CRAIN’S LIST Cleveland’s grantmaking foundations, ranked by grants awarded, with a look at giving focus areas
LAW SCHOOLS: Ohio institutions are easier to get into than others in U.S. PAGE 2
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CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM I SEPTEMBER 20, 2021
A long-awaited refinancing at the Flats East Bank puts the 23-acre riverfront project on firmer footing — and eases the path for additional development. | MICHELLE JARBOE
High-profile project on firmer ground
Flats East Bank refinancing resolves financial challenges BY MICHELLE JARBOE
A recent refinancing at the Flats East Bank, a $500 million-plus project at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, resolves longstanding financial challenges and smooths the
path for more development on the 23-acre site. Developer Scott Wolstein closed Thursday, Sept. 16, on a deal that had been in the works for well over a year. The transaction replaced bonds issued in 2010 and 2014 with new debt,
carrying a longer term and lower interest rates, and freed up cash for Wolstein to catch up on millions of dollars in payments to public lenders. “It cleans up what has been a major source of acrimony between us and all the various governmental en-
tities,” Wolstein said. By simplifying the financial underpinnings of the project and removing liens from portions of the site, the restructuring also will make it easier for Wolstein to refinance his existing buildings — and to construct new ones on parking lots that eventually might hold up to 1,500 apartments.
The Flats East Bank, where construction started a decade ago, includes a 23-story office tower, the 150-room Aloft Cleveland Downtown hotel, a riverfront apartment building and more than a dozen restaurants and entertainment venues. See FLATS on Page 19
Third season is ‘biggest’ yet for Progressive, Mayfield
Banks blast proposal to give IRS additional data
BY KEVIN KLEPS
BY JEREMY NOBILE
Jeff Charney, to the surprise of some of his coworkers, helped a Boston firm at which he worked land Larry Bird for an advertising campaign in the mid-1980s. It was a heck of an accomplishment for a recent college graduate. Bird, who didn’t seem all that ea-
ger to talk in the commercial, was asked to make 26 shots for a campaign whose slogan was “quality starts with fundamentals.” The Boston Celtics great, according to Charney, said, “Hey kid, if I hit the 26 hits shots in a row so you don’t have to edit, can I leave?” See MAYFIELD on Page 21
NEWSPAPER
VOL. 42, NO. 34 l COPYRIGHT 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield has the on-camera presence and swagger of actor Mark Wahlberg, says Progressive chief marketing officer Jeff Charney, right. | CONTRIBUTED
THE
LAND SCAPE
Banks and credit unions are up in arms about a legislative proposal brewing that would require financial institutions to report additional information about customer accounts to the Internal Revenue Service, and they're pressing lawmakers to prevent
the measure from passing as part of a federal budget reconciliation bill. Industry officials in Ohio bristle at the proposal, which they say is unnecessary and could have sweeping impacts on the financial services sector. See BANKING on Page 22
A CRAIN’S CLEVELAND PODCAST
9/17/2021 1:31:38 PM
EDUCATION
HOW SELECTIVE ARE OHIO LAW SCHOOLS? FONT STYLES
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The Case Western Reserve University College of Law has an acceptance rate of 46.6%. | -CONTRIBUTED MF note-source black
Institutions generally are easier to get into than others in U.S. BY JEREMY NOBILE
Barring a couple exceptions, Ohio’s nine law schools generally are easier to get into than others in the United States, according to information reported to the American Bar Association for the fall 2020 school year. Of the three law schools in Greater Cleveland — Case Western Reserve University College of Law, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and The University of Akron School of Law — CWRU is the most restrictive, but only marginally more so than CSU. CWRU has an acceptance rate of 46.63% compared with CSU’s rate of 46.99%. UA, meanwhile, accepted 53.26% of applicants last year. Those schools had incoming class sizes of first-year law students (1L) in fall 2020 of 399, 431 and 428, respectively. The Buckeye State also is home to one of the least selective law schools in the country in Columbus’s Capital University, which admitted more than 76% of applicants last fall for an incoming class size of 461. Capital is one of just three law schools out of nearly 200 in the country with an acceptance rate of 70% or more, according to U.S. News & World Report. On the other end of the spectrum, The Ohio State University’s Mortiz College of Law is the most selective in the state with an acceptance rate of 35.18%. It’s followed by The University of Dayton School of Law at 36.21%. Those schools had starting classes last fall of 551 and 328. You can see how all Ohio law schools compare in selectivity,
and how that has ebbed and flowed in recent years, in the graph with this article. The average acceptance rate among all law schools in fall 2020 was 44%, according to U.S. News. The most restrictive law school in the country, however, is Yale Law School, which accepted just 7.4% of students last fall. It is the only law university in America admitting applicants at a single-digit rate, and it has been operating at that level for the last decade. Overall, 1L enrollment in law schools has been trending down since reaching a peak of 52,4040 in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis, according to Law School Transparency. Between 2010 to 2015, 1L enrollment sank 29%. That drop was predicated by a number of factors as the profession grew saturated with legal professionals, including increases in tuition, declining salaries and “inadequate” job prospects for graduates, according to LST. Around 2019, fewer than 70% of new lawyers were landing fulltime jobs that required passage of a bar exam, according to the ABA. Ohio law schools themselves have seen 1L enrollment drop by 27% on average in the last decade. The last couple years, 1L enrollment nationwide has stabilized, remaining relatively steady at about 38,200. Nonetheless, challenges with enrollment have raised questions about financial viability for some law schools, which may look to increase tuition to offset losses from smaller incoming groups but could risk pushing away students as they do so. These challenges have prompt-
A look at how all Ohio law schools compare in selectivity, and how that has ebbed and flowed in recent years:
ed some schools to seek out an acquisition by another university. Among those considering joining forces are Akron and Cleveland’s law schools, which announced last fall that the institutions were in the early stages of merger discussions. University presidents emphasized when the idea of a combination was first announced that finances have not been a driving factor so much as conveying a spirit of collaboration and openness to considering a new model in unprecedented times for the economy and education. Prior actions at UA seem to paint a slightly different picture of financial stability for the university at large, though. In 2018, the school cut about 80 programs as part of a massive academic restructuring. In July 2020, UA trustees approved eliminating 178 positions, including 97 full-time faculty jobs. It's plausible the future of the UA law school was being reviewed in concert with these other sweeping changes that have already been made. There’s been no publicly announced timeline for when the schools would make a decision on merging or not. While acceptance rates among law schools shift some from 94 year to year, the data indicate schools are not yet becoming drastically more lax in admission standards in an effort to bring more students in the door. Some, like Dayton and OSU, have become a bit more re90 strictive in the past decade.
Capital University Case Western Reserve University Cleveland State University Ohio Northern University The Ohio State University
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Jeremy Nobile: jnobile@crain.com, (216) 771-5362, @JeremyNobile
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University of Akron University of Cincinnati University of Dayton University of Toledo Yale University
80%
76.1%
70
65.6%
60
53.3% 50.6% 49.5% 47.0% 46.6% 36.2%
50 40 30
35.2%
20 7.4%
10 0
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Total J.D. enrollment: 2020 vs. 2011
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Law school acceptance rates: Enrollments in 2011, 2020
Yale University
0.5%
University of Cincinnati
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Ohio State University
-19.0%
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-20.1%
Cleveland State University
-22.6%
Capital University
Highway/major road
University of Toledo
University of Dayton
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Ohio Northern University
-30.9%
-34.0%
-52.4%
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SOURCE: THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
290
-27.2%
-32.8%
Case Western Reserve University
94
3.7%
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THE WEEK LONG-TERM GOALS: Bedrock, the Detroit-based owner of the Tower City mall and a sweep of riverfront land behind it, has a 30-year vision for remaking that waterfront with offices, homes, retail and parks. Bedrock CEO Kofi Bonner unveiled the high-level concept Wednesday, Sept. 15, during a virtual news conference with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. Bonner described the plan as a public-private-philanthropic partnership — a development that will require massive infrastructure investments and take decades to realize. The Jackson administration plans to send legislation to Cleveland City Council outlining “the spirit” of the deal, the mayor said, but there is no development agreement that speaks to specifics about costs, timelines and expectations for both parties.
the home of NPR programming for Ideastream. The changes will take place sometime between Jan. 1 and April 1, 2022. The combined operation will have about 150 employees, including a 45-person newsroom. OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Opendoor, a San Francisco-based company often referred to as the granddaddy of the instant buyer (or i-buyer) trend, announced Tuesday, Sept. 14, that it has begun serving the Northeast Ohio residential market. The company said that with Opendoor, homeowners can get an offer on their home in days and sell in a matter of weeks. Moreover, the company offers virtual services, from initial home assessments to timing the final closing of a home sale. Ohio is be-
ing added as part of a national expansion by the company, formally known as Opendoor Technologies Inc. IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Westlake-based American Greetings on Tuesday, Sept. 14, announced it will sponsor the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Terms of the sponsorship deal were not disclosed. The sponsorship will give American Greetings a way to highlight its SmashUps brand of personalized, shareable e-card videos featuring people you recognize, such as Shaquille O’Neal, Donny Osmond and Dolly Parton. American Greetings earlier this year formed a partnership with entertainment company Roc Nation to produce the customized digital greetings.
Bedrock CEO Kofi Bonner unveiled a high-level vision for remaking a stretch of the downtown riverfront during a news conference on Wednesday, Sept. 15. This rendering shows new offices, housing, retail and public spaces. | COURTESY OF BEDROCK
TOWERING GOAL: The looming redevelopment of the 40-story Tower at Erieview will bring a W hotel — a luxury brand — to downtown Cleveland. Members of the Kassouf family have inked a deal with Marriott International Inc. to add a 210-room W to the project. The Kassoufs are planning a $90 million-plus revamp of the 1960s office tower, where apartments, lodging and a 38th-floor restaurant will fill ample vacancies. Operated by Marriott, the W would be downtown’s second luxury hotel. The only other property of that caliber in the central business district is the Ritz-Carlton Cleveland, which opened in 1991 and was renovated a few years ago. MAKING PROGRESS: The Sherwin-Williams Co. is one step closer to building its new headquarters just off Public Square, after securing key approvals from city commissions on Tuesday, Sept. 14. Members of the Cleveland City Planning Commission and the Cleveland Landmarks Commission gave their blessing to schematic designs for a two-level pavilion facing Public Square, a 36-story office tower and a parking garage. The vote — the second of three in a monthslong review process — locks in the site layout, building footprints and the general look of the project. The coatings giant and its design team are scheduled to present final plans to the commissions and two advisory committees Nov. 30. Sherwin-Williams aims to break ground for the $300 million-plus development this year, putting the company on track to occupy the buildings by late 2024. NEW STATION IN LIFE: Ideastream Public Media and WKSU public radio on Wednesday, Sept. 15, announced they will enter into a “public service operating agreement” that will “create one of Northeast Ohio’s largest news organizations.” Trustees of Kent State University authorized the school to pursue an agreement for the management and operations of the WKSU stations. In turn, Ideastream’s board voted to advance the proposal for the public service operating agreement, which is expected to go into effect Oct. 1. Ideastream on Oct. 1 will begin operating WKSU, though Kent State will retain Federal Communications Commission licensing for the WKSU stations. Big changes will come in 2022. WKSU next year will become the sole NPR news/information station in Northeast Ohio, while Ideastream will use its 104.9 FM signal — currently classical station WCLV — as a repeater station that extends the WKSU coverage. The WCLV classical programming will move to 90.3 FM, currently
Bestowed upon individuals whose significant contributions through leadership, collaboration and service have left an indelible mark on all spheres of the Cleveland community. The 2021 Cleveland Heritage Medal recipients are:
Richard J. Bogomolny Margot James Copeland Beth E. Mooney Margaret W. Wong THE CLEVELAND HERITAGE MEDAL PRESENTATION DINNER Thursday November 18, 2021 Begins at 6 p.m.
The City of Cleveland Grand Hall Rotunda 601 Lakeside Avenue East Cleveland, Ohio 44114
TO JOIN US PLEASE CALL 216-778-5665
Cleveland Heritage Medal Committee Chairs: Akram Boutros, MD, FACHE The MetroHealth System
Trina Evans KeyBank SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 3
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MANUFACTURING
A willingness to experiment has paid off for the Steere family BY RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY
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No one could accuse the Steere family of playing it safe. The family business got its start in a basement before its first big success: a small change purse. That product was parlayed into others, like bicycle grips and seatbelt sleeves. And just when the company had settled into a niche making automotive air ducts, the next generation decided it was time to change again. And so, in 2020, the Steeres began marketing a new product: the Meltdown ice ball press. Meltdown comes in three varieties, with the least expensive option starting at $895 and the most expensive starting at $1,495. The most expensive product — the Meltdown Mogul — is made of almost 99% solid copper; the least expensive option uses aluminum, and the option in the middle uses both. The price tag on the Meltdown may be high, but the company sees the main customer as a “high net-worth individual” who’s a fan of scotch or bourbon, said co-president Brock Steere. It’s aimed at people who want to create an experience for their guests at home. As the Steeres were looking to expand, the idea of an ice ball maker caught their attention. The competition in the market wasn’t too strong, especially for a branded product. The Steeres saw an opportunity. Marketing for Meltdown got underway last year. The company served as a sponsor for the Bourbon Pursuit podcast and got active on social media, most notably catching the attention of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who shared one of Meltdown’s videos on Instagram. That particular post took down Meltdown’s website. Brock Steere happened to catch the crash early in the morning, and got the IT team on it. Half an hour later, the site was restored, and 185,000 people were accessing it, he said. “It was just an incredible day that we’ll never forget,” he said.
And the company has grown from there. In the last nine months, Meltdown has sold almost half a million dollars’ worth of product, Brock Steere said. And he thinks that will only improve as the pandemic wanes and people get back to socializing. Meltdown is just part of the Steeres’ portfolio. Today, the Steeres’ main business is Steere Enterprises Inc. That has a subsidiary, Square One Engineering, which makes automotive tooling for Steere. And the Meltdown products are made by the Courtright Engineering Co., a standalone company also owned by the Steere family. Courtright is also home to the PULVR, a grinding product sold by the Steeres. All of the companies, which employ about 250 in total, are based in Tallmadge and owned by co-presidents Brock and Brian Steere, along with their father, Bill Steere. Brian Steere has the additional role of CFO. They declined to share annual revenue. Steere Enterprises got its start in 1949. Brock Steere said his grandfather, a chemical engineer, had moved to Northeast Ohio to work for BFGoodrich. He came across the material vinyl plastisol and was inspired to start a company. He had no business plan and no customers, Brock Steere said. He just saw the possibilities in the product and “took a leap of faith,” Brock Steere said. The company’s first early success was the oval coin purse it made for Quikey Manufacturing Co. Brock Steere said more than 50 million of the purses were sold. From there, the company went on to make everything from toys to bicycle parts to hitch trailers. Seatbelt sleeves gave Steere its foothold in the automotive industry. In the ’70s, the company began making those sleeves out of polyethylene. That shift opened up other opportunities in automotive, particularly in air ducts, where the company began to focus its resources. It exited the vinyl plastisol business entirely in the mid-2000s. Brock Steere returned to the family business in 2011, with Brian Steere
coming back the following year. They thought it was time to diversify the business again. “We were very good at what we did, but we were very focused on just one niche market in air induction,” Brock Steere said. The company started Square One Engineering. Prior to that, Steere Enterprises was outsourcing about 95% of its tooling, Brock Steere said. Now, Square One makes all the automotive tooling for Steere. But, tooling as a business is “feast or famine,” Brock Steere said. The company wanted a proprietary product that it could make during the slower times, which led to Meltdown. Companies with a “long-term mindset” always need to think about creating new products and services, said Brandon Cornuke, vice president of strategy and startup services at MAGNET in Cleveland and an adjunct professor of design and innovation at Case Western Reserve University. “Because ultimately, any product over time becomes eroded by this idea of creative destruction, or some people call it disruption. This notion that, ultimately, you’ll be competed out of what you do by technology or time,” Cornuke said. “So you absolutely have to keep your eye on the next product, the next service, the next new value you can create for your customers.” Ultimately, Brock Steere said he views the family’s businesses as an “engineering company.” The companies aren’t just focused on plastics or machining, and as the Steeres look to grow, they’ll keep searching for new niches, he said. Brian Steere said having that engineering expertise and creativity helps the companies create full end products. Throughout its history, the family business has continued to reinvent itself, said Brian Steere. And he expects that to continue. “I think that’s the only certainty,” he said. Rachel Abbey McCafferty: (216) 7715379, rmccafferty@crain.com
Mayor Martin S. Horwitz Mayor@BeachwoodOhio.com •216.292.1901 WWW.BEACHWOODOHIO.COM
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HEALTH CARE
Four regional health systems receive payouts for saving on senior care BY LYDIA COUTRÉ
The Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth, Summa Health and University Hospitals each are receiving multimillion-dollar payouts from the federal government for saving money in their care of seniors in 2020 — the first time all four participating Northeast Ohio health systems have achieved shared savings in the Medicare program in the same year. The Medicare Shared Savings Program rewards providers that offer high-quality, coordinated care while controlling costs through accountable care organizations (ACOs). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) program pivots away from traditional fee-for-service reimbursement models. The program is designed to achieve quality and continually gain efficiencies for this patient population. Dr. Peter Pronovost, UH chief quality and clinical transformation officer, said the framework is to make visible what he calls “defects of care” where there are inefficiencies and design them out of the system. “And though we’ve made progress, we still have opportunities in that space for further improving value,” he said. To get a share of the savings, a participating ACO must spend below a CMS-established threshold by at least a certain percentage, also dictated by CMS. Although the four systems have received payments over several years of participating in the shared savings program, this is the first time all four have triggered payouts in the same year. University Hospitals Coordinated Care Organization’s payout totals
$8.9 million; Cleveland Clinic’s Medicare ACO will receive $9.6 million; the MetroHealth Care Partners ACO earned a $6.7 million payout; and Summa’s ACO, NewHealth Collaborative, will get $5.7 million in shared savings. Beyond health systems in Northeast Ohio, NOMS Healthcare — an independent, physician-owned and -led medical practice — also has an ACO participating in the shared savings program. The ACO of Sandusky-based NOMS (Northern Ohio Medical Specialists) triggered shared savings of $2.1 million. Across the country, 67% of the 513 ACOs participating in the program last year earned nearly $2.3 billion in performance payments. 2020 was MetroHealth’s fifth consecutive year earning savings in the program. Although Summa hasn’t always saved enough to trigger a payout for itself, the Akron system has saved the federal government money every year it has participated in the program since it began in 2012. UH overspent for three years between 2016 and 2018, but shared in savings in 2019 and nearly doubled its payout in 2020. The Clinic also overspent for a three-year period ending in 2019 — though each year by progressively smaller amounts — before its payout for savings last year. The shared savings program is one of many efforts at the federal level to rein in health care costs that have been rising for years. The pandemic itself also is driving up costs, with the care of COVID patients themselves as well as the people who have delayed care, who tend to present sicker and are thus more costly, UH’s Pronovost said.
Additionally, numbers of long COVID patients are increasing, and though uncertainty remains about the cost trend, “it’s predicted to be substantial,” he said. The pandemic also, in part, had an effect on the ACOs’ abilities to save costs on their care of seniors. For instance, some procedures were postponed at the start of the pandemic in 2020, and patients opted to delay care on their own as well. Emergency room utilization was down — both appropriate use and cases where patients could have potentially sought care elsewhere. Hospitals also ramped up at-home, post-acute options to conserve health care resources and minimize exposure for patients, who were reticent to go into skilled nursing facilities or other post-acute settings that would have previously been a default setting. “I think it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that that pandemic certainly contributed to some of that,” said Dr. Jessica Hohman, president and medical director of Cleveland Clinic Medicare ACO. “And as we think about 2020, I acknowledge the pandemic is having distorted ef-
fects throughout our health care system, and I suspect that will influence this year and what we’re seeing.” Kathy Blake, president of NewHealth Collaborative, said Summa was just in the infancy of developing its initiative to send people home after discharge rather than to facilities with a skilled nursing level of care, but with patients apprehensive to go there during the pandemic, at-home rapidly became a more common postacute option. “It started with perhaps concern from a patient, but we’ve seen some benefit from looking at it from a different lens,” she said. “Can we look at how we as a care team assess and evaluate that on the front end to help, then guide patients as to what’s the next best place for them to go after discharge? So we have to own that process on our end rather than it prompting us to evaluate differently based on patient concern.” Dr. Nabil Chehade, MetroHealth executive vice president and chief clinical transformation officer, said he doesn’t believe those shifts in how patients accessed care would have been the major contributor in the savings.
Plus, hospitals will eventually see the consequences of delayed care, because patients will eventually need that knee or hip replacement that was postponed, he said. How the savings that may have been seen in 2020 balances with delayed care — especially in conditions that worsened in the interim — in that population as they seek care into 2021 remains to be seen. “Unfortunately, delayed care not only is dollar for dollar when you spend it in the following quarter of the following year, usually it’s more expensive when you delay it,” Chehade said. The shared savings program also annually awards a quality score to the ACOs. Chehade notes that CMS enacted an extreme and uncontrollable circumstances policy, which resulted in ACOs receiving higher quality scores for performance year 2020. The Cleveland Clinic’s ACO’s quality score was 98.1%, MetroHealth’s was 96.9%, UH’s was 100%, Summa’s was 96.9% and NOMS’ was 100%. Lydia Coutré: lcoutre@crain.com, (216) 771-5479, @LydiaCoutre
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GOVERNMENT
Lofty proposal could strengthen region’s infrastructure efforts BY KIM PALMER
An ambitious plan to create a trade and development authority involving the eight U.S. states and parts of Canada located within the Great Lakes basin has been set in motion by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat from Toledo. Her goal is to create a collation capable of working together to strengthen water conservation and secure a chunk of the proposed federal infrastructure dollars being debated in Congress.
“There is a need for a large organization to handle infrastructure buildout, funding and management of the Great Lakes because our region does not have anything like that under the federal development umbrella,” said Kaptur, whose district stretches from Toledo to Cleveland’s western suburbs. The Great Lakes basin encompasses the coastal region of the eight states that border the five lakes — Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — plus the
province of Ontario, Canada. Kaptur, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, said the proposed Great Kaptur Lakes Authority would be a federally created economic development organization authorized to establish a regional infrastructure bank; set up a uni-
versity research consortium; and house the U.S. Department of Energy’s 18th national laboratory. The Great Lakes Authority is in a nascent stage, but Kaptur said she has support from members of U.S. House Great Lakes Task Force to pursue a federal legislative path for its creation. “The plan is to help rebuild our transportation, energy, water and wastewater systems and provide a path for regional economic development, including in cooperation with the Canadians, our largest
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trading partner,” Kaptur said. She points to the formation of other regional groups — most notably the Tennessee Valley Authority, created by Congress in 1933 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to provide flood control for seven southern states, and the 13-state Appalachian Regional Commission, an economic development arm of the federal government created by President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s — as models for her 21st century regional development plan. “We are going to find a way to put together a business model that will work for us,” Kaptur said. The Great Lakes Authority would provide both dedicated federal appropriations as well as the authorization to work across state lines and internationally on infrastructure and trade projects. With the international alliance component, Kaptur said a wish list of projects seemingly not previously possible — such as a hydro-power program with Canada or the buildout of a Cleveland-to-Chicago rail corridor — are within reach. “There are ideas out there, but they require things like federal appropriations and much more U.S.-Canadian cooperation,” she said. Grant Goodrich, executive director of the Great Lakes Energy Institute (GLEI) at Case Western Reserve University, said what Kaptur is proposing could clear the way for Northeast Ohio and the other Great Lakes regions to compete for one of the four Hydrogen Hub projects proposed in the federal infrastructure bill. Those “regional clean hydrogen hubs,” Goodrich said, are part of a commitment by the Department of Energy to help utilities produce, sell and store hydrogen as part of a buildout of a national clean-hydrogen network. The proposal from the federal government earmarks $2 billion per hub at facilities across the country that generate electricity from fossil fuels, renewable power sources and nuclear power to build out this hydrogen capacity. “It is the Biden administration’s version of the ‘moon shot,’ (but) it’s the ‘hydrogen shot,’ with a goal of driving down the cost of hydrogen over the next decade,” Goodrich said. There are 30 operating nuclear reactors at 12 generating stations on 11 sites in the Great Lakes basin. Goodrich and his partners at GLEI were contemplating how the region could take advantage of this huge infrastructure program that would link up these facilities. “There is a good chance for Northeast Ohio to be part of the Hydrogen Hub initiative, but it was clear we needed a pseudo-government agency to act as a convener or broker to bring together a project of this scale,” he said. There are few entities that could handle the development and buildout of a project that spans multiple states, Goodrich said, but an organization such as the Great Lakes Authority could take the lead to bring a Hydrogen Hub to the area. Kaptur said the Great Lakes Authority would be able to take advantage of federal bond rates,
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which are cheaper and have longer terms than a typical bond offering. Under the Great Lakes Authority, cities could be eligible for the 50year and 100-year bonds that U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has recently supported. Kaptur proposes the Great Lakes Authority be run by a Cabinet-level official appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, with a five-person bipartisan board appointed by the U.S. House and Senate leadership. Eligible appointees would serve five-year terms and be limited to residents of the Great Lakes region who are currently active as a corporate manufacturing CEO, head of a major financial institution, president of a land grant university or CEO of a major distribution company, she said. It remains to be seen if the plan will be successful, but Kaptur said she’s driven to make sure the people she represents do not lose out on the federal government’s plan to “build back better.” “There’s a whole new America going to be built,” she said. “And we need to be part of it.”
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In this file photo, water vapor is emitted from the cooling towers of the FirstEnergy Corp. Perry Nuclear Generating Station. | DAVID MAXWELL/BLOOMBERG
Kim Palmer: kpalmer@crain.com, (216) 771-5384, @kimfouroffive
OH_2022_Crains_6X8.qxp_Layout 1 9/9/21 2:57 PM Page 1
“IT IS THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S VERSION OF THE ‘MOON SHOT,’ (BUT) IT’S THE ‘HYDROGEN SHOT,’ WITH A GOAL OF DRIVING DOWN THE COST OF HYDROGEN OVER THE NEXT DECADE.” — Grant Goodrich, executive director of the Great Lakes Energy Institute at Case Western Reserve University
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Dream. Dare. Do. SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 7
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Marcus & Millichap duo masters NEO market, rises to top of ranks By VINCE GUERRIERI Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland
Executive Managing Director Investments Marcus & Millichap
And last month, both were promoted to Executive Managing Directors Investments, the highest title in the company. Barron says of the company’s 2,000 investment sales agents, only about 40 are Executive Managing Directors Investments. It’s an honor that is well deserved and well earned, says Grant Fitzgerald, regional manager for Marcus & Millichap’s Cleveland and Columbus offices.
MICHAEL BARRON
Executive Managing Director Investments Marcus & Millichap
M
ichael Barron and Daniel Burkons had never met before they were thrown together in a conference room in 2003. Both East Side natives and recent college graduates — Barron from Ohio State and Burkons from the University of Michigan — they’d found their way to Marcus & Millichap, a California-based commercial real estate firm that had recently opened its first Ohio office in Columbus, and planned to open a second one in Cleveland. “We didn’t know anything about brokering apartment buildings, but we were students of the business,” Barron says. “I had no idea what I was doing, but I decided I wanted to make a career in commercial real estate,” Burkons says. “Individually, we both found our way toward this.” With a new company and a relatively untapped marketplace, the pair started out with a coworking space at Crown Centre in Independence. “We didn’t even have a color printer,” Barron recalls. “We both had Kinko’s cards.”
K-12 funding, school choice programs will be tested by changes BY RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY
But a lot has changed. In the 18 years since, the pair has completed 615 real estate transactions, totaling $4.125 billion, branching out from Northeast Ohio throughout the Midwest.
DANIEL BURKONS
EDUCATION
“They’re good guys,” he says. “It came across naturally how well they knew the local market, not just multifamily buildings, but Cleveland in general and Ohio. “They know what they’re doing, they’re easy to get along with, and they’re honest.” Burkons says that when he and Barron started out, there were plenty of brokers dealing in commercial, industrial or singlefamily residential real estate, but nobody was really devoted to just the sale of multifamily residential real estate. “The conventional wisdom was that there were five or six families that owned all the apartments in Cleveland, and they didn’t sell them,” Burkons says. “They passed them to their kids. If you owned an apartment building and wanted to sell it, you either ran an ad in the Plain Dealer or called one of the handful of people you knew who also owned apartment buildings. It used to be people on the East Side didn’t even buy on the West Side. “We created an efficient marketplace that didn’t exist before. We just wanted to make a living. We ended up bringing the Cleveland multifamily investment market into the national fold.”
and almost as many support staff in the office. Burkons said their success is attributable in no small part to the cultivation and promotion of junior agents. In fact, one of the junior agents Barron and Burkons hired 14 years ago is now their partner, Josh Wintermute, who is a senior managing director with the firm. Barron, Burkons and Wintermute also have helped cultivate the growth of Charlie Gagliano, First Vice President Investments; and Will Koontz, Vice President Investments. Their footprint expanded in 2008, when they sold a total of 5,000 units for the Risman family that included several buildings in Detroit. “That gave us our first exposure out of town, and we realized we had developed the skills to be successful brokering apartments in other cities,” Burkons says. Since then, the pair has expanded to western New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Kentucky, among other places. At the same time, they’re bringing coastal buyers to Northeast Ohio. “People from the East Coast and West Coast and Canada are making deals in Cleveland like they’d never done before,” Burkons says. But still, there’s no place like home. Burkons and Barron remain connected to Northeast Ohio and committed to selling here, from the small 10-unit apartments that started their career to buildings worth north of $100 million like the Archer and The Bingham in Cleveland’s Warehouse District, which they’re selling for the second time in their careers.
As Ohio’s K-12 schools start a new academic year, Crain’s wanted to take a look at some of the legislative changes coming from the state. The 2022-2023 state budget in particular held a host of changes for Ohio’s schools, most notably in how they’re funded. Read on for a look at the state’s new K-12 funding formula, the changes lawmakers made to school choice programs and how state report cards will be changing.
School funding Changes to the state’s funding formula have been a long time coming. The state’s school funding system, which has heavily relied on local property taxes, was found unconstitutional in 1997 under the DeRolph v. the State of Ohio case. There have been many attempts to create a more equitable funding system over the years. But Wendy Patton, senior project director at Policy Matters Ohio, thinks they resulted in a series of “Band-Aids and patches.” “What we found was that the old formula failed nearly all school districts but in different ways,” Patton said. Ryan Pendleton, chief financial officer for the Akron Public Schools, noted that, prior to the last two years when the funding formula was frozen, more than 80% of the state’s school districts were not on the formula. Their funding was either capped or guaranteed by the state. The new plan puts a cost on what it takes to educate a student today in Ohio, said Pendleton, who was part of the group of superintendents and treasurers who helped build the school funding model. The model first defines a base cost for every student, accounting for costs like co-curricular activities and utilities, Pendleton said. Then it builds on that cost based on additional need in areas like special education, technology or transportation. The plan also redefines the state
and local share of education, relying less on property and putting more emphasis on a community’s “ability to participate” by looking at factors like median income and tax returns, Pendleton said. The old formula would have assumed a district like Akron or Cleveland with a lot of property should take on a larger share of the education funding, without accounting for the high level of poverty in the cities. The Ohio Legislative Service Commission’s budget analysis notes that the formula actually calculates a unique base cost and a unique “per-pupil local capacity amount” for school districts. The funding is guaranteed, though not fully funded, for fiscal years 2022 and 2023. Rather than being created as its own law, the formula is part of the budget. It’s not yet fully funded, and changes could be debated in future budget cycles. “It’s easy to devise a school funding system,” said Chad Aldis, vice president for Ohio policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. “It’s very hard to actually allocate the resources to fund it.” The old per-pupil system was based less on need and more on “what the state had to give,” said Tom Sutton, director of the Community Research Institute at Baldwin Wallace University. Sutton has been following school funding for decades, having written his dissertation on DeRolph 20 years ago. Districts with high levels of poverty among their students, whether they’re in urban or rural areas, are going to have higher costs, Sutton said. There’s no set solution for how to address those needs yet, and it’s not something that can be solved in a short amount of time. It requires investment. “The parallel is dealing with health conditions,” he said. “It costs more to manage a chronic health condition that nobody’s figured out how to fix.” Sutton thinks that, if this plan persists and is funded, it will address the inequities of a reliance on local taxes raised in the DeRolph case.
“We’re very fortunate and humbled and lucky to look back at the track record,” Barron says. “I love driving down 271 through Mayfield Heights and Beachwood and saying, ‘We sold that building and that building and that building.’”
Today, Barron and Burkons are still in Crown Centre, but now Marcus & Millichap’s Cleveland office has more than 50 employees, 30 agents This advertising-supported feature is produced by Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland, the marketing storytelling arm of Crain’s Cleveland Business. The Crain’s Cleveland Business newsroom is not involved in creating Crain’s Content Studio content.
Akron schools could benefit from the state’s new funding formula, which takes factors like the median income of a community into account. | AKRON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
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School choice Ohio already is known as a strong school choice state, Aldis said, but he thought this budget represented the “single biggest year” of changes to school choice. For example, funding increased for the state’s voucher program, and the cap on the number of students who could participate in the EdChoice scholarship program was lifted. Additionally, the budget removed the restriction that charter schools could only open in “academically challenged” areas, he said. And changes to how scholarship programs and charter schools are funded will actually benefit the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s bottom line, said the district’s chief financial officer, Derek Richey. The funds for students in those programs used to pass through the district, but will now go straight from the Department of Education to the charters or other entities themselves. While the district won’t have that funding on the books anymore, it used to pay out more than it brought in, Richey said. For example, districts received their funding per pupil, and paid that amount to the charters. But the amount districts actually received was based on the state share index, which was less than 100%. So revenue will be down, but so will expenses. Not everyone is pleased with the changes. Patton thinks the expanded funding and eligibility for school choice is a “danger” to the public
was on said omaldhas for ser-
Changes to how the state’s charter schools and scholarship programs are funded may have a positive effect on the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. | CMSD NEWS BUREAU
school system in the state, creating two systems of schools and drawing resources away from the publics. “We feel like Ohio is on the brink of great progress or great danger,” Patton said.
Report cards Starting this school year, the state’s report cards for school districts and public schools won’t feature a letter
grade, but instead a star performance rating. And it changes some of the components used to create that rating. By March 31, 2022, the State Board of Education must adopt rules on the new criteria, according to the Ohio Legislative Service Commission’s analysis of the report card bill. And, by Dec. 31, 2024, the department is expected to issue a report on the effectiveness of the state report card.
The shift away from letter grades will probably get “all the headlines,” Aldis said, but he doesn’t think it’s the most important change in the new law. The new approach to report cards will ultimately be fairer to schools that serve large numbers of students from low-income backgrounds, he said, as it will put more weight on the progress schools and districts make in helping students improve. Additionally, by the 2022-2023
school year, the report cards will feature what the legislative analysis called a “student opportunity profile,” which will include data like student-teacher ratios, the ratio of takehome technology devices to students, and the percentages of students enrolled in courses like performing arts or world languages. Rachel Abbey McCafferty: (216) 771-5379, rmccafferty@crain.com
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PERSONAL VIEW
Ohio Tech Day looks to inspire the next generation of leaders
RICH WILLIAMS FOR CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
BY JESSICA COHEN
EDITORIAL
Then there were two
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id-September isn’t typically a time to draw conclusions about political races, but we learned some important lessons last week from the Cleveland mayoral primary, which has given voters the choice of nonprofit executive Justin Bibb and Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley in the November general election. We’ll make an endorsement in early October. Here are some things we know so far: ` The business community should be pretty happy with the two finalists. Both Bibb and Kelley are business-friendly and known commodities in the Cleveland business world. They also were the best-organized candidates among the seven contenders for the job, and they ran the best campaigns. That suggests — but doesn’t guarantee — that they’re the candidates bestequipped to set up an orderly administration in City Hall that the business community can work with. Last Thursday, Sept. 16, during a forum with Bibb and Kelley that was hosted by The Presidents’ Council, a Black business group, Bibb noted, “City Hall must move at the speed of business.” That would be a welcome change for Cleveland companies. Kelley in the forum said, “We will not close the wealth gap if we do not solve the education and skills issue,” which is another key priority for business. ` Never say never, but we almost certainly have seen the last of Dennis Kucinich as a force in elected politics here. We’re glad voters moved on from the past and didn’t send the former mayor/congressman to the general election. The other unsuccessful candidates offered various ideas to like during the campaign, and we hope they’re all ready to do whatever possible to help November’s winner, because the city has a lot of needs — and needs as much talent as possible to address them. `Granted, it was an oddly timed September primary, but given the stakes of the election, and the opportunity to set a new course after 16 years of Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration, it was awfully disappointing to see that voter turnout was under 20%. Both Bibb and Kelley should take this as a warning sign — but also an opportunity to run a positive, issues-focused campaign in the fall that inspires more people to get out and vote. ` Run for Something is onto something. The national nonprofit focused on supporting progressive
candidates gave Bibb his first endorsement, all the way back in February. The organization encourages young Democratic candidates to run for office in races across the country, and it provides candidates with the tools they need to run campaigns and mobilize voters. (It says 500 of the candidates it has endorsed have won election since 2017.) Setting aside the partisan goals of this organization, its success to date suggests there’s a future for our political system in building up candidates with an interest and dedication to their community, and a sincere desire to be part of a process that can be improved. There’s a six-week sprint until the election on Nov. 2. We hope Bibb and Kelley are up to the challenge of addressing what’s at stake for Cleveland, and helping voters understand why their participation is critical.
Map hackery The Ohio Redistricting Commission already is a failure. Republicans on the commission late Wednesday, Sept. 15, approved a four-year map for state House and Senate districts over the objections of Democrats. But as Cincinnati.com put it, “The 5-2 vote along partisan lines came after hours of back-and-forth negotiations broke down” and the final map “gives Republicans a veto-proof majority.” Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said the map likely would give Republicans a 62-37 advantage in the House and a 23-10 advantage in the Ohio Senate. The process was bad enough that state Auditor Keith Faber, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Gov. Mike DeWine, all Republicans, expressed frustration with it — but still voted for the map. Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, said the map approved by the commission along partisan lines “falls far below what’s considered to be fair.” DeWine himself said he wished the maps were “more clearly constitutional,” and he acknowledged, “We know that this matter will be in court.” So what, exactly, is the commission doing? We had hopes that things might be different this time, and that the commission would produce maps that are politically proportionate with recent vote results, and that lead to a competitive system. It’s looking like we were wrong.
Executive Editor: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com) Managing Editor: Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com) Contact Crain’s: 216-522-1383 Read Crain’s online: crainscleveland.com
Across Ohio, companies big and small, nonprofit organizations, schools and government are thinking creatively about how to inspire high school students to become the next generation of leaders in tech and innovation. On Friday, Sept. 24, we will come together for Ohio Tech Day. This day will bring together the best of our state’s growing tech economy to raise awareness among high school students about the role tech and innovation Cohen is director play in Ohio’s economic strength and how of community they can be part of this growth. engagement and Those in the tech community know that state growth and innovation are only made possi- government ble by the people who make it happen. We affairs for have the people we need here in Ohio — Verizon. She is thousands of high school students across the based in state — who, with the right inspiration, train- Cleveland. ing and exposure, can step into a wide variety of industries that are creating meaningful career pathways in tech. Ohio Tech Day is our day to show high school students the opportunities for success in tech and innovation right here at home. Industries such as smart manufacturing, artificial intelligence, data analytics, cybersecurity, information technology and engineering are growing right here in the Buckeye State. As the director of community engagement for Verizon, I see Ohio Tech Day as representative of Citizen Verizon, Verizon’s responsible business plan for economic, environmental and social advancement. Verizon has committed $3 billion through 2025 as part of our plan for moving the world forward. One of the key pillars of Citizen Verizon is digital inclusion. We understand that access is only the beginning. That’s why we promote technology as a tool to improve communities, education and the workforce. Verizon, through our Citizen Verizon initiatives, including Verizon Innovative Learning, is helping underserved students across America learn the skills they need to succeed in today’s digital world. Through our employee engagement program, Verizon employees across Ohio (and the country) attend career fairs, share videos Ohio Tech Day: about their career journeys, Inaugural event seeks mentor students and demystify what it means to have a career in to seed state’s digital tech. With over 2,300 employees workforce. PAGE 15 in Ohio, and over 130,000 employees around the world, we know what it takes to build a diverse network of people that are driving meaningful change in tech. Ohio Tech Day will feature one big virtual event for us all to come together statewide. This will be open to all high school students across Ohio free of charge. We are inviting schools, companies and organizations to host their own event, in person or virtual. Ohio Tech Day partners are also co-creating a virtual resource page with education resources, career profiles and meaningful content for students, teachers, parents or schools to use, free of charge, year-round. Ohio Tech Day will create a statewide tech ecosystem in support of Ohio’s students that will exist long after the actual event. Learn more by visiting www.ohiotechday.org, where you can also sign up for updates, partner with us on programming or submit your professional story to be part of the #iamOhioTech initiative. Get involved by hosting an event, partnering with another organization on an event, or logging on for our statewide virtual event. I am proud to serve as a co-chair of Ohio Tech Day. It's an opportunity for all Ohioans to engage high school students in new career and educational opportunities, expose them to the world of tech and innovation, and spark them to think about how we can move the world forward together, from right here at home in Ohio. I hope you join us.
Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited. Send letters to Crain’s Cleveland Business, 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113, or by emailing ClevEdit@crain.com. Please include your complete name and city from which you are writing, and a telephone number for fact-checking purposes.
Sound off: Send a Personal View for the opinion page to emcintyre@crain.com. Please include a telephone number for verification purposes.
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OPINION
PERSONAL VIEW
Remote work: How to lead and be led BY ELAD GRANOT
It’s no secret that the pandemic changed the very nature of work for the long term — perhaps permanently. Early last year, millions of Americans and their employers made the rapid transition from working in offices to working remotely. A year-and-a-half later, many employees still are working remotely. Some have begun to explore a hybrid work arrangement, and some have been called back into the office completely. But as the Delta variant continues to cause spikes in new COVID-19 cases, another shift back to remote work is possible. This is one of the most-cited causes for the current hiring situation. With more than 9 million open jobs as of early July, and a similarly large number of people looking for new opportunities, workers have grown accustomed to the flexibility that remote work has offered them. Workers have cited having more time to spend with their families, explore their interests and develop new ones, get more work done around the house, and consider what they really want from life. If you’re a leader in an organization with remote employees, you’re likely navigating a number of challenges associated with the pandemic, filling open positions and the complexities that come with remote work. Do you maintain your remote work policy to protect employees? Do you offer a hybrid work arrangement? Do you start building a plan to bring workers back into the office full time? Each approach has its benefits and risks. Only you can choose the right path forward for your business, but with cases continuing to increase and new variants finding their way into the headlines, a time may come when public health officials make the decision for you. Whichever route you take, leadership will be needed more than ever in the (likely virtual) workplace. Additionally, for leaders and employees alike, learning how to be led while working remotely will be essential to a productive, positive experience. Leadership, often cited as one of the most important contributors to employee retention and satisfaction, is important not only for its impact on company culture and employee output but also for company stability and growth. Millions of Americans have resigned from their positions, and many more are still considering it as they look for the kinds of opportunities discussed above. Companies are navigating new ways to communicate and coordinate remotely — dealing with leadership failures and their resulting impact on productivity and retention would not be ideal. And to find yourself in a position in which employees are leaving due to issues with leaders will only set the business up for greater stress and difficulty as it seeks to replace those employees in an extremely competitive marketplace.
Strengthening leadership in a remote workplace Refocusing on leadership should start with communication. If you are able to set up one-on-one meetings (in person or remotely), consider doing so — even if it causes production delays or requires some flexibility with existing schedules. Depending on your team and business, a group meeting may also make sense. Spending time with your team members to understand their concerns and answer questions is extremely valuable for leaders that want to empower their teams and make the most out of a remote working arrangement. While it may not be easy to talk one-on-one with large teams, surveying employees and communicating that the leadership team wants their feedback, insights and opinions is a great alternative. Employees will still be able to provide feedback that, while not necessarily delivered in a more personable one-on-one virtual or in-person setting, will still give leaders insights into how their teams are feeling, what they view as a challenge to the current working arrangement, and what opportunities may be available for improvement. This information will also help leaders more effectively plan their next steps, such as whether remote work should continue or if a hybrid arrangement (either
permanent or as a temporary solution until the pandemic begins to subside) makes more sense.
Processes and tools for communicating and coordinating Granot is dean of the Dauch College of Business and Economics at Ashland University.
Leaders should consider the processes and tools that the company uses for communicating with teams and coordinating work. We’re all familiar with the tools we’ve been using to do this for the past year — Basecamp, Monday, Microsoft Teams, Slack and countless more — but look deeper. The rapid shift from just using these tools to relying on them affected how people communicated and engaged with one another both professionally and personally for many companies. In one fell swoop, meaningful in-person “water cooler” conversations were replaced with individual and group chats, video calls, virtual huddles and team calls. What have you noticed about your team now that time has passed since this transition? Just as important, the transition may have affected work quality and timeliness. Without being physically present with your teams, the processes that people used to manage their workloads and timelines likely changed as well. You may have noticed more deliverables falling through the cracks. Conversely, remote work may have resulted in more productivity (every company is different, after all). Recognize and communicate what has been going well and what needs to be improved. Take steps to implement change in a sustainable way while formalizing processes and expanding tools that contribute to more positive results.
Consider new solutions for interaction One of the most cited downsides of remote work is the lack of in-person interaction and social engagement. For employees and leaders, this lack of on-site engagement can be difficult. Leadership is an important part of company culture, and if employees aren’t seeing or speaking with you on a daily basis, a variety of challenges can surface. As a remote leader, it’s important to carve out time to touch base with team members consistently and frequently. Schedule standups so they’re seeing and hearing you. Coach them and provide what they need to feel confident in their roles. On a broader scale, the pandemic shut down all manner of activities like company parties, Friday get-togethers, team lunches, holiday events and similar functions. It’s unlikely that all of your social functions were swapped for virtual alternatives, but it’s essential to remind workers that you’re all still human and a real person exists behind the screen. Find ways to celebrate a strong year or an organizational accomplishment and reward individual and team performance. Remember that these things contribute to employee experience and company culture. Without them, it’s just another job.
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Remember that you’re a thermometer If you’re stressed, it’s likely that your employees will be, too. They look to you to get a sense for how things are going. This is not to say that you should mislead employees when timelines are tight and you’re under pressure. Simply that your reactions, attention during calls, availability, attitude and more can have a powerful impact on employee performance — and it’s not always positive. If you sound like you’ve given up hope, or if you’re acting too overwhelmed to check in on them, they’ll feel like they’re alone at sea, drifting without any direction. This is magnified in a remote work setting, where employees already spend much of the day working without seeing or hearing from you and others. See REMOTE WORK on Page 21
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OHIO TECH DAY The inaugural event seeks to seed the state’s digital workforce.
TECHNOLOGY
PAGE 15
THE PATH TO DIGITAL LITERACY Bridging the skills gap is critical to workforce success “FROM AN EQUITY STANDPOINT, IT’S ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL THAT WE’RE ABLE TO CLOSE THIS DIGITAL DIVIDE SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OF WORK, WHEN THESE THINGS ARE GOING TO GET MORE IMPORTANT, PEOPLE ARE NOT CONTINUING TO BE LEFT BEHIND.” — Jill Rizika, president and CEO of Towards Employment
`BY RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY Today, technology is ev-
er-more present at the workplace, whatever that workplace is. There’s increased automation; there are remote conference calls. Digital skills and literacy are a must, particularly for higher-wage jobs. “From an equity standpoint, it’s absolutely essential that we’re able to close this digital divide so that in the future of work, when these things are going to get more important, people are not continuing to be left behind,” said Jill Rizika, president and CEO of Towards Employment. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the digital divide — the inequities caused by a lack of at-home internet access and technology — to the forefront. The workforce-development sector was no exception. Educators and training providers had to adapt to remote classrooms and help students who lacked the necessary access get it. But the pandemic isn’t the endpoint. As remote work and technology-enabled jobs become more prevalent, closing the digital divide becomes more important than ever. The pandemic made Stark State College’s educators realize how im-
portant it was to “meet the students where they’re at,” said vice president of advancement, human resources and partnerships Marisa Rohn. Community college students in particular range in age and experience and background, she said, and pivoting to online education highlighted those different skill levels and needs.
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St the them er th or i prog Th has men ploy that with crim long ricu chan and T ever sup futu for port duc and vidu ticip to u wou goin O CES re-e cera pari fact has er p part sect ploy
s
FOCUS | TECHNOLOGY Stark State’s counselors serve as the entry point for students, directing them to resources as needed, whether that’s immediate funds for a laptop or information about free internet programs, Rohn said. That type of individual assessment has been critical at Towards Employment in Cleveland, too. Towards Employment works with populations that may have struggled to connect with the workforce, like those with criminal records. Digital literacy had long been part of the nonprofit’s curriculum, but the pandemic meant changing how resources, support and training were delivered. Towards Employment provided everyone with a Chromebook — a support it hopes to continue in the future — and created a new position for client-focused technology support, Rizika said. It also began conducting a digital skills assessment and providing training before individuals started their programs. Participants needed to understand how to use the digital programs classes would be held through if they were going to succeed. One of those programs was ACCESS to Manufacturing Careers, a re-entry program for formerly incarcerated individuals focused on preparing people for entry-level manufacturing jobs. The program, which has now been expanded to serve other populations like young adults, is part of the region’s manufacturing sector partnership, and Towards Employment was one of the training
Students work in a classroom specially built to be safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The room was designed for MAGNET’s ACCESS to Manufacturing Careers program. | CONTRIBUTED
partners. The partnership was about to launch the ACCESS program when Ohio’s first stay-at-home order was announced, said Adam Snyder, managing director of sector partnership at MAGNET in Cleveland. The group had to press pause and turn the program’s content mostly digital, moving to a hybrid model of education. The digital divide “added an element of complexity to the training,” Snyder said. Before the class began last spring, Towards Employment worked to en-
sure students had the digital skills they needed for online learning, offering assistance when necessary, Snyder said. The partners received donations of Chromebooks and hotspots for students. And MAGNET built a classroom designed for COVID-19 safety for those lessons with hands-on components. The manufacturing sector partnership has only been active for about two years, which means the majority of its work has had to take place in a pandemic environment. The group was aware of the digital divide before
COVID-19, Snyder said, and knew that it could create barriers for the people they were trying to recruit for manufacturing careers, whether in terms of the application process or the skills they needed for the plant floor. But the pandemic highlighted the depth of the digital divide for many in the workforce development space. Snyder said he doesn’t think the ACCESS program will ever go to a fully in-person model now. The hybrid approach offers flexibility that helps participants overcome transporta-
tion or child-care challenges. And it also gives students experience using computers, an increasingly important skill in today’s jobs. The digital divide will continue to be an issue going forward. Snyder said he thinks there’s a role for educators to play in helping individuals build new competencies, like those that want to transition careers. At Cuyahoga Community College, leaders are meeting with the business community to determine what skills will be most needed in a “post-pandemic environment,” said William H. Gary Sr., executive vice president for workforce, community and economic development. Tri-C knew the digital divide was an issue affecting the community and contributing to the skills gap prior to the pandemic, Gary said, and digital literacy was part of many of its workforce development programs. But now, Tri-C is creating courses focused specifically on IT skills development, and making sure curriculum across industries like nursing or logistics includes digital literacy to prepare students for the digital skills needed in their particular field. It’s a more “comprehensive approach,” Gary said. “I think COVID has awakened a lot of us to be more proactive, to look at jobs and the workforce in a more holistic fashion,” Gary said. Rachel Abbey McCafferty: (216) 771-5379, rmccafferty@crain.com
To shepherd the future, hospitals have to be good stewards of the past. Provide your clinicians easy access to the comprehensive historical information they need to make more informed care decisions. MediQuant.com
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FOCUS | TECHNOLOGY
Leveraging Cleveland’s strengths for a digital age BY MATT BUDER SHAPIRO
Manufacturing, industry and music provided the foundation on which Cleveland grew into a first-rank city. Medicine and health care technology currently define much of our national reputation. With notable exceptions like Hyland Software and OverDrive, Cleveland has not gained a reputation as a hotbed of startups. Contemporary companies need to catalyze growth with innovation, and we need to leverage that for businesses to build on those foundations. Fortunately, we have strong leaders in these areas driving our progress and helping to change the narrative around Cleveland. Cleveland Kitchen, founded by Drew Anderson, Luke Visnic and Mac Anderson, provides a case study in this force-multiplying effect. Leveraging cutting-edge automation, they can produce over 35,000 pounds of their delicious krauts and kimchi daily out of a 30,000-square-foot Midtown facility. In addition to making their crunchy products, they carry our city’s name on the millions of packages they sell in 10,000-plus stores in over nine countries. Leveraging every data point, insight and trend
through data science, and spicing it up with a highly visible brand presence on social media, has led to meteoric sales growth. C l e v e l a n d ’s rich music histo- Buder Shapiro is ry resonated with chief marketing Jeff Homer, officer of founder of En- Vytalize Health. semble Music Previously, he Schools, as he was the founder partnered with and chief Lakewood Music marketing Academy. En- officer of semble works MedPilot. with music schools in nine states, including Ohio, to modernize and digitize their operations. “When we first engage with a new location, it’s pretty common for us to find the teaching schedule for the entire school written in dry erase marker on a whiteboard behind the front desk and lots of other analog processes representing ‘the way things have always been done,’ ” Homer says. “Our first job is often to demonstrate how technology like webbased scheduling, attendance and billing software can save time for
both teachers and admin staff alike, so that they can spend more time with students and their families,” he adds. “Once we get buy-in on that change, it’s time to focus on how technology can improve our student experience, both in their weekly lessons and during their practice time outside our studios.” The pandemic forced the music schools to convert all of their instruction online. “It has been incredible to see the ways in which our teachers have adapted their methods to deliver engaging online experiences for students, and to see them sharing and improving these new ideas with our community of over 350 teachers,” Homer notes. Our world-class musical culture launched many artists who shine a spotlight on our incredible city. Most recently and notably, Machine Gun Kelly picked up Billboard Music’s Top Rock Artist and Top Rock Album awards. MGK uses social media and technology to transform the traditional relationship between an artist and his or her followers. His raw openness to sharing personal experiences and emotions, coupled with his ability to harness cutting-edge tools, has been a valuable asset in his burgeoning career.
“I think music runs deep in Cleveland’s history,” said Machine Gun Kelly’s partner and manager, Andre Cisco, who also is a Cleveland native. “It is key for us to lean into our existing foundations and develop smart businesses around them, because the passion and audience are already prime and ready. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel for Cleveland to lead in the future.” By harnessing Cleveland’s health care talent pool, we grew our company, MedPilot, until our successful
most impressive talent and ground-breaking solutions anywhere. Cleveland’s advanced position in this space has allowed us to gain unique, critical insights that have helped us leap forward,” says Vytalize Health CEO Faris Ghawi. “What’s exciting about Ohio’s tech momentum is that our successes are built around industries we’ve long been leaders in,” says Chris Berry, founder of OhioX, a nonprofit organization that represents Ohio’s technology commu-
“WHAT’S EXCITING ABOUT OHIO’S TECH MOMENTUM IS THAT OUR SUCCESSES ARE BUILT AROUND INDUSTRIES WE’VE LONG BEEN LEADERS IN.” — Chris Berry, founder of OhioX
acquisition by Vytalize Health, a technology-enabled, value-based care platform. We built MedPilot to transform the nature of patients’ interactions with their health care providers. MedPilot’s engagement technology personalizes outreach based on a variety of patient characteristics, then uses machine learning to optimize communication. “MedPilot is a microcosm of Cleveland’s deep, diverse health care market. By coming together, we gained access to some of the
INSIGHTS & ANSWERS
nity. “Health care, music and manufacturing are now seeing incredible innovation and tech being built that will continue Ohio’s global leadership.” Cleveland must both focus on our core strengths and build on them to create a thriving ecosystem. We know we have the foundation, talent and desire for success. We need the broader community and entrepreneurs to invest their capital and time to continue our revitalization.
SPONSORED CONTENT
Leveraging digital innovation to work smarter and streamline business By KIM BONVISUTTO, CRAIN’S CONTENT STUDIO-CLEVELAND
PAT PASTORE Regional president PNC Cleveland
CHRIS WARD Executive vice president, head of data, digital and innovations PNC Treasury Management
When the pandemic thrust the world into a work-fromhome reality, many businesses were unprepared to take their operations virtual. From paperbased payroll to manual collections, automation and digitization of operations could have alleviated many pain points, streamlined operations and increased efficiencies to keep business moving.
The financial services industry is among those harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to help customers reduce fraud exposure, execute faster payments and provide datadriven business insights. Though artificial intelligence and machine learning sound futuristic, the capabilities are widely available now and can enable significant improvement in business operations, said Pat
Pastore, PNC regional president of Cleveland. Chris Ward, PNC’s executive vice president and head of data, digital and innovations for PNC Treasury Management, said artificial intelligence and machine learning drive the three important I’s of the economy – immediacy; interconnectivity; and interruption. To that end, digital innovation, he said, helps companies make decisions faster, create integrated experiences and interrupt their own business – or that of their competitors. CASH FORECASTING Until now, the cash forecasting process has been a manual, labor intensive, timeconsuming process. PNC’s Cash Forecasting solution, for example, leverages artificial intelligence, machine learning and a company’s historical data to produce a 31-day rolling cash forecast. The module can help treasurers predict future cash flow, reduce version control issues, plan for a gap or surplus, and ultimately, provide better insights on current and future cash positions. Ward said the solution can be tailored, integrating with a company’s existing systems as a standalone offering, or combined with PNC’s PINACLE corporate online and mobile banking platform.
REAL-TIME PAYMENTS In the business-to-business payments space, Ward said more than half of payments are still made by check. That can be a problem under crisis conditions. The RTP network from The Clearing House, the first new payment system in 40 years, is a real-time payments platform for accountto-account transactions. What sets RTP apart from other payment systems, Ward said, is that it delivers payments 24/7/365, providing immediacy and interconnectedness.
management, companies can minimize exceptions and operate with greater efficiency. THE FUTURE Pastore said competition is increasing every day and businesses are searching for ways to improve operations. This has only been compounded by the pandemic. PNC has advanced technology to help companies become more efficient and, in turn, competitive.
“AI and machine learning-enabled technologies are crucial for monitoring and analyzing transactions in the fraction of a second necessary to facilitate real-time payments,” Ward said.
From an industry perspective, Pastore and Ward said to expect increased adoption in the coming years as more businesses leverage advanced technology to make decisions and resolve problems.
RECEIVABLES AUTOMATION Receivables automation enables companies to streamline the receipt of payments from customers, reduce costs and maximize cash flow. Ward noted that as the pace of business increases and companies continue to embrace efficiencies, automating the often complex receivables process allows companies to consolidate traditional checks and all electronic payment formats into a single remittance stream.
“This technology is so important, because even without AI and machine learning, people would still be trying to find ways to move money faster,” Ward said. PNC and PINACLE are registered marks of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (“PNC”). RTP is a registered trademark of The Clearing House Payments Company, LLC. © 2021 The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
With access to virtual batching, integrated remote deposit capture and workflow
This advertising-supported section/feature is produced by Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland, the marketing storytelling arm of Crain’s Cleveland Business. The Crain’s Cleveland Business newsroom is not involved in creating Crain’s Content Studio content. 14 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 20, 2021
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FOCUS | TECHNOLOGY
Inaugural Ohio Tech Day seeks to seed state’s digital workforce “WHAT WE ARE REALLY TRYING TO DO IS GIVE OUR BLACK AND BROWN COMMUNITY OPEN ACCESS TO LEARNING ABOUT ALL THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF TECH CAREERS, SO THEY CAN START FOCUSING ON THEIR FUTURE.”
BY JUDY STRINGER
— Tondi Allen, technology trainer at Urban City Codes
event draws nearer and added that it does not account for classrooms, teachers or students who may log into the main public event or take advantage of the many privately hosted activities, even though their schools did not register as partners. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK
On Friday, Sept. 24, technology trainer Tondi Allen expects about 45 inner-city students — many of them from nearby John F. Kennedy High School — to stroll into her Cleveland Heights nonprofit, Urban City Codes, for a glimpse into “up-andcoming technology careers,” she said. Workstations will expose the students to different pathways, from AI and robotics to data mining, programming and tech support. “We want them to see these technologies first-hand and try them out,” she said. “I would describe it as a discovery day for technology careers. … What we are really trying to do is give our Black and Brown community open access to learning about all the different types of tech careers, so they can start focusing on their future.” Allen’s souped-up career day is one of dozens of activities slated statewide for the inaugural Ohio Tech Day on Sept. 24. Spearheaded by the Columbus-based technology trade group OhioX, the day begins with a free two-hour virtual presentation for high school students starting at 8:30 a.m. It will feature guest appearances by tech leaders and a teen-led tech roundtable
conversation. Afterward, students are invited to engage in meetings and activities — virtual or in-person — that were created individually by schools, busi-
nesses and nonprofits across the state. OhioX president Chris Berry said about 75 organizations had signed on as Ohio Tech Day “partners” be-
fore Labor Day, meaning they are planning to officially participate in what he calls “a statewide celebration of technology in Ohio.” He expects that figure to climb as the
Building for the future Still, organizers are not necessarily focused on numbers just yet. “The reality is that we are building this for the future,” Berry said. “We want this to be an annual event that people can look forward to and can plan around.” See TECH DAY on Page 16
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FOCUS | TECHNOLOGY
TECH DAY
From Page 15
Advice for the life you lead Let your goals be your guide Ruggiero Wealth Management UBS Financial Services Inc. 600 Superior Avenue East 27th Floor Cleveland, OH 44114 216-736-8317
Modesto “Moe” Ruggiero Managing Director– Wealth Management Senior Portfolio Manager Wealth Advisor modesto.ruggiero@ubs.com
And, he said, the program is as much about building resources to help “kids get excited about tech” as it is the day itself. The main live event and many of the subsequent smaller activities will be cataloged on the Ohio Tech Day website, where teachers and students can access them anytime on-demand. (Go to ohiotechday.org to register and learn more about the offerings.) “While Sept. 24 is the celebration day, and that helps from both an organizational standpoint Berry and for building up some urgency and excitement, we are already having conversations about and trying to figure out how this work lives yearround,” Berry said. Ohio Tech Day was the brainchild of OhioX’s Education and Workforce Committee. Jessica Co- Cohen hen, the Cleveland-based director of community engagement for Verizon, is part of the committee. Cohen said the wireless network operator employs roughly 2,300 people in Ohio and preCOVID would routinely schedule career-day-type visits “with a number of schools” across the state. She sees Sept. 24 as a chance to “expand the reach of what we've been doing with some schools and to really be part of the resources of Ohio Tech Day and
share that across the state,” she said. As part of its Tech Day contributions, Verizon plans to premiere self-produced educational videos about 5G to help teachers and students alike get more familiar with the technology and what it means to those who will be entering the workforce. The company also recently debuted a free online portal, Verizon Innovative Learning HQ, that offers STEM lesson plans and credentialed professional development opportunities for educators. “Ohio Tech Day is going to allow us to share that new resource with a much broader audience than we could have done by reaching out to school districts one by one,” Cohen said. Berry said he’s been impressed with the time and effort Ohio businesses have put into creating their individual Tech Day activities. One example is a coding tutorial designed by Cincinnati-based Joot and Dolr of Columbus, in which participants learn how to use the R programming language to create an interactive Ohio scholarship map from publicly available data. “In another case, Ohio State (University) is going to build out an event of virtual conversations with some of their students who are doing interesting stuff with technology to show high school students that if you come to Ohio State, this is what you’ll be able to
“WE WANT TO SHOW THEM THAT THEY DON’T HAVE TO LEAVE HOME TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN TECH.” — Chris Berry, OhioX president
experience and witness and participate in as part of your education,” he said.
Two birds, one stone The OhioX leader envisions Tech Day having a positive talent impact in two ways. On one hand, Berry said, much of the event will be accessible to anyone “with a laptop and an internet connection.” That increases the chances, he said, of exposing students, especially those in under-resourced communities, to advanced technologies they haven’t traditionally been able to access at school. “It becomes a part of the inclusion piece, which is so important to workforce development,” Berry said, “much like the work that Urban City Codes is doing up in Cleveland.” Meanwhile, Ohio students already interested in technology classes and/or careers will get a chance to see technology professionals who live and work in their communities or the state. “We want to show them that they don’t have to leave home to build a successful career in tech,” he said. Contact Judy Stringer: clbfreelancer@crain.com
ubs.com/team/ruggiero
As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers investment advisory services in its capacity as an SEC-registered investment adviser and brokerage services in its capacity as an SEC-registered broker-dealer. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business, that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information, please review the PDF document at ubs.com/relationshipsummary. © UBS 2020. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. CJ-UBS-2031105874_2 Exp.: 10/31/2021
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September 20, 2021
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THOUGHT LEADER FORUM
FAMILY LAW PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
Financial and estate planners will tell you it is never too early to begin planning for the future. Many younger adults have taken this mindset to heart during the COVID-19 pandemic. While two out of three adults still don’t have a will, the number of young adults with a will increased 63% since 2020, according to Caring.com. Indeed, estate planning is relevant for both younger and older generations. Here are some trends and aspects to consider in family law and estate planning:
THE PANDEMIC’S IMPACT ON PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
KEEP A PERSONAL RECORD
In 2021, the 18- to 34-year-old age group is, for the first time, more likely to have a will than individuals ages 35 to 54. Caring. com’s 2021 Wills and Estate Planning Study found that the younger generation also was the most likely to cite COVID-19 as the reason they started taking estate planning seriously.
A personal record is an important part of estate planning. This document includes key personal information about you and your family and will be useful for your executor when the time comes to settle your estate. The personal record should include the names, addresses and contact information for beneficiaries; safetydeposit box information; titles or deeds, stock or bond certificates; a will; trust agreements; digital asset passwords; and other information that your executor and family will need.
MANAGING DIGITAL ASSETS Digital assets range from social media accounts to online banking, online photo storage, travel points and cryptocurrency — or basically, any account that you need a computer to access. It is important to catalog your accounts and passwords and also indicate who will be granted access. Another key consideration is to identify which accounts you do not want anyone to have access to, and how to be sure they are disabled upon your death. Google, for example, provides an inactive account manager, which enables an account user to pick and choose which Google accounts a fiduciary could access.
THE VALUE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
THE ROLE OF THE EXECUTOR
Intellectual property, an intangible asset, can be a major part of one’s estate and legacy if managed and gifted properly under relevant laws. The creator/owner of IP, which includes patents, copyrights, trademarks and even original content such as blogs, must outline during the estate planning process their personal preferences for the ongoing treatment of their intellectual property after their death.
The executor of an estate is responsible for probating the will and administering the estate. He or she is responsible for filing the will and notifying the beneficiaries who are entitled to notice. The executor (also known as a personal representative in some states) is obligated to keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed throughout the estate administration. This information is important to include in one’s personal record.
COMPILED BY KATHY AMES CARR, CRAIN’S CONTENT STUDIO-CLEVELAND
SOURCES: AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION, THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF TRUST AND ESTATE COUNSEL, AARP, CARING.COM
A different take on gifting: A family meeting to share knowledge, insight KAREY L. EDWARDS Senior Financial Advisor NCA Financial Planners kedwards@ncafinancial.com 440-473-1115, ext. 236 Karey Edwards is a Senior Financial Advisor for NCA Financial Planners. She lives in Perry, Ohio, with her husband, Wesley, and their daughter, Carleigh. Edwards, a Certified Financial Planner, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Mount Union, receiving her bachelor’s degree in business administration. In 1999, she joined NCA and has gained extensive knowledge in the area of corporate executive benefits.
I
n the financial services world, the concept of gifting is most commonly thought of as passing along tangible assets, such as stock, property or cash. However, there are also intangible assets that can be shared with family members. These include values, traditions and education. The link between tangible and intangible assets will define the legacy that is passed on to future generations. Money and lifestyle are inextricable. Whether a person has accumulated a large sum or a small nest egg, there were attitudes and behaviors that inherently
influenced decisions along the way. Outcomes from those choices hopefully led to enlightenment and potentially ushered in a shift in thinking. All that valuable knowledge -- a gift in its own right -- needs to find its way to loved ones. What is an appropriate venue for communicating this treasure trove of advice? Consider a “family meeting.” The process is a bit more formal than just sitting around the dinner table for a chat. It is a scheduled, structured event with an agenda. Generally, parents work with their financial advisor to lay the foundation of
what they’d like to convey to their children. A customized agenda that fits the family’s dynamic is the goal.
could be examined, as well as a list of trusted professionals who could help if an unexpected event arose.
Some elements of the meeting should be universal while others are optional. Establishing ground rules, such as meeting length, the importance of openmindedness and respecting the speaker by not interrupting, are a must. It’s also imperative for parents to lead a family values discussion. This may include how their wealth was accumulated, views on philanthropy, core values that guided financial decision making, thoughts on debt, investment philosophies, and goal successes and failures. A highly suggested element is soliciting observations from children regarding what they learned about money from watching their parents.
In developing the agenda, take the ages of family members into account. For those in their 20s and 30s, the focus should be on establishing healthy financial behaviors and laying the groundwork for a strong financial foundation. Adults in their 40s and beyond may desire to know more about the asset picture and estate plan.
Elective items fall under three main categories – education, estate planning and the family portfolio. From an educational standpoint, stock market basics, biases that affect “staying the course” financially, and tax ramifications of various assets could be reviewed. Deciding whether to share the parents’ estate plan, usually through a flow chart, should be contemplated. Also consider discussing end-of-life wishes. Finally, a net worth statement
A family meeting can add a deeper layer to any gifting strategy. Be creative in the process and gift your knowledge to those you love. Securities offered through Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. (RAA), Member FINRA/ SIPC. RAA is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of RAA. RAA does not provide tax or legal advice. Investment advisory services offered through NCA Financial Planners.
This advertising-supported section/feature is produced by Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland, the marketing storytelling arm of Crain’s Cleveland Business. The Crain’s Cleveland Business newsroom is not involved in creating Crain’s Content Studio content.
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CRAIN'S LIST | FOUNDATIONS Ranked by value of grants awarded in 2020
RANK
FOUNDATION
GRANTS AWARDED (MILLIONS) 2020/ 2019
ASSETS (MILLIONS) 2020
LARGEST 2020 GRANT
GIVING FOCUS AREAS
LOCAL FTE STAFF 6-30-2021
TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE
1
CLEVELAND FOUNDATION 1422 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 216-861-3810/clevelandfoundation.org
$130.7 $114.4
$2,800.0
$3,792,000; Suite 1300 Services Inc. (Neighborhood Connections)
Enhance lives of Greater Cleveland residents
88
Ronald B. Richard, president, CEO; Sally Gries, chairperson
2
THE GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION 45 W. Prospect Ave., Cleveland 216-241-3114/gundfoundation.org
$39.9 $24.9
$585.4
$2,000,000; Foundation Fighting Blindness
Education, arts, human services, environment, economic development
12
David T. Abbott, president 1
3
KEYBANK FOUNDATION 127 Public Square, Cleveland 216-689-7394/key.com/foundation
$27.3 $26.0
-- 2
$5,500,000; Jumpstart Inc.
Neighbors, education and workforce
1
Elizabeth S. Gurney, director of corporate philanthropy, KeyBank
4
AKRON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 345 W. Cedar St., Akron 330-376-8522/akroncf.org
$20.8 $11.1
$271.9
$150,000; Portage Path Behavioral Health
Arts, culture, education, health, civic affairs
20
John T. Petures Jr., president, CEO
5
STARK COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 400 Market Ave. N., Canton 330-454-3426/starkcf.org
$13.6 $13.1
$324.8
$422,405; John H. and Evelyn L. Ashton Preservation Association Inc.
Wide array of charitable causes
14
Mark J. Samolczyk, president, CEO
6
TIMKEN FOUNDATION OF CANTON 3 200 Market Ave. N., Canton 330-452-1144
$13.6 $13.1
$281.9
$3,665,000; Cleveland Clinic Foundation (Cole Eye Institute)
—
—
Mark A. Scheffler, executive director
7
WAYNE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 517 N. Market St., Wooster 330-262-3877/waynecountycommunityfoundation.org
$11.6 $6.7
$126.2
$241,586; Wayne County Regional Training Facility
Arts, education, environment, health, human services
3.5
Sara L. Patton, executive director
8
NORDSON CORPORATION FOUNDATION 28601 Clemens Road, Westlake 440-892-1580/nordson.com
$11.4 $10.3
$29.4
$500,000; United Nations Foundation Inc. — COVID-19 Response Fund
Education, human welfare
4
Cecilia H. Render, executive director
9
VEALE FOUNDATION 30100 Chagrin Blvd., Pepper Pike 216-255-3205/vealeentrepreneurs.org
$10.3 $4.1
$172.4
$9,400,000; Case Western Reserve University
Arts, education, entrepreneurship, health and human services
5
Daniel P. Harrington, chairman
10
EATON CHARITABLE FUND 1000 Eaton Blvd., Beachwood 440-523-5000/eaton.com
$8.0 $8.5
-- 2
$620,000; United Way of Greater Cleveland
Local interests of Eaton sites
—
Taras G. Szmagala Jr., senior VP, public and community affairs
11
COMMUNITY WEST FOUNDATION 800 Sharon Drive, Westlake 440-360-7370/communitywestfoundation.org
$7.4 $7.0
$150.1
$120,000; Greater Cleveland Food Bank
Basic needs
9
Martin J. Uhle, president, CEO
12
MT. SINAI HEALTH CARE FOUNDATION 11000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 216-421-5500/mtsinaifoundation.org
$7.1 $7.2
$169.3
$1,725,785; Jewish Federation of Cleveland
Academic medicine/bioscience, urban health, Jewish community, health policy
7
Mitchell Balk, president
13
SAINT LUKE'S FOUNDATION OF CLEVELAND 11327 Shaker Blvd., Cleveland 216-431-8010/saintlukesfoundation.org
$7.0 4 $6.7
$208.5
$550,000; The Cleveland Foundation for special funds including Cleveland Black Futures Fund, Greater Cleveland Digital Equity Fund, Bail Project, and Racial Justice Fund
Health equity; social determinants of health
8.5
Timothy L. Tramble Sr., president, CEO
14
GAR FOUNDATION 277 E. Mill St., Akron 330-576-2926/garfoundation.org
$6.8 $6.6
$187.9
$450,000; United Way of Summit and Medina
Helping Akron become smarter, stronger and more vibrant
6.5
Christine Amer Mayer, president
15
THE KELVIN & ELEANOR SMITH FOUNDATION 30100 Chagrin Blvd., Pepper Pike 216-591-9111/kesmithfoundation.org
$6.7 $4.1
$196.4
$1,000,000; Cleveland Museum of Art
Arts, culture, education, economic development, environment, health
2
Ellen Stirn Mavec, chairman, president
16
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LORAIN COUNTY 9080 Leavitt Road, Elyria 440-984-7390/peoplewhocare.org
$6.2 $6.2
$155.7
$198,475
Lorain County community needs
12
Cynthia Andrews, president, CEO
17
IN HIS STEPS FOUNDATION 6801 Brecksville Road, Independence 330-528-1785/ihsfound.org
$5.8 $6.4
$38.6
$200,000
Faith based
2
Ben Lee, president
18
PARKER-HANNIFIN FOUNDATION 6035 Parkland Blvd., Mayfield Heights 216-896-3000/parker.com
$5.1 $6.0
$10.0
$1,000,000; Cleveland State University Foundation
STEM education, community needs, sustainability
1
Thomas L. Williams, chairman, CEO
19
PEG'S FOUNDATION 10 W. Streetsboro St., Hudson 330-655-1366/pegsfoundation.org
$5.0 $3.9
$107.0
$500,000; Clear Pathways
Mental health, arts, education
5
Rick Kellar, president
20
BURTON D. MORGAN FOUNDATION 22 Aurora St., Hudson 330-655-1660/bdmorganfdn.org
$4.8 $6.7
$189.0
$318,000; National Inventors Hall of Fame
Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education
8.5
Deborah D. Hoover, president, CEO
21
CHAR AND CHUCK FOWLER FAMILY FOUNDATION 5885 Landerbrook Drive, Mayfield Heights 216-906-4578/fowlerfamilyfdn.org
$3.4 $4.5
$27.8
$400,000; Say Yes Cleveland
Arts, criminal justice, adolescent and young adult cancers, reproductive health
2
Chann FowlerSpellman, president
22
MARTHA HOLDEN JENNINGS FOUNDATION 1228 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 216-589-5700/mhjf.org
$3.2 $3.3
$80.5
$125,000; Akron Public Schools
Support for PK-12 pubic schools
3
Daniel J. Keenan, executive director
23
HUDSON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 49 E. Main St., Hudson 330-655-3580/myhcf.org
$3.2 $2.3
$25.0
$890,000; Baldwin-Buss House Foundation
Arts, culture, historic preservation, youth
1.5
Amy Jordan, president
24
SISTERS OF CHARITY FOUNDATION OF CLEVELAND 2475 E. 22nd St., Cleveland 216-357-4460/socfcleveland.org
$3.1 $3.5
$100.3
$110,000; YWCA of Greater Cleveland — A Place 4 Me
Poverty, homelessness, Catholic sisters, Central neighborhood
11
Susanna H. Krey, president
25
REINBERGER FOUNDATION 30000 Chagrin Blvd., Orange 216-292-2790/reinbergerfoundation.org
$3.0 $3.0
$78.4
$500,000; Greater Cleveland Food Bank
Arts, education and human services
1
Karen R. Hooser, president
Research by Chuck Soder (csoder@crain.com) | Information is supplied by the foundations unless otherwise noted. NOTES: 1. Abbott is scheduled to retire at the end of 2021. 2. This foundation is funded primarily on a pass-through basis. 3. Information is from the organization's 2020 Form 990. 4. Includes grants recommended through Saint Luke's donor-advised fund at the Cleveland Foundation.
Get 41 foundations and 96 executives in Excel format. Become a Data Member: CrainsCleveland.com/data 18 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 20, 2021
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DATA SCOOP
Biggest local foundations ramped up giving in 2020 BY CHUCK SODER
Northeast Ohio’s largest local foundations were extra generous in 2020 — a year when generosity was sorely needed. The 41 grantmakers on the full digital version of the Crain’s Foundations list awarded a combined $401 million last year, up 12% from 2019. That’s a big jump judging by historical data in the Excel version of the list. Total giving increased more than 53% from 2011 through 2020 for the 35 organizations for whom we have data for both years, making the aver-
age annual increase of about 5.9%. But the jump in 2020 is almost entirely due to increased giving by foundations in the top 10. For instance, the Cleveland Foundation, which is always in the No. 1 spot by far, awarded $131.7 million in 2020, up 14.3% from the previous year. Given the foundation’s size, that 14.3% bump accounted for more than onethird of the total increase. Four other foundations in the top 10 posted annual giving increases exceeding 60%: The George Gund Foundation, the Akron Community Foundation, the Wayne County
Community Foundation and the Veale Foundation. Of course, big ups and downs are common on this list, since a single large grant can heavily influence a foundation’s total giving. For instance, $9.4 million of the $10.3 million the Veale Foundation’s awarded in 2020 consisted of a single grant to Case Western Reserve University. Outside the top 10, total giving actually fell 9% in 2020, but that doesn’t mean those foundations are low on cash. Of the 38 foundations for whom we have 2019 and 2020 asset value figures, only seven saw their assets
decline in value. Nationally, COVID-19 and the racial justice movement sparked by the killing of George Floyd drove increased charitable giving, according to the Giving USA 2021 report by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Foundation giving rose 17%, the report estimated. It’s unclear the degree to which those culture-shaping events influenced local giving, but they did drive significant grantmaking. For instance, the Nordson Corporation Foundation (No. 8 on the list)
FLATS
From Page 1
The apartments are full. The office space is 95% occupied, according to bond-offering documents. The hotel, like others downtown, is clawing out of a pandemic-induced slump. But the project has been on shaky ground with government and civic lenders since before the first phase of construction was complete, in large part because of a school levy that Cleveland voters approved in 2012. That tax hike was not part of the original financial projections for the project, which required 30plus funding sources to get off the ground after the Great Recession. The solution ended up involving an opportune change in state law and, after fierce debate, a vote by Cleveland City Council to double the length of a key tax incentive for the project. In December, council voted 14-2 to add 30 years to an existing tax increment financing deal on the property. Tax increment financing reallocates a portion of new property tax revenues created by development, often pledging that money to paying off debt on public infrastructure. In Ohio, the standard TIF lasts 30 years. But the General Assembly created a short-lived opportunity last year for local governments to double that timeframe for certain existing projects. Any such “mega-TIF” had to hold local schools harmless during the extension period, regardless of the terms of the original agreement. The initial 30-year window for the Flats East Bank ends in 2040. The extension bumps that termination date to 2070. That additional runway allowed Wolstein to replace TIF bonds tied to the first two phases of the project on more attractive terms. And it gives him a valuable tool for financing additional ground-up projects. On Thursday, Sept. 16, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority issued almost $58.7 million in new TIF bonds for the project, in two bundles that attracted strong interest from investors. Nearly $34 million of the proceeds went to paying off principal on existing bonds, issued years ago by the port, the state and the Development Finance Authority of Summit County. The transaction generated $17.4 million to repay a cascade of public lenders, including the city. Ryan Sommers, a financial consultant on the transaction, said that
The next planned building at the Flats East Bank project will rise on a parking lot between a riverfront apartment building, in the foreground, and the EY office tower. Construction could start this year. | PHOTOS BY MICHELLE JARBOE
The Flats East Bank project includes a 23-story office tower, a hotel, a riverfront apartment building and more than a dozen restaurants and entertainment venues.
only three pieces of public debt remain from the first phase of the project: two state urban redevelopment loans and a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development loan that flowed through the city. “Without this occurring, you had
these legacy public debt obligations hanging over your head every time you needed to refinance, develop or sell,” said Sommers, managing director of financial services at Project Management Consultants in Cleveland. “It had to be dealt with on each
occasion. And at this time, you have a very clean, more traditional financing structure.” At a council hearing last year, David Ebersole, the city’s economic development director, described the Flats as a “high-risk project funded
reported that their largest 2020 grant, for $500,000, went to the United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund. Likewise, Saint Luke’s Foundation of Cleveland (No. 13) gave a $550,000 grant to the Cleveland Foundation to support special funds related to equity and social justice, including the Cleveland Black Futures Fund, which supports Blackled and Black-serving nonprofits. That fund awarded its first round of grants in June 2021. Chuck Soder: csoder@crain.com, (216) 771-5374, @ChuckSoder on very thin margins.” Doubling the length of the tax increment financing deal was the only way to set things straight and avoid litigation, he said at the time. In an email Thursday, Ebersole wrote that the refinancing not only resolved public debt delinquencies but also put the high-profile development in a better position to make ongoing payments. “These repayments bring financial resources back to the city that can be invested in future projects,” he wrote. Cleveland Development Advisors, a civic lender on the project, was repaid long before the transaction closed, said Yvette Ittu, president of the real estate and business finance arm of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. “We were excited to be part of getting the Flats East Bank to where it is today and glad that it is in a position to continue to move forward with more traditional sources,” Ittu wrote in an email. “It’s great when that happens.” Wolstein said construction still could start this year on a second apartment building on the site. Akara Partners, a Chicago-based developer, formed a joint venture with Wolstein for that project, which is slated to rise on a 2.5-acre parking lot at West 11th Street and Main Avenue. New riverfront restaurants and nightspots, including an Asian-fusion eatery, a Texas-style barbecue joint and a country music venue, should start opening in November, Wolstein said. Other incoming tenants include a bagel shop, a wine bar and ESPN Cleveland. Drawing on an award from the last state capital budget, Wolstein is installing video screens in two locations and preparing to add two permanent stages for live performances. By next summer, he hopes to eliminate car traffic from more of the site, turning the waterfront area west of West 11th Street into a pedestrian-only zone. And the developer is in the early stages of planning more apartments north of Front Avenue, on a parking lot between FWD Day and Nightclub and Margaritaville Cleveland. But he’s in no rush. “It’s more of an art than a science,” he said, “but what you never want to do is flood the market with too many units in the same neighborhood at the same time. … I wouldn’t start a project in the Flats until the immediately preceding project is out of the ground.” Michelle Jarboe: michelle.jarboe@ crain.com, (216) 771-5437, @mjarboe
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AKRON
J.M. Smucker tunes up music program for Northeast Ohio youths BY DAN SHINGLER
J.M. Smucker has a brand new jam, and while it won’t fit in any jar, it might very well help fulfill the lives and improve the education of young people in Northeast Ohio. It’s a jam of the musical variety, and the Orrville-based company better known for the strawberry stuff is embarking on a mission to spread it across the region. Because while STEM-based education programs are important and often supported by large corporations, Smucker thinks kids should still be educated in music and other arts as well. “What I wanted to do was have kids get this experience from the world-class institutions in our backyard,” said Geoff Tanner, Smucker’s chief commercial and marketing officer and the person who came up with the idea for the program, which has been dubbed “Opening Track.” He’s also the driving force getting the program going and has already recruited the Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Ohio to participate, along with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so far. “We’re having conversations with the three local sports teams about their support now,” Tanner said. He’s a musician himself, and he’s using his talents to compose and record music to promote the effort. But the real reason he’s doing this, Tanner said, is because he was looking for a way to contribute to helping young people in the region, especially those with fewer advantages in places like Cleveland and Akron who have been struggling. “I didn’t grow up here, but this is my home,” said Tanner, a native of New Zealand. “And I was really shocked to learn that Cleveland and
J.M. Smucker’s new program, Opening Track, aims to increase music and arts education in the region. | DAVID LIAM KYLE/ J.M. SMUCKER
Northeast Ohio ranked No. 1 for child poverty in the Midwest. That was a real shock to me.” Like most folks, Tanner thinks education is the key to getting area youth out of poverty and he wanted to help in that regard. He just might look at it more holistically than some. “I believe education is such a critical thing for kids,” Tanner said. “But music and the arts have really been deprioritized.”
Now, if you think improving kids’ music education isn’t a ludicrous idea, well congratulations — neither does Ludacris. The three-time Grammy winner probably won’t be in charge of spelling lessons, but he’s definitely down for the cause. Ludacris has recorded a PSA for the program, which Smucker is using to promote Opening Track on social media. Tanner, meanwhile, is working on
raising more funding and developing the effort’s programming, alongside the Boys and Girls Club and representatives of the Rock Hall and orchestra. He’s run some pilots for the program among a few of the local club chapters but intends to roll it out to all 40 of them next year. “The startup funding from Smucker enabled us to hire two full-time people,” Tanner said. “I’ve hired two instructors full time to deliver the pilots to the clubs. We have a lot of material from the (orchestra), the Rock Hall and others. The goal of the funding will be to raise money to hire others, to roll this out across the rest of the clubs.” The program entails having representatives of the Rock Hall and orchestra visit the clubs, provide education, demonstrations and materials — such as the orchestra’s “mindful music moments” that teach people to use music to calm their minds. It will also get kids from the club to the Rock Hall and the orchestra’s home at Severance Hall. That’s all music to the ears of folks like Joan Katz Napoli, vice president of education and community engagement for the orchestra. “We got involved because it’s a terrific program and a wonderful idea — and the Cleveland Orchestra is a firm believer in the power of music to change lives,” Katz Napoli said. “We’ve worked in education since 1918, from the very beginning when the orchestra was founded.” She cites research, such as studies that have looked at how musicians’ brains react in an MRI machine while they are playing, that shows music is a powerful tool for activating and exercising the brain. But more than that, in her more than 20 years with the orchestra, Katz Napoli has seen
first-hand how childhood music education has changed the lives of many of its members. “It’s safe to say that almost every member of the orchestra started their music education at a young age,” she said. And, while the musicians might all look like they came from privileged backgrounds when they play in gowns and tuxedos, many if not most of them came from humble upbringings, and it’s music that got them where they are today, she noted. But perhaps no one is as happy to see what Smucker is doing than Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Ohio CEO Jeff Scott. “What our kids are greatly missing is in the creative arts sector, so what Jeff Tanner and Smucker are doing is just amazing,” Scott said. Some of the club’s youths have already participated, both at their local clubs and by singing on a recording Tanner made called “Ground Work” to promote the program, Scott noted. The music program will be something the kids in the club get into easily, said Scott. He hopes it attracts more to the club, which seeks to provide a safe and nurturing environment for kids outside of school. And he’s quick to note that the kids in the club won’t just get music education, they’ll also continue to get help with reading, writing, math, science and other subjects. If more come to the club because of the music, that’s just more chances to help their education generally, Scott figures. “Sometimes what we do is chocolate-covered broccoli,” he said with a chuckle. Dan Shingler: dshingler@crain.com, (216) 771-5290, @DanShingler
PinPoint Technology recovers from COVID, stronger than before BY DAN SHINGLER
PinPoint Technology has weathered a pandemic that at first flattened its business. It has not only rebounded but increased its payroll from two people to 15 and is now preparing to embark on two new rounds of fundraising. “As COVID hit, we were having to push pause and having a few investors say, ‘Man, I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do.’ Then we got started back up, and now we’re hitting it on all cylinders,” said PinPoint founding CEO Nick Began. The company offers a cloud-based software service that enables contractors to communicate with their field service employees and customers via an app. It not only helps them manage and track appointments and the activities of their workers but also allows homeowners to track contractors. Using the app, homeowners get a photo of the contractor who will be coming to their house, their name, a short bio, and when they’ll be arriving, Began said. Began had just launched his company when the pandemic struck, causing him to furlough his only two employees and suspend operations as many contractors also ground to a halt. At the time, he only had a handful of clients using the system as a beta version for free — mostly countertop contractors
that Began knew from his former company in Bedford Heights, Stoneworks. Began used the downtime to talk to his testers and improve his product with features such as integration with more types of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software that potential cli- Began ents already had, something his beta testers asked for, he said. Began said he also improved PinPoint by making it compatible with Google Calendar, something else he said users suggested. Around the fourth quarter of 2020, things turned around — and markedly so, Began said. Contractors were busy, but also more focused on service than ever, and many turned to PinPoint. Began has not only called back his two original employees — grateful that they were still willing and available, he said — but he’s hired 13 more and is still looking for even more. He’s also past the beta version of the app now and selling the software service, which subscribers pay for with a monthly fee determined by how they use the system. “We now have hundreds of clients that are on board or are being onboarded,” Began said. He’s smiling now, but it was a scary
experience, he said. “Talk about a nervous time in my life. When that hit — you’ve got investor money, the product is supposed to be up and running, and you can’t do anything with it. That was a tough time. That was probably my toughest time in business. … Now that I had other investors’ money, I felt like I had to really make it work,” Began said. Began said he expanded beyond countertop contractors to flooring contractors and now is talking to retailers who could use PinPoint to better manage deliveries. Began said several big-box stores are currently evaluating his software for possible use. Next, he’s got to focus on further ramping up staff and establishing a permanent home. “I’m hiring a senior marketing person right now. I’m also hiring a chief revenue officer, and we’ve made an offer and I think we have a done deal on someone coming,” said Began. The company also will invest in search engine optimization and possibly bringing on more software developers, he added. As for the offices, Began is currently working out of offices in Beachwood — he had been working from Metisentry’s offices in downtown Akron before the
pandemic. (Metisentry founder Marling Engle and CEO Mike Fischer remain shareholders and board members of PinPoint, Began said.) Began said he’s now considering establishing the company in Bedford Heights in a 16,000-square-foot building that formerly housed Stoneworks. He’s also raising capital. “I am finishing an additional $750,000 round and we’re then going to a seed round of $1.5 million,” Began said. “We’ve already spoken to JumpStart, North Coast (Ventures) and several other groups.” Began said he’s gotten enough investor interest that he can be a bit choosy about whose money he takes, so he’s focused on working with investors who can help him beyond writing a check, with business guidance, technical assistance or contacts to potential clients or other sources of support. “I’ve told investors ‘no’ because they were not strategic enough and could not help us grow,” Began said. PinPoint seems to be attractive to investors because of its leadership and business model — and many local startup investors seek to work closely with their portfolio companies, just as Began hopes to do, said North Coast managing director Todd Federman. “We have an investor network of more than 350 people in our group and we think we bring value far beyond the
capital,” Federman said. “It’s music to our ears when someone like Nick sees the value in a network like ours.” Federman was careful to say that North Coast investors haven’t yet decided to participate in PinPoint’s upcoming fundraising rounds and have not invested in the company to date. But they’re interested, and the opportunity looks promising, he said. “It’s early in the process of us getting to know them,” Federman said. “But Nick comes at this from a place of knowledge, and it’s a problem and solution he knows intimately — and that interests us as investors. … They’ve grown as a company to a point where it now makes sense and is a fit for us. … It wouldn’t have made sense for us to come in two years ago.” Metisentry’s Engle said he has been pleased with the progress he has seen in PinPoint as an investor. “I think the PinPoint team has made great traction. Right now, they’re ahead of forecast, and getting really positive signs from the customer base,” Engle said via email. “The expectation consumers have for communication is higher than ever, and at the same time, service level seems low in many sectors, and businesses with people in the field need accurate feedback on service quality. PinPoint can help answer that call.”
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
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REMOTE WORK
From Page 11
If your organization is currently remote and is considering keeping it that way, remember that just as in-person work will always have its challenges, so too will remote work. Recognize the positive with your individual employees and your team. When something needs to be addressed, do so privately with an employee and talk through solutions together. Don’t allow any perceptions that remote work isn’t working to take hold. If that happens, your team might make that a reality. Give employees a path forward so they know how to right the ship and can take steps to improve. Acknowledge the efforts made and the results. In the “Yard Sale” episode of Progressive’s “At Home with Baker Mayfield” campaign, the Cleveland Browns quarterback tells his wife, Emily, that the “big-ticket items” should be prominently displayed. | PROGRESSIVE
MAYFIELD
From Page 1
Charney and his team took the bet, and Bird — on a double-or-nothing second try — didn’t miss. “He literally dropped the microphone and left,” Charney said. Charney, now in his 11th year as Progressive’s chief marketing officer, learned a valuable lesson that day. “Ever since then, I said, ‘I’ve gotta have an insurance policy. I gotta make sure that these people can do improv, that these people will cover me.’ ” Charney has made quite a name for himself in insurance marketing, first as the CMO at Aflac and then at Progressive, where he oversees what he calls a “network” of characters that includes longtime star Flo (played by Stephanie Courtney) and a more recent phenomenon, Dr. Rick (played by Bill Glass). Baker Mayfield, unlike many of his Progressive commercial counterparts, didn’t hone his acting skills doing improvisational comedy. But the Cleveland Browns’ 26-year-old quarterback, as is the case for the other members of the insurance giant’s marketing machine, is quick on his feet. For Charney, the top pick of the 2018 NFL draft represented a much different wager than the one his former employer had made with Bird
acters have been established and the audience has become eager for more.
‘Smile moments’
The third season started with spots that showed the Mayfields hosting a yard sale outside the stadium and the quarterback discussing some “hot gossip” with a couple of neighbors (as he’s watering a tree that overlooks the Browns’ ticket window). Soon, viewers will see spots that show what happens when the Mayfields run out of Halloween candy (hopefully the kids like nachos) and the quarterback instructs an overwhelmed house-sitter about everything that needs to be done at the stadium when he’s gone. Also planned are episodes with Browns radio analyst Doug Dieken (who announces Mayfield’s mundane morning activities), former QB Bernie Kosar (hint: the WiFi password is a complex football play) and legendary musician Alice Cooper (who “lives” next to Mayfield at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). Charney, a huge fan of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” said the commercials are modeled like the comedies, but instead of a handful of story arcs taking place in an episode, the 30-second spots have four or five “smile moments.” “Each time you see it, you might notice something different,” the Progressive marketing chief said. What makes it work is the presence “HE HAS THE ‘IT’ FACTOR AND THE Mayfield, who, acPRESENCE. HE LIGHTS UP A SCREEN.” of cording to Charney, — Jeff Charney, Progressive chief marketing officer has “the wide-eyedness” and “relatability” of Tom Hanks, plus the swagger 35-plus years earlier. “Baker, we took a bet on,” the Pro- of Mark Wahlberg. gressive CMO said of the quarterback, who was chosen after the in- Mayfield has ‘it’ surer put the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner through a “creative comThe quarterback, who led the bine” on its Mayfield Village cam- 2020 Browns to their first playoff pus. win in 26 years, also has marketings Two-plus years later, Progressive deals with BodyArmor, Hulu and is thrilled with its choice. Nissan. “At Home with Baker Mayfield,” a In 2019, the year he aligned with campaign built around the quarter- Progressive, the quarterback back and his wife, Emily, experienc- brought his marketing representaing homeowner moments — only tion in-house. The QB’s business in“home” is FirstEnergy Stadium — terests fall under the umbrella of launched its third season earlier this The Camwood Group, an Austin, month, coinciding, as usual, with Texas based firm for which Maythe NFL’s kickoff. field’s father, James, and brother, Charney said it’s the “biggest” Matt, respectively serve as senior and best year yet, comparing “At managing director and managing Home” with popular shows that hit director. their stride in Year 3, once the charChris Talbott, the QB’s marketing
agent, said he has worked with a lot of athletes. Mayfield, according to Talbott, enjoys the production process more than most. “It’s not just show up to set, read your lines and see you later,” Talbott said. “He really wants to know what’s happening with creative.” Talbott credits the “incredibly talented” creative team — which includes Arnold Worldwide, a Boston-based firm, and ninety6, Progressive’s in-house agency — for coming up with “At Home” spots that have gotten better each year. It helps that the QB has displayed the improvisational skills and comedic ability to lead Talbott and Charney to believe Mayfield could have quite a second act, after football, in Hollywood. “He has the ‘it’ factor and the presence. He lights up a screen,” Charney said.
‘A love letter’ The eight-episode third run of “At Home,” plus another round of Dr. Rick spots, could be among the final acts of Charney’s tenure at Progressive. In March, Progressive announced that the CMO would be retiring in January 2022, and that CEO Tricia Griffith, along with Charney and chief human resource officer Lori Niederst, would be leading the search for a new head of marketing. Charney told Crain’s that he’ll hang around as long as it takes to find his successor, and he admits he’s set the bar “crazy” high. Ultimately, though, it will be the call of his boss, Griffith. “When you’re 11 years in the same place and you’re at the top of your game — in my own head, I think I’m at the top of my game — you just want to drop the microphone while you’re on top,” Charney said. He could be exiting around the time the Browns make a playoff push. Should that be the case, the 62-year-old is happy that the sendoff will include “At Home” spots that showcase FirstEnergy Stadium, the Rock Hall, family, and a couple of Browns legends in Dieken and Kosar. “It is my love letter and Progressive’s love letter to the city,” Charney said. “It’s an underdog city. The Browns are an underdog. Baker is an underdog. Progressive’s an underdog. It’s a love letter.”
Invest in yourself as a leader There are a variety of avenues to continually refine your capabilities as a leader. This is important for long-term leaders just as much as it is for new leaders. Newly promoted leaders should undergo a leadership development workshop or course. Coupled with building experience naturally, this will set new leaders up for greater success. This is particularly important now that leaders and their teams have been and are likely to continue working separately throughout the rest of the year. For current leaders, it can be easy to forget key principles of management when things suddenly change. Revisiting leadership development courses may help re-center you around core aspects that can then be reapplied with fresh eyes
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to a remote working situation. Furthering your education also is a great opportunity to not only expand your knowledge but also your capacity for stronger leadership and critical thinking. A master of business administration degree explores leadership development and encourages students to practice those skills alongside numerous other courses and concepts that are applicable — and often required — in higher-level positions. A variety of MBA specializations are also available for those who wish to explore certain aspects of business, ranging from finance and analytics to marketing and the supply chain. Whatever your industry may be, there is an MBA avenue for you to pursue and apply to your professional goals. With MBAs being higher in demand now than over the past 18 months, it also is worth exploring funding opportunities with your organization. Many organizations offer a tuition reimbursement program, and with companies competing for talent more than ever, it’s a great time to take action. Keep in mind that these programs often require you to stay with the organization for a period of time after completing the MBA, so be sure you’re willing to accept that condition. If no tuition reimbursement program is available, there are ample financial aid solutions available to help you take advantage of this educational opportunity. Remember that just as you progressed as an employee to reach a leadership position, so too must you progress as a leader to realize success. Continue to develop your skills and yourself, and you will achieve the personal and professional goals you’ve set.
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David A. Pastir has been promoted to Executive Vice President. Dave will oversee operations in all geographical regions (OH, MI, & PA) Pastir while assisting AMHigley’s expansion into future markets. Dave serves on the Board of Directors for the Achievement Centers for Children and Grace House of Akron as well as sits on the Facilities & Grounds Committee for The Ronald McDonald House. Andrew D. Hudak has been promoted to Hudak Regional Vice President, Ohio. Andy began his career at AMHigley as a Co-Op in 2004 and most recently served as Project Executive and Hospitality & Entertainment Market Leader. As Regional Vice President, Ohio, Andy will continue his duties as Market Leader while focusing on the growth and success of operations throughout Ohio.
Michelle R. Curry was named Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer for Neighborhood Family Practice. Her role is to serve as a strategic business partner in developing and leading Neighborhood Family Practice’s human resources department and the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion program. Curry earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Master of Public Administration degrees from Cleveland State University.
Kelly Bokoch joins Frantz Ward as associate in the Litigation Practice Group. Kelly is an experienced litigator with a broad legal background in a variety of disciplines. Her experiences as an Assistant County Prosecutor provided her with a rich courtroom experience while her significant law firm experience has afforded her the insights to build strong relationships with her clients. Kelly earned her J.D. from ClevelandMarshall College of Law and her B.S. from Miami University.
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Elvisridge Capital is pleased to announce the hiring of Scott Peckham as a Director with the firm. His focus will include deal sourcing, due diligence, structuring, and post-investment portfolio management. He will also work closely with the leaders of portfolio companies to increase sales and profitability. Scott’s prior experience includes owning and operating businesses, private debt and equity investing, and investment banking.
Gallagher Sharp is pleased to announce the addition of Partner Daniel L. Bray. Dan is a skilled trial attorney with experience in defending commercial transportation entities, insurance carriers, product manufacturers, large corporations, and small businesses in catastrophic personal injury litigation. His practice is focused on defending clients in complex and high exposure scenarios for primary and excess carriers. Dan received his law degree from the University of Akron School of Law.
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Clearstead Clearstead is pleased to announce David Rubis, CPFA, AIF®, has joined the firm as a Senior Managing Director in the Private Client Group. In this role, David will provide wealth management services to clients and assist with new business development. He has over 15 years of experience in the financial industry, a master’s degree from North Central College, and a bachelor’s degree from Miami University.
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BANKING
From Page 1
The move will raise privacy concerns, erode customer trust in the banking system and cause struggles for smaller institutions in particular — like community banks and credit unions — that are less likely to have the resources available to collect and report the required data on customer accounts, said James Thurston, a spokesman for the Ohio Bankers League. It is proposed that these new reporting requirements on otherwise private banking activities would apply to accounts with at least $600 in annual inflows and outflows, or the equivalent in total transactions. That’s practically every bank account. “You are sending this information to the IRS, which has seen multiple data breaches,” Thurston said. “Do we want to be giving them even more of our sensitive customer information? I think in this day and age, some kind of mass surveillance program of commercial and consumer bank accounts is inappropriate and excessive.” The measure is being promoted by President Joe Biden's administration. The Treasury Department recently described its purpose in its “Case for a Robust Attack on the Tax Gap.” Administration officials peg the proposed reporting requirements as a source of revenue in a proposed $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill. They say it will support the IRS’ audit activities and help catch tax dodgers. Treasury estimates these reporting changes could generate $460 billion throughout the next decade. “This proposal is definitely a cause for concern,” said Emily Leite, chief advocacy officer for the Ohio Credit Union League. “This is a big shift in operations in how credit unions engage with members and report information they’re required to report. And there is not a lot of study showcasing (that) the amount of revenue driven from catching individuals not paying their full tax obligations would hit that $400 billion range. So we have skepticism there.” For credit unions, which already struggle to keep up with the tech infrastructure of their for-profit counterparts, putting systems in place to comply with further reporting requirements could be costly and burdensome, Leite said. The proposal has been talked about for months. However, there is a growing sense of urgency among financial industry stakeholders today fighting against its implementation. This comes as Democratic lawmakers and members of the administration, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, press for its passing. “This is just absurd,” said Robert Palmer, president and CEO of the Community Bankers Association of Ohio, emphasizing that banks already report huge volumes of data to the government. “The amount of data they want is astronomical. It’s an intrusion of privacy and government overreach.” The Biden administration describes the effort as a way to stop the wealthy from tax evasion, but that doesn’t quite square with this $600 benchmark being discussed, Palmer said. “In our opinion, that is just a smokescreen,” he said. “This is an attack on small business and middle America.” The privacy aspect is a top concern even for large banks that could pivot
to reporting additional customer information with more ease. That includes Cleveland’s tech-savvy KeyCorp and its KeyBank unit, which has about $181 billion in assets. “We are aware of this proposal and will continue to monitor any developments as Congress deliberates on the reconciliation bill,” said Key spokesman Matthew Pitts in a statement. “Protecting the information of our clients is fundamental to KeyBank’s mission, providing the best banking services possible.” Officials assert these privacy concerns could push customers away from the banking system. That’s something bankers including Tom Fraser, Ohio Bankers League chairman and CEO of First Mutual Holding Co., the parent company of community mutual bank First Federal Lakewood, say they’re most concerned with in terms of possible downstream impacts. “We worry the perception of additional reporting could have an unintended consequence of keeping those who are unbanked and live in the cash economy will stay there,” he said. “While the industry is working hard to rebuild the trust factor, this could create yet another barrier.” Paul Merski, group executive vice president of congressional relations and strategy for Independent Community Bankers of America, said bankers have long been supportive of the IRS having appropriate resources to collect taxes. “But this broad dragnet of sleuthing of everyone’s financial transaction is really overkill of what they need to do,” Merski said. “They already collect billions of pieces of information, and adding more hay to the haystack is not going to help them. The administration has not explained how this would help them go after top-earners.” Banks are being “forced to be police officers for the IRS,” and that’s not their purpose, he said. Some advocates of the reporting requirements say the concerns raised by the industry are overblown. That includes groups such as the left-leaning Center for American Progress and Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, both of which separately suggest the privacy concerns are without merit. They also say this idea that the reporting will turn away customers worried about privacy is purely conjecture. What ultimately comes of this proposal remains to be seen. In terms of how these enhanced reporting measure would be implemented, the devil is in the details that have yet to be hashed out. But that uncertainty contributes to the industry’s concerns. The measure seems to have a good chance of passing in the House. The true battleground will seemingly be in the Senate. Ohio's Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, is generally in favor of these additional reporting requirements. “Sen. Brown supports strengthening our tools to crack down on the wealthy tax cheats who use every trick to avoid paying their fair share and stick Ohio families with the bill,” according to a statement from Brown’s office. “The Senate continues to debate the specifics of what information requirements best give the IRS the tools it needs to crack down on tax avoidance by the wealthy and large corporations.” Jeremy Nobile: jnobile@crain.com, (216) 771-5362, @JeremyNobile
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Improving the Well-Being of Our Communities
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This year, Cleveland Clinic celebrates 100 years of providing quality healthcare services. Our mission is patient care, research and education. In addition, we are committed to continually improving the overall well-being of the communities we serve. As you’ll see in this report, that extends to strengthening economies in Ohio and beyond. Everywhere we operate, we are a leading employer and an economic generator. We strive to invest in local businesses through
OHIO In 2019, Cleveland Clinic supported $21.63 billion of economic activity in Ohio through its ongoing operations and construction activities. As Ohio’s largest employer, Cleveland Clinic directly supported an estimated 61,221 jobs in the state. These sustained an additional 71,801 indirect jobs, resulting in a total of 133,022 Ohio jobs supported by Cleveland Clinic. For every direct Cleveland Clinic job, approximately 1.2 additional jobs are supported in Ohio. In a nine-county region in Northeast Ohio, the health system directly supported an estimated 60,561 people and sustained 80,827 households.
the purchase of goods and services, and we
Cleveland Clinic’s operating and construction activities resulted in the
help cities and neighborhoods thrive through
generation of $1.27 billion of state and local taxes and $2.29 billion of
tax revenues that support critical services
federal taxes in 2019. The permanent residential property taxes supported
and infrastructure.
by the presence of Cleveland Clinic were enough to fund the educational
Employment is a major social determinant
costs of more than 51,500 public school students in Ohio.
of health. Hiring locally is one of our goals, and we are intentional about who we recruit
ESTIMATED IMPACTS: STATE OF OHIO
and develop. Cleveland Clinic recently joined OneTen, a coalition of U.S. employers committed to train, hire and promote 1 million Black Americans into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement. We participate in the Cuyahoga County Workforce Funders Group, working to develop a deep pool of skilled labor for the
$21.63 billion
133,022 jobs
economic output
$8.78 billion
labor income
healthcare sector and create opportunities for local residents. And we provide a minimum wage of $15 per hour for the majority of our hourly caregivers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cleveland Clinic has been a stabilizing economic influence. I am proud of our commitment
86,682
$7.84
$1.27
of household spending
of state and local taxes
$2.29
$281.7
$2.34
of federal taxes
of visitor spending
of spending on goods and services
households supported
to keep our caregivers employed, and to the many other ways we have been able to support
billion
billion
them, their families, and the communities in which they live during this challenging time. Thank you for your interest in Cleveland Clinic. More information on our organization, finances and community impact is available at clevelandclinic.org/economicimpact.
Tomislav Mihaljevic, MD
billion
million
billion
CEO and President, Cleveland Clinic
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MAKING A DIFFERENCE LOCALLY AND BEYOND Cleveland Clinic is committed to constantly improving the well-being of the communities it serves. The health system’s recently released report on Cleveland Clinic’s economic impact at the local, state and national levels can be found at
clevelandclinic.org/economicimpact. Two examples of Cleveland Clinic’s investment in its communities are Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, a worker-owned company, and the ASPIRE Nurse Scholars Program, which invests in college students to expand diversity in the healthcare workforce.
EVERGREEN COOPERATIVE LAUNDRY Evergreen Cooperative Laundry (ECL) operates Cleveland Clinic’s laundry facility in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood. Evergreen services more than 19 million pounds of Cleveland Clinic laundry each year. This is one way the health system uses its economic resources to build a stronger local economy. In 2018, Cleveland Clinic invested in the expansion of operations at the ECL facility, which brought in more than 100 new employees. ECL’s worker-owners have said the 2018 expansion is a true milestone, and an important benefit for them is the opportunity to become a worker-owner. “It has really made an impact on my life that I’m able to take care of my family,” says Herbert Allen, one of ECL’s worker-owners. “I’m able to buy a car, have my own place and have my own money to spend.” Worker-owned businesses like ECL help build community wealth. ECL’s collaboration with Cleveland Clinic strengthens and supports the vitality of the local economy.
ASPIRE NURSE SCHOLARS PROGRAM The ASPIRE Nurse Scholars Program, established by Cleveland Clinic and supported by a $10 million gift from The Howley Foundation, is a local high school and college program that seeks to increase diversity in healthcare, address opportunity gaps and reduce health disparities in the community. Students work as patient care nursing assistants for Cleveland Clinic during the summer after high school graduation and throughout their college career. They then have the opportunity to work as registered nurses at Cleveland Clinic for at least three years after college graduation and licensure. By investing in the students while they’re still in school, ASPIRE helps remove some of the traditional roadblocks to success and contributes to the future of healthcare. Student Ayanna Lewis says the financial support she receives through the program allows her to stay focused on learning. “That absolutely means the world,” she says. “That means I get to be successful in my schooling, and that means I get to be successful after my schooling, when I become a registered nurse.”
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9500 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44195 Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit, multispecialty academic medical center integrating outpatient and hospital care with research and education for better patient outcomes and experience. More than 4,500 staff physicians and researchers provide services through 20 patient-centered institutes. Cleveland Clinic is a 6,026-bed healthcare system with a main campus in Cleveland, 18 hospitals and over 220 outpatient locations. The health system includes five hospitals in Southeast Florida with more than 1,000 beds, a medical center for brain health in Las Vegas, a sports and executive health center in Toronto and a 364-bed hospital in Abu Dhabi. Cleveland Clinic London, a 184-bed hospital, will open in 2022. Cleveland Clinic is currently ranked as one of the nation’s top hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. clevelandclinic.org ©2021 The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
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