Crain's Cleveland Business, April 15, 2024

SKY-HIGH TURNOUT

Triple-digit parking rates and closed streets don’t deter lakefront eclipse crowds

By Kim Palmer

Heavy tra c, closed roads and parking rates that hit triple digits in at least one downtown Cleveland garage didn't deter throngs of viewers from gathering along the city's lakefront to take in a rare total solar eclipse on April 8.

Early morning showers gave way to

unseasonably warm temperatures and high, thin clouds that failed to obscure the celestial event.

Residents and visitors alike were welcomed by heavy tra c, street closures and sky-high parking rates downtown as the eclipse unfolded just hours ahead of the Cleveland Guardians home opener.

While low-priced spots were o ered on various parking apps, some parking rates downtown were elevated to $70 and $80. the Ritz Carlton on 3rd Street downtown had parking advertised for a whopping $125.

People traveled from Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Pennsylvania to witness the total solar eclipse at Cleve-

land’s Great Lakes Science Center Eclipse Fest.

Dwayne Metz, drove from his home in Pennsylvania to spend the day in Cleveland at the Great Lakes Science Center's Eclipse Fest and to see the totality with his own eyes.

200 Public Square’s low sale price has big impact

By Stan Bullard

Reactions to the extreme discount Great Neck, New Yorkbased Namdar Realty Group scored to snag 200 Public Square vary from excitement to dismay depending on the point of view of prospective o ce tenants or downtown Cleveland skyscraper owners and their operators.

With the $54 million sale price

for the 1.2 million-square-foot tower — which is at least 23% vacant, according to Cuyahoga County records and online data provider CoStar — Namdar could use its lower cost basis to undercut other downtown owners who made investments before the pandemic roiled o ce fundamentals.

See SALE on Page 17

Urban ooding is a rising threat. What can cities do to safeguard their futures?

The Midwest is grappling with increasingly heavy rainfall and what to do with it

Spectators watch the total solar eclipse at Voinovich Bicentennial Park in downtown Cleveland. | GRACE MCCONNELL

CSU board of trustees approves $9 million payment for buyouts

By Joe Scalzo

Cleveland State University’s faculty and staff buyout proposal can move forward after the school’s board of trustees approved a one-time reserve payment of up to $9 million cover the cost of the voluntary program.

e motion passed with an 8-0 vote at a special meeting on Tuesday, April 9.

e program, which will be open to faculty and sta with at least 10 years of service, was rst proposed by President Laura Bloomberg at a faculty senate meeting on Wednesday, April 3.

CSU is looking to close a projected $40 million budget gap for scal year 2025, which represents about 14% of the school’s operating budget.

e speci cs of the program are yet to be worked out, but the school hopes to have an application process ready by early May, the university said.

CSU had just over 14,000 students this year, which was nearly 15% lower than 2018. e CSU 2.0 plan unveiled in March 2021 set a goal of enrolling 20,000 students by 2025. CSU welcomed nearly 4,000 new students across all its programs last fall, which also fell short of the school’s goals.

According to the April 3 presentation, 332 of the CSU’s 527 full-time faculty members and 391 of the 891 full-time sta ers would be eligible for the buyout program.

"CSU is con dent that it will emerge from this period of rightsizing with a new strategic vision as Cleveland’s regional, public, urban research institution centered on the student experience," the university said in a statement. "CSU also intends to leverage technology and recognized industry tools to strengthen its reputation and focus on the future economic, cultural and workforce needs of the region."

State health of cials monitoring bird u

Overall risk to humans remains low, CDC says

Paige Bennett

While a Texas dairy worker tested positive for avian u recently, the second reported case of a human contracting the virus in the U.S., the overall risk to humans remains low, according to health o cials.

e Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the current public health risk is low for highly pathogenic avian in uenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus — commonly known as bird u.

Still, health o cials are monitoring the situation to see if any changes arise that could lead to public health concerns.

“In uenza, in general, is interesting because the way it reproduces can create a lot of changes in its genetics,” said Joyous Van Meter, disease and emergency supervisor at the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. “It’s really good at changing things up on us. at’s why we watch it so carefully.”

Bird u has a ected a growing number of dairy cattle herds in several states across the U.S. recent weeks. e Ohio Department of Agriculture con rmed on Wednesday, April 3, that a dairy cattle herd in Wood County tested positive for avian u, the Buckeye State’s rst case of HPAI in a livestock operation.

Human infections are uncommon but have occurred occasionally worldwide, the CDC says. Illnesses have ranged from mild eye infections and upper respiratory symptoms to severe illness and death in other countries.

ere have only been two reported cases of avian u-infected humans in the U.S., including the recent Texas case. In 2022, an individual in Colorado who had

direct exposure to poultry tested positive for the illness. e patient’s only symptom was fatigue, according to the CDC, and they have since recovered. Similarly, the Texas worker has reported eye redness as their only symptom.

Human-to-human spread has not occurred within the U.S., which would be the real concern, Van Meter said. ose with close or prolonged unprotected exposure to infected animals or environments contaminated by them are at a greater risk of infection.

“We’re just watching anyone who’s had contact with animal cases,” Van Meter said. “We keep an eye on them for 21 days and make sure they’re not showing any symptoms. ey get tested a couple of times, just to be sure.”

e CDC recommends avoiding unprotected exposure to sick or dead animals, such as wild birds, poultry and other domesticated birds, and other wild or domesticated animals, including cattle. It also advises avoiding animal carcasses, raw milk, feces, litter or other materials contaminated by birds or animals with con rmed or suspected avian u.

If someone has to come in contact with any sick or dead animals, they should make sure to wear the proper respiratory and eye protection equipment and gloves, Van Meter said.

People should not prepare or consume uncooked or undercooked food, such as unpasteurized milk or other products made from raw milk, from animals with con rmed or suspected avian u, the CDC says.

e Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture say there is currently no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply because products are pasteurized before they enter the market.

Playhouse Square Foundation buys Greyhound station

Landmark bus terminal sold for $3.3 million

Again playing a familiar role as the hero for nearby downtrodden downtown Cleveland properties, Playhouse Square Foundation became the owner of the landmark Greyhound terminal for $3.3 million in a just-closed purchase.

e foundation, which has served as the developer of last resort in the neighborhood around its restored century-old playhouses and cinemas for two decades, has been pursuing the property publicly and quietly for more than a decade. It closed the deal ursday, April 4, according to Cuyahoga County land records.

e nonpro t, which also serves as the development corporation serving the east end of downtown near Cleveland State University, almost doubled the seller's invest-

ment. A Stamford, Connecticut, private equity group paid $1.7 million for it in January 2023. at’s not a bad gain for holding a property for more than a year

while trying to hawk it to estate developers at a time when interest rates and building cost hikes made new projects challenging.

e Cleveland station is still in

use by Greyhound until it’s forced to nd a new hub for its local operation.

e seller, GH Cleveland LLC, was an a liate of Twenty Lake Holdings, a private equity rm known for buying huge realty portfolios from companies and then trying to resell them.

Twenty Lake and its a liates bought 33 stations in 2023  from U.K.-based First Group, which retained them when it sold the bus operations to the German company FlixBus.

e Greyhound station is envisioned as a potential retail play or entrance for a tall apartment building.

Calls to Playhouse Square, Twenty Lake and an email to Greyhound were not returned as of Friday, April 5.

Stan Bullard

STAN BULLARD

Cleveland State University is looking to close a projected $40 million budget gap. CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY

Sen. Brown vows to continue ghting Nippon-U.S. Steel deal

By Dan Shingler

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said he’s dead serious about stopping Japan's Nippon Steel from buying U.S. Steel, and that he’s working hard behind the scenes to kill that deal.

Ohio’s senior senator said his ongoing opposition to the transaction is more than political theater or bluster, and that he expects the government to step in and stop it.

“I do. This is on the administration to make that happen,” said Brown, a Democrat, in an interview with Crain's. “I don’t give up on stuff like this.”

Brown has opposed the deal since shortly after Nippon announced its bid of more than $14 billion for U.S. Steel at the end of last year. He stood shoulder to shoulder with Lourenco Goncalves, the CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. — and Nippon’s rival bidder — when the two of them and United Steelworkers District 1 director Donnie Blatt spoke at the end of March at Cliffs' Cleveland Works mill to oppose the Nippon deal.

The United Steelworkers union strongly supports Cliffs and Goncalves, who still refers to the late USW president Tom Conway as “my brother.” Goncalves has gone so far as to say that he runs his company first and foremost for his workers and that investors who think they should be his top priority should put their money elsewhere.

After making their bid, Nippon officials met with Brown to discuss the deal. A meeting that was likely meant to win Brown’s support had the opposite effect.

“What got me on this was I knew that Cleveland-Cli s and the union were singing from the same page. en I met with top executives from Nippon and the word ‘worker’ never even left their lips,” Brown said. “ ey clearly didn’t care about workers.”

Brown contrasted the union’s backing of the bid from Cli s and Goncalves, and the support that Cli s has shown its workers to get that backing, with what he said was Nippon’s disregard for workers.

“I’ve been in that (Cli s’ Cleveland Works) plant lots of times, and I know a lot of their workers, their CEO and union leadership,” Brown said. “I know U.S. Steel well from dealing with their plants over the years. And I know what Nippon could mean, with their lack of interest in workers.”

But can the government kill the deal? Brown thinks it can, and will, on either the basis of national security or on the deal’s potential e ect on U.S. foreign trade policy and enforcement.

On national security, steel has been a third rail for decades if not more than a century. Like other nations, the U.S. has been loath to see foreign interest take control of something as important to national defense as the domestic steel industry.

But the trade policy angle has as much potential or more to kill the deal as well, Brown said.

That’s because not only is Nippon a foreign-owned company, but also because it has ties to China, maintains Brown, a powerful senator who is head of the Senate’s Banking Committee.

Cleveland Clinic doctor named board chair of national cancer network

By Paige Bennett

Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Matt Kalaycio is the new chair of the board of directors of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Kalaycio is the vice chair of the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Institute and a professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University.

He has served as vice chair of NCCN since 2022 and represents the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center — a cancer center that supports cancer-related research at CWRU, University Hospitals and the Clinic — through his position with the board.

NCCN is a nonpro t alliance of cancer centers across the country, including the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and Dana-Farber Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center.

Nippon has insisted that Brown’s claims are overstated and that its interests in China, while real, are much smaller than Brown fears.

The question is an important one, Brown said, because as the U.S. considers future trade policies and consults with industry on what those policies should look like, foreign companies should not be the ones advising the government or dictating terms.

“You need almost the entire steel industry to come into that as a united front and it’s not clear that (Nippon) would do that with ties to China,” Brown said. “They could change U.S. Steel’s decision-making process in anti-dumping and countervailing (duty) cases.”

Brown said he has been meeting with a variety of federal officials on the matter, including the president’s Council of Economic Advisers and White House legislative staff, and has taken his concerns to the top of the administration in both writing and in person.

“I’ve talked to Biden about it, yes,” Brown said. “I can’t really speak for him ... but obviously he was listening. This isn’t just playing politics.”

His next step was to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai on Tuesday, April 9, Brown said.

The senator vowed to keep pushing “every lever we can” to stop the deal.

“I think U.S. Steel and Nippon thought this was going to be really easy, and they didn’t even bring workers to the table. Now they’re finding out how hard this is,” Brown said.

associate director for clinical affairs at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern in Dallas.

Meanwhile, Dr. Christopher Lieu, associate professor, co-director of gastrointestinal medical oncology and associate director for clinical research for the University of Colorado Cancer Center, will replace Kalaycio as vice chair.

“It is such an honor to be felt worthy by such a prestigious body,” Kalaycio said during a phone interview with Crain’s Cleveland Business. “It’s very humbling to be given the opportunity to work with this special group of people.”

Kalaycio initially got involved with the NCCN when the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center joined the network in 2015. He was named to the executive committee in 2019. He said he looks forward to helping the organization rethink its longstanding governance structure.

“

e network is “dedicated to improving and facilitating quality, e ective, equitable and accessible cancer care so all patients can live better lives.” It provides evidence-based guidelines for cancer treatment, prevention and support services. NCCN has o ces based in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania.

NCCN announced Kalaycio, a hematology and medical oncology expert who specializes in leukemia treatment, hematopoietic cell transplantation and CAR T-Cell therapy, had been elected chair Monday, April 8, in a news release.

He succeeds Dr. John Sweetenham, professor of medicine and

e board of directors for the NCCN consists of two representatives from each of the 33 member institutions,” he said. “Plus, there’s a non-voting member. So that’s a board of 67 people. at has become unwieldy at best. We are in the process of rethinking the governance structure of the NCCN. I’m looking forward to helping participate in such a large, complex initiative.”

In the news release, NCCN CEO Dr. Crystal Denlinger called the board of directors’ leadership “invaluable” to the nonpro t’s ability to maintain its evidence-based, expert consensus recommendations for cancer care, which were accessed more than 15 million times in 2023.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (right) meets March 27 at Cleveland-Cliffs’ Cleveland Works with Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves (center) and members of the United Steelworkers Union to speak out against Nippon’s bid for U.S. Steel. DAN SHINGLER

Kalaycio

KeyBank restores its partnership with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition

By Jeremy Nobile

After severing ties with KeyBank in 2021 and branding the business as the “worst major mortgage lender for Black homebuyers” in 2022, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition has announced a renewed partnership with the company.

e partnership, announced earlier this month during the NCRC’s 2024 Just Economy Conference, features $25 million in nancial commitments by the Cleveland-based lender intended to support home ownership and includes an $8 million grant to NCRC itself.

Here are some key pieces of the agreement:

◗ KeyBank will provide $17 million to fund grants, down payment assistance, fee waivers, product and branch expansion and marketing, designed to expand credit and assist loan applicants in minority and underserved communities.

◗ KeyBank and NCRC will be independently responsible for allocating $8.5 million each with meaningful input from the other.

◗ KeyBank will provide $8 million to support NCRC’s mission.

ed NCRC cutting ties with Key in 2021 and the agency’s scathing 2022 report “Redlined: KeyBank Failed Black America Despite its Commitments to Improve."

"KeyBank executives looked community groups in the eye and promised to become a leader on inclusive home mortgage lending — then did the exact opposite," Van Tol told Crain’s in December 2022. " ey used those promises to get a merger approved, then cashed out huge dividends from the deal for their own gain while steering their company away from Black neighborhoods, Black borrowers and other marginalized communities."

Last fall, NCRC doubled down on its criticisms with an additional report, "KeyBank’s Betrayal Of Black And Low-Income Homebuyers Continued In 2022,” which painted a picture of a bank that had “continued its years-long retreat from promoting Black and low-income homeownership.”

While Key has repeatedly disagreed with how NCRC characterizes its lending behaviors, it has apparently taken these critiques seriously.

Along these lines, last spring, the company agreed to a thirdparty racial equity audit of its practices, the results of which are expected to be published sometime by or around the end of Q2 2024.

“In recent years, the NCRC has raised concerns about KeyBank’s lending in minority and underserved communities and whether we have kept our promise to be a leader in inclusive home mortgage lending,” notes Key in an emailed statement. “ e NCRC’s reports have focused on certain metropolitan areas, including Philadelphia, New York, Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven. KeyBank disputes NCRC’s reports, but we value our relationship with the NCRC and are committed to serving all communities within our footprint.”

◗ KeyBank and NCRC will collaborate on an ongoing basis to continue to improve KeyBank’s lending to minority and underserved communities.

Key and NCRC have had a rocky relationship that goes back several years.

e bank began working with the NCRC on an initial Community Bene ts Plan during Key’s $4.1 billion acquisition of Bu alobased First Niagara Financial Group, which closed in 2016. Without that plan, NCRC would’ve opposed the deal.

As it touted trending ahead of meeting its commitments, Key would later build on its original $16.5 billion community plan with an additional $40 billion in commitments.

However, NCRC argued that Key hadn’t even followed through with the promises of its rst plan.

Frustrations with this predicat-

According to the report, Key’s purchase loans going to LMI borrowers dropped by double-digit percentages between 2018 and 2021. And all loans Key made for one- to four-family homes across its footprint in 2021, just 2.2% went to Black customers, according to the NCRC analysis.

“Five years after that (2016) agreement, we became concerned about their e orts to ful ll the agreement. It became apparent that their lending had gotten worse, not better,” NCRC President and CEO Jesse Van Tol explained during a keynote speech at the Just Economy Conference on Wednesday, April 3. “We raised concerns about KeyBank’s lending in minority and underserved communities and whether it has kept its promise to be a leader in inclusive home mortgage lending.”

In early 2023, the agency stated that it would point regulators to its concerns, which resulted in dozens of letters from community organizations and fair-lending groups calling for a federal investigation into allegations of redlining.

“We are pleased to be moving forward with this agreement to continue the important work of increasing lending and helping to build wealth in all the communities we so proudly serve,” the company said, highlighting its longtime relationship with NCRC.

Van Tol and KeyBank CEO have been meeting to discuss “the renewed commitment, future partnerships, and the respective goals both organizations hope to achieve as they chart a new path forward together to continue and enhance investment in minority and underserved communities,” according to NCRC.

On Key’s side, some of the efforts the bank has made to support home ownership include the roll out of special purpose credit programs, such as the KeyBank Home Buyer Credit, the Key Opportunities Home Equity Loan and KeyBank Neighbors First Credit. ese programs also come amid an increased focus at the company on home buyer educational resources.

Cleveland Orchestra releases album on Apple Music Classical

Part of just-announced partnership with the digital music giant

e Cleveland Orchestra has released a new spatial audio recording of Sergei Proko ev’s Symphony No. 6 that's available exclusively on Apple Music Classical, part of a just-announced partnership with the digital music giant.

e partnership with Apple Music Classical, a specialty platform launched a little more than a year ago by Apple Music, will include exclusive new releases, curated playlists and editorial features, the orchestra said on Friday, April 5.

An orchestra spokeswoman wrote in an email that all the orchestra's historical and recent recordings already are on Apple Music Classical, but this is the rst time it is releasing an album exclusively on the platform for its launch.

Beginning in 2023, the spokeswoman wrote, the orchestra "has been aiming for four yearly releases, some of which will be Apple Music Classical exclusives going forward."

She wrote that editorial features on Apple Music Classical "will more prominently highlight and contextualize the releases." Playlists will be curated to highlight the orchestra and its various artistic partnerships, "as well as our long recording history, which we’re celebrating the 100th year of in 2024."

General recording releases, or non-exclusives, can be found on all major digital service providers, including Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and more, the spokeswoman noted.

Proko ev: Symphony No. 6 is the rst digital release by the Cleveland Orchestra in 2024. It was recorded live on Sept. 28 and Oct. 1, 2023, in the Jack, Joseph

Macy’s to open small-format experiment in Crocker Park

By Stan Bullard

Macy’s Inc. plans to open one of its new small-format stores in e Promenade, the older openair shopping center on the northern end of the Crocker Park mixed-use center in Westlake.

e city of Westlake issued a building permit Monday, April 8, for Macy’s to occupy the storefront that Bed Bath & Beyond vacated in 2023 at Promenade.

A le at the Westlake Building Department reviewed by Crain’s Cleveland Business showed contractors and architects hired by Macy’s had paid application fees and submitted drawings to the city to make improvements, including electrical work, to the space.

and Morton Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, the orchestra's home. e performance is led by the orchestra's music director, Franz Welser-Möst.

Apple Music Classical, who is available at no additional charge for subscribers to Apple Music, is a dedicated music streaming app for classical music lovers and musicians. It provides classical performances in spatial audio — a way of creating sound in 360 degrees around a listener. Users of the app also can browse curated playlists, composer biographies and descriptions of thousands of works, including those of the Cleveland Orchestra.

A spokesman for Apple Music

Classical wrote in an email that in addition to the new partnership with the Cleveland Orchestra, the platform has similar arrangements with the following: New Japan Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra national de Paris, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Seattle Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, e Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and San Francisco Symphony.

A notation on one of the letters stated that the sign package would require later approval by the Westlake Planning Commission, including new awnings that provide part of the signage.

Tradespeople were active in the space on Monday, April 8. Crocker and Promenade lead developer Stark Enterprises had already put the space in white-box shape the past several weeks, clearly setting the table for contractors hired by a retailer to start work.

Macy’s has announced plans to open 30 of what it calls smallformat stores over the next year.

ey are one- fth the size of the Cincinnati-based company's

typical department stores. e small-format stores are designed to highlight various brands the retailer carries. e 12 existing small Macy's stores have higher sales per square foot than its traditional department stores.

e Westlake building le put the Promenade Macy’s size at 30,000 square feet.

e opening of such new small-format stores is counter to Macy’s plans to shut 150 “underproductive” stores and retain about 350 locations, Tony Spring, Macy’s CEO, said Feb. 27 on the company's fourth-quarter 2023 earnings call, according to a transcript on e Motley Fool website.

Spring said Macy's is pursuing the small-format stores as an alternative to counter declining mall tra c and to establish new

growth opportunities. e smallformat stores are used at new inll locations, to establish customer relationships in locations and retain the brand and employees in areas where it is shutting stores, Spring said.

A Macy’s spokesperson in an email did not reply directly to a Crain’s question asking for con rmation of a Westlake location but acknowledged multiple small format stores are in the works.

Stacie Schmidt, spokeswoman for Cleveland-based Stark, declined comment.

e proposed Macy’s store is in a wing of Promenade that is book-ended by Nordstrom Rack and a Carhartt clothing store.

A Giant Eagle store, now in the Market District format, has served as the plaza’s anchor since Stark installed the plaza in 1993.

Scott Suttell

The Cleveland Orchestra performing at Severance Music Center ROGER MASTROIANNI

The Cleveland Orchestra released a spatial audio recording of Sergei Proko ev’s Symphony No. 6, led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. | CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA

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Women’s Final Four eclipses expectations in Cleveland

By Joe Scalzo

we can point to to continue to prove it.

in record numbers.

On a day when everyone else in Cleveland was focusing on the sun and the moon, David Gilbert was thankful for a star.

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anks to Iowa guard Caitlin Clark — and a city-wide embrace of the Women’s Final Four — Cleveland wasn’t just able to meet expectations for last weekend’s event.

It was able to, ahem, eclipse them.

“Certainly it was the teams in the spotlight and not Cleveland, but Cleveland was in the spotlight,” said Gilbert, the CEO and president of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission (GCSC). “We tried really hard to make sure this had as big an impact and legacy for Cleveland as possible.”

While much of the focus on this year’s Women’s Final Four will center around things like TV ratings and ticket prices — both of which shattered records — to Gilbert, it was just as important that Cleveland drew record crowds for ancillary events. For instance, the April 6 open practice at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse sold out of its 19,000-seat allotment. e Women’s Final Four Bounce on the morning of April 7 saw 1,500 bouncers between ages 8 and 18, plus their chaperones, dribble a half-mile from Public Square to the Cleveland Convention Center.

“We need to continue our reputation as one of the very best cities in America for hosting events,” Gilbert said. “So, the next time we bid on an NCAA event, or another event, we have things like that

“It’s not just that we say that we’re a great host. We’ve proven it. And there’s so much around the community and about the community that’s key to making these things great.”

e Women’s Final Four was expected to have an economic impact north of $25 million and draw more than 25,000 visitors from outside the Cleveland market — many of them wearing black and gold. While the GCSC doesn’t yet have the nal numbers, Gilbert said he’s gotten great feedback from the NCAA and from visitors.

“ e feedback has been so wonderful about how well everything went,” Gilbert said. “What’s great is that it’s come from locals and from people from out of town. Both audiences are very important.

“It’s going to be a little while until we get all the numbers in terms of total impact, but what’s great is we’re already a bit of aware of it, because of the number of people at the open practice and the number of kids at Bounce were just so much higher than in past cities. To me, those are the things that we’re really proud of because those are the things we can control, and those are the things that are really more about the local community’s involvement and engagement and desire to be a part of it.”

Clark helps, too. e NCAA’s all-time leading scorer — men’s or women’s — has had an outsized e ect on women’s basketball, introducing the game to fans

e April 7 nal between Iowa and South Carolina on ABC averaged 18.7 million viewers, an 89% increase over last year'snal between Iowa and LSU and a 285% increase over 2022. It was the most-watched basketball game — men's or women's, college or pro — since 2019 and the most-watched sporting event since 2019, excluding football or the Olympics. At its peak, 24 million people tuned in.

The April 6 semifinal between Iowa and UConn averaged 14.2 million viewers on ESPN, making it the most-viewed basketball game on record and the largest audience ever for an ESPN basketball broadcast. The previous high was for Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals between the Cavaliers and the Celtics (13.51 million).

“There was definitely something so awesome and special about what this year was, and her, and the fact that it got to be played out with Cleveland as the backdrop was pretty amazing,” Gilbert said.

To keep the celestial theme going, Clark was like a comet streaking across the sky, a ratings phenomenon on the level of Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods. But while women’s basketball may never again reach those numbers, Gilbert believes many of the new fans will stick around.

“I’m not an expert in women’s basketball, but this was definitely more of a movement than a moment,” he said. “But I think this year will have shades of ‘moment’ to it.”

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Crowds ocked to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to watch Iowa take on UConn in the Women’s Final Four. | JOE SCALZO

ey came. Now let’s build up Cleveland’s visitor economy.

Pick your favorite sports cliché: A slam dunk. Knocked it out of the park. Stepped up to the plate. They all apply to Cleveland, which is a big-game performer (sorry, no shortage of clichés to choose from) when giant events come to town. Whether it's this year's NCAA Women's Final Four, the 2016 Republican National Convention, the 2021 NFL Draft, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies or countless others, Cleveland shines when the visitor spotlight is brightest.

The stars aligned on Monday, April 8, for the still-rarer opportunity of a total solar eclipse in Cleveland. The next one in the city isn't until 2444, so it was a good thing this one was so spectacular.

It was literally an event for the ages and one that lived up to the hype. No one who saw it will forget the majesty of the moment, particularly in those fourish minutes of totality. On the ground, institutions from Destination Cleveland, NASA Glenn Research Center, the Great Lakes Science Center and many others helped to create a lively, fun, fanciful environment for everyone who lives in Cleveland or came here to experience the day. row in a sold-out Guardians home opener win, lots of visitors for the

most-watched Women’s Final Four ever, and movie lovers making their way to Playhouse Square for the Cleveland International Film Festival (still going through April 13, then streaming through April 21), and the city felt like, as e Wall Street Journal put it, "the new center of the world."

Hyberbole? Sure, but an apt acknowledgment of the long-term e orts by everyone (especially the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, which brought the Women's Final Four to town) involved in creating an amazing experience over a few days.

Pre-event, Destination Cleveland was estimating that 20,000 to 30,000 people would visit for the Women's Final Four, and it projected 200,000 overnight and day visitors for the eclipse.

We're realistic enough to know that those kinds of opportunities don't come around all that often. It's fair to wonder, though, what it takes to build on the recent attention and visits to create an even stronger, and sustainable, tourist economy in Cleveland and the region when we don't have huge events to promote.

Cleveland has a lot of the elements needed to attract visitors and, most crucially, get them to make return visits: attractions of various sizes and types, access to di erent experiences

(indoors and outdoors), a strong food scene, changing seasons, a sense of history, and a distinct culture.

Destination Cleveland, an organization with a $20 million annual budget, has punched above its weight in developing and promoting the Cleveland brand.

Last fall, it reported that 17.9 million people traveled to Cuyahoga County in 2022 for both business and leisure visits, a 12% increase compared to 2021, according to data from Tourism Economics, a division of Oxford Economics. ose gures meant that overall visitor volume in the region was at 92% of the pre-pandemic level of 2019. Data from 2023 and especially 2024 — which still has a big event coming in July, when an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 people are expected to attend the Pan-American Masters Games at venues in and around the city — should show the region has nally recovered the pandemic losses in visitors. at's admirable. But there's a lot of work ahead.

A $49 million renovation project at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland should wrap up in early summer — crucial timing, given that the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) is hosting its convention here in August. at organization

will bring in meeting planners from all over the world to Cleveland and, if all goes well, those planners should bring more meetings here in the future.

Cleveland tends to do the big events extremely well and the smaller things ... well, not quite as well. e city's not always as clean as would be ideal to leave a favorable impression on visitors. Signage to attractions and around downtown has improved but still could be better.

Among larger issues, the public transit network needs to be more robust, and the airport, thankfully slated for major upgrades, has to be more functional and appealing.

In that Wall Street Journal story about Cleveland's moment in the sun, Helen Qin, co-owner of the popular Mason’s Creamery ramen and ice cream shop on the West Side, said she hopes travelers fall in love with the city the way she did when she came here a decade ago.

“I hope that people visit and they stay,” she said.

at's the goal. Cleveland is getting closer to it. Not every year will feature the big special events of 2024, of course, but the infrastructure exists to market the city and region as a place to visit anytime. Lots of people just did.

Let's get them to do it again.

And again.

GRACE MCCONNELL

FLOOD FIGHT

July 2, 2023, was a wet one in Chicago. What the National Weather Service called “multiple nearly stationary bands of showers and thunderstorms” dumped up to 9.1 inches of rain in some parts of the metro area. No injuries were reported, but ash oods inundated roadways, more than 10,000 homes reported ood-related damage, and preliminary estimates of losses totaled a half-billion dollars. A federal disaster was declared.

Chicago wasn’t alone in its misery. A few weeks later and a few hundred miles to the east, the city of Cleveland saw its own deluge on Aug. 23. Cleveland’s west side saw so many vital underpasses ooded that the neighborhood was virtually cut o for hours.

And Detroiters often deal with periodic heavy rains and power outages, with speci c neighborhoods feeling the brunt

during individual storms. e last widespread, catastrophic event, in June 2021, inundated parts of the Grosse Pointes, Detroit’s east side and Dearborn.

It’s a situation that is likely to intensify in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, creating recurring threats to property, health and nances — for residents, and for cities and states.

With chronic deluges occurring far more often than decades ago, there’s no escaping today’s reality: Climate changes and their e ects mean that ooding in urban centers can no longer be ignored as rare acts of nature. Indeed, the Chicago area saw a virtual repeat of July 2’s ooding just weeks later in mid-September.

Images of torrential rainfall that ooded New York City streets and subway lines last September also increase awareness of how widespread urban ooding has become.

e question for cities now is what to do about it.

As storms surge in the Midwest, cities struggle to contain all that water

By John Gallagher

According to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, the U.S. government’s report on climate change, heavy storms became 45% more frequent in the Midwest from 1958 to 2021. Aaron Wilson, Ohio’s state hydrologist, said Cleveland Hopkins International Airport got more than 3 inches of rain in a day just four times in the 55 years from 1950 through 2004; that more than doubled to nine times in just the next 19 years.

In and around Grand Rapids, rain has increased more than 18% over the last 100 years, with nearly 25% more falling in areas just north and east of the city, some of the biggest precipitation increases in the state of Michigan, according to precipitation data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“We’re getting much heavier rain, and the intensity of the rain is incredible,” Candice Miller, public works commissioner for Macomb County outside De-

troit, told Crain’s. “We’re struggling with it just like everybody else. We have to think how we can position ourselves for the future.”

Predicting such events with precision is di cult because, as the weather service notes, the most extreme rainfall is often quite isolated. e di erence of a few miles can mean rain falling harmlessly or devastating ooding, and that devastation has real consequences.

Brian Kazy, a Cleveland Ward 16 city councilman, told News 5 Cleveland after the August 2023 storm: “I was out last night until after 2 a.m., and I saw the look in people’s eyes who couldn’t get home and (were) trying to get out, and it was scary,” he said. “We just got to come up with something, and we’ve got to do it quickly; this has just become too often a problem.”

See FLOODING on Page 10

June 25-27, 2021: A low pressure system produced 3-5 inches of rain across a wide swath of metro Detroit, while some localized areas saw 6-8 inches. | AP IMAGES

Rain is falling faster. Will we ever be able to keep up?

By Grant Segall

In 2014, an empty horse trailer swept along a surging Yellow Creek in Bath Township and wrecked two bridges. e creek also spread uphill, burst through the double doors of a walkout basement and swamped owners Bill McSha rey and Brenda Borisuk-McSha rey to their waists.

Among other repairs, the spouses walled o the doors and brought in heaps of dirt to make a oodplain. Since then, they’ve weathered a couple more deluges without much damage.

Summit County is now doing an estimated $3.3 million in work around Yellow Creek, partly to calm it with pools, ri es and more. Borisuk-McSha rey worries about pending development and plans upstream in Medina County: “People who live up the hill don’t always think it’s their problem.”

But ooding and its related damage is everyone’s problem, and it has been getting worse across Northeast Ohio and the Midwest. In response, the e orts to combat and mitigate it have ramped up, as well. ese are no longer 100-year oods. On average, Cleveland gets hit every 27 years with what that term used to mean — at least 2.6 inches of precipitation in an hour, says Jeremy R. Porter, a climate analyst at the First Street Foundation, which provides data on climate risks. By 2054, he expects the average to sink to 22.

Governments, conservancies and other organizations are spending billions of local, state, federal and nonpro t dollars to deal with water quality and quantity in Cuyahoga and Summit counties. Leaders say we’re making progress in coping with today’s oods and, they hope, tomorrow’s.

But no one’s sure how common and brutal those might become, and how well infrastructure will keep up with the excess water. ere are examples in big and small ways. Hudson Mayor Je rey Anzevino says water has been backing up in a culvert under Stone Road that “was properly sized 10 years ago, and today is not.” at is common across the region. “ e system was built for those lesser storms,” says Cuyahoga County Engineer Michael Dever, not the increasing rain events that are happening more often.

More frequent and erce

Floods killed 79 Americans last year, according to the National Weather Service, and caused an estimated $80 billion in damages worldwide during 2021, according to the research company Floodbase.

Climate change is soaking us even more than it’s sizzling us. From 1951 to 2020, Cleveland’s average yearly precipitation soared by nearly a third to 41.0 inches. Over the last 100 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Northeast Ohio’s precipitation has increased more than 17%.

Future downpours may be even harder.

Heather Elmer, who leads Chagrin River Watershed Partners, says a study underway at Youngstown State University projects local storms intensifying another 20%-40% by 2099.  e rain doesn’t just fall; it splatters. Roofs, parking lots, driveways, roads and other impervious surfaces cover 34% of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD), which includes most of Cuyahoga County and parts of Summit, Lake and Lorain counties.

e resulting runo swamps and under-

mines roads. Summit o cials have barred vehicles from sections of Everett Road and Sand Run Parkway prone to ooding and erosion.

ere are risks to human health and safety, as well. It’s hard for drivers to see the waters’ depth and damage. In 2014, veteran WJW-TV weatherman Dick Goddard, who knew a lot about oods, tried to steer around one on Interstate 71. His car stalled out, and water rose to his neck. e 83-year-old was rescued and treated for hypothermia. He later told his audience, “Don’t underestimate the power of water.”

Runo crams sewers. e tainted water backs up into basements and spurts through release points into channelized waterways. It scours and straightens those waterways, sweeps away ora and fauna, and rushes toward Lake Erie or the Gulf of Mexico uncleansed by nature or technology.

e U.S. Geological Survey reports a “weak but statistically signi cant” rise in peak levels on Ohio waterways in recent decades. e National Weather Service says that the highest recorded peak and six of the next nine highest over the past 100 years on the Cuyahoga River in Independence have come in this century.

In 2003, a storm brought 10 inches of rain to parts of Northeast Ohio, killed four residents and in icted an estimated $100 million in damage on Summit County over a little more than ve weeks. In 2006, at least six major oods, including what’s considered a 500-year one, killed three people in the region and did more than $150 million’s worth just in Cuyahoga County on the worst two days.

A ood in 2011 drowned a peregrine falcon at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and burst a 105-year-old dam in Gates Mills. A dam prevents routine oods downstream, but its failure can unleash a bigger one.

Last summer, the bigger of two storms dumped more than 7 inches on some parts of the region, or more than 190,000 gallons per acre.

anks to our warmer winters, rivers seldom jam with ice oes anymore. ey mostly gush.

But rainstorms and ooding aren’t equal opportunity destroyers. A distance of a few miles can mean the di erence of several inches of water.

Fire Chief Ken Papesh of Valley View says Tinkers Creek Road hasn’t vanished under

oldest still in use. Not surprisingly, they’re prone to breaking down.

In Cleveland, Akron and some inner suburbs, storm and sanitary pipes merge. In other suburbs, they’re separate but share trenches, often bleeding and commingling. In still others, they have separate trenches, but groundwater seeps in and overloads them. All these methods may send tainted water into basements and waterways.

NEORSD has overseen $9 billion in improvements since its start in 1972, and another $6 billion is expected. e district has reduced untreated over ows from about 9 billion gallons per year to 4.5 billion and aims for 494 million by 2036.

e Chagrin Partners’ Elmer says, “If there continues to be a focus and signi cant investment, I think we can de nitely minimize the impacts of ooding into the future.”

water since the 1990s, when it did so twice, and his re ghters seldom have to drive through oods for rescues.

Trying to turn the tide

ere are large and small e orts being undertaken that are intended to reduce the impact of ooding.

Anna Zaremba, a sustainability manager at Cleveland City Hall, says, “I’m excited about what we can do to address these challenges… . We have to remain hopeful.”

Wetlands used to cover more than 17 percent of Ohio, helping to slow, absorb and lter water. But 90% of them have been destroyed or degraded, far more than the national average of 50%, according to the Ohio Wetlands Association. And our surviving ones often over ow.

“Wetlands are like glass,” says Mike Johnson, the Summit Metro Parks’ conservation chief. “ ey’re already full. We need less water and more glasses.”

Trees help. A mature one might soak up 55,000 gallons per year. But a recent study from Baldwin Wallace University shows that the forested percentage of Cuyahoga County has fallen from about 99% in pioneer days to about 21% today. Trees shade just 18% of Cleveland proper, less than half as much as in Pittsburgh or Cincinnati.

Most campers know not to pitch tents near streams. But many developers have pitched buildings there. “ en we o er ood insurance,” says Jared Bartley, deputy director of the Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District.

“For decades,” says Bartley, “part of municipal engineering was to get water o the landscape as soon as possible.” Yet those methods often fail. Catch basins divert water from streets to stormwater sewers. But oods tend to jam the basins’ mouths with natural and man-made otsam.

Isaac Robb, vice president of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, says, “We continue subsidizing sprawling development patterns, hoping to get a short-term revenue high, instead of investing in communities with existing infrastructure. We then place the burden of addressing stormwater, ooding and other related infrastructure issues on public entities like NEORSD, which we all pay fees into.”

NEORSD o cials say some local sewers date to the 1870s, making them the nation’s

Organizations are ghting those waters with small improvements and big ones, from permeable pavers to massive storage tunnels. ey’re planting trees, making bioswales, opening culverts, letting streams meander, restoring habitats and much more. With owners’ permission, they’re elevating homes in some places and razing others.

e Summit Metro Parks have restored several wetlands, including one at the former Valley View Golf Course along the Cuyahoga in Akron. e goal was to stop pollution, not oods. But the parks’ Johnson says a nearby maintenance facility that used to ood almost yearly has stayed dry since then.

e Cleveland Metroparks have reduced runo by 10 million gallons per year. And Summit County has formed a surface water management district to enforce standards. O cials are charged with protecting both the natural and built environment. “We want the roads to ood rst before people’s houses,” says Heidi Swindell, director of administration for the Summit engineer.

State and local laws require new developments to hold back water and stay further from waterways than before. Summit County, for instance, requires setbacks of 30 to 300 feet, depending on the watershed’s size, plus more for wetlands or wider oodplains.

O cials have let some developers mitigate wetlands, draining one while making another. Conservationists are skeptical about such trades with nature. “It’s neutral at best,” says local watershed consultant Roy Larick. “ at’s something a developer can pay for and feel good about.”

According to e Nature Conservancy, “Research has found that permittee-responsible mitigation projects, which are often small, scattered and poorly placed in the landscape, have a high failure rate.” Instead, the conservancy’s Ohio Mitigation Project uses fees from builders to fund coordinated restoration of wetlands.

But while immense e orts will continue in the war against excess water, residents keep ghting battles of their own, one storm at a time.

Stacy Dinger’s basement in Fairview Park has ooded four times this century, including during a deluge last summer, wrecking carpet, drywall and furnishings while contributing to black mold. She laid new storm and sanitary sewers in vain.

Now her home insurer has refused to renew, and other insurers are demanding double her current rate.

She bought a sump pump and plans to renish the basement yet again, then try to sell the house, disclosing the risks.

“ is house is defeating me,” she says.

Wetlands used to cover more than 17 percent of Ohio. But 90% of them have been destroyed or degraded, far more than the national average of 50%, according to the Ohio Wetlands Association. | UNSPLASH

URBAN FLOODING

FLOODING

From Page 8

Accurately de ne the issues

Flooding certainly can involve a river over owing its banks, but urban ooding often stems from other causes and requires other solutions. As a 2019 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council put it, “Urban ooding has little to do with bodies of water.” Rather, says Anna Weber, an NRDC senior policy analyst, urban ooding results from excessive rainfall and the inability of the existing capacity in our stormwater systems — gray infrastructure — to deal with it.

For example, in the 2021 event in Detroit, the failure of electric power to a key pumping station on the city’s east side contributed to massive back ow of rainwater into streets and basements in the Grosse Pointes. But even if the power hadn’t failed, so much rain fell that the existing pipes and pumps couldn’t have handled it all.

Flooding was inevitable, ocials said later.

What makes the problem worse is that in many older cities, the underground drains, pipes and pumps that carry away rainwater is the same setup that deals with sewage. Newer suburban communities often separate the stormwater and sewer systems. But in older neighborhoods, heavy rain mixes with sewage and sometimes backs up into basements, streets and nearby waterways.

Whether combined or separated, these urban water and sewer systems are vastly complex networks that carry freshwater into homes and businesses and carry away waste as well as rain runo and snowmelt. Across Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, millions of homes and businesses connect to these underground networks. ese systems were built over many decades and are hugely expensive to maintain and upgrade.

And here’s the rub: e cities designed and built their underground infrastructure for the kind of rainstorms they saw 50 or a 100 years ago, not for today’s increasingly more severe storms. When the rain comes tumbling down, it often has no place to ow except where it hurts humans the most: streets and basements.

Protect the most vulnerable

Losses from urban ooding can run into the billions of dollars in property damage. Beyond that, urban ooding can also create health concerns ranging from stress to asthma stemming from mold exposure. Actual losses may be even greater than o cial estimates of property damage once health impacts and loss of gross domestic product are considered.

In the Midwest, the impact of excessive rain — urban ooding — often hurts poorer neighborhoods of color the most.

One study conducted by the nonpro t Center for Neighborhood Technology found that just 13 ZIP codes on Chicago’s South

Yearly U.S. precipitation vs. average annual precipitation

The number of inches above or below average

Note: Data is from 2022 for the contiguous 48 states. 0 equals the average precipitation from 1901 to 2000.

U.S. land experiencing extreme single-day precipitation

The percentage land area where a much greater than normal portion of total annual precipitation has come from single-day events

tance available to victims, who are then left on their own to deal with the aftermath, over and over again.” Such complaints are heard in many cities. Residents of the Delray neighborhood in southwest Detroit have long complained about bearing the brunt of heavy industry and the problems it brings. Expansion, growth and development upstream can often cause oods downstream. As Ohio hydrologist Wilson said, “More vulnerable, poor communities tend to be in the lowerlying areas.”

Improve the infrastructure

Attempts to build out of the ooding problem with expanded systems are chasing the increasing impacts of climate change. Who is to say the 9 inches of rain Chicago received last summer will be the peak — is it just a harbinger of even worse to come?

But while the cities are working, often with federal relief dollars, to upgrade their stormwater systems, installing bigger pipes and more e cient pumps, Weber of the NRDC contends that these “gray infrastructure” projects, while necessary, are insu cient to deal with today’s urban ooding.

at’s because many of the biggest problems stem from heavy rainfall exacerbating other issues — inadequate housing, poverty, health risks, lack of green spaces and underlying contamination from prior industrial uses.

Change in U.S. precipitation, 1901-2021

Precipitation changes by U.S. climate divisions, as de ned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

“None of these questions exist in a silo,” Weber said. “When you’re talking about ooding, you can’t be just talking about ooding. Flooding a ects everything in a community, so you need to be thinking about these holistic solutions. We need to look at solutions that have multiple bene ts.”

Every region’s long-term goal is to better maintain the existing infrastructure and improve it as necessary.

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Note: All data is for the contiguous 48 states. The map was last updated in 2022. The yearly precipitation data is from 2022 and “0” equals the average precipitation from 1901 to 2000. The single day data is from 2021 and is a nine-year moving average.

and West sides accounted for nearly 75% of ood damage claims in the 2007-16 period. In those areas, more than 90% of residents were people of color.

Cyatharine Alias, a senior manager for community infrastructure and resilience with Chicago’s CNT, said many things explain the racial disparities. Among them: poorer Black neighborhoods tend to be in more natural ood plains, a legacy

of where people of color were allowed to live during the “Great Migration” of the 20th century. Poorer communities of color are also less likely to be covered by ood insurance, as another report by the Natural Resources Defense Council makes clear.

en, too, economically poorer areas often are locales of more heavy industry, paved over with asphalt and with fewer natural

greenspaces to absorb heavy rains. And low-income areas tend to see fewer upgrades and less reinvestment in infrastructure. “ ere really hasn’t been a funding scheme to support low-income communities on the maintenance piece,” Alias said.

Finally, urban ooding is often too localized to draw in state or federal aid. As the 2019 NRDC report put it, “ is limits the public assis-

e Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has overseen $9 billion in improvements since its start in 1972, and its leaders expect to spend another $6 billion. ey intend their current and future tunnels to hold back 98% of the combined sewer over ow from a two-year storm until there’s room at treatment plants downstream. ey say bigger tunnels would cost too much. As it is, the district has reduced untreated over ows from about 9 billion gallons per year to 4.5 billion, and it aims for 494 million by 2036.

In Southeast Michigan, the Michigan Department of Transportation has been installing new electric generators at each of its 144 pumping stations along Detroit-area freeways to help remove water from roadways.

Since the 2021 ooding in Detroit, the Great Lakes Water Authority, or GLWA, has mapped out hundreds of millions of dollars of upgrades to its stormwater system, many of them already underway. Among the steps: Upgrading the electric power supply to pumping stations like the one at Conner Street and East Je erson Avenue, where power failures in 2021 contributed to the disastrous

ooding on the east side. New pipes and pumping upgrades are underway elsewhere along the system as well. And o cials say communication lines with suburban systems have improved so that storm ows may be diverted from one part of the system to where more capacity is available. Sometimes it’s just a matter of keeping water out of underground systems by forging alternatives. Consider the new Gordie Howe International Bridge now under construction over the Detroit River to Canada, along with a 167-acre Port of Entry inspection complex in southwest Detroit. Initially, GLWA CEO Suzanne Co ey says, bridge planners had expected to direct stormwater runo from the facility into the underground pipes that the authority operates. But GLWA planners persuaded the bridge builders to direct heavy rain from the site into the river itself, sparing the underground system that extra burden. Still, as Co ey notes, the regional stormwater system was designed to handle about 3.3 inches of rain a day, not the 7 to 8 inches of rain at a time that sometimes deluges Detroit as it did in 2021. But the upgrades and better planning are paying o in greater resiliency.

“If we get 10 inches of rain, would we have ooding? Yes,” she says. “Are we much better prepared? You bet.”

In Detroit itself, the water department operates a machine known as a “nutcracker” to break up concrete that construction crews have dumped down drains at the end of a job to get rid of it. Blockages like that clog the stormwater system and can lead to backups and ooding.

In Macomb County outside Detroit, Public Works Commissioner Miller has been working to have hundreds of stormwater drains cleared of sediment, debris and junk.

“You can’t believe what you can nd when you start inspecting,” Miller said. “We have 500 drains, big drains, some enclosed, some not inspected since the 1960s. You have to spend money on inspecting old, enclosed drains and cleaning them out. Make sure all the assets you have are operating optimally.”

Encourage individuals to do their part

But upgraded and cleaned out pipes and greener rainwater basins aren’t enough, Weber argues. ere also needs to be a social component to any e orts to reduce the damage from urban ooding.

Residents of poorer districts should be able to get relocation aid so they can move to safer districts. Underlying problems like ground contamination from long-ago industrial uses must be addressed.

And disclosure of ood risks during property transactions can help, too.

“For people signing a lease for an apartment, someone should

tell them that neighborhood oods every time it rains, right?” Weber says. “Really, really simple solutions like that can have a big impact.”

Some of those solutions are being funded, in part, in Chicago by the city’s Climate Infrastructure Fund, which provides grants of $50,000 to $250,000 to nonpro t organizations and small businesses for climate-related capital projects in priority areas such as green infrastructure.

If the big solutions cost billions of dollars and require government action, individual homeowners can take steps, too, to protect themselves.

Homeowners can install backup protection valves that prevent sewer over ows from backing up into a basement. e city of Detroit, for example, publishes a handbook that o ers tips on maintenance and explains how residents of 11 Detroit neighborhoods prone to ooding are eligible for a program that includes services that help mitigate damages. en, too, homeowners can regrade their yards so that rainwater ows away from the foundation, lessening basement ooding. Gutter downspouts can be disconnected from the sewer system and repositioned to ow rainwater into a nearby rainwater garden where plants can absorb the over ow.

Some communities let residents replace grass with native ground cover or vegetation. “To my way of thinking, it’s more attractive,” says Mayor William Tomko of Northeast Ohio’s Chagrin Falls. And homeowners can plant trees where roots will suck up excess groundwater.

One more thing o cials encourage: e next time a millage proposal shows up on the ballot to support stormwater system upgrades, vote “yes.”

With such a complex problem, the solutions have to come from many di erent quarters — government and business and nonpro ts and individuals. “We can’t be operating in silos,” Weber of the NRDC said. “Everybody has a role to play in these solutions and we all have to be learning from each other. Otherwise, we just keep reinventing the wheel.”

As Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, who leads the Cleveland-area’s Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, says, “We got here by a thousand cuts. We’re only going to get out of here by a thousand steps.”

Some of those solutions may be hugely expensive, but Macomb County’s Miller says people can’t be discouraged.

“We have been behind the eight ball by not investing enough in our infrastructure. Everybody knows that,” she said, but added, “You can’t look at anything that way. You have to think about incremental changes and doing a better job, what you can a ord, and think creatively and utilize value engineering in any way you can. Like an elephant — one bite at a time.”

Grant Segall contributed.

The role builders, residents and developers play in ood diversion

Green infrastructure plays big role in diverting Midwest ooding

John Gallagher

Spending billions on new underground pipes and pumps is only part of the game plan for dealing with urban ooding. Increasingly, municipalities are implementing green infrastructure measures to complement the gray infrastructure of pipes, drains and processing facilities.

What it is

Green infrastructure refers to any intervention that attempts to restore part of the natural landscape to absorb, store, lter, reuse or evaporate stormwater to reduce the burden on drains and collection systems.

“Our streams are nature’s stormwater system,” says Derek Schafer, head of Northeast Ohio’s West Creek Conservancy.

Green infrastructure can include something as simple as open elds graded to capture water runo from nearby paved surfaces. It can also include permeable surfaces that allow rainwater to seep down into the ground through holes in the hard surface. Channels that divert rainwater from paved areas to green areas can also be part of a greener system, as can rainwater gardens planted with water-absorbing plants in yards and around buildings and parking lots.

Often these green solutions are designed to absorb just enough rainwater to reduce the load on the underground pipes and pumps. In this way, both gray and green infrastructure work together to reduce urban ooding.

How it’s being used

In Macomb County outside Detroit, new stormwater standards now require developers of any new project to reduce the amount of impervious surface — paved areas — so that rainwater can soak naturally into the ground.

“As you might imagine we had a lot of developers say, ‘Oh, my gosh, we can’t do that, it’s going to be too expensive,’” said Candice Miller, public works commissioner for the county. “ at was a couple years ago. e conversations have pretty much stopped now. Nobody can argue with the fact of what is happening with the weather here.”

◗ A trimmed lawn compacted over time won’t absorb much. Topsoil and aeration help. Lawns must still be mowed. Cleveland and Akron limit the grass’s height to 8 inches and many communities set that at 6. Last year, Cleveland Heights joined an international movement called “No Mow May,” suspending the limit, but some locals complained about scraggly lawns. At last report, the suburb had not announced plans for this May.

◗ e city of Chicago Climate Infrastructure Fund helps fund green infrastructure projects. A $200,000 grant went to Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s Far South Side to create a permeable parking lot to reduce stormwater runo . And thanks to a $250,000 grant, the Gar eld Park Community Council was to construct a new nature play area that promotes healthy child development and physical activity, while also ad-

dressing ooding in the area.

◗ In Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District operates a program called Greenseams that buys and then permanently protects key lands containing water-absorbing soils in areas likely to see urban sprawl, especially along streams, shorelines and wetlands. To date, the Greenseams program has protected 149 properties, preserved more than 5,000 acres of land and planted nearly 120,000 trees.

e Milwaukee sewer district also advises homeowners on how they can contribute to the solution by, say, getting a rain barrel that captures water from downspouts and gutters. e homeowner can use this water for gardening while capturing stormwater that otherwise could burden the city’s sewers.

◗ In the Cleveland area, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, or NEORSD, has had multiple projects completed or in the works to enhance the landscape’s ability to adsorb heavy rains. In the Fleet Avenue project in the city of Cleveland, a green infrastructure project was landscaped to allow 4.8 million gallons of stormwater per year to soak into soils. In another project with the community development corporation Burten, Bell, Carr Development Inc., a greening project was designed to absorb an estimated 12.4 million gallons of rain in a typical year.

e NEORSD gives credits to customers for sizable reductions in runo .

Grant Segall contributed.

Natural yards, like that of Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District CEO Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, or lawns with longer grass absorb more water than trimmed lawns. | KYLE DREYFUSS-WELLS

Infrastructure investments give region a boost in myriad ways

e population of Cuyahoga County peaked at 1.7 million in 1970, at a time when most residents of the county were living in the city of Cleveland and inner-ring suburbs. Since then, the county’s population has shrunk to 1.2 million while development has sprawled beyond into adjoining communities. is no-growth expansion is unsustainable for the health of our infrastructure and our economy, and will only worsen the impact of storms and climate change on our region.

Investments in existing infrastructure already built in Cleveland’s neighborhoods – not just roads, bridges and sewers, but houses, parks and commercial buildings - lessen the burden on the region’s storm infrastructure. ese investments also position Cleveland as a climate refuge for those eeing areas of the country that are inhospitable due to climate change.

To compete with other Great Lakes communities like Milwaukee, Detroit and Pittsburgh for climate refugees, we will need to develop amenity rich, walkable neighborhoods. Increasing the population of our core communities will generate the income and property taxes needed to invest in storm-resistant infrastructure.

At Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CNP), we partner with local community development corporations, the city of Cleveland and dozens of real estate, economic development and greenspace partners to foster the equitable revitalization of neighborhoods throughout Cleveland. CDCs are on the ground, building trust with residents and small businesses and are best positioned to support residents after a storm, while also holding the neighborhood plan that enables the community to prepare for the future.

Neighborhood plans capture the needs and desires of the community, map out land use and act as a blueprint to guide development. e foundation of a neighborhood plan starts with investments in infrastructure. To attract private development and protect the investments that CDCs lead and encourage, the underlying roads, bridges, green spaces, and sewer systems must be storm resistant.

Regional organizations have already enacted policies to reinvest in aging infrastructure, thereby encouraging businesses and residents to reinvest in our urban communities. For example, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency’s “ x-itrst” policy redirected regional planning

From where you are

dollars to existing infrastructure rather than to far ung highway projects that would have encouraged more sprawl.

Similarly, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Storm Water Management Program incentivizes property owners to reduce the size of impervious services such as parking lots and driveways to limit storm runo into the region’s sewers. e Sewer District utilizes the fees to replace aging sewer systems and increase the green space in our built environment.  ese are examples of where we have worked as a region to reduce the impacts of severe storms on residents, but we must do more if we are to position Cleveland as a climate refuge. Building neighborhoods of choice for residents across the region, state and nation will attract and retain residents, which will begin to generate the revenue

Greater Cleveland needs to protect its residents from the storms that arise from climate change.

Increased revenues will enable us to embrace the call of the Cleveland Tree Coalition to reforest Cleveland, so that there is natural infrastructure to slow water in a storm, and invest in our streets, bridges and sewer systems. It will also support the e orts of CDCs and housing partners to rehabilitate homes in the city of Cleveland and rst suburbs to provide naturally occurring a ordable housing that can withstand storm damage.  Reinvestment in our urban neighborhoods is critical to protecting residents from severe storms. It starts a virtuous cycle which leads to amenity rich neighborhoods that attract new residents and with them, the taxes needed to continue to strengthen our infrastructure.

Tania Menesse is president and CEO of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.

We must work together to solve climate change challenges

Wetter, warmer, wilder weather. at’s how a changing climate is affecting Northeast Ohio. Our regional response, as Greater Cleveland businesses, nonpro ts and public institutions, requires resilient systems, redundancy of infrastructure and a sense of urgency in all our work.

e Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is an essential community institution. rough its $194 million operating budget, $228 million capital budget and more than 750 employees working around the clock, the residents of 63 communities across the Lake Erie watershed receive sewage treatment and stormwater management — critical, intensive and unending public services that protect public health and water quality for over 1 million people.

Kyle DreyfussWells is CEO of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

iency and redundancy. We’ve delivered complex underground construction projects, recognized as marvels of engineering, on time and under budget.  e challenges of climate change do not diminish past work but, rather, introduce a new level of solution — and sustainability-focused thinking.

Combined sewers were once an innovation; today, they are a problem. During heavy storms, combined sewers carrying sanitary sewage and stormwater in one pipe are overwhelmed, releasing sewage into the environment. It’s a common Midwest dilemma. What is less common, however, is the ability to deliver solutions as we have in the form of Project Clean Lake.

The Sewer District has invested $190 million in stormwater management solutions since 2015.

In our five decades, we’ve foreseen and embraced new opportunities to address water challenges. We’ve forged partnerships with communities to restore floodplains, protect wetlands and preserve open spaces, systems we need for resil-

Since 2011, Project Clean Lake has advanced plans for seven deep and massive storage tunnels, plus increased capacity at our three award-winning treatment plants. When factoring in our plan’s green infrastructure investments, Project Clean Lake has reduced annual combined sewer over ows by nearly two billion gallons, with another two billion-plus expected by 2036. at level of e ciency takes e ort, skill and accuracy, even decades before the rst shovel is turned. We’re constantly assess-

ing, modeling and course-correcting to address the impacts of climate change. And we know our approach is working—even better than expected, compared to our 2009 planning estimates. But we don’t take that for granted.

All of this complements our Regional Stormwater Management Program addressing hundreds of ooding and erosion issues. e Sewer District has invested $190 million in stormwater management solutions since 2015. e result is a healthier and more resilient regional stream network, one that embraces functional and accessi-

ble oodplains to allow heavy storms to slow down, soak in, and minimize downstream impacts.

No success occurs in isolation. Partnerships across the region make good work happen. And with more than $1.7 billion worth of investments identi ed for truly holistic regional stormwater solutions, that approach must be the priority if we’re going to continue addressing legacy problems in our region and the impacts of climate change.

Our Member Community Infrastructure Program, funding local infrastructure projects that bene t public health and water quality, has enabled neighborhoods to advance $77 million worth of needed improvements since 2017. Our Green Infrastructure Grants program, funding projects that reduce combined-sewer volumes, cut stormwater runo by more than three million gallons a year in 2023 alone. And our recent work with communities helped three cities gain access to State funding for sewer infrastructure projects. Win-wins for all involved.

We’ve thoughtfully taken advantage of the moments before us. at’s urgency. e extent of climate change’s impact will be dependent on our commitment to each other, to the region and to the people of Greater Cleveland. Embracing resiliency, realizing redundancy in our infrastructure and natural systems, and acting with urgency will ensure our continued success.

Working to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.

BLOOMBERG

Urban ooding is the new norm; we need to rethink how we protect ourselves

Recurring, disruptive urban ooding is the new norm in Great Lakes cities. Multiple “500-year” rains have hit the Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago metros in the last decade, with Detroit getting socked twice in 2014 and 2021. Last September, 9 inches of rain fell in three hours around Chicago. A beleaguered engineer declared, “Nothing could be designed for that.”

And yet, because these events are no longer anomalies, we have to design our cities for that kind of storm. Another problem? e impacts of these events don’t fall evenly, with formerly redlined neighborhoods being among the hardest hit. e Joyce Foundation funded a 2019 analysis by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which found that 87% of ood damage claims in Chicago were paid in communities of color.

What are some good next steps to protect residents and businesses from its devastating e ects?

Public- and private-sector leaders must plan for urban ooding the same way we’ve long planned for snowstorms. Consistent investment in human, gray and natural infrastructure is key. And the sooner we act, the more we’ll be shielded from the worst of these storms and the millions lost from their impact.

e good news is that we’re not starting from ground zero. Promising approaches to engineering, community engagement and design to address urban ooding are being deployed throughout the Great Lakes region. We need to scale, systematize and in-

vest in them. No small task. But with signicant new federal dollars available for water infrastructure, climate-ready planning and training for workers, we can reduce our vulnerability to these storms. Now is the time to ramp up this work.

Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit all have snow emergency plans that include provisions for notifying residents, getting plows on the streets and storing snow on vacant land. Comprehensive, public-facing, proactive plans to deal with severe rainstorms are just as important. For example, we need more e cient ways to notify residents and to have a workforce ready to fan out to clear storm drains to help reduce impacts on people and property. Building on successful community engagement programs like the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Good Neighbor Ambassador program could be a place to start.

It’s also a mistake to leave local businesses and homeowners to fend for themselves in seeking federal assistance. Cities could help residents successfully access relief funds (with less stress), by having sta ready to provide application support. Expanding the capacity of existing entities, like already-sta ed Community Action Agencies, would help.

E ective ood resiliency requires both conventional ‘gray’ infrastructure and naturebased green infrastructure that soaks up rain where it falls. Pairing coordinated action on public and private property at the neighborhood level is also needed. Chicago has some promising examples, including Space to Grow, which transforms Chicago schoolyards to soak up the rain from storms and provide better places for kids to play and learn. e Center for Neighborhood Technology’s “RainReady” initiative works directly with homeowners and businesses to develop plans and site-speci c interventions to reduce ooding.

is approach has been so e ective that Cook County invested $6 million in RainReady in 2023.

Finally, better infrastructure, like smarter, modern sewers, is essential. South Bend, Indiana, installed sensors and other upgrades to divert water from one part of the system into another during heavy rains. Sensors not only reduce over ows (keeping sewage out of basements and waterways), but also help reduce costs. South Bend

saved more than $400 million in sewer upgrades because the sensors allow better water storage capacity.

We’ve gured out how to manage for big snowstorms — residents, businesses and government all play a part. More torrential rain is coming. We can choose to strand fewer drivers and ood fewer basements. We just have to fully deploy the smart strategies we already have tested in our region. Let’s not wait until the next 500-year storm to get going.

Flood-a ected neighborhoods should contribute to solution

When I talk about ooding to residents from Robbins, a Chicago suburb, they want solutions that x ooding AND catalyze multi-generational leadership, create economic opportunities, address food injustice and much more to create a thriving community.

That’s because urban flooding is a quality-oflife issue resulting from land-use decisions rooted in racist practices and grounded in capitalism. Putting in new pipes alone won’t undo these problems.

damage because redlining forced them to live in the region’s lowest point, which were previously wetlands. Naturally, stormwater pools there. is, coupled with delayed sewer system maintenance and undersized pipes, lead to worse ooding.

Analysis of ood damage payouts by the Center for Neighborhood Technology from 2007 to 2016, show that 87% of ood claim payouts went to communities of color in Chicago.

e deluge in the city in 2023 led to the Federal Emergency Management Agency setting up recovery centers throughout the South and West sides and in the west and south suburbs, because those areas su ered huge losses and are still recovering.

deindustrialization led to job loss. So, when they experience flooding — which occurs frequently because of those landuse decisions — residents have fewer finances to recover. Instead, the industrial legacy of pollution led to worse health outcomes, further degrading their financial resiliency. These cumulative impacts reduce people’s quality of life.

Increased development (i.e., more pavement) and intensified storms because of climate change contribute to increased flooding. Communities of color face worse impacts. And they’re best positioned to design the solutions.   Marginalized communities face more

Flooding impacts don’t happen in a vacuum. Regional leaders designed these communities using development strategies motivated by racially biased economic bene ts, such as tax incentives for corporations, the privatization of social safety measures and a polluting, industrial mono-economy. Because of this, when residents spend money, very little is recirculated to support community wealth building.

People lost financial security when

How do we address these quality-of-life issues? Community organizing.   Residents collectively amplify their ideas to government leaders. Decisionmakers listen and redirect funding to technical firms that are committed to working WITH resident leadership to solve flooding AND other cumulative impacts. In Chicago’s south suburbs, for example, CNT collaborated with residents to create the Urban Flooding Baseline tool, which mapped flooding risks and impacts with community knowledge at its center. They also participated in our Civic Innovation Hub leadership development program. Programs like these build community power in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and elsewhere.

Residents advocate that government

leaders should invest in gray stormwater infrastructure that builds community wealth: through local procurement and entrepreneurship opportunities. Investors can fund training programs with directhire pipelines by rms for gainful employment. Firms can work with community members and municipal sta to locate, design, install and maintain public sites for green stormwater infrastructure.  For example, at schools, students can participate in rain garden designs. In Robbins, residents noted that local youth could maintain sites and sell vegetables to fill grocery stores and the youth programming gap. Investors and government programs can finance local organizations to administer these programs.

To be sure, government leaders face many real conditions that seem to limit the holistic solutions, such as zoning specifications, funding limitations or legal barriers. But those are human-built problems. With community organizing, proper investment and technical expertise together, these challenges can be undone and overcome to better serve communities.

Cyatharine Alias is senior manager for community infrastructure and resilience at Chicago’s Center for Neighborhood Technology.

Elizabeth Cisar is the Joyce Foundation’s Environment Program director.

Lori Wainwright walks through the ooded basement of a friend’s home after almost 9 inches of rain fell within three hours last September in Calumet City, Illinois. GETTY IMAGES

Source:Organization990 nancialreports.Totalcompensationincludesbasecompensation, bonusandincentivecompensation,otherreportablecompensationfromtheorganizationand relatedorganizations,deferredcompensation,retirementplanbene ts,healthcarebene tsand otherfringebene tsfromtheorganizationandrelatedorganizations.Hospitalemployee compensation may not include medical school pay. Individuals may have additional titles. GetdetailedcompensationinformationinExcelformat.BecomeaData Member: CrainsCleveland.com/data

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Source:Organization990 nancialreports.Totalcompensationincludesbasecompensation, bonusandincentivecompensation,otherreportablecompensationfromtheorganizationand relatedorganizations,deferredcompensation,retirementplanbene ts,healthcarebene ts andotherfringebene tsfromtheorganizationandrelatedorganizations.Hospitalemployee compensation may not include medical school pay. Individuals may have additional titles. GetdetailedcompensationinformationinExcelformat.Becomea Data Member: CrainsCleveland.com/data

Cleveland native brings a Midwestern humbleness to his high role at NASA

By Kim Palmer

Cleveland-area native and former NASA Glenn Research Center director James Free holds one of the top positions at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. As associate administrator, Free is the highest-ranking civil servant under NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, both presidential appointees. at role comes with a lot of responsibilities, responsibilities that Free has handled with aplomb as he draws on his Midwestern roots for how best to approach the challenges that come with his job.

Free’s job is to be a senior adviser to Nelson and Melroy while also leading the agency’s 10 center directors and serving as the mission directorate for the agency’s Aeronautics, Exploration Systems, Science, Space Operations and Space Technology programs.

In addition to those crucial roles, he is responsible for the oversight of the more than 18,000 NASA employees.

“ e analogy is that I’m like the chief operating o cer,” Free said in a recent interview. “ e NASA workforce is my number

one priority, and our workforce — with all of the important knowledge and capability — is the greatest tool we have.”

Describing himself as NASA “through and through,” Free returned to the agency after spending about seven years in the private sector. Leaving the agency in 2017 was, as he describes it, “an emotional event” — one that caused him to go into a “funk” every time he had to watch a NASA launch on TV while sitting on his couch at home.

“ e commitment to mission is so unique to this organization, and the people are so unique, that I went through this period of mourning when I was away from it,” Free said.  “I grew up in NASA. I grew up as a kid loving NASA and then to get a job out of college there. It gets seared into your heart, the mission and what we’re doing.”

Today, the St. Ignatius and Miami University grad is responsible for all NASA missions including the Artemis project — a return to the moon and future plans for a human exploration to Mars — which has crucial ties to NASA Glenn and the Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky.

Although he served as center director of NASA Glenn from

“I’m in the civil service and taking care of people, worrying about their well-being, is at the core to who I am coming from Cleveland.”

James Free, associate administrator at NASA

2013 to 2016, Free is now responsible for mission work at all the centers across the country and can’t play favorites.

“I learned a lot at NASA, without a doubt. I had some really formative years there as a leader, but I can’t be biased,” Free said.

His Northeast Ohio upbringing, he points out, does play a part in how he leads, including bringing to Washington a sort of Midwestern humbleness.

“I like to think that kind of the humility — staying grounded, focusing on what’s important and that’s why people are so important to me,” Free said. “I’m in the civil service and taking care of people, worrying about their well-being, is at the core to who I am coming from Cleveland.” at approach can have some drawbacks.

“It can be infuriating at times because (at NASA Glenn), we

were always trying to be a good partner and work with everybody,” Free said. “But that means we are not going to be the ones out front, and I’ll just say other parts of the country, not just where NASA centers are, but other parts of the country, are a little more out there, putting themselves out there.”

NASA Glenn is massively important to the Artemis program, as well as other agency missions.

With expertise in propulsion and communication and unique testing facilities, NASA Glenn is poised to see more investment in the coming years.

A consortium of partners led by the Greater Cleveland Partnership is doing what civil servants like Free can’t, and they’re advocating for programs and program dollars to come to Glenn.

e group, backed by the cities of Cleveland and Brook Park and Cuyahoga County, are pushing

for $250 million for NASA Glenn’s work in ssion surface power, which involves the development of a small, electricity-generating nuclear ssion reactor for use on the moon and Mars.

Another ask is for Congress to appropriate $15 million for the creation of a Space Nuclear Power Office at NASA Glenn for the development of power and electric propulsion systems for spacecraft and surface applications.

NASA Glenn also could see $55 million appropriated for the development of a Lunar Integrated Testbed to help support the operational readiness of lunar surface systems, if GCP and supporters get their wish.

Free, who can’t advocate for Congress to give dollars to any particular center, believes that whatever NASA Glenn’s research produces will be a benet to the community and the country as a whole.

“Being a native Clevelander, I really want because I still live there, really want to see Cleveland ourish and use the technologies that NASA Glenn has,” Free said. “I’m hoping NASA Glenn continues to take that incredible technology that they have and push it out to help everyone in the country.”

Located near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the NASA Glenn Research Center’s main campus has facilities including wind tunnels, drop towers, vacuum chambers and a research aircraft hangar. | NASA

ECLIPSE

From Page 1

“I drove here and the parking lot at the rst rest stop on the turnpike was completely full and there were at least 10 cars lined up per pump, so I just kept driving,” Metz said.

He lives equidistant from Erie and Cleveland and spent the last couple of weeks watching the weather forecast very closely, he said. “I saw that last night it was going to be very cloudy in Erie and clear here so I came here,” Metz added.

e plan to chase the eclipse began in 2017 when he heard about the total solar eclipse from a news report. “When I saw it on TV, I said then I will be there and I put it on my calendar seven years ago,” Metz said.

e lakeside center was estimated to welcome 30,000 visitors over 3 days of cultural and educational events that culminated with a visit from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and NASA TV.

Some GLSC attendees made a game day decision to leave hotels and Airbnb rentals in other locations like Erie, Pennsylvania, when weather forecasts predicted low-level clouds.

e Medley family, including three children under 10 years old, drove north from Washington, D.C., so that the whole family could see the total eclipse. “We actually started out in Erie and we were there for two nights but we woke up and it was very cloudy and we read that Cleveland was the place to be,” Elisa Medley said.

SALE

From Page 1

Namdar needs to gain momentum and credibility in downtown Cleveland o ce leasing to change course from the prior ownership. It also needs to convince prospective tenants that they want to be in the former corporate headquarters of BP.

However, Namdar, as of Friday, April 5, has not yet issued comments on the purchase since the Wednesday, April 3, sale of the property was recorded. Nor has the group publicly signaled any plans.

‘A massive discount’

Although downtown Cleveland has endured four distressed office building cases since 2019 — even before the pandemic made working from home the bane of office-using business owners — the apparent short sale of 200 Public Square makes it the first deal to mark building values in today’s market.

“ at’s a massive discount,” said Alex Jelepis, a managing director at the NAI Pleasant Valley brokerage in Independence with decades of downtown leasing experience. “I’m oored that a six-story parking garage next to

the building traded for $32 million while the o ce building next door sold for $54 million. We’re seeing more value placed on parking than an o ce building with tenants and available o ce suites. at says the cash ow of cars going in and out to park is worth more on a per square foot basis than the much larger o ce tower.”

e o ce tower and connected parking garage were both owned by seller G&I IX 200 Public Square, an a liate of DRA Advisors of New York City, and were marketed separately by CBRE Group.

Selling the two separately, with a Chicago parking operator buying the garage, re ects an e ort to extract maximum dollars on the exit from the property. Insiders question how closely the respective structures’ two new owners may work together. But it means Namdar doesn’t have the ability to o er parking as a sweetener for tenant deals and reduces exibility.

Luring new tenants

Despite any challenges the garage may present, Jelepis said Namdar already gained exceptional exibility with the price it paid for the skyscraper. “ ey could o er pretty low rents and still make money,” Jele-

pis said. at’s what happened when 18 o ce buildings on the East Side were foreclosed on or surrendered to lenders in the 1990s-era o ce downturn.

Robert Roe, a managing director at JLL Inc.’s Cleveland o ce, said if it chooses to do so, Namdar could slice rent o ers 15% to 20% below what the seller offered.

“ is allows the buyer to be very competitive in the downtown o ce market,” Roe said. “ ey might be able to o er $24 a square foot deals while their competitors need to get $30 a square foot. ey might o er suburban rents in a downtown building.”

At the same time, the amount of empty space at top-tier competitors — such as Key Tower and 950 Main Ave. at Flats East Bank — is limited, Roe said, so tenants may not be able to demand rents as juicy as they desire.

Another wrinkle is that the atrium on the Public Square side of the skyscraper needs increased tenancy such as a whitetablecloth restaurant and quality quick-serve options as well as renovations. at will mean a signi cant investment is needed to reposition the space for the post-pandemic era.

Continued on next page

“We decided to chase the sun.”

“We decided to chase the sun,” Peter Medley said, adding that there was no plan to come to GLSC until his wife searched online for eclipse events in Cleveland.

“ is was plan C, coming here,” he said. “We knew something had to be happening here.”

Others gathered a bit further to the west in Edgewater Park, just outside of downtown on Cleveland’s West Side. ere, the park and beach made for a perfect viewing spot, especially thanks to the warm weather — that is, before totality dropped air temps several degrees.

It seems, though, many people had the same idea. By early afternoon, before the eclipse had fully unfolded, Cleveland Metroparks announced that parking lots at Edgewater Park were closed due to high visitation.

Metroparks was also forced to close parking lots at Huntington, Euclid Beach, Squires Castle, Wildwood, East 55th, East 72nd, Gordon Park north and Gordon Park south due to similarly high numbers of visitors.

For all the crowds, though, the event was relatively drama-free as cheers erupted from the jubilant crowd — tra c even stopped on the Shoreway — as the eclipse hit totality and the celestial reworks were accompanied by the sounds of real ones from another celebration nearby.

Crowds gathered to watch the solar eclipse April 8 at Voinovich Bicentennial Park and the East 9th Street Pier. | PHOTOS BY GRACE MCCONNELL

Peter Medley drove with his family from Washington, D.C., to see the eclipse

From previous page

e prior owner put millions into updating the building’s cafeteriaturned-food court and tness center, insiders say. at may bene t the new owner. However, the vast atrium as it sits is more a negative than a positive.

Ironically, before BP’s predecessor Standard Oil Co. demolished the old Williamson Building and other structures for the new corporate headquarters, the Euclid Avenue, Superior Avenue and Public Square-facing storefronts were considered some of the best in downtown Cleveland.

However, not all o ce agents see prospects the same way. Despite its warts, the o ce tower has been considered a trophy skyscraper for years and will have allure for prospective tenants.

Rico Pietro, a principal at Cushman & Wake eld Cresco realty brokerage in Independence who is ac-

tive downtown and in the suburbs, said the quality of the building and its location give the property timeless value. And that is regardless of current market conditions.

“It’s cheap,” Pietro acknowledged of the sale price. “But we’re in a daunting interest rate environment because the cost of money doubled the last few years. It’s in a troubled asset class. And then the occupancy is challenged. Real estate is not liquid. is is what happens when an owner has to sell.”

At the same time, Pietro added, whether it is downtown or the suburbs, every o ce building owner has to compete to provide an environment where people want to return to the workplace and not work from home.

Dyann Davison, an o ce agent and senior vice president at Hanna Commercial Real Estate’s downtown o ce, said Namdar is going to have to establish its reputation as a building owner. “ ey’re

known as a retail property owner,” she said, “although they do have o ce buildings in their portfolio.”

The bigger picture

Some broader views also are afoot about what the sale means — or doesn’t mean — for the downtown o ce market.

Michael Deemer, president and CEO of Downtown Cleveland Inc., said in a phone interview, “It’s not breaking news the o ce market has been troubled across the country and downtown. I feel the worst of that is behind us. It would be premature to speculate on what it means for the market.”

at said, Deemer is looking to the future. “We’re looking forward to the repositioning of 200 Public Square. It is one of the more important locations downtown. It has great anchor tenants in the building (Cleveland-Cli s, Huntington Bank and multiple law

CONSTRUCTION

Rudolph Libbe Group

ENGINEERING / CONSULTING

American Structurepoint, Inc.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Johnson Investment Counsel

rms.) ere is a lot the new owner can build on.”

Deemer said he is trying to schedule a meeting with the Namdar team to learn about its plans directly.

However, Doug Price, CEO of K&D Group which owns multiple office-to-mixed-use residential buildings downtown as well as the o ce-dedicated Keith and Post O ce Plaza buildings, said 200 Public Square faces the same challenge as other downtown building owners.

“

ere is a problem for the building and for downtown Cleveland,” Price said in a phone interview. “ ere are not a lot of tenants around that are big enough to make a dent in the building’s occupancy. ey’ll have to steal tenants from someone else. And the Cleveland problem is the same for all of us even if they are competitive. We don’t have enough businesses to take the o ce space we have.”

TECHNOLOGY

EOX Vantage

Rudolph Libbe Group’s Northeast Ohio of ce welcomes Jordan Heylock Prosser as a Business Development Manager. Prosser will identify and develop new business opportunities to support continued growth in the region, with a primary focus on industrial customers for the Toledo-based construction and facilities services contractor. She earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Jacksonville University. The Akron native has extensive experience in industrial sales and marketing.

LEGAL

Potomac Law Group, PLLC

T. Ted Motheral has joined Potomac Law as a Partner in the rm’s Corporate and Transactional practice bringing his Clevelandbased Corporate team and expanding Potomac’s Midwest presence. The four-attorney team focus on all aspects of corporate and transactional matters in multiple industries, but are known as leaders in the nancial advisory services and wealth management space where Ted is considered a national leader representing over 100 nancial advisory services rms in all 50 states.

American Structurepoint welcomes Cindy Peck, PE, PTOE, to our growing company as Regional Services Director at our Cleveland design center. Cindy has over 29 years of engineering and project management experience, including 25 in Cleveland. Cindy will partner with Vice President Ed Kagel to expand our Northeast Ohio portfolio of providing utility infrastructure, architecture, civil and transportation design, land surveying, construction inspection, and forensic investigative services.

LEGAL

Potomac Law Group, PLLC

Potomac Law is pleased to announce the addition of Partner Greg Watkins to the rm’s Corporate and Transactional practice.  Based in Cleveland, Greg represents clients across an array of industries on all aspects of corporate transactional matters, including M&A, divestitures and restructurings. Greg counsels clients on day-to-day business operations, helping them navigate the business life cycle, particularly with entity selection, formation, operational matters, nancing and exit strategies.

Johnson Investment Counsel is pleased to announce the promotion of Christian Brandetsas to Portfolio Manager in our Wealth Management Services. He joined the rm in 2017 as a Portfolio Manager Assistant and currently works at the Cleveland, OH, of ce. He holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) certi cation. Johnson Investment Counsel has over 19B assets under management, serving clients in 50 states, with 6 of ces across Ohio and Michigan.

EOX Vantage, a leading SaaS solutions provider, welcomes Tim Piazza to its Playhouse Square of ce as a Senior Solutions Sales Account Manager. Tim previously worked at Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a Partner Development Manager of Migrations, and his career also includes more than 15 years at Hyland Software, specializing in OEM solutions, Global System Integrators (GSIs) and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs).

LEGAL

Potomac Law Group, PLLC

Potomac Law is pleased to announce the addition of Partner Ayden Ergun to the rm’s Corporate and Transactional practice. He is a member of the Cleveland-based Corporate team and a member of a specialized practice focused on the wealth management and nancial services industry advising clients on reorganizations, M&A, and negotiating sales and purchase agreements. Ayden counsels clients in various sectors on corporate governance, capital raises, entity formation, restructuring, and nancing.

Environmental Design Group envdesigngroup.com

LEGAL

Potomac Law Group, PLLC

Potomac Law is pleased to announce the addition of Associate Bryan Fisher to the rm’s Corporate and Transactional practice. Bryan advises clients on a wide variety of corporate matters, including M&A, corporate governance, and business formation. He has experience assisting with complex reorganizations and M&A transactions across various industries and is a member of a specialized practice that focuses on advising clients in the wealth management and nancial services industry.

Environmental Design Group is thrilled to announce its recent acquisition of BCS, LLC, an engineering, surveying, right-of-way acquisition, and environmental services rm in Mason, Ohio. This strategic move represents a signi cant milestone in our growth and presents us with exciting opportunities to further elevate our offerings and expand our capabilities. The newly acquired team shares our core values, making them an ideal partner in our mission to deliver exceptional results while making a positive impact on the communities we serve. Together we provide innovative solutions that enhance infrastructure, improve quality of life, and preserve the natural environment.

200 Public Square will require updating inside the building and efforts to cut rents to attract attention.  STAN BULLARD

CHARTING PROGRESS: The Business Case for DEI

Join us May 29 for a Power Breakfast event exploring the economic and strategic imperatives driving DEI efforts within corporations and institutions. Discover the case for prioritizing DEI initiatives, the role of diverse and inclusive workplaces in fostering innovation and organizational success, methods for assessing initiative effectiveness and strategies for navigating backlash. Enjoy a hot breakfast buffet, exclusive networking opportunities and a fireside chat moderated by our newsroom, offering candid discussions on key DEI issues.

When bankers are neighbors

In uncertain economy times, community banks offer the key services and guidance that help Northeast Ohio businesses thrive.

How community banks are different than big banks and what advantages they are able to offer to customers

How community banks were instrumental in getting PPP loans into the hand of business owners INSIDE

Why relationship-building and taking a “hands-on” approach with customers are core values for community bankers

By Judy Stringer | Crain’s Content Studio

Relationship lenders. That’s the term economist Thomas Siems ascribes to community bankers. With their neighborhood connections and intimate insight into the communities they serve, Siems, chief economist for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, maintained in a recent economic forecast that community bankers “can perceive

future economic conditions well in advance of backward-looking and often-revised statistics that are typically used to assess the economy.”

They “know when lenders might be in trouble before credit quality wanes and loan default rates worsen,” he wrote and “when businesses might have plans to hire or re employees well before ‘help wanted’ ads or ‘pink slips’ appear.”

Pictured, from left: Jerry Benko (Middle eld Bank), Kurt Kappa (First Federal Lakewood), Sean Apicella (S&T Bank) and Crain’s Cleveland Business Associate Publisher Amy Stoessel discuss the role of community banking in Northeast Ohio. | Roundtable photos by Elaine Manusakis

What is a community bank?

Community banks are de ned as those with less than $10 billion in assets. Although they are relatively small compared to regional banks, together community banks represent 90% of insured institutions nationwide, according to the FDIC. They hold $3.31 trillion assets in 32,571 branches and of ces across the country and employ more than 460,000 people.

While Siems was touting the prognosticating attributes of community bankers on a macroeconomic scale, Northeast Ohio community banking executives say their relationshipcultivating superpower also manifests in a decidedly narrower focus: community building.

“We are your neighbors,” said Kurt Kappa, senior vice president and chief lending of cer at First Federal Lakewood. “We live in the same communities that we are operating in, so we care about them. We understand what the community needs and are mission-driven to step in and help out.”

Kappa joined Jerry Benko, senior vice president and senior market executive at The Middle eld Banking Company, and Sean Apicella, senior vice president and market executive for S&T Bank, in a recent conversation with Crain’s Cleveland Business Associate Publisher Amy Stoessel in exploring the role of community banking in Northeast Ohio.

Community banks are about community

Community banks are formally categorized as such by size — those with less than $10 billion in total assets, according to the FDIC — but Apicella explained that the real distinction lies in their focus.

“We focus on the community,” he said. “Or more speci cally, the people, organizations and businesses in the community.”

Community banks depend on the success of local businesses and residents for their own nancial health, the executives said. As such, community involvement is a critical add-on to their bread-and-butter banking services.

At S&T Bank, for example, team members throughout its Ohio and Pennsylvania markets amassed over 20,000 volunteer hours last year, contributing their time and talents to more than 800 different organizations. They built homes with Habitat for Humanity, assisted the elderly with painting and yardwork in partnership with Aging Services Inc. and assisted in creating hundreds of shelf-stable meals to be donated to local nonpro ts feeding the hungry and homeless in northeast Ohio in partnership with The Steak Club Foundation, among other contributions.

“It’s really a full-circle approach,” Apicella said. “We support our employees who support their communities and in turn, those communities support us.”

Likewise, Middle eld Bank employees are involved in a variety of philanthropies, from bringing nancial literacy programs into middle and high schools across Ohio as Junior Achievement ambassadors, to sponsoring fundraising activities like United Way’s Day of Action, Hattie Larlham Golf Outing, and many chamber events.

We don’t have anyone outside of the client’s relationship manger manage any piece of that business account ... Banks with larger portfolios don’t have that same consistency.”

— Jerry Benko, senior vice president and senior market executive at The Middle eld Banking Company

Ohio community banks by the numbers

193 Banks

A common theme I hear from my new clients is how much easier it is ‘to get things done’ with S&T and how much more supported they feel ... ”

— Sean Apicella, senior vice president and market executive at S&T Bank

1,51520,000

$133.9B

Of ces Employees Assets held

In another example of communitycentered thinking, First Federal Lakewood, which has locations across Northeast Ohio, partners with the nonpro t BankOn to make nancial services more accessible in historically underserved communities. At its Dave’s Supermarket branch in Midtown, Kappa said, relationship managers ease unbanked individuals into accounts with limited overdraft and maintenance fees and steer them away from dependence on predatory lenders. The end goal is to help some of the region’s most vulnerable residents learn how to improve savings, build credit and reduce debt and, thereby, build stronger and vibrant communities.

“A lot of the regional and national banks have moved out of these spaces; they don’t want to be there,” he said. “Community banks, we know the importance of a handson approach with our customers. Our teams work to ensure all our customers have the right tools and products for their success.

Community banks are small business partners

Because community banks are more relationship-driven than their larger banking counterparts, Benko said, they also serve as “idea partners” for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

“We don’t have anyone outside of the client’s relationship manager manage any piece of that business account. There isn’t a handoff process. What I mean by that is that our RMs will

Source: Independent Community Bankers of America

go from a startup to growth to even a succession plan with the same customer,” Benko said. “Banks with larger portfolios don’t have that same consistency. At some point, depending on the size of their portfolio, you may get handed an 800 number.”

Apicella stressed that having fewer bureaucratic layers between lenders and customers gives community banks more local autonomy and decision-making capabilities. Unlike megabanks that focus on market concentrations by city and industry, community banks consider factors like the experience and capabilities of business owners and their teams when making lending decisions. The impact of the initiative on the community’s growth and development is also a signi cant deciding factor. In addition, they take the time to guide clients into the right products and terms, he said, yet still provide an ef cient and transparent process.

“A common theme I hear from my new clients is how much easier it is ‘to get things done’ with S&T and how much more supported they feel based on their past experiences with larger banks,” Apicella said. “This is the result of our direct conversations and transparency with customers and prospects.”

Never was that truer than during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Panelists said community banks were instrumental in getting Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans into the hands of businesses owners at a time when national

Community banks help those most in need

and multi-national banks had “long lines” of applicants and “were serving their customers exclusively,” Benko said.

“These loans were dispersed on a rst-come rst-served basis until they were gone, so getting the applications led quickly and

Community banks made 60% of all PPP loans, including 72% of loans to minority businesses and 90% of loans to communities with an average household income of less than $40,000.

Source: Independent Community Bankers of America

correctly was critical for the survival of many of our neighborhood businesses,” he said.

Kappa recalled that customers of big banks would tell him they “didn’t know who to talk to there.”

“Meanwhile, we were calling CPAs

and community development corps and social service nonpro ts, anyone we could think of, to see who needed our help and support,” he said. “As a result, we supported over 1,600 business owners through the process and developed long term relationships with quite a few.”

Data collected by the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) supports the vital role of community banks in dispersing business-saving PPP funds. The organization said community banks made 60% of all PPP loans, including 72% of PPP loans to minority businesses and 90% of PPP loans to communities with an average household income of less than $40,000.

Studies also have shown that PPP loans issued by community banks had a higher forgiveness rate than those from larger banks. This suggests that community banks provided better guidance and support to borrowers, ensuring they met the criteria for loan forgiveness.

The neighborhood assistance went beyond PPP loans, the community bankers said. Kappa said upon hearing that TJ’s Butcher Block & Deli in Lakewood would take a hit from the spoilage of hundreds of pounds of corned beef it couldn’t sell during the March 2020 lockdown, First Federal Lakewood bought the meat and donated it to the nearby Barton Senior Center, feeding hundreds of residents at the Westerly Apartments senior community.

Staying ahead of the curve

The executives corrected the misbelief that community banks lack the security and resources of larger institutions. Their banks are backed by FDIC insurance, they said, and are driven by

local deposits and loans from people they know rather than riskier nancial products.

What’s more, they added, many community banks have invested heavily in digital, mobile and security platforms that rival what’s offered elsewhere.

“And we have done so without losing sight of our customer focus,” Apicella said. “We have the technology, we have that functionality, but we balance that out with a physical presence in the community. So, a business owner can come to us and say, ‘I have this situation, and I need nancing, or I need liquidity,’ and we can sit down and identify a solution together.”

S&T

to bene t the community.

First Federal Lakewood was the title sponsor for “Light Up Lakewood,”

We are looking for that partnership, not just a transaction. ...We want to sit down with every customer and understand where they’re at, what they need, and how we can help.”

— Kurt Kappa, senior vice president and chief lending of cer at First Federal Lakewood

“We are looking for that partnership, not just a transaction,” Kappa added. “Do we have the tools to allow a customer to never come into our branch? Yes. That’s not what we want. We want to sit down with every customer and understand where they’re at, what they need, and how we can help.”

Community banks can provide nancial advice, cash management solutions and help with business plan development, according to the bank executives. As preferred SBA lenders, these community bankers also said their organizations have full access to a wide range of SBA products and competitive interest rates, which translates into higher loan acceptance and satisfaction levels.

In its 2023 small business credit survey, the Federal Reserve found that 82% of small business applicants were at least partially approved for loans from small banks compared to just 68% at large banks in 2022. In addition, small business owners who applied and got approved for loans from small banks also reported being much more satis ed with their banking experience than those who worked with larger banks, nance companies or online lenders.

Community banks, however, also act as a bridge between local businesses and a wider network of resources. Benko said it’s not unusual for him to connect clients to potential investors, micro nance organizations or even larger banks for needs that fall beyond their scope.

“Sometimes we partner with other banks but even in cases where we don’t t into that transaction, we still want to help our clients,” Benko said.

When it comes to fostering a thriving local community, the source of the credit becomes secondary, Apicella said.

“The priority still lies in the mission of supporting and partnering with the local businesses, residents, and clients” he said.

Read and share an interactive version of this report at CrainsCleveland.com

presented by Lakewood Alive, which featured a parade and family-friendly fun.

Members of the Middle eld Bank team visit Chardon Middle School to teach nancial literacy through Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland.

Bank’s Northeast Ohio team participates in numerous volunteer activities and fundraisers throughout the year