Crain's Cleveland Business

VOL. 38, NO. 15

APRIL 10 - 16, 2017

Source Lunch

Akron Storefront pop-ups aim to make downtown more livable. Page 21

Phillip Ciano, Principal, Ciano & Goldwasser LLP Page 23

The List

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

NEO’s largest residential sales in 2016 Page 18

GOVERNMENT INDIANS HOME OPENER

Tribe’s chef has appetite to teach, too “I understand I can’t cook everything. I’m only as good as my team.”

Josh Ingraham, Indians executive chef

By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com @timmagaw

J

osh Ingraham was always gunning for the big leagues, though these days he’s sporting chef’s whites instead of a ballplayer’s getup.

And like a third-base coach demanding more hustle, Ingraham is constantly pushing his staff of more than 200 — the bulk of which is seasonal — to the limits when it comes to perfecting the culinary experience at Progressive Field.

“The game is going to go on no matter what happens in the kitchen,” said Ingraham, the Tribe’s 32-year-old executive chef, who played varsity baseball for Southern New Hampshire University.

SEE BANKS, PAGE 19

SEE CDBG, PAGE 4

Robert Carter for Crain’s

Smaller banks poised for a lucrative year jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile

For Geauga Savings Bank, a community bank of about $350 million in assets founded 34 years ago in Newbury, a refined focus on business clientele is a key strategy for growth today.

It's one reason why executive vice president Dell Duncan is overseeing the bank's pending relocation of its

— Dell Duncan, Geauga Savings Bank executive vice president

corporate headquarters to Beachwood: to be closer to the density of businesses and potential commercial clients in Greater Cleveland that bankers hope to win over.

It’s a logical mission for Duncan,

Entire contents © 2017 by Crain Communications Inc.

who is no stranger to the local market and Beachwood in particular, where he founded Commerce Exchange Bank in 1986 and Ohio Commerce Bank in 2006. (Both banks have since been sold.) He was brought on last

jmiller@crain.com @millerjh

spring to Geauga Savings in a newly created role to focus on recreating the business he had developed in this market while running Ohio Commerce.

“There’s just so much business here,” Duncan said, referring to Greater Cleveland. “When we look at a great Cleveland banking market, it’s huge. But for us, we see large banks just getting bigger. I don’t see the same competition that there was a few years ago. And we think we can get more market share.”

FINANCE

“I don’t see the same competition that there was a few years ago. And we think we can get more market share.”

By JAY MILLER

The zeroing out in the proposed federal budget of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding could cost Northeast Ohio cities and counties more than $40 million annually.

That’s federal money they have relied on for more than 40 years for everything from providing meals to senior citizens to $20 storefront renovation and smoothing out million potholed roads.

Amount of The CDBG pro- Community gram, created in 1974, Development was aimed at lifting up Block Grants the poor and rebuild- the city of ing the nation’s inner Cleveland cities. President Rich- receives ard Nixon’s adminis- annually. tration saw it as a way to reduce federal bureaucracy by funneling money directly to communities. Cities and counties like it because they avoid the middleman expense and paperwork of state government.

Many of them turn around and send the money to neighborhood development nonprofits.

The $3 billion program has long had bipartisan support in Congress, leading to the suspicion that while cuts may come, the program will not be eliminated entirely. Still, communities are worried about cuts in such a deeply rooted program at a time when budgets already are tight.

“A crisis,” was Cleveland City Councilman Anthony Brancatelli’s brief response to a question about what the possible funding cutoff could mean for the city.

“This is an important issue to me because it supports key social services,” said Brancatelli, who represents Slavic Village and chairs

SEE INGRAHAM, PAGE 8

By JEREMY NOBILE

Proposed grant cuts would be ‘a crisis’

Off the clock << As

these rockers see it, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Page 13 Take a trip to the 1860s. Page 14 A puzzling trend takes root in Northeast Ohio. Page 16

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PA G E 3

Local agency adds golf, stresses tourism

By KEVIN KLEPS

Topnotch clients

kkleps@crain.com @KevinKleps

A look at Topnotch Management’s roster of tennis and golf clients.

Players who are ranked in the top 100 in the world are noted.

Sam Duvall, a prominent tennis agent, knows a thing or two about finances.

Duvall’s wife, Kathryn, is from Shaker Heights, but the couple had been living in New York, which didn’t make a lot of sense when it was time to pay the bills.

“I was in New York and was paying ridiculous rent, and I realized, I’m gone like 30 weeks a year,” Duvall said. “I was writing that (rent) check, and I was like, ‘What am I doing?’

Then I moved to Cleveland and ...”

At that point, Michael McKenna, another Shaker native, chimed in.

“The checks got smaller.”

Thus, Topnotch Management — which Duvall formed after he left Lagardère Tennis, where he was vice president of tennis, in October 2015 — has its owner and its new director of golf, McKenna, based in Northeast Ohio.

On the surface, Topnotch Management is a boutique sports marketing agency that represents 13 tennis players, including American star John Isner, and six up-and-coming golfers. But it’s really an events, tourism and marketing company, since Duvall, after starting Topnotch in 2016, formed a 50-50 partnership with Vermont-based Grand Slam Tennis Tours.

Grand Slam, which was founded more than two decades ago by An-

Slam Tennis Tours have 10 full-time employees. Duvall and McKenna are the only ones based in Northeast Ohio. They are in temporary space in South Euclid, but Duvall said he hopes to find a spot downtown — “closer to the action,” he said.

“I was writing that (rent) check, and I was like, ‘What am I doing?’

Then I moved to Cleveland and ...”

TENNIS John Isner — No. 23, ATP Steve Johnson — No. 29, ATP

Taking a swing at golf

— Sam Duvall, Topnotch Management founder

Yoshihito Nishioka — No. 64, ATP Elena Vesnina — No. 14, WTA Caroline Garcia — No. 24, WTA Shuai Zhang — No. 32, WTA Irina-Camelia Begu — No. 33, WTA Alison Riske — No. 38, WTA Shelby Rogers — No. 52, WTA Denis Kudla Lukas Lacko Reilly Opelka Ryan Shane GOLF Celine Boutier Aaron Cockerill Colin Featherstone Martin Simonsen Sean Walsh Fred Wedel Source: TopNotch Management

drew Chmura, brings an average of 2,000 clients each year to prestigious tennis tournaments. There, its customers are treated to such perks as city tours, courtside seating and meet-and-greet dinners.

And that’s where Duvall and Topnotch enter the equation. With a roster of such notables as Isner (currently ranked 23rd on the ATP World Tour), Steve Johnson (No. 29 in the men’s rankings), Elena Vesnina (14th in the WTA rankings), Caroline Garcia (24th in the women’s rankings) and 2016 French Open quarterfinalist Shelby Rogers, Topnotch can have its clients interact with the tourism arm of the business.

For example, Grand Slam customers have been given the chance to re-

turn the blazing-fast serves of the 6-foot-10 Isner and 6-11 Reilly Opelka, another Topnotch client.

At Wimbledon, Duvall said the company will rent a house and “have 300 clients come in and out” throughout the course of tennis’ signature tournament.

Grand Slam, he said, has tennis tourism “down to a science on the operational side.”

Topnotch wants to do the same with golf, which is where McKenna comes in.

He was hired by Topnotch in March, after spending the previous seven years in San Diego, primarily working in consumer club testing and ball fitting.

Together, Topnotch and Grand

Grand Slam is “probably first or second in the tennis space in tourism and experiences,” Duvall said.

Kyle Ross, the company’s director of public relations, said Grand Slam is on pace to double its year-overyear sales for Wimbledon, and its numbers for the 2017 Australian Open and Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters are its best ever.

Duvall believes golf tourism is more of an untapped market, and it’s one about which Topnotch is still learning.

Topnotch hopes to offer its first golf tours this fall, during the PGA Tour’s “swing season" — after the FedEx Cup events have been played.

That will serve as a test run, with Topnotch ideally jumping into the major events in 2018.

“Most golf tournaments, you buy a ticket and everybody gets the same ticket, and you all go and sit where you want,” McKenna said. “Golf’s a little different in that respect, where you can’t sell a courtside seat like at a basketball game. You have to figure out how to get them better access to stuff they can’t get just by going online and buying a ticket.”

SEE TOPNOTCH, PAGE 4

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PA G E 4

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That requires cooperation from the tournament, since Topnotch would be paying for its clients to get special access. The rest — such as interactions with Topnotch athletes, housing outside the tournament and tours — are under its control.

This year, Grand Slam Tennis Tours is hosting a pair of events for the first time.

The Stowe Tennis Classic (at its Vermont base) will be held in August, prior to the U.S. Open, and the Topnotch Fantasy Tennis Camp will debut in Hawaii this fall. Topnotch will bring Johnson, Rogers and Opelka to the fantasy camp, and the six- to eight-player Stowe tournament will include some of the firm’s top-ranked American players.

The new events will serve as what Duvall calls the “third pillar" of the business, which he thinks will continue to grow with the addition of golf.

Such diversification is key, considering how brutal the agent business can be.

“We have some great clients, and diverse, geographically and age — and obviously gender,” Duvall said.

“These days, you need a decent breadth of clients to make money.

Somebody gets hurt, contracts don’t come in ... We only make money on commissions. We don’t take any percentage of prize money (from an athlete’s participation in a tournament).”

That’s an industry standard, said

CDBG

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— Michael McKenna, director of golf

ald Trump included in his fiscal 2018 federal budget, released in March.

The cuts would offset similar increases proposed for defense and homeland security spending.

The proposed CDBG cut is a big chunk of the $6 billion trimmed from the HUD budget. The White House summary of the budget proposal argues that “the program is not well-targeted to the poorest populations and has not demonstrated results.”

In such a large program that makes small, targeted grants, specific projects have been criticized for grants for tree planting and band shells.

That’s especially true in the city of Cleveland, where ward councilman get some discretion in how some of the federal money will be spent in their wards.

In 2002, then-Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell saw her veto on that year’s CDBG spending overturned by council when she sought to reduce each council member’s ward spending from $450,000 to $300,000 for the year to cover some community development administrative costs, according to a report in The Plain Dealer.

But the spending is generally considered critical to rebuilding communities and neighborhoods. And the money doesn’t just flow to core cities; it also makes direct grants to larger suburbs like Euclid and Cuyahoga Falls.

In Euclid, for example, the city got $955,000 for 2016, which it’s using to assist low- to moderate-income homeowners with renovations, for storefront rehabilitations and for programs for seniors.

“There would be a lot of cuts in our budget,” said community development director Brian Iorio, adding

that the loss of CDBG money also would cost three people their jobs, which would further impair the city’s programs.

“If we eliminated the staff, we would have less ability to go out and get (grants) to (replace) our CDBG money,” he said.

Euclid City Council on April 3 unanimously passed a resolution opposing the CDBG cuts, as well as cuts to the HOME Investment Partnership Act, another HUD program that helps communities develop housing for low-income people.

Smaller communities, which can’t support their own community development programs, are helped through programs administered by counties. Cuyahoga County has been getting more than $3 million annually in recent years.

Last month, Cuyahoga County passed legislation directing $150,000 to 10 infrastructure projects in cities including Brooklyn, Maple Heights and South Euclid. A separate resolution approved spending $999,000 for 22 projects, including $50,000 for property acquisition and demolition in Cuyahoga Heights and $50,000 for park improvements in Maple Heights.

County Executive Armond Budish worried about the proposed federal cuts in an email.

“The proposed cuts to CDBG, coupled with other cuts in the president’s budget, will devastate communities, causing particular harm to those who are most vulnerable,” he said. “We will not have funding to support community improvements, ensure our homeless are housed or that seniors can afford to get a new roof on the house they have lived in for decades.”

Volume 38, Number 15 Crain’s Cleveland Business (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 441131230. Copyright © 2017 by Crain Communications Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio, and at additional mailing offices. Price per copy: $2.00.

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

HERE WE GO AGAIN.

LEARN MORE J

Duvall, whose cousin, Adam, is an AllStar outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds.

Thanks to the tourism and events side of the combined company, Topnotch’s player recruiting efforts can include a pitch about making extra money for appearance fees at Grand Slam’s various events.

Topnotch doesn’t charge its clients a commission for such earnings.

“It’s an internal argument actually,” Duvall said with a laugh.

Off-court and off-course earnings, then, are the primary revenue streams for the agency arm of the business. But, McKenna said, “At the end of the day, if they’re performing well, they’re going to sell stuff.”

Tournament successes also serve as a promotional jolt for the areas of the company — tourism and events — that seem to have the largest potential for growth.

“Grand Slam Tennis Tours and Topnotch Management have business at tennis events all over the world, and when we do, we have double the amount of staffing and support in place,” said Ross, Grand Slam’s PR director.

Duvall’s team can lean on Grand Slam to add to its clients’ appearance schedules and introduce them to sponsors.

It’s a combination that is proving to be a force in tennis.

The Northeast Ohio duo of Duvall and McKenna hope they’ll be able to say the same thing about golf in the coming years.

council’s Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee. “It is the lifeblood of our neighborhoods.”

The city of Cleveland is the region’s biggest beneficiary, getting about $20 million annually. Cleveland’s biggest CDBG commitment in 2017 is to programs for housing demolition and rehabilitation — $2.6 million of a $20 million CDBG budget presented to city council in February.

“CDBG money is critical to the development of Cleveland’s neighborhoods,” said Joel Ratner, president and CEO of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, a nonprofit that supports and guides the work of the city’s community development corporations, which create and execute many of the projects that use CDBG money.

Like Cleveland, Akron uses CDBG dollars for everything from housing rehabilitation programs to a variety of services to seniors. According to the most recent report on file with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Akron received $6.5 million in CDBG money in calendar year 2014. It spent $2.1 million for housing demolition, $2.2 million for housing rehabilitation and $166,653 for lead-paint abatement.

“The negative impact that losing CDBG programs would have on Akron cannot be overstated,” said Mayor Dan Horrigan in an emailed statement. “It would severely weaken our essential community development functions, including demolition, rehabilitation, and comprehensive planning.”

The cut is part of $54 billion in domestic spending that President Don-

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“Golf’s a little different ... You have to figure out how to get them better access to stuff they can’t get just by going online and buying a ticket.”

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PA G E 5

Entrepreneurs and investors offer advice to startups: Think big and think globally

By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com @ChuckSoder

Shortly after Ted Frank became chief financial officer at CoverMyMeds in 2013, he said something that made his colleagues look at him funny.

He told them that the medical software company should be preparing to go public on the stock market.

His new colleagues had big ambitions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but not that big. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They looked at me like I had three heads,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Granted, CoverMyMeds didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t end up going public, but it was sold on April 3 to McKesson Corp. for $1.1 billion â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with a â&#x20AC;&#x153;bâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; plus a $300 million earn-out. And it now has about 450 employees in Columbus, plus another 50 in Highland Hills.

The story was meant to serve as a lesson for entrepreneurs, especially those in the Midwest that might not be used to thinking in terms of billions.

Like other entrepreneurs and investors who spoke at the Ohio Venture Associationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual Venture Summit last week, Frank noted that entrepreneurs in the Midwest are plenty capable of building huge businesses â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but doing so requires thinking big and acting like a global business.

He told the story after a local entrepreneur in the audience, SplashLink CEO Ebie Holst, asked him how Northeast Ohio might import the â&#x20AC;&#x153;change the worldâ&#x20AC;? mindset that she saw so much of during her 12 years living in Silicon Valley.

In the case of CoverMyMeds â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

which makes software that doctors use to electronically asks insurance companies whether a patientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s medication is covered â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the desire to change the lives of patients was there.

But with some entrepreneurs, it helps if someone can methodically show them how they can get to a massive exit, Frank said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think you can do it. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a sea change,â&#x20AC;? he told the audience at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.

Given that the theme of the Venture Summit was â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beyond Northeast Ohio: Expanding Your Horizon,â&#x20AC;? a few speakers noted that entrepreneurs need to build ties with investors who understand their particular industry, regardless of where those investors live.

For instance, LISNR co-founder Chris Ostoich said his company, which has developed a way to send data via sound waves, is â&#x20AC;&#x153;violently loyalâ&#x20AC;? to its hometown of Cincinnati.

But after raising early capital in the Cincinnati area, LISNR went after investors who could help the company â&#x20AC;&#x153;become a protocol,â&#x20AC;? Ostoich said.

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why LISNRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s $10 million Series B round was led by Intel Capital.

So how do you raise capital in other regions? For one, do your research, says Tim Schigel, who recently started a Cincinnati-based venture firm called Refinery Ventures. He described the first piece of advice heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d give to entrepreneurs back when he was working for Cintrifuse, a startup-focused economic development group in Cincinnati. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t bring me the names of the top, most well-known venture funds, but dig in. Find out which partners have done which deals in your space

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a better way to find the right lawyer for your business.

â&#x20AC;Ś Understand what happened, talk to the CEOs (of their portfolio companies) and figure out how to network into those people â&#x20AC;Ś and ultimately youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll get to them,â&#x20AC;? said Schigel, who until last year managed

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t bring me the names of the top, most well-known venture funds, but dig in. Find out which partners have done which deals in your space â&#x20AC;Ś Understand what happened, talk to the CEOs (of their portfolio companies) and figure out how to network into those people â&#x20AC;Ś and ultimately youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll get to them.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Tim Schigel, founder of Cincinnati-based Refinery Ventures

Cintrifuseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investment fund, which invests in other venture funds.

Some coastal investors still donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand why a tech company would want to be based in Ohio, according to both Ostoich and Pam Springer, CEO of an online price monitoring company called ORIS Intelligence in Columbus. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were Midwest based, so clear-

ly we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the smartest engineers. We were told that a lot,â&#x20AC;? she said, citing her experience raising capital for another startup called Manta.

What does Robert Hatta think about that idea? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Of course thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total horseshit,â&#x20AC;? he said to laughs.

Hatta, a partner at Columbus-based Drive Capital who specializes in talent recruitment, argues that Silicon Valley startups are actually at a disadvantage when it comes to recruiting: They have to compete with the sky-high salaries and ridiculous perks offered by bigger companies, and the employees they do hire often donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stick around long.

But Hatta, who lived in Silicon Valley for about a decade, agreed with a few other speakers who noted that it can be hard for Midwest startups to convince coastal investors to take time out of their busy schedules to pay regular visits to companies in Ohio.

Frank said CoverMyMeds sidestepped that issue: Instead of trying to raise several consecutive rounds of capital, it raised a smaller amount early on from local investors and then pursued profitability.

It reached that goal. So when the company decided to raise more capital, it aimed for a larger dollar amount â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an amount large enough to convince a West Coast investment firm to occasionally fly to Ohio. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t apologize. No one ever asked us to move. No one ever questioned the quality of our engineers,â&#x20AC;? he said from the stage. He later told Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that other tech startups that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need huge amounts of capital to generate sustainable revenue should consider following a similar

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path, which also put CoverMyMeds in a better position when it decided to raise more capital.

Any other lessons entrepreneurs can learn from CoverMyMedsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; massive success?

Frank noted that its founders had industry experience and complementary skills: Sam Rajan, a pharmacist, previously served as head of clinical operations at a pharmacy benefits management firm called MemberHealth in Solon and had experienced the problem first hand. Alan Scantland, the original CEO, had experience helping MemberHealth through a period of extraordinary growth (it was eventually acquired for $630 million).

His son, Matt Scantland, the current CEO, previously ran a company that developed software for large health care businesses. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had people who came out of industry ... The depth of understanding of the market, the problem, was huge. This wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a bunch of guys that got together and thought about, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;What problem can I solve?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; They lived it,â&#x20AC;? Frank said.

CoverMyMeds is â&#x20AC;&#x153;dramatically building our teamâ&#x20AC;? in Highland Hills and recently leased some additional space at that office, but Frank said the company has had an easier time hiring in Columbus. He noted that Ohio State University has made a concerted effort to help CoverMyMeds hire fresh graduates.

The company plans to keep growing at a fast pace under its new owner.

It can happen, Frank said, noting that ExactTarget of Indianapolis has doubled in size since it was acquired by Salesforce.com for $2.5 billion in 2013. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no reason CoverMyMeds canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do that,â&#x20AC;? he said.

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Case giving entrepreneurs a hand, with help from MIT

By LYDIA COUTRÉ lcoutre@crain.com @LydiaCoutre

For entrepreneurs with promising ideas and technologies, Mark Chance wants to offer them support early in their journey toward the potential commercialization of their discoveries.

Really early. As in, pre-clinical trials, pre-company early.

And so Chance, vice dean for research at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, launched a program in March to mentor young entrepreneurs. The first two mentees in the Case Venture Mentoring Program both have day jobs, he said, and are looking to branch out and start a company around their technologies.

One is to repair spinal cord injuries; the other is an artificial platelet that could save people who have gunshot wounds.

“I’m trying to play very early at that vulnerable stage where I have good technologies in the university; we’ve got somebody in the lab who’s feeling entrepreneurial,” Chance said. “How do I get them support? I think this program could help me with that.”

It’s based off a successful model at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dubbed the MIT Venture Mentoring Service, which has mentored more than 2,500 participants since it was founded in 2000. Chance and his colleagues completed training at MIT to adopt the model.

Northeast Ohio has other entities supporting biotech companies, such as venture development organization JumpStart Inc. and BioEnterprise, a local nonprofit tasked with helping health care startups.

Chance said he wants to address a different piece of that ecosystem, and potentially hand off companies to the other organizations along the pipeline. The support comes completely free to students with no timeline, and the mentors all are volunteers.

Finding the mentors so far has been pretty easy, he said. Indeed, he has some on deck as he works to gradually ramp up the number of entrepreneurs. He plans to add a couple new mentees each quarter so the program is supporting eight to 10 ventures a year from now.

The program is set up with team mentoring, so an entrepreneur will

“If I have happy entrepreneurs and happy mentors, I think I can make this program go.”

— Mark Chance, vice dean for research, Case Western Reserve Univerity School of Medicine

meet with multiple mentors at once, rather than getting differing opinions and advice from each. And mentors are not allowed to invest in the entrepreneur’s technologies and ideas in order to create a “completely safe space” for the mentees to speak their minds and address concerns or roadblocks, Chance said.

In early March, the first round of mentors went through training and then began working with the two pilot mentees.

Leslie Dickson was eager to join.

The biologist by training is now president and CEO of VoicePRO, which helps business people to communicate more effectively. The mentoring program is an ideal combination of those skills. She worked in a biotech startup before beginning her work at VoicePRO more than two decades ago.

Mentoring these “young brilliant people” is a way for her to bring some of her science background back to the forefront, Dickson said. She said she hopes to offer perspective and ensure that the entrepreneurs are able to transfer their academic skills into a business.

“The processes are different; the pace can be different; the contacts could be different,” she said. “So whatever I can do to help bridge that transition for them is what I’m hoping to offer up.”

Ira Kaplan, executive chairman of Benesch law firm, has gotten to know Case through doing intellectual property and other work through CWRU’s Technology Transfer Office. That familiarity, plus a deep interest in technology and a background in business, made it “pretty easy to say yes” when approached with the opportunity to mentor, Kaplan said.

He said he brings experience in the

community, understanding of the capital markets and a career of creating a financeable vehicle for a concept.

“If you’ve been around a while, you’ve seen a lot of things. You’ve seen a lot of ways that people have succeeded, and you’ve seen a lot of things that can inhibit success if they’re done the wrong way,” Kaplan said. “I have enough history and background to bring some perspective that comes with time in the marketplace, I hope.”

As the program begins, Chance said he’s keeping a close eye on growth and the costs to administer the program. For now, the primary metrics will be whether the mentors and mentees are happy, which he said is the approach that MIT suggests.

“If I have happy entrepreneurs and happy mentors, I think I can make this program go,” Chance said.

Down the line, he hopes for the kind of success that MIT has seen.

Ventures with the MIT service have raised more than $1.44 billion in investments and grants. And the free service has assisted more than 1,450 ventures.

Mentor Jim Herget, independent executive search consultant, said the program will help people get a good start, which is crucial.

“Usually this person starting up might be an expert in their area of science, but if you know engineers and scientists and so forth, they’re not generally that well-versed in accounting — that’s not their world — or law,” said Herget, who is the husband of CWRU School of Medicine dean Dr. Pamela Davis. “But when you start these little companies, you’ve gotta have a good accountant and a good lawyer.”

Chance hopes to keep these talented, driven people in Cleveland as they fulfill their dreams. They’re passionate and eager for advice and opportunities to do something with their technology, he said.

“I feel like part of what I’ve been doing for the last 30-some years is to try, in my own small way, to create a community where it is more attractive for young professionals to look at Cleveland, and ones who know it to stick around,” said Kaplan, a native Clevelander. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress, and this is piece of that fabric.”

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PA G E 7

Incentives aren’t key driver in biz moves

By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh

“It’s a sign of the times.”

That’s the reaction of Richard Rebadow, executive vice president for economic development at the Greater Akron Chamber, to the decision of 7signal Solutions Inc. to leave its downtown Akron space for offices in Independence in Cuyahoga County.

The Akron Beacon Journal characterized it differently. “Cuyahoga County won. Akron and Summit County lost,” reporter Katie Byard wrote.

Those are two very different points of view on a relocation decision by a software development company whose 25 employees will still call Northeast Ohio home. The contrast demonstrates that while the world now sees a single Northeast Ohio economy, on the ground the parochial “us vs. them” mentality persists in places.

It’s a mentality that many civic leaders believe needs to change for the region to grow.

“The whole point is that it is a regional economy,” said Brad Whitehead, president of the Fund for Our Economic Future. “The most important thing is that we keep companies in the region. But in order to do that, we have to have a philosophy that recognizes we’re all on the same team.”

The 17-year-old Future Fund is a vehicle created by the region’s philanthropies to strengthen the region by knitting it together economically.

For most companies, the days are

long past when roots were deep and hometown loyalty was strong. Too many companies have passed from parent to sibling to private equity firms that install professional managers focused on the bottom line.

At the same time, some older communities are fully developed with little room for their existing businesses to expand. So when a company outgrows its home, site searches don’t end at the city limits.

As for 7signal, it opened a sales and network operations center in the Akron Global Business Accelerator with three employees in 2011, recruited to the Rubber City as part of its BioFinland Technology Bridge Program. It is owned by JumpStart Inc., the Cleveland venture development nonprofit, and three Midwest private equity firms.

Now, six years and a new CEO later, the company has outgrown that space and decided that it will move its 25 employees to Independence. It expects that number will grow to 60 over the next three years.

While Cuyahoga County and Independence offered a package of financial incentives that had more money in it than the Akron/Summit County offer — $600,000 vs. $425,000 — there is little reason to believe the dollars made the difference in business relocation decisions.

“7signal has been vocal about their desire to be located centrally between Cleveland and Akron,” said Ray Leach, Jumpstart’s CEO, in an email. “So in this case, I don’t think it’s just about the incentives. The market for (soft-

ware) developers is very competitive, so a centralized location that can easily pull from two cities has a lot of value for them right now.”

According to Dennis McAndrew, a principal of Cleveland-based Silverlode Consulting, a site selection firm, cities in Northeast Ohio aren’t instigating bidding wars with neighboring communities.

“In my experience, and I’ve been doing this for 20 years, I’ve never

“The market for (software) developers is very competitive, so a centralized location that can easily pull from two cities has a lot of value for them right now.”

— Ray Leach, Jumpstart CEO, on 7signal

seen any instance of poaching, where one community proactively pursues a company in another community,” McAndrew said. “Most of the time the incentives (communities offer) are a minor consideration.”

That observation is backed up by research. The Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, a Kalamazoo, Mich.-based think tank, recently reported that while financial incentives have tripled since 1990 to $45 billion annually, that new money hasn’t given financial incentives greater punch.

“The existing research on incentives is that in some cases they can

affect business location decisions, but that in many cases they are excessively costly and may not have the promised effects,” wrote Upjohn researcher Timothy Bartik. “The new research suggests that much of this consensus is justified.”

Rather, business owners are more concerned that their moves ensure the future growth of their business.

“I believe that business leadership of all shapes and sizes contemplates changes driven by, ‘Where is it best for me to operate; where can I be most successful; where can I generate the most profit; and certainly how can I get talent?’ ” said Deb Janik, senior vice president at the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

“If you have a business that is growing and your space cannot accommodate your growth, you have to look,” Janik said.

Northeast Ohio’s civic leaders are looking for ways to ease the impact of these intra-regional moves.

“Other areas of the country have tools like regional revenue sharing and the like — that’s the holy grail of cooperation,” Whitehead said.

In the Minneapolis region, for example, communities contribute 40% of the annual growth in commercial and industrial tax revenues into a pool that helps communities within the region that are struggling.

Northeast Ohio is not ready for that, Whitehead conceded, but organizations like his are beginning to look for solutions that help all parties — everything from making it easier for talent to get to jobs to better coordination across

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the region of available sites.

Of course, not all moves need to viewed as wins or losses.

For example, in September, MarBal Inc., a Geauga County thermoset polymer maker, announced it had outgrown a manufacturing plant in Auburn Township and would be moving to an empty plant in Painesville.

Catherine Bieterman, Painesville’s economic development director, said that Mar-Bal had come to Painesville officials nearly four years ago to look at a building that was vacated when Core Systems LLC, an injection molder, closed up shop in 2013. She said the company was expecting eventually to expand and was looking at both building new and the less-expensive option of finding a suitable existing building. This year, it chose the Core Systems building in Painesville.

JobsOhio, the statewide economic development nonprofit, is providing a $500,000 revitalization grant to help Mar-Bal adapt the building to its needs.

Painesville, Bieterman said, has given Mar-Bal the option on an adjacent piece of land the city owns and the prospect of property tax abatement on that land should Mar-Bal buy it and build on it.

While Geauga County is losing a bit of its tax base, Mar-Bal will retain some operations there.

Tracy Jemison, executive director of the Geauga Growth Partnership, understands why Mar-Bal is taking some of its operations to Painesville. He told Crain’s that the move was a good business decision by Mar-Bal, and that he’s confident the building Mar-Bal is leaving will be filled quickly.

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PA G E 8

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INGRAHAM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“It is so fast-paced that it can take you away,” he said. “If you don’t take control of it, it will take control of you.

And that’s when you lose your job. I understand I can’t cook everything.

I’m only as good as my team.”

Ingraham, technically an employee of Delaware North, the Tribe’s concessionaire, is a fast-talking and passionate guy — not only about the food he serves, but the health and wellbeing of his staff. The self-described fitness guru, who joined the Tribe in 2015, often is working out in the Progressive Field clubhouse by 7 a.m., regularly joined by members of his staff. (He helped one of his chefs lose 80 pounds.) He launched a club, ChefsNshape, with the goal of bringing chefs together to help their communities. He even wrote a children’s book about healthy eating called Bunny Muffins and is in the running to land on the cover of Men’s Health as part of its “Ultimate Guy” contest (he finished in the top 10 a few years back).

As for his day job, he’s not just about slinging hot dogs.

Ingraham is responsible for overseeing the entire dining experience at Progressive Field — from concocting creative dishes like the candied short rib apple he debuted during the 2016 postseason to working with acclaimed chefs like Dante Boccuzzi and Eric Williams to translate their concepts into the ballpark environment.

But most importantly he’s a teacher — or, if we’re talking sports, a coach.

During the offseason, Ingraham developed an in-house training program dubbed the Food Intelligence Team, or FIT, aimed at developing

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

culinary expertise in-house. Two of Ingraham’s culinarians honed skills — from how to julienne a carrot to how to properly cut a pineapple — to earn a certification. And when those individuals move on to the second level of certification, they’ll have to train someone seeking that first level — “a little ponzi scheme,” he added, with a laugh.

In the end, he wants Progressive Field to be a destination for talented cooks who in the offseason will be welcomed at The Q and FirstEnergy Stadium because of the high standards in place at Progressive Field.

“The talent pool is different in Cleveland,” said Ingraham, a New England

Ingraham penned a children’s book about how Bunny Muffins and friends saved the day with carrot muffins. (Contributed photo)

native, who before coming to Cleveland worked as the executive chef for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and before that the luxury suites chef for the TD Garden in Boston.

“I came from Boston, where we had some pretty good cooking schools close by. I had a lot to pull from. Here, there are a lot of hard workers, but it’s on me to train them,” he said.

That sort of entrepreneurial thinking is what the Indians were looking for, said Kurt Schloss, the Indians’ vice president of concessions.

“Chef Josh has done an outstanding job, but not just with what he brings to the table, but what his team can do,” Schloss said. “He’s creating a pathway for our young cooks to see a future in this business. We want the next Delaware North chef to come out of this building. He’s constantly working to how we can make that happen.”

Ingraham tries to position himself as much more than a chef. In many ways, he’s trying to redefine how people view chefs, particularly those in ballparks — they’re not all angry, out of shape, constantly inhaling chicken tenders over the trash can. Of course, typical concession fare will still have its place in the stadium (somehow Ingraham admitted to abstaining from hot dogs until July last season), but he said he wants to bring a fresh approach to food at the ballpark, particularly by focusing on ingredients sourced within a 50-mile radius.

Going forward, he envisions a complete redo of the Terrace Club — the club’s a la carte restaurant open to the public — into something that could rival any of Cleveland’s top eateries. Also, he’s not one for gimmicks (though the candied short rib apple, Ingraham insists, was delicious).

“The biggest challenge is ‘What’s next?’ What can we do next to positively influence our surroundings?,” Ingraham said. As for last year — his first season with the team — he said, “It was tough. It never wanted to end.

I’ve done football, hockey and basketball. Nothing is like baseball or working the World Series.”

Last year’s success on the field and sudden surge in attendance late in

“I’ll go from Happy Dog to Momocho to Barrio just to make sure things are coming out how they’re supposed to look. Quality control is huge, and you can only get better.”

Josh Ingraham

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Ingraham is an award-winning chef, and he hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let the complexities of working in a big-league ballpark hold him back from trying new foods.

(Contributed photo)

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the season was a challenge for Ingraham and his staff. For one, the clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deep playoff run siphoned about a month from the offseason, when much of the prep work and hiring takes place.

Moreover, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be tasked with refining the Indiansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; already-complex concession offerings because of the expected influx of fans. Through late March, for one, the Indians sold 1.3 million tickets â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a number the club didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reach until July 22 last year. As such, the Indians arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t getting terribly adventurous with new food offerings this year. Ohio Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Market Garden Brewery, though, will be the 13th local restaurant to serve its fare in the ballpark, joining Melt Bar and Grilled, Barrio, Great Lakes Brewing Co. and others. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We need to get better at getting people food quicker,â&#x20AC;? Ingraham said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll go from Happy Dog to Momocho to Barrio just to make sure things are coming out how theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re supposed to look. Quality control is huge, and you can only get better.â&#x20AC;?

Progressive Field was one of the early adopters when it came to bringing local fare into the park, which is certainly a challenging endeavor. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ingrahamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s job to work with these local chefs and help them translate certain recipes to the high-volume and fast-paced ballpark settings. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re around people like Josh, they make you better,â&#x20AC;? Momochoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eric Williams said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That sense of drive, pride in your job, responsibility, accountability. You want to be around those people. People like Josh make you better at your job. The first time I met him, I got that feeling immediately.â&#x20AC;?

Williams added, â&#x20AC;&#x153;To be able to do what he does on a daily basis with all those employees, recipes, food, his family on that big of a stage is amazing. This isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the food court at the mall. This is the World Series runner-up Cleveland Indians, where the expectations are pretty high.â&#x20AC;?

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TAX LIENS The Internal Revenue Service filed tax liens against the following businesses in the Cuyahoga County Recorderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office. Liens reported here are $5,000 and higher. Dates listed are the dates the documents were filed in the Recorderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office.

LIENS FILED Biskind Contract Cleaning LLC 6777 Engle Road, Suite 1, Cleveland Date filed: Feb. 9, 2017 Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding Amount: $331,002 A Childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s View Inc. 24161 Lorain Road, North Olmsted Date filed: Feb. 9, 2017 Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding, unemployment, corporate income Amount: $165,325 R&R Mechanical Inc. 3519 E. 75th St., Cleveland Date filed: Feb. 9, 2017 Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding, unemployment Amount: $119,157 Security Management Group Inc. 3740 Euclid Ave., Cleveland Date filed: Feb. 9, 2017

Date filed: Feb. 9, 2017 Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding Amount: $11,512 Mic Ray Metal Products Inc. 9016 Manor Ave., Cleveland Date filed: Feb. 9, 2017 Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding, unemployment Amount: $10,129 A&J Engineering LLC (Arrow Metal Forming) 8219 Almira Ave., Unit E, Cleveland Date filed: Feb. 9, 2017 Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding, unemployment Amount: $6,048

LIENS RELEASED Ralph Siegenthaler 5584 Mayfield Road, Lyndhurst Date filed: Nov. 3, 2011 Date released: Feb. 9, 2017 Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding Amount: $10,174 Network Providers Associates PC 6200 Oak Tree Blvd., Suite 200, Independence Date filed: July 21, 2016

Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding, unemployment

Date released: Feb. 9, 2017

Amount: $47,538

Amount: $83,954

Heart Home Care LLC 26250 Euclid Ave., Euclid Date filed: Feb. 9, 2017

Type: CIVP China Cat Holdings Inc. 3299 Norwood Road, Shaker Heights Date filed: Aug. 21, 2009

Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding

Date released: Feb. 9, 2017

Amount: $19,516

Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding

A Bar & Kitchen LLC 850 Euclid Ave., Suite 110, Cleveland Date filed: Feb. 9, 2017 Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding Amount: $17,649

Amount: $30,361 Prime IT Services Inc. 222 E. Washington St., Chagrin Falls Date filed: Sept. 13, 2016 Date released: Feb. 9, 2017

Blue Star Partners LLC 28020 Miles Road, Solon

Type: Employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s withholding Amount: $12,819

Always thinking of new ways to improve operations?

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PA G E 10

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Opinion From the Editor

Readers suggest clever methods to shed the rust

Editorial

Rally together For almost a decade, the Cleveland Indians’ lackluster attendance has been a story that just wouldn’t die. Over the years, Tribe brass talked at length about improving the so-called fan experience — new food offerings, giveaways, renovations, cheap seats and a mega-scoreboard — to lure more fans through the gates. Unsurprisingly, the team’s on-field performance was the X-factor.

The Tribe has done its part — both on the field and on the business side — so, Cleveland, let’s step up to the plate and fill Progressive Field through (hopefully) October.

Jason Kipnis, the Tribe’s second baseman, perhaps said it best in a piece in The Players Tribune.

“If we do what I think we can do this season, it will be all the more sweet to look back on and tell your grandkids about if you were a part of this thing from Day One,” Kipnis wrote. “Because when it happens, and it will happen one day, I don’t want to say the Indians did it. I want to say Cleveland did.”

Thus far, the Tribe’s electrifying 2016 campaign has already been a boon for business in 2017. Toward the end of March, season-ticket accounts were up 140% year-over-year (to 8,000), as Crain’s Kevin Kleps recently reported. Plus, the Tribe had sold 1.3 million tickets — a number the team didn’t reach until July 22 last year.

That, of course, is great news. But Cleveland — a city that put all business to a grinding halt during the Cavaliers’ championship parade and curiously filled FirstEnergy Stadium during much of the Browns’ seemingly endless display of ineptitude — can still do more.

There’s something romantic about baseball. Each year — no matter the Indians’ prospects — the home opener still feels like a holiday in downtown Cleveland. The streets (and bars, of course) are filled with revelers. It’s not unusual to see folks at high-brow establishments, like Blue Point Grille or even the Union Club, donning Tribe jerseys.

Often, it didn’t take long for that enthusiasm to wane. This Tuesday, April 11, when the Indians’ fill Progressive Field for

the first time in 2017, the atmosphere will be noticeably different. After falling a game short of glory last year, there’s unfinished business. And it’s not just up to Terry Francona’s roster, but all of Cleveland.

Get it done

Proponents for restoring the commercial docket in Cuyahoga County got a dose of good news recently from the Ohio Supreme Court, and we’re hopeful local judges will be receptive to bringing back what was essentially a separate — and successful — court for complex business-related cases and disputes.

A group of Cleveland attorneys has been lobbying the state for the changes after Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judges disbanded their commercial docket in 2015 following the high court’s rejection of Judge Cassandra Collier-Williams, whom it deemed unqualified, from the docket at the time.

In short, there was a disagreement over who gets to preside over the court.

As Crain’s recently reported, the Ohio Supreme Court recently amended rules to how the docket would operate — notably, clarifying the qualification and appointment process for its judges.

Previously, a common pleas court had to ask Ohio’s chief justice to affirm local judges to a commercial docket. Under the new rules, docket judges would be approved by a majority vote of judges in the general division of the local court.

At this point, we’re hopeful the high court’s tweaks to the rules — and providing clarity over local control — are enough to satisfy Judge John Russo’s court.

But at this point, the drama has dragged on far too long and it’s time to position Cuyahoga County — once again — as a good place to do business. After all, removing every little bit of red tape helps.

Publisher and Editor: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Managing Editor:

Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)

Sections Editor:

Timothy Magaw (tmagaw@crain.com)

Contact Crain’s:

216-522-1383

I asked recently for your thoughts on alternatives to the term “Rust Belt” to describe our region. In my view, it’s time to throw “Rust Belt” on the scrap heap, shake its negative connotations, and embrace something that better reflects where we are and where we are going.

Boy did you respond.

Your ideas, via email, social media, online comments and face-to-face conversations, were smart, insightful and, in some cases, downright funny. In the latter category, there were a few “Sansa” Belts (a nice place to retire!) and even its first cousin: Need a Bigger Belt. (Not bad as our worldclass culinary scene continues to flourish.)

There also was a slightly defensive “Region That’s a Bit Sensitive About Being Called Rust Elizabeth Belt.” (To which I have to say, if the belt fits …)

McIntyre Some of you advocated going beltless: “Heartland,” “Breadbasket” and “Heart of America.”

There was “Reversible Belt,” which would keep us in fashion for both of our seasons. And “Have Another Belt,” which presumably indicates a celebratory toast, not drowning our sorrows, now that we have an NBA championship under our belt.

A fair number of you embraced the rejuvenation narrative for the region that includes Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Milwaukee and Chicago: Bounce Back Belt, Rebirth Belt, Comeback Belt. Others were aspirational: Trust Belt. Land of Pleasant Living. Northern Enterprise Zone.

Reader Dan Yurman pointed out that shaking bad branding like the Rust Belt is difficult because it’s organic and entrenched.

He recounted the moniker that has haunted his college alma mater, Fairleigh Dickinson in New Jersey, since the 1940s: “Fairly Ridiculous.”

“Although the college has since thrived and continues to grow, it has never really outlived its bad nickname,” he wrote. “… Cleveland needs to come up with a brand name that makes people proud to associate themselves with it. … A good brand has to associate with a feel-good response.”

That sentiment was echoed by another reader, who wrote: “Perhaps we could look forward and ask, ‘What can we do better than anyone else in this country? What have we got that no one else does?’ … I think what we’ve got that the whole world wants is fresh water. Just because we haven’t figured out how to monetize it doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”

Several readers agreed that embracing our most visible natural resource was the way to go: Water Belt. North Coast. Freshwater Belt.

One advocated for acknowledging the obvious by simply calling the region The Great Lakes Belt.

“It fits the credible and distinctive test. Emotional? Maybe a little, as the water thing appeals to lots of people. Original? Not at all, but that is also why it is credible and it fits our Great Lakes (and NE Ohio) regional personality … genuineness,” he wrote.

“Any name for the area that is ‘too’ original and not genuine does not fit us. … Why can’t we simply start calling ourselves the Great Lakes Belt, with pride.”

Annette Ballou, vice president of strategic marketing and communications at BioEnterprise, suggested positioning Cleveland as the Medical Capital of an Innovation Belt, or the Knowledge Belt.

Regardless of the name we use, the message from our readers is clear: We are not rusting away like scrap in a junkyard. We are resilient and smart. We’re a medical Mecca. We have hope for our future and pride in our place in the nation. And we benefit from the largest group of freshwater lakes in the United States.

And, finally, we’re no longer always seeing the glass as half empty.

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 letters@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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PA G E 11

HOW BAD IS THAT LEAK?

Web Talk Re: FirstEnergy and zero-emission credits

Re: Indians and ticket brokers

Intermittent renewables are a fiasco in terms of CO2 reduction ... because cost-effective batteries do not exist and it is necessary fossil fuels to keep lights on when wind is not blowing or sun is not shinning. Wind and solar are just a high-cost mystical placebo backed up by fossil fuels. ...

Carbon-free nuclear power is the only proven way for fast and safe decarbonization of modern grids, as in France and Sweden. — Tim S.

They have to blame someone for fake tickets, fake sellouts. Let me think of an easy target. Oh, yes, blame the brokers. I've been an Indians season ticket holder for 20 years — two seats. Every five years they look a for a new scapegoat. This year it's the brokers. — Tad

We have no public interest in supporting carbon credits to aging resources, even if they are carbon-free, if the same money can produce more carbon reductions from new resources. It would take about two years to replace the FirstEnergy nukes if the money they are seeking were spent on efficiency instead, and we ought to reward them for doing that because it would save the customers billions of dollars in the long run. Ohio is building over 4,000 MW's of new natural gas and Pa. is building 10,000 MW's of new natural gas. Both states have a glut of underutilized coal plants which are not economic to operate, but which provide insurance of stability while we do what we ought to, which is to build as much wind and solar and conduct as much efficiency as we can, provided it remains cheaper than fossil power. — nedford Davis-Besse and all other nuclear plants emit huge quantities of waste heat, plus radioactive contamination. Why not take the money and build giga-plants for solar panels? They employ far more people and produce clean, cheap energy that will last for many decades. — 1solartopia1

Is a big part of the reason for pulling back on brokers due to what happened during the World Series? I wasn't able to get tickets through normal channels, and the broker prices were way out of my price range. With that said, Games 6 and 7 were embarrassing. It was clear the the crowd was pretty much 50/50. For a city and a fan base that claims to be championship starved and some of the best in any sport (which I'm part of), it was a sad sight. Any way you looked at it, we looked terrible on an international stage.

Maybe I'm naive, but I can't imagine that happening in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee.

Anyway, Go Tribe! — eriefan

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Re: A special bond Having read the interview with Dan Gilbert by Crain's Detroit Business editor and publisher Ron Fournier, I have a profound respect for both men — as sons, as a father, and embracing what matters most.

Courage, commitment, and engagement on all levels, the Gilberts live and share the true values of life. They get that each one of us has one ticket on this planet, that every day is a gift, and that we choose our own paths to take us where we become the best of what we are. — Cary Mathews

Rocky River is hot spot for 2016’s biggest home sales

By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com @ChuckSoder

No, Rocky River did not appear in the print version of the Wealthiest Suburbs list that we published last September.

But it's well represented on this week’s list: Largest 2016 Residential Sales.

A total of six Rocky River homes appear in the print version of the list, including the most expensive home sold in 2016: 22222 Lake Road. Geoffrey and Melissa Panteck bought the lakeside home for $2.95 million.

If you’ve ever bought a car from Brunswick Auto Mart, you in some small way helped finance the new home: Geoff Panteck is one of the founders of Brunswick Auto Mart, the largest single dealership in Northeast Ohio.

Overall, however, this year’s list isn’t quite as glamorous as the last home sales list we published two years ago. The most expensive home sold in 2014 went for $6.5 million. And when you look at the full version of the list (which includes all homes sold for more than $1 million), the 2016 total was

$57.6 million. That’s down 11% from the 2014 total of $65 million. But don’t get too worried about the local housing market: Overall home sales actually increased in both 2015 and 2016, according to the Northern Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service.

The list includes home sales in Cuyahoga County and the six surrounding counties, but it’s dominated by Cuyahoga. Only 12 of the 37 homes in the print version of the list are in the other counties.

A few prominent executives who

To see the list: Find the residential sales list on Page 18

recently left town sold their homes in August 2016: Former Cleveland Indians president and current Toronto Blue Jays CEO Mark Shapiro sold his Bentleyville home for $1.27 million, just enough to make the print version of the list. The former CEO of GE Lighting shows up at No. 8: Maryrose Slyvester and her husband Michael sold their Moreland Hills home for $1.73 million nearly a year after she was named CEO of a Boston-based GE unit called Current.

You’ll see members of the Lucarelli family, which runs Minute Men Staffing, in the seller column at No. 11 and tied for No. 12 (but they still live in Northeast Ohio).

There are some prominent buyers on the list, too. Conor and Clare Delaney show up at No. 18. Conor Delaney is head of the Cleveland Clinic’s Digestive Disease Institute.

Sam and Mary Rajan should be able to afford the $1.28 million Hudson home that’s tied for 33rd on the list: He’s co-founder of CoverMyMeds, a medical technology company that was just sold for $1 billion.

And let’s not forget C. Lourenco Goncalves: The CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources is on the digital version of the list at No. 43.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

The Dish: Susan Condon Love

Saturation isn’t a worry for Ohio City restaurateurs Ohio City, to paraphrase a quote about Silicon Valley, “is a mindset, not a location.”

This spring, those words resonate with particular meaning. Within a few months, at least seven restaurants are opening, and several already established dining spots are planning changes to their menus.

According to Ohio City Inc., restaurants set to open this spring and summer include Forest City Shuffle, 4506 Lorain Ave. (mid- to late April); Xinji Noodle Bar, 4211 Lorain Ave. (May); Saucy Brew Works, 2885 Detroit Ave. (late spring); Bad Tom Smith Brewing, 1836 W. 25th St. (early April); Citizen Pie, 2144 W. 25th St. (summer); Bakersfield Taco, 2058 W. 25th St. (early April); and Jo Jo Carloni’s, 1526 W. 25th St. (spring or early summer).

Some of the restaurants with plans afoot (or recently implemented) include the Plum Cafe & Kitchen, 4133 Lorain Ave., now featuring an Asian a la carte menu and communal seating; the Jukebox, 1404 W. 29th St., launching a new menu soon; and Mason’s Creamery, 4401 Bridge Ave., now doing ramen soup bowl popups.

Plus, Boaz Cafe, 2549 Lorain Ave., from the owners of Aladdin’s, just opened with an organic-focused menu.

Of the restaurants soon coming to the area, only Bad Tom Smith Brewing is taking over space where a restaurant had once been housed (the old Weenie a Go Go). Bakersfield is going into what used to a nightclub. The rest were vacant buildings.

With this flurry of activity, continuing a decade of growth in the historic Cleveland neighborhood, the question arises: Is too much

Susan Condon Love is a freelance writer covering the restaurant scene in Northeast Ohio.

happening in an already area home to some 250 business and 9,000 residents?

Vibrancy to a saturation point, it seems, is a complicated question.

“Is there a saturation point? Yes, absolutely,” said Michael Huff, dean of Hospitality Management at Cuyahoga Community College. “It all has to do with supply and demand.

It’s a function of not just the number of residents, but also how much disposable income they have, what their interests are, and the willingness of other individuals to go there.”

The quality of the entertainment value of the Ohio City area is the draw, he said.

“If there was a single restaurant in Ohio City that was extraordinary, but isolated and didn’t have much around it, I would be less inclined to go there,” he said. “(But) Ohio City offers a great vibe. There’s an energy. That 15-minute walk (to and from your car) is entertainment in itself.”

The West Side Market is responsible for 1.8 million visitors to the area annually, 10,000 alone on Saturdays, according to Ohio City Inc. Owners of some of the new establishments aren’t worried about saturation.

“I have been working in Ohio City and Tremont over seven years now (at Momocho, Ginko and Dante). I understand the guest that’s dining in

The West Side Market draws 1.8 million visitors to Ohio City annually, which means potential diners for neighborhood restaurants. (Ohio City Inc.)

the area,” said Xinji Noodle Bar owner Shuxin Liu. Liu said the burst of restaurant activity is welcomed.

“Ohio City has a lot to offer,” he said.

“I personally enjoy the night life. Ohio City feels alive day and night. You don’t see that in other cities. ... The more new restaurants the better, as long as they really care about what they put out. I don’t believe one (restaurant) can stand by itself.”

Claudia Young, co-owner of Citizen Pie, which specializes in pizza and is expected to open in July, was drawn to Ohio City because of its vibrancy.

“Like our first location’s neighborhood, North Collinwood, Ohio City has a lot of heart and we are very

proud to become a part of all that’s happening there,” she said.

She added that she is not worried about the area becoming saturated with restaurants.

“What we do is very specific. If you want ‘a slice,’ then we are not your pizza shop.”

James Miketo is co-owner of Forest City Shuffle. The business will offer food via vendors leasing the on-location kitchen, but the emphasis will be on shuffleboard.

“The selection of Ohio City was a strategic choice. Our location is a perfect location between both Gordon Square and Ohio City,” he said, adding that he has no worries about saturation. “The market is open to fresh ideas. There’s an influx of new

population who go out a lot. We’re talking all ages.”

According to Ohio City Inc., 17 new businesses opened in Ohio City in 2016. The breakdown was as follows: 35% food and drink, 29% services, 24% retail, and 12% entertainment.

“When you look at the breakdown, the types of business that opened last year are actually pretty diverse,” said Ashley Shaw, Ohio City Inc.’s economic development and planning manager.

There’s another factor in restaurateurs’ faith that healthy growth can be sustained. In 2013, Ohio City Inc. conducted a housing study that showed “immediate demand” for more than 1,800 units of new housing.

“Since we conducted the housing study, there have been more than 200 units of for-sale and rental housing completed, and over 1,000 more units under construction or development, resulting in an investment of nearly $300 million,” Shaw said.

Huff of Tri-C said that good restaurateurs generally use their instincts and are “intimately aware of the demands” of an area.

In markets such as New York City and Chicago, there is such a concentration of demand that well-run restaurants are constantly reinventing themselves to remain in business, he said.

“In cities like Cleveland, there will be areas that take care of themselves with organizations such as Ohio City Inc. that extend the life cycle as long as they possibly can,” Huff said.

The smart owners, he said, know instinctively how business is going and are always planning ahead.

“The slowest antelope in the herd gets taken down by the lion,” he said.

“The world is very Darwinian.”

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PA G E 13

Focus

OFF THE CLOCK

Love (and talent) is all you need Mike Muratore (as John), Patrick Gannon (as Ringo), Frank Muratore (as Paul) and John Auker (as George) make up the local Beatles tribute Hard Day’s Night. (Contributed photos)

For these Northeast Ohio rock ‘n’ roll dreamers, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

E

By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler

verybody wants to be a rock star.

But some people have a particular rock star in mind.

After all, why be just any singer when you can be Neil Diamond? Why be any rock and roll bandleader when you can be The Boss? Or pick your favorite hair band shredder, if that’s your thing and you’ve got the chops. It’s like your parents always told you: Be somebody.

Such are the thoughts that drive men — and the affliction does seem to be fairly gender-specific — to spend hours upon hours, until they’ve amassed years of practicing not only the beats, notes and chords of their favorite pop musicians, but often even their costumes, mannerisms and facial expressions. Sometimes even in Spandex, or wool.

If you think it’s easy work, enjoy your lemonade and think again.

“When it’s 90 degrees on stage, and you’re wearing a wig and a suit — it’s pretty tough sometimes,” said Frank Muratore, better known to fans as Paul in the local Beatles tribute band Hard Day’s Night.

Not only that, Muratore had to learn to play the bass left handed. He was already an accomplished right-handed bass player, but Paul McCartney was not — so Muratore spent more years perfecting his playing the other way ‘round.

“People noticed,” he said.

Hard Day’s Night’s show spans the Fab Four’s entire catalog.

Not surprisingly, “Why?” is a question guys like Muratore get a lot. And ask anyone who’s been in a tribute act for any length of time and you’ll find a common theme among their answers to that question.

Howard Micenmacher might sum it up pretty plainly: “Honestly, just because of my pure love and obsession for Bruce Springsteen,” he said, looking a little like Bruce even off stage at a Solon coffee shop.

Not that money is not part of the equation, of course. And, if you’re wondering, booking a decent tribute band will probably set you back $2,000 to $3,000 — depending on the size of the band, how much equipment they have to haul and how far they have to haul it. Some rules of rock ‘n’ roll never change.

Also depending on the band, the money might be something that’s merely a necessity, or a big reason for putting the act together in the first place.

Most tribute band members have day jobs. Micenmacher will be happy to sell you a Subaru or Volkswagen at a Ganley dealership, for example, and Gary Gomez — the man who puts the Neil in the local Diamond Project ensemble — drives a truck when he’s not belting out “Sweet Caroline” or some other standard of an AM-Radio childhood, said his manager and bandmate Tim Richissin.

But few can afford or want to finance their acts out of their day-job pockets. And putting on some of these shows is not cheap.

SEE BANDS, PAGE 16

PA G E 14

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

OFF THE CLOCK

Camaraderie drives local Civil War re-enactors

By MICHELLE PARK LAZETTE

re-enactor must buy ammunition pouches, the rifle (the biggest buy), canteens, and more.

clbfreelance@crain.com

It’s morning and first call, so the men are stirring, getting up out of their canvas tents. First Sgt. Jeffrey A. Smith wears light blue wool trousers and his military-issue cotton domet shirt. It’s so rough, so cheap, that it still has sticks and stems in it. He can smell bacon and the wood smoke of campfires.

It’s hard to know what’s a’coming today. This is civil war.

It took Smith nine months to amass his gear, and his first event was a Gettysburg re-enactment. He ended up borrowing a rifle because he didn’t have one yet. Smith, a retired JCPenney shipping and receiving manager, never served in the military.

“I felt like I could imagine what it would have been like if I was one of those (Civil War) volunteers off a farm or out of a dry goods store, not knowing anything about military stuff at all,” he said. “Here I was, marching elbow to elbow with another 30 guys.

Then, I was lying on the ground, a Confederate soldier taking my boots off. I had a moment where you actually feel you’re living in 1863. The whole weekend went that way for me.”

Smith, 64, is one of about a dozen active members of Company B of the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, centered in Northeast Ohio. It’s part of an umbrella organization of re-enacting units called the National Regiment.

The 8th Ohio is the farthest west; others are based along the East Coast, in-

A typical encampment pictured at the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia.

cluding in New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland. Major events bring the Regiment’s re-enactors together.

The majority of soldiers who fought in the Civil War were volunteers.

There truly was a Company B made up of men from an Irish social club in Cleveland, said Smith, a Berea resident who has re-enacted since 1992.

The greatest expense of Civil War re-enactment is the uniforms and equipment, Smith said. All of it must be period-correct. Sutlers sell what one needs in a variety of qualities: “Anything from cheap, poorly made stuff to top-of-the-line, overly priced stuff,” Smith laughs.

In addition to one’s uniform, a

First Sgt. Smith can hear the clanging and banging of equipment as other companies also get ready. Ordinarily, the men start with a roll call, lest they find themselves unaware that a man isn’t where he’s supposed to be.

Smith assigns duties: Some must gather firewood, others draw water to ensure each man’s canteen is filled. He reckons that at any moment, they could be required to fall in and march to battle. It’s July 1863.

As first sergeant, Smith’s primary duty is to take care of his men. He’s apprehensive as to whether he can perform those duties to the standards expected.

Smith’s interest in the Civil War dates back to his childhood. When his family would go on vacation near a Civil War battlefield, he was a glad tourist. It was at a re-enactment at Hale Farm when he met 8th Ohio men.

Twenty-five years later, it’s the camaraderie that keeps him enlisted.

“The whole thing about band of brothers, it holds very true even in non-combat situations,” he said.

Thomas M. F. Downes agrees. He has marched as a Civil War re-enactor for 37 years. As Colonel Downes, he heads the National Regiment, militarily.

“Other than my wife, I’ve had relationships with my re-enactors longer than anyone in my life,” he said. “After 37 years, you’ve pretty much done everything you’re going to do. It’s the

UPCOMING EDITORIAL FEATURE

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The original Battle of Cedar Creek took place on Oct. 19, 1864. This re-enactment took place in October of 2014. (Photos by Jeff Smith)

experience of shared misery and shared camaraderie” that keeps you involved.

eventually forego dialogue. In its absence, one can hear the birds and the clank of equipment.

Colonel Downes has marched alongside the men he leads in pouring rain. In snow. In the heat.

Any march begins with chit-chat.

But, increasingly tired from carrying their gear and sweating in their wool uniforms, the men of Company B

It’s when Downes, a lifelong Cleveland resident and a machinist for Triangle Machine Products in Valley View, is marching somewhere with his re-enactor comrades that he feels closest to the Civil War soldier.

“In battle re-enactments, no one’s

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PA G E 15

OFF THE CLOCK

The sun sets over the Federal camp situated on the battlefield at one of the re-enactment sites in Middletown, Va.

how their legs hurt. Their backs hurt.

Their shoulders hurt. They tire, too, of the sweat running down into their eyes.

getting killed; we can’t reproduce the mortal terror, so we’re not really getting the deep pit of the stomach feel, and we don’t want to,” Downes said.

“But on a march, that’s what they did more of than anything else. That hasn’t changed in 150 years. Dirt roads are dirt roads. Heat and humidity are heat and humidity. So we experience what they experienced. We are literally walking in their footsteps.”

The soldiers taste sweat and dust. If they’re thinking about anything, it’s

“It gets to the point where your focus is putting one foot in front of the other and wondering when you’re going to stop,” said Downes, 67.

Downes’ first books were Civil War books. Re-enacting offered the chance to feel what soldiers felt and to understand what kept them going.

It was a very eye-to-eye war, Downes explained. What motivated the men to stand up and walk across a mile of open ground into the face of canon and musketry fire?

“That’s why I initially got into it,” Downes said. “The more I did it, the less I understood it. The soldiers were young kids.”

The same can’t be said for many of today’s re-enactors, though, Smith said.

“The average age of the Civil War soldier was 25,” he said. “When you’ve got guys in their 40s, 50s, and

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60s, it doesn’t look quite as authentic as it should. That’s why I started the Facebook page and the website. In general, the interest is down with young people. We are constantly recruiting, and it’s difficult.”

It’s one reason the 8th Ohio is appearing at more local events this year including one in Burton, another in Zoar Village, and a living history event at the President James A. Garfield home in Mentor. Some events are full-scale re-enactments involving 15,000 or so re-enactors, others, small talks to the public.

Usually, re-enacted battles are scripted, Downes said, requiring plans for not only getting from point A to point B, but improvising when something goes awry. It all requires every soldier’s cooperation: “We’re make-believe soldiers,” he said. “I as colonel have no authority over the guys I command. I get to play colonel because they’re playing enlisted men. If I give somebody an order, and he doesn’t follow, game over.”

Interest in Civil War re-enactment has exploded at times, as when Ted Turner’s 1993 film, “Gettysburg,” and Ken Burns’ 1990 mini-series, “The Civil War,” were released, and when anniversaries of the war and its battles have been observed.

Lately, “there’s been a slow and steady decline in the numbers,” Downes said. “Now we’re probably back to where we were in the early 1980s. It used to be nothing to have 6,000 to 8,000 re-enactors turning out to the events. Now, we’re hardpressed to get 4,000 to 5,000.”

Downes asserts that kids today are less interested in the hobby and also points to the increased price of the uniforms and equipment (it can now run a hobbyist $1,000 and more) and the changed tone of the nation toward military and weaponry. (The 8th Ohio does have extra equipment that those interested in the hobby may use before they decide to make the investment.)

Meanwhile, so-called living history events are increasing at the nation’s 417 parks, many of which have connections to the Civil War, according to Victoria Stauffenberg, park ranger and writer and editor for the National Park Service. More than 50 of those parks have had regular Civil War living historians and special events, she said.

“Civil War is what people tend to think about, but it (living history) is expanding well beyond that,” she said. “At the National Park Service, we’ve been increasing our programs, thinking of new ways to reach people. In general, I’ve seen different time periods be reflected through living historians.”

Those living historians are park rangers themselves, groups that come in for specific events, and volunteers to the park sites, Stauffenberg said.

She once donned a hoop skirt herself.

“We’re set aside specifically to connect people to the nation’s history,” she said of the National Park Service. “Living historians play an important part in that. They help to humanize the people who participated in these historical events.”

She recalls a canon demonstration, where black powder canons were shot off.

“Just to hear one canon go off ... then to visualize 100 canons going off for hours straight,” she said. “It really hits home for a lot of people. You can never truly recreate what it’s like, but living historians help you get a little bit closer.”

Preserving and honoring history is at the heart of why Smith and Downes re-enact, they say.

“I think it’s important that we give people a sense of American history and this is only one of the ways to do it, and it’s a good way,” Smith said.

“When you walk into our camps, you’re not going to see coolers.

You’re not going to see boom boxes.

We try to maintain as close to what you would have actually seen walking into a Union war camp in the 1860s down to how we cook our food and what we eat. This was the second American revolution and it forever changed the way we do things in this country. It took 200-plus years to become a nation, and it’s important to know how and why that came about.”

No one alive personally remembers a Civil War veteran, Downes said.

“Through what we do, I can thank them by duplicating a little bit about what they have done, and the people who see us can remember what they have done,” he said.

At the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Cleveland this year, people lining Superior Avenue thanked members of the 8th Ohio for their service.

“I didn’t take that for me,” Col. Downes said. “I took it for the old boys.”

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

OFF THE CLOCK

Escape rooms are a puzzling new trend in Northeast Ohio

By DOUGLAS J. GUTH clbfreelancer@crain.com

A plucky team of brave adventurers prowl the twisting corridors of the ancient labyrinth, solving intricate puzzles in the search for the mythical Tree of Life. Can the courageous explorers find their way to freedom, or will they be ensnared in the maze forever?

This scenario has played out dozens of times — with varying degrees of success — at Trapped!, a Cleveland “escape room” that is part of a growing trend of live interactive entertainment where brainpower, cooperation and a dash of imagination combine to make for a fun night out with friends or a stimulating team-building exercise.

Trapped! has two locations — Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights and an office park in Middleburg Heights — with owner Alan Applegate readying a third space in Willoughby. The 6,000-square-foot Middleburg Heights venue has two rooms, one an “Indiana Jones” style maze and the other offering a bank heist theme. Players are locked in a room and must solve puzzles and challenges in order to get out within the 60-minute time limit. Similar to other escape rooms in Cleveland and throughout the country, Trapped! mixes elements of theater and video games with live-action puzzle-solving, hands-on props and special effects.

“It’s like a board game come to life,” Applegate said. “It’s different from playing a game on your phone or watching a movie. There’s not a physical aspect to it, but it can be heart-pounding.”

Escape rooms have a diverse clientele, drawing bachelor parties, college students and families looking for new entertainment options.

About half of Applegate’s business is from corporate clients who use the rooms to instill teamwork and critical thinking in their employees.

The success rate of escape is under 20%, but that hasn’t hurt the business’ bottom line. Last year, the Coventry location alone cleared $500,000 in revenue, while the overall enterprise doubled the amount of visitors Applegate had projected.

“We’re doing about 50 bookings every week,” Applegate said. “People like the adventure of it. It’s an innate character of human nature to want to be thrilled in a way that doesn’t involve a roller coaster.”

The escape room model was birthed in Japan a decade ago, sweeping through the remainder of Asia and into Europe not long after.

Escape rooms like Trapped! and Perplexity Games in Ohio City are now popping up in the United States, going by various handles such as Escape the Room, Escape Games and Puzzle Hunts.

Immersive gaming has become increasingly popular among consumers with an appetite for an active, participatory experiences, said Diana Molchan, who runs Perplexity with her husband, Bill, and their three children.

Rather than unlocking a door, Molchan’s escape room is centered around completing a quest. One game has players investigating a corrupt city commissioner at the behest of real-life Cleveland Safety Director

Eliot Ness. Participants have an hour to find the evidence and take down the bad guy, but there is nothing scary or violent about the challenge.

Perplexity’s puzzles and themes are created for gamers age 12 and up.

“There’s no serial killer room or anything,” Molchan said. “The objective is for people to have fun whether or not they win.”

The Molchans launched their business last April, designing all the puzzle challenges themselves. Gaming has always been a family tradition, said Diana Molchan, particularly team-based online video games like “League of Legends.” When Bill Molchan and his son, Mike, tried an outer space-themed escape room in Houston, their shared experience sparked the idea for a similar venture in Cleveland.

“The escape room business started as locked rooms, but transitioned into puzzle adventures,” Diana Molchan said. “In the story scenarios, you’re not watching a detective on screen, you are the detective.”

Corporate clients are also embracing the challenge as well. Perplexity’s include Cleveland Clinic, Progressive, Macy’s, American Greetings, Ernst & Young, Energizer, BASF, and KeyBank.

Trapped! owner Applegate is planning a summer start date for his Willoughby escape room, and looks forward to preparing a whole new world of fun for a wide range of customers.

“The rise in this kind of interactive entertainment is a clear indication that people want different things to do,” Applegate said. “Groups will come out of a room and still be talking about the experience an hour later.”

BANDS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

“We have an 11-piece band,” said Richissin, who noted just like the real Neil Diamond, Gomez’s shows are complete with their own band, horn section and backup singers.

Authenticity also has its price, and the world of tribute bands is fairly stratified. Some bands insist on almost totally replicating the acts and performances of the acts they imitate, often doing famous concerts note for note, wearing the exact same outfits as in the original performance.

Others don’t try as hard to look like the artists they mean to honor, or can’t.

Hard Day’s Night is in the former category — and given that all of the Beatles were in their 20s in the era the tribute band copies, it can be tough for a bunch of baby boomers. But Muratore and his bandmates go to great lengths to be as much like The Beatles of the early and mid 1960s as they can.

“Our show is chronological of The Beatles’ career, so we start with the suits like they wore on the Ed Sullivan show,” Muratore said. “Sometimes we go from the suits to the Shea Stadium jackets … Then, for the second set, we start out with the full costume for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

But, doing The Beatles also has its advantages, Muratore said, because there are so many Beatles tribute bands that making their costumes has become a cottage industry. Muratore said he can get many of the costumes he needs made, “stitch for

Howard Micenmacher does his best Springsteen in Swamps of Jersey. (Contributed photo)

stitch,” exactly like the cloths the Beatles wore in their famous appearances. And, because The Beatles had a very standard look for much of their careers — by design — their overall look can be more easily copied.

The Diamond Project takes a more casual approach to looking exactly like

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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PA G E 17

OFF THE CLOCK

Gary Gomez leads a Neil Diamond tribute dubbed The Diamond Project. (Contributed photo)

their hero. Gomez doesn’t try to look like Diamond, though the band and the outfits are reminiscent of a Neil Diamond show. But that’s not the point.

“He looks nothing like Neil, but if you close your eyes you think you’re at a Neil Diamond concert … Gary sounds exactly like Neil Diamond when he sings, it’s amazing,” Richissin said.

Others must agree, because after a slow start in 2012 — one lady demanded her money back after learning the act was not the “real Neil” — The Diamond Project now plays before audiences that number in the thousands.

“Over the last five years, we’ve played more than 200 shows. We play

regionally — we’ve played New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia … from the Palace Theater in Indiana to Edgewater Live with 10,000 people. We’ve played some really cool places,” Richissin said.

Micenmacher might have it easiest of all, though. After all, Bruce Springsteen is probably pictured in most minds wearing jeans and … well, whatever shirt happened to fit the decade, really.

“Sometimes, I’ll wear black,” Micenmacher said with a laugh.

Also, unlike early Beatles concerts, Springsteen shows tend to be freewheeling affairs. It’s doubtful The Boss ever did exactly the same show twice, so how could his tribute bands expect to do that?

But that’s not to say that Micenmacher doesn’t take his performances very seriously. A performing musician with bands like Al’s Fast Freight, a songwriter in his own right and a huge fan of Bruce, the last thing he’d want to do is put on a performance not worthy of his idol.

And there are ways to get around an artist not doing standardized concerts, too.

“Sometimes, we’ll perform an entire album,” Micenmacher said.

No matter how much the act looks like the original performer or whether the concert is following another performance note for note, the goal is still the same: the audience should feel like it got to see its favorite band or artist from the past.

There should be some suspension of disbelief, tribute performers say.

And that goes for the folks on the stage as well as those in front of it.

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CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

THE LIST

Largest 2016 Residential Sales Ranked by price THIS ADDRESS YEAR COUNTY

SALE PRICE

BUYER

SELLER

1

22222 Lake Road, Rocky River, 44116 Cuyahoga

$2,950,000

Geoffrey M. and Melissa Panteck

Ivette M. Immormino

2

512 Arbor Falls Drive, Wadsworth, 44281 Medina

$2,300,000

512 Arbor Falls Drive LLC

Gary & Sue Ellen Phillips

2

809 Village Trail, Gates Mills, 44040 Cuyahoga

$2,300,000

Jason W. Savage and Din Sparano

4

18801 S. Park Blvd., Shaker Heights, 44122 Cuyahoga

$2,000,000

5

24224 Lake Road, Bay Village, 44140 Cuyahoga

6

SQUARE FEET YEAR BUILT

SALE DATE

6,361 2009

April 29, 2016

6,018 (1) 2012

Dec. 15, 2016

Village Trails GM LLC

4,306 1994

June 30, 2016

Jennifer S. Grossman (trustee)

Catherine Paris Biskind (trustee)

7,358 1937

Feb. 16, 2016

$1,969,000

24224 Lake Road LLC

Asha Brahmbhatt (trustee)

8,842 1992

May 13, 2016

2657 & 2675 Chagrin River Road, Hunting Valley, 44022 Cuyahoga

$1,900,000

Thomas M. and Nadia M. Wearsch

Quentin and Elisabeth Alexander

9,396 1949

Dec. 19, 2016

7

60 East Easton Lane, Moreland Hills, 44022 Cuyahoga

$1,850,000

Hani K. Najm (trustee), Et al.

Jocelyn Saltz (trustee)

6,632 2005

Sept. 1, 2016

8

10 Rydalwood Lane, Moreland Hills, 44022 Cuyahoga

$1,730,000

Carmie J. Stein (trustee)

Maryrose and Michael Sylvester

8,967 2000

Aug. 26, 2016

9

23408 Lake Road, Bay Village, 44140 Cuyahoga

$1,700,000

Michael J. Herrick

23408 Lake Road LLC

4,299 2004

April 22, 2016

9

75 Rice Park Drive, Avon Lake, 44012 Lorain

$1,700,000

Andre and Gayle De La Porte

Linda and Randall Houlas

6,028 2013

Dec. 22, 2016

11

21660 Avalon Drive, Rocky River, 44116 Cuyahoga

$1,650,000

Kaleb Dumot

Jason S. and Lanee Lucarelli

3,776 1930

Oct. 7, 2016

12

2630 Deer Hollow, Hudson, 44236 Summit

$1,600,000

Michael and Cynthia Kelley

Meledi B. Waters (trustee)

5,650 1986

Nov. 3, 2016

12

31856 Lake Road, Avon Lake, 44012 Lorain

$1,600,000

Sly Robert

Jason and Samuel Lucarelli

5,958 2015

April 14, 2016

14

16900 S. Park Blvd., Shaker Heights, 44120 (2) Cuyahoga

$1,575,000

Robert F. and Jennifer C. Voelker

Lori and Lawrence C. Musarra

13,282 1916

June 30, 2016

14

20728 Beach Cliff Blvd., Rocky River, 44116 Cuyahoga

$1,575,000

Robert E. Krueger

Claire M. Langkau (trustee)

3,314 1955

Aug. 5, 2016

16

25880 Broadway Ave., Oakwood Village, 44146 Cuyahoga

$1,556,700

AMVF Holdings LLC

Oakwood-Fdbts LLC

1,102 1920

Dec. 29, 2016

17

20950 Avalon Drive, Rocky River, 44116 Cuyahoga

$1,500,790

Robert M. and Allison M. Coale

Geoffrey M. and Melissa Panteck

4,156 2003

May 26, 2016

18

2678 Eaton Road, Shaker Heights, 44118 (3) Cuyahoga

$1,500,000

Conor and Clare Delaney

Ansir Junaid

7,441 1929

May 17, 2016

18

111 Ashleigh Drive, Chagrin Falls, 44022 Geauga

$1,500,000

Kelly J. Barsham (trustee)

Stephen S. Crandall

6,910 2005

April 14, 2016

20

4287 St. Theresa Blvd., Avon Lorain

$1,475,000

Jeremiah and Rachel Simons

Julie Byrne and Daniel James McMahon

5,896 2015

July 14, 2016

21

23724 Cliff Drive, Bay Village, 44140 Cuyahoga

$1,450,000

Michael J. Herrick

Bridget M. O'Donnell

4,668 2013

Feb. 12, 2016

22

1080 W. Hill Drive, Gates Mills, 44040 (4) Cuyahoga

$1,402,500

Timothy D. and Elizabeth Q. Sheeler

Jacqueline A. Rothstein

8,273 1910

Nov. 4, 2016

23

2731 Last Valley Lane, Hudson, 44236 Summit

$1,400,000

Vince and Catherine Ciccolini

Rene and Ana L. Silva

5,410 2011

March 23, 2016

23

9820 Foxwood Trail, Kirtland, 44094 Lake

$1,400,000

Foxwood Trail LLC

Marcus and Diane M. Marra (trustees)

5,856 2006

Aug. 23, 2016

23

285 Yacht Club Drive, Rocky River, 44116 Cuyahoga

$1,400,000

James A. Griffiths

Raymond A. and Mary A. Griffiths

4,285 2000

Oct. 27, 2016

23

3225 Crabtree Lane, Hunting Valley, 44022 (3) Cuyahoga

$1,400,000

Robert and Pamela Norton

Jennifer Deutsch

4,221 1962

Jan. 22, 2016

27

3145 Streetsboro Road, Richfield, 44286 Summit

$1,395,000

Joseph A. and Anna Marie Castrodale

Philip L. Londrico

14,700 1999

Sept. 8, 2016

28

32900 Jackson Road, Moreland Hills, 44022 Cuyahoga

$1,393,500

Howard L. Lewis (trustee)

Sydney J. and Manuel Cerqueira

4,923 2005

Feb. 29, 2016

29

821 W. Hill Drive, Gates Mills, 44040 Cuyahoga

$1,375,000

Pablo F. and Violette Recinos

Stan Shulman

9,568 1991

Oct. 20, 2016

30

21911 Avalon Drive., Rocky River, 44116 Cuyahoga

$1,350,000

Giuseppe and Amanda Di Salvo

Michael A. and Dawn M. Lehnowsky

2,512 1928

June 1, 2016

31

2839 Kersdale Road, Pepper Pike, 44124 Cuyahoga

$1,325,000

Alicia A. Fanning

Paula R. Schwartz (trustee)

4,782 1984

June 1, 2016

32

2761 Sherbrooke Road, Shaker Heights, 44122 Cuyahoga

$1,300,000

Richard David Banyard Jr. and Diane Benfer

Ned G. Huffman and Cynthia Wright Ames (trustee)

5,744 1936

Jan. 25, 2016

33

9225 Province Lane, Brecksville, 44141 Cuyahoga

$1,280,000

Qiao Yan Chen and Fat Yik Cheung

Joan I. Allega

9,993 1998

Dec. 20, 2016

33

7503 Vinemont Court, Hudson, 44236 Summit

$1,280,000

Samuel M. and Mary P. Rajan

Andre V. Bell

6,788 1992

June 30, 2016

33

1396 Sand Run Road, Akron, 44313 Summit

$1,280,000

William L. and Melissa A. Simmons

Jennifer C. and Thomas P. Hull

6,208 1995

July 8, 2016

36

15325 Suffolk Lane, Chagrin Falls, 44022 Geauga

$1,275,000

S. Sandy Satullo (trustee)

Peter J. Ippolito and Margaret A. Schumann Ippolito

7,217 1995

Aug. 4, 2016

37

70 Winding River Trail, Bentleyville, 44022 Cuyahoga

$1,272,000

William L. Kimmerle

Mark A. Shapiro

4,646 2003

Aug. 12, 2016

RESEARCHED BY CHUCK SODER This list includes home sales from Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Summit counties, as recorded by each county's auditor's office. The full list includes 67 sales above $1 million; it can be purchased at CrainCleveland.com. It does not include vacant land or sheriff's sales. (1) 9,628 when including finished basement (2) Includes two buildings (3) Includes two parcels (4) Includes two parcels and two buildings

CRAIN'S CLEVELAND BUSINESS μ APRIL 10, 2017 μ PAGE 17 C R A I N ’ S C L E V E L A N D B U S I N E S S | A P R I L 10 - 16 , 2 017 | PA G E 19

BANKS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Duncan isn’t alone in that perspective.

Small and midsize banks across the market are fixing their sights on growing this year and attracting customers, regardless of the impact of other promising industry factors like corporate tax reform or interest rate hikes.

And attracting business clients is a major strategy in that.

'Year of the community bank' There’s always a balance in drawing both retail customers, who feed the bank with deposits, and serving commercial clients.

But a confluence of events in the banking market locally and across the country is helping fuel a push by smaller, local banks to draw more accounts with both retail and commercial customers alike. For business customers, that means converting users of large banks to their local institutions.

The potential for growth is why some are calling 2017 the “year of the community bank."

A column in American Banker recently made the case as to why: lingering consumer distrust of large corporations; the recent Wells Fargo scandal; a presidential election featuring similarly disliked candidates each with close ties to Wall Street; rhetoric by our current president that references on fake news and “alternative facts.”

Financial rating agency Bauer Financial Inc. embraced that tag in recent reports. It’s an appropriate designation for both community banks, and even credit unions, said Karen Dorway, president and director of research for Bauer, when considering the public’s perception of large companies coupled with rising interest rates and the possibility for regulatory relief and tax reform under President Donald Trump — all of which stand to significantly benefit smaller and midsize banks.

Those perspectives fed investor euphoria.

Stocks for smaller banks in particular surged 50% in the weeks following Trump’s election.

Those prices have since settled

Duncan

Helmick

down some. And another spike of that sort is quite unlikely. Yet, stocks still are 30% higher on average than they were prior to the election, signaling great expectations for performance.

Farmers National Bank of Canfield, for example, is trading at about $13.30, as compared to $10.40 on Nov. 8 and a peak of $15.05 in December.

Momentum There’s a sense in the industry that community banks have a lot to gain, and possibly at the expense of bigger companies.

“I think this is a real phenomenon,” said Ben Mackovack, a managing member at Strategic Value Bank Partners LLC, a bank investment fund based in Beachwood, referencing the potential for smaller banks to claim more market share.

Technology costs have come down, meaning more small banks have implemented the tech-driven services customers want. That’s leveling the playing field with larger banks, Mackovack said.

“But what it really comes down to is the flexibility of little banks to be responsive to customer needs,” he said.

And that's helping them win business.

Some banks already are seeing a surge in general customer growth following the election.

First Federal Lakewood president and CEO Tom Fraser said the mutual bank focused on improving customer experience through 2016. The bank saw significant customer acquisition in the latter half of the past year, with year-over-year consumer accounts surging by 70% and business accounts growing 26%.

“Whether it’s less desirable behavior of large institutions or our own efforts — we aren’t sure of the drivers — we have seen an enormous shift in

account growth,” Fraser said.

While there are always some exceptions, Mackovack pointed out that in terms of loan growth, community banks already are winning.

Across the market, some smaller banks are growing loans at 15%-20%, and there’s “no way” Bank of America is growing at a similar clip, he said.

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., community bank revenue and loan growth are outpacing the rest of the industry: in the fourth quarter of 2016, the 12-month growth rate of loan balances was 8.3% for community banks, compared with 4.8% for the rest of the industry.

Strong economy, banks Northeast Ohio’s economic recovery has been slower than the rest of the country’s, yet steady, and that's helping drive local appetite for credit as businesses in this market are increasingly likely to borrow money to finance improvements of their businesses.

The growth potential has attracted banks to Greater Cleveland that either weren’t here before, or weren’t as active.

For example, Cortland Bank, based in its namesake city in Trumbull County, has been adding bankers in Cleveland and has launched private banking services in recent years.

Home Savings Bank of Youngstown has added a Northeast Ohio commercial banking president with an eye on Cleveland. Meanwhile, president and CEO Gary Small has discussed the bank’s strategy of partnering with other groups, including private equity firms, to finance larger loans that allow the bank to punch above its weight class.

Western Pennsylvania banks, seeing similar opportunities, have acquired their way into the market in recent years. Northwest Bank is one of them. The bank acquired Lorain National Bank in late 2014, gaining their bankers and business relationships.

“The Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown market, it’s gigantic,” said Northwest CEO Bill Wagner. “There’s a strong history of manufacturing and it’s very similar to the western Pennsylvania market, and that’s attractive to us, plus the sheer size of the market.

There are acquisition opportunities, but also opportunities to attract a very

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substantial customer base.”

There are some notable effects of this evolution — or consolidation — in the market.

Besides fewer banks being truly hometown banks, smaller banks are either growing organically or through acquisitions. That increased size is letting banks make larger loans they might not have been able to do before, putting pressure on larger companies that will still work with local businesses.

A $15 million loan is something the Home Savings of a few years wouldn’t have been able to make; it was simply too much. But that’s a greater possibility today, Small said.

Comparatively, that same loan is one the market’s largest regional banks may not find as attractive as the $250 million loan a company the size of Eaton Corp. might seek that a smaller bank would never be able to service.

Then, consider Northwest Bank, whose LNB acquisition, along with a stock offering, expanded the bank’s asset size, enabling it to serve credits between $20 million and $30 million today. The bank's legal lending limit six years ago was just $5 million.

Fewer hometown options This all means smaller banks are doing business that just a few years ago they couldn’t touch, creating more competition for their larger competitors.

“If (smaller banks) think a business owner has even $1 million to invest, and that isn’t important enough for big banks, that could be an opportunity for them,” said Charlie Crowley, managing director at investment bank Boenning & Scattergood.

“They’ll say to a lending customer, we can do all this, plus we’re a hometown bank. We’ll give you quicker lending decisions and a higher level of service.”

That’s the proposition that seems to be resonating in the market. Analysts say bankers from larger companies, or ones not based locally, will simply lament they can’t make the hometown play because it could be the difference to winning business or not.

And what’s more: that hometown play is becoming more meaningful as fewer hometown banks work in the market.

Acquisitions have reduced the number of banks operating in Northeast Ohio (15 counties) from 67 a decade ago to 55 today, according to FDIC data.

Of the top 20 banks in Northeast Ohio, only 11 are based in the state today, down from 18 a decade ago.

That, of course, includes large banks headquartered elsewhere in the state that might feel less local to customers despite the location of regional offices because of their size or the proximity of corporate headquarters, like Columbus’ Huntington Bank and Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Bank.

Of the remaining 35 banks in the market, only six aren’t local or at least based in the state.

With all banks in total, the Northeast Ohio market was composed 87% of local or Ohio-based banks in 2006, versus 73% today.

That makes the hometown play even more meaningful to customers.

“At the end of the day, the small-business owner, the small real estate developer needs access to capital," Mackovack said. "If a community bank can leverage that in a more efficient manner than a big bank, they’re going to win that business.

And I think that’s what we’re seeing across the industry.”

Farmers National Bank of Canfield has acquired three small banks and an insurance agency in recent years, giving it a wider base to offer products from and new services to court customers with.

Its legal lending limit is now close to $25 million. A loan of that size would now be on the radar of local competitors like Home Savings, while still carrying appeal for PNC Bank and Huntington. And the bank has picked up relationships lost in the shuffle of the FirstMerit Bank and Huntington merger.

Farmers is hitting its stride. And these other factors shaping and influencing the banking market locally and across the industry have community bankers like Farmers president and CEO Kevin Helmick optimistic about growth.

“There’s a lot creating opportunity for us right now,” Helmick said. “We are staying nimble in the market. And we're staying focused on business customers to win deals.”

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

AKRON

Summit land bank gearing up for busy year

By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler

The Summit County Land bank has some ambitious plans for 2017 — and a new ruling from the IRS that should make it easier to secure property donations.

As for the plans, the land bank is about to begin rehabbing homes, and helping would-be homeowners and investors rehab others.

“It’s not enough to just do demolition in the community,” said land bank executive director Patrick Bravo.

The land bank is beginning its first rehab work now, but it will be a month or two before it sees the fruits of its labors.

“The next project we have coming out in the May/June time frame is where we will rehab houses and sell them,” Bravo said. “Or if you have a home you want to acquire and rehab yourself, you can apply for the (land

bank’s) Side Lot program.”

The land bank has worked with socalled side lots in the past, where buyers apply to purchase primarily vacant lots in the city. Often, it’s an adjacent homeowner who wants to expand their property and eliminate a blighted property next door at the same time, Bravo said. So far, the land bank has successfully processed about 400 of those applications and is working on the rest.

“These don’t have to be lots that we own,” Bravo said. “People can apply for lots we don’t own, and we’ll buy them and sell them to them.”

In such cases, which often involve properties with delinquent taxes or other issues, the county usually pays about $2,000 for a vacant lot, then sells it to the neighboring homeowner for $200, Bravo said.

If that sounds like a terrible deal for the land bank and the county, Bravo insists it’s not. The county eliminates a blighted property, turns a delinquent property into one that is again paying taxes and reduces its li-

ability and maintenance costs all in one swoop, he said.

It’s also necessary, because many of the properties are more than blighted — they’re safety hazards or worse. That’s also a reason that demolition is still necessary, he said.

“We find people who are squatting in absolutely horrid conditions …

There were human remains in one of the properties,” Bravo said.

The remains had been there so long that only bones were left, illustrating just how long some properties have been in dismal condition and creating problems for the community, he said.

Since it began in 2012, the land bank has razed around 150 properties, but that number is about to spike, according to Bravo, who said the organization has received about $9.5 million — primarily grants from the state coupled with matching local funds — to amp up its demolition program.

“We expect with that $9.5 million, we’ll tear down between 500 and 600

units in total (including the 150 done so far). That runs until 2019,” Bravo said.

Turning properties over to nearby homeowners has been working too, he said.

“We’ve had people create pocket parks, recreate baseball fields and open them up to the public. It really runs the gamut,” Bravo said.

Now the land bank might have another asset to help it further expand its work — a letter from the IRS that basically guarantees a tax deduction to anyone who donates property or other assets to the organization, said Alexis Kim, an accountant with Walter Haverfield in Cleveland who works with the Summit County Land Bank and land banks in other counties.

Unlike 501(c) organizations, the land bank does not automatically have tax-free status for the purposes of donations, Kim said. While a donor could probably argue — successfully — that their donation was worthy of a tax deduction, the land bank

could not guarantee that.

Now, thanks to an IRS letter published in March, donors won’t have to wonder.

“They (the land bank) can now operate with confidence that they are exempt from any annual filings with the IRS and that they don't have to pay any federal tax. And they can show potential donors a document that can be relied on for deductibility,” Kim said.

The process was not easy. It began in the summer of 2015, and even Kim concedes “it was a bit challenging.”

But Bravo said it was worth it and will help the land bank work with donors and potentially deal with the IRS if questions arise about the land bank’s purpose or how it was run — all of which had to be documented to get the recent letter.

“It’s beneficial, because if we’re going to hold ourselves out to be tax exempt, we need something from the IRS so we don’t get sideways with them … We had no determination from the IRS before this,” Bravo said.

Richfield company cashing in on pop culture trends

By RICHARD WEINER clbfreelancer@crain.com

Enter a Kohl’s, Hot Topic, Spencer’s or any one of two dozen brickand-mortar or online stores, pick up a Pokémon, “Better Call Saul” or “The Walking Dead” coffee mug, and look at the bottom. Chances are that mug, and hundreds of other licensed novelty collectibles and gifts in those stores, are the product of Richfield’s Just Funky.

U.S. retail sales of licensed merchandise totaled $138 billion in 2015, said Marty Brochstein, spokesman for the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association.

Just Funky’s “entertainment/ character” market segment totaled $43 billion in U.S. retail sales, according to the association.

Less than five years after members of the Arora family started the company in a garage, that business has grown sales “25,000 percent,” Sahil Arora said, though the company declined to talk more specifically about financials.

Just Funky sells its originally designed, licensed products to over 30,000 stores and chains, and licenses product uses from hundreds of video games, musicians, TV shows, movies, cartoons, anime and more.

The company is known throughout the industry for its originality, said Steve Loney, founder and CEO of the online store Toynk.

“They have definitely changed the dynamic in glassware,” said Loney, who started his business 15 years ago in his small, Chicago-area apartment.

“You see a lot of their products in Hot Topic and other stores,” said Loney. “Stores are filling up shelves with collectibles like glasses and mugs, and that wasn’t true before Just Funky came along. They have really expanded that market.”

Just Funky has come a long way from a little idea just a few years ago.

“We started the business in our house in Wooster in 2012,” said Sahil Arora, acting as spokesman for the family. “Our first product was Angry

Just Funky puts some of its wares on display at its new headquarters in Richfield so customers can check out the products. The display is also used at trade shows. (Sue Walton for Crain’s)

Birds candy, which we sold to Spencer’s. My father had a connection there, and my mother was a designer, so it all made sense to us. The four of us hand-packed thousands of pieces of that candy.”

Since then the Arora family — father Raj, mother Shivani, and brothers Sahil and Pranav — have grown their company to more than a hundred employees in Richfield, Columbus and Delhi, India. Just Funky’s employees work in design, support, sales and fulfilment. The company uses outside international companies to manufacture its products.

As a result of the company’s relentless growth, Just Funky in March moved its headquarters and 30 of its employees from its original Wooster site to Richfield. The Greater Cleveland area simply provides a larger talent pool than the Wooster area, said Sahil Arora.

The Columbus office, run by Pranav Arora, employs about 20 people and is the design center. Like the Cleveland metro area, the Columbus area attracted Just Funky because of its talent pool, said Arora.

Talent attracted Just Funky to open

Just Funky’s sample room is filled with hundreds of pieces of glassware.

their Delhi office as well. It currently employs 50, mostly in fulfillment, but, like the other two offices, is in the midst of expanding.

“These are rough numbers,” added Arora. “We are hiring in all offices right now, and we are starting to look at expanding into Europe.”

Sahil said that the company’s success derives from its philosophy of obtaining on-trend licensing properties, coupled with a design team focused on originality and connection to the property. For instance, he said, the designer of the company’s

Pokémon products is “a huge Pokémon player” and the designer of its Halo products plays that game.

The key to success in the business then revolves around what licenses you get, said Heather Yee of ThinkGeek, an online store that was an early Just Funky customer.

“They have high quality products,” Yee said. “Their printing is very good, clear and crisp, and they come up with really cool designs. They know their licenses, and they get really good licenses.”

Just Funky works, and does well in,

a very specific niche market, said LIMA’s Brochstein.

“They don’t have ‘big’ licenses like ‘Frozen,’ but they have a broad array of the top of these niche licenses, and really play on the whole trend-spotting thing — what is starting to get hot, what might be off the beaten path,” Brochstein said. “They play to the teen and adult market, where licenses depend on being smart about coming trends, and they seem to be doing well with it.”

The secret to obtaining the right licenses, Brochstein said, is establishing relationships with license grant holders. But nothing in the pop-culture market is certain — fads can come and go in a heartbeat.

“That’s the nature of tying your products to pop culture, which is perilous,” Brochstein said.

Sahil Arora agrees that establishing relationships with license grantors is key to the business. He also appreciates the positive things that industry figures say about Just Funky.

“That’s our goal,” he said.

Contractual obligations prevented Arora from discussing too many specifics about licensing, particularly specific financials, but he did say that it can be difficult to get good licenses, depending on who that brand has worked with in the past.

“For example, if a brand has worked with a licensee for the last 10 years, it becomes a little more difficult for us to convince them to give us the license instead or concurrently with the other licensee,” he said. “We find a way to get the licenses we need, but when we were a lot smaller and not as well-known, it was hard to get meetings with the big brands.”

Once the company obtains a license, Arora said that it takes six months or so to develop a product line, which must be approved by the licensor. It can take several iterations to get the design to everyone’s liking.

Shelves of products that didn’t quite make it line company headquarters.

The new HQ is set up for collaboration, and for even more expansion.

“We see a lot of growth,” Arora said. “We will always be trying to figure out ways to keep growing.”

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AKRON

Filling up downtown Akron’s storefronts

The businesses of Brent Wesley of Akron Honey Co., left, and Gretchen Horinger of Do Good Yoga are next to each other on North Main Street in downtown Akron.

‘Pop-up program’ aiding small businesses and making city more walkable, livable

By BETH THOMAS HERTZ clbfreelancer@crain.com

As Akron pushes to create more walkable neighborhoods to help lure more residents downtown, one aspect of the plan, filling vacant storefronts, is seeing success.

A program that began in 2015 to fill vacant storefronts in downtown Akron by helping local entrepreneurs get on their feet has launched three businesses in recent weeks, bringing the program’s total to 13 — and all but one are still operational.

Downtown Akron Partnership’s “pop-up” program helps businesses find good locations on the first floor of vacant downtown buildings and then subsidizes their rent for six months. Phase One of the program was funded by a $26,500 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation that wrapped up in August. From July 2015 to August 2016, this phase helped position downtown properties to gain $221,250 in lease revenue over the terms of the leases signed, and it brought 28 employees into the district.

Phase Two, which began in September, is supported by a $30,000 commitment from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation. About $20,000 of that is for rent subsidies, and the rest is helping pay the salary of Christine Vadala, DAP’s director of business development. (The GAR Foundation also contributes to her salary.)

With a current investment of $8,400, downtown properties have gained $117,888 in lease revenue over the terms of the leases signed, and 15 employees have been brought into the district, Vadala said.

Treye Johnson, program officer for the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, said the foundation is happy with how the program is coming along so far. It made the investment because it wanted to foster the growth of viable storefronts in downtown Akron, which he said the foundation views as crucial to creating walkable neighborhoods.

“We want downtown to be a place that is supportive of entrepreneurs and continues to grow an entrepreneurial culture, and we think this program has a lot of potential to do that,” Johnson said.

Since creating those walkable zones is a high priority, DAP works to cluster the pop-up businesses together so they can become a destination for consumers as well as feed off one another’s energy, said Suzie Graham, DAP president.

“Having businesses that people can go in and out of is a really important part of growing an attractive city,” she said. “When you have a cohort of other retailers that they can talk to and work with, businesses come up with these really great ideas that add to the character of your city. They build community and they make the city a better place.”

DAP has seen that phenomenon play out on Mill Street, where pop-ups Sweet Mary’s Bakery, Apotheclaire (an environmentally friendly salon) and Rubber City Comics are near one another. Similarly, two of the three newest pop-ups — Akron Honey Co. and Do Good Yoga — are together at 106 N. Main St., in a neighborhood that includes the popular Luigi’s restaurant. The building has room for more tenants, Vadala said.

The other new pop-up is Akron Yoga and Wellness, at 106 S. Main St. in what is now known as the Huntington Building. The building, which had no retail tenants for a while, also recently added Levels Barber Studio, another DAP pop-up. One retail spot is still available there.

Although some people might think that having two yoga businesses near each other is a conflict, Graham does not.

“There aren’t any (yoga studios) currently in downtown, so we feel they can both be successful and even be able to be mutually beneficial by marketing with each other,” she said.

The only DAP pop-up that is no longer is business is Pressed for Success, a dry cleaning provider that was on S. Main Street across from Lock 3.

Graham hesitates to call it a “failure,” however.

“This program basically allows people to try out their business model and see if it succeeds. If you try a business venture, and you do it in a way that is lower risk and you find that it does not work out, it is not a disaster,” she said. “It’s part of the purpose of the program.”

Brent Wesley, owner of Akron Honey Co., praised the program for

The Akron Honey Co. and Do Good Yoga are just two of more than a dozen businesses helped by the Downtown Akron Partnership’s “pop-up” program, which helps small businesses find good locations on the first floors of downtown buildings. (Photos by Shane Wynn for Crain’s)

helping entrepreneurs like himself find inroads that help them succeed in the first year or two of business.

“They have figured out how to provide a stepping stone not just financially but also by tying us in to other resources locally and helping us build bridges,” he said. “It is not a single-faceted program. It is an ecosystem of purpose and chance. It is a springboard.”

Vadala also sees that ecosystem at work, noting that many of the entrepreneurs offer time and services to

help other newcomers get started and some are working with college students through the University of Akron’s Experiential Learning Center for Entrepreneurship & Civic Engagement. The students get firsthand insights into entrepreneurship and the businesses get exposure to the student population.

“This has become more like a family than just businesses doing business,” she said. “It has become a wonderful community.”

Vadala said DAP hopes to contin-

ue to develop more businesses and wants to tie in to efforts to bring more residential units to downtown, as retail and residential benefit one another. It also is working with the DeHoff Development Co. to identify local entrepreneurs who might be interested in being part of its reimagining of the Landmark Building on South Main Street and several other nearby buildings.

“We would love to see how a popup could potentially work in that project,” she said.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Source Lunch Phillip Ciano

Principal, Ciano & Goldwasser LLP About one-third of Phil Ciano’s legal work is spent representing sports agents and agencies. Another third is spent working with doctors and physician practice groups.

You could say Ciano has some experience dealing with headstrong individuals. ¶ “My partner (Andy Goldwasser) always laughs at me,” Ciano said. “ ‘You have your conference calls at like 5 in the morning with doctors, 11 at night with these agents, you’re texting 24/7 ... You gotta change up your clientele.’ ” ¶ That’s not in Ciano’s plans, since he loves the work. Ciano and Goldwasser have been in business together for 17 years, and the pair also has a 50% stake in another Cleveland law firm, Rumizen Weisman. All told, the firms employ 10 attorneys, plus “a bunch” of staffers, Ciano said. The latter was involved in a 2016 case that featured the agent for Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista. — Kevin Kleps

Five things Not a bad start Ciano says his first big case with a sports agent involved Jay Danzi, who represents golfer Jordan Spieth.

Ciano worked with Danzi when the latter left IMG for another agency.

Other notable clients Ciano has also represented former Indians players Brian Anderson (Ciano’s brother-in-law at the time) and David Dellucci in business dealings.

Family life Ciano has been married to his wife, Amy, for 24 years. They have two sons — Danny, 15, and Michael, 10.

Working off the work The attorney likes to ride his bicycle in an effort to “decrease stress.”

Darn you, John Elway Ciano, who was a student at Wittenberg University at the time, was in the Dawg Pound for “The Drive” in January 1987. “It was horrible,” he said.

Lunch spot TownHall 1909 West 25th Street Cleveland

The meal One had the Food Truck Tacos with chicken, plus an organic soda; the other had the Wild Tuna Poke, a cup of Tribeca Bone Broth and water.

The vibe The Ohio City hot spot was packed, as expected, on a recent Friday afternoon. There’s still plenty of room, however, to get some work done during the lunch rush. (And try the tacos.)

The bill $ 26.46, plus tip

You’re going to Los Angeles (the week of April 3) for an arbitration case. Tell me about the work you do in baseball.

The work I do is very nichey. It’s really the representation of agents and agencies in agent vs. agent disputes or agent vs. player disputes, which is all governed by the Major League Baseball Players Association. So it’s all binding arbitration that’s part of the MLBPA. The same sort of structure applies for the NBAPA and the NFLPA. That’s a big part of my practice.

That’s a pretty specialized field.

How did you get into that?

It’s really funny how it happened. I come from a family of six kids. My little sister married a professional baseball player — you might remember Brian Anderson. He pitched in two World Series with the Tribe and he won a World Series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. They got married and had two little kids.

They’ve since split up. ... Brian was being represented by Ron Shapiro, a legendary agent (and father of former Indians president Mark Shapiro). (Ron was) one of the great influences on me as a young lawyer. I met him at my sister’s wedding, and I said, “I want to learn all about the agent business.”

He said, “I’ll tell you what, when I get back to Baltimore, I’m going to have my secretary reach out to you, and you can spend a day with me and literally follow me throughout an entire day.” So I took him up on it, and it was the coolest thing.

When you have a case the size of the Proformance case in 2016, when there’s a high-profile MLB dispute over an agent who left one agency for another, how much time do you end up putting into something like that?

It’s like being in any other trial. You have to prepare witnesses, you have to prepare evidence, you gotta travel, because all these things either take place in New York or another agreed-upon forum. You've got to get witnesses coordinated from Toronto, the Dominican Republic to Cuba to Miami. That’s real time-consuming. That case was tried over a two-week period in Philadelphia. I prepared for that case for probably three weeks, then two weeks of arbitration in Philadelphia.

By the grace of God, we finished the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

(Proformance, represented by Ciano, won $1 million in back fees.)

How demanding is your job?

It’s very demanding. I think you gotta be uniquely suited. Your clientele are people who are deeply engaged in the service business — high-performing physicians that I’m representing have demanding patients who are worried about their health and their condition, and how it’s going to rectified. The agents, same thing — they have very high-maintenance, high-demand-around-the-clock professional athletes. They know what they do in their practice, and they’re pressing that on you, so you have to rise to the occasion.

Is there one segment that is more difficult to deal with?

I would say they’re equally challenging, but in different ways. The agent side, my challenge with them is to try to stay one step ahead of them on the chessboard, even though they’re my clients. They’re always negotiating with you, and they’re negotiating on the back end with their dispute. My doctor clients, these are very high-achieving, competitive, brilliant people that I’m representing. I have to constantly remind them, “When I come and see you, I don’t tell you where to put the incision. Don’t tell me where to put the incision. You can tell me what your problem is and I’ll tell you where to put the incision.” They like that.

They get it, but it’s hard for them to relinquish control.

What’s the best part of your job?

Every day I wake up, a phone call can change my life. To me, that’s the most exciting thing about my practice. I never know what awaits me when I wake up in the morning. I don’t take it for granted. I’m very grateful and honored that people put the most important problems in their life in our hands.

The worst part?

It is bone-crushing work. It’s seven days a week. I’ve missed many family vacations. I’ve missed a lot of holidays, and I’ve missed tons of weekends. But I have an incredibly understanding wife and kids, and I’m very grateful and blessed for that.

They get it.

Is your phone on vibrate or do you keep it on ringer all night?

I keep it on vibrate, but unlike my agent clients, I refuse to do the whole two cell phone thing, because I think that’s way too pretentious. I’m sticking with one cell phone.

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