Crain's Cleveland Business, July 22, 2024

VOTING FOR CHANGE

Along with choosing new leaders and policies, Ohio voters navigate new rules to cast their ballots

Coventry Village charts new future

‘The heart and soul of Cleveland Heights’ ghts through vacancies with community, collaboration

By Alexandra Golden

ose passing through Coventry Village in Cleveland Heights may notice some empty storefronts peppering the popular shopping district — perhaps with some alarm.

e area does have more vacancies today than in recent memory, according to Coventry

Village Special Improvement

District Executive Director Matt Moore. But, he says, it's a re ection of a transition underway for the neighborhood and in retail more broadly.

“If people aren't coming and experiencing (Coventry), it’s really hard for them to

See COVENTRY on Page 18

Guardians on the upswing

Marked increase in attendance, sales as team starts second half

By Joe Scalzo

Forget the bridges. e real Guardians of Tra c in Cleveland this summer are the ones scanning tickets and bags outside Progressive Field. anks to a hot start and even hotter merchandise, the Cleveland Guardians entered MLB’s

All-Star break staring at the type of double-digit increases usually reserved for the city’s property tax reappraisals.

To wit:

◗ e Guardians are averaging 25,061 fans through 41 home games — more than 20% higher than this time last year. Cleveland has drawn 1,027,067 fans this

season, the earliest the club has crossed the 1 million mark since 2008 (1,030,980 fans through 41 home games).

◗ July merchandise sales (i.e., the rst homestand) are up 30% to plan.

◗ Sales of player products are up

Guardians second baseman Andres Gimenez rounds the bases during a July 7 game against the San Francisco Giants. | GETTY

June saw city’s best return-to-of ce rate since 2019

71.9% of downtown Cleveland workers are back in the of ce, up from 65.1% in May

By Kim Palmer

e halfway point of the year is looking good for downtown Cleveland.

Workers are returning to their downtown o ces at the highest rates since 2019, the latest recovery metrics from Downtown Cleveland Inc. concludes. According to the organization, in June, downtown Cleveland’s return to o ce rate hit 71.9%, up from 65.1% in May.

Downtown’s workforce recovery rate slipped just a bit, though, from 74.1% in May 2024 to 72.5% in June. at number, though, is still higher than June 2023.

Also dropping in June was total monthly foot tra c — which includes residents, visitors and workers — which slid a bit to 4.5 million from May’s 4.8 million. at number is also down from June 2023 when total foot tra c hit 4.6 million.

In June, Saturdays (169,200) were on average the busiest days for foot tra c downtown, followed by ursdays (168,500) and Tuesdays (165,100) with Sundays (117,500) coming in as the quietest day on the streets of Cleveland.

Overall foot tra c — as tracked by Placer.ai — for June saw an 84% recovery (including residents, visitors and employees in downtown) compared to June 2019 while visitor-only foot tra c was at 85.3% compared to June 2019. e occupancy rates for downtown o ce space in the second quarter of 2024 stood at 81.9%, with Class A at 82.7% and Class B at 80.7%, according to downtown Cleveland data pulled from CBRE o ce reports.

Of the more than 450 retail stores and businesses, there have been seven new openings yearto-date, building on last year’s 33 new retail starts, a number that is not putting a huge dent in the 2025% retail vacancy rate in downtown, according to a 2023 study by Streetsense.

As of the fourth quarter of 2023, downtown has a 91% apartment occupancy rate with more than 8,500 units occupied and over 800 available. And the majority of Cleveland residents living downtown — 56.6% — continue to be between the ages of 20 and 34 years.

In 2024, downtown will feature 10,221 rental units, and by 2026 that number is expected to hit 12,000.

Big events in April, including the NCAA Women’s Final Four and a total solar eclipse, brought 4.8 million workers and visitors downtown. With 4,415 rooms in 19 hotels available downtown, Cleveland marked a record-high 71.4% hotel occupancy rate in April translating into an average daily hotel rate of more than $228 a stay. at dropped to a 63.6% occupancy rate and a daily rate of $183 in May, the latest month available.

Cleveland hotels were at a 9.4% occupancy rate in April 2020 and 58% in April 2023.

Travel in and out of the city is also climbing upward. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport’s year-to-date total of airport passengers is up 8% from 2023 and 3% from 2019.

And about halfway through the year, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority provided more than 10 million public transit rides around the city via trolley, rail, bus and paratransit, about half of the 21 million rides in 2019.

High vacancy May eld Heights of ce building up for auction

Stan Bullard

e out-of-town investors owning Parkland Terrace in Mayeld Heights have put it up for sale through the Ten-X online auction site and the Cushman & Wake eld | Cresco of Independence realty brokerage.

e come-on price is just $800,000 for the auction ending Aug. 14. e building is valued at $2.75 million for property tax purposes.

David Leb, a Cresco vice president, said the owner wanted to give the property the bene t of accelerated marketing and national exposure through the auction after two months on the traditional for-sale market.

Dating from 1996, the property at 6120 Parkland Blvd. is 45% vacant, according to the listing. Cuyahoga County records say the seller Parkland Professional LLC, paid $3.95 million for it at the end of 2023.

Leb said in a phone interview the 34,000-square-foot building “punches above its weight” in

terms of quality with a granite exterior, walnut paneled lobby and other features that make it nicer than typical buildings its age.

The building features a granite exterior, walnut paneled lobby and other features uncommon for a building its age.

“A user could take space in the building, nd a couple of other tenants and be in a good position,” Leb said, because it remains 55% occupied with a strong tenant roster. He said it is well-suited for law and other professional rms. He said the building had lost tenants to a variety of factors, such as one of its rst- oor tenants merging with a downtown law rm.

Other properties available for sale or lease nearby are much larger, Leb noted. at means they might have fewer prospects than Parkland Terrace, which o ers smaller suites. at includes a nearby building

known by its address at 6055 Parkland Blvd. that Progressive Corp. is having CBRE market that has 104,000 square feet to ll. Greg West, a senior vice president at Hanna Commercial Real Estate’s Cleveland o ce, said in a phone interview that he believes Parkland Terrace may sell and is certain to get “a lot of lookers” with such a low starting price for the auction.

“ is building is in one of the city’s stronger o ce markets and could o er value for the right user,” West said.

Just nding a few additional tenants to cover a mortgage might not be that di cult given its location and campus setting with many big-name tenants nearby such as Rockwell Automation and Parker Hanni n Corp.

Leb said the current investor-owners want to sell the property to invest in the retail property market, which makes up most of their portfolio.

Downtown Cleveland Inc. awarded state funds for Public Square

Kim Palmer

A one-time, $750,000 state appropriation kicks o a plan to create a more inclusive and family-friendly Public Square, part of a larger Downtown Cleveland Inc. retail strategy.

LAND Studio will partner with Downtown Cleveland Inc. to use money from the state’s $700 million-plus One-Time Strategic Community Investments Fund (OTSCIF) to create a Public Square that will make visitors and residents want to linger downtown.

“Public Square is our Central Park,” said Audrey Gerlach, Downtown Cleveland Inc.’s vice president of economic development.

“We are not planning a full-scale playground, but we are looking at

an interactive infrastructure that sends a signal to come downtown.”

e earmarked funds will be used to kickstart the implementation of a recent Downtown Retail Strategy. One of its key recommendations is to create more places for social interaction throughout Cleveland’s multiple commercial corridors and public spaces, with the end goal of bringing more visitors to the city.

“As the city’s central gathering space, Public Square must be inviting to all Clevelanders and visitors alike,” Michael Deemer, Downtown Cleveland Inc. president and CEO said in a statement.

“We are thrilled to announce not only this investment but also a critical partnership with LAND Studio to help guide the design

and implementation of the improvements.”

ere also will be opportunities for community engagement to gather feedback about what changes should be made to Public Square while addressing the current uses and history of the space, Gerlach said.

“ ere is no set timeline yet for the project,” she said. “ ere has been so much development around Public Square since the 2016 renovation, it is a good time to re-examine ways to improve connectivity, and tra c and make it easy for people to access and to feel comfortable.”

Public Square went under a redesign that transformed it into a green public space in 2016 prior to Cleveland hosting the Republican National Convention.

The building at 6120 Parkland Blvd. in May eld Heights is being offered for auction with a starting price of $800,000. | COSTAR

Cleveland Clinic again named one of nation’s best

By Paige Bennett

Cleveland Clinic was the lone Ohio hospital and one of only 20 in the country included on the Honor Roll in U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-2025 Best Hospitals ranking.

e 35th annual edition of the popular rankings, released Tuesday, July 16, evaluated nearly 5,000 hospitals in more than 30 medical and surgical areas. e Honor Roll recognizes hospitals that stand out in many of these areas for their “exceptional breadth and depth of excellence,” according to U.S. News.

Along with its Honor Roll placement, the Clinic was ranked No. 1 in the nation for cardiology, heart and vascular surgery for the thirtieth consecutive year. It also was in the top 10 for gastroenterology and GI surgery (No. 3), geriatrics (No. 6), obstetrics and gynecology (No. 4), pulmonology and lung surgery (No. 9), urology (No. 5), ophthalmology (No. 9) and rheumatology (No. 2).

Among hospitals in the Buckeye State, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center took the No. 2 spot and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center came in third. Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital was named No. 4 and

Clinic Akron General tied with e Christ Hospital in Cincinnati for No. 5. is year, U.S. News made various methodology changes to the rankings and ratings, including incorporating Medicare Advantage data to better represent more patient populations, said Dr. Min Hee Seo, senior health data scientist at U.S. News & World Report, with the release of the report.   Similar to last year, U.S. News did not rank hospitals on the Honor Roll numerically. e move came amid criticism that the ranking system incentivized hospitals to prioritize certain specialties to score higher in the rankings. is year’s report included analysis of

an “unprecedented” amount of data on patient outcomes and how they fared following their encounter with di erent hospitals across the U.S., said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis, at U.S. News.

“Choosing the right hospital to match your needs shouldn’t be a guessing game,” Harder said in a statement. “ e 2024-2025 edition of Best Hospitals provides patients and their families clear, data-driven insights on hospital performance and empowers Americans to choose the facility best suited to their speci c health care needs.”

Dr. Marc Gillinov, chairman of the Department of oracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Cleve-

land Clinic, said in a phone interview with Crain’s that the Clinic’s collaborative approach has aided its longtime success in cardiology, heart and vascular surgery.

“It’s a team-based model, meaning we are all in it together,” he said. “We have no nancial incentive to hoard patients to ourselves. Our model is we’re all on salary, and that is a way to remove any nancial considerations that might make people reluctant to work as a team.”

Gillinov added that the Clinic focuses on hiring people who are the best at every position. e health system wants to be the all-star team in cardiovascular surgery and medicine every day, he said.

Here are the other hospitals included on the 2024-2025 Honor Roll.

◗ Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston

◗ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles

◗ Duke University Hospital, Durham, North Carolina

◗ Hospitals of the U. of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia

◗ Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston

◗ Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore

◗ Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

◗ Mayo Clinic, Phoenix

◗ Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

◗ Mount Sinai Hospital, New York

◗ New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia and Cornell

◗ North Shore University Hospital at Northwell Health, Manhasset, New York

◗ Northwestern Medicine, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago

◗ NYU Langone Hospitals, New York

◗ Rush University Medical Center, Chicago

◗ Stanford Health Care, Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, California

◗ C San Diego Health, La Jolla and Hillcrest Hospitals

◗ UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles

◗ UCSF Health, UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco

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Cleveland

A trio of state legislators wants to legalize gambling games for phones

By Joe Scalzo

Should Ohioans be allowed to play table games like blackjack and poker on their phones and computers?

ree Ohio House Republicans say yes, arguing that iLottery and iGaming (“interactive gaming”) “could be a net bene t to the state.”

“Looking at other states who have implemented either or both iLottery and iGaming, we see signi cant increases to tax revenues generated with greater participation but also that in-person sales continued to increase,” Reps. Jay Edwards (Athens), Je LaRe (Columbus) and Cindy Abrams (Cincinnati) said in a joint letter to the state. “While the state should proceed with caution and care with any expansion of this magnitude, with the right regulatory framework, these types of gaming can thrive with nominal impact to our current system.”

e letter was part of a report issued on Friday, July 12, from the Study Commission on the Future of Gaming in Ohio committee, which met four times this year. iGaming is legal in seven states, including three states that border Ohio: Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

An executive from Cleveland-based JACK Entertainment testi ed against iGaming in front of the committee in April, saying iGaming would do to brick-andmortar casinos what online retail has done to shopping malls.

e three Republican representatives pushed back on that idea, noting that Pennsylvania’s retail lottery sales increased nearly 20% following the legalization of iLottery in 2018, while Kentucky saw a 56% increase after launching iLottery in 2017. As for iGaming, the representatives noted that Michigan legalized iG-

aming in 2021 and is now home to the largest online gaming market in the United States at $3.6 billion.

“ ese tax revenue bene ts to the state and funding that could be provided to our K-12 education system cannot be overlooked,” they said.

State senator and committee member Nathan Manning, whose district includes Lorain and Elyria, said Ohio should “proceed with caution” with iLottery and iGaming, noting “some of these products may need more vetting since they are more easily accessible to the consumer and could potentially have more addictive qualities.”

Manning previously sponsored Senate Bill 269, which authorized the Ohio Lottery Commission to o er electronic lottery games on mobile devices. e bill stalled in the house, but he said the state should move forward with a portion of SB 29 and allow lottery draw games and multi-state games online.

Two other committee members opposed lottery expansion, with state Sen. Al Landis of Richeld writing that he favors the status quo and state senator William DeMora of Columbus noting that the casino gaming industry employs hundreds of people “with good union jobs.”

“We cannot risk the position of these critical institutions by making them irrelevant,” he wrote. “I also have concerns about creating too-easy access to gambling.”

e Republican reps also disagreed with two key sports betting changes, starting with Ohio’s decision to double the tax rate on sports betting from 10% to 20% just six months after the state legalized online sports betting.

“ is hampered the growth that was occurring and made other companies think twice

about coming to Ohio to invest,” they wrote. “As future General Assemblies look at making changes to the sports gaming platform or implement new forms of gaming, they must keep those who are going to be making the investments in mind. At a minimum, the companies who look to make future investments in Ohio should know what they are buying into.”

Manning wrote that he favored lowering the tax rate for brickand-mortar sportsbooks back to 10%, which would “hopefully allow existing sportsbooks to be more successful and attract other companies to open new ones.” e three Republican reps also opposed the Ohio Casino Control Commission’s decision in February to ban player-speci c prop bets on college athletes, a move supported by both the NCAA and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

“While we understand the circumstances in which this decision was made, we believe it is one that was not needed,” they wrote. “With the current landscape of collegiate athletics and NIL, players are now being paid to play (and perform) in certain sports. at is no di erent than any other professional sport (i.e., NFL, NBA, or MLB). And with professional sports, any individual can go on DraftKings or FanDuel to place a prop bet on any athlete.

“Reports of harassment and potential threats are unacceptable at any stage of athletics. Such acts should be investigated and prosecuted accordingly. But the response from the OCCC to simply ban prop-betting on individual collegiate athletes looks to solve the problem without addressing the issue. We recommend that the OCCC’s policy be rescinded and prop betting on college athletes be restored.”

HEALTHCARE

The challenges and solutions of bandwidth demands in modern healthcare organizations

ROB BRILL Market Vice President Cox Communications

Rob Brill is the Vice President and Market Leader for Cox Communications, Cleveland.

In addition to his day-to-day responsibilities, he is also a board member of the West Creek Conservancy and an advocate for numerous community organizations across the Cleveland market. He has been with Cox for over 20 years and a resident of North Ridgeville.

KEN UHLIK

IT Manager / Network Administrator

Cuyahoga County Board of Health

Ken Uhlik has been in the IT eld since 1979, starting with the very rst IBM PC and Apple computer. He has worked with most major operating systems ranging from DOS, to Windows 3.1, Windows 95, to Windows 11 and beyond. He has served as a Network Engineer installing and administrating for Novel and Microso Networks, as well as setting up rewalls to support Internet administration via AT&T and Cox providers.

The number of digital tools in the healthcare industry has exploded, including thousands of Internet of ings (IoT) devices, network-based communications, intricate data storage and access mechanisms, and more. e marriage between healthcare and tech necessitates enhanced connectivity systems to make sure patients get the care they need. By ensuring all sta has the connectivity they need, it’s necessary to eliminate costly — and potentially harmful — delays.

However, many new technologies require signi cant bandwidth to function as intended. Consider this example: Hospitals that use robotic surgery need to enable remote surgeons the ability to see what’s happening in real-time, as well as control devices used in the operative process. Signi cant latency or dropouts could result in failed or delayed surgeries. IoT devices are omnipresent in healthcare, enabling easier access to information and streamlining and improving patient care.

The Data Defender

Whether it’s live video or readings from medical monitoring devices, the information these systems receive needs to traverse a reliable connection. Bolstering connectivity frees up healthcare workers to focus on tasks other than frequently checking in on patients. Like a reliable internet connection, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health takes a similar approach in its day-to-day mission to put resources where they are needed most to deliver the best outcome as quickly as possible. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our agency was counted on to be the county’s trusted source for public health information. Starting in March 2020, we needed to present live televised updates multiple times per week to keep residents and businesses informed about the everchanging situation.

Beyond the televised press conferences, we also had a variety of daily technological needs that had to be addressed quickly and e ciently, including support for our COVID-19 vaccine clinics. Cox was there for

us from the beginning, working cooperatively with our sta to provide a solid foundation for this critical work.

It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about manpower, technology or life-saving measures: having adequate bandwidth positions local healthcare providers to deliver cutting-edge services that better serve patients. At the same time, it makes the work of doctors, nurses and sta a lot easier. e future for healthcare tech looks bright, promising more advancements that require connectivity. With this in mind, it’s important to make sure your medical professionals can keep up with shi ing requirements.

7 takeaways from Trump’s pick of JD Vance

Before Monday, July 15, when former President Donald Trump announced U.S. Sen. JD Vance as his running mate, the last Ohioan on the ticket of a major U.S. political party in a presidential election was . . . John W. Bricker.

at was 80 years ago, in 1944, when Bricker was the Republican nominee for vice president alongside presidential candidate omas E. Dewey. ey lost to the Democratic incumbents, Franklin D. Roosevelt (securing his fourth term) and Harry S. Truman.

A lot can change in less than four months until Election Day, but there’s a strong chance that JD Vance is no John W. Bricker. e “Hillbilly Elegy” author, venture capitalist and conservative culture warrior could be the next vice president of the United States.

Vance’s selection had been a possibility for weeks, but it came just two days after an assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.

A word, brie y, about that. ankfully, there has been near-universal condemnation of this heinous act. (Ignore the conspiracy theorists who mainly exist to foment chaos and confusion.) Violence is unacceptable in any form and cannot be allowed to beget additional violence, full stop.

It’s our fervent hope that Trump, Vance, the Democratic nominees and everyone else running for o ce remains safe this campaign season. ey and voters who take seriously the direction of the country deserve a debate that’s substantive and entirely free from the terror that violence brings.

e campaign will, indeed, go on, and now that Vance is part of it, here are some of our takeaways about Ohio’s junior senator, his career and what his nomination means for this election:

1. Learning curve

Vance, an Ohio State University and Yale Law School grad, a Marine, a venture capital rm founder (with some help from Peter iel), and author of a book that became a staple of high school and college reading lists after the 2016 election, no doubt is a smart guy. is campaign will challenge him. He’s good on TV — likely a big reason Trump picked him — and will be an aggressive advocate for the MAGA agenda. But he’s inexperienced in politics and there’s no real way to know how he will be on a big stage.

Vance won the Ohio GOP primary in 2022 because he got Trump’s endorsement, and he won his Senate race that fall against Democrat Tim Ryan by about 6 points — a tighter margin than other Republicans who ran statewide. His political skills are about to get their rst

signi cant test. And as he ventures out into the country, he’ll encounter more pushback than he gets in increasingly Republican Ohio.

2. If you’re going to pivot, pivot hard Before the 2016 election, Vance was a Trump critic, describing him, among other things, as “cultural heroin” and as a demagogue who was “leading the white working class to a very dark place.”

Vance called himself “a Never Trump guy,” aligning with Republicans who believed Trump was taking the party in unacceptable directions. Perhaps most famously, Vance went so far as to suggest Trump “might be America’s Hitler.” en came the change, and it was a big one.

Vance in recent years has been among the biggest (and loudest) Trump fans. It’s a shift Vance says he came to after determining he was wrong about the former president, based on Trump’s performance in o ce. He said in February that he wouldn’t have certi ed the results of the 2020 election if he was in then-Vice President Mike Pence’s place. Vance was one of the political gures to join Trump’s entourage earlier this year during the former president’s criminal trial in Manhattan. He echoes Trump’s calls for “large-scale deportations.”

Fair enough to change your mind about things. It’s also fair for voters to evaluate if this was a legitimate change of heart or if it was all political calculation — and if JD Vance actually says what he means.

3. Populist bent

Vance has only been in the Senate since January 2023, and his performance there is not always what you’d expect. His highest-pro le work has been on the Railway Safety Act of 2023, which he co-sponsored with his Ohio colleague, Democrat Sherrod Brown, in the wake of

the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and which would add signi cant new regulations to the industry.

He has worked with Democratic Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont and Dick Durbin of Illinois on the Credit Card Competition Act of 2023, legislation that he said would “enhance competition and choice in the credit card network market which is currently dominated by the VisaMastercard duopoly.” ( at’s not traditional Republican language on nancial legislation.) He also joined senators including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on legislation to claw back the salaries of some nancial institution executives following the collapses at Silicon Valley and Signature banks. Vance went out of his way to say Lina Khan, who has stepped up antitrust enforcement as head of the Federal Trade Commission, is doing a “good job.”

He has, to some extent, a history of supporting protectionism and more aggressive antitrust measures and criticizing corporate power, which is unusual for a Republican and puts him at odds with the “free minds and free markets” section of the party.

at means he’s not liked by all members of the Republican donor class — a development to watch if Trump is elected again and Vance has an active voice in the White House.

4. But don’t get too carried away with the populist stuff

Silicon Valley investors loved the pick.

As Bloomberg noted, “Elon Musk called the decision a ‘great choice’ and said the lineup ‘resounds with victory’ on X, the social platform he owns.” David Sacks, an investor and Trump supporter who spoke at the GOP convention on July 15, called Vance an “American patriot’ in a post. And at Founders Fund, a venture capital rm backed by billionaire Peter iel, partner Delian Asparouhov posted, e usively, “IT’S JD VANCE. WE HAVE A FORMER TECH VC IN THE WHITE HOUSE. GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH BABY.”

Politico said the Vance pick was “an overture to Silicon Valley billionaires fed up with Biden,” and it certainly gives Trump stronger potential access to more campaign cash.

5. About the tone ere’s been a lot of talk in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Trump about toning down the rhetoric directed at their political opponents. It’s not known whether heated rhetoric contributed to the motivations of the Pennsylvania shooter, but generally, it would be better if everyone took things down a few notches.

Vance is not the type of person to do that.

His response on X, formerly known as Twitter, to the Trump shooting was this: “Today is not just some isolated incident. e central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. at rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” ere are many other examples; Vance understands his political brand in 2024.

If you’re holding your breath waiting for better angels to arrive to improve our political discourse, you’re in trouble.

6. Youth movement

Vance, who is 39 and turns 40 in August, would be the third-youngest vice president in history. e only occupants of the o ce who were younger were John Breckinridge (36 years old when he became VP in 1857) and Richard Nixon (40 years and 11 days in 1953). Age is just a number, the old saying goes, but it’s not irrelevant in an election where incumbent President Joe Biden is 81 and Trump himself is 78.

Vice President Kamala Harris, by contrast, will turn 60 just before the election. ere’s still some haggling over a date and network for a vice presidential debate, but taking into account the elevated role the VPs potentially play given the age of the men at the top of the ticket, it’s imperative that voters get a good look at these two candidates.

If Vance becomes the vice president, he would be the Republican front-runner for 2028, setting up the possibility that the country would have a Millennial president before it has one from Gen X. (Always overlooked, that Gen X.)

7. Next up

ere will be intense lobbying to ll Vance’s Senate seat if he becomes vice president. ere’s no shortage of candidates in Republican-dominated Ohio for Gov. Mike DeWine to make a selection.

Fox News reported that names already being oated include U.S. Rep. Mike Carey of the Columbus area, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted. (A Husted selection would scramble the 2026 race for governor, as he’s seen as the front-runner for the Republican nomination.) State Sen. Matt Dolan could be in the mix, too, though that could be awkward since he was endorsed by DeWine in the Senate race earlier this year against Trump favorite Bernie Moreno.

Ohio’s relatively vanilla politics are likely to get quite a bit spicier.

BLOOMBERG

Collaboration drives investment in Northeast Ohio

In the early 2000s, regionalism was on the minds of business and civic leaders in Northeast Ohio.

Our leaders asked: What would be possible if Northeast Ohio — including all major metropolitan areas — went to market as a single region, leveraging all our assets? is question led six local economic development organizations to contribute $3.4 million in seed funding to create Team NEO. e purpose was to create an organization that could convene business, government, nonpro t and higher education leaders to help grow the regional economy. And it’s working. Together, our network has secured more than 455 project wins, resulting in 30,000 new jobs, $1.6 billion in annual

payroll, and more than $8.4 billion in capital investment in the last ve years.

Today, we are working with partners around the region, not only to grow our economy, but to make it more vibrant, more sustainable, and more equitable. As a network, we are rede ning the region; investing more in innovation, technology adoption, and smart manufacturing; collaborating on talent attraction and retention; and focusing on site development. Here are just a few examples of the work we are doing together.

Case Western Reserve University, Team NEO and a host of civic partners have secured a $1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) planning grant to create a regional innovation engine in Northeast Ohio, focusing on cutting-edge areas such as advanced materials, energy e ciency, and low-carbon manufacturing processes. It also aims to ensure that this innovation engine creates opportunities for a diverse workforce.

In Akron, we’re working with the Greater Akron Chamber on the Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub, leveraging the deep sector experience to nd cleaner, greener ways to make, recycle and reuse polymers — and creating a positive impact on workforce development, creating access to new, highwage jobs in a growing eld.

Working with one of our partners in the southern part of the Northeast Ohio Region, Tuscarawas County Economic Development Corporation and JobsOhio, our network helped secure a commitment from Schae er

to bring more than 650 jobs and $54 million in associated payroll along with a new manufacturing facility to Dover, where it will produce electric beam axles and electric drivetrain systems to support the hybrid/EV industry.

In addition to investing in smaller and rural communities, we’re attracting investment to priority job hubs, like the Central Neighborhood in Cleveland, where International Food Solutions will bring $65 million in investment and more than 220 jobs. Greater Cleveland Partnership, the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, the Ohio Department of Development, JobsOhio and Team NEO worked together to make this happen.

I’d like to keep going and share more examples, but I’ll stop here. As the board chair of Team NEO and Property Casualty COO of Hylant, I’m seeing rsthand how harnessing the full potential of regional collaboration can catalyze transformative economic growth and prosperity.

e momentum I see here in Northeast Ohio is reminding me of the progress I saw as a business leader in Nashville.

From 1990-2020, the Nashville region achieved remarkable double-digit population and economic expansion each decade. Centered on robust partnerships between the private sector, municipalities, economic developers and others, Nashville aligned initiatives around revitalizing the urban core, diversifying industry sectors, enhancing workforce development and more. is collaborative approach supercharged growth.

We have that same powerful potential here in Northeast Ohio. By aligning the strengths of our region’s businesses, municipalities, academic institutions and economic development organizations through uni ed strategies, we can propel sustainable growth that expands access to opportunity for all.

At Hylant, we’ve stepped up as corporate catalysts by investing both organizational resources and my personal time toward advancing Team NEO’s vital mission, and our collective, regional mission, to create a vibrant economy.

Hylant, 90 years in Ohio next year, is headquartered in Toledo, with o ces in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. We have over 1,000 families that rely on Hylant. e state of Ohio grows and prospers as a result of this, which leads to families and businesses growing within our state.

In today’s globalized economy, businesses and their anchoring communities must present a uni ed front and leverage their collective might to bring new investment, attract and retain talent, and create sustainable, equitable economic growth. Here in Northeast Ohio, we are following that model with more than 200-plus municipalities, 15 economic development organizations, and 150-plus businesses and universities engaged through Team NEO’s initiatives. With this kind of collaboration, Northeast Ohio’s future is brimming with limitless possibilities.

Kimberly Riley chairs the Team NEO board of directors and is chief operating o cer, property and casualty, at Hylant.

Cleveland-Cliffs to buy rival Stelco for $2.8 billion

By Liezel Hill, Bloomberg

Cleveland-Cli s Inc. agreed to buy Canadian steelmaker Stelco Holdings Inc. for about C$3.85 billion ($2.8 billion), in the company’s rst major move after losing out in its bid for United States Steel Corp. last year.

Shareholders in Canada’s Stelco will receive cash and shares worth about C$70, Cli s said in a statement on Monday, July 15, representing a premium of 87% from the closing price on Friday, July 12.  e deal is the latest in a series by Cli s CEO Lourenco Goncalves, who built the company from an iron ore miner just a few years ago into one of the top four U.S. steel producers and the country’s biggest automotive steel supplier. e combative executive tried unsuccessfully last year to acquire U.S. Steel, and has been a vocal opponent of the company’s agreement to sell itself instead to Nippon Steel Corp. of Japan.

Shares of Cli s rose 0.4% at 1:21 p.m. July 15, while Stelco shares surged 74% to $65.05 in Toronto. In a call with analysts, Goncalves defended the large premium his company is paying.

“Stelco was completely undervalued in the marketplace,” he said. “Cleveland-Cli s is buying a fantastic company at the bottom of the market — because we understand the cyclicality of this business.”

Stelco operates two facilities in Ontario, Canada, and ships approximately 2.6 million net tons of at-rolled steel annually, primarily hot-rolled steel to service center customers. e acquisition will expand Cli s’ steelmaking footprint and double its exposure to the at-rolled spot market, the company said.

Stelco, once called the Steel Company of Canada, traces its roots back more than 110 years. e company fell upon hard times by the mid-2000s and led for bankruptcy protection. U.S. Steel bought the troubled producer in 2007 and changed the name to U.S. Steel Canada. Less than a decade later, U.S. Steel took some of Stelco’s best contracts and aban-

doned what was left of the company in 2015. Stelco CEO Alan Kestenbaum, a turnaround artist with a long history in the commodities industry, acquired the assets out of bankruptcy in 2017 and restored the Stelco name.

Stelco’s shareholders representing about 45% of the ownership have agreed to support the deal. e deal also has the backing of United Steelworkers union President David McCall, Cli s said.

Kestenbaum himself owns about 16% of the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, which was worth about C$560 million after the Stelco shares jumped on July 15.

e transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024,

subject to approval by Stelco shareholders, receipt of regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

e company sees a “clear path” toward regulatory approval in Canada, Goncalves said. Cli s has pledged to keep Stelco’s headquarters in Canada, maintain Canadian representation on its management team and make capital investments of at least C$60 million over the next three years.

Cli s has embarked on a dealmaking spree since Goncalves became CEO, in recent years buying AK Steel Holding for $1.1 billion and the U.S. operations of ArcelorMittal SA for $1.4 billion.

“It’s really clear that Cli s wants to consolidate the steel industry,”

Timna Tanners, an analyst with Wolfe Research LLC, said in an interview. “ ey posit that fewer players will help pricing power in the market and perhaps reduce volatility.”

Goncalves has been clear he aims to make more acquisitions, telling analysts on July 15 that “there’s more to come.”

But the deal also drew scrutiny from some analysts over price and rationale. Steel futures are down about 41% this year. GLJ Research LLC CEO Gordon Johnson said steel companies like Cli s have mistakenly assumed the U.S. market determines pricing.

“China drives the global steel market, and China’s economy — speci cally its real estate and commercial real estate economy — is in a state of disarray,” Johnson said in an interview. “So under that backdrop, with U.S. prices having collapsed and still falling, to go out and buy more capacity and pay such a premium is, in our view, ill advised.”

Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Moelis & Company LLC are acting as nancial advisers to Cli s, while Bank of Montreal is acting as nancial adviser to Stelco, and McCarthy Tétrault LLP and A&O Shearman LLP are serving as legal counsel to Stelco. Royal Bank of Canada is acting as nancial adviser and Stikeman Elliott LLP as legal counsel to the special committee of Stelco’s board of directors.

Freedonia Group goes independent after acquisition of MarketResearch.com

By Jeremy Nobile

e Freedonia Group has become an independent business following the acquisition of its parent company in a development that its CEO says bodes well for the rm’s further growth and development as a pure-play industry market research provider.

Freedonia, founded in 1985 and based in May eld Village, has operated as a division of MarketResearch.com since being acquired from Cleveland’s League Park Advisors in 2016.

Freedonia has been led, e ectively, since then by MarketResearch.com founder and CEO Rob Granader.

A business contact connected Granader with a so-far undisclosed venture-backed and AI-powered marketing platform in New York that is the buyer of MarketResearh. com and its related platform, Profound.

Terms of that deal were not disclosed.

MarketResearch.com and Freedonia provided similar but oft-competing services.

Freedonia’s research divisions are Freedonia Industry Studies, Packaged Facts, Simba Information, Freedonia Focus Reports and Freedonia Custom Research.

ese groups span pre-packaged industry reports and bespoke, customized market research services

utilized by various industry players as well as nancial and consulting rms. en there’s MarketResearch. com, which is an aggregator and publisher of content produced by others.

“ ere was always a natural tension between us selling our own content and reselling the content of others,” Granader said.

Separating Freedonia from MarketResearch.com, however, “lets us focus on creating good and trustworthy content in a time when I’m very worried about the future of online content because of AI and what has happened with content over the past couple years,” he said.

Granader notes that becoming an independent business once again “positions Freedonia as a pure-play publisher of accurate content.” is independent identity now allows Freedonia to focus on its own crafted market research of-

ferings.

“It’s a good split between the two,” Granader said, adding that he never expected to nd one buyer for both business units.

“You can imagine when we aggregate other people’s business it is harder to expand our own brand without looking like stepping on the toes of people we resell,” Granader said. “Now we are free to expand and into any topic areas that we want, including any specialties we want and any product areas we want. We are free to do whatever we want as a unique brand.”

Granader declined to share revenue gures but notes that Freedonia has approximately 60 employees in its Greater Cleveland headquarters.

Granader said he’s committed to running Freedonia as an independent operation. As such, he said that there are no imminent plans to sell that business.

The Freedonia Group’s headquarters in May eld Village | COSTAR

An employee walks on an overpass at the Stelco Holdings Inc. plant in Ontario, Canada. | BLOOMBERG

VOTING FOR CHANGE

Along with choosing new leaders and policies, Ohio voters navigate new rules to cast their ballots

Elections bring change — new laws and ordinances, new lawmakers and leaders. And in Ohio, elections themselves have increasingly changed. e state’s voting laws have been altered signi cantly in recent years, and more changes are likely coming.

Among the new rules that have already been in e ect: stricter ID requirements, compressed early voting times and a shorter window to return absentee ballots.

More have been suggested — in recent weeks, state lawmakers have proposed requirements that could decommission voting machines, mandate watermarks on ballots or impose weekly purges of voter rolls.

And voters this November may be the ones to decide a more dramatic change: Should a citizen-led commission draw up new districts to replace gerrymandered ones that have been ruled unconstitutional? It seems certain that change will shadow Ohio elections for years to come.

The effects of change

Recent rules have been made by the Republican-controlled legislature as a way to curb voter fraud, though voting rights and other citizen groups say this is a solution in search of a problem. Local advocacy organizations are pushing back, supporting or directly spearheading campaigns that would expand vot-

ing access and institute redistricting reform.

Education about Ohio’s political system — along with attempts to roll back more restrictive measures — is critical after 2020’s election was marred by falsehoods and violence, said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio.

“Look at Jan. 6 (2021), when people thought that things were not done properly during the 2020 election, even though that was misinformation,” said Turcer. “I joke that my life is eighthgrade social studies, where I’m thinking about the rules of government and what invites people in and keeps them out.”

Ohio joined seven other states since 2020 to enact new voter ID laws. Signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in April 2023, the

law requires voters to produce a passport, military ID or unexpired Ohio-issued photo ID. In past elections, utility bills, bank statements and similar documents were allowed.

e results of these changes were all too predictable, said Kayla Gri n, state director of voter-access organization All Voting is Local.

When voters at a polling location encounter a problem on Election Day — they have gone to the wrong precinct or the address on le doesn’t match their home address or they don’t have a state- or military-issued ID or passport — they are given a provisional ballot to vote and then they have four days to go to their county’s board of elections with verifying information or ID.

In a study by All Voting is Lo-

cal, the group found that the rejection rate for lack of identication more than tripled for provisional ballots in 2023 from previous years. e analysis unearthed a rejection rate of 28% last November, up from 5%-9% between 2018 and 2022.

And the problem wasn’t prevalent only in the “big C” cities of Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, as rural communities have also been negatively affected, Gri n said.

“We’ve already seen that this bill has grave implications,” she said. “People who are infrequent voters may not know you need a passport or state-issue form of ID. e conversation at the Statehouse is that everyone has identi cation, which shows

Continued on next page

Douglas J. Guth

ELECTIONS

Make sure

your

vote is counted on Nov. 5

Remember the requirements

To vote in person, either early or on Election Day, voters must present photo identi cation: a driver’s license or state-issued ID that is not expired, a military ID or a passport. (Voters no longer are allowed to produce a utility bill or paycheck stub or bank statement as proof of identity.)

If you want to vote absentee, you must ll out an application. You can call your county board of elections to request one or you may ll out a request for one online, download and print that form and mail it to your county board of elections. (You can nd the phone number or address for your board of elections on the Ohio Secretary of State’s website: ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/.)

Absentee ballots must be received within four days after Election Day. (Reduced from 10 days previously.)

Only one ballot drop box is allowed per county, on county board of elections property that is under 24-hour video surveillance. (Recordings must be made available to the public immediately upon request or streamed online and made available for download.)

Observe the deadlines

◗ Sept. 20: Military and overseas absentee voting begins

◗ Oct. 7: Deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 5 general election

◗ Oct. 8: Absentee voting by mail and early in-person voting begins

◗ Oct. 29: Applications for absentee ballots are due by 8:30 p.m. at county boards of elections

◗ Nov. 3: Early in-person voting ends

◗ Nov. 4: Absentee ballot postmark deadline

◗ Nov. 5: Non-mailed absentee ballots must be received by county boards of elections by 7:30 p.m.

◗ Nov. 9: Last day for county boards of elections to receive mailed absentee ballots

Get help if you need it

Catherine Turcer, director of Common Cause Ohio, points voters to resources like the nonpartisan Election Protection coalition, composed of 300 local, state and national partners.

“They address problems folks are having at the polls, and train nonpartisan volunteers to work at polling stations,” Turcer said. “Because of the disinformation that’s out there, part of the effort is making sure people know how to effectively cast a ballot.”

◗ A hotline – 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) – is available for questions before Election Day and is active on Election Day to report any problems encountered at the polls.

◗ A website – 866ourvote.org/state/ohio/ – provides answers about deadlines, information on how to register and links to nding your polling place.

◗ You can check or update your voter registration, request an absentee ballot or nd requirements for voting, ballots and other election information at voteohio.gov. If you vote absentee, you can track your ballot at ohiosos. gov/elections/voters/toolkit/ballot-tracking.

◗ Find your early voting location at ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/toolkit/early-voting.

◗ Find your Nov. 5 polling location at ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/toolkit/polling-location.

How Ohio protects your vote

The Ohio Secretary of State’s Of ce says elections are secure, citing: Each of Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections has two Republican members and two Democratic members. Any handling of ballots or voting equipment must take place by a bipartisan team of election of cials. All precincts are staffed by a bipartisan group of poll workers and open to the media and poll observers.

Throughout the election, boards reconcile voter lists and ensure no votes were counted twice. Any attempts to do so are referred for prosecution. After an election, every county conducts a post-election audit. All audits are open to the public.

Statewide results show a 99.98% accuracy rate in the 2020 presidential election.

From previous page

that our elected o cials are disconnected not only from our urban demographic, but from people all across the state.”

But some aren’t convinced the ID requirements will continue to make a big impact on results.

“States have adopted voter ID laws in response to claims of election fraud, and we’ve heard apocalyptic stories from Democrats about the new ID law as well,” said Justin Buchler, a Case Western Reserve associate professor who studies elections. “It looks like the entire issue is a nothingburger in response to a nothingburger, because there was never any evidence of voter fraud.”

Buchler said the people who don’t have forms of ID are likely less engaged in the electoral process.

“It’s a very small population, so you won’t see much e ect with these laws,” Buchler said. “ ose who don’t have IDs tend to be disengaged socially, and hence disengaged politically.”

State regulations direct the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to provide ID cards to those 17 and older. Last year saw an increase of 3,000 IDs issued compared to 2022, according to the state registrar. But the allocation of additional IDs did not curb the big jump in rejected provisional ballots last year, said Gri n.

Another new state law from last year permitted one outdoor absentee ballot drop box per county, with each box under 24-hour, seven-days-a-week video surveillance on board of elections property. ough voting rights organizations tried to get more drop boxes, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and the Ohio legislature turned down the request.

Ballot drop boxes became more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic and became a target for those who allege they are a magnet for fraud. More populous counties saw on-site congestion for early voting at their boards of election, and lone drop boxes meant long drives for people delivering their ballots in person, said Gri n of All Voting Is Local.

“Someone from Solon should not have to drive downtown to drop o their ballot,” Gri n said. “Cuyahoga and Franklin having the same amount of boxes as smaller counties is simply inequitable.”

Local voting rights groups would like Ohio to emulate Colorado, where o cials must administer at least one drop box for every 30,000 registered voters. In Michigan, residents have the right to one drop box per every 15,000 voters.

But some Ohio lawmakers would like to eliminate the receptacles altogether. Sen. Niraj Antani (R-Miamisburg) recently proposed removing drop boxes for all future elections, citing security concerns. Under Antani’s plan, voters could still hand their absentee ballots directly to election workers.

Ballot rejection skyrockets

The push for big change

A new e ort for reform would make a change well before voters get to a ballot box: advocates of a redistricting initiative believe Ohio needs to change how it draws its districts.

Former Ohio Supreme Court justices Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, and Yvette McGee Brown, a Democrat, have joined Citizens Not Politicians that aims to turn over redistricting duties to an independent, citizen-led commission. ey believe the move would curtail the gerrymandering practices that have been perpetrated by both major political parties.

“ ere are people in line waiting to address this issue,” said O’Connor. “ ere’s no shortage of interested parties and groups from all a liations who feel powerless because their voices are not heard. People are asking us how they can sign up.”

Every state redraws its state legislative and U.S. House maps once a decade to account for population shifts. Yet, most states don’t play it fair, and that leads to maps with odd shapes and unrepresentative outcomes, O’Connor said.   By de nition, gerrymandering is manipulating an electoral district for political power — a study by University of Cincinnati political science professor David Niven uncovered the mess made by Ohio lawmakers, said McGee Brown.

For example, convoluted map lines in Hamilton County literally divided a Cincinnati home, plac-

ing the living room and bedroom in separate districts. e strangeness of these incidents should not mask the danger they represent — put simply, gerrymandering impacts who gets elected and whether voters even have a say in the matter, McGee Brown added.

“Lines are drawn by politicians to maintain and protect their incumbency,” she said. “(Maps) don’t protect communities of interest. ey don’t re ect the interest of the community and they dilute the vote.”

Reforms made in 2015 and 2018 led to the Ohio Redistricting Commission, a group that over the last two years has developed six di erent Ohio Statehouse district maps along with two U.S. congressional maps. e sixth Statehouse map, passed unanimously by the commission last year, was the rst to receive support from the group’s two Democratic members.

Citizens Not Politicians wants a constitutional amendment that would exclude elected o cials and lobbyists from the process. Instead, a 15-member committee chosen by four retired judges would undertake redistricting, a task triggered every decade by the arrival of new census numbers.

Meetings would take place on camera, recording every conversation the commission has, said O’Connor.

“It won’t be gripping drama, but it’s going to demonstrate why this (group) was needed,” O’Connor said.

e group submitted more than 731,000 signatures to the Ohio

Workers collect ballots at a drop-off polling location in Columbus on Nov. 8, 2022. | BLOOMBERG

In 2023, the rejection rate for lack of identi cation more than tripled for provisional ballots in Ohio from previous years, according to a study by All Voting is Local.

Secretary of State’s O ce ahead of the July 3 deadline. It is required to have 413,487 valid signatures to qualify for the Nov. 5 general election to meet the threshold for ballot initiatives: 10% of the total votes cast in the last gubernatorial election. e signatures will be veri ed by the Secretary of State’s O ce for possible duplicate or invalid signatures before a nal count is tallied.

During a rally July 1 celebrating the submission of the signatures, O’Connor, according to Ohio Capital Journal, told a crowd of hundreds at the Statehouse that the initiative received the third-highest signature total the state has seen in more than a century. She said it was “one of the most widely supported citizen-initiated constitutional amendments in Ohio’s history.”

If approved by voters, the amendment would replace the current commission made up of politicians with a panel of ve who match the political party of the governor in o ce, ve from the party of the gubernatorial candidate who received the second-highest number of votes in the most recent election, and ve una liated members.

Ohio Senate President Matt Hu man has spoken out against the proposal, while defending reforms that led to the redistricting

commission. Voters supported 2015 and 2018 measures that altered the process, and any wholesale change would counteract the people’s will, said Hu man.

Past amendments, including a 2015 e ort that passed with 71% of the vote, increased minority representation in the commission and established new requirements for district boundaries, he said.

“Voters are picking the people who make these decisions, and the restrictions put in place in 2015 re ected all the concerns that have been brought up over the years,” Hu man said. “ is process (with the commission) is too complex. If no one can follow it, then it’s not transparent.”

Buchler pointed out that the legislature has disregarded Ohio Supreme Court rulings that U.S. House district maps violate partisan gerrymandering prohibitions. But he is skeptical that giving map-making duties to an independent commission would solve the complicated issues associated with redistricting.

“Redistricting is all about tradeo s, and you can’t have everything you want,” he said. “Folks in the commission would be under the same constraints as the legislature. So, you’re not solving the problem, you’re just giving the authority to someone else.”

The possibilities of more change

In recent months, e orts have emerged that would change voting requirements in yet other ways.

In June, legislators from both the Ohio House and the Senate proposed measures that could dramatically change the state’s voting system. Demands included allowing ballots to be hand-counted and voting machine requirements that could force counties to replace their current equipment. e proposal would also require that voters include a photocopy of their identication with their completed absentee ballot.

While the proposals work their way through Ohio’s legislature, some people worry about the effects the continual change will have on voters.

North Ridgeville native Connor Hensley votes in person for most primaries, and has cast an absentee ballot in recent general elections. Hensley, who graduated this spring from Ohio State University with a degree in mechanical engineering, had no problems presenting his identi cation at the polling station.

Yet he believes countries like Canada, where voters are regis-

tered in a national database, have a better means of organizing and verifying eligible voters. He knows students who don’t have a driver’s license or who get mail at a post o ce box instead of a physical address, obstacles that could have prevented them from voting.

“ ere’s a whole bunch of issues where you can be purged, when voting is something that should be a fundamental right,” said Hensley. “ e ID law in Ohio is an overreach, because there’s been no sign of electoral fraud in the U.S.”

at e ort is now delayed by legal battles. Backers of the Voters Bill of Rights sued Attorney General Dave Yost in February, days after Yost rejected their ballot summary language for a second time. Amendment supporters must get ballot language approved before gathering signatures for a petition, with Ohio law leaving the nal decision to the attorney general. Bill detractors say the amendment is too broad, and reverses agreed-upon elements like valid voter ID that most Americans favor.

“There’s a whole bunch of issues where you can be purged, when voting is something that should be a fundamental right.”

Connor Hensley

Some groups are pushing to amend the state constitution to simplify and expand voting rules.

An e ort launched for an Ohio Voters Bill of Rights, an amendment that, among other provisions, calls for same-day registration and voting, adds school-issued photo identi cation cards to the list of acceptable ID, and permits counties to extend early voting hours.

e back and forth in Ohio on voting procedures, requirements and issues runs the risk of confusing and discouraging voters, especially among more vulnerable populations. e key to manage all the change is keeping voters apprised of what happens, said Turcer of Common Cause.

“People just didn’t have the education they needed to cast a ballot,” said Turcer about how ID requirements rst a ected voters.

“When you create an obstacle for people who are already the most overlooked, those burdens will fall on the poor.”

Michigan o ers lessons for

redrawing districts

Iam one of the co-founders of Voters Not Politicians. You may have heard about our group of political novices from across Michigan who came together and ended partisan gerrymandering with a ballot initiative in 2018. Citizens Not Politicians is the group trying to do the same thing this year right here in Ohio.

Jamie Lyons-Eddy is a co-founder and the executive director of Voters Not Politicians in Michigan.

In 2016, when I rst helped launch the movement that would become Voters Not Politicians, I didn’t know much about drawing electoral maps, balancing partisan fairness or preserving communities of interest. I did know that voters like me were tired of being ignored by politicians, and I truly believed that by working together, we had the opportunity to change the status quo.

For years, politicians and special interest groups have used partisan gerrymandering to take power away from the people, allowing politicians to choose their voters and escape accountability. ey draw lines behind closed doors with lobbyists and highly paid consultants, using

Our amendment keeps the power to draw lines with the commission, not the courts or politicians.

big data and advanced computer algorithms to pick the voters most likely to help their party. is allows politicians to manipulate elections to give themselves and their party an unfair advantage for the next decade of elections. Gerrymandering like this has been done countless times in states across the country, and has almost become the norm.

But in Michigan, we stopped it.

Voters Not Politicians volunteers collected more than 425,000 petition signatures with an all-volunteer e ort, putting Proposal 18-2 on the ballot. And on Nov. 6, 2018, 61% of Michigan voters from across the state and across the political spectrum passed the constitutional amendment to put the power to draw our election district maps in the hands of everyday citizens.

In December 2021, Michigan’s rst Independent Citizens Redistricting Com-

mission adopted new maps for our congressional and legislative districts. Time Magazine described the congressional map they produced as “one of the most balanced and competitive in the nation.” Michigan’s citizen-led redistricting reform ended partisan gerrymandering and set an example of what people across the political spectrum can achieve when we work together to prioritize the will of voters — not politicians. is doesn’t mean the process has been without its challenges. Both the process and the maps have survived several legal challenges, but in December of last year, a federal court voided several state House and state Senate district maps. However, our redistricting process, designed by and for voters, was built to withstand challenges like these. e commission came back together to correct the issues identi ed by the court, and successfully redrew the state House maps in time for this year’s election. As of this moment, it has nished redrawing the state Senate maps, and we’re only waiting for the court’s nal approval.

Critically, our amendment keeps the power to draw lines with the commission, not the courts or politicians. ere are some lessons learned from watching the process play out over the last eight years.

For example, our state must do a better job of getting geospatial and election data, including data from primary elections, to the commission. We should make improvements to the hiring process for experts and support sta so the commission has the best possible support, advice and training. And we must better support the public feedback process so that Michiganders have the tools they need to de ne their communities of interest and submit comments and maps that will receive full consideration.

But the most important lesson to take away is the rst line of Michigan’s constitution: “All political power is inherent in the people.” By implementing an independent, transparent and impartial redistricting process, citizens — not politicians — can take their power back.

If you want elected o cials

If you’ve been reading the recent series from Crain’s Cleveland Business, you may be feeling like elected o cials aren’t paying attention to your needs.

You aren’t alone. Poll after poll shows people are disa ected by politics. Take, for example, this Pew Research survey of six di erent focus groups who say they are giving up on politics.

Here in Ohio, how could you not feel disillusioned? Our state leaders seem utterly incapable of tackling any of Ohio’s urgent problems. Instead, they pick ghts with one another, with the governor, with the Ohio Supreme Court and with voters by attempting to limit our voices at the ballot box or ignoring our interests.

Catherine Turcer is the executive director of Common Cause Ohio, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy.

Years after former Speaker Larry Householder was arrested for a multi-million-dollar bribery scheme, there are continued revelations uncovering how our elected o cials were orchestrating or in uenced by a dark

Every vote in every election matters

As the 2024 election nears, Clevelanders are expressing their growing dissatisfaction with our electoral system with statements like, “My vote doesn’t make a di erence” and, “All the choices are bad.”

For many, the solution to this level of discouragement is simply not voting.

However, not voting this November could have far-reaching implications for everyone, regardless of issue stances. If validated, the statewide Citizens Not Politicians amendment will appear on Ohioans’ ballots this November. is amendment ghts against gerrymandering—the practice of drawing electoral district boundaries to fa-

vor a certain political party or group—which has been used by both parties to manipulate election results in Ohio since 1842. In fact, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the current district maps unconstitutional not once, but seven times. Citizens Not Politicians seeks to give Ohio citizens control of the redistricting process to ensure everyone’s voice and vote have in uence in elections.

Cuyahoga County residents will also see the Arts + Culture tax levy on their ballots in November. is levy, if passed, would increase taxes on cigarettes from $0.015 to $0.035, and the increased revenue would go to Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s grant for arts

money scheme to twist public policy for the bene t of donors. We are still living with the consequences of that corruption: sections of House Bill 6 are still on the books and ratepayers continue to bail out aging coal plants to the tune of $553K per day. You may be asking: Will it ever get better? Well, my answer is: yes, it will—if we push for necessary systemic changes and continue to make our voices heard. If voters give up, if they stop paying attention, those in power can continue to do whatever they want without repercussions. rowing our hands up and walking away is exactly what they want us to do, but we can’t let that happen. e rst step is making sure we end gerrymandering once and for all. e Citizens Not Politicians campaign recently submitted more than 731,000 signatures to put an amendment on the ballot that would bar politicians from drawing legislative dis-

Lique Gates, Sasha Turner and Tate Farinacci (from left) are senior strategist, civic and creative engagement intern and communications intern, respectively, at Cleveland VOTES.

focused on you, get involved

trict lines and instead put mapmaking in the hands of a balanced citizens redistricting commission.

Ohio’s maps have been rigged for too long; voters want to participate in meaningful elections so that elected o cials serve the people, not partisan interests. Allowing voters to pick their representation in unrigged districts will go a long way toward making sure Ohioans feel heard again.

When it comes to the upcoming election, Common Cause and our partners run the nation’s largest nonpartisan Election Protection program. By calling the nonpartisan hotline 866-OUR-VOTE, voters can get connected to trained volunteers for help with questions about voting issues such as what is an acceptable ID or to report problems at the polls.

If voters give up, if they stop paying attention, those in power can continue to do whatever they want without repercussions.

Another priority is ending the in uence of dark money. We should be able to “follow the money” in elections. Voters have the right to know who is trying to in uence them. Shining a light on dark money will reduce corruption. Together, fair maps and greater transparency will foster accountability and voter con dence.

e business case for rejecting gerrymandering

On July 1, we at Citizens Not Politicians submitted over 731,000 signatures to support a constitutional amendment that will end gerrymandering in Ohio. is momentous e ort reects the will and determination of Ohioans across the state — Republicans, Democrats and independents — and brings us closer to establishing an independent citizen commission for state legislative and congressional redistricting.

Maureen O’Connor

of Citizens Not Politicians is a former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.

As a former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, I have witnessed rsthand the detrimental impact of gerrymandering on our political system. Beyond the erosion of democratic principles, gerrymandering poses a signi cant threat to our business environment and economic stability.

Gerrymandering is the practice by which politicians draw political boundaries to give themselves an unfair advantage, undermining fair representation and leading to political stagnation and ine ective policy.

Nationally, Ohio is recognized as one of the worst states for gerrymandering, according to an analysis by Princeton University.

More than 9 million Ohioans, or 77% of the state population, live in districts where one party has a severe advantage in the 2024 Ohio House of Representatives elections, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law.

business planning and investment.

e best way to ght for your democracy is to get engaged. We’d love your help in making sure all voters’ voices are heard. Nov. 5 will be Ohio’s rst presidential election with new voting rules, including strict voter ID. Sign up at protectthevote.net to help promote the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline and support voters at the polls.

I’d also encourage you to go out and register some voters or volunteer with civic-minded organizations. When we stay involved, take action, and use our power as voters, we can ght the obstacles to a functional and accountable government. I hope you join me in working to strengthen our democracy.

and cultural organizations across the county.

e Cleveland Metropolitan School District tax levy will appear on Clevelanders’ ballots, too. e CMSD Levy, if passed, would increase annual property taxes for Clevelanders by about $300 per $100,000 of appraised property value. is revenue would be used to close CMSD’s budget de cit and allow $295 million in bonds to be issued for school building maintenance. In addition to those issues, many candidates will be on the Cuyahoga County ballot this November.

At Cleveland VOTES, we are well aware of rising voter suppression in Ohio. For example, House Bill 458 requires Ohio voters to provide unexpired photo identi cation to vote in person—restricting eligible ID types to Ohio driver’s licenses, Ohio photo IDs, U.S. or Ohio-issued Military ID cards (with photo) and U.S.

In addition, Ohio’s partisan, politician map-drawing process meant that nearly half of the 99-member Ohio House lacked a competitive primary contest to nominate the likely winners for the upcoming general election, the Brennan Center analysis found. is results in extreme partisanship that creates an environment of political instability and legislative unpredictability. Businesses thrive in stable environments where policies are consistent and reliable. However, gerrymandered districts undermine this stability, as elected o cials (Democrats and Republicans), secure in their manipulated seats, cater to the extremes of their party rather than the broader electorate. is leads to abrupt policy shifts and regulatory uncertainty, which can be detrimental to long-term

passports. Also, when voting by mail, one must now provide a copy of their eligible photo ID, Ohio driver’s license/photo ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Additional restrictions in H.B. 458 include a shortened absentee ballot request window which requires ballots to be requested a full week before Election Day, eliminating thenal day of in-person early voting, limiting ballot drop box hours and locations, and more.

H.B. 458 is another form of voter suppression. To counter this and other similar policies Cleveland VOTES has created a portal with the resources necessary to prepare to vote.

As a nonpartisan, democracy-building movement, Cleveland VOTES promotes informed, action-oriented mobilization that shifts power toward Equitable Civic Engagement and Infrastructure. To accom-

E ective governance relies on a harmonious system of checks and balances. Gerrymandering weakens this system by diminishing the governor’s veto power and undermining legislative checks and balances. is creates skewed decision-making processes that can result in policies harmful to business interests. A healthy legislative environment, where diverse viewpoints are represented and debated, is essential for sound policy development that bene ts all sectors of society. Seven times, my colleagues on the Ohio Supreme Court and I issued bipartisan rulings nding the politician-drawn maps unconstitutional. Seven times, the politicians thumbed their noses at the citizens and trampled on the rule of law and imposed gerrymandered maps on the voters. ese repeated rulings underscore the persistent and systemic nature of the problem, demonstrating that our current redistricting process is fundamentally awed and requires a comprehensive overhaul. e constitutional amendment we propose will empower a truly independent citizen-led process to draw congressional and state legislative maps. By banning gerrymandering, prohibiting the consideration of individual incumbents or candidates, and ensuring an open and transparent redistricting process with extensive public input, we can restore fairness and trust in our electoral system. is approach builds on successful practices from other states and promises to make Ohio a model of democratic integrity and accountability.

Gerrymandering is not just a political issue; it is an economic one. It threatens the stability and attractiveness of Ohio as a place to do business. We handed in more than 300,000 more signatures than required to make the ballot, and we expect the secretary of state will certify our amendment in the coming weeks giving Ohio voters the opportunity to decide the issue on Nov. 5.

By establishing an Independent Citizen Commission for redistricting, we can ensure fair representation, foster political stability and create a positive environment for business growth and investment.

plish this, Cleveland VOTES:

◗ Provides accessible voting resources. Issues our annual Equitable Civic Engagement Fund Request for Proposals—a grant to nonpro ts committed to educating, connecting and empowering Greater Cleveland voters. Strengthens voters’ power to positively effect community change through our Democracy Collective Incubator Program.

◗ And integrates civic engagement into the work of Cleveland creatives to enact transformative and meaningful social change through our More an My Art initiative. Your vote on state and local issues has an impact now more than ever.

Take a few minutes to create a voting plan and turn out to vote in this upcoming election and every election, including primaries and specials!

Voters check in at a polling location in Columbus on May 3, 2022. | BLOOMBERG

IMG Center foreclosure case takes another twist

By Stan Bullard

Two fronts are emerging for what’s next in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas foreclosure proceeding for IMG Center in downtown Cleveland after an appeal by building owner 1360 E. Ninth CLE LLC was denied July 3. Building owner James Breen holds one card, as there is a 45-day period to appeal the case to the Ohio Supreme Court. e special servicer, Rialto Capital Management of New York City, holds the other card after separately concluding the sheri ’s sale process. e situation is such that Judge Brendan Sheehan, Cuyahoga County’s administrative judge, issued a July 9 journal entry clarifying that nothing can proceed before Aug. 19. Moreover, Sheehan retained the right to send it back to Judge Nancy Fuerst for more hearings before the case is concluded.  Signi cantly, Breen’s legal team was joined for the appeal by Christopher Katers, a member of Judge Lang & Katers, a Milwaukee law rm that advertises itself as a specialist in lender liability cases.

e three-judge panel at Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals (8th Appellate District) rejected all ve claims to appeal the lower court’s decisions. e key

claim was that the lower court did not issue a nding that there was actual evidence of a default.

However, the appeals court ruled that lings in the case by the building owner established that it had defaulted, so no other evidence was needed to show default.

Meanwhile, with the initial appeal pending, Rialto attorneys had gone through legal steps to allow the lender to conclude two sheri ’s sales without an outside bid and to secure ownership of the property with a June 24 credit bid

for $6.6 million.

Essentially, the sheri ’s deed for the high-vacancy o ce building may not be issued until the appeal period lapses and Sheehan allows the local court to rule on other potential issues in the case.

Breen, who has bitterly op-

CRAIN'S DINING & ENTERTA INMENT GUIDE

posed the foreclosure and gone through two prior attorneys, declined to comment in texts or an email on the record about the proceeding. Neither his local attorney, Ross Babbitt of Cleveland, nor Katers of the Judge Lang law rm replied to two phone calls and an email to each by 2:30 p.m. Friday, July 12.

e building remains under the control of court-appointed receiver Paul Downey, He continues to have CBRE marketing the o ce space for lease at bargain-basement rates.

Insiders argue what is the next best step should Rialto secure the property. On one hand, IMG Center might ful ll the need for lowcost o ce space downtown. However, should Rialto try to sell the building it would have to compete with four other distressed o ce buildings that might be targeted for apartment conversion.

Rialto is the special service on behalf of the loan sold in the collateralized mortgage bond servicing market as part of a loan package called UBSCM2018C9-OH IMG, LLC. e $16.7 million was secured to re nance the property in 2018.

e building contains about 280,000 square feet of o ce space and dates from 1965.

INVITE DECISION MAKERS TO YOUR TABLE.

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Foreclosure proceedings are continuining for the IMG Center at 1360 East Ninth Street in downtown Cleveland. | COSTAR

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS: Imperative for a Thriving Economy

Sustainable business isn’t just an option, it’s a strategic imperative for a thriving economy. Join Crain’s for a captivating dialogue around sustainability and the role the business community plays in driving change.

Joan Chase

SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

The Fund of Our Economic Future

Anne Richards

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Latest plan for riverfront hints at future development

By Stan Bullard

e latest version of the comprehensive plan Bedrock Cleveland and the City of Cleveland’s planners are working up for the riverfront behind Tower City entails transforming Huron and Canal Roads and a new platform for future development.

Struck from the original master development plan was a proposal to extend Tower City Center near its barrel-vaulted top by closing West Huron Road. Nora Romano , Bedrock vice president of business development, told Crain's that the idea was scrapped because of what would be a “catastrophic” impact on downtown tra c in the area.

How Tower City will connect to the riverfront is a key part of the city’s shore-to-core-to-shore plan, she said, remains to be worked out. But, she added, "Bedrock remains committed to its proposed vision for the Cuyahoga Riverfront Master Plan. We are going through the process to determine how Tower City Center will connect to the riverfront, creating access from shore-to-coreto-shore.”

Updated drawings shared with the Cleveland City Planning Commission on Friday, July 12, also show that a new, so-far unnamed riverfront road would be created about 200 feet closer to the river than the existing Canal Road.

Currently, Canal Road is so far back from the river there is little sense of a riverfront drive when passing over it, Romano said in the interview.

Meantime, Canal Road, which has played a big part of Northeast Ohio’s economic development, would get a new role in Bedrock’s future plans.

e current plan calls for a two-level platform for future commercial development closest to Tower City on the river valley’s rim. One level of buildings would meet Huron Road at the precipice for their front doors and another would face the proposed riverfront road. Meantime, Canal Road would be converted to an underground service road connecting the two levels. at would reduce con icts between delivery vehicles needed for the potential towers and the public’s ability to enjoy the slope.

A series of about a dozen buildings would pepper the area, according to a massing study of the area. “ ese are massing studies which

show what could be possible,” Romano emphasized, and are not scoped out yet by Bedrock planners as to their sizes.

Intact in the plan is the central concept of converting parking lots currently being used by SherwinWilliams Co. to public green space (Bedrock now owns those lots).

e riverfront walking path key to the plan would be some 3,000 linear feet long.

Verbiage proposed by city planners and Bedrock says the proposed buildings should be designed in such a way their ground level would activate their surroundings with retail or other features.

Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad extension

e other big addition to the plan is Bedrock’s proposal for a depot

Port vote advances gap nancing for Shoreway, Erieview towers

Kim Palmer

e Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority board on Tuesday, July 16, voted to approve nearly $120 million in tax increment revenue bonds for the redevelopment of Erieview Tower and a new-build addition to Shoreway Tower.

e two projects are part of a suite nancing worth approximately $144 million in total unanimously approved by the port’s nine-person board of directors at the meeting.

e $85.5 million Shoreway Tower project will use a $64 million taxable lease revenue bond to construct a 13-story, 200,000square-foot addition to the existing renovated building on West 76th Street.

e Battery Park-based project includes the development of 110 multifamily, market-rate apartments, 4,000 square feet of retail space and 169 parking stalls.

“ ese developers already built apartments on this site as part of a historic rehab about 10 years ago. is is a new build, adding on to that project, on land they own, using a corridor that attaches and will allow the buildings to share

amenities,” said Rhonda Winslow, vice president of development and nance for the port.

e project developers — Cleveland-based J Roc Development — are also pursuing a $2 million brown eld grant and a $300,000 grant from the sewer district as part of the plan. e project also will add three apartments to the existing Shoreway Tower and provide upgrades to the art gallery, tness center and roof deck.

e $55 million in nancing for the downtown 40-story Erieview Tower is part of a $78.2 multi-phase redevelopment converting o ces to more than 200 Marriott-branded luxury residential apartments on the 17 through 28th oors.

e initial part of the project will also create two oors of shared residential space and a spa.

Construction is expected to start by the end of 2024, performed by the Kassouf family-owned Erieview Developer LLC. e multiphase project includes nearly $15 million in PACE loans and more than $9 million in Federal lowincome housing credits expected to begin this year.

Other phases of the redevelopment will eventually include top-

oor rental apartments, a restaurant and bar on the 38th oor as well as the rooftop, eight oors of W-branded hotel rooms and 12 oors of renovated o ce space.

An expansion and renovation project at the University School’s Shaker Heights middle school facility was awarded $25 million in tax-exempt educational facilities revenue bonds from the port.

e $42.4 million project to replace a section of the existing middle school and build a three-story, 61,000-square-foot library addition includes about $17.4 million of equity from the boys-only private school established in 1890.

e port has seen a signi cant uptick in requests for its tax increment revenue bonds, which provides sales and construction tax savings for large construction projects.

e increase in requests comes as in ation and higher interest rates have hit the construction industry hard. It also follows a controversial reversal of the port’s mandatory prevailing wage policy, which was replaced with additional fees levied on nonprevailing wage-paying developers and directed to a port community investment fund.

town depot by suggesting a site. e advantage of the location south of the bridge near West ird Street, she said, is that it's near a proposed riverfront access area and kayak launch in the plan. ose stretches are currently all bulkheaded, and Bedrock is updating sections of it as part of nearby plans for the proposed Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center, which incorporates a downtown practice facility for the Cavaliers. Comprehensive plans, often called master plans, such as the one Bedrock and the city are developing, stand to shape public infrastructure improvements and Bedrock’s property development over the decades.

for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, nally allowing the popular railroad to reach downtown from its current northern end in Independence.

A proposed downtown connection for the nonpro t’s moving historic trains has been sought for decades. It is currently under study in an e ort led by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, which coordinates federally funded infrastructure e orts and regional initiatives.

e proposed site would be on the south side of Hope Memorial Bridge where existing railroad tracks — which the line could use — now end.

Romano told Crain's that Bedrock added the potential site because Ko Bonner, Bedrock CEO, said the company should contribute to existing planning for a down-

City planners on July 12 reviewed the plan in depth but did not vote on it because a nal plan is expected later in the year.

When asked about the location of the proposed downtown railroad depot by Bedrock on July 12, Joe Mazur, president and CEO of the Cuyahoga Railway, said it was the rst he had heard of the proposal. He declined to comment, noting that NOACA is leading the planning initiative.

Instead of dead-ending Huron between Ontario Street and Superior Avenue, the plan calls for the street to be reduced in size with fewer tra c lanes, the addition of bike lanes, and public spaces, similar to other road diet plans in the region.

Romano said that would soften that section of Huron and improve the diversity of forms of transportation in the plan.

e bonds provide a gap nancing mechanism that allows the port to enter into the real estate chain in “a conduit fashion, and pass along a sales tax savings or construction,” Winslow said.   e port’s ground lease acts as a construction loan for developers and banks are able to retain rst lien position on the project and there is no nancial risk for the port, she added.

“Typically, when the developer goes to re nance in a couple of years, we'll collapse the lease structure,” she said. “It's really just to check the box to pass along that construction tax savings and then the project includes our inclusion policy, prevailing wage or modied prevailing wage policy.”

Board members also voted through a non-binding agreement to consider nancing Village 55, a

125-unit a ordable housing and retail project in Slavic Village. Local developers VEDA and New York City-based Slate Property Group are seeking both $20 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds from the port as well as Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OFHA) low-income tax credits to acquire and renovate the 8,000-squarefoot buildings at 5605-5645 Broadway Ave. and 5610 Hamlet Ave. Cuyahoga County also will be able to re nance the outstanding principal on the County Convention Center and Hotel after a vote by the board.

e port holds title to the two acres of land as part of a 2013 agreement and the vote allows the county nancial department to re- nance the more than $152.2 million in aggregate principal from the original $230.9 million.

The Shoreway Tower project will use a taxable lease revenue bond to construct an addition to the existing renovated building on West 76th Street. J-ROC DEVELOPMENT

The area between the Terminal Tower complex looks green but is actually a patchwork of roads and parking lots. | STAN BULLARD

63% over last year, with Jose Ramirez sales up 44%; Steven Kwan merchandise up 80%; and sales for Andres Gimenez, Josh Naylor and Emmanuel Clase all up 356%.

◗ Overall food and beverage performance is up 20% against plan for 2024, with Progressive Field’s new locations accounting for a 28% increase in sales over previous concepts.

◗ Hot dog sales are up 36% yearto-date.

◗ TV ratings on Bally Sports Great Lakes in July are up 24% compared to last year. e Guardians have the fth-highest household rating of any market in Major League Baseball, and they’re seventh in households-per-game.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time to be a Guardians fan,” said Alex King, the Guardians’ senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy. “We’ve got the No. 1 pick in the draft. We’ve got the best record in the division. We’ve got a great group of guys who play hard and play for each other. And the fan base is supporting the team at recent record levels.”

What’s impressive about the attendance gures is that the Guardians already made a big attendance jump last season when they averaged 23,513 games — a nearly 40% increase over 2022 (17,050).

Cleveland already has nine sellouts, which is the most since it had nine (total) in 2018 and the most sellouts before the All-Star break since 2001. e Guardians hosted 197,071 fans over their six-game homestand to start July, the most in a six-game homestand since May 23-28 of 2008 (204,087). e three-game set against the San Francisco Giants alone drew a season-high 104,862 fans.

“It was really important for us to get o to a fast start,” King said. “So many times in the recent past, we’ve nished really strong — which is fantastic — and we’ve had a postseason experience that was exciting, but getting o to a fast start gives our fans a lot of excitement and energy and hope early in the season. at’s great for us, and it’s great for business.” While it’s tempting to compare current attendance gures to the team’s 1990s heyday, that’s not a

fair comparison to this one. Outside of the 1993-2002 seasons (which include the last year of Municipal Stadium and the magical rst nine years of Jacobs Field), Cleveland has only averaged 25,000 fans per game ve times: 1948, 1949, 2007, 2008 and 2017 — and that’s going back to 1901.

“Certainly, the comparison to the 1990s is natural,” King said. “It was a glory time in Cleveland. So many things were going right for the Indians then, and in Cleveland, within the context of the economics of baseball. at run was probably unparalleled.

“At the same time, it’s really

hard to compare that against where we’re at now. e industry has changed. Cleveland has changed. ere are so many things that have evolved and it’s really di erent to compete within Major League Baseball and to compete within all of the things that people have at their disposal and how entertainment has changed. ings are so fundamentally di erent that we don’t spend much time looking back at that era.”

It was also a much di erent era for broadcast, but while many Northeast Ohioans are frustrated by the current lack of streaming options for Bally Sports Great Lakes, the Guardians are still posting big TV ratings. Cleveland averages a 4.1 household rating, which equates to 62,000 households each game.

“What’s interesting about TV ratings and households is that sometimes baseball teams in smaller markets have really good household ratings because their overall size is lower — or you have an enormous market like New York or L.A. and their household rating is lower,” King said. “We’re in a pretty sweet spot in that only one other team — Philadelphia — has a higher rating than us and is also attracting more households. And the great part about that is people are seeing the incredible atmosphere and the packed house that we have.”

“Every team we talked to before the launch told us to order as much (merchandise) as we possibly can — and they said it still might not be enough,” King said. “We ordered quite a bit and now we’re going through and reordering speci c player jerseys and T-shirts. I give our merchandise team a ton of credit. ey had to juggle moving our (team shop) location and order the right amount of inventory and they did a great job.”

Fans also have responded to the stadium’s new food concepts, which include Fry Box, Frozen Hop, Cle Kantina, Choolaah Indian Barbecue, Batter Box Chicken and Fries, Gourmet Popcorn and Slider’s Hot Diggity Dog.

“We’ve got the No. 1 pick in the draft. We’ve got the best record in the division. We’ve got a great group of guys who play hard and play for each other. And the fan base is supporting the team at recent record levels.”

As far as merchandise, the City Connect jerseys have been a big hit with both the players and the fans. City Connect merchandise accounts for about 60% of the Guardians’ overall merchandise sales, and it’s provided a boost for a club that had to close its main stadium team shop due to Progressive Field renovation, relocating into a tent just outside the gate.

“ ose have really driven the increase (in food sales),” King said. “And we’re trying to introduce technology that’s making the process of getting in line, getting your food and getting back to the game as e cient as possible. at’s a work in progress, and a lot of teams in sports are focused on that. It will be a continued area of focus for us, and as we nish our renovations, it will just get better and better.”

So much of the Guardians’ momentum is due to their on- eld success, and there’s no guarantee that will continue. (It certainly helps that the front o ce will enter this year’s trade deadline with extra revenue in their pocket.) For King and the rest of the Guardians’ business team, the focus will remain on making sure fans have a good experience, win or lose.

“For us, it’s about, ‘How do we provide the best possible experience?’ ” he said. “It’s about providing the best value for the fans seeking that and o ering a variety of di erent experiences. We will be introducing a new Home Plate Club in 2025, which will be the best premium offering we have in the ballpark, all the way to the Ballpark Pass, which is a great product to get people on the fence to engage with the team.

“We’re trying to really create this full spectrum of experience and products for all di erent types of fans to come and enjoy our games. When we do that really well, and the team is playing really well, we’ll maximize whatever our potential is here in Cleveland.”

The City Connect jerseys have been a big hit. City Connect merchandise accounts for about 60% of the Guardians’ overall merchandise sales. | CLEVELAND GUARDIANS PHOTOS

Overall food and beverage performance is up 20% against plan for 2024.

Alex King, the Guardians’ senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy

understand why it's still very much a vibrant corridor,'' said Ash O’Connor, founder of Made Cleveland, which opened in 2022 and sells a variety of locally made goods. “ e vacancies, I think, are more a testament to the changing of the times than they are to Coventry itself.”

While there are currently 11 vacancies in an area stretching from May eld Road to Euclid Heights Boulevard, nine of those are concentrated in two buildings, said Brian Anderson, Cleveland Heights assistant director of economic development.

About 82% of the storefront spaces are occupied in Coventry, with the 11 vacancies coming out of a total of 62 spaces, he said.

“From my perspective, it's a busy place,” said Suzanne DeGaetano, owner of Mac's BacksBooks, which opened in Coventry in 1982. “We have these empty storefronts, and people see that and I think they get a little bit of the wrong impression. e retail that's down here is very strong.” e spaces available are bigger locations and are harder to ll as new retailers often need smaller locations to start, DeGaetano said.

“It’s really hard to nd retail in this contemporary environment, a retail concept, that's going to t there,” she said.

While vacancies may be at a high, Moore stated that Coventry is expecting seven to 10 new openings within the next 18 months.

A sense of community and collaboration

Coventry is home to multiple shops and locations that are both longtime mainstays and brandnew businesses, including One Pot - Hot Pot & BBQ, which Hangchun Zheng opened on May 15. is is Zheng’s second restaurant in Coventry; he also owns the Seafood Shake Boil restaurant that opened in 2017. Zheng said there was a lot of foot tra c when he opened the rst restaurant, but it has tailed o since then, exacerbated by the pandemic. But, he added, the crowds are again growing, aided by marketing e orts on social media.

Zheng said he believes new concepts, such as Hot Pot, coming to Coventry will get new people — and, generally, more people — to visit the area to explore what is not anywhere nearby.

“(When) people go out these days, it’s not about just the food anymore,” Zheng said. “It’s about the environment, it’s about the vibe, hanging out with friends. People care more about that . . . it’s just completely di erent.”

While O’Connor of Made Cleveland isn't from Cleveland Heights, Coventry stood out because it reminded her of a mix of her favorite places back home in Philadelphia.

“Coventry is kind of an interesting strip because you have little pockets,” O’Connor said. “ e retail typically ends up being down at the bottom of the hill, and then the top of the hill is more of the eateries, the Grog Shop, the theater, the church.”

O’Connor loves that Made Cleve-

land, which she described as a brick-and-mortar Etsy for local vendors, is across the street from Coventry “anchors” such as Mac’s Backs and Tommy’s Restaurant. ere is a sense of community between the anchors and the newcomers and they have been “welcomed with open arms,” she said. e sense of community ties into why Sophie Boehlen, broker of Premier Heights Realty, and Katie Schenk, director of operations of Premier Heights Realty, chose Coventry as their home base and o ce location.

While other Cleveland Heights properties caught their attention,

they wanted to be in Coventry, Boehlen said.

“Coventry is the heart and soul of Cleveland Heights,” Boehlen said. “If you want to know what Cleveland Heights is, you come to Coventry.”

ey opened their doors last December at 1863 Coventry Road, after the location was converted from a former dry cleaner, Heights Cleaners & Shirt.

While Premier Heights Realty isn't the typical retail/restaurant occupant in Coventry, Boehlen said she believes the business enhances the variety of what Coventry o ers.

“We try to collaborate, we try to

send each other to each other's places,” said DeGaetano of Mac's Backs. “It's an easy street to do that with because it's not a big street. . . .It’s sort of like a community crossroads in some ways. It's a gathering spot, I think.”

Anchors are also an important aspect of Coventry, though some have closed in recent years.

is includes Big Fun, a toy and novelty shop that sat in the middle of the district, which closed its doors in June 2018. is past winter, Big Fun did a pop-up that brought a surge of shoppers, a “fantastic” event, said Kathy Blackman, owner of the Grog Shop and the B Side Lounge.

After being in business for more than 50 years, Record Revolution closed its doors in January 2023, and the spot has sat vacant since. More recently, BD’s Mongolian Grill vacated its space in February.

“It's really important to have strong anchors, and I think we could use another strong anchor,” Blackman said. “As much as some businesses do well and strive on the street, we are de nitely not doing as well as we could if we had support around us. ere used to be a really thriving night scene with a bunch of di erent bars and restaurants that really doesn't exist anymore.”

What's missing?

While Coventry Village has restaurants, retail, real estate and banking, others agree with Blackman on the missing nightlife element.

She opened the Grog Shop in 1992 and has been at the current location at 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd. since July 2003. Blackman opened the B Side Lounge at the same address a few months after the move.

Having limited nightlife is not great for Blackman, as the Grog Shop and B Side have to become “more of a destination” rather than being able to send patrons to other parts of the neighborhood.

Blackman said Coventry used to be dominated by bars, but over the years, that's changed.

“It used to be a neighborhood

place where people would bop from bar to bar. ere’s nowhere to bop, there's nowhere else to go,” Blackman said. “I'm looking forward to new people moving in and new night tenants that are viable tenants, and bringing in a good crowd and all that.”

Also on Blackman's wish list is a sports bar. Blackman said there used to be at least ve and now there are none, so “there is 100% a market for it and 100% a need (for it).”

A Panini’s Bar & Grill, which closed in March 2020, is now One Pot, and the former Winking Lizard, which closed in August 2016, is now the Seafood Shake, both of which are owned by Zheng.

“We need a bar or a brewery,” said Moore, the Coventry Village Special Improvement District executive director. “I would love a brewery. Everyone wants one."

What the future holds for Coventry

One of the landlords in the area who Moore said “appeared to lack urgency” is making a major investment in the neighborhood including a new roof, renovations in apartments upstairs and retail downstairs, and hiring sta speci cally for the region. Moore said that investment by the landlord, who is based outside the area, is a “game-changer” for Coventry.

On top of that, roughly $15 million is being invested into the district within a 24-month period, focusing on municipal infrastructure, institutional build-outs, nonpro t investments and new restaurants, public art, community programming and even a medical dispensary, he said.

While thinking about tra c and keeping people in Coventry, DeGaetano hopes some of the restaurants that transitioned to carryout only during the pandemic open up their dining rooms again because “it just doesn't encourage people to stay on the street when it's just takeout only.”

“I don't think it's the end of Coventry,” Blackman said. “I think it could be a great potential for new beginnings.”

Made Cleveland, located at 1807 Coventry Road, opened in 2022. | ALEXANDRA GOLDEN

The Grog Shop is an anchor of Coventry Village. GUS CHAN

One Pot - Hot Pot & BBQ, located at 1825 Coventry Road, opened May 15. | ALEXANDRA GOLDEN

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