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By Joe Scalzo
By Jeremy Nobile
Park in Akron is drawing big crowds this season, and RubberDucks GM Jim Pfander said the Guardians’ success
ore than a decade before he became the president and general manager of his hometown Akron Aeros/ RubberDucks, Jim Pfander spent two years as the director of promotions and sponsorships for the Spokane (Washington) Indians, a Class A Short Season a liate of the Kansas City Royals.
ose cities are, uh, not near each other.
“We weren’t getting many Royals fans traveling up to Spokane,” Pfander said, laughing.
“When the Guardians do well, we do well.”
Jim Pfander, president and general manager of Akron RubberDucks
well,” said Pfander, whose club is averaging 3,874 fans per game this season and is on pace to post its highest attendance since 2019, the last year before COVID-19. “I think this is such a football town, and everyone knows the Browns’ training camp (just opened). In the years when the Guardians aren’t doing as well, the mindset shifts toward football.”
e RubberDucks’ home stadium, Canal Park, is about a 40-minute drive south of Progressive Field, making it one of four minor league/independent teams that play within 75 minutes of downtown Cleveland.
In a move that owner Matt Fish says is necessary to better position his business for future success, Melt Bar and Grilled will be closing its remaining stores except for its agship location in Lakewood where the brand began in 2006. is is the latest move in Melt’s quest to get back on track as a business. e company has closed several locations this year and in years past in what’s been a tumultuous stretch that led to Fish ling for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June. Bringing the Melt footprint back to just its original location at this juncture means closing stores in Mentor and Akron. e last day for business in Mentor will be Aug. 11, and the last day in Akron will be Aug. 25. Other locations closed by Melt this year include those in Avon, Independence and, most recently, Columbus via the Easton Gateway, which closed July 14. A franchise at Cedar Point was also closed, but that occurred following the expiration of a lease there.
Instead, the Guardians are more like a spotlight — especially when they’re winning.
“When the Guardians do well, we do
On the bright side, the Royals also weren’t stealing any fans from Spokane, but if there’s one thing Pfander has learned over his 12 years in Akron it’s this: the Class AA RubberDucks — and the rest of Northeast Ohio’s minor league/ independent baseball teams — aren’t playing in the shadow of the Cleveland Guardians.
Two other teams are about 25 minutes away: the Lake County Captains, the Guardians’ High-A a liate, who play at
See BASEBALL on Page 16
Company branches into health, beauty products
By Dan Shingler
Lubrizol has made some big changes in recent years — and it’s not done yet, according to CEO Rebecca Liebert.
Liebert, who took the reins of the company in 2022 after stints as an executive at PPG and Hon-
eywell, said she was drawn to the company because of the technologies it had — and now she’s working on applying them to more markets and products. e company, which began life making lubricants for springs used in early automobiles and then branched out into making a host of transportation additives, still serves that market. But even the automotive market is rapidly modernizing, and so is Lubrizol,
Liebert said.
“Now, we’ve moved on to support EVs and hybrids,” she said.
New vehicles mean new opportunities for the company, Liebert said. e new vehicles still need lubricants and other additives, but they need di erent ones than were used by internal combustion engines in many cases.
See LUBRIZOL on Page 19
e Melt University location at CWRU and Melt Ballpark location at Progressive Field, which are independently run franchises, are expected to remain open.
By Paige Bennett
Catholic Charities, Diocese of Cleveland, will say goodbye to its president and CEO next year.
Patrick Gareau, who has led the organization since 2011, plans to retire in January 2025, according to a news release issued Monday, July 29.
Catholic Charities’ board of directors, in conjunction with the diocese, intends to launch a national search for its next leader in the coming weeks, the news release says.
Catholic Charities is one of the largest health and human services organizations in Northeast Ohio, serving people in Cuyahoga, Ashland, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Summit and Wayne counties. e organization provides programs and services such as emergency assistance, childcare, counseling services and community hot meals and pantries. It also offers youth sports through the CYO Athletics program.
Gareau said in a phone interview that he will miss Catholic Charities’ sta . He said now felt like the right time to retire as he has accomplished many career goals and wanted to spend more time with family.
Before joining Catholic Charities, Gareau spent 17 years as president and CEO at St. Augustine Health Ministries. In that position, he was responsible for the management of multiple subsidiaries.
One career highlight, he said, was helping improve operations and nances at St. Augustine Health Ministries. During his tenure, he oversaw signi cant expansions, including the St. Augustine Health Campus, Child Enrichment Center, home delivery meal program and others.
Gareau started his career with seven years in the U.S. Army, where he attained the rank of Captain.
“Patrick has been instrumental in expanding the reach of Catholic Charities, which has grown to serve 400,000 members of our community each year,” Diocese of Cleveland Bishop Edward C. Malesic said in a provided statement. “I am profoundly grateful to Patrick for the giving spirit he has so clearly demonstrated throughout the course of his career, and I wish him well in his next chapter, where he will, no doubt, continue to serve the community.”
By Paige Bennett
Nearly one year after Lillian Kuri began her tenure as the Cleveland Foundation’s 10th president and CEO, she is thinking about how to engage more people in giving and to create impact in new ways.
It’s tting, then, to hear Kuri discuss change and innovation on a sunny July afternoon at the foundation’s MidTown headquarters. e organization moved into its new home on East 66th and Euclid last spring, right around the time Kuri’s transition to CEO was announced.
In a sense, the move is a physical manifestation of the foundation’s e orts to increase its impact and make philanthropy, which can feel opaque at times, more open and welcoming, Kuri said. And the large glass window behind her o ered a glimpse of the Cleveland Foundation’s next endeavor on this front: MidTown Collaboration Center.
Construction is well underway on the 95,000-square-foot facility with a terracotta facade adjacent to the Cleveland Foundation’s headquarters. e building will house research and training centers, a media lab, restaurants, a recording studio and music venue, and collaborative work spaces.
e project, spearheaded by the Cleveland Foundation and JumpStart, will bring Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals, Assembly for the Arts, Hyland Software, JumpStart and Cleveland Institute of Art together under one roof.
e work on the building is expected to be nished by the end of the year. Tenants will begin moving into the facility in Janu-
ary, with a phased opening to the community to follow.
Like other innovation districts across the country, the center is designed to spur collaboration among area institutions, but the project is also intended to serve as a hub for the community, Kuri said.
“When we’re all said and done, not only are (the tenants) going to work together and create innovation, but the community will have real time access to everything in a way that’s never happened before,” she said.
In a recent interview with Crain’s, Kuri looked back on her rst year at the helm of the organization and discussed what’s to come for the Cleveland Foundation.
Kuri, who has been with the foundation since 2005, began the year with a listening tour. During that period, she gained insight into what people cherished about the foundation, which is more than a century old, as well as areas for improvement.
One recurring theme that emerged was that people want
more ways to participate in philanthropy — and not just through donor-advised funds. Technology has changed how people give, Kuri said, and they want to be able to feel the impact of their dollars.
e question is, how can the Cleveland Foundation create new vehicles for people to engage in philanthropy? e simple answer, Kuri said, is to expand giving.
“ e products of the last 100 years are not the same for the future,” she said, but the foundation is still committed to serving the donors of the past. In 2023, the Cleveland Foundation made a total of $172.5 million in grants ($68.9 million directed by board and sta , and $103.6 million directed by donors and organizational funds). e foundation received $133.4 million in new gifts, with its total assets sitting at $3.1 billion.
Kuri said the foundation is prepared to explore new methods for allowing people to participate in philanthropy.
Another item that jumped out during Kuri’s listening tour was the need to move the needle on Cleveland’s population health indicators. Despite work being done in the community, the city has struggled to make progress on large systemic issues like income inequality and health disparities.
Tackling these challenges, Kuri said, requires a strategy that connects economic growth and development with putting people who need it on the path toward prosperity.
“You can’t have the sense that if I go create all these jobs that somehow it’s going to trickle down and help people,” she said. Rather, area organizations must come together and ask themselves what needs to be done to make improvements.
“I think what it’s gonna require is what you’re seeing, which is a new generation of leaders who are willing to work together and say that Cleveland Foundation can’t solve it alone. Health care institutions can’t solve it alone. No one can solve it alone,” Kuri said. is year, the foundation endowed three a nity funds supporting the LGBTQ+, Latinx and Black communities with $3 million each. e funds will have their own advisory committees and be able to make grants on an annual basis, guided by their own application deadlines and grantmaking priorities.
“In some ways, this is being led by the community,” Kuri said. “ ey can kind of pick the most pressing issue and put those dollars to work.”
e funds can also shift their focus areas over time as the needs of the community change and evolve. Advisory committees for the LGBTQ+ and Latinx funds have already been set, with the LGBTQ+ fund slated to start fundraising for additional resources in August.
e Latinx fund, meanwhile, is expected to launch and begin fundraising in the fourth quarter of this year, and the fund in support of the Black community will follow next year. With the groups that have already started meeting, Kuri said there is a strong desire to focus on speci c, pressing issues a ecting their communities.
By Jeremy Nobile
Premier Bank’s top executive is expecting a relatively soft impact to the company’s workforce and branch footprint as it combines with WesBanco next year.
While synergies are a core part of any M&A deal, the two banks have complementary operations and footprints with not too much overlap, and WesBanco aims to capitalize on the platform Premier has established in Northern Ohio in particular.
As such, keeping much of what Premier has in place now is a large piece of the strategy behind WesBanco’s all-stock $959 million acquisition of the bank.
at deal is expected to close early next year with the companies integrating in the months that follow. e transaction is expected to result in a combined bank with an estimated $27 billion in assets — $8.78 billion, or about 33% of that total comes from Premier — and $19 million in loans operating across nine Midwest states.
e companies said the combined business will have more than 250 bank locations across its footprint. According to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the banks had 275 locations between them in 2023. So there’s not much expected to be cut in terms of branches.
Meanwhile, WesBanco president and CEO Je Jackson has indicated that Premier’s key leadership positions will be largely unchanged as the institutions come together, including its Ohio market presidents.
Nonetheless, company lings show that WesBanco anticipates cost savings of about 26% of Premier’s non-interest expense base. A good chunk — often around half — of those savings tend to come from personnel reductions in deals like this.
“We will know more on speci cs over the next 60 to 90 days but there’s obviously going to be a great number of support teams that stay in place,” said Premier CEO Gary Small. “ at is the model at WesBanco now.”
Bank analyst Charlie Crowley, a
Cleveland-based managing director with Janney Montgomery Scott, underscored the complementary nature of the deal and how it lends to WesBanco keeping a lot of Premier’s people and infrastructure in place.
“WesBanco has a geographic footprint stretching from the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area to Louisville. ey have pretty good coverage in the southern half of Ohio, including in Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton,” Crowley said.
“On the other hand, Premier’s network spans northern Ohio, with particular strength in Northwest Ohio and in the Mahoning Valley.
ey also have a small presence in southern Michigan and in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Given the lack of overlap, it should be a friendly transaction from an employee and customer standpoint.”
In terms of assets and workforce, WesBanco is a little more than twice the size of Premier.
On the people front, the latter has approximately 950 employees to Wheeling, West Virginia-based WesBanco’s 2,200.
Premier was established in 2020 with the completion of the merger between Home Savings Bank of Youngstown and First Federal Bank of the Midwest in De ance. To symbolize the equal nature of that deal, Premier established corporate headquarters in De ance and bank headquarters in Youngstown.
Small said that there were concerns of Premier shrinking its workforce in Youngstown as that deal came together. While there are always some ups and downs in headcount, Small said the bank has effectively maintained its sta ng levels at the downtown Youngstown o ce tower on Federal Street — known by many in the area as the Premier Tower because of its name on the building — of more than 300 since it transitioned from Home Savings four years ago.
Small said that he anticipates that presence staying largely intact as WesBanco takes over.
“Of all roles we thought might be disrupted with the coming together (Home Savings and First Federal), half of those individuals found
roles elsewhere in the organization through natural attrition, opportunities and everything that goes on in the course of a year,” Small said. “ is will be no di erent.”
Small expects much of the same in De ance as well, underscoring the relatively cheap cost of operating in those areas, which makes it unlikely for WesBanco to outright vacate them.
“ ere is no turf in either market that is less expensive than this tower (in Youngstown) and that headquarters building — which is a fairly new building — in De ance,” Small said.
Small also pointed to the unique structure of the deal between Premier and WesBanco. e all-stock transaction includes an equity capital raise of $200 million to support the deal.
at helps WesBanco bu er capital levels as it completes the deal. As such, Small notes there are no “stretch goals” for the buyer to meet in terms of cost savings, all of which points to keeping Premier’s people and buildings in place.
So will WesBanco assume naming rights on the Premier Tower when the time comes?
While still early in the deal process, Small said that is a “reasonable expectation.”
As far as what Small has planned professionally after the deal closes, that is largely to be determined.
Small does not plan to have an operating role with the combined bank once the institutions come together many months from now and is not speculating on what comes next for him at this time. After all, he still has a bank to run in the interim.
at said, he emphasized that Premier will be well-represented at WesBanco as four of its directors join the latter’s board.
“We are excited about the opportunity to join WesBanco and to continue the strong community banking path that we’ve been on,” Small said. “Our constituents — clients, teammates, shareholders and the community — each will be very well-served from this combination.”
By Hayley DeSilva, Modern Healthcare
Cleveland Clinic has named Ben Shahshahani as its rst chief arti cial intelligence o cer, continuing the trend of health care providers creating leadership roles to support AI ventures.
Shahshahani has served as senior vice president of science, machine learning and product analytics for SiriusXM and Pandora since 2021. Previously, he held leadership roles with Verizon Media, Yahoo, Google, Nuance and IBM.
surer Elevance Health and Richmond, Virginia-based VCU Health. Federal agencies have also created leadership roles and task forces to oversee AI in health care.
More health care organizations are adding AI executive positions as the technology’s presence in the industry continues to grow, including Indianapolis-based in-
“Cleveland Clinic sees great promise for arti cial intelligence in health care, as it has the ability to improve care for patients and streamline work for caregivers,” said Rohit Chandra, chief digital o cer for Cleveland Clinic. “However, we need to be thoughtful about how we implement it. Ben has a track record of e ectively and strategically applying new technologies to create bene cial change for organizations.”
He will begin his new role in August.
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By Alexandra Golden
Cilantro Taqueria was expected to open its sixth location — and rst in the city of Cleveland — on Monday, Aug. 5, in the former Fahrenheit space at 2417 Professor Ave. in Tremont.
e location has sat empty since chef Rocco Whalen closed the doors in June 2023, after operating there for more than 20 years. Whalen moved Fahrenheit to 55 Public Square in downtown Cleveland.
“ ere's no real rhyme or reason — people approach us with what a good location looks like," Sandro Galindo, chief operating o cer of the Cilantro Group, told Crain’s.
Cilantro Taqueria (its full, ocial name is La Ruta de Cilantro Taqueria) was founded by Raul Carrillo, who opened its rst location in January 2019 in Coventry Village in a former Chipotle at 2783 Euclid Heights Blvd. Almost a year later, Qdoba left the Van Aken District in Shaker Heights and Carrillo opened a second Cilantro location, at 20090 Van Aken Blvd.
Since then, Carillo, along with business partners, has continued to open stores: a Lakewood location at 18260 Detroit Ave., a North Olmsted location at 24950 Lorain Road and the newest, in Chesterland at 8399 May eld Road.
Carrillo, Sandro Galindo (who is a partner in the ownership of the Tremont building and franchising operations), Reynaldo Galindo and Diego Galindo purchased the Tremont property from Mark LaGrange in December for an undisclosed price, Sandro Galindo said. Included in the purchase was a house next to the property, but there are so far no plans for that.
e Cilantro partners originally wanted to take over a di erent location owned by LaGrange — the former Edison’s Next Door Pizza at 2365 Professor Ave. — but Lil Ronnie’s pizzeria had taken over the space by that time, Sandro Galindo said.
LaGrange then told them about the former Fahrenheit property, and the two sides worked out a
deal for it.
e basement needed “a lot of work,” Galindo said. e walk-in cooler was originally in the basement, but to make it easier and to avoid making multiple trips up and down the stairs, the Cilantro partners moved it to the main oor. ey also cut the bathrooms in half, he said.
e space at 2417 Professor Ave. originally had three di erent storefronts, but the walls were knocked down to create one big space, Galindo said. e partners put up those walls again, though, and now Cilantro is at one end of the property, with two local women-owned businesses, Cool Water Dry Goods and Re. ink Collective, in the other two locations. Tremont West, the area's community development corporation, helped them nd tenants for the building.
Part of the reason the walls returned is because Cilantro “didn't need the whole space,” since the majority of its orders are takeout or delivery, Galindo said. ere will be some tables for diners to eat at, but people primarily take their food and go.
Along with the businesses on the rst oor, Dance Arts by Regina now holds a majority of the space on the building's second oor. Also located on the second oor is the former 818 Studios, which will be used as an apartment for three employees due to the space available, he said. Cilantro will use part of the second oor for the franchise ofces, he said. ere are currently no franchises, as the six current locations are corporate, but
Galindo said there already are four inquiries about them, including a possible location in Mentor.
“Hopefully, Mentor will be our rst location and then expand from there,” he said. “We’re looking at Ohio State. We would love to hit Columbus, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.”
Priot to the opening of the Tremont location, Cilantro participated in the July 21 Taste of Tremont, where it o ered three proteins, including a vegan option, and Mexican street corn. In three hours, Galindo said, Cilantro went through 10 crates of street corn. For context, he noted, a Cilantro restaurant usually goes through ve crates in a weekend.
“We’re excited to be there,” he said. “ e neighborhood's been so good to us.”
Patrons can expect the chain’s staples such as bowls, tacos and birria, but they will have to wait a bit before they can have an alcoholic beverage at this location. Galindo said they are hoping to be able to sell within a month or two.
e current hours of operation for the Tremont location will be Monday through ursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday from noon to 2 a.m. and Sunday from noon to 9 p.m.
“Our DoorDash after midnight on weekends is pretty crazy. A lot of people seem to love or be hungry for food after midnight, good food,” Galindo said. “So we're very excited to see what comes of this.”
By Paige Bennett
United Way of Greater Cleveland has secured $10 million in combined cash and planned donations from a group of more than 20 donors, matching a landmark gift from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Supporting Foundation in 2022.
Among these contributions is a $2 million leadership gift from Dee and Jimmy Haslam and the Haslam 3 Foundation.
e donations will ensure United Way “continues its work throughout Greater Cleveland well into the future for generations to come” and bring the endowment of the organization’s Cleveland Community Fund to more than $20 million, according to a news release issued Monday, July 29, by United Way.
In 2022, the Mandel Foundation made a $10 million grant to United Way, creating the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Fund for Urban Engagement within the Cleveland Community Fund. It led to United Way netting additional contributions to invest in its urban engagement strategies, which provide “immediate, coordinated assistance to help people needing health, housing and economic mobility services” in Cuyahoga County communities.
e Mandel grant marked the single largest gift to United Way of Greater Cleveland’s endowment.
“ e incredible generosity and steadfast support of our vital work by Mort Mandel and the Mandel Foundation has made a signi cant
di erence for hundreds of thousands of people in our community,”
said Sharon Sobol Jordan, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Cleveland, in a statement.
“ e Foundation’s $10 million matching gift to our endowment, the Cleveland Community Fund, serves as the capstone of our impactful, long-standing partnership.”
e Mandel Foundation has been a longtime supporter of United Way. Morton Mandel served as president and chairman of United Way’s board from 1977-81. In 2018, the foundation provided funding for the expansion of United Way’s 211 Help Center and renovation of the organization’s headquarters.
“We are deeply grateful to each of the people, families, and organizations who together exceeded the $10 million Mandel match challenge with leadership gifts of their own,” Sobol Jordan added. “I am inspired by their extraordinary commitment to our United Way and our shared vision of a prosperous region that bene ts us all.”
“We are pleased to know that the United Way’s board members and generous supporters not only met but exceeded the fundraising challenge initiated by this grant,” said Jehuda Reinharz, president and CEO of the Mandel Foundation, in a statement. “We look forward to the transformational work that the United Way will accomplish through the Mandel Fund, continuing the Mandel brothers’ legacy of supporting innovative solutions that drive neighborhood engagement and community development.”
In addition to the $2 million Haslam gift, contributions were made by the following people and organizations, according to United Way.
Platinum-level gift donors (up to $1.5 million)
Joanie and Tom Adler
The Byrnes Family/Oswald Commitment to Community Fund
Sally and Sandy Cutler
Karen and Paul DolanJ
ane and Jon Outcalt
Amy and Randy Paine
Kim Meisel Pesses and Paul Pesses
The Meisel and Pesses Family Foundation
Gold-level gift donors (up to $350,000)
Denise and Ed Bell
Becky and David Heller
Stewart A. Kohl
Beth Mooney
Susan and James Ratner
Enid and Dr. David Rosenberg
Mark D. Ross
Vanessa L. Whiting
The August Napoli Fund for Anti-Poverty Innovation
Silver-level gift donors (up to $100,000)
Amy and Ira Kaplan
Bronze-level gift donors (up to $50,000)
Claudia and Dave Fulton
Nancy and Keith Libman
Alex Machaskee
Lorna Wisham
By Crain’s Staff
Greater numbers of people continue to y from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, according to June passenger data. And, for the rst time ever, more of them ew on budget-oriented Frontier Airlines than any other carrier.
Hopkins reported that it served 987,508 passengers in June, a 6.6% increase from 926,322 passengers in the like month last year.
June’s gure also was about 2.4% higher than the 964,630 passengers of June 2019 — the last June before the pandemic hit, disrupting airlines and most other aspects of life.
Bryant L. Francis, who as Cleveland’s director of port control is responsible for operations of Hopkins, said in a statement that the Transportation Security Administration “has been screening record numbers of travelers nationwide, and we are experiencing peak activity in Cleveland as well.”
Indeed, the airport reports that through June, 5,016,756 passen-
gers have traveled through Hopkins, up more than 8% from the rst half of 2023 and even nearly 3% higher than 2019, the last year before the pandemic. Hopkins reiterated its forecast that it remains on target to reach or exceed 10.25 million passengers in 2024, which could be the rst year above the 10 million gure since the airport hit 10.04 million in 2019.
Francis noted, too, that Hopkins is “seeing a shift in airline market share, which directly relates to revenue passengers served, with Frontier Airlines taking the top spot for the rst time during the month.”
Airport o cials didn’t immediately provide speci c gures for passengers by airline. Cleveland. com reported that Frontier car-
By Joe Scalzo
Aramark expected to permanently terminate the positions of 104 custodial workers at Cleveland Browns Stadium, after learning the team was not renewing its cleaning contract with the company.
e move applies only to Aramark’s facility services, a Browns spokesperson said. e company will continue to provide concessions at the stadium, something it has done since replacing Delaware North in 2014.
Aramark told the state of Ohio about the planned terminations in a notice led Friday, July 26, under requirements of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Noti cation (WARN) Act.
Aramark called the decision “an unforeseen business circumstance,” saying it did not receive notice about the non-renewal until Friday, July 26.
e move a ects 102 hourly workers — 99 custodians and three custodial worker leads — along with two salaried workers: a custodial manager and a quality facilities standards manager.
Aramark said “it is our understanding” that most displaced workers will work for the incoming provider. e Browns declined to say which company will provide those services after Aug. 1. e team did not have further comment.
Aramark did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
ried 221,434 of the Hopkins passengers in June, besting United Airlines, at 217,898 passengers.
Denver-based Frontier is having a big year in Cleveland.
It has established a new crew hub at Hopkins, bringing more than 400 additional airport-related jobs to the city.
Frontier also added 10 new routes this summer, to the following destinations: Austin, Baltimore, Charleston, Houston Bush, Jacksonville, Myrtle Beach, New Orleans, Pensacola, Salt Lake City and Savannah.
ose are seasonal routes, though, ending in early September with the conclusion of summer, so Frontier’s monthly bragging rights are likely to be short-lived.
Politics, especially lately, is sport and entertainment for some people. But government is best when it's a little boring.
Case in point: e Bibb administration's e orts to overhaul building construction permitting in Cleveland, with the goal of simplifying and streamlining the process for building projects of all sizes.
Mayor Justin M. Bibb at the end of July signed an executive order that provides a framework for updating a permitting process that he called "hard to navigate" and that makes it "unnecessarily di cult to build and redevelop projects in the city."
e executive order took e ect upon receiving Bibb's signature, on July 25. But the work of achieving its goals will take many months, or longer, as the administration and workers across a variety of city departments try to unwind decades of dysfunction that has restrained development, to the detriment of everyone.
A week prior to the order's signing, at a July 18 Crain's Forum event, Bibb signaled changes were coming to the permitting process. On a panel with Akron Mayor Shammas Malik, focused on new approaches to leadership in Northeast Ohio, Bibb quipped, "It's not just the big, sexy things that make a city great." He meant it in the context of a city de ning itself not just by landmark projects, but by sweating the details to make life easier and more enjoyable for people who live and work in Cleveland. In the case of permitting reform, the two go hand in hand. You can't get to the big projects, or even small ones, if the process for making them happen is so convoluted that it drives up the time to complete them — and therefore makes them more expensive, or scares people o from considering
them in the rst place.
Talk with anyone who’s tried to build or develop something — ground-up commercial or residential projects, or something as simple as a new garage — in the city, and you're likely to hear a tale of confusion, mismanagement, neglect (or worse) when it comes to permitting. Sure, some of that complaining is probably self-serving, based on an understandable desire to get a project moving as quickly as possible. But the complaints are so persistent, and so speci c, that it's impossible to take them as anything other than a legitimate expression of frustration with government red tape thwarting projects of any size. is is a case where the administration
and Cleveland City Council seem to be on the same page. In September 2023, council approved the hiring of consulting rm Baker Tilly to analyze the city's permitting process and come up with suggestions to make it better. e result: a 52-page document that, drawing on input from city sta and "current and past customers of the permitting process, including developers, and contractors and one-time or infrequent do-it-yourselfers," provided 39 speci c recommendations as well as "work ow and organization discussion and process maps to assist withimplementation."
It identi ed four "primary challenges" to the construction permitting process in Cleveland: "multiple points of entry," including the departments of Building and Housing, Economic Development, Community Development, and the City Planning Commission, that have "resulted in process ineciencies that confuse applicants and city sta , create process delays, impede interdepartmental communication, and frustrate applicants"; sta vacancies, especially in the inspector ranks, and the lack of position redundancy, creating work ow issues; "lengthy and unpredictable review cycle times" due to the lack of citywide use of the Accela system and standard review times; and "inconsistent use of Accela software and other technology across di erent departments" that "prevents sta from properly tracking applications, thereby resulting in reduced ability to stay abreast of application status and location." at's wonky stu . It's also spot-on. e executive order aimed at implementing change is based on three overarching goals: predictability, visibility and e ciency. ese are not, to say the least, characteristics associated with the permitting process in the past. But if the city can get to a
point where, for instance, it's clear to applicants which permits they need and where to get them, and applicants and city sta can go online for a quick, up-to-date summary of where a project stands in the permitting process, that will go a long way to ease the construction process.
Getting the goals and strategy right, though, is only half the battle. It's now all about the follow-through.
e executive order notes that "implementation of process changes and associated technology takes time and will be iterative." It states that the city's chief of integrated development, in consultation with the directors of Building and Housing and City Planning, and the commissioner of Information Technology Services, "shall establish a plan for implementation that includes a clear timeline." e order adds that as implementation takes place, "it is expected that divisions will encounter new information that may change how the city adopts, adjusts, or omits speci c recommendations."
All reasonable. is e ort only works, though, if administration o cials and city department heads recognize that speed is of the essence. ese types of transformations within government tend to lose momentum if they aren't full-speed ahead. e city says it "expects to have technology changes implemented by the end of the rst quarter of 2025, with additional iterative changes happening throughout the year," and that seems like a reasonable timeframe — as long as there's evidence changes are being made.
Frequent updates on the status of changes would go a long way to making all stakeholders feel better about the prospects for real improvement. Cleveland has thrown up construction obstacles for far too long. Bring them down quickly.
I
n the several months since the Environmental Protection Agency’s tailpipe emissions rules were nalized, concerns over the mandates have led to many taking a step back to reconsider their stance on the issue.
Even former President Donald Trump said at his Republican National Convention speech that he will “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one — thereby saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration and saving U.S. customers thousands of dollars per car.”
Some people are worried about cost, while others are focused on national security implications. In the grocery industry I represent, our concerns lie in transportation/ supply cost issues. But everyone should be concerned about the impact the mandates could have on their day-to-day lives. e rule itself will require more than half of all U.S. cars sold to be fully electric by the year 2032. While this mandate may seem innocuous at rst glance, the underlying
issues of implementing a mandate of this nature have been overlooked.
For some background, electric vehicles are largely composed of critical minerals needed for battery manufacturing and production. ese minerals may sound like a key tool to achieving a greener future but, in reality, production of energy transition minerals release more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than any other energy source.
On top of that, more than 70% of the world’s critical mineral mining capacity is in China. is suggests that for the U.S. to achieve standards laid out by the EPA EV mandates, our nation would have to become largely dependent on China for EV supplies — a potential threat to our national security.
In addition to the national security risks, there is a real concern about the cost of purchasing, owning and maintaining an EV, which Ohioans may not even be able to a ord. Currently, the average price of an electric car is $56,371 compared with its gaspowered counterpart at $48,644. With the average median income in Ohio sitting at
$66,990, the nearly $8,000 di erence is a hefty price tag that not everyone is prepared to pay. Not to mention, upgrading one’s home garage to accommodate a charging station. Depending on which charger one needs, you could be paying anywhere between $1,000 and $2,500 just to keep your car charged at home — not even accounting for what it would do to Ohioans’ electric bill.
If you also consider the EPA’s rule for heavy-duty trucks and vehicles, then you will see the detrimental impact this rule will have on consumers and our supply chains, especially in the Buckeye State. In fact, Ohio made the top 10 states with the highest freight value in 2022, moving 980 million tons of freight, valued at $1.1 trillion.
Our state and the rest of the nation heavily depend on our freight transporters to ensure deliveries get where they need to go, keeping Ohio's supply chain moving. But with considerable changes proposed to the heavy trucking industry when it comes to electrication, this all could face an abrupt change.
Trucks help move supplies from source
to market. ey transport goods from farmers to Ohio’s grocers to consumers who provide for themselves and their families. e EPA’s heavy-duty trucking rule will require 30% of heavy-duty vocational trucks and 40% of regional day cabs to be zero-emission by 2032.
Estimates show that the batteries needed for truckers to comply with the rule will be more expensive in the beginning part of the rule’s implementation. Looking at the larger picture, this added cost will increase the price of transportation for farmers to get their goods to our grocery stores. is could potentially cause increased prices at the grocery store, where we are already feeling the e ects of higher prices on the shelves (which can be tied, in part, to the existing strain on our suppliers).
It appears evident that Ohio, and perhaps the rest of the nation, is not yet ready for a rule that stands to put a strain on average American families.
Kristin Mullins is president and CEO of the Ohio Grocers Association
Jeneen Marziani President,
Charles W. Hopkinson’s former home in Lakewood hits market
Another property with local history and lore has hit the market.
Situated on three separate lots in Lakewood is the home of former Cleveland architect Charles W. Hopkinson.
Hopkinson designed the Colonial & Clifton Club Houses in Lakewood, Lakewood Public Library, the Rockefeller Mining Building at Case Tech and the Hough Avenue Congregational Church, according to information provided by the real estate agent.
e property at 17216 Edgewater Drive was built in 1928 as Hopkinson’s personal home. It was expanded by di erent owners in 1998 and completed by Lakewood architect Mark Reinhold. ese dates — ’28 and ’98 — can be seen on the two stained glass windows around the original main entrance.
e property, which is 1.5 acres, has a motor court driveway with a fountain in the middle, in front of the home. It has a gas well, which provides the owner with free gas and has been around since the 1900s.
e home was put on the market July 15 with an asking price of $3.6 million. Not including the basement, the home is 10,897 square feet. e home is listed by Karen Eagle of the Karen Eagle Group of Elite Sotheby’s International Realty.
e current owner of the home purchased the property a few years ago and brought it back to life as it was “dilapidated,” Eagle said.
“He feels like his work is done here,” Eagle said. “He hit a point where he either wanted to keep going and do a lot more or turn it over to somebody else, and he felt it made sense to turn it over to somebody else, because it’s a lot of house for somebody.”
While the home consists of two di erent buildings, you could never tell due to the seamless transition and attention to detail.
Small head molds line the outside of the home, which is a feature of the original’s English Cotswold Tudor architecture style, according to history provided by the agent. e heads, often referred to as “grotesques” or “bosses,” were added to the extension by molds from Fischer & Jirouch Co. in Cleveland.
e home provides seven bedrooms, eight full bathrooms, two half bathrooms and eight garage spaces. e upstairs in the original home has two staircases, and the upstairs in the extension has one. e upstairs of the original and the extension are separated.
e main oor has a ballroom with a built-in bar and projector. It leads to the backyard and pool, one full bath and two half baths, formal and in-formal dining
rooms, library, music room, hearth room, kitchen and an extra room o the kitchen is a pantry and has a desk and extra refrigerator.
In the hearth room, you’ll see gargoyle-like gures in the molding of lions. While not the same as the faces outside, it is a similar feature.
e library features original Moravian tile and Fretwork-paneled ceilings along with handcarved woodwork. e basement is a pretty open space, which could be used for more storage or living areas.
e upstairs on the original home features four bedrooms, including the primary suite, ve full bathrooms, trunk room and an ofce space that is above the kitchen and has a view of the backyard and lake.
e trunk room, which is the original name for the room used to store luggage, is what the current owners used as a theater room, Eagle said.
e upstairs on the extension (or in-law suite) features a second kitchen, three bedrooms and two full bathrooms. An extra ight of stairs leads to the third oor,
which is treated as an o ce overlooking the backyard and Lake Erie.
e woodwork from the original part of the home is carried throughout. Windows were custom made to match the ones in the 1928-built home.
One unique feature of the home that Eagle pointed out is the screened pocket doors that lead out to the pool. e architect who did the renovations, Mark Reinhol, had those made so the screens could be open and there was no worry about the doors being blown closed from wind o the lake.
e exterior o ers an outdoor entertainment area with a grill, a pool and view of Lake Erie. What people might view in the backyard as a helicopter pad is what Reinhol designed to stretch the eye. He said he wanted people who were standing in the kitchen and looking out the window to see Lake Erie rather than getting caught up looking at the grass.
is home would be ideal for someone who has a very large family, due to the space, or an entrepreneur who needs the extension to host people privately, Eagle said.
Stan Bullard
Adam Webster, managing partner of Buckeye State Storage on Broadway Avenue near downtown Cleveland, said the company’s business has consistently improved since its doors opened at the start of the pandemic.
“ e phone did not ring for a couple weeks,” recalled Webster, the sole employee at Buckeye, who handles everything from phone calls and social marketing to picking up the trash.
A big boom in demand during the pandemic has helped put his shoestring rm in the black. In the meantime, the self-storage industry rode a cycle that pushed up and then down occupancies, rents and new developments. ings are only now getting back to a pre-pandemic normal.
When working from home and remote schooling started changing people’s lifestyles early in the pandemic, it set o a spike in demand unlike any the industry has seen.
“Suddenly, people were emptying extra bedrooms to serve as a home o ce or found they needed a place to store their new kayak,” recalled Todd Amsdell, CEO of Cleveland-based Compass Self Storage
said leasing stayed strong yearround since 2020 until dropping o this past winter.
“ is is the rst year that seasonality has returned,” Hatcher said in a phone interview. “Now things have returned to normal and improved along with the weather.”
In the rst quarter of 2020, Yardi reports that occupancy reached 96%. en as more products hit the market occupancy dropped to a low of 86% in the second quarter of 2023. Now occupancy, as of the end of April, is 88.8%, though still below the national average of 92%.
At the same time, all the new products mean that asking rents dropped 2.9% the beginning of the year to $12.92 a square foot annually. at is still far below the national gure, which has dropped 4.4% to $16.35 a square foot.
e biggest change in the Cleveland market is that the past decade the self-storage market has become institutional, with multiple publicly traded real estate investment trusts staking out big positions in the market.
“It’s a big change from when self storage was the neglected, redheaded stepchild of the commercial real estate market,” Hatcher said.
“It’s a big change from when self storage was the neglected, redheaded stepchild of the commercial real estate market.”
However, that sudden hike in occupancy also brought a big spike in new development goosed by low interest rates, so that when normalcy started to return, the market was soft. Now demand has gone back to normal, and the result was a dramatically bigger market in a region that does not have population growth like other parts of the U.S.
Statistics from Yardi Systems, the Santa Barbara, California-based real estate data provider, show that in the area from Cleveland through Akron to Canton, developers constructed 27 self-storage properties over the last three years, a more than 10% increase to a market of 287 centers. Another seven are under construction, and 18 are in various stages of planning, but it is unclear how many of those may be scuttled by the run-up in interest rates.
Demand in that period was so strong, a typical factor disappeared. Usually, most self-storage units rent during the spring and summer. However, Brett Hatcher, a specialist in self storage and executive managing director in Marcus & Millichap’s Columbus o ce,
National operators, both private and publicly traded, have many locations in the region from Cleveland to Canton. Yardi reports Storage Rental of America has 21 properties in the area, followed by Extra Space with 16 and Valley Storage with 13.
ose statistics also mean that private investors, from multiple property groups to small operators, make up much of the mini-warehouse market.
Compass Self Storage is by far the largest of the Cleveland-based groups, as it has 110 storage centers in 14 states, although just two are in Northeast Ohio: one just east of Playhouse Square downtown, and the other in Shaker Heights.
Compass watches its hometown market but has found better returns in areas with growing populations, particularly Florida.
“We see sites that we have coveted for years come available,”
Todd Amsdell said. “ en we run the construction costs and interest rates and decide not to develop because it’s not something we want to own.”
Conversely, Amsdell points to locations Compass has developed near e Villages senior living community outside Orlando and in Jacksonville where it built properties just a few years ago in outlying areas.
“Now, look at those pictures,” Amsdell said. “ ere are houses all around them.”
at means the company pursues about ve new developments or acquisitions a year, always using the standard of, “Do we want to own this?” as its litmus test.
“We love living in Cleveland,” Amsdell said. “It’s a great place to raise our children. But all the development here has not helped the (rental) rates,” which are still lower here than the national rates.
At the same time, for many others, what attracts developers to the niche is that it costs far less to
build a self-storage center than other commercial real estate types. Climate-controlled properties may cost as much as $100 a square foot to build, while non-climate-controlled drive-up units with garage doors cost around $65 a square foot to build. Commercial buildings cost about $400 a square foot, not counting the cost of the land. And operating costs are far lower.
“Unlike an o ce building, where you may have to rebuild an o ce for a new tenant, or an apartment suite where you may have to paint walls or change car-
pet, all you have to do is sweep it out after your tenant leaves,” said Tom Gustafson, a senior vice president at Colliers Cleveland who specializes in self storage.
For his part, Gustafson argues there are more opportunities available in Northeast Ohio, particularly along the I-271 corridor in the eastern suburbs. Many east suburbs do not allow construction of self-storage properties and developers discover after talking to local o cials there is little interest in adding them.
Compass’ 55-person sta at its o ce in its International Place ofce building near Grayton Road focuses on what Amsdell calls “the magic” of the business, the marketing, accounting, planning and making meaningful additions to operations for its portfolio. ere may be options to increase its buying pace after interest rates fall and smaller groups shake out, he said.
In Webster’s case, he likes self storage because he had bad experiences renting out houses where a vacating tenant could leave him with a mortgage payment to make.
“But in this, a tenant leaves and you can have an empty unit ready for the next tenant immediately,” Webster said. “And you have constant movement among your tenants who put everything from equipment for landscapers and builders to people seeking to score classic cars.”
Webster also recognizes he is competing with companies that have call centers answering client inquiries. So he draws on his background as an In niti car sales associate to greet callers personally and help them understand their storage needs.
Buckeye Storage’s site on Broadway also bene ts from the rapid increase in apartment living in downtown, Tremont and Ohio City. Webster looks forward to building a three-story climate-controlled building on Buckeye’s site in a few years.
Amsdell, meanwhile, points to a fundamental of the business.
“People need to make changes,” he said. “ ey may get divorced. ere may be a death in the family. eir lives change and they need places for their things.”
Demand for boats and slips has also gone up
Dan Shingler
Many people see Lake Erie as a source of beaches to swim from, parks for enjoying sunsets or an economic development tool for places like downtown Cleveland. Landlubbers.
To those with sea legs, the lake is far more than something to admire from shore. It’s a major source of recreation, transit, overnight lodging and even competition for sports such as shing and sailing.
You might not know it if you aren’t part of the community, but Cleveland is a hot spot for boating on Lake Erie. If there’s a shortage, it’s not of boats or boaters, many say, but a shortage of marinas and slips where boats can be docked for the summer.
at plus a recent run-up in boat prices have made an already expensive passion even more costly, say those in the industry. But, they add, the lake has become home to more and better boats, business is good and demand for boats and the services that go with them remains high after spiking during the pandemic.
“When COVID hit, people couldn’t go to work. ey couldn’t do anything. Everything was remote. So, there was a crazy run on boats,” said Jim Travarca, the longtime harbor master for Newport Harbor, the marina attached to the Shoreby Club in Bratenahl.
“Like with everything else, there was a shortage of boats, so prices got super in ated. And because there was a shortage of boats, and because all the used boats have been bought up, there’s a shortage of docks. And it hasn’t gone away.”
Others say they’ve seen the same phenomenon.
“COVID came along, parts became scarce, labor became scarce and in ation has kicked in. New boat prices have gone up at least 20 to 25% in a few years. at’s huge,” said Robert Morley, president of Riverfront Yachts in the Flats.
As a result of those boat sales, dock space has become hard to nd, they added. All of Newport’s 128 slips are occupied for the season and there’s a waiting list, Travarca said.
ose full parking spots, the boats that sit in them and the services those boats require — from captains and deck hands to mechanics and other professionals — represent many millions of dollars spent by some of the region’s wealthy families and business owners.
How much does it cost to own and keep a high-end boat on the lake? For those with big luxury boats, it easily can run into millions of dollars, said Travarca and others.
First, there are the boats themselves. Not all of them are as pricey as, say, the 9X Pershing that is one of the most expensive boats at
Newport, with a price tag approaching $10 million. But even smaller boats today can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Boats with outboard motors, for example, are much more expensive to buy and repower than they were in the past.
“ e boats have gotten bigger and heavier, and they need more power,” Travarca said.
So instead of one big outboard on the back, or two, boats today often have three or even four outboard motors on their transom. And instead of having 200 or even 300 horsepower, which was a lot back in the day, today’s motors can have up to 600 horsepower apiece.
ose motors cost about $75,000 per copy, Travarca said. at presents a bigger barrier of entry to boating, Travarca said. A big Sea Ray pleasure boat that cost about $175,000 in the 1990s costs more than $1 million today, he noted. But buying a boat, motors and all, is just the price of admission to the boating world.
“People don’t realize that the most expensive part of the boat is not buying it. It’s everything else that comes with it — the dockage, the storage, the maintenance, the fuel, the insurance,” Travarca said.
Just a membership at Newport, one of the nicer marinas on the lake, is expensive. Priced based on the size of the boat — and Newport can handle 90-footers like that Pershing — it cost between $3,000 and $12,000 a year for membership.
“But it’s the best money you’ll ever spend.” Travarca said.
at’s because boating gives so much back, he and other advocates of boating on the lake said. at includes obvious things like recreation and sporting opportunities, but boating also a ords boat owners an opportunity to entertain friends or business associ-
ates and, more importantly, to spend time and bond with their families.
For many, boating is more than a hobby, it’s a way of life that goes back decades, or even generations.
Dick West, owner and president of ValenSil Technologies in Avon, has been boating on the lake since he was in his 20s. Now 70, West has never lost his passion for a pastime he said has brought him closer to family members and provided him with some needed downtime over the years.
6,000-mile journey that circumnavigates the eastern half of the U.S. via the Mississippi River, Gulf of Mexico and Intracoastal and other waterways.
West doesn’t focus on the costs; he couldn’t imagine raising his family and going through life without boats. But he knows it’s not for everyone.
“Boaters are a di erent breed of cat, and there’s not a lot of them,” West said. “You have to be willing to make the investment. ey’re not cheap toys at all.”
“You have to be willing to make the investment. They’re not cheap toys at all.”
Dick West, owner and president of ValenSil Technologies
He recently sailed his newest boat, a 43-foot Mainship trawler with a ybridge, from where he bought it in Florida to his dock at the Cleveland Yachting Club in Rocky River.
e trip took ve weeks, he said, though he did it in stages, returning home to do some work between stints on the Intracoastal Waterway, St. Lawrence Seaway and other routes home.
“I was only going 10 miles per hour,” he said with a laugh.
He could have gone faster, but going just 13 miles per hour would have doubled his fuel consumption, West said. And he was getting only about one mile per gallon at the lower speed.
Such is boating.
West doesn’t mind. His is not a boat built for speed, but comfort. “It’s like a camper that oats,” he said, with bedrooms and attached bathrooms, for instance.
It wasn’t his rst big trip. West, who previously owned larger boats than his current Mainship, also has done the Great Loop, a
Sailboats at least cut down on the cost of fuel, though their sails, rigging and other features still aren’t cheap to buy and maintain. But sailboats aren’t as popular as they once were. Morley said he sometimes sees only 10 or 15 sailboats participating in local races, which is only a fraction of the number he saw 20 or so years ago.
“I got out in ’09, but when we used to race, there were 30 or 40 boats on the line,” Morley said.
People don’t want to spend the time it takes to learn to sail, or the time it takes to get a sailboat from one place on the lake to another, Morley and others said. So, powerboats have all but taken over the lake.
Even though it’s a hot spot with numerous big marinas due to the area’s large population, the Cleveland region is actually not the rst place many think of when they think about boating on Lake Erie. e lake’s real jewels, many said, are the islands in its western basin, including Catawba Island, a well-known spot for boating, shing and vacationing on the lake in general.
Jack Madison, manager of marina operations at the Catawba Island Club, said he’s been in the business for 40 years.
“ ey’re trying to kill me, slowly, but I’m surviving,” he quipped.
As has always been the case, a lot of the boats Madison and his crew work with at the club are owned and used by people from the Cleveland area. e region’s population and wealth have meant it has always been an important source of business for Catawba, he said.
But, as Northeast Ohio has lost some of its wealth and population, growing regions to the south have provide more customers.
“Cleveland’s been a huge market for us. But it’s changed probably in the last 10 years,” Madison said. “Before, it used to be mostly Cleveland, Akron and Canton. Now it’s morphed more toward Columbus. It just seems like that area grew faster. But Cleveland still has a very strong boating market.
Like at other marinas, the boats at Catawba have only gotten bigger, fancier and more expensive over the years.
“When I started a big boat was a 45-foot boat. You were really living,” Madison said. “We have two 80-footers here now.”
Back in the day, teachers had boats, remen and cops had boats, but many of those types of owners have either been pushed out of boating or forced into boats small enough to trailer.
But those who love them say it’s worth making a sacri ce, and that boating is one of the best things to do in Northeast Ohio.
And the Cleveland area has spots that even Madison knows about and loves. Including, he said, Edgewater Yacht Club, which is one of the few marinas in the area that still hosts a signi cant number of sailboats and has a view of the city’s skyline.
“Where else can you sit on the lake and have that view of downtown Cleveland?,” Madison said.
Good Morning
Cleveland Anchor
Cleveland 5
By Joe Scalzo
When it comes to free local sports broadcasts, Clevelanders are about to have a lot more on their plate — and they owe it all to an executive lunch.
Last year, Cleveland Cavaliers CEO Nic Barlage met for lunch with two local television executives — Matt Moran, a senior managing vice president for Gray Media, and David Hughes, vice president and general manager of WUAB Channel 43 — when they conceived of the idea that would become “Rock Entertainment Sports Network,” (RESN) a 24hour, 7-days-a-week TV channel dedicated to local Ohio sports teams.
e network, which will debut this month, will serve as the broadcast home for three Cleveland minor league teams — the American Hockey League’s Cleveland Monsters, the NBA G League’s Cleveland Charge and the Frontier League’s Lake Erie Crushers — as well as local college and high school broadcasts, beginning with all 10 St. Edward High School football games this fall.
RESN will be available in the Cleveland and Cincinnati markets on Channel 22.1 through free over-the-air broadcasts, with plans to expand to major cable, satellite and virtual pay-TV platforms throughout Ohio.
“We were like, ‘Hey, let’s do something a little di erent, something that hasn’t been done before, something unique for sports fans in the state of Ohio,’ ” Hughes told Crain’s. “ e idea was born and we took it from there.”
Here are three things to know about RESN, which will make its rst live sports broadcast at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 23, when threetime defending Division I state champion St. Edward travels to Pickerington North for its season opener.
RESN has no plans to broadcast any Cavaliers or Guardians games. (For now.)
e Cavaliers’ contract with Bally Sports Ohio runs through the 202425 season, while the Guardians’
contract with Bally Sports Great Lakes ends in a few months. Diamond Sports Group, which owns the Bally Sports regional sports networks, has been under bankruptcy protection since March 2023. But
By Alexandra Golden
Demolition is underway of a building at 1541 Golden Gate Plaza in May eld Heights that formerly housed Buca di Beppo and, more recently, El Rio Grande restaurants.
e building has sat vacant for about a decade, but due to ooding issues inside the structure and a lack of maintenance internally and externally, it “turned into an attractive nuisance,” Braden omas, building director for the city of May eld Heights, told Crain’s.
e vacancy led to people spray-painting the building's interior, he said.
Demolition started the week of July 15, and the building was expected be completely on the ground by the end of Tuesday, July 23, or by Wednesday, July 24, Thomas said. It will take a week or two to clean up the site and haul away debris.
e city worked with the owners, HH Golden Gate LLC, who chose to tear down the building.
e 9,000- to 10,000-square-foot space was designed for restaurants and could “really only be one thing,” omas said.
HH Golden Gate LLC is a partnership between Hartford-based Hutensky Capital Partners and New York City-based Hornig Capital Partners, a Hornig spokesper-
while some professional sports teams have recently pivoted to free, over-the-air channels — including the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz — RESN has no current plans to add the Cavs or Guardians.
“What I can tell you is the Cavaliers remain under contract with Bally and we’re looking forward to our games being broadcast for the
“ is is a 24-7, 365 network and Gray Media has a 24-7 sports feed that’s going to feed our market,” Hughes said. “A lot of it is produced by Raycom Sports and other parts of Gray media, so that will be the backbone of our network, and when there’s live events and other locally produced programming, we will add to that.”
“I’ll say from a big picture standpoint, it is our plan for this network to be the go-to sports network for sports in Ohio.”
David Hughes, vice president and general manager of WUAB Channel 43
2024-25 season,” Mike Conley, the Cavaliers’ chief information ocer, told Crain’s. “We’re continuing to closely follow the bankruptcy proceedings.”
at said, the Cavaliers and the Guardians have been frustrated by their viewership situation, with Barlage noting that the Cavs are reaching just 1 in 3 people in its television region, which extends from Lake Erie to the southern edge of Canton.
“ at’s not good enough,” he said in January. “We’ve got to gure out a better solution.”
WUAB aired ve Cavaliers games this spring and the station previously served as the Cleveland Indians’ over-the-air broadcaster from 1980-2001.
“I’ll say from a big picture standpoint, it is our plan for this network to be the go-to sports network for sports in Ohio,” Hughes said. “We’ll leave it there.”
RESN will feature a mix of live broadcasts and produced content.
In addition to “select” Charge, Monsters and Crushers games — and, eventually, live broadcasts of additional college, high school and other professional teams — RESN will feature Gray-produced programs such as PowerNation, World Poker Tour, Gametime with Boomer Esiason, Detroit Muscle and Engine Power.
Cincinnati viewers will get all of the Cleveland-related content when the network debuts this month, but the plan is to eventually add Cincinnati-related content for those viewers.
“ is is just the beginning of something,” Hughes said. “We’re just getting started with this sports network and we have plans to expand down the road.”
Gray built a similar channel in Georgia last year.
Gray launched the Peachtree Sports Network on Oct. 1, 2023, which began in Atlanta and expanded to Gray-owned over-theair channels in Albany, Augusta, Columbus, Macon and Savannah. Peachtree Sports Network had live games from the G League’s College Park Skyhawks, high school football through Score Atlanta, hockey from the Atlanta Gladiators and the Savannah Ghost Pirates of the ECHL, the Georgia Swarm of the National Lacrosse League and ultimate disc from the Atlanta Hustle of the American Ultimate Disc League. e station then reached an agreement with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks in January to air 10 Hawks games, and Peachtree Sports Network has since partnered with Atlanta Motor Speedway for select live race broadcasts, and with the Gwinnett Stripers to air 13 baseball games.
son told Crain’s, con rming there are no speci c plans yet for the space.
Tearing down the old and building a new structure will give the owners more exibility on what the property can be.
“ ey do have plans of putting another building back there, but what that is and what it will be, I do not know,” omas said.
Once a concept for a new building is ready, it will have to go through the architectural board of review.
omas expects that there will be a pause before construction begins again. No rezoning will be involved as “anything business related would be permitted,” he said.
By Jeremy Nobile
CBIZ Inc.'s $2.3 billion acquisition of New York-based accounting rm Marcum is poised to launch the rm into elite company as the seventh-largest accounting rm in the country.
e transaction, expected to close in Q4, will see about half the cost paid in cash and half in CBIZ stock, marking the largest acquisition yet for CBIZ in its 28-year history.
In terms of the biggest rms in the accounting space, as it integrates Marcum, CBIZ will fall behind powerhouse rms that include the Big 4, RSM US and BDO USA.
e transaction value is also likely the third largest for an M&A deal in the accounting space ever, said Allan Koltin, CEO of Koltin Consulting Group, who specializes in advising accounting companies, including in M&A deals.
CBIZ says the deal is projected to result in a combined rm with nearly $3 billion in revenue, over 10,000 employees and 135,000 clients.
Amy McGahan, director of corporate and strategic communications for CBIZ, described the deal as a “major step forward in accelerating our growth strategy” and one that “solidi es our standing as a leading provider of professional services to the middle market.”
It also strengthens the rm’s pres-
ence in several markets throughout the country.
“In Marcum, we found a service o ering very complementary to our own that allows us to continue to provide a breadth of services and depth of expertise that is unmatched,” McGahan said.
“ is is an exciting step for Marcum as we look toward what's next for our business and provide you, our clients, with access to a host of new resources to service your business and personal needs,” wrote
Marcum Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Weiner in an email to clients. “Upon close, our combined team of 10,000 professionals will o er much more to help you achieve your goals.”
A spokesperson for Marcum did not immediately respond to a request for additional comments.
According to a 2024 ranking by Accounting Today, CBIZ — plus Mayer Ho man McCann P.C. (MHM), an independent rm long a liated with CBIZ through an administrative service agreement — and Marcum are the 11th- and 13th-largest accounting rms in the U.S., respectively, based on revenue. e rms say this deal will position CBIZ as the seventh-largest accounting rm in the country.
In 2023, Marcum and CBIZ ranked as the 10th- and 21st-largest accounting rms in Northeast
Ohio as ranked by number of in-market CPAs, according to Crain’s research.
Today, CBIZ reports more than 7,000 rmwide employees to Marcum’s 3,500. is positions the combined rm to have about 10,500 employees across some 230 U.S. o ces.
McGahan said there are more details to come regarding potential synergistic cost savings achieved in the deal that might impact sta or locations.
“We do not anticipate any immediate changes in terms of o ce locations,” she said. “We are in the very early stages of assessing our real estate needs and many of our o ces have long-term leases. at said, our combined teams in key markets will have opportunities to connect and interact in the short term.”
She added that while the rm does “anticipate synergies, they are not expected in the rst 12 months, and we are in the early stages of integration planning that will determine the best opportunities to achieve e ciency and savings.”
e company will have a particularly strong presence in the local market, but to what extent any of those operations are impacted, if at all, is to be determined.
“It is important to point out that CBIZ also has multiple o ces in Northeast Ohio — Cleveland and Akron — so as part of integration planning, we’ll consider our presence across the entire region and how we best support the business moving forward,” McGahan said.
Per terms of the $2.3 billion transaction, $1.1 billion is expected to be paid in cash and the remaining is expected to be paid in roughly14.4 million shares of CBIZ common stock. e value of the stock portion is based on a per-share price of CBIZ stock of $76.84.
Concurrent with the closing of the transaction, CBIZ said that the attest business of Marcum will be acquired by MHM.
In the future, McGahan said, MHM will be rebranded under the CBIZ moniker.
Koltin described the acquisition as “groundbreaking” and indicative of how the accounting industry is evolving.
“Every day something new seems to happen in the accounting profession that has never happened before and/or was something we could never have imagined,” he said. “If someone had asked me a year ago if CBIZ and Marcum would ever combine, I would have said, ‘Not in this lifetime.’”
CBIZ, Koltin said, may very likely be a trendsetter going forward. He
suspects other companies may look to follow suit and establish similarly large rms providing a mix of accounting and business advisory services.
“Not only will this create the seventh largest CPA and advisory rm in the country, it will also increase the number of private equity rms and related investment groups entering the accounting profession,” Koltin said.
ere were many investment rms interested in buying or investing in CBIZ before this deal came to pass, Koltin said, which may be inspired by what CBIZ is doing.
“I think this is going to spur a whole other round of outside investors wanting to get into the space,” Koltin said, which may include private equity as well as sovereign wealth funds, large family o ces, pension funds and other investors outside the U.S.
Koltin is quite bullish on this deal playing out well for CBIZ.
“ is is a $2.8 billion (combined) rm that should be a $5 billion rm in ve years,” he said.
CBIZ has been a very active acquirer of other rms as part of its growth strategy, but those are typically much smaller deals. e Marcum transaction marks the rm’s third deal this year behind the rollups of rms CompuData and Erickson, Brown & Kloster.
By Joe Scalzo
ere’s a wonderful line in the movie “Moneyball” where Brad Pitt says, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?” and you can get a similar vibe when you hear Len Komoroski talk about buying the Frontier League’s Lake Erie Crushers.
On game nights — and on a fair share of o -days — the “retired” former Cleveland Cavaliers CEO makes the 45-minute drive from his home in Chagrin Falls to the ballpark in Avon, embracing a love a air with minor league baseball that blossomed when he and his wife, Denise, went to St. Paul (Minnesota) Saints games in the mid-1990s, continued during the seven years they lived in Philadelphia (they brought their kids to Reading Phillies games) and only grew during his two decades in Cleveland, thanks to their friendship with Akron RubberDucks owner Ken Babby.
“Denise and I always wanted to own a team,” he said. “Hey, it’s fun stu .”
So, when the Crushers went on sale in the o season, the Komoroskis saw it as a great chance to ful ll that dream, joining an investor group that included several other Northeast Ohioans, including TransDigm Group Inc. founder Nick Howley, Cavs CEO Nic Barlage and Komoroski’s friend Vic Gregovits, who had most recently served as the executive vice president of global sales for Canton’s Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Co.
But they also saw it as a great business opportunity, realizing
Classic Park in Eastlake; and the Lake Erie Crushers, a member of the independent Frontier League, who play at Crushers Stadium in Avon.
en there’s the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, who served as the Short Season Class-A a liate of the Indians/Guardians from 1999 to 2020 and play at Eastwood Field in Niles. e Scrappers seemed headed for oblivion after losing their a liation after the 2020 season, but they quickly rebounded by signing a long-term partnership with the newly created MLB Draft League in 2021 and their resurgence is one of Northeast Ohio’s best sport stories.
“Having the partnership with MLB has really been great for us,” GM Jordan Taylor said. “It’s kept baseball in the market, and this year we’re on pace for record revenue, passing 2023 by a signi cant margin on all platforms: record sponsorships, group sales, merchandise in the stadium and concessions and also non-Scrappers events.
“It’s been a good story for us considering where we were a handful of years ago.”
Crushers Stadium could become for Lorain County what Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse has become in Cleveland — the largest driver of economic activity of any venue in Cuyahoga County.
“Lorain County doesn’t have a convention center. It doesn’t have an arena,” Komoroski, who serves as the organization’s chairman, said before a recent game. “We think we can be the largest driver of economic activity of any venue in Lorain County.”
It’s already happening. Although the new ownership group didn’t get the keys until early March, its early decisions are already driving increases in attendance (about 2,100 per game, which is up more than 25% year over year) and events (110 this year, compared to between 70-80 last year), with plans to add more tentpole events, as well as things like music festivals, boat shows “and a variety of other things we can bring to the city, to the complex and to the county, really, from a destination standpoint,” Komoroski said.
ey’ve also added more gameday promotions, most notably offering reworks after every Saturday home game (and not just on Fridays). Kids eat free on Sundays (a hot dog, bag of chips and a 12-ounce Pepsi or bottled water) and there’s a 1-2-3 food special on Saturday nights, where 12-ounce Pepsis are $1, Labatt’s or Lipton Hard Ice Tea is $2 and popcorn is $3.
ey’re doing a better job with group sales and group hospitality, o ering a pregame ballpark bu et at a tent just outside the ballpark
Cleveland does have two out-ofmarket a liates: the Triple-A Columbus Clippers, who have been a liated with the team since 2009 and give the Guardians a leg up on the Cincinnati Reds in a key Ohio market, and the Single-A Lynchburg (Virginia) Hillcats. Cleveland also has a Rookie League a liate called the Arizona Complex League Guardians, who play their home games at the team’s spring training complex in Goodyear.
But, for the most part, the Guardians like to keep their teams close in order to deepen their relationship with the fans, save on costs and make sure everyone in the organization is moving in the same direction.
“Our relationship with the Guardians is so great when it comes to the front o ce and the baseball development people,” Pfander said. “We get a lot of folks who come here from Cleveland. When you have an opportunity to see your players up close, it’s a unique advantage.
“I worked for a Yankees a liate for eight years (the Single-A Charleston RiverDogs) and we never saw anyone from the front o ce.”
It helps that minor league baseball serves a very di erent audience. Even at the Double-A level, where
that can accommodate 10 to 250 guests. Inside the park is a veritable bu et, as well, with the standard ballpark options available at Stomper’s Grill and Eddy’s Eatery, along with new standalone vendors sprinkled throughout the concourse, such as Chick-Fil-A and BIBIBOP, Susan’s Sugar & Spice and 808 Shave Ice.
“For what we want to average on a night, we needed to have more points of sale,” said Gregovits, the Crushers’ president. “We literally added more points of sale to our concession stands, but we brought in some outside vendors, who help with variety but also pull people away from those concession stands and make the speed of service much faster.”
Oh, and then there’s the baseball team itself. e Crushers’ record at the All-Star break was 3720, equalling the 2023 team’s entire win total (37-59). Winning doesn’t matter as much at the minor league level — “(Minor League Baseball) did a survey of fans leaving the ballpark after the game and 82% of them didn’t know who had won,” Gregovits said — but it still beats losing. e 16-team Frontier League is not part of Major League Baseball’s minor leagues, but it is considered an MLB Partner League, with competition comparable to the High-A level.
It’s good baseball, and the Crushers are good at it.
“I would always say it’s not one thing, it’s a multitude of things,” Gregovits said of the growth. “But the team performance certainly helps.”
Added Komoroski, “A lot of the
many players are genuine MLB prospects and not just hopefuls, the focus is on a ordable family fun.
e Aeros/RubberDucks have won six Eastern League titles since moving to Akron — most recently in 2021 — but “we never count on that,” Pfander said.
“We play great baseball here, but if you want to see wins and losses, you go to a Guardians game,” Pfander said. “For us, it’s family entertainment. We provide a lot of promotions that are geared toward pop culture and stu that’s really outside the box. We’re using baseball as an engine to reach baseball fans, for sure, but it’s a little more than just a baseball game.”
e same is true of the Captains, with GM Jen Yorko saying, “I can’t think of one instance where this (a liation) hurts us.” But Yorko can think of plenty of instances where it helps the Captains, most notably on May 25, when Guardians left elder Steven Kwan played a rehab assignment in front of a season-high 7,146 fans at Classic Park.
e Captains are averaging 3,104 fans — about 100 more than last year (and climbing).
“Fans love the opportunity to watch that talent for a lower price, and it’s great for him to do a rehab
same principles apply in all sports business. Having more sales sta , more people, more promotional options — it all adds up.”
And they’re just getting started. Because the new owners didn’t start until March, they’ve been
more focused on “basic blocking and tackling,” Komoroski said. ey’re doing a better job with data collection and harvesting — a hallmark of the Cavs’ operations — and they’re getting a better idea of who their customers are, where
they’re coming from and what they’re buying.
While Komoroski and Gregovits praise the job done by former Crushers owner Tom Kramig, the new ownership group — which also includes Komoroski’s wife,
Denise, along with Mike Howley (the managing partner of Bratenahl Capital Partners) and Mike Levy (formerly the director of operations for the Hall of Fame Village) — felt it could take things to another level.
“Tom did a good job of running it with character, integrity and the community in mind, but he’s maybe a little more baseball-focused,” Komoroski said. “He really loves the game. Not to say we don’t love the game, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s a lot of the fun part. In the minor league world in general, you have a lot more latitude with what you can do, and you see that when you go to a (Cleveland) Charge game or a (Cleveland) Monsters game. Even with the Cavs, we were always pushing to the edge of what they’ll tolerate (in the NBA).”
One thing that doesn’t need much help? e 15-year-old stadium, which is visible — “You could throw a baseball from I-90 and hit the ballpark,” Komoroski said — and accessible, located just o the highway exit, with a dedicated service road leading to the stadium. Crushers Stadium also has a massive parking lot, one capable of hosting a recent carnival, and it’s located in the fastest-growing section of Northeast Ohio, one with very little entertainment competition in the 45-minute stretch between Avon and Sandusky.
“If you look at what’s going on in Avon and Avon Lake, and even North Ridgeville and Westlake and Bay and She eld, even
through Amherst — it’s just taken o like a bottle rocket,” Komoroski said. “We have a terri c mayor in Mayor (Bryan) Jensen and they are in such a hyper-growth mode. ey’re trying to be really smart about how they continue to be additive to the community, but they did a terri c job of planning and putting this venue where it was. But (Jensen) is always quick to say, ‘Look, this is really about Lorain County and the broader region, not just about Avon.’ Much like the FieldHouse or Progressive Field or Browns Stadium. It also applies here.”
e 5,000-seat stadium also has great sightlines and access to topnotch training facilities like the YMCA and T3 Performance, which are both located just beyond left eld.
at helps attract better players to the Crushers, which leads to more winning, which leads to better game-day experiences, which leads to more business success, which leads to the 64-year-old Komoroski waxing poetically about the sport’s unique hold on America.
“One of the reasons we got into this industry is because sports has a way of connecting people in a way that’s unique to just about anything in the world,” Komoroski said. “You bring people from all walks of life together. It’s communities. It’s families. It’s friends. It’s date nights. It’s business outings. And the great thing about minor league baseball is it does it on a very intimate level.
“When you think about markets like ours, northern markets, we go through all these months of winter and, man, when spring comes, everyone’s just ready to get outside. Our summers are great summers. And we get to bring people together in a very intimate fashion. You get to do some quirky things and have some fun for a reasonable price.”
Condensing Melt back to its rst and original location is a bittersweet move for Fish, who went into bankruptcy with a plan to keep his Lakewood, Avon and Mentor stores all in business.
“None of this was the plan. I wouldn’t have said two years ago that I would close every store and go back to Lakewood,” Fish said. “Once that ship leaves the harbor, it is di cult to turn that ship around and get back to basics unless you sink the ship and start over and rebuild it, and that is what we’re doing.”
three locations, I have signi cant doubts that we would still be in business in a couple years,” he added.
On the bright side, closing these other locations gives Melt the space and resources to focus on improving one marquee restaurant.
“ is will allow us to make some signi cant changes that we wanted to make for a while but couldn’t do with three stores,” Fish said. is includes planned changes for the menu and décor in Lakewood.
“None of this was the plan. I wouldn’t have said two years ago that I would close every store and go back to Lakewood.”
Matt Fish, Melt owner
It was during this bankruptcy process that Fish said he took a hard look at nancials and determined that retrenching and refocusing on just one shop would present the best path forward.
In 2019 and prior to the COVID outbreak, Melt comprised 10 company-owned stores and some 350 employees.
But since the pandemic, the company has struggled to capture the business that helped it grow into such a large enterprise. Amid rising costs of business, sta ng challenges and changing consumer habits, Melt simply hasn’t regained the footing it once had.
“We are going back to basics with a focus 100% on food quality, service levels, atmosphere,” Fish said. “We’re getting back to what Melt was in the rst place, which was a very good local restaurant that catered to the neighborhood and welcomes people all over Northeast Ohio and travelers, who put us on the map in the rst place.”
To complete these changes and retrain sta , Melt Lakewood will close temporarily on Sept. 2 with the goal of holding a grand reopening a week later on Sept. 9.
“I’m looking to make signicant changes to the brand, polish it, bring it into the 2024s and make it more accessible to people,” Fish said.
Fish expects to operate with around 15 to 20 employees at the Lakewood location once the dust settles. He also plans to be working in the kitchen there as often as he did in his early days.
start that’s only 15 miles from downtown,” Yorko said.
e Captains also got rst dibs on No. 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana, who made his professional debut in May.
“Cleveland has done a really good job of having its a liates close by for a long time, and they did a great job thinking ahead in that way,” Yorko said. “It’s great for us because our fans get the opportunity to see guys play here and learn a little bit about them before they move to Akron, which is not that far away. And ultimately they see them play in Cleveland. It’s great for everyone.”
e Guardians’ success is even a boost for clubs like the Crushers, who have always been independent but are the only professional team in Lorain County and pretty much the only baseball option between Cleveland and Toledo.
Chairman and former Cleveland Cavaliers CEO Len Komoroski, who noted that there are about 3.2 million people in Cleveland’s market. “Especially in a market like Cleveland, where sports matters more than, say, maybe a more transient market in … wherever. Pick a part of the South. Here, it just seems to put everybody in a better mood, a better frame of mind.”
at e ect isn’t as pronounced in the Mahoning Valley, which is halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh and has a similar split in its fan allegiance. But both Progressive Field and PNC Park are located juuuuussst far enough away to make it a pain to drive there, especially when a much cheaper baseball option exists nearby. e Scrappers drew their largest crowd in history (7,869) on July 18, boosted by the team’s popular Buck Night promotion and a huge sponsorship night from 7 17 Credit Union.
“Anytime one of the sports teams in Cleveland does well, it helps everybody because it just makes sports much more prominent in their purview,” said Crushers
“We’re in a sweet spot — just far enough away to not be in the shadow (of the Guardians),” Taylor said. “And most people just want to have a good time and be entertained. We’re a good value proposition.”
“We look better nancially with one location than we do with three. And we take all the variables and a lot of the aggravation stress away,” Fish said. “At that point — I don’t want to say it was a no-brainer — it took a couple weeks to wrap my head around and come to the realization that it’s what I need to do.”
“I’m not positive that if we don’t make these changes, if we stay as Melt Bar and Grilled with
“We are going to run it like it was run back in 2006 when I rst opened up,” he said.
“ e focus is on building the brand back and building our regulars back,” Fish continued. “I want Melt Bar and Grilled to be looked at as a culinary restaurant again, not a novelty, not a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant that everyone has been to by now. We need to, and I want to, get back to creating regulars.”
By Kim Palmer
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine used “the bully pulpit” to rail against an upcoming citizen-led ballot initiative aimed at thwarting highly partisan gerrymandered legislative and congressional districts throughout the state.
DeWine, a Republican, told reporters at a Wednesday, July 31, press conference that language in the ballot initiative requires the equal proportionality of congres-
sional and legislative districts, which he said “sounds good and fair,” but, he argued, strict adherence would split apart cities, counties, townships and school districts.
“I just want people to know what they are voting for,” DeWine said.
“ e plan they want us to vote on in November is the classic example of gerrymandering. is proportionality wipes everything else out — proportionality is the king and it is just a problem.”
He also proposed his own solu-
tion: to work with the 2025 Ohio General Assembly to enact a model similar to Iowa that would bar mapmakers from considering any past partisan voting patterns when drawing maps.
“It is the only way to take politics completely out of the drawing of these maps,” said DeWine, claiming that his preferred approach would nally end gerrymandering in Ohio.
Using a map drawn by an unknown person utilizing the proportionality requirement claimed to be
Ancora
The MetroHealth System
paramount in Issue 1, DeWine pointed out cities, such as Brook Park, that were split in half. en, using noted mapping software Dave's Redistricting to illustrate his point, the governor said there could also be a “snake on the lake” district spanning from the western city of Sandusky eastward to the city of Avon Lake.
“What you end up with are districts voters are not going to like,” he said.
After the presser, DeWine shared several examples to support his ar-
gument, including the "snake on the lake."
DeWine also said the initiative would create majority Republican and Democratic districts by “disenfranchising independent voters in the state” with highly partisan primaries rendering general elections mute.
November will mark the second time Ohio voters will weigh in on how political districts are drawn in the state.
In 2015, an anti-gerrymandering initiative passed by more than 71%, but maps drawn by a Republican-majority, bipartisan committee were contested by the Democratic minority. ose ended up before a Republican-majority Ohio Supreme Court before eventually being adopted on a temporary basis.
ERIEBANK announces the promotion of Jim Burke to Senior Vice President, Commercial Banking. In this capacity, Mr. Burke will assist businesses by using his expertise to match the credit needs of customers with solutions including loans, lines of credit, and cash management services as well as provide connections to facilitate their growth. Mr. Burke joined ERIEBANK in 2019 and has over 25 years of banking experience including branch management and commercial banking.
The MetroHealth Foundation
The MetroHealth Foundation is proud to announce Alex Schauer and Paul Sidhu have been elected to its Board of Directors. Schauer is the Vice President of Schauer Group, an independent risk management and insurance advisory rm. “Being a part of promoting MetroHealth through the foundation allows me to support an organization that makes the system work for everyone and promotes true community health,” he said. Paul Sidhu is the Chief Executive Of cer of Sidhu Realty Capital. “Joining the foundation”, he said, “enables me to give back to MetroHealth in ways that go above and beyond nancial motivations, helping connect industry leaders in my network and bring about awareness of the foundation.”
Ancora is happy to announce that Connor Mackovjak, AIF ® has been promoted to a Senior Vice President and Wealth Advisor.
Connor joined the rm in 2018 to manage relationships with and advise Ancora’s individual, business and retirement plan clients, helping them to reach their nancial goals. Prior to joining Ancora, Connor spent ve years at John Hancock as a registered nancial representative. Connor earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Dayton.
Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center
Lindsey Flowers has joined Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center as Healthcare Development Specialist. She graduated from the University of Akron with a bachelor’s degree in middle level education. In this newly created role, Flowers will focus on expanding Crystal Clinic’s services and market reach through developing strategic partnerships, enhancing client relationships, and implementing initiatives to attract new patients to the hospital system.
Greg Sanders joined MetroHealth as its new Vice President, Philanthropy. He joins the hospital system from The Lakeland Foundation at Lakeland Community College where he has served as Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Executive Director since 2019. Sanders previously served as Executive Director of Development at MetroHealth for nearly four years. Congratulations to Michelle Wood on her promotion to Vice President, Philanthropy Finance and Operations. Wood also serves as the Chief Operating Of cer, The MetroHealth Foundation. She has been with MetroHealth since December 2002, serving in a number of progressive roles in support of the hospital system’s philanthropy initiatives.
Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP
Lauren Garretson is an Associate Attorney with Calfee’s Litigation practice group. She has signi cant experience with all phases of the litigation process and enjoys helping clients resolve complex business disputes and providing collaborative, solutions-focused legal advice to clients across a range of industries. A graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Lauren joined Calfee’s Cleveland Of ce after serving as a Litigation Associate at an AmLaw 200 law rm.
Siffron siffron.com
siffron, in partnership with The Riverside Company, recently announced the launch of an employee equity ownership program, naming all employees immediate owners of the organization. The program is powered by Ownership Works, a nonpro t organization that works with companies and investors to allow all employees to build wealth at work. The program facilitates a shared ownership culture, aligning employees’ interests with the company’s long-term goals and objectives.
e Issue 1 ballot language has not been nalized, but the measure would require a 15-member independent redistricting commission to take responsibility for “the creation of fair and impartial districts." e measure’s supporters, Citizens Not Politicians, contend in statements about the ballot initiative that the language would prohibit drawing voting districts that discriminate against or favor any political party or individual politician.
Leaders in the Ohio Democratic Party were quick to push back against DeWine’s plan.
“ is is exactly why there’s so much enthusiasm by Ohioans to make sure it is citizens, not politicians, making the right choices for Ohio’s future. e people are tired of politicians attacking our freedoms and telling us what we can and can’t do,” House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said in a statement.
“Republicans are desperate because they know their gerrymandered grip on power is coming to an end so they’re once again attacking Ohioans’ fundamental freedoms and putting their own self-interest ahead of the interest of the people," she added.
Ohio enables citizens to place an issue directly before voters on a statewide ballot by gathering at least 10% of votes cast in the previous gubernatorial election, from at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties. e current ballot issue submitted enough valid signatures to qualify last month.
Last year, the Republican supermajority in the Ohio Legislature put a measure on the ballot that would have made it harder to certify a citizen-led ballot initiative, but it was defeated by voters.
Still, there's no guarantee that, even if passed, the ballot issue would survive intact. State law o ers little protection for citizen-passed statutes and allows state lawmakers to repeal or modify voter-approved law changes, something legislators threatened to do after a recent state abortion rights protection measure passed.
For example, Liebert explained: “EVs have motors that spin the wheels, some cars have a motor on every wheel, some share motors across an axle. ose motors have a lot of copper connections and copper needs speci c lubricants so they don’t corrode.”
Similarly, she said, vehicles that run on hydrogen, or natural gas, need di erent additives than those that run on gasoline — and Lubrizol has developed them.
While those developments might have been anticipated, given the company’s long history of serving automotive markets, Lubrizol has branched out signi cantly in recent years. Most people use the company’s products every day, Liebert said, but because Lubrizol makes ingredients for other, more consumer-facing companies, most never realize it.
“Most people have no idea, but you probably use Lubrizol products 20 times in your morning routine; in medicines, toothpastes, body washes hair gels …” Liebert said. “And then multiple times in your car.”
e garage might be where most people expect to encounter the company’s products — if they do at all — but it’s the bathroom where Lubrizol has made perhaps the most inroads in recent years.
When the company wants to impress visitors (or reporters) these days, it doesn’t give them a bag with
samples of automotive additives and lubricants. Instead, it hands out samples of fancy cleansers, body washes, and other health and beauty products.
Liebert said those products represent not only the sale of materials but, like with other products, the sale of a lot of research, development and engineering.
e company sells to big health and beauty brands around the world, and sometimes it even formulates their products, Liebert said.
“We have beauty-research centers where we bring in consumers and test products … what kind of wrinkle reduction did they have?”
Liebert said. “We give (corporate customers) the results back and they can use our formulation, or modify it for what they might want.”
Some companies tweak the formulas with some of their own ingredients to get speci c added results of a certain feel or scent, but some are happy with Lubrizol’s formulas and use them as is, she said.
“Some companies today are really just brands,” Liebert said —meaning, they often turn to outside help for formulas and other aspects of product development.
At the same time, the company is also nding and exploiting opportunities its nding in some national and global trends, such as increased investment in infrastructure and the development of more and bigger computer data centers, Liebert said.
On the infrastructure front, in addition to serving markets such as the
U.S. and Europe, Lubrizol is nding signi cant opportunities in China and India, the world’s two largest nations in terms of population and places where infrastructure is being improved rapidly and on a large scale.
In India, for example, Lubrizol makes chlorinated polyvinyl chloride that’s used to make pipe. Similar to the PVC pipe found in most buildings in the U.S., the chlorinated version is better for places that might have poor water quality.
“ at one extra chlorine molecule makes the pipe much more resistant to more acidic or harsh water and chemicals. It makes it more resistant to temperature so it can be used at higher temperatures,” Liebert said. “CVPC pipe is the preferred pipe in India.”
Lubrizol makes it in India, for India. at’s always been the company’s philosophy, Liebert said.
“A lot of U.S. companies went to China to make products to ship back to the U.S. to sell. that’s never been Lubrizol’s approach to foreign markets,” she said. “We make, and sell, locally.”
at said, Lubrizol began investing in India and China in the 1960s, and the connections it made over decades continue to help it in those countries today. Liebert predicts she’ll be making more investments in India, and elsewhere.
“Also, southeast Asia,” she said. “It doesn’t have quite the number of people. But the growth opportunity in Indonesia, ailand, Vietnam
and Malaysia is quite large and we’re excited about that market, too. … If we need to build, we’ll build. If we have an opportunity to partner or buy, we’ll do that.”
Here at home, the company is eyeing another nascent market it thinks will grow rapidly — serving the growing industry of arti cial intelligence, crypto mines and data centers.
Lubrizol has developed a dielectric uid into which servers can be immersed, and then run at much cooler temperatures than they could be run in an air-cooled environment, without the need for noisy and power-hungry cooling fans.
“It’s much more e ective than an air-cooled system, because air is a very poor conductor,” Liebert said. “We’re not selling it at scale yet — but we’re ready to sell it at scale now.”
e company even makes advanced medical devices, most of which are based on its specialized polymer technologies.
“We manufacture medical devices that are used in some of the most advanced procedures in the world today. We have catheters doctors use to perform surgery in the brain, and in the eyes,” Liebert said.
e advances have helped the company grow signi cantly. Privately held by Berkshire Hathaway, Lubrizol doesn’t release its earnings or garner analyst coverage these days. But inside Berkshire’s annual report you can nd that the company had revenues of $6.4 billion in
2023. at was down slightly from $6.7 billion in 2022, but Berkshire attributed the decline to currency valuation changes, not poor performance.
What’s likely more important to a long-term investor like Berkshire is Lubrizol’s long-term growth. e company’s revenues were under $3.9 billion a year in 2010, the year before Berkshire bought the company.
Liebert said much of the company’s growth and many of its new technologies stem from its 2004 acquisition of Noveon for $1.8 billion. at company’s strength in polymers meant the acquisition came with a lot of valuable intellectual property that Lubrizol relies on today, Liebert said.
She doesn’t rule out buying another such company, if she can nd one. “Yeah, for sure,” Liebert said. “We’re always open for more opportunities in the market place.”
A deal that would bring even more technologies would be great. But with or without it, Liebert said her company needs to keep innovating its core chemistry, which Liebert said is really all about surface chemistry. ere are more and more products coming in the years ahead it would like to be part of, she said. “We’re going to have ying cars at some point. We’re going to have trips to Mars at some point,” she said. “And whether it’s ying cars or trips to Mars we need chemistry that is going to bring us better surfaces to let those things happen.”
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President
Group publisher Jim Kirk (312) 397-5503 or jkirk@crain.com
Associate publisher Amy Ann Stoessel (216) 771-5155 or astoessel@crain.com
Interim editor Ann Dwyer (312) 649-5349 or adwyer@crain.com
Director
(313) 446-0419 or elizabeth.couch@crain.com
Paige
ADVERTISING
Senior
(312) 649-5492 or susan.jacobs@crain.com
Events manager Missy Chambless (216) 771-5388 or missy.chambless@crain.com
Sales and marketing coordinator Shannon Smith Account executives
Kaylie Moran, Ed Sivillo, Melissa Streicher
People on the Move manager Debora Stein (917) 226-5470, dstein@crain.com
Classi ed sales Suzanne Janik (313) 446-0455 or sjanik@crain.com
Inside sales Tawni Sharp
CRAIN’S CONTENT STUDIO
We help increase economic opportunity in Ohio by providing residents with training for in-demand careers at our company and across the region.
