while improving its e ciency and signi cantly decreasing its greenhouse gas emissions. ose e orts have included upping hydrogen use in production, including at its mill in Toledo, as the U.S. embarks on creating hydrogen hubs around the country to produce and exploit the use of hydrogen in industry and transportation.

e Butler project would lower carbon emissions at the plant, re-

The projects are part of larger efforts by CEO Lourenco Goncalves to modernize the company while improving its ef ciency and signi cantly decreasing its greenhouse gas emissions.

molten iron to the existing infrastructure already on site, Cliffs stated.

e conversion would include the blast furnace, caster, hot strip mill and nishing facilities at the plant, which would maintain its raw steel production capacity of

duce energy costs and improve the quality of the slabs it produces, Cli s states. e company said Butler would increase its production by approximately 25,000 tons per year and secure 1,300 union jobs at the plant while generating 200 jobs at peak construction. e

“Completion of our $1 billion clean hydrogenready Toledo (direct reduction) plant through the depths of COVID stood as strong evidence of Cli s’ expertise and resolve to drive down emissions,” Goncalves said in a release. “We are grateful for the support of the Department of Energy and their recognition of Cleveland-Cli s’ strong leadership in steel decarbonization. rough these selections, DOE recognized and rewarded Cleveland-Cli s’ track record of successfully executing large capital projects that result in operational e ciencies and lower GHG emissions.”

Goncalves also is reportedly still pursuing an acquisition of U.S. Steel, an e ort that the United Steelworkers has strongly supported, as Nippon’s pending acquisition of USS has increasingly been called into question.

His work to clean up the company’s mills could help make Cli s appear to be a better suitor for U.S. Steel as federal regulators weigh whether USS should be sold to a foreign buyer or a domestic buyer, with Cli s as the U.S. suitor.

Cleveland-Cliffs’ Cleveland Works site | BLOOMBERG

Goncalves

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (right) speaks with Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves at Cliffs Cleveland Works steel mill March

Leveraging AI in commercial real estate Embracing transformation while mitigating risks

KELLY D. NOLL

In the ever-evolving landscape of commercial real estate, arti cial intelligence (AI) is not just a buzzword; it is a transformative

force reshaping the industry. As real estate companies explore methods to harness AI and maintain a competitive edge, it is critical to be cautious of potential pitfalls and choose a strategy and suite of AI so ware that aligns with their speci c needs.

While there is no “one-size- ts-all” approach in this area, for those in the trenches of property investment, development and management, AI is a practical tool reshaping how we do business. From streamlining transactions and managing documentation for current assets, to predictive market analysis, AI is rapidly revolutionizing the real estate industry.

Streamlining transactions: Enhancing due diligence

One of the most critical stages in any real estate transaction is due diligence, where both legal and business teams dive into the property’s details and ensure everything from the chain of title, property condition and zoning compliance checks out. AI-driven tools are revolutionizing this process

by aggregating and analyzing vast amounts of data far more e ciently. For example, we are seeing quicker turn-around times in the issuance of title commitments as more states, counties and municipalities move toward online databases. In turn, title companies’ use of AI and underwriter review provides quicker identi cation of potential title discrepancies, such as issues with chain of title or outstanding assessments or taxes. is not only speeds up transactions but also minimizes the risk of costly oversights.

Streamlining transactions: Lease abstraction

Lease abstraction — the process of summarizing key information from detailed lease documents — is another area where AI is making signi cant inroads. AI algorithms, trained on thousands of lease agreements, can now extract critical data points, such as lease terms, renewal options and termination rights. O en, this permits highlevel lease abstracts to be reviewed, veri ed or revised, and nalized by legal counsel in days instead

of weeks, with critical business terms pulled and summarized even faster. Existing AI systems are being trained with new leases daily to further expand the documents and provisions that the AI systems can scan and pull. Over time, this technology will continue to become more accurate. is not only allows business teams to discuss lease de ciencies earlier during the due diligence stage, but a er closing on a property, enhances compliance monitoring and tracking critical dates, ensuring that all contractual obligations are met.

Managing documentation

Moreover, AI-powered contract management systems can alert stakeholders about upcoming deadlines, rent adjustments and other key milestones, reducing the risk of missed opportunities or breaches of contract. Additionally, many contract management systems have word search functionality, allowing business teams to extract data from their entire database of contracts (such as the landlord or borrower entity, the rent terms in leases and the amount of term remaining on loans), and can generate the results in di erent formats, like Word charts, Excel or PDF. e amalgamation and packaging in company-tailored format then allows business teams to quickly

examine and present the information compiled.

Predictive market analysis

By leveraging historical data, current market trends and even social media sentiment, AI models can predict future market movements. is predictive power is invaluable for investors and developers looking to make informed decisions about where, when and what to build or invest in. Identifying potential hotspots and trends with the help of AI before they become mainstream means a competitive edge in the market.

Navigating ethical and legal considerations

For the commercial real estate industry, AI represents a signi cant opportunity to enhance operations, o er better services to clients and make more strategic investment decisions. Skilled real estate attorneys can play a pivotal role in guiding the industry through this period of transformation, ensuring that the bene ts of AI are realized while navigating potential legal and ethical complexities.

Driving Real Estate Innovation

North Olmsted may see rst new housing development in 15 years

By Stan Bullard

Single-family homes, patio homes and townhouses are in the mix after North Olmsted Mayor Nicole Dailey Jones’s administration selected Triban Investment LLC of Concord Township to redevelop the site of the demolished Forest Elementary School.

Bo Knez, owner of Triban, said in a phone interview, “ e goal is to appeal to a large, diverse group

ent with the city that another builder would build and sell the properties. It is typical for land developers to ready home sites on raw land, including waterlines and utilities, and then sell sites to a builder for the houses.

Knez also operates Knez Homes. He said his homebuilding concern is busy with work on other sites.

Max Upton, North Olmsted economic and community development director, confirmed that Triban was selected under

“Our goal was to offer single-family homes and provide more variety for new city housing such as attached homes and townhomes.”

Max Upton, North Olmsted economic and community development director

of home buyers.”

Triban’s proposal also includes two small parks and will retain as much green space as possible to meet the municipality’s requirements, Knez said. A sizable forested area is intact on the westernmost part of the former school site.

The proposal includes 50 residences.

Knez said Triban will serve as the master developer of the 11acre parcel. Cincinnati-based homebuilder Drees Homes will build the houses, he said, noting that Triban has been transpar-

the city’s formal request for qualifications and plans to redo the site. Triban was selected from five companies that sought the land.

“Triban really paid attention to detail,” Upton said of the plan. He said Triban’s proposal incorporated the city’s hope for the site to include parks and open space, and have locations to “preserve social cohesion.”

Upton said that city council was informed about the selection. Also, the legislation that authorized the mayor to seek bidders authorized her to take

the property to contract.

“This will be more housing starts than we have had over the last 15 years combined,” Upton said. “Our goal was to offer single-family homes and provide more variety for new city housing such as attached homes and townhomes.”

Triban now has to go through city planning procedures to build on the site, potentially this summer.

Knez said the city has agreed to make minor code changes to allow the variety of housing the city wants in the plan. The land is nestled deep in an existing subdivision. The school was vacated as the North Olmsted School District consolidated grade schools. The city bought the site from the schools.

Neither Knez nor Upton would disclose how much Triban will pay the city for the site.

Knez said Triban also plans to transform the former Highland School in Brecksville with new housing. Triban’s land development operations range from its home base in Lake County to Akron and Bowling Green. The company also has built and sold new homes in Glenville and multiple West Side neighborhoods.

A price range for the proposed North Olmsted properties was not immediately available.

The Centers moving headquarters to Central neighborhood

By Paige Bennett

e Centers is moving its headquarters to Cleveland’s Central neighborhood.

e nonpro t has purchased the former St. Vincent Charity Medical O ce Building, which it plans to convert into its new headquarters. It has also launched a capital campaign to support the modernization of the building. Renovations are expected to be completed in the rst quarter of 2026. e building will include an expanded clinical care space and grow behavioral health care and support services.

A spokesperson for e Centers said the building sale went through March 15. e total cost including purchase price and renovations is about $10.6 million. e nonpro t has identi ed about $5.6 million and is looking to raise another $5 million.

e move re ects the nonprofit’s strategic plan “to successfully integrate and increase access to our services that signi cantly improve outcomes and address inequities for the people and communities we serve,” according to a news release issued Monday, March 25, by e Centers. e nonpro t already operates Bingham Early Learning Center, one of its 5-Star Head Start Early Learning Centers, in the neighborhood. By bringing its headquarters to Central, e Centers will be able to provide additional integrated health care and social services to residents.

Currently, e Centers’ headquarters is located at the Nancy Lyon Porter Building at 4500 Euclid Avenue. After conducting a cost analysis, the nonpro t determined the funding needed to renovate the existing health care center was twice as much as the amount anticipated to renovate the old St. Vincent Charity building, the news release says.

In 2022, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center ended inpatient services.

“ e closing of St. Vincent’s

Medical Center created a social services gap in the Central Neighborhood,” said Eric L. Morse, president and CEO at e Centers, in a statement. “Our goal is to become an anchor institution by providing accessible, high-quality services that address the unique needs of the residents, joining with residents and community partners to foster a healthier and more vibrant community.”

In a statement, Sisters of Charity Health System president and CEO Jan Murphy said the health system is eager to collaborate with The Centers to provide services to residents of Central and its surrounding neighborhoods.

“We believe that the new Central location provides a much better setting and accessibility to integrated healthcare for individuals living with behavioral health conditions,” said Lisa B. Forbes, board chair at e Centers, in a statement.

Forbes said that study ndings show the new location will be more accessible to existing patients who rely on public transit.

e Centers also will look to provide care to new patients through community-based outreach and partnerships with local organizations and community leaders.

“As a member of the city council, my primary objective is to serve the constituents of Ward 5 by advocating for the provision of resources and support necessary for our community’s growth and prosperity,” Cleveland City Councilman Richard A. Starr said in a statement. “I am pleased to announce that e Centers have established their headquarters within Ward 5, a signi cant step toward meeting our community’s needs.”

e Centers provides health and wellness services, such as primary and behavioral health care, addiction services, HIV treatment and in-house pharmacies. It is one of the largest nonpro ts in Northeast Ohio, serving more than 20,000 people per year.

The Centers has purchased the former St. Vincent Charity Medical Of ce Building, which it plans to convert into its new headquarters. | COSTAR

RH Gallery opens with a splash in Orange Village

By Stan Bullard

With a fundraising gala March 21 that proved to be a place to be seen as well as to see high-end home furnishings in a lavish setting, the RH Cleveland Gallery has opened at Pinecrest in Orange Village. A who’s-who of Cleveland business leaders was there, including Mayor Justin Bibb; Fred Nance, Squire Patton Boggs executive group member and global DEI counsel; custom homebuilder and salon operator Dino Palmieri; builder and developer Sam Petros; and a crowd that filled the public parts of the three-story structure.

e new store by the public company formerly known as Restoration Hardware, based in Corte Madera, California, includes a glass-topped restaurant on its top oor and incorporates 55,000 square feet of selling space. Atop a hill visible from I-271, the heavily illuminated building is at 4099 Orange Place, next to the Pinecrest mixed-use project.

“Everything here is for sale,” Gary Friedman, RH CEO, said in an interview on the opening night of the store, open seven days a week.

ere are about 20 chandeliers throughout the place (Friedman said he does not know how many are there), bars on the rst two oors set o by Roman Doric columns, and spare concrete oors that set o the many rugs in the place. ere also are chairs, bedroom sets, credenzas and rugs. e second oor is dominated by a design center for samples of sheets, curtains and rugs for custom orders. Patio table and chairs are located outdoors on multiple balconies and a rooftop patio.

rough it all, Friedman constantly met people as he was shepherded around by Pinecrest developers and managers Adam Fishman and Randy Ruttenberg of Fairmount Properties of Orange.

Friedman said he started what became RH 20 years ago after being passed over for a promotion at Williams Sonoma, the San Francisco-based housewares and kitchen supplies chain.

“How did I get here?” Friedman asked. “I spent the rst 10 years sitting with accounts receivable to

HUD cuts Millennia Cos. from new U.S. deals for ve years

Stan Bullard

Millennia Cos., the Cleveland-based real estate concern with interests in apartments, Key Tower and hospitality, said it plans to make a big switch in its business after getting slapped with a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sanction barring it from new HUD contracts — or any other federal contracts — for the next ve years.

Although Millennia housing owner Frank Sinito is best known in Cleveland for his downtown properties such as Key Tower and o ce-to-apartment renovations at e Gar eld and 75 Public Square, its empire was built on affordable housing. Federal housing aid is the lifeblood of such operations to house low-income and elderly people.

read. “ e company is actively engaged in discussions with buyers regarding the sale of most of its affordable housing communities and looks forward to furthering its multi-year plan to reinvest in the Northeastern Ohio region following the completion of the sale.”

Previously, Millennia signaled plans to shed only what is called the “Global Ministries Foundation” (GMF) portfolio, a low-income group of apartment properties it acquired in 2016. Complaints the past few years of poor housing conditions at former GMF properties and investigations by TV and newspapers from Houston to Atlanta triggered the HUD ban.

Millennia blamed the HUD ban on issues with the “highly distressed GMF” portfolio it acquired at HUD’s request because of its track record with such properties.

In the shift from affordable housing, the company said it is pivoting to its hotel, restaurant and commercial properties and a focus on market-rate apartments.

In an emailed statement, Millennia signals its change will go beyond the ve-year ban.

“ e Millennia Companies will not pursue any HUD or a ordable housing funding for its properties moving forward, including e Centennial (the 909-925 Euclid Avenue landmark),” the statement

“At the time of this acquisition, e Millennia Companies was in good standing with HUD and had no outstanding issues,” the company statement read.

Millennia said renovating a portion of the GMF properties was di cult because of their “immense physical deterioration, exacerbated by COVID-19, economic uncertainty and interest rate increases.”

Millennia said it has acquired

and restored more than 20,000 units of a ordable housing through the years.

e ban on additional HUD and federal contracts is called a “debarment.”

Upon request, the HUD press

o ce released a letter from Ethan Handelman, deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing, in which the agency said its commitment to people living in HUD-assisted housing is that they have safe, decent homes and that its property owners manage assets responsibly under rules for both property conditions and nancial management.

e nal debarment action means Millennia and Sinito cannot participate in “any new business with HUD, its o ce of multifamily programs, including the Section 8 programs for ve years ending on Dec. 13, 2028.”

HUD said the debarment does not a ect existing properties or contracts with HUD.

In the shift from a ordable housing, which Millennia said it began in January 2023, the company said it is pivoting to its hotel, restaurant and commercial properties and a focus on market-rate apartments. ose other businesses, such as LockKeepers in Valley View, the Marble Room, Marriott and other downtown properties, are stand-alone businesses and not a ected by the ban, the company said.

Sinito’s interest in a ordable housing goes back to when he did

windowless boxes that lack any sense of humanity,” Friedman said. “ ere’s no fresh air or natural light, plants die in most retail stores, and I’m sure that’s not a good environment for humans, either.”

He said the new shops are designed to inspire and meet the challenge of web-based shopping.

track every dime.” e company now has annual gross sales of $3 billion in 2023.

Friedman said the company’s sales experience at its Legacy Village store in Lyndhurst supported opening the larger store.

It is only a short drive from the existing store, he said, but closer to high-end areas east of Pinecrest.

More on point, Friedman said in an email before the opening that RH is focused on experience as part of retailing.

“Most retail stores are archaic,

“ ese spaces are a re ection of human design, a study of balance, symmetry and perfect proportions,” Friedman said. “Spaces that blur the lines between residential and retail, indoors and outdoors, home and hospitality. Spaces that are lled with fresh air and natural light. Spaces that activate all of the senses, and spaces that cannot be replicated online.”

Moreover, and no surprise, Friedman said, “We are obsessed with great architecture.”

As Palmieri, wearing a gold brocade jacket, surveyed the crowd, he said, “Marketing. It’s all marketing.”

While the restaurant and bars are part of the experience, they are also part of the RH revenue stream. The company reports revenue from food and beverages separately from the furniture sales.

a paper on a ordable housing as a Cleveland State University student and concluded it would be a good market because society will always have poor people.

In interviews over the years, Sinito said he and his wife, Malisse Sinito, transformed a former bar in Valley View to LockKeepers in order for her to have “a nice place to work.” His downtown ofce-to-apartment deals have garnered praise for sensitivity to historic issues, and Sinito is known for being detail-oriented.

Millennia also has drawn high marks from o ce leasing agents for adapting Key Tower to current o ce trends in the post-pandemic era with comfortable seating in

the lobby, trendy food operations and a co ee shop. Previously the skyscraper dating from the early 1990s had a stark, institutional feel. e company has struggled for years to nance and launch the adaptive reuse project e Centennial, which would convert the 1 million-square-foot landmark to a mix of uses with housing. However, Millennia also has submitted it to Cuyahoga County as an option to replace the Justice Center complex.

Sinito did not reply to a request for a personal interview. e company did not reply to questions about whether it has additional appeals to the order.

The RH Cleveland Gallery opened in March at a site overlooking I-271. CONTRIBUTED

Key Tower, the city’s tallest of ce building, is owned by an af liate of Millennia Cos. owner Frank Sinito. Millennia Cos.’ headquarters is in the building. | STAN BULLARD

County proposes leasing former Plain Dealer building

By Kim Palmer

New legislation signals Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne administration’s plan to move the county Board of Elections and some of its health and human services ofces to the former Plain Dealer building in the Superior Arts district.

Cuyahoga County Council at its meeting on Tuesday, March 26, heard a measure proposing the county lease the four-story building at 1801 Superior Ave.

e 235,000-square-foot o ce building, built as the headquarters for e Plain Dealer, languished on the market after sta in 2022 moved to the newspaper’s publishing o ces on Tiedeman Road in Brooklyn.

“ e Cuyahoga County Board of Elections welcomes the opportunity to move operations to the 1801 Superior Avenue location,” said Anthony Perlatti, director of the county elections board, in a statement.

e building, which was completed in 2001, was bought by the current owners — May eld Heightsbased Industrial Commercial Properties LLC — in May 2022. Several calls to the company were not returned as of 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 22.

e Superior Avenue site, which

has a parking garage and surface lots for 800 cars, would o er voters and sta more parking from the current elections board location at 2925 Euclid Ave.

A statement about the legislation also indicated that the county “plans to renovate the Virgil E. Brown Building at 1641 Payne Avenue and sell the Jane Edna Hunter Building at 3955 Euclid Avenue.”

Ronayne has said publicly that he wanted to sell or lease the Jane Edna Hunter building, where much of the county’s social services offices are located.

That 170,640-square-foot building in Midtown has been functioning as an impromptu emer-

gency child drop-off for the county’s children and family services department.

In late 2023, the county announced a plan to expand emergency childcare services at a treatment facility run by the Centers for Families and Children — the Cleveland Christian Home.

The long-term plan, by the county, is to create a Cuyahoga County Child Wellness Campus that would serve as an alternative to drop-offs at the Jane Edna Hunter Building. The proposal is part of a comprehensive effort to address a lack of suitable placement and treatment options for youth who need intense medical,

behavioral health or traumarelated care.

e estimated $8 million campus located at West 114 Street and Lorain Avenue already has $450,000 in county funds, a $500,000 grant from the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities and $100,000 from the Centers.

e proposed legislation is co-sponsored by three council chairs — Yvonne Conwell, who chairs the Health and Human Services Committee; Dale Miller, chair of the Finance Committee; and Michael Byrne, chair of the Public Works Committee. e measure was heard at the March 26 county council meeting for a rst reading and on April 9 will go

before the committee of the whole for a second hearing.

If approved, the lease would not exceed an annual average cost of $5.4 million over 17 years. According to the legislation, the county would lease the property from July 2024 to June 2041, for an amount not to exceed $91 million in total. Funding would come from the county’s general fund and the Health and Human Services Levy. e lease agreement is expected to begin in July.

Currently Step Forward, an anti-poverty agency once known as the Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland, is the one remaining tenant in the former Plain Dealer building that has been in the news for years regarding who would occupy 8 acres of commercial space.

In 2018, then-Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson announced the city’s police department would move its headquarters into the building, only to back out of that deal.

After that, Midtown’s Minute Men Sta ng Services was under contract to move to the building, but that deal dissolved in early 2020.

Under Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration, the Cleveland’s division of police selected the ArtCraft Building down the street at 2530 Superior Ave.

Cuyahoga County Council heard a measure proposing the county lease the former Plain Dealer building at 1801 Superior Ave.

To

ENGINEERING FIRMS

4

5

6

7

8

9

33

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81Civil,

27

W. 130th St. Bridge Replacement, Wastewater Treatment Plant and Westwood Left Station Improvements, Brookpark Road Bridge Replacement

DavidWiles,

JeffBroadwater

JamesCicero,

JeffreyHerzog, president; MarianneCorrao, executive VP

AnthonyUrankar, VP, Northeast Ohio; MarkBuchenic, VP, regional operations Eastern Ohio

MichaelReagan,

MarkSmoley, senior VP; Jason Watson, VP, transportation; Colin Wantz, VP, construction engineering

JefferyMiterko;

TheodoreBeltavski

;

KeyCorp CEO’s pay tops $10M in 2023

The median total for all employees was $80,737

By Jeremy Nobile

Christopher Gorman received approximately $10.27 million in total compensation in 2023, his fourth year as chairman, president and CEO of Cleveland’s KeyCorp, according to details in the company’s latest proxy statement.

Gorman’s pay package for the year included a base salary of $1.2 million, approximately $7 million in stock/ option awards and $1.9 million in incentive compensation, according to Key’s executive compensation table.

Gorman also got $151,129 in “other” reportable compensation, which includes the value of the personal use of corporate aircraft ($119,484) and executive security ($5,290).

Gorman received approximately $10.46 million in total compensation in 2022, with a base salary of $1.15 million, and a total of $8.65 million in 2021, with a base salary of $1 million.

e median annual total compensation for all Key employees in 2023 was $80,737, or 7% less than the 2022 median of $86,844.

For 2023, Key’s CEO-to-employee pay ratio was 127:1 compared with a ratio of 120:1 in 2022.

KeyCorp is the holding company for KeyBank, the only large regional bank headquartered in Cleveland and the largest bank in Northeast Ohio by deposit market share.

Key’s other top executives are paid similarly as Gorman, with compensation packages featuring a mix of salary, stock awards and other nancial incentives.

Here’s a look at total compensation Key’s other named executive o cers received in 2023:

◗ Clark Khayat, chief nancial o cer: $2.65 million

◗ Andrew Paine III, head of institutional bank: $4.47 million ($4.55 million in 2022)

◗ Angela Mago, chief human resources o cer: $3.66 million ($3.65 million in 2022)

◗ Amy Brady, chief information o cer: $3.13 million ($3.19 million in 2022)

◗ Don Kimble, former CFO: $3.34 million ($5.48 million in 2022)

Cleveland Clinic names new chief legal of cer

By Paige Bennett

Deborah Gordon has been named Cleveland Clinic’s next chief legal o cer and executive vice president.

Gordon is joining the Clinic from Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System where she has served as chief administrative o cer, chief legal o cer and executive vice president since 2017.

She will succeed David Rowan, who is retiring from his position as chief legal o cer after nearly

30 years at the Clinic. Rowan will become a senior adviser to Clinic president and CEO Dr. Tom Mihaljevic.

Before joining Memorial Hermann, Gordon was partner and vice chair of the corporate department at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago.

She represented health systems, hospitals, physician groups and other health care entities in complex transactions, regulatory

matters and litigation, according to a news release issued Wednesday, March 27, by the Clinic.

She also served as associate general counsel at Northwestern Memorial Healthcare and assistant general counsel at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Health System. In 2022, Gordon was recognized by Crain’s sister public Modern Healthcare as one of the Top Women Leaders in Health-

care to Watch.

Gordon will begin her new role with the Clinic on June 1.

“I am pleased to welcome Deborah to the Cleveland Clinic family,” Mihaljevic said in a statement. “She will be a valuable addition to our team as we advance our mission and vision across the enterprise. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation for the impact Dave has had over his tenure, I value his counsel and the depth of experience he will bring to this new role.”

Gorman

Gordon

ENROLLMENT

From Page 1

among small private liberal arts colleges and universities, and Northeast Ohio schools are not immune to these di culties.  Financial challenges have placed some of Northeast Ohio’s small, private liberal arts colleges and universities in the spotlight recently.

Last month, Notre Dame College announced it will be shutting down at the end of the spring semester. Berea’s Baldwin Wallace University announced plans in early February to cut 23 full- and part-time sta positions, extend a hiring freeze through December and reorganize or no longer admit new students to 13 programs. And Lake Erie College in Painesville entered into a forbearance agreement with bondholders after it did not meet certain covenants it had agreed to as part of a debt sale.

Declining enrollment is the most pressing concern a ecting public and private colleges and universities in the U.S. Experts predict the traditional college-age population will drop by 15% between 2025 and 2029 as a result of the national decrease in birth rates that began after the 2008 nancial crisis, as reported by e Hechinger Report.

ough the “demographic cli ” poses challenges for the entire higher education sector, the weight won’t be borne equally across colleges and universities. Large institutions buoyed by big endowments and research and grant revenue tend to be in a stronger position, said Emily Wadhwani, a senior director at Fitch Ratings.

“ ose schools that are less competitive, less selective and dependent more heavily on students and the associated revenue that comes along with a student when they enroll, those are the schools facing the most pressure right now,” she said.

comes in and it’s smaller than you normally recruit, you’re going to be dealing with the economic part of that for four years.”

Private, nonpro t colleges and universities generated nearly $652 billion in economic impact during the 2021-2022 academic year and graduated 1.2 million undergraduate students annually, according to the NAICU’s latest impact report. While those numbers are up pre-pandemic, they’re about at when adjusted for in ation.

Fitch Ratings issued a deteriorating outlook for U.S. colleges and universities in 2024, citing labor and wage pressures, high interest rates and uneven enrollment recovery across the higher education landscape.

In the second half of last year, the credit rating agency had 10 downward outlook revisions against ve upward revisions, Wadhwani said. She noted that Fitch covers the strongest, most competitive institutions in the

“My sense of where the challenges are greatest is in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes, in a lot of areas that are older industrial areas that might be struggling themselves economically,” Mistick said. “Institutions within that area are not immune to the local economy challenges.”

As the number of traditional college-age students decreases nationally, Ohio institutions have the additional burden of the state’s dwindling population. By 2050, the Buckeye State’s population is expected to decline by more than 675,000, according to the Ohio Department of Development.

“We’ve seen some of that impact on our in-state student counts,” said Carolyn Noll Sorg, vice presi-

enrollment decline immediately following the pandemic, but numbers are starting to return to pre-pandemic levels, Noll Sorg said.

Applications are up about 11% from high school seniors during the current enrollment cycle compared with last year.

“My sense of where the challenges are greatest is in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes, in a lot of areas that are older industrial areas that might be struggling themselves economically.”

Barbara Mistick, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities

country and that most pressure in the sector exists in the non-rated space.

“We’re a four-year business cycle,” said Barbara Mistick, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. “If that freshmen class

dent for enrollment management at John Carroll. “ ere’s opportunity in that, though. To both serve our market here at home, even though it’s shrinking, but also to grow outside of it.”

JCU, which has about 2,400 undergraduate students, saw some

e university anticipates rst-year enrollment for next fall will be in the range of 625 to 650, putting it on par with pre-pandemic numbers.

Ursuline College’s enrollment has remained steady over the last several years, said Mike Brown, vice president of enrollment. Pre-pandemic, the Pepper Pike-based college had 640 students at the undergraduate level. Last fall, that number was 637.

“We’ve always been a small

great deal” or “quite a lot” of condence in higher education, according to a 2023 Gallup poll, a drop of 12 percentage points from 2018.

“We’ve never lived in a onesize- ts-all world or marketplace,” said Alan Miciak, president of John Carroll University. “ e question of ‘What is the appropriate post-secondary education for anybody?’ is up to those families to choose. We still see extremely strong value proposition in higher ed for us. And I think we’ve got a track record of producing great outcomes for students, and we’re going to continue there.”

In a busy digital world, small schools have the challenge of cutting through the noise and getting students’ attention, Brown said.

“ ere are constantly evolving ways of students to access education, so the consumer has more products to choose from … there are options of online, asynchronous, synchronous. ere’s so much information available,” he said.

And the “disastrous” rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, didn’t make anything easier for students, colleges or universities, Mistick said.

The forms, filled out by millions of current and prospective college students each year, launched in December instead of October, but problems with the application led to even longer delays. Without that information, “none of the financial aid information from which institutions can create their packages, their offer for students, their scholarship offer or their financial aid offer, none of that can happen,” Mistick said.

It’s been especially challenging for small schools, where a di erence of a handful of students can drastically a ect budgets, said David Attis, managing director of research at EAB, a consulting rm that specializes in education institutions.

campus but, of course, we need to maintain, if not, grow our enrollment,” said Jennifer Schuller, president of Lake Erie College in Painesville. “We’re around 1,000 students total between graduate and undergraduate students. Ideally, I’d love to be closer to 1,400. We have a pretty big enrollment increase up for this fall. I’m pretty con dent, given all the changes we’re putting in place, we’ll get there.”

Among is these changes was an overhaul to the college’s transfer policy that saw transfers increase from 20 in fall 2022 to 64 in fall 2023. Lake Erie College experienced a 4.2% increase between fall 2022 and 2023 in enrollment, according to Crain’s data.

Along with the enrollment cli , colleges and universities must wrestle with changing attitudes toward higher education in the U.S. Only 36% of Americans have “a

“ ere’s already this perception that we cost a lot more than the public universities, when, in reality, we have a lot of funded aid and discount rates,” Schuller said. “But everybody doesn’t know that until they come to visit. ere’s still this perception that private institutions are a lot more out-of-pocket costs.”

By mid-March, some colleges and universities were starting to receive FASFA data from the U.S. Department of Education, but problems with the application have resulted in fewer students lling it out. Based on current submissions, the Department of Education is on track to see a nearly 20% drop in applications submitted this year, CNBC News reported.

What’s become clear in today’s environment, Brown said, is that colleges and universities must be prepared to pivot and can no longer rely on one speci c program to x every problem.

“ e days of the magic bullet major that’s going to solve every institution’s enrollment issue are gone,” he said.

John Carroll University received a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. | JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY

Wadhwani

Jennifer Schuller, president of Lake Erie College | LAKE ERIE COLLEG

So how did the arts and crafts retailer competing with the likes of Hobby Lobby, Michaels and, increasingly, other discount and big-box stores, get here in the rst place?

A long history of debt

Joann has been saddled with a large amount of debt ever since a $1.6 billion leveraged buyout by private equity rm Leonard Green & Partners in 2010. at deal took the then-public company private.

Operating out of the scope of public scrutiny, the business expanded, growing its retail footprint while paying down the debt used to fund its own buyout in small installments.

en came the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020.

While Joann was initially adversely impacted as its stores were closed amid government-imposed lockdowns, it quickly recovered.

As detailed in public lings, Joann stores re-opened as the company positioned itself as an essential business — in particular, customers were ocking there to buy fabrics and other materials for homemade facemasks.

Meanwhile, with so much of the public staying home, interest in crafty projects soared, boosting sales.

As Joann noted in a 2021 annual ling: “Our momentum through the COVID-19 pandemic has been further supported by heightened DIY customer behavior, signi cant increases in the number of new and current customers participating in new categories and the continued rise of online marketplaces.”

Between the springs of 2020 and 2021, Joann reported sales growth of 38%. It also added 10 million new customers to its marketing database, who were described as “younger” and “more a uent” than its typical clientele, according to company lings. ese customers were expected to be sticky.

For the 39 weeks ending Oct. 31, 2020, Joann posted $174 million in net income and total revenue of $1.92 billion, as reported by Bloomberg at the time.  at was a marked improvement for the business compared with the like period a year prior, when it posted a loss of $188 million on $1.55 billion in sales.  With this momentum behind it, Joann’s private equity owners decided to take the company public once again.

ey got out at a good time.

Going public (again)

Joann raised $131 million when it launched its initial public o ering in March 2021, which was 30% shy of its $186 million goal. It sold approximately 11 million shares at $12 each at the time after marketing them for $15 to $17. ( at stock, which will be delisted as Joann is taken private following its restructuring, has since cratered to about 15 cents

per share.)

But regardless of the IPO, there was still a mountain of debt to deal with — much of which is subject to variable interest rates — which totaled $930 million as of Oct. 31, 2020.

Its debt was reduced to approximately $794 million as of Jan. 30, 2021, according to companynance reports.

Joann then applied the proceeds from its IPO plus some borrowings from a revolving credit facility to trim that down further.

Joann’s momentum didn’t continue as hoped as the health crisis came under control, however, and its operating environment became even more challenging.

Basically, everything that could go wrong, did, as costs mounted and a pandemic-drive boost in sales faded.

Complicating matters was growing competition from online retailers and discount stores that budget-conscious customers began ocking to with their discretionary spending. is is an ongoing challenge for the business.

When reporting Q3 earnings for its 2024 scal year in December, Christopher DiTullio, Joann’s chief customer o cer and co-leader of the interim o ce of the CEO — Joann president and CEO Wade Miquelon left the company in spring 2023 following a “challenging” year — told investors that the company was facing “basket pressure by way of fewer items (purchased) per transaction” in addition to customers “shopping closer to their project needs versus stocking up and adding to their stash as in years prior.”

“While Joann is still a force to be reckoned with in the fabrics and textiles space, it has lost customers to rivals over recent years,” said Neil Saunders, an analyst and managing director with GlobalData, in a recent investor note.

“Weakening store standards and declining customer service levels, partly because of sta ng cuts, have made stores less desirable,” Saunders adds. “And a desire for lower prices has driven some shoppers to alternatives like Hobby Lobby. On top of this, a lot of crafters have found it easier to shop online from a myriad of crafting supply sites. Joann has responded with improvements to its own site, but this has had little impact.”

More costs, more debt

Meanwhile, on the cost front, Joann was grappling with higher prices on production, materials and freight. Most of Joann’s items come from overseas. Because of this, it also was a ected by tari s on Chinese imports.

Joann diversi ed its international sourcing to o set some of this, increasingly procuring items from several other countries, including Pakistan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan, Turkey and South Korea.

However, as the company noted in a 2023 annual ling: “Because of the increase in foreign sourcing, we need to order these products further in advance than

would be the case if the products were sourced domestically, which in turn requires us to have a longer in-transit time for our merchandise and higher safety stock levels in our distribution centers and store locations.”

is really hurt Joann, said Cris-

Joann’s bankruptcy not include any imminent reductions to employees or its store count, but that is likely due in part to the company reducing both of those in recent years.

Joann had 855 stores in 49 states in its footprint as of January 2021 compared with 838 as of January 2023, according to company reports.

“You’re looking at a company that had cash balances hovering around $20 million and total debt over $1 billion. It’s really hard to make those numbers work.”

Cristina Fernández, a managing director and senior research analyst with Telsey Advisory Group

tina Fernández, a managing director and senior research analyst with Telsey Advisory Group, who had been covering Joann since its IPO.

“When freight went really high, that was very detrimental to their pro tability because they have to pay a lot to get those goods into the states,” she explained.

Furthermore, with Joann’s cash position looking quite weak compared to its debt, vendors required more cash up front to show that they could a ord inventory.

As a result, Joann took on additional debt to improve its cash position, pay debt, nance lease obligations and pay dividends.

By Jan. 28, 2023, according to company reports, Joann’s debt ballooned back to $990.6 million. As of its bankruptcy filing, that debt pile is more than $1 billion.

To bankruptcy and beyond

For its scal 2023, Joann reported a net loss of $200.6 million on net sales of $2.2 billion. It was after this year that Miquelon retired.

As of its Q3 earnings for scal 2024 reported in December, Joann’s last earnings report prior to ling for bankruptcy, the company posted a net loss of $149.1 million on three-quarters of sales totaling less than $1.5 billion.

Coming into calendar year 2024, market rumors began circulating that Joann might le for bankruptcy. is may have become a self-ful lling prophecy.

Analysts including Fernández thought a restructuring was probably in the o ng. But the expectation for many was that might not occur as soon as it did as Joann’s rst tranche of debt was not slated to come due until 2026.

“ ere was de nitely concern (with Joann) in the real estate community, and that concern was starting to spread,” Fernández said. “ at can make it tougher for companies to negotiate leases and secure inventory. Knowing there was concern out there from several parties, it seems they felt now was a good time to go ahead (with the restructuring), even though it didn’t seem imminent from their last earnings.”

“You’re looking at a company that had cash balances hovering around $20 million and total debt over $1 billion,” she added. “It’s really hard to make those numbers work.”

It may be surprising to see

According to PitchBook, Joann had about 20,000 employees in 2023, but that gure is almost certainly not current, as the company has been eliminating positions as part of cost-cutting e orts.

e company does not appear to have reported total full-time equivalent employees in annual lings. And a Joann spokesperson did not respond to a Crain’s question about total sta at the retailer today.

Sarah Foss, global head of legal and restructuring for Debtwire, said she’s a “bit skeptical” that there won’t be

some additional cuts to sta or stores in the future, even if it’s not immediately necessary now.

“It is very unusual for a retailer coming into bankruptcy to do so without closing stores, rationalizing the footprint or downsizing operations,” Foss said.

In that sense, this retailer’s bankruptcy is di erent to the extent that it is centered purely on reducing debt.

Joann o cials have stated that 95% of the company’s stores are cash- ow positive, and payments to employees and vendors will continue uninterrupted thanks to the new nancing that it is receiving amid the restructuring.

But time will tell whether the business can position itself to truly thrive once again in a challenging and competitive environment for the arts and crafts retail segment.

“While the restructuring process will address some of the nancial challenges, Joann will also need to think about how to craft a better proposition to help it grow the top line,” Saunders said. “For a still constrained company, this will be a major challenge.”

CAVS

From Page 1

e facility, which is being designed by Populous Studio, will be situated on 35 acres along the east bank of the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland. It is expected to break ground before the end of 2024, pending city approval.

“ is project is the rst step in creating a more vibrant and growth-oriented neighborhood, transforming the look and feel of downtown,” said Dan Gilbert, the Cavaliers’ chairman and Bedrock’s founder and chairman, in a news release. “We are grateful to our partners at the city of Cleveland and the Cleveland Clinic for their support with this very important and exciting project that will ignite our new vision for the riverfront.”

e design takes inspiration from the colors and the curvature of the Cuyahoga River and the surrounding valley, “creating core-toshore connectivity that adds new dimension to the coastline,” the Cavaliers said. ree principles informed that design: embracing the river; creating a local icon; and elevating the athlete’s experience.

e center also will include a public kayak launch point.

“We really wanted to create this iconic landmark that ts into the existing natural infrastructure of what the riverfront yields,” Barlage said. “It provides this clear opportunity for us to kind of rede ne the front door of downtown Cleveland ... while leveraging one of our most unique national resources, which is the river. e river has provided us with so much, from the port to the mills to now the rowing clubs and the recreational boaters and the kayakers and all the like. And this gives us a chance to t into that in a way that will be unique, but will be world-class in all aspects of it.”

e Cavaliers received conceptual approval for their designs from the Cleveland City Planning

Commission in October. e team submitted more designs to the city on Friday, March 15.

e Cavaliers still need to get schematic approval, a building permit for foundation work and then get nal approval to do vertical construction. Once approved, the team expects a 2½- to 3-year construction timeline.

e Cavaliers view the center as an investment in both the team and Cleveland, one that will at-

tract “elite and everyday athletes” to the city and position Cleveland as a “global sports science and wellness destination.”

e center will o er comprehensive care for the general public, including athletes of all sports and levels, the team said. e facility will provide access to testing and hightech training equipment and devices, along with professionals from a range of specialities, including orthopedic surgery, sports medicine,

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

FINANCIAL SERVICES

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cardiology, pulmonology, exercise physiology, neurology, nutricon, psychology and genetics.  “ e vision and functionality of this state-of-the-art facility will be a generational game changer for the Cleveland Cavaliers,” said Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman. “ e overall investment in this project speaks to how much the franchise prioritizes the well-being of our players, while also delivering exceptional resources to

enhance their skills to an elite level.

“We have a championship-caliber culture, and this is another example of that commitment to our players, coaches, and support sta to continue elevating the organization into the league’s best. e community engagement with the Cleveland Clinic, coupled with the downtown location, will provide another impactful destination o ering to Northeast Ohio.”

e Cleveland Clinic has served as the Cavaliers’ o cial health care provider since 1993, and the center will be the only Clinic-backed professional facility open to the public. It also will provide a platform for the Cavs Academy program, which serves more than 50,000 youth athletes across Northeast Ohio every year.

“ is project will not only enhance the landscape of Cleveland but will also provide new approaches and applications to improve the health of our community through multidisciplinary care for patients of all athletic abilities,” said Cleveland Clinic president and CEO Dr. Tom Mihaljevic. “ e Global Peak Performance Center exempli es the impact we can have when like-minded organizations come together. We are proud to be working with Bedrock Real Estate and continuing to grow our relationship with the Cleveland Cavaliers.”

e project does not yet have a price tag, since the Cavaliers need to get approval from the city before it transitions into construction design.

Barlage did say that by the time this investment is nished, Gilbert will have invested about $2 billion into Cleveland since purchasing the Cavaliers in 2005.

“ at just shows his commitment to the community and all of Northeast Ohio,” Barlage said. “It’s something we’re very fortunate to have and we never take for granted, and we want to make sure we use it to create the greatest impact going forward.”

Slater & Zurz LLP

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Ancora is happy to announce that Cindy Flynn has joined the rm as Chief Experience Of cer. As SVP and member of the leadership team, Cindy will have a role in business development and marketing while also overseeing and enhancing both client and employee experience. Cindy brings 25+ years of nancial services experience where she has been responsible for building brands, creating business growth strategies and performancedriven marketing. She earned a BA from Southern Methodist University.

Brandon Dean has been named Partner at Slater & Zurz LLP. Brandon is the Managing Attorney of the Medical Malpractice and Geriatric Abuse Division. Throughout 11+ years at Slater & Zurz, Brandon’s practice has advocated for individuals in geriatric cases involving skilled nursing and residential care facilities. Brandon has been recognized as an Ohio Super Lawyer Rising Star annually since 2016. He earned his J.D. from The University of Akron’s School of Law and is a graduate of Ohio State.

Rob Horton has been named Partner at Slater & Zurz LLP. Rob’s practice covers various personal injury areas, but his primary focus is motor vehicle, trucking, motorcycle accidents, dog attacks, and premises liability. Rob has more than a decade of experience in advocating for the injured. He is an active member of the Akron Bar Association and the Ohio State Bar Association. Rob earned his J.D. from The University of Akron’s School of Law.

Michael Schmeltzer has been named Partner at Slater & Zurz LLP. Since joining the rm, Michael’s practice has focused on his passion – standing up for everyday people against those who refuse to take responsibility for their wrongful conduct. As a partner, he will continue representing clients in various complex cases, including catastrophic personal injury, construction accidents, trucking and motorcycle accidents, product liability, and wrongful death.

Slater & Zurz LLP

welcomes Attorney

Sonia Whitehouse

With over 12 years of experience in civil litigation in Ohio and New York, her practice is focused primarily on auto and trucking accidents, dog bites, premises liability, construction accidents, claims against insurance companies, wage and hour disputes, and appellate law. Raised in Akron and residing in Cleveland, Sonia has lived in New York, Istanbul, London, and Berlin. Sonia received her J.D. from Hofstra University’s School of Law.

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The Cavs, the Cleveland Clinic and Bedrock Real Estate revealed renderings of the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center. CONTRIBUTED

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