Crain's Cleveland Business

REAL ESTATE: Akron gets proactive with Chapel Hill Mall redevelopment. PAGE 12

TOP HOME SALES 112 houses in the region were purchased for at least $1 million in 2020. PAGE 19

CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM I MAY 3, 2021

ON CENTER STAGE AT

NFL DRAFT

When the NFL draft kicked off on Cleveland’s lakefront, David Gilbert was looking on from the area reserved for vaccinated VIPs. There, he could see the throng of fans watching from outside the theater. By the time the first round began on Thursday night, April 29, a rain that had been steady all day had stopped and Browns fans greeted the start of the festivities by loudly cheering former quarterback Bernie Kosar and letting everyone in attendance know how they felt

about the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“It just looked unbelievable,” said Gilbert, the president and CEO of Destination Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. “It looked in every way of how Cleveland should look.”

The COVID-19 pandemic put a 50,000 daily limit on an event that drew hundreds of thousands of fans to downtown Nashville in 2019. The majority of those in attendance on the first of the 2021 draft’s three days were See NFL DRAFT on Page 21

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Cleveland looks ‘unbelievable’ in spotlight

`BY KEVIN KLEPS

Interest in health care jobs is on rise Increasing number of students are enrolling in programs designed for health professions

BY LYDIA COUTRÉ

Ashley Bailey was just a few months into nursing school when the pandemic hit.

The next several months looked vastly different than she’d planned.

The Hondros College of Nursing student hadn’t expected to do her clinicals online through virtual clinical experiences — her nursing video game, as she calls it. With COVID-19 restrictions, bartending was no lon-

ger the reliable, flexible and lucrative option she’d expected to carry her through her collegiate journey.

But she didn’t waiver in her decision to become a nurse. If anything, she doubled down. Now a licensed practical nurse (LPN), Bailey took just three weeks off before continuing her coursework toward becoming a registered nurse (RN). Before the COVID-19 crisis, she’d planned a six- to 12-month break between the two, but the pandemic propelled her

Vacant 45 Erieview could get new life Ambitious plan includes apartments and retail

BY MICHELLE JARBOE A Case Western nursing student participates in a 2020 class. | CONTRIBUTED

forward.

“I want to help people in a bigger capacity,” said Bailey, who tends bar and works at an assisted living facility. “I want to get it done as fast as possible. … If you have a caring demeanor, if you enjoy helping people, there is nothing more rewarding than this field.”

See HEALTH CARE on Page 17

Another dormant downtown Cleveland office tower might see new life as housing, in an ambitious project dreamed up by Texas-based investors.

Their target is 45 Erieview Plaza, a nearly 493,000-square-foot building that once served as the headquarters for the Ohio Bell Telephone Co. In interviews with Crain’s, the co-founders of Bluelofts Inc. of Dallas confirmed that they’ve signed a contract to buy the 16-story structure at East Ninth

Street and Lakeside Avenue.

Ike Bams and John Williams wouldn’t discuss the pricing or timeline for the acquisition. But the partners said they hope to start construction early next year to transform most of the space into 280 to 300-plus apartments, with coworking facilities, a rooftop deck and first-floor retail.

They’ve teamed up on the deal with fellow Texan Kenny Wolfe, an apartment investor with a stake in other Northeast Ohio properties.

See ERIEVIEW on Page 20

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REAL ESTATE

Legislative fix is likely for new state program Ohio lawmakers searching for solutions before $100 million in tax credits disappear

BY MICHELLE JARBOE

With $100 million in much-anticipated tax credits set to evaporate on June 30, state lawmakers are exploring ways to preserve the incentives for challenging real estate deals.

The Ohio Development Services Agency has been working to roll out a new tax credit program for so-called “transformational” mixed-use projects, which won legislative approval in late 2020. Developers are watching the bureaucratic process with bated breath.

But it’s clear that the agency won’t be able to solicit, review and rank applications within the next two months. And under current law, the $100 million that the Ohio General Assembly allocated for the 2021 fiscal year won’t roll over. Instead, it will simply disappear.

“Development is working diligently to make sure this program will be successful and have a positive impact on Ohio communities,” Todd Walker, an agency spokesman, wrote in an email late last week. “We expect the program will launch in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022.

“It is our understanding,” he added, “that the General Assembly is pursuing avenues to carry forward the tax credits allocated to the program for use in future fiscal years.”

Gov. Mike DeWine signed the enabling legislation, Senate Bill 39, into law on Dec. 29 — almost three years after the proposal for the novel incentive first surfaced. The bill established a nonrefundable credit to offset premium taxes for insurance companies that invest in mixed-use developments with substantial economic oomph.

The General Assembly allocated $100 million each fiscal year to the program, which is set to end in mid2023. The awards are capped at 10% of a project’s costs, topping out at $40 million for any single development.

Insurers can apply directly for credits or buy them, at a discount, from property owners. Either way, the program will generate upfront cash for projects and offer investors tax breaks.

The legislation took so long to gain traction that the first round of credits — for the 2020 fiscal year — vanished long before the bill became law. Now lobbyists, lawyers and consultants are talking to legislators about ensuring that the 2021 pool of funds doesn’t vaporize.

“There has to be some statutory language that provides some additional breathing room for the awards to be made. And that statutory language could take multiple forms,” said Mike Sikora, a Cleveland attorney who represents developers and leads the government affairs committee for NAIOP Northern Ohio, a commercial real estate association.

Sen. Kirk Schuring, the Stark County Republican who sponsored the original legislation, could not be reached for comment last week.

Tax credit experts said the logical place for that program fix, whatever it

The 55 Public Square office tower in downtown Cleveland, at left, is earmarked for partial conversion to apartments. It’s one potential candidate for a new Ohio tax credit that’s designed for so-called “transformational” mixed-use projects. | MICHELLE JARBOE

Owners of existing buildings, like 55 Public Square, and developers planning ground-up projects have been monitoring the rollout of the new state tax credit program.

The roughly $460 million redevelopment of the historic Union Trust Building, a massive vacant office property at East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, hinges on securing tax credits through the state’s new program for “transformational” mixed-use projects.

looks like, is the biennial state budget bill. The General Assembly must present the bill for DeWine’s signature by the end of June. The budget legislation, passed by the House on April 21, is under consideration by the Senate’s finance committee.

“We’re working on projects in Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, and everyone’s in the same hurry-upand-wait mode with this pending deadline and their projects being in limbo until they can have some clarity on this part of the capital stack,” said Ryan Sommers, managing director of financial services for Project Management Consultants in Cleveland.

He and other consultants expect demand for the credits to far exceed supply.

Scott Ziance, a Columbus attorney who specializes in economic development incentives, said he hasn’t seen this much excitement about a tax credit program since the early 2000s. His firm, Vorys, held a webinar about the program in January with little fanfare and drew a crowd of attendees, “including a lot of people we’ve never heard of and didn’t know,” Ziance said.

The credits are a linchpin for high-profile projects including the Centennial, the planned $460 million redevelopment of the historic Union Trust Building at East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland.

The Millennia Cos. expects to seek roughly $40 million in credits to help transform the vacant building into more than 860 apartments, offices, retail and exhibition and event space.

Millennia must start construction

by Dec. 31 in order to keep $25 million in state historic preservation tax credits awarded to the project in 2015. The state development agency granted “one final extension” to the project in February, according to a letter sent to Millennia’s CEO.

The state doesn’t pay out historic tax credits until projects are complete, but developers are able to secure funding based on the promise of the credits. Officials have rescinded awards in situations where developers aren’t making progress.

The new mixed-use credit program has a similar framework. Applicants must show that their projects won’t move forward without aid and that new tax revenues from developments will exceed the value of the credits within a few years.

“We need to get TMUD, and then we start rocking and rolling,” said Tom Mignogna, senior tax credit developer for Millennia, which acquired the Union Trust Building in 2018 and redesigned the project last year to focus on moderately priced workforce housing.

“We want to close this thing as soon as possible,” he said.

Once a staged project, the Centennial is now a single-phase development drawing on a blend of public and private funds. Cuyahoga County Council recently approved a $5 million loan to Millennia to help the developer pay off existing debt and keep the complicated deal alive.

Other local developers are eyeing the transformational mixed-use tax credits for existing buildings, including the partial residential conversion of the 55 Public Square office tower in the heart of downtown, and ground-up construction.

On April 19, the Development Services Agency submitted draft rules for the program to a review committee, which is soliciting public comments and has set a hearing for May 26. The rules provide some clarity about what sorts of projects will be eligible to compete.

For example, an apartment building with a parking garage won’t count as a mixed-use project. To qualify, a development must include at least two non-parking uses, such as retail, office, residential or recreational space.

Projects can include multiple owners, who must apply as a group and explain how they’ll divvy up the tax credits if they win. Applicants must have commitments for at least 51% of their project funding. And economic impact reports for projects must span a half-mile radius for sites within 10 miles of a major city and a 2-mile radius for sites in outlying areas.

The Legislature reserved $20 million in tax credits in each fiscal year for projects in small towns and rural areas. The remaining $80 million is earmarked for urban developments with a price tag of at least $50 million and minimum thresholds for size, building heights or payroll.

The Ohio Tax Credit Authority, a five-member board, will award the tax credits based on rankings and recommendations from the state development agency.

“This is an important part of the capital stack to certain projects,” Sikora said. “And the sooner the rules could be finalized and the timing of completion of the process could be finalized, the better off those projects will be — and, therefore, this program will be, and those communities in which those projects will be located will be.”

Michelle Jarboe: michelle.jarboe@ crain.com, (216) 771-5437, @mjarboe MAY 3, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 3

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Ohio lawmakers are hoping to address some of the economic impacts of the pandemic and assist in a recovery. | GETTY IMAGES

What to watch in the statehouse Focus of legislation has moved from pandemic to economic recovery

BY KIM PALMER

Nearly five months into Ohio’s 134th General Assembly, legislation tackling the fallout of the pandemic has given way to proposed bills that state lawmakers hope will address more than a year of economic disruption and help aid an economic recovery.

At of the end of April, there were nearly 300 bills introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives and more than 150 in the Senate. Many of them proposed to tackle unexpected issues brought on by COVID-19.

As the state’s 2022-23 biennial budget, which includes $1 billion in COVID-19 relief funds, moves from the House to the Senate, a handful of legislators are introducing laws targeting employee protections, while others support workforce development programs and look toward tax-based business incentives.

One of the focuses for Rep. Jeffery Crossman (D-15) of Parma is supporting a workforce displaced by COVID-19 and still reeling from layoffs.

“Initially, the mindset was to

make sure businesses didn’t go bankrupt, and there was less focus on workers who had lost their jobs and were really suffering as a result of layoffs,” said Crossman, who serves on the Ways and Means, Civil Justice, Financial Institutions and Public Utilities committees.

The state has paid out about $9.6 billion in traditional unemployment and $10.5 billion in federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance since last spring. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services was tasked with processing nearly 3.3 million traditional and more than 1 million federal pandemic unemployment claims over the last 58 weeks, using an outdated system that is understaffed, Crossman said.

“There were a number of major issues with people submitting a claim and getting paid for that claim,” Crossman said. “Then new federal guidance would came out and the benefits were recalibrated so that it was determined they were overpaid, which meant a freeze was put on their account and any additional benefits.”

Crossman and other Democrats have introduced House Bill 139,

which would waive the repayment of any non-fraudulent unemployment overpayments and allow those recipients to continue to receive additional unemployment insurance payments.

Other worker protection bills in the Statehouse include House Bill 69, a proposed increase of the state’s minimum wage incrementally from $10 in 2022 to $15 an hour by 2027.

Another piece of legislation, House Bill 187, would mean Ohio joins 41 other states in requiring employers to provide employees with access to their pay statements, which currently is not the law, and another bill, House Bill 233, that creates a system to report wage discrimination. All have Democratic support, but only one has been assigned to a committee.

The Ohio Senate has a handful of bills aimed at protecting workers.

One of them, Senate Bill 68, sponsored by Sen. Sandra Williams (D21) of Cleveland, would prevent workers from being asked about prior convictions, and Senate Bill 70 would do the same about prior salary history.

See STATEHOUSE on Page 8

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4 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | MAY 3, 2021

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MANUFACTURING

Nordson aims to continue growth with new strategy Westlake company’s three-pronged approach also looks at talent, organizational structure

BY RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY

Sundaram Nagarajan took over as president and CEO of Westlake-based Nordson Corp. in August 2019.

He was drawn to the company’s strength, but that strength presented a challenge. Nordson didn’t need a CEO to come in and turn around the business. It needed someone who could figure out what was next, what would take it to the next level.

Less than two years later, Nagarajan has implemented a new business strategy aimed at growth and at empowering employees. And the company is embracing a shift from a focus on fluid-dispensing equipment to precision technology at large.

Usually when a new CEO joins a company, they’re “fixing something that’s broken,” said Allison Poliniak-Cusic, senior analyst for industrial technology and transportation at Wells Fargo Securities LLC. That wasn’t the case at Nordson.

“Nordson was actually in a unique position in the fact that it was growing, and it was expanding margins, and it was on the right path,” Poliniak-Cusic said.

The concern was that the company needed to find a new leader who could keep that momentum going.

Nagarajan has done “exactly that,” she said. In an unusual year, he managed to introduce a new structure, hire a CFO and divest a business.

Full-year sales in 2020 were $2.1 billion, just a 3% year-over-year decline despite the pandemic. A news release noted that strength in the company’s medical product lines and its test and inspection product lines for electronics end markets was offset by weaker industrial and automotive end markets.

First-quarter results for 2021 saw net income grow by 49% year-overyear to $78 million.

Nagarajan has a “strong legacy to build on” at Nordson, said Chris Dankert, senior equity analyst at Longbow Research in Independence.

The company has been steadily growing organically, with some M&A activity, and a strategy focused specifically on growth is the next step.

One place this is happening is in

the broadening beyond Nordson’s core in fluid dispensing. It’s good to see a business through a “fresh lens,” said Jeff Hammond, managing director at KeyBanc Capital Markets. But Hammond doesn’t see Nagarajan as taking Nordson in a completely new direction. Instead, this is a logical evolution for an already strong company.

“It feels more like fine-tuning than a major shift in direction,” Hammond said.

The approach Nagarajan is implementing is called the Ascend strategy. Nagarajan said it’s made up of three “interconnected” parts: a growth strategy, a talent strategy and an organizational structure.

“I think what we’re trying to do with the Ascend strategy is really take a strong Nordson and make it even stronger,” Nagarajan said.

The organizational structure, which Nagarajan calls “owner mindset,” aims to give divisions more autonomy to make decisions close to the customer. Instead of making changes go up and down the leadership chain, a more entrepreneurial approach lets the company’s leadership make decisions faster. And with the autonomy comes more accountability, he said.

That makes the importance of the talent piece clear. Nagarajan calls that portion of the strategy “winning teams,” and it’s focused on creating an engaging place to work so the company can attract and retain strong employees.

And the growth framework, NBS Next, is dependent on that more autonomous organizational structure, too, because the way it’s deployed in each division will be different, Nagarajan said. NBS Next uses data to assess the best growth opportunities in each divisions, and it includes strategies around both organic and acquisitive growth. This is a new approach for the company, identifying and “doubling down” on the best opportunities for growth, Nagarajan said. And those opportunities will change over time, so division leaders need to stay agile.

“You just can’t have your feet planted in concrete,” Nagarajan said. “You’ve got to move.”

Nagarajan said the company’s core businesses still have room to grow by

Nordson Medical’s process technicians ensure specifications are met at each step of the manufacturing process. | NORDSON

adding market share or adjacent products, but he sees more acquisition opportunities in the businesses that have grown beyond that core.

Nordson is not just a fluid-dispensing equipment company anymore; it’s a precision technology company. That’s a shift that’s been happening in recent years with the growth of the company’s medical business. That business had its foundation in the company’s core of fluid dispensing, Nagarajan said, but

it’s become much more than that. And there are scaling opportunities in that space, he said. Similarly, Nagarajan sees opportunities to scale up the company’s test and inspection business, which began as part of one of Nordson’s electronics businesses.

Nordson launched the Ascend strategy in March 2020, shortly before the pandemic hit hard in the United States.

The company started by piloting the full strategy in four of its strongest divisions,

Nagarajan said. Overall, though, Nordson will implement the new strategy throughout the company over the next three to five years, one part at a time.

“This is not a broken company. It’s a great company. This Ascend strategy will add to the company,” Nagarajan said. “And so we’re going to take our time. We want to do this well.”

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

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Millions of components are manufactured each day at Nordson Medical, and all are inspected and qualified before shipping. | NORDSON MAY 3, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 5

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PERSONAL VIEW

We need to spread word about ways to train for tech jobs

RICH WILLIAMS FOR CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

BY ANTHONY HUGHES

EDITORIAL

Speak out

I

t’s time — well past time, actually — for Cleveland to pass an ordinance establishing a regular public comment period at Cleveland City Council meetings.

A resident-led movement called Clevelanders for Public Comment has done outstanding work making the case for such a practice as “critical to a robust and durable democracy” that will “lead to a more engaged public and improved public policy outcomes in Cleveland.” Can anyone argue with that? A higher level of civic engagement is especially critical at a time when Cleveland is about to receive more than $540 million over two years in federal coronavirus relief. There are big decisions to be made about how to prioritize spending of that money to maximize its the impact. Residents must have a stronger voice, now.

The work of Clevelanders for Public Comment has gone beyond just raising awareness of the need for comment.

A proposed public comment ordinance drafted by Cleveland resident Jessica Trivisonno has won broad support from activist groups, and, as Cleveland.com reported, it now appears to have the backing of at least nine of council’s 17 members: Kevin Conwell (Ward 9), Basheer Jones A HIGHER LEVEL OF CIVIC (Ward 7), Joe Jones (Ward 1) Brian Kazy (Ward 16), Kerry ENGAGEMENT IS McCormack (Ward 3), Mike Polensek (Ward 8), Jasmin ESPECIALLY CRITICAL. Santana (Ward 14), Charles Slife (Ward 17) and Jenny Spencer (Ward 15).

One important name isn’t on that list: Council President Kevin Kelley, who recently announced he’s running for mayor this year. Kelley has taken a step in the right direction, at least, by signaling that he’s open to the idea. Kelley has asked council staff to research the issue, which also is encouraging, but it shouldn’t take much research to figure out that giving citizens a stronger voice in how their local government acts is a good idea. We hope he comes around on the idea quickly. It’s a fair question, given how long Kelley has been on council, to ask why he hasn’t previously supported a public comment period. If Kelley makes a perhaps-not-entirely-sincere conversion in an election year, he wouldn’t be the first politician to do so. We’d still take it.

The proposed ordinance from Clevelanders for Public Comment is pretty simple.

Some of the key elements: ` It would create a public comment period of up to 30 minutes at Monday evening council meetings. Council may vote to extend the duration of the public comment period during any particular meeting. Each person may address council for up to three minutes. A person who wants to address council during the public comment period must complete a form and file it with the clerk of council. They can file that form starting one week before they wish to address council until the scheduled start of the meeting. `Similar parameters would exist at council committee hearings, with some variations. Technically, comment is allowed now at committee hearings — which usually are held during the business day and therefore are less accessible to residents than council’s evening meetings — but there isn’t a formal process for doing so. `Comments need to be respectful. As the ordinance puts it, “People addressing Council shall maintain the order of the meeting, and shall not engage in any conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes Council’s ability to conduct its business. The Presiding Officer maintains discretion to preserve the order and decorum of the Council meeting during the public comment period, so long as that discretion is exercised without regard to the particular viewpoint being expressed.” There’s a provision for one warning if a person is not following the rules, but after that, an offender could be expelled from the meeting.

Even then, though, that person’s written comments still could be submitted.

These are common-sense, easy-to-implement steps. Trivisonno told Cleveland.com that she based the ordinance on practices used by city councils in Akron, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh and Youngstown, as well as Cuyahoga County Council, so it would bring Cleveland in line with the closest of its peer cities. We hope all Cleveland City Council members come around to supporting the idea and embrace a more active role for residents in meetings.

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

For those 1.7 million Ohioans that have been receiving unemployment since the pandemic began, tech presents a massive opportunity. In fact, the state had 166,702 open tech jobs in 2019 — and that was before the pandemic turned households into business headquarters.

There’s just one problem: As distributed Hughes is the as tech jobs currently are — virtually every co-founder and business, in every industry, in every part of CEO of the state is looking for tech talent — what Cleveland-based aren’t equally distributed are the opportu- Tech Elevator, nities for Ohioans to receive the proper which has partnered with training.

Alternative approaches to education can Ohio to Work to help here, especially those that can be done help Ohioans remotely and give people the proper certifi- make the cations in only a matter of weeks. But to re- transition to an ally reduce the state’s unemployment in-demand number and boost local businesses in one career in tech. fell swoop, we need to focus our energies on bringing these opportunities to three key segments of our population.

The first are those people who are currently in “dead-end” jobs, such as in retail or hospitality that, according to a review by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, may not rebound even after this crisis has passed. Some of them didn’t have the money to go to college and entered the workforce right away, others experienced a personal or medical setback that made the idea of moving away from home for four years a nonstarter.

No matter the cause, the bottom line is that the majority of Ohioans in this situation aren’t there because they are incapable of learning new things. They are those to whom life simply dealt an unfair hand, and who are, without a doubt, capable of contributing more to society if they are given the opportunity to quickly and affordably reskill.

The second are those whose personal attributes and identities have kept them from considering tech careers. Women, for example, only hold 25% of computing roles in the U.S. And where race is concerned, less than 5% of most tech companies’ employee population are Black.

Stigma and stereotypes are certainly at play here — and it will likely take years before those can finally be put to bed. But regardless of the structural racism and inequality that have kept their engagement to a minimum, there is a sincere need for their voices and contributions in this space. Increasing awareness and access to the tech industry will not negate the wrongs of the past, but it will go a long way toward correcting that injustice in the future.

The third are those who live in parts of the state where there aren’t any through-and-through tech companies — the more rural areas far outside of Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati.

Because they lack proximity to companies wholly dedicated to tech, many such areas aren’t incentivized to dedicate substantial time and resources to developing coding curriculum and training programs.

Seth Boyle is a testament to the success of alternative tech education programs. Prior to the pandemic, he had a part-time job as a barista to supplement what he made playing music gigs around town. When he had to take a voluntary layoff, he found the Tech Elevator program and is now a software developer.

Imagine the power we have as a collective to change the course of our state. By spreading the word about the opportunities available in tech, and the ways Ohioans can land those positions without signing on to a degree many can’t afford, we can begin to overcome the obstacles created by COVID-19.

Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited. Send letters to Crain’s Cleveland Business, 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113, or by emailing ClevEdit@crain.com. Please include your complete name and city from which you are writing, and a telephone number for fact-checking purposes.

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

6 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | MAY 3, 2021

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At the e our hands

OPINION Akron | 330.535.2661 Independence | 216.831.3310 Medina | 330.239.0176

PERSONAL VIEW

Corporations that are taking a stand also are taking a risk

BY TIM HILK

Hilk is president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Cleveland.

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Please visit us at our new location:

Here in Greater Cleveland, we are blessed with many companies that have taken stands on social issues.

That they have voiced an opinion under a corporate brand is notable.

This is a complex world with competing interests on nearly every issue. The path of least resistance is to do nothing, say nothing and stand for nothing. Yet corporations are made up of people. Among those people are leaders who have been given the responsibility to act, or not, on the social issues that confront their companies and the soci-

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eties they serve.

The YMCA of Greater Cleveland is a nonprofit that has taken many stands that we believe are in the best interest of the communities we serve. Taking those stands has cost and gained us members and supporters.

We do not have a balance sheet for such things. We have a conscious. We have a culture. We have a mission. We are for all.

We commend the companies that take a sincere stand on social issues. People have a right to agree or disagree, but that is how we vet ideas and advance our society. There will always be companies that say nothing. To them, silence is their gold, though that kind of gold has little value in the marketplace of ideas.

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They say silence is golden, yet numerous corporations recently have voiced positions on social issues that confront America: equality, immigration, voting rights, climate change and more. It is nothing new for corporations to take a stand, but in today’s politically charged environment, doing so means taking a greater risk than ever before.

Some believe companies only act in their best interest, so if a corporation thinks more of their customers and prospects are supportive of an issue than not, it is business-wise to speak out regardless of what the decision-makers really think.

Indeed, research shows many consumers consider a company’s position on social issues before making a purchase decision. Nearly 60% of Americans want the companies they buy products and services from to have a position on issues such as racial discrimination and social justice. Roughly 50% of the survey’s respondents said they often do online research to learn about a brand’s position on such issues.

Does that suggest companies voice opinions on social issues to grow their business regardless of their leaders’ true beliefs? Maybe some have taken that path, but many corporate leaders have made stands they knew would put them in the firing line. They followed their conscience. They did not remain silent. They took a risk for what they felt was right.

We Moved

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Renacci is out of touch on gun regulation As a Crain’s subscriber, I am very concerned about Jim Renacci’s April 26 guest op-ed regarding gun regulation. Mr. Renacci’s views are significantly out of touch with what most Americans believe regarding gun regulation. Multiple polls have indicated that U.S. citizens, by significant majorities, have supported the following gun regulations: 1. 57% favor more gun regulation (March 2021: Hill-HarrisX poll) 2. 83% favor background checks (March 2021: Hill-HarrisX poll) 3. 76% favor banning individuals on the Federal watch list (April 2021: Morning Consult/Politico poll) 4. 73% favor a waiting period of three days after gun purchases (April 2021: Morning Consult/Politico poll) 5. 70% favor a national database regarding gun ownership (April 2021: Morning Consult/Politico poll) These responses paint a political

landscape that contradicts Mr. Renacci’s contentions regarding what is best for the U.S. These are the “reasonable” desires of the national citizenry. Many other polls reflect similar responses.

Gov. Mike DeWine and other political actors are not “misguided” when they support the wishes of the electorate.

Mr. Renacci’s contention that Ohio House Bill 62 would create an Ohio sanctuary to combat federal gun regulations is dangerous. There is no safety in unregulated conceal carry. There is no protection in the ownership of military assault weapons. There is little protection in unmonitored gun show sales. There is little protection for the police when unregistered weapons are available.

And there is little protection for Ohio citizens and the police when there is no regulation regarding

transfer gun sales.

“Law-abiding” gun owners are generally in favor of these poll questions. “Law-abiding” citizens register, report the transfer sale and do not conceal their actions regarding car sales, boat sales, house sales, book sales and property sales. State and federal regulations address and regulate these constitutionally protected citizen actions. The Second Amendment is a vital protection, as is the constitutional protection of free speech and the right to assemble and petition.

The reasonable regulation of gun ownership is not unreasonable.

My proposal is to make Ohio a true sanctuary state for all Ohioans by implementing citizen-favored, reasonably regulated legislation.

Sheldon Firem Chardon MAY 3, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 7

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EDUCATION

For colleges, navigating pandemic-related logistics continues ‘It wears on you,’ University of Akron employee says

BY AMY MORONA

tially can have a reverberating effect.

Take the recent pause of the Johnson For many years, Eric Green’s family & Johnson vaccine. UA stopped the student clinics it was running on camvacations kicked off a routine.

Arrive at the hotel, jump in the ele- pus in light of the concerns over blood vator, go to the room, turn around, clots. The shot was being delivered leave again. Back in the hallway, he’d there as well as at other colleges across instruct his daughter and son, young at Ohio as a way to help students get vacthat time, to look for the stairwells. cinated before leaving for the summer.

The clinic rolled out in less than a They needed to know where the emergency exits were located before the fun week in April, was halted quickly when the recommendations surfaced, and began.

After all, he said, it’s good to have a resumed later that month once the plan. You never know when you’ll pause was lifted. Each of those phases brought along more things to figure need it.

That still rings true for Green, 50, to- out. Yet just getting the event off of the day. In fact, it’s part of his job. He’s ground felt like a turning point.

“Most of our other efforts were about chair of the University of Akron’s COVID-19 planning group as well as safety and managing life and reducing the director of environmental and oc- things,” Green said. “This was about cupational health and safety. He has gaining a step towards normalcy.”

He spent the first morning of the worked at UA for about 16 years.

Green is an important part of the clinic’s second stint working out of a puzzle for a university, like its peers makeshift office in the on-campus areacross Northeast Ohio and the coun- na. A two-way radio on his belt periodtry, that’s continuing to figure out life ically buzzed as a colleague checked during the pandemic and oft-changing the sprinkler system, giving a small reguidance. Many aspects of the univer- minder of duties more routine in pre-pandemic life.

Even the mask Green wore “HOW DO YOU COMPLETELY, that morning represented a FROM START TO FINISH, TAKE cumulation of decisions. Navy three-ply, picked beCARE OF THAT GROUP THAT ARE blue, cause it washed well and paid NOW REALLY IN YOUR CHARGE?” for by some of the university’s federal relief funding.

— University of Akron staffer Eric Green Vaccine distributions sity’s boots-on-the-ground COVID re- weren’t the toughest challenge, sponse receive Green’s input. His mom though. Green said he and his colat one point even helped put together leagues had hit their stride by then.

Things were more challenging earlier some masks.

“As things progressed, he stood out on in the pandemic as they figured out as the go-to guy,” university police how to handle students in isolation chief Dale Gooding said of Green. “He and quarantine housing.

The logistics were dizzying. Lamps just had a better understanding.”

While the light at the end of the tun- needed to be bought to brighten up nel is getting brighter, parameters still dark rooms. The process of laundering surround institutions’ decisions. The linens needed to be figured out. Three impact of even just one move poten- meals needed to be distributed per

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Eric Green talks to health care professionals at the University of Akron’s vaccination clinic. | AMY MORONA

day. It was a lot.

“How do you completely, from start to finish, take care of that group that are now really in your charge?” he said.

The university had planned for this situation. Well, kind of. Officials have held several exercises to prepare themselves for different scenarios. The most recent one in the summer of 2019 depicted a pseudo-measles outbreak.

Early on, Green’s colleague Mark Beers dusted off the pandemic playbook they used in 2009 with the H1N1 virus. It served as the baseline of the group’s evolving COVID response.

But he couldn’t have forecasted all of the times he’d don a gown and other protective equipment to transport students either infected by or exposed to the virus to that isolation housing. He estimated he’s done that several hundred times. Those aren’t the kinds of

STATEHOUSE

From Page 4

The first bill introduced in the Senate this year, if passed, would establish a statewide financial literacy requirement for Ohio schools. The legislation, which has had four committee hearings since February, would create a fund and require students to take a half-unit course in financial literacy as part of social studies. It also would require teachers to obtain a license to teach the subject.

There are also broadband expansion bills, House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 8.

“Broadband expansion is incredibly important. It’s the infrastructure that we need to make sure that Ohio can continue to expand,” said Rep. Bill Roemer (R-38), a second-term Republican from Richfield representing western portions of Summit and Stark counties.

Roemer, a certified public accountant who chairs the finance subcommittee on health and human services and serves on several other committees, is one of many bipartisan

tasks typically outlined in a job description.

“It mentally affected me, this COVID,” said Beers, the university’s emergency management coordinator.

“I mean, every day, in and out. It wears on you.”

Beers pointed out there were eight people in his department when he joined more than 20 years ago. Now it's down to four. The university eliminated 178 employees last summer. Ten people who worked in facilities were cut, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

It takes working cohesively at a university to make the institution run smoothly during normal times. That’s amplified now. Staffers from across departments continue to work together on several pandemic-focused groups, in addition to their normal, day-to-day duties.

Green recruited Alison Doehring, head of the student advocacy and support office ZipAssist, to help answer students and families’ questions during a call center last spring. Now she’s also leading some communications efforts.

“We all recognize (that) we are intricately together,” Doehring said. “How a classroom is set up affects our scheduling, which affects our number of faculty, which affects course offerings, which affects communication, which affects health and wellness. It's all co-sponsors of the broadband bill in the House, as well as a sponsor of a number of business tax incentives bills.

Among the tax savings bills he has sponsored is one that would permit companies a “bonus depreciation adjustment” for operating losses (House Bill 86) so that state rates do not outpace federal rates, and a recently passed measure (House Bill 124) that reduces the rate the state withholds from pass-through businesses, including S-corps, to 3%.

Along with Rep. Thomas West (D14) of Canton, Roemer also has co-sponsored a temporary state tax amnesty program that allows delinquent tax filers to catch up with their taxes while having to pay the incurred penalties and fees.

The state has held tax amnesties in the past, during Gov. Bob Taft’s administration in the early 2000s and again when John Kasich was governor about a decade later, Roemer said.

“The last time this was done, it generated something like $14 million in additional tax,” he said. “We believe actually it’s a creative way to help the

churning together at the same time.”

The churn will soon shift again. The clinic is winding down, as is the spring semester. Graduation is the next big event. Each ceremony is outdoors.

Graduates are limited to four tickets, and those guests will sit in distant pods.

Green said those instructions remain firm even as other guidance may change.

“Once you put a plan in place a month ahead of your event, to react, to make it bigger or make it more relaxed with two weeks out isn't practical,” he said.

Looking ahead, contingency planning and mitigating risk will remain important. Green suspects discussing masks and vaccines will continue to be a part of campus life, including as officials figure out how to bring more people to campus safely over the summer for events like new student orientations and athletics camps. There are still a lot of unknowns.

As for Green, he’s looking forward to some trips with his wife later this summer. Even those, too, still have logistics to consider.

“It’s what can I do that won't get canceled,?” he said.

They settled on a trip to Virginia to kayak and bike, along with a visit to see his wife’s family.

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

Crossman

Roemer

people who have been struggling and the state of Ohio.”

One of the most recently introduced bills, House Bill 268, would remove the sales tax currently levied on metal bullion and coins. It’s another way the state could retain business, Roemer said.

“What we saw, and what was testified to, is that the businesses that deal in the sale of coins and bullion and those types of hard assets were moving to other states where they were not taxed,” Roemer said. “The idea is that there will be job growth as a result of this law that will offset a potential loss.”

Kim Palmer: kpalmer@crain.com, (216) 771-5384, @kimfouroffive

8 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | MAY 3, 2021

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“E AC D EO

—

ARCHITECTURE

Makovich Pusti firm completes transition to new ownership

BY STAN BULLARD

Worldwide.

The former Makovich Pusti owners, who remain Architect Don Rerko just active in the practice, completed a yearslong launched it 34 years ago afquest to find a firm to call ter each worked almost a his own as he became the decade at other firms. They proprietor of Makovich & first shared the idea of Pusti Architects Inc. launching a firm together Rerko joined the practice Rerko while they were students at in 2016 with an eye on acthe architecture school at quiring it. He said he emKent State University. braced the family feel of the Their leadership created firm ensconced on the seca practice that ranked 20th ond floor of a century-old on the Crain's Cleveland former hardware store on Business 2021 list of the reFront Street in downtown gion's largest architecture Berea. Rerko recently purfirms and has been in the chased the stake of name Makovich top 25 for a decade. principal David Pusti after Makovich & Pusti's staff previously buying the of 18, including nine regisshares of the firm of Ron tered architects and four Makovich. intern architects, has a foTypical for businesses, cus on health care, higher such a deal has become education and public projrare in recent years in arects. Its projects typically chitecture as baby boomers cost $5 million to $10 miland older owners move on. lion to construct.

It's also a lower-key propo- Pusti Pusti said in a phone insition than the acquisitions that made some of the region's larg- terview that he and Makovich est local firms parts of huge national brought in Rerko because of his practices, including the former West- strength in landing business.

“That is critical to the business,” lake Reed Leskosky, now DLR Group, and KA Architecture, now Nelson Pusti said. "There are many fine ar-

chitects who are not ready to go out and do business development. (Rerko) has that, and he brought a lot of experience and connections with him."

Pusti said Makovich Pusti began thinking of transition after Pusti, who served as president of the Berea Chamber of Commerce, heard a speaker at one of its meetings discuss the importance of succession planning.

However, the task differs for architects from typical businesses.

“If you simply retire, you carry the liability (for your projects) with you,” Pusti said. "It stays with the firm in a sale. You also have ongoing projects.

And we had a lot of employees who had been with us for a long time. You can't just turn them out on the streets."

From Rerko's side, the fundamentals were perfect.

“This firm serves markets that I have been in my whole life,” Rerko said in an interview over Zoom.

Over a 30-year career, he worked at various firms the past few years, from Bowen to City Architecture, in hopes of becoming an owner, but none fit.

Prior to that, he worked for years at large area offices or concerns, including five years running the higher

Makovich & Pusti Architecture Inc. occupies the second floor of a century-old building in downtown Berea. | CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

education practice at the former URS Corp., now the Los Angeles-based AECOM engineering and architecture firm, as well as in the commercial group at Middough Inc. of Cleveland.

Cleveland and Akron architecture firms typically allow younger principals to earn or buy equity shares that allow them to gain ownership over time, according to David Craun, a principal at Bialosky Cleveland and president of the AIA Cleveland trade group.

“In years past, local buyers were typical, but that's not been the case

of late,” Craun said in a phone interview. “We've had several out-oftown national buyers because local owners created so much equity that was the only way to make it work.

I'm proud of (Rerko) for doing it locally.”

Rerko's goals are to land bigger projects and to add a Florida office.

Makovich Pusti's name, he said, has too much brand equity to change it, although, typical for the abbreviation frenzy, it also goes by MPA. Stan Bullard: sbullard@crain.com, (216) 771-5228, @CrainRltywriter

THE

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TECHNOLOGY

These tires are going to Mars

NASA Glenn team develops the Shape Memory Alloy Spring Tire to traverse the Red Planet

BY DAVID MANLEY/TIRE BUSINESS

‘Aren’t you having a problem with plastic deformation in this?’ ” Padula recalled in a nasa.gov video. “… He said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said, ‘I have your solution.’”

Creager said, as mechanical engineers, they were looking at structural ways to increase the load, but changing the material wasn’t something they had considered.

“This particular material doesn’t deform like conventional material, where in those materials, when we put stress on them, we basically are stretching the bonds between the atomic structure,” Padula said. “This material has a unique characteristic that allows it to do an atomic rearrangement to accommodate deformation.”

The nickel titanium alloy allowed the SMA Spring Tire to deform — and return to shape — 20% to 30% more than the previous version.

“We could actually deform this all the way down to the axle and have it return to shape,” Creager said.

While NASA’s newest tire is the result of years of research and development, it was a chance meeting between old colleagues that moved it from a unique R&D project to a key piece of an upcoming mission to Mars.

The team at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland engineered a tire — the Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Spring Tire — that can handle the heavy load of a lunar rover while traversing rough, rocky Martian terrain and enduring extreme temperatures.

And while the launch date is years away, the practical uses of the technology already have emerged on the consumer market.

Eyes on the moon In the mid-2000s, engineers began working on a new tire concept as part of the Constellation program. The aim of the program was to put humans and machines on the moon as a steppingstone to Mars.

While that program eventually was phased out, a new iteration, Artemis, was formed to build a rover for humans to use over long periods on the moon.

The team looked back to the Apollo moon missions (15-17) in the early 1970s for guidance on a tire. They were able to see the original wiremesh tires from the Apollo Lunar Rover and talk to some of the engineers involved.

“In space, you have a lot of unique challenges to deal with; you have temperatures. On the moon it can get down to minus-200 degrees,” Colin Creager, a NASA mechanical engineer working on the project, told Tire Business, a sister publication of Crain's Cleveland Business.

“They also have high temperatures. There’s no atmosphere on the moon, a thin atmosphere on Mars, and when you’re sitting around in direct sunlight, the temperatures can get very high.”

Rubber won’t work in those temperatures: The pressure is too low and there’s a lot of radiation, he said.

For the Mars rovers, NASA found that using a special type of “passive” suspension and a rigid wheel was the most effective way to avoid those issues.

But because the focus of the project was transporting crew members on the moon, the team knew a rigid wheel was out of the question.

“You couldn’t have people driving around at 20 mph on clunky, metal wheels. It would be very inefficient, uncomfortable and would probably take a lot of damage,” Creager said.

Using Apollo’s spring tires as inspiration, NASA partnered with Goodyear to build prototype tires and test them.

In 2009, Goodyear and NASA introduced a spring-steel tire designed to carry a heavier load over a greater distance than the Apollo wire mesh tire. Unlike the Apollo construction of straight wires woven together, these new tires were made of coiled wires.

“We quickly learned that it doesn’t scale up well,” Creager said, because the break point — or point at which the metal would permanently deform — limited the “design space,” he said.

Heading to Mars NASA Glenn Research Center mechanical engineer Colin Creager said engineers will produce around 40 to 50 tires before reaching the final design that will be sent to Mars. | PHOTOS BY NASA

NASA Glenn Research Center’s Colin Creager, left, and Santo Padula, a materials scientist, run a test on the Smart Memory Alloy Spring Tire being developed to fit a Mars rover for a mission launching in 2026.

“We couldn’t do really high loads, a lot of deformation or certain shapes.”

Chance meeting While Creager said the team found structural ways to adjust the tires and push the limits, it wasn’t the answer they were looking for. Then one day, Creager ran into an old colleague, Santo Padula.

“It just happened by chance, really,” Creager said.

Padula, a NASA materials scientist, was interested in seeing the team’s lab and work.

“I showed it to him, and his eyes lit up,” Creager said.

Padula was working with shapememory alloys.

“I looked at (the tires) and said,

The Smart Memory Allow Spring Tire can withstand extreme deformation and return to its original shape.

Interest in the moon program — and the tire — went quiet for a bit, but Creager said the team really pushed for the tire project to continue.

Soon, there was a new demand for tires for the Mars rovers.

“The missions were getting more aggressive with bigger, more complex rovers,” Creager said. “We then saw the damage to the wheels on Curiosity. So, that really brought the spring-style technology to the Martian side of things.”

Images from Mars showed holes and other damage to the rigid wheels of the Curiosity Rover.

The SMA Spring Tires will be used in a mission set to launch in 2026. The mission is in support of Perseverance Rover that landed on Mars in February.

Perseverance is collecting samples in canisters and leaving them at depot spots around Mars.

In a partnership with the European Space Agency, NASA is going to send a “smaller, quicker rover” to Mars. The rover’s goal is to pick up the canisters and return them to a launch vehicle, which will land on Mars around the same time, Creager said.

Once launched into space, an orbiter will pick up the samples and return them to Earth around 2031.

“If all goes well, we will hopefully learn a whole lot more about Mars,” Creager said. “If you can bring some of Mars back to Earth, and put it in these high-class laboratories, you can learn so much more about it.”

Creager said there is interest in the technology for consumer goods, especially from the aspect of durability and sustainability. The team at NASA recently created a spinoff version of the SMA Spring Tire for cars and trucks that it tested on a Jeep Wrangler.

“There’s no reason you can’t take the same design and encase them in rubber,” Creager said. “Then you essentially have a tire on Earth that looks and feels like a traditional tire, but has no air.

“You’d never have to worry about getting a flat tire or driving under inflated.”

NASA also has partnered with Smart Tire Co. Inc. to use the shape-memory alloy to build a type of bicycle tire, called METL tires.

Smart Tire unveiled its Mars Bike in March.

10 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | MAY 3, 2021

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REAL ESTATE

PAGE 15

A LESSON IN REDEVELOPMENT

INDUSTRIAL COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES/COSTAR PHOTOS

Deve light

Akron got proactive with zoning changes, other factors to repurpose a failing Chapel Hill Mall

BY DAN SHINGLER

FILE PHOTO

A

kron’s Chapel Hill Mall is about to become an urban industrial park — and maybe something even more important.

The mall and Akron’s handling of its demise could become a case study for how cities can help repurpose big retail spaces. That would be a sharp turnaround for a city in which a vacant and overgrown Rolling Acres Mall not long ago was an embarrassing internet meme for Rust Belt decay.

In Akron’s case, the key to success was a recipe that included new, flexible zoning that will allow industrial uses, but with limitations that exclude businesses not appropriate for a dense urban area. No chrome-plating operations, dog kennels or old car lots, for example.

“That was very important. … Akron was very wise to adjust to the trends, and now you have a much

Chapel Hill has steadily lost retail tenants in recent years. Top: A rendering shows what the mall location will look like as home to industrial tenants. Top, inset: The mall’s new owners, Industrial Commercial Properties, say the site’s vast parking lots could be developable land.

more valuable property and will have good industries in there with good-paying jobs. And that obviously helps the tax base,” said Ed Matzules, the vice president of Col-

liers in Fairlawn. He handled the mall’s recent sale by the city. Matzules had begun working to find a buyer when the mall was still owned

by Kohan Retail Investment Group

of Great Neck, N.Y. But before Chapel Hill found a buyer, Summit County had taken possession of the property via foreclosure and transferred it to Akron to enable the city to help with financing a sale to an end user, Matzules said.

Matzules wasn’t hired by Kohan or the city to sell the mall, located on Howe Avenue. He found a buyer working on spec, he said, after figuring the mall was bound to be sold. Matzules targeted buyers who might use the site for industrial purposes, including Solon’s Industrial Commercial Properties. ICP ultimately stepped up to buy the mall from the city for $7 million.

But when Kohan asked Matzules to sell another mall, this one in Michigan, he declined because he couldn’t convince officials there that their zoning in the area needed to change from retail. Retail wasn’t coming back to the mall, he told them, but “they wouldn’t budge,” he said.

He thinks such places could learn

a thing or two from Akron.

“The smart cities are allowing the zoning changes,” Matzules said.

Akron’s change in zoning, and more, was driven by the administration of Mayor Dan Horrigan and with the full support of city council, said at-large councilman Jeff Fusco, who is also council’s vice president.

“They’ve done a great job of working on this and have set the stage for success,” Fusco said of the administration. “First, they worked with Summit County to move on the foreclosing of the property. … Then the administration came to council and said, ‘Let’s open up the zoning.’

It was retail zoned, and in February we opened it up (with a zoning change), which opens the way for industrial use and more of a business park sort of look.

“Then we approved a development agreement that outlines developer and city expectations, along with a Tax Increment Finance

12 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | MAY 3, 2021

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FOCUS | REAL ESTATE

INDUSTRIAL COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES/COSTAR PHOTOS

Developers say some of the mall’s fancier and brighter spaces, seen in the rendering above, could house office space to support light industrial use. | RENDERINGS BY INDUSTRIAL COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES

agreement for $1.5 million.”

After the county foreclosed on the mall in early 2020 for failure to pay back taxes, the city and county worked together to make sure the 1960s-era mall could find a new purpose and viable future, said Fusco and James Hardy, Akron’s deputy mayor for integrated development.

“We worked really hard, even in a situation where we were not the owner,” Hardy said. “We were dealing with a delinquent owner, but we worked as much as we could with the economic system in Northeast Ohio to get an effective re-use. Because we did not want it to become a cancer on that area the way Rolling Acres did.”

Rolling Acres Mall, on the city’s southeast side, closed in 2008. It then became a vacant site, and images of nature growing back in its interior went viral. The former mall finally became an Amazon distribution center in late 2020, creating 1,500 jobs in the process — but not before it was an embarrassment for Akron.

Now, Hardy said with unabashed pride, “the city is out of the mall business and that’s a good thing. …

Within the city limits we are mallfree now.”

Fortunately, officials said, Chapel Hill was at least able to remain occupied until it was taken over, preventing its decay.

Moving forward Now Chapel Hill’s future is largely in the hands of ICP, where chief operating officer Chris Salata said things are already progressing. The site’s first industrial client, a local cabinet company he declined to name, is in the process of moving in to about 150,000 square feet of space that used to be a Sears store.

“We’re under construction on the build-out for the cabinetmaker in Sears, and we just had a meeting yesterday where we green-lit some of the exterior improvements to the mall,” Salata told Crain’s in an April 13 interview. “Our hope is for them to move in sometime in June or July this summer.”

ICP is no rookie to this game. It has taken on other big conversion projects successfully in the past, perhaps most notably when it turned the 2-million-square-foot former Randall Park Mall site into an Amazon distribution center that opened in 2019.

Chapel Hill will be a different challenge, though. ICP intends to fill the site with light industry, some related office space and possibly other uses, such as a call center, Salata said.

heart integrity expertise Certified public accountants (CPAs) and business advisors personally invested in the success of your business.

Akron’s Chapel Hill Mall is becoming an industrial business park, as this rendering shows, and is already making spaces for its first new tenant.

Chapel Hill is in much better portions could serve as office space shape than was Rolling Acres or Ran- for manufacturers, he said, while dall Park, because it never closed. As the parking lots provide room for of April 21, it still had about 12 stores new construction, which could hapoperating, Salata said. Eight of those pen even before the interior of the are on short-term leases and were in mall is filled up. the process of leaving as the develop“We ultimately view that parking er begins its work, he said. field as potentially developable Nichole Booker, an associate ad- land. New construction is definitely viser with SVN | Summit Commercial part of our plan,” Salata said. “DeReal Estate Group in Fairlawn, said pending on the users that approach she’s worked with four or five retail- us, the existing mall might not acers who have already left. Some have commodate them, and a new build fought the move, but most are excit- might make sense for them.” ed by the mall’s conversion. Some ICP has promised the city it will have even moved to nearby spots on make $6 million in investments in Howe Avenue in the hopes that the the site over the near term, but it exredevelopment will lead to increased pects to eventually invest $20 miltraffic and retail business there. lion in the mall’s conversion.

“On Howe Avenue, retail space is Salata said his firm could even starting to become slim pickings,” spend more and that he’s already Booker said. been encouraged by interest show For ICP, its first task will be getting in the mall by prospective tenants. the cabinetmaker into the site and He says it’s all been driven by the then sprucing up the mall’s appear- way the city has handled the mall’s ance, Salata said. demise and positioned it for re-use.

He said he sees great possibilities “Once the transaction’s anwith the 788,000 square feet of inte- nounced, the zonings in place and rior space and roughly 60 acres of you have a public partner that’s supparking lots. Storage of America portive like the city of Akron, the narowns another 170,000 square feet at “AKRON WAS VERY WISE TO ADJUST the site — the mall’s former Macy’s store TO THE TRENDS, AND NOW YOU HAVE — but it and ICP’s A MUCH MORE VALUABLE PROPERTY tenants should easily be able to coexist, AND WILL HAVE GOOD INDUSTRIES IN Salata said.

THERE WITH GOOD-PAYING JOBS.” “When you think about the location it- — Ed Matzules, vice president, Colliers in Fairlawn self, there’s been a lot of improvement to the infrastructure rative for the site completely changes that surrounds the mall, particularly and people start paying attention. … with access to the interstate,” Salata Just since we announced it, we’ve said. “Then you’ve got the building seen a ton of interest just because of footprint itself. There are good ceil- that,” Salata said. “In Northeast Ohio ing heights here, loading (docks are) the industrial vacancy rate is so low, already in place, and we have great if you’re a 100,000-square-foot user, space and column spacing. … Then you can count on one hand the opyou have the sea of parking. When portunities in this market. So, to be you’re talking about industrial users, able to bring on nearly 800,000 whether it’s for trailer space or em- square feet … we’re pumped.” ployees and materials, we have a ton of room for that.”

Dan Shingler: dshingler@crain.com, Some of the mall’s better interior (216) 771-5290, @DanShingler

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FOCUS | REAL ESTATE

Alpha Phi Alpha Homes has worked on several projects in Akron, including the Henry A. Callis Tower for seniors. | CONTRIBUTED

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Alpha Phi Alpha Homes turns service into development Nonprofit company brings community housing to Akron

BY KAREN FARKAS

Fifty years ago, after urban renewal displaced thousands of low-income residents, alumni members of the University of Akron’s chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s oldest African American fraternity, broke ground on a 551-unit federally funded project that included a high-rise tower, townhouses and garden apartments.

Since that leap of faith by men who had no experience in construction and development, Alpha Phi Alpha Homes Inc., a nonprofit housing, development and management corporation, has overseen the construction of more than 2,400 units of senior and family housing in Akron and Northeast Ohio.

“They have been a really important part of Akron’s history with housing,” said Jason Segedy, director of planning and urban development for the city. “They are kind of one of those hidden gems in the community. When they started their first project in the 1970s, no one was building new housing in the areas adjacent to downtown.

That was pretty transformative, and they’ve been a really important partner along the way with development and management of high-rises. It’s very cool how over the decades they have been involved with every facet of housing in Akron close to downtown.”

The mission of Alpha Phi Alpha Homes is community service, which mirrors that of the fraternity, said board chairman Samuel DeShazior, a member of UA’s Eta Tau Lambda chapter.

“We are nonprofit because we are community builders,” he said. “We are looking at what is the long-term viability of the community. We take whatever profits we get and reinvest it

in the communities where we serve.”

Segedy said Alpha Phi Alpha Homes is unusual because most development companies are for-profit, and nonprofit developers are generally community development corporations that undertake small projects.

“Alpha is still pretty unique when you think about their size and the projects they are capable of doing,” he said.

The company began in the 1960s under the leadership and vision of James R. Williams, who had received his undergraduate DeShazior and law degrees from UA and was working in the city’s planning and urban renewal department.

The Federal Housing Act of 1963 encouraged nonprofit organizations to provide housing for low income families and senior citizens. Williams urged his Alpha Phi Alpha brothers, many who had seen family members and friends displaced by urban renewal projects, to take action.

In December 1966, a delegation from the chapter, which had formed Alpha Phi Alpha Homes Inc., met with city officials to discuss creating a new housing development on land cleared in the downtown Opportunity Park area. The fraternity members each pledged a $180 loan to be used as seed money.

“No one was really stepping forward to replace the houses,” said Thomas Fuller, executive director of Alpha Phi Alpha Homes. “What Alpha Homes was organized to do was to put the housing back that was removed. He (Williams) had that vision right from the beginning of

what it (Alpha Phi Alpha) could do for Akron.”

The company sought approval from the Federal Housing Administration to be a nonprofit sponsor. It was awarded a $11.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop Channelwood Village on 22 acres it had purchased from the city.

The chapter became the first Black organization to receive federal funding for affordable housing.

Chapter members, many with professional backgrounds, agreed to help Alpha Phi Alpha Homes, which at that time had no employees. They sought outside help from contractors and developers.

“It was just a fraternal organization that had no real background in housing development or management,” Fuller said. “There were people that came alongside that provided some of the expertise that wasn’t available within the group. But the real leadership and driving force was Williams.”

Williams was a civic and civil rights leader in Akron and became the first African American judge on the Summit County Common Pleas Court. He remained active with Alpha Phi Alpha Homes until a few years ago. He died in November 2020.

“Judge Williams championed it and kept people focused on where they were going,” said DeShazior, who worked for the city’s chamber of commerce for 20 years and is currently deputy mayor for economic development for Akron.

Following the success of the first project, Fuller was hired in 1976 to work on development and management as the chapter decided to commit to housing.

See ALPHA PHI on Page 16

14 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | MAY 3, 2021

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FOCUS | REAL ESTATE

Remodeling sector shows no signs of ‘normalcy’ High demand throws seasonal predictability out the window as business booms

smaller projects, such as cabinet or countertop replacements.

“Granite sales, for instance, are way up,” Justice said. “We hear from people who are cooking for the first time really. They’ve learned to enjoy it, and they want to upgrade their kitchens to make that a more pleasurable experience.”

The remodelers said those homeowners who did not suffer income loss during the pandemic often found themselves with bigger budgets for discretionary spending due to stimulus checks and less traveling and eating out, which also manifested in additional home improvement projects.

“My new business traditionally is about 95% referral based,” said Frank Makoski, president of F. A. Makoski Construction Co. in Chesterland. “Right now, it’s like (prospective clients) are just calling anyone they can find because everyone is so busy.”

BY JUDY STRINGER

There is a certain amount of seasonal predictability in the remodeling industry, according to 20-year building veteran David Payne.

Typically, remodelers get a deluge of inquires in March as homeowners shake off winter hibernation. Each month thereafter, the number of calls for project estimates diminish slightly.

Payne, co-owner of Chesterland-based Payne & Payne Renovations and Design, said 2021 is not likely to follow that norm. He noted a “significant” increase in the typical number of project inquiries over the past six to nine months, when compared with years past, and no signs of deceleration.

“Originally, I thought it was just catching up for lost time, because the market had been so quiet in March and April [in 2020],” Payne said. “But it came roaring back, and it’s been like that ever since.”

One market barometer, the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity compiled by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, estimates Americans will spend $1.4 trillion in home improvements this year, up nearly 8% from the pre-pandemic remodeling spend of about $1.3 trillion in 2019. Growth will continue into 2022, the indicator predicts, with remodeling outlays increasing from $353 billion in the first three months of 2021 to $370 billion over the same period next year.

Remodelers themselves appear bullish as well.

The National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Remodeling Market Index, a measure of residential remodelers’ market confidence, posted an overall score of 86 in the first quarter of 2021, up 38 points from the first quarter of 2020. Any number over 50 indicates that more respondents viewed the remodeling market conditions as good than poor.

In fact, all components and subcomponents of last quarter’s RMI posted at 82 or above.

Paul Emrath, vice president of surveys and housing policy research at NAHB, thinks the sizzling real estate market is the biggest factor in the remodeling upswing. Resale inventory is low, prices are high and, Emrath added, America’s housing stock is getting older.

“People don’t have that many options for moving to something else, and they’re living in older homes where things will wear out and need to be replaced,” he said.

Meanwhile, property value appreciations and low interest rates further motivate homeowners to reinvest in their homes, according to Emrath.

Payne also contends that “few options” when it comes to purchasable residential real estate has

Headwinds

Above, below: Payne & Payne Renovations and Design works on home renovation projects. The Chesterland firm is seeing a ‘significant’ increase in project inquiries. | CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

“I CAN’T REMEMBER A TIME EVER WHEN PEOPLE TALKED ABOUT PROBLEMS GETTING LUMBER OR APPLIANCES.” — Paul Emrath, vice president of surveys and housing policy research, NAHB

greatly contributed to the remodeling boom.

“We’re talking about people who don’t necessarily want to remodel but have arrived at it by process of elimination, because they can’t find any other solution,” he said. “It’s a tough [housing] market. If you are buying, you’ve

got to be super committed, very decisive and move quickly, and most people just aren’t wired that way.”

The pandemic has played a role, too. More time at home means more nitpicking, said James Justice, president and founder of Architectural Justice in Medina.

Homeowners are fixating and fixing things that they might have just ignored in the past.

Along those same lines, Justice added, some of the renovations he is seeing are based on the sentiment that extra time in the home may be the new normal and, therefore, optimizing living spaces is money well spent.

His company specializes in kitchens and baths, and he estimates business is up 30% from pre-pandemic levels.

Growth is coming from both full-scale kitchen renovations and

Despite growing demand, the remodeling market is facing some brisk headwinds. Material and labor shortages top that list.

Emrath cited unusually long lead times on cabinets, appliances and even basic building material like wood, drywall and drywall mud.

“I can’t remember a time ever when people talked about problems getting lumber or appliances,” he said.

Justice said pre-pandemic he could get cabinets from suppliers in about four to six weeks, but delivery of his latest order was quoted at 12 weeks.

Those circumstances have the local remodelers revamping operational practices. Payne used to order materials on demand, he said, but now pre-orders building supplies and appliances for individual projects so they will be available when needed.

Makoski and Justice said they have adjusted ordering timelines, too. The building professionals worry, however, that fears about material price hikes and gouging will lead to some troubling practices.

“I hear stories of contractors buying semitrucks full of drywall, just to store it until they need it,” Justice said. “That could be a huge problem. What if nobody can get drywall? The jobs would just stop.”

Rising material costs, Emrath said, also could have a dampening effect as some homeowners recoil at much higher than anticipated estimates.

Still, he does not expect those challenges to stifle the thriving remodeling market.

“Labor shortages have been a factor for years, and the industry has managed to grow through that, except for the downturn during the onset of COVID,” said Emrath, who projects the remodeling market will climb another 6% in 2021. “(Remodelers) are creative.

They will come up with ways around many of those issues.”

Contact Judy Stringer: clbfreelancer@crain.com MAY 3, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 15

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Name h

FOCUS | REAL ESTATE

ALPHA PHI

Canal Park and Townhomes at Canal Park. The only out-of-state project was developed in Chicago in the earFrom Page 14 ly 1980s.

The management company cre“We looked at what opportunities were out there and where the need ates a new nonprofit entity to own was for affordable housing,” Fuller each project, which receives federal funds, Fuller said. Initially, the comsaid.

Alpha Phi Alpha Homes submits pany had co-general partners in the applications and works with HUD, ownership of buildings, but as it grew the Ohio Housing Finance Agency it was “able to break out on our own and the Ohio Capital Corporation for and we became independent,” he Housing, a nonprofit financial inter- said. The company purchased a formediary that provides developers of mer union hall in 2006 for its headaffordable housing with access to quarters. It has about 70 employees, most of them at the rental properties. capital markets.

In recent years, the company has “The mission always has been focused on community development, been using low-income housing tax and we want mixed development credits to renovate older properties. and mixed-income housing,” he said. It recently completed a major renoMost of the construction occurred vation of Wesley Tower in the Wallhaven neighborhood.

“THE MISSION ALWAYS HAS BEEN This year, the FOCUSED ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, company is pivin a new AND WE WANT MIXED DEVELOPMENT AND oting direction: single family homes.

MIXED-INCOME HOUSING.” The Residenc— Thomas Fuller, executive director, Alpha Phi Alpha Homes es at Good Park, a $20 million in the 1980s and 1990s. While most of project, should break ground this fall.

The total development, which may the affordable housing projects are in Akron, the company has overseen take up to five years, calls for the conprojects in Stow, Ravenna, Cleve- struction of 34 townhouses along land, Alliance, Wooster and Massil- Mull Avenue on land that formerly housed Perkins Middle School. Anlon.

Nearly every project is named after other 23 single-family, detached a well-known national member of Al- homes are to be built behind those, pha Phi Alpha. They are rental prop- between Mull Avenue and Good Park erties, but the company also markets Golf Course. And then 25 lots will be condominiums at the Landings at sold to homebuilders for custom

Alpha Phi Alpha Homes extends its community-development reach into the Akron suburbs at places such as Friendship Terrace senior apartments in Cuyahoga Falls. | CONTRIBUTED

homes along the golf course, Fuller said. The city, which has agreed to sell the company the 17 acres for $1, will finance much of the infrastructure via a loan.

The Good Park development has been discussed with Alpha Phi Alpha Homes since Mayor Dan Horrigan took office in 2016, Segedy said.

“That project is illustrative of how challenging and involved some of these projects are,” he said. “The

EXECUTIVE

GOLF GUIDE

Good Park project is really exciting.”

The city had to do a complex land swap with Akron Public Schools and determined that for the project to work it had to sell the land for $1 and fund the demolition of the school, he said.

He said Horrigan is a proponent of all styles of housing for people of all incomes, which fits Alpha Phi Alpha Homes’ mission.

“Stepping in and stepping up —

that is their history,” Segedy said. “A lot of communities don’t always have a partner like that. When you can have a nonprofit developer that does things on the large scale they do, the profit motive is not there as much and there is some freedom to do things a little more equitable and impactful.”

Contact Karen Farkas: clbfreelancer@crain.com

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16 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | MAY 3, 2021

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HEALTH CARE

From Page 1

Among the five most common major fields for students pursuing an associate degree or undergraduate certificate, health professions and related clinical sciences programs fared the best in enrollment this spring, according to the latest numbers available from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Among bachelor’s degree programs, psychology, computer and information sciences and support services, and education major students increased more than health care majors, which still saw growth this spring after a dip in spring 2020 compared with the year prior.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing released data that show student enrollment in baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral nursing programs increased in 2020. Some of the growth follows trends of years prior, even as undergraduate enrollment struggled through the past year.

How much the pandemic, the spotlight on the role of health care workers, the economy and myriad other factors combined to influence these numbers is not clear, but Northeast Ohio schools are reporting growth in interest or slight decreases that fall within variations they’ve seen in previous years. Dips schools did see last year, if any, appear to be largely temporary, they say, as they look ahead to enrollment for the fall 2021.

At U.S. medical schools, the number of first-year students increased by 1.7% in the 2020 academic year, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The number of students applying to U.S. medical schools for 2021 nationally grew by nearly 18% compared with last year, according to AAMC data. This was astounding growth when compared with what had been reported in the decade prior, when year-over-year increases averaged fewer than 3%.

Until an additional AAMC survey collects more data, it’s hard to say what drove the flood of applicants, said Dr. Lina Mehta, associate dean for admissions for Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

It’s probably a bit of a stretch to link a direct cause considering how long it takes to prepare and meet prerequisites for medical school appli-

NEOMED saw a 17% growth in applicants for medical school for 2021. The pandemic necessitated virtual interviews as part of the process. | CHRIS SMANTO

Growth in medical school applications Nationally, applications from candidates applying to U.S. medical schools for 2021 grew by nearly 18% compared to last year, according to AAMC data. This was a substantial spike after years of moderate fluctuations. Locally, though, both CWRU School of Medicine and NEOMED’s growth in applications (9% and 17%, respectively) weren’t as jarring compared to their recent histories. Each had seen a pattern of steady overall growth in their applicant pool for several years.

Percent change from prior year in applicants 25%

Case Western Reserve School of Medicine

NEOMED

Nationally* 17.1%

20 15

18%

8.7%

10 5 0 -5 -10 -15

’15‘16

’17‘18

’19‘20

’21‘22

’15‘16

’17‘18

’19‘20

’21‘22

’15‘16

’17‘18

’19‘20

’21‘22

*NATIONAL NUMBERS ARE FOR ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN MEDICAL COLLEGES. DATA ARE MEASURED BY THE ACADEMIC YEAR FOR WHICH THE APPLICANT WOULD BE A FIRST-YEAR MATRICULANT. SOURCES: ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN MEDICAL COLLEGES, SCHOOLS

cations, said Mehta, who also is chair of the National Committee on Admissions, a group of five admissions deans who advise the AAMC. “Regardless of the reason that underlies the growth, it has to indicate an increased interest in health care, vulnerable populations, just wanting to make a difference on that health landscape,” she said. “To me, it’s a very positive indicator this is something that’s of interest. Medicine has changed precipitously over the past few generations, and I have old retired

physicians saying why would anybody want to be a doctor right now? And my response is it’s an unbelievably meaningful career where you make a difference every single day.”

Jim Barrett, senior executive director for strategic enrollment initiatives at NEOMED, said he has noticed a shift in medical school interviews this year. The conversations have always been about candidates’ desire to care for patients, but he saw that altruism come through in a different way. Students also spoke of wanting to be

additional payroll through acquisitions and organic growth. The move will retain a $16.5 million annual payroll in Ohio from 150 jobs it plans to move to Independence.

ing by a dental-consulting tenant, the buildings are about 80% leased, said Rico Pietro of Cushman & Wakefield-Cresco Real Estate, the brokerage that represented Realife in the deal. Occupancy is down from 2015, when the property last changed hands — for $18.5 million.

leaders, address social determinants of health, eliminate disparities, help marginalized populations and more.

“I’ve never heard issues of public health discussed as much as this year,” he said.

This past year, the pandemic highlighted the vital role of health care workers, while laying bare the hardships they face. People often have a TV impression of what providers do, but the pandemic thrust health care workers — particularly nurses, physicians and respiratory therapists — into the limelight and showed people what they really do, said Wendy Batch-Wilson, dean of the Nursing Center of Excellence of Cuyahoga Community College.

“I think the impression that was left was reality,” she said. “So anyone who may have been interested, it solidified, yes, that’s absolutely what I want to do. Or, no, I did not realize it was that rough and could be that rough, and maybe I want to look at something different. Maybe I want to be a part of health care, but maybe not patient care, and I want to look into something like medical billing and coding.”

The pandemic has showed people not just entry-level nursing, but jobs across the board, including administrators and department leaders, said Latina Brooks, director of Master of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, who notes she’s seen heightened interest in pursuing graduate-level nursing education.

CWRU’s nursing school didn’t get the growth in baccalaureate enrollment it had expected in fall 2020, but the decrease it saw was in line with normal fluctuations it experiences, said Carol Musil, dean of CWRU’s nursing school. She said the school is on track to get back to normal levels of enrollment this fall as people are feeling comfortable and students are ready to get back to work.

CWRU’s nursing graduate enrollment remained largely steady, and the little dip the school did see is recovering, Brooks said. Some of the barriers that students faced last year, like frozen tuition reimbursement or paused time off, are getting back to normal, she said. Many of the graduate-level nursing students attending CWRU were on the front lines working in direct patient care or as hospital ad-

ministrators. Some were working in COVID units, others were running and making decisions in emergency departments and ICUs, Brooks said.

Other schools in the area too saw slight decreases in enrollment for graduate level nursing. It was a challenging year for these students, many of whom are working nurses who may have found themselves juggling a slew of responsibilities — virtual homeschool teacher, eldercare responsibilities, sole breadwinner, essential worker.

Despite the uncertainty of the pandemic, some schools were able to move ahead with plans to expand education for nurses as they saw interest and demand for education stay strong. For instance, CWRU also launched a Nurse Anesthesia Doctor of Nursing Practice program and enrolled 37 students for its first cohort, Musil said.

At the start of 2020, Hondros College of Nursing had been considering opening a new campus in Akron but put that decision on hold when the pandemic hit. But by fall, enrollment had soared at the college’s five existing Ohio campuses by 40% to 45%, so the board agreed. In April, Hondros opened the Akron campus at 755 White Pond Drive.

A four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing program for Baldwin Wallace University that will launch this fall was two years in the making, said Scott Andrew Schulz, the university’s president for enrollment management. Despite the uncertainty of 2020, he said the pandemic didn’t give the university pause in launching the program, which was announced last fall. The university set a goal of enrolling 15 students for its first cohort but already has 27 deposits and expects to have a first class of 30 to 40.

“I’d say probably more than anything, (the pandemic) accelerated the need for this,” he said. “We know that the nursing shortage has been well documented in our region and really across the entire country, and in the midst of the pandemic, the importance of nursing was only amplified.

So this was a time. You know, while these students are obviously not going to be nurses tomorrow in order to help alleviate the pandemic, we’ve got to be prepared for whatever the future may hold from a health care perspective.”

approval from the Chinese government means the Cooper deal could close in the third quarter, according to James Picariello, equity research analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

choice model for high schools and a student-led model for the K-8 level.

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

THE WEEK TO THEIR CREDIT: The Ohio Tax Credit Authority on April 26 approved requests for state income tax credits for two job-creating and job-retaining projects in Northeast Ohio. Superior Roll Forming LLC, which already has a Valley City operation, plans to create 150 full-time jobs and generate $7.5 million additional annual payroll in an expansion at Liverpool Industrial Park, also in Valley City. The authority approved a 1.49% Job Creation Tax Credit for the project that will last eight years, according to an emailed release from the Ohio Development Services Agency. The custom roll manufacturing company also plans to invest $33 million in fixed assets at an empty 150,000-square-foot plant in the industrial park. The state authority also approved a 1.77% Job Creation Tax Credit over eight years for wealth management firm MAI Capital Management’s move from downtown Cleveland to Independence, where it expects to create 50 full-time positions and $4 million in

POINTING THE WAY: Realife Real Estate Group, a busy buyer of Cleveland-area properties, has added a pair of Mayfield Heights office buildings to its growing portfolio. A Realife affiliate paid $16.5 million last week for Eastpoint I and II, public records show. The seller was Founders Properties LLC, a Minnesota-based investment company that oversees funds focused on office and industrial real estate. Eastpoint, built in 2000, is part of a corporate corridor that stretches along the south side of Interstate 271, flanking Lander Road.

The sister buildings, located at 6085 and 6095 Parkland Blvd., collectively comprise just over 170,000 square feet. After losing a wealth management firm to the Pinecrest development in Orange and recent downsiz-

ROLLING ALONG: Akron’s Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. crossed one major hurdle in its bid to acquire Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. China became the first country to grant antitrust approval to Goodyear’s offer to purchase Findlay-based Cooper, announcing the ruling as part of a package of “undertakings” approved unconditionally by its antitrust agency. Goodyear’s $2.8 billion cash and stock deal to acquire Cooper — announced in February in a joint statement from the tiremakers — still faces regulatory approval in several countries, including the U.S. and in Europe. Cooper shareholders last week also overwhelmingly approved the merger. The

COMING HOME: Christine Fowler-Mack was officially named the next superintendent of Akron Public Schools. The district’s board of education unanimously voted to approve her contract in an April 27 meeting.

Fowler-Mack said she was “deeply humbled and extremely excited” to publicly accept the role as the district’s next leader. This is a homecoming for Fowler-Mack, who both attended and started her career at the Akron schools. The district’s current superintendent, David W. James, will retire at the end of the school year. Fowler-Mack joins Akron Public Schools from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, where she currently serves as chief portfolio officer. In that role, Fowler-Mack led the district in creating the school-

MAKING MORE PLANS: University Hospitals and ValueHealth LLC — a Leawood, Kan.-based health care services company that operates Ambulatory Centers of Excellence — announced they are developing a surgery center in Medina, the latest facility in their joint venture partnership that aims to increase access to affordable, high-quality surgical care in Northeast Ohio. The facility will use ValueHealth’s hyperspecialty total joint program, Muve, which includes a recovery model to reduce risk for patient readmission and post-operative complications, according to a news release. It will also provide cardiology, pain management and ear/nose/throat procedures. UH and ValueHealth in March announced plans to develop an ambulatory surgery center in Lorain County. The two plan to announce a series of projects going forward.

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CRAIN'S LIST | LARGEST HOME SALES OF 2020 Ranked by price RANK

ADDRESS

SALE PRICE

BUYER

SELLER

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

35450 S. WOODLAND ROAD Moreland Hills, 44022

$3,525,000

Parkwood Trust Co. (trustee); Stephanie W. Miller Living Trust

Patricia F. Babcox (trustee)

21440 AVALON DRIVE Rocky River, 44116

$3,100,000

Jonathon and Christina McClellan

2783 SOM CENTER ROAD Hunting Valley, 44022

$2,800,000

21280 AVALON DRIVE Rocky River, 44116

SQUARE FEET YEAR BUILT

SALE DATE

COUNTY

5,885 2003

Jan. 6, 2020

Cuyahoga

Harry D. and Kelly Harp

5,729 2010

May 6, 2020

Cuyahoga

Cheryl A. and Joseph J. Levanduski

Bradley and Tami Kowit (trustees)

9,644 2008

June 15, 2020

Cuyahoga

$2,600,000

Michael D. Clark (trustee)

Peter O. and Donna S. Botten

5,734 1935

Oct. 21, 2020

Cuyahoga

2655 CHAGRIN RIVER ROAD Hunting Valley, 44022

$2,600,000

Hunting River Holding LLC

Andrew K. Rayburn (trustee)

27,839 1 1949

Feb. 14, 2020

Cuyahoga

266 BRIGHTON LANE Peninsula, 44264

$2,575,000

Charles L. (IV) and Shireen Y. Shackelford

David C. and Lori S. Brown

5,597 2008

June 5, 2020

Summit

14990 COUNTY LINE ROAD Hunting Valley, 44022

$2,500,000

Clint Papesch and Mary Cowan

William J. Stern

7,038 2002

May 22, 2020

Cuyahoga

21140 CEDAR CREEK DRIVE Strongsville, 44149

$2,300,000

Elie Estephan (trustee)

Shelley A. Sedor (trustee)

6,104 2016

Dec. 8, 2020

Cuyahoga

21468 AVALON DRIVE Rocky River, 44116

$2,270,000

Jacquelyn A. and Eric C. Wiedemer

John W. Kemper Sr. (trustee) and Betty J. Kemper

5,943 1944

June 11, 2020

Cuyahoga

10522 EDGEWATER DRIVE Cleveland, 44102

$2,225,000

Jennifer Lucas

Steven M. and Debra A. Diamond

6,214 1988

Nov. 17, 2020

Cuyahoga

31012 LAKE ROAD Bay Village, 44140

$2,175,000

Kelly M. Gale (trustee)

Elliott Dean Fisher

5,869 1910

Aug. 10, 2020

Cuyahoga

7880 E. GRAY EAGLE CHASE Gates Mills, 44040

$2,120,000

Amy Porter

Michelle R. Hochman (trustee)

9,539 2002

Aug. 24, 2020

Cuyahoga

31700 FAIRMOUNT BLVD. Pepper Pike, 44124

$2,100,000

Amanda and Jeremy A. Jacobs (trustees)

Parkwood Trust Co. (trustee)

3,834 1957

Jan. 14, 2020

Cuyahoga

1960 COUNTY LINE ROAD Gates Mills, 44040

$2,000,000

John M. Onysko (trustee)

Heather Ross Lowenstein, David S. and Steven M. Ross (trustees)

11,657 1920

May 8, 2020

Cuyahoga

20 PARK LEDGE LANE Peninsula, 44264

$2,000,000

Kuchar LLC

Prestige and Premier Cos. (Prestige Homes)

6,518 2016

Dec. 2, 2020

Summit

24566 LAKE ROAD Bay Village, 44140

$2,000,000

Jamie Ann Beggs (trustee)

John D. Hall (successor trustee)

5,106 2005

Aug. 6, 2020

Cuyahoga

7600 TWIN LAKES TRAIL Chagrin Falls, 44022

$1,900,000

AMA Group LLC

Deborah A. Lynch (trustee)

6,040 1982

Sept. 11, 2020

Geauga

10 PEPPER RIDGE ROAD Pepper Pike, 44124

$1,875,000

Todd A. and Diana C. Ponsky

Siri H. Benjamin (trustee)

6,048 2004

Aug. 14, 2020

Cuyahoga

1010 MERRIMAN ROAD Akron, 44303

$1,850,000

Paul Gabrail (trustee)

Denis and Lisa Rondeau

9,621 1925

Dec. 30, 2020

Summit

29997 CHAIRMAN'S ROWE Westlake, 44145

$1,800,000

Joseph E. and Ellen M. Woods

John H. (II) and Jennifer Adamski

8,615 1998

June 9, 2020

Cuyahoga

17856 LAKE ROAD Lakewood, 44107

$1,785,000

Mava Properties LLC

Cameron C. and Caril McIntyre

5,524 1906

Oct. 13, 2020

Cuyahoga

614 NORTH ST. Chagrin Falls, 44022

$1,750,000

Patrick Byrne and Susan King

Joanne E. Cowan

8,082 2001

Aug. 17, 2020

Cuyahoga

64 W. WASHINGTON ST. Chagrin Falls, 44022

$1,750,000

Halle F. Terrion and Gregory P. Martin

513 Holdings LLC

4,757 1870

Nov. 24, 2020

Cuyahoga

19400 FRAZIER DRIVE Rocky River, 44116

$1,740,000

Rock House of Boysenberry LLC

Rocky River Rock House LLC

4,748 2005

May 4, 2020

Cuyahoga

24434 LAKE ROAD Bay Village, 44140

$1,721,000

James Weiland

Brian R. and Anita L. Stransky

4,851 2004

Sept. 2, 2020

Cuyahoga

2659 CHAGRIN RIVER ROAD Hunting Valley, 44022

$1,700,000

2659 Chagrin River Road LLC and 2659 CRR LLC

Julia D. Cox Melissa D Gerrity and Ellen K. Meehan (successor trustees)

5,678 2 1973

April 17, 2020

Cuyahoga

59 COLLVER ROAD Rocky River, 44116

$1,680,000

Joseph M. Patton (trustee)

Jacquelyn A. and Eric C. Wiedemer

5,144 1926

June 18, 2020

Cuyahoga

7503 S. VINEMONT COURT Hudson, 44236

$1,650,000

Nancy and John Andrefsky

Mary P. Rajan (trustee)

7,214 1992

Sept. 11, 2020

Summit

30 ADDISON LANE Moreland Hills, 44022

$1,620,000

Kyle M. Anthony

Patrick M. Leistiko

3,352 2019

Sept. 2, 2020

Cuyahoga

25404 LAKE ROAD Bay Village, 44140

$1,600,000

25404 Lake Road LLC

Tudor on the Lake LLC

3,604 1936

Dec. 1, 2020

Cuyahoga

4378 ROCK RIDGE LANE Akron, 44333

$1,600,000

Rock Ridge Enterprises LLC

James S. and Jacquelyne A. Blackburn

3,716 2006

June 18, 2020

Summit

282 CORNING DRIVE Bratenahl, 44108

$1,575,000

James E. and Kristin C. Voos

Park-Ohio Industries Inc.

7,050 1926

March 31, 2020

Cuyahoga

Research by Chuck Soder (csoder@crain.com) | This full digital list includes individual home sales over $1 million for Cuyahoga, Summit, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Portage and Medina counties. Data is from county records. The list excludes vacant land sales, sheriff's sales and non-arms-length transactions (sales categorized as "not valid"). NOTES: 1. Includes 16,859-square-foot pool/tennis facility. 2. Includes 1,100-square-foot gatehouse.

To get all 112 homes sales on this list in Excel format, become a Data Member: CrainsCleveland.com/data 18 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | MAY 3, 2021

P018_CL_20210503.indd 18

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DATA SCOOP

Rocky River, Hunting Valley home to largest residential sales A total of 112 houses sold for more than $163 million on Crain’s Largest Home Sales list for 2020

BY CHUCK SODER

2020 was a big year for big, expensive home purchases in Greater Cleveland — especially in Rocky River and Hunting Valley.

The full digital version of our Largest Home Sales of 2020 list includes 112 homes that sold for at least $1 million each.

Combined, those homes — located in Cuyahoga County or the six adjacent counties — sold for more than $163 million.

Both the number of homes sold and the total value are about 23% higher than totals from 2019, and they easily eclipse figures since at least 2016, when we started keeping consistent data on the topic.

And that’s despite an international pandemic and the economic fallout it caused.

Yes, the full digital list only includes four home sales from March 2020 and three from April, the frantic early months of the pandemic. But sales quickly picked back up — here and nationwide. For instance, during the third quarter, U.S. luxury home sales jumped 60.7% compared to the prior year, according to a report from Redfin, a real estate brokerage.

Why? Wealthy Americans, sheltered from the worst impacts of the recession, are feeling the need to in-

vest heavily in their homes, according to Redfin.

Avalon Drive in Rocky River received some particularly large investments. Three homes on the street made this year’s top 10.

The priciest of those three took the No. 2 spot: Jonathon and Chistina McClellan bought the home at 21440 Avalon for $3.1 million. But if you drive past the house you might miss its most striking feature: An enormous sandstone patio that overlooks Lake Erie. And you can ride down to the lake in a tram.

Best of the rest The top 10 also includes three homes in Hunting Valley — a tiny suburb that always takes the top spot on our Wealthiest Suburbs list. The highest-ranking home, at No. 3, was purchased for $2.8 million by Cheryl and Joseph Levanduski. Joseph Levanduski is chief financial officer and chief operating officer at Transtar Holding Co., an auto parts supplier.

That house is also one of the largest on the list, at 9,644 square feet. But the biggest house award goes to a Hunting Valley home acquired by Hunting River Holding LLC for $2.6 million. Granted, the house goes from an “enormous” 27,839-squarefoot property to a “really big”

This home at 21440 Avalon Drive in Rocky River sold for $3.1 million last year. | PHOTO COURTESY OF MEREDITH HARDINGTON/HOWARD HANNA

10,980-square-foot property if you exclude a separate building that houses an indoor pool and tennis facility.

Rocky River and Hunting Valley would’ve swept the top five if not for a Moreland Hills home that sold for $3.5 million in January 2020, good enough for the No. 1 spot. Cuyahoga County records list the buyer as the

Stephanie W. Miller Living Trust and Parkwood Trust Co. Parkwood provides financial and legal services for the family of Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel, the founders of Premier Industrial Corp. Miller is Joseph Mandel’s granddaughter.

This list always includes notable names from the local business com-

munity. For instance, Joann Stores CEO Wade Miquelon is in the buyer column at No. 38 on the full digital list. In the seller column, you’ll find Steven Demetriou, who is currently CEO of Jacobs Engineering and previously served as CEO of Aleris, an aluminum rolled products company that’s now part of Novelis.

NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN

We are seeking General Counsels who demonstrate the versatility needed to be a jack of all legal trades, from handling litigation to contracts and employee compensation.

Winning candidates will be featured in the Aug. 16 print and online issue of Crain’s Cleveland Business.

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MAY 24

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AKRON

Translating gains into hybrid workplace wins After surges in two of its apps, software company Squirrels hopes to lift a third

BY JUDY STRINGER

Software development company Squirrels LLC found itself sitting in the proverbial catbird seat in early 2020.

Sales for two of the North Canton company’s more mature offerings — apps that let users easily mirror their device screens via AirPlay or Google Cast — surged after COVID sent office workers and educators home overnight. Revenue for its AirParrot and Reflector apps spiked 61% between March 2020 and March 2021.

With workplaces beginning to reopen, however, Squirrels does not intend to leave that lofty perch.

CEO Andrew Gould said the company has been reinvesting the pandemic wind- Gould fall into Ditto, its enterprise software-as-a-service technology, which he believes will see a resurgence as people return to offices and other professional settings.

“We have been taking everything that we succeeded with in work-from-home and remote teaching and invest- Crilley ing that back into the company,” Gould said, “so we’re well positioned for the next round of growth, which is going to come from that return to ‘normalcy.’ ” Ditto is a local (i.e. in-office or inschool) screen-mirroring subscription service that does not rely on AirPlay or Google Cast. Users send screens with the Ditto Connect app. TVs and computers receive and display device screens using Ditto Receiver software.

That means users can share content and cast media from almost any device — regardless of operating system — onto a variety of nearby screens without cables or the need for any specialized hardware, plug-in

boxes or dongles at the receiving end, according to Gould.

“Basically, what you are getting is a truly wireless collaborative experience that rivals some of the $4,000 receiver boxes that you plug in,” he said.

Ditto subscription revenue was Squirrels’ fastest rising line-item preCOVID. With prolonged office and school closures, however, subscription sales flagged, growing by a modest 6% between March of 2020 and 2021, according to communications director Tom Crilley.

Fortunately for Squirrels, a growing number of people turned to AirParrot and Reflector as they worked and taught from home.

AirParrot allows people to turn a TV or another device into an extra wireless computer monitor.

Reflector works with remote meeting software, such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, to allow users to share their phone or tablet screens with everyone in the digital meeting.

“We released new major versions of both of those pieces of software in 2020,” Gould said, “and both were highly successful launches. Reflector 4 was our fastest-selling release, even though it’s almost a 10-year-old product, which just showed to us that there’s just a tremendous demand for that kind of software still.”

The private company does not disclose financials, yet Crilley said that Squirrels’ total revenue jumped 43% in the 12 months following the economic shutdown, driven primarily by surging software sales. It also added 13 new positions with five current openings.

Squirrels’ Reflector 4 mirroring app was the North Canton company’s fastest-selling release. | CONTRIBUTED

“We had 30 people prior to the pandemic, so once we get those positions hired, we’ll have jumped from 30 to 48, a 60% increase,” he said.

Clean tech Gould anticipates that Squirrels mirroring software will continue to be “popular” even as people return to in-person learning and working.

Most major manufacturers of cameras and other hardware used to facilitate remote meetings and teleconferencing license Squirrels’ Reflector software, he said. So, the company stands to gain from the emergence of hybrid workplaces where some employees are onsite and others are not.

Yet, Gould and his team are more focused on Ditto because of its recurring revenue model.

“Instead of us having to go out and find a new customer to sell Reflector to every day, we can sell a monthly, recurring subscription to (Ditto).

And as that user has a good experience, he or she will roll it out to dif-

ferent divisions or different offices within a company or different campuses at different colleges,” he said.

“It’s a way for us to exponentially grow revenue without having to search harder and harder to find people to sell software to one at a time.”

Gould said in addition to its “affordability,” Ditto has the advantage of being a “frictionless” technology.

Users don’t have to mess with cables or touch anything other than their own device to begin mirroring.

That will be an attractive feature for organizations looking for ways to reduce touchable surfaces in conference rooms and shared workstations, Crilley noted.

“People are going to be more germ-conscious, more concerned about spreading pathogens,” he said.

“When you’re not touching the same shared hardware as everybody else in your office, we think that’s a huge benefit.”

The executives also expect to see big gains for Ditto in digital signage.

The service, Gould said, allows com-

panies to take advantage of their past investments in Apple TVs and other screens by transforming screens into custom displays.

Rather than “just selling 10 subscriptions of Ditto for 10 conference rooms,” he said, Squirrels is expanding its marketing pitch to subscriptions that feed signage to reception TVs, cafeteria TVs, directories and just about any other screen in the building.

“Some of our newest customers are in the sports and hospitality and restaurant industry,” he said. “We’re powering the menus at ballparks and sports stadiums and wayfinding inside of hotels and restaurants.

“I think digital signage is going to be really important to our future, because there’s only so many conference rooms where people are trying to take a smaller device and put it up to a larger device, but if you think about the number of underutilized screens more broadly, it is many times that.”

Contact Judy Stringer: clbfreelancer@crain.com

From Page 1

Bluelofts Inc. co-founders Ike Bams, left, and John Williams stand inside one of their model apartments in Dallas. | 1265 CREATIVE

The 45 Erieview office tower has been sitting empty, and on the market, since AT&T’s gradual departure from the property. | MICHELLE JARBOE/CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

AT&T’s lease waned in 2019, with no new anchor tenant lined up, SomeraRoad put the property up for sale.

Last July, the complex — which includes a 348-space garage at 1180 Lakeside Ave. — hit the auction block. The bidding didn’t yield a sale.

Williams and Bams came along in the wake of the auction. The partners,

who have been transitioning from real estate brokerage into development, formed Bluelofts in early 2018 and debuted their live-work concept on the 23rd floor of a downtown Dallas office tower.

Bluelofts manages a dozen shortterm rentals at a boutique hotel in Dallas. The company’s website,

where Cleveland and more than a dozen other cities are listed as potential markets, describes Bluelofts’ projects as micro-apartment hotels with coworking facilities.

But that’s not actually the plan for 45 Erieview, the partners said.

“That building’s going to be just straight long-term leases, all the way,” Bams stressed.

Those apartments will be a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom units, along with some penthouses, he said. The coworking spaces will be largely designed for residential tenants.

“Our target audience is corporate employees, local freelancers and entrepreneurs. … We create an ecosystem, if you will, that allows us to have individuals that can live, work and play there,” Williams said. “Being that we are in the downtown market, so close to stadiums, the (Rock & Roll) Hall of Fame, parks and nearby attractions, this is just the perfect building.”

Previous suitors — and real estate brokers — have looked at 45 Erieview as an office play.

“I think it’s a great corporate headquarters-type building. But for living, the floor plates are very large,” said

20 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | MAY 3, 2021

P020-P021_CL_20210503.indd 20

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ERIEVIEW

Wolfe, who also is part of the ownership group behind a planned residential makeover of the historic Rockefeller Building in the Warehouse District, didn’t respond to an interview request.

“We’re millennials. We’re younger.

We want to do things differently,” said Bams, adding that he and Williams are focused on turning empty offices in city centers into creative live-work spaces. “We want to make real estate less boring.”

Located in the city’s onetime financial district, 45 Erieview certainly is a dull spot in a reviving downtown.

The tower, built in the early 1980s, is completely vacant after more than a decade of downsizing by Ohio Bell’s successor company, AT&T. Executives at SomeraRoad, the New York investment firm that owns the building, didn’t respond to inquiries about the deal with Bluelofts and Wolfe.

SomeraRoad bought 45 Erieview in late 2016 with visions of resuscitating the offices, then half-empty, as a marquee corporate address. But as

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From Page 1

Browns fans, but visitors to the Draft Experience noticed fans wearing the jerseys of dozens of other NFL organizations.

Gilbert’s early estimate — he said a study will be done after the draft — is about one-third of the attendees on April 29 were from outside the market. Such visitors are crucial for bigtime events, since they bring in economic activity that otherwise wouldn’t have been present.

“If we’re having 150,000 (people) flowing through (over the three days), given where we could have been, those are fantastic numbers,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert recorded the opening-night broadcasts. During a conversation with Crain’s late on April 29, he mentioned several times how eager he was to watch how Cleveland was represented on TV. “The energy was off the charts,” he said.

Seth Markman was one of about 250 ESPN staffers in town for the draft. As the network’s vice president of production, his job is to put on a heck of a show.

But, Markman said, the host city should be showcased, especially at the NFL draft, which since leaving its longtime New York home after 2014 has become even more of a fan-centric production.

“Part of our mantra going into these events is to show off the city and give a good sense of place to our viewers of where we are,” Markman said. “That is something that we take very seriously.”

ESPN incorporated the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame into its telecasts, and it had rapper Kid Cudi, a CleveS land E P T E native, M B E R 3voice - 9 , 2the 018opening | PA Gof E 21 its April 29 broadcast.

Markman said he frequently thinks about what it would have been like for Cleveland, coming off the Browns’ best season in almost three decades, to host the draft in non-pandemic times. Still, after more than a year of covering events with more cardboard cutouts than fans in the seats, he entered the draft believing that 50,000 fans “might feel like 500,000 on Thursday night.”

If Gilbert has his way, the NFL draft will be back, and by then the obvious hope is all events will be at full capacity.

“We want it back here sooner than later,” the head of the sports commission and Destination Cleveland said.

“I don’t know what that means, but it’s something we absolutely will pursue.”

The home team Dino Bernacchi has had prominent marketing positions with Mazda, Harley-Davidson and General Motors.

Bernacchi, who joined the Cleveland Browns in 2020 as their senior vice president of marketing and media, said he doesn’t know if he’s “ever seen anything as well choreographed, integrated and collaborative” as the city’s NFL draft efforts.

The Browns opened their training facility in Berea to the NFL, and FirstEnergy Stadium played a major part in the NFL Draft Experience.

Team staffers assisted in the league’s interactive fan festival, which drew long lines, no matter the weather, for the chance to kick a field goal at the stadium.

The draft, Bernacchi said, “touches nearly everyone in this organization.”

The club was part of many of the draft’s community-focused events, from a youth football town hall to a diversity-themed summit at Progressive Field and the groundbreaking for a new turf field donated by the Browns at Shaw Stadium in East Cleveland.

“People haven’t been out for a while, and the draft is coming at a perfect time,” Browns vice president of community relations Jenner Tekancic said. “It’s really a spotlight on the future, not only from a football perspective, but for the city, the neighborhoods, the communities.”

Alex Jelepis, a real estate broker who was part of a team that marketed the building for lease and sale before the pandemic put the office market on uncertain footing.

Jelepis, an executive vice president at NAI Pleasant Valley in Independence, still believes the best use for 45 Erieview would be government offices, followed by a mixed-use project with residential penthouses on the top two floors and offices downstairs.

He questioned whether there’s enough demand to fill hundreds of additional apartments, with recent projects including the Lumen, the Beacon and the May on Public Square still leasing up and planned conversions including a hotel-and-housing revamp of the 1960s-vintage Tower at Erieview on East 12th Street.

“How much can the market bear?”

Jelepis asked.

The recent establishment of the Erieview Historic District, which spans 65 acres at the northeast end of downtown, makes a dramatic overhaul of 45 Erieview more feasible. As a significant building in the district, the tower is eligible for federal and state tax credits for historic preservation, even though the building didn’t open until 1983.

The NFL Draft Experience drew a wide array of fans, many of them Browns backers, on April 29. | KEVIN KLEPS

On the afternoon of April 29, about eight hours before NFL commissioner Roger Goodell took the stage to boos, Browns owner Dee Haslam participated in a panel discussion as part of the sports commission-led Power of Sport Summit at Progressive Field.

The Browns’ “Stay in the Game!” initiative, in partnership with the Ohio Department of Education and the Proving Ground at Harvard University, promotes the importance of school attendance and hopes to curtail chronic absenteeism.

Afterward, Haslam lauded everything that had been done to land the draft — a four-year process that began with a joint Cleveland-Canton bid and later was modified to one centered on downtown.

“It looks amazing,” Haslam said of the lakefront setup.

Behind the curtain Diehard Browns fan Devin Dyer was one of 60 Baldwin Wallace University students who worked at draft

The district, added to the National Register of Historic Places on Feb. 1, also enables property owners to consider preservation easements. Those complex arrangements permanently protect buildings and, in turn, generate cash or tax savings that can aid redevelopment projects.

Tom Yablonsky, executive vice president at the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, said such preservation tools are key to livening up the long-ailing office corridor, which the nonprofit group rebranded as the NineTwelve District in 2010. He expressed enthusiasm about installing apartments at 45 Erieview, a building he described as “quite spectacular,” with expansive lakefront views.

“It really adds to what the Erieview Historic District can be from a placemaking standpoint,” Yablonsky said.

“So to me, it’s a big positive.”

The tower also sits in an Opportunity Zone, a federally designated area that offers tax deferral and savings to investors who put their capital gains into projects. The Opportunity Zone program, created with the goal of boosting investment in low-income communities, can help lure equity to real estate deals — some of them in unexpected locations.

it,” Campisi said. events.

N ’ S Csports L E V E L Acommission, N D B U S I N E S plus S | A half-dozen members of BW’s C R A IThe sport management program were at Cleveland’s run of big events, has Firestone Country Club in Akron for been a big help, the BW assistant proan NFL Alumni Association pro-am. fessor said. Sport management stuThe rest were at the Draft Experience, dents have worked at the various a group that was a mix of temporary NCAA tournaments, as well as interstaffers who were paid $20 an hour to national events (the Gay Games and supervise stations and those who National Senior Games) that have been held in the region. Early next volunteered their services.

Dyer, a senior from Avon Lake, vol- year, Campisi expects to send a group unteered at FirstEnergy Stadium on to the NBA All-Star Game at Rocket the opening day of the draft. He Mortgage FieldHouse.

Dyer, who will be a marketing inwatched participants try, and mostly fail, to make a field goal and net- tern this summer at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was among the BW worked as much as he could.

Charles Campisi, an associate pro- students who worked at Super Bowl fessor of sport management, said LIV in Miami last year. His stay there those types of hands-on experiences was much longer than his volunteer are a key part of the university pro- shift at the draft, but he said he’ll algram. For a group that has become ways remember being on the field at accustomed to students working at FirstEnergy Stadium.

“You feel a special type of connecthe Super Bowl and Kentucky Derby, the pandemic meant a lengthy delay tion with Browns fans. Football is Kevin Kleps: kkleps@crain.com, something you can rally behind,” he (216) 771-5256, @KevinKleps in such opportunities.

“We can tell you all about it in the classroom, but until you actually see it and experience it from behind that Advertising Section curtain, you don’t really understand

Bams and Williams were surprised to realize that all of downtown Cleveland is labeled as an Opportunity Zone, based on demographics and a 2018 state-led selection process.

“In Dallas, Opportunity Zones are very different than in Cleveland,” Bams said.

Vince Adamus, vice president of real estate and business growth services for the Greater Cleveland Partnership, said the developers reached out to the chamber of commerce through a website set up to showcase prospective Opportunity Zone investments in Cuyahoga County. The chamber has been working to connect Bluelofts to lenders, consultants and contractors.

“We had talked with a couple of other potential purchasers of that building,” Adamus said. “This is the first one we’ve spoken with that would be, essentially, a multifamily redevelopment, although there will be some mixed-use components. …

It may be the kind of flexible development that we, the collective we, need in post-COVID times.”

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INSURANCE

Schauer Group

Anne Cheh-Falb joins as Vice President, Commercial Lending Officer. With deep experience in commercial lending Cheh-Falb and developing partnerships, she is an asset to Buckeye’s efforts to grow its Northeast Ohio presence.

Cheh-Falb has managed a robust portfolio during her career, including commercial and industrial loans, equipment financing, and real estate projects.

Alfonso Makiling Jr. joins as Vice President, Commercial Lending Officer. He brings strong experience in commercial lending, business development Makiling Jr. and leadership to Buckeye’s efforts in Northeast Ohio.

Makiling has gained experience in commercial and investment real estate banking sectors through his career, providing him with the skill to work with clients on customized solutions.

22 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | MAY 3, 2021

INVESTMENT FIRM

Foundation Investment Partners Foundation Investment Partners, a Cleveland private equity firm, welcomes accomplished banking industry leader Laura Redinger to the team in a newly created role as Principal where she will lead business development strategies and new investment execution. Laura previously served as Senior Vice President at Key and FirstMerit banks. She is an elected member of the Brecksville City Council. Laura earned her MBA from Cleveland State and has a BA in Accounting from the University of Dayton.

Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis Meyers Roman is proud to welcome new partner Deanna DiPetta. With more than 33 years of experience handling divorce and dissolution, custody and visitation litigation, and adoption, she has a deep understanding of the complexities involved with domestic relations law including negotiating and litigating a broad spectrum of financial issues such as dividing complex marital estates, investment properties, business interests, mineral rights, complicated retirement plans, and separate property issues. Deanna is a Certified Mediator, former Professor of Domestic Relations at Notre Dame College and mentor to young lawyers through the Ohio Supreme Court Lawyer to Lawyer Mentoring Program and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

LAW

Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis Meyers Roman is pleased to welcome J. Breton McNab (“Bret”) to our Real Estate, Energy Law and Business & Corporate practice areas. Bret has significant experience representing energy clients in the acquisition and disposition of leasehold and mineral interests and the drafting of certified oil and gas title opinions as well as litigating various real estate issues including Ohio’s Dormant Mineral Act and Marketable Title Act. His background as both a coal miner and commercial credit analyst gives Bret a truly unique perspective among attorneys.

Bret is licensed to practice law in Ohio, West Virginia and Wyoming.

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Bryan Schauer, CPCU, has been named executive vice president and Cleveland market leader for Schauer Group. He represents the fourth generation of the 102-year-old risk management, business insurance and human capital services firm. He will be focused on territory growth and market development while continuing to advise clients. He is past president of Rotary Club of Cleveland, vice chairman of Cleveland Rotary Foundation, and serves on the board of the Ohio Contractors Association.

Christine Sabio Socrates (“Tina”) joins Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis as a partner and Chair of the Estate Planning and Probate group. Tina brings 25 years of experience in estate planning and probate law representing individuals, married couples, professionals and business owners. Her experience ranges from simple wills to revocable trusts and complicated trust planning, including wealth transfer, business succession, asset protection and minimizing tax liability. Tina also has a strong background in probate/trust administration, adoption and guardianship. She firmly believes in a team approach to estate planning and works with clients along with their financial, insurance and accounting advisors to optimize their estate planning goals.

Laura Picariello Reprints Sales Manager lpicariello@crain.com (732) 723-0569

LAW

Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis Meyers Roman is pleased to welcome Nicholas J. Hanek to our Divorce & Family Law practice group.

Nick helps individuals and families navigate the challenging issues surrounding divorce, child custody, domestic violence, property division, child support and spousal support.

Nick’s diverse legal experience includes both private and public sectors - he has served as an in-house attorney for a child welfare agency, an assistant prosecutor and a special prosecutor for multiple jurisdictions.

LAW

Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis Meyers Roman welcomes Elizabeth A. Stark to our Business & Corporate, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, Cybersecurity and Real Estate practice groups. Liz has extensive experience in cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology, specifically national and international government regulation and compliance. She also assists clients with a wide variety of corporate matters and real estate transactions. Liz is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

REAL ESTATE

Elite Sotheby’s International Realty Joanne Zettl has partnered with Elite Sotheby’s International Realty as the Managing Broker. This is an exciting and natural progression to continue her leadership journey. Some of Joanne’s notable achievements are 2013 President of the Cleveland Area Board of REALTORS®, the 2020 Chair of the National Association of REALTORS® Research Committee and a member of the National Association of REALTORS® and Ohio REALTORS® Board of Directors.

Armed with dedication, experience and the power of Elite Sotheby’s International Realty behind her, Joanne and her talented group of associates will assist clients, locally, nationally and internationally to discover the unique lifestyle, natural beauty and delightful climate that Ohio has to offer.

CRA IN ’S T HOUG H T L E ADE R FORU M

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MAY 3, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 23

P023_CL_20210503.indd 23

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We're looking for the best, the brightest and We want strong individuals, driven for success, with a collaborative mindset and the desire to be the best in the business.

A law firm for people with high standards.

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