Crain's Cleveland Business

VOL. 38, NO. 19

MAY 8 - 14, 2017

Source Lunch

Akron

Alice Cable, executive director of the AWT Foundation

Venture capital fund will invest in Rubber City firms. Page 24

The List

Page 27

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Region’s largest public companies Page 22

HEALTH CARE

Country will be tracking Clinic’s search

By LYDIA COUTRÉ

In a decision that signals a big shift for Cleveland’s health care landscape, Dr. Toby Cosgrove last week announced he would be step down as CEO of the Clinic later this year.

Over his nearly 13-year tenure, many credit Cosgrove with helping elevate the Clinic to its national reputation.

The leadership transition comes during a time of potentially monumental changes in federal health care policy. In a narrow victory on

lcoutre@crain.com @LydiaCoutre

Toby Cosgrove’s successor has big shoes to fill.

Because of Cleveland Clinic’s national prominence, the next person to lead the system will also help to steer the direction of health care delivery in the United States.

And the country will be watching the search.

good, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay, Fla-based American Association for Physician Leadership.

“Organizations like the Cleveland Clinic represent best in class, and therefore those are the types of systems that others try to emulate,” he said. “A transition in leadership is critical because it sends some indicators as to where others should be following and watching.”

Thursday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act, sending it to the Senate.

Regardless of what ultimately comes out of Washington, whoever holds the reins next at the Clinic will no doubt have some major decisions to make about the system’s future.

Where the Clinic wants to head next will be “reviewed under the national microscope,” said Dr. Peter An-

SEE COSGROVE, PAGE 8

REAL ESTATE

City’s western rim embarks on development boom A new wave of apartment, townhouse and institutional projects is breaking along Cleveland’s western rim near Lake Erie. More than 1,000 dwelling places are going into the 3.5-mile swath from West 25th to West 117th streets. The new projects build on decades of redevelopment efforts and the $95 million Lakeshore West project to convert the Shoreway to a tree-lined boulevard.

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C Church and State Apts., 2817 Detroit Ave.

L Battery Park, 1202 W. 73rd St.

D Steelman building, 2885 Detroit Ave.

M 95 Lake, 9509 Lake Ave.

E Edge 32, 3200 Detroit Ave.

N The Shoppes on Clifton, NE corner of Lake Ave. and W. 117th St.

F Mariner’s Watch, 3107 Detroit Ave. G Clinton West, 3107 Clinton Ave. H Templin Bradley Lofts, 5700 Detroit Ave. I Breakwater Bluffs, NE corner of W. 58th St. and Breakwater Ave.

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L W. C

O 117 Lake, SE corner of Lake Ave. and W. 117th St. P A Place For Us, 11610 Madison Ave. Source: Crain’s research, interviews, public record

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$350 million in projects are being built or proposed along stretch between West 25th and 117th streets

By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter

Suave Peter Galvin, who retired a decade ago after a 50-year career in the Cleveland real estate business, organizes trolley tours for friends

and professional colleagues of the city of Cleveland. He just added a new leg to the University Circle and downtown Cleveland circuit: the western rim of Cleveland from Ohio City to the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.

“Real estate is on fire over there,” said Galvin, whose late father built

Entire contents © 2017 by Crain Communications Inc.

what’s now known as The Sphere apartments downtown.

“I realized the housing going in on the West Side was never produced on the East Side,” he said. “As newlyweds my wife and I would have loved to live in such a place. It was no man’s land over there then. But now it’s growing because downtown cannot

meet the demand. Even people in my industry don’t appreciate it.”

After decades of incremental efforts ranging from restoring Civil War-era homes in Ohio City to remaking upper floors of commercial buildings in the Gordon Square with affordable housing, a new scale and level of investment is beginning to

transform the western rim of the city near Lake Erie’s shoreline. Between West 25th and West 117th streets, real estate projects totaling more than $350 million are proposed or under construction that stand to add more than 1,000 dwelling units, both rental and for-sale, to the stretch.

SEE HOUSING, PAGE 25

Eight over 80 Meet eight Clevelanders who continue to make a difference. Pages 13-21 Top row: Jules Belkin, Jean Murrell Capers, Peter van Dijk, Clara Rankin Bottom: Bruce Akers, William Denihan, Dr. Russell Platt, Walter D. Mueller

PA G E 2

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Visa problems hurt companies’ bottom line

By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh

President Donald Trump’s commitment to cracking down on illegal immigration has farmers across the country wondering how that will affect their ability to attract a seasonal workforce this year.

Nurseries and landscapers in Northeast Ohio, which use seasonal workers who come from Mexico legally, have been feeling that hurt for several years and don’t expect the new administration to help the situation.

The sticking point for these related industries are two cumbersome guest worker visa programs. One is the H2A visa. It allows fruit, grain and vegetable growers; dairy and cattle farmers; and owners of nurseries and vineyards in the United States to hire foreign nationals seasonally to plant fields, prune growing trees and bushes, milk cows and handle other chores when the businesses can’t fill out their labor force locally — and that has not been possible, they say, for many years.

The landscapers work with the H2B visa program. The H2B program is for seasonal nonagricultural labor, mostly in the hospitality and landscaping industries, and is capped at 66,000 workers a year nationwide. That cap, which was met May 12 in 2016, according to the Society of Human Resource Management, limits the labor supply.

“The No. 1 priority is that there is not an adequate labor force out there,” said Tom Demaline, president of Willoway

Donald Trump — shown hosting a farmers roundtable on April 25 — has caused some concern about the industry’s workforce. (Preston Keres)

Nurseries Inc. in Avon. “We need a guest worker program that works and is adequate to fill our needs.”

Demaline represented his segment of the agricultural industries at a White House “farmers roundtable” on April 26 that included Trump and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. Trump signed his “Promoting Agriculture and Rural Prosperity in America” executive order at the meeting. That order created a task force to study the regulations and laws that impact U.S. agriculture and to recommend ways to reduce the regulatory burden on farmers.

Demaline said he and others in the group told Trump and Perdue that the H2A program he works with is bogged down in a bureaucracy that makes it difficult for his guest workers, who re-

turn from Mexico year after year, to compete for a limited number of visas and to get back to his nursery quickly when the weather turns.

“When the season starts, it starts — it’s winter and then, suddenly, it turns spring and I need 225 people tomorrow, not over a six- to eightweek period, or we miss an entire season,” he said.

Jerry Schill, president and co-owner of Schill Grounds Management in North Ridgeville, said his business has been struggling for 15 years to maintain a staff that peaks at 120 people during the busy season, including as many as 30 of whom are guest workers on H2B visas.

“It’s been a mess for years,” Schill said. “We’re currently understaffed by

about 10% right now, and our minimum wage has gone up by $3 an hour.”

A typical salary at Schill Grounds Management is in the mid-teens, he said.

Schill doesn’t know if the new administration will make things worse.

He said too many people look at the guest worker visas as immigration “and they have nothing to do with immigration. It’s the optics, because (our workers) are Hispanic. They’ve taken two programs that have served the need for these seasonal positions and embedded it into the immigration battle.”

But visa problems have been with him for several years. He said two years ago, many of his guest workers, who were returning after working for him the year before, had their re-entry to the United States delayed for weeks.

“We were certified, we were told our guys were coming; they never showed up,” he said. “Their start dates were moved two weeks, two weeks, the next thing we knew, it was Memorial Day,” he said. “That year, we lost $957,000 in contract revenue because we were miserable for three months of the spring.”

He said he’s had to “right-size our business because of the federal government playing games with our program.”

Willoway Nurseries hires 225 seasonal workers, Demaline said, 50 locally and 175 who travel from Mexico on H2A visas. Some come for four months and others for the full, nine-month season.

“A lot of our guest workers have been with us 18 years,” Demaline said.

“Literally, their tractor is sitting where it was when they parked it in the fall.”

He also employs 175 people year-

round at Willoway, which Greenhouse Grower magazine lists as No. 53 on its list of largest U.S. nurseries, with 1.4 million square feet of greenhouse and 850 acres of open fields.

Demaline, like Schill, said he hires only guest workers who can present valid documents. He submits their documentation to a federal e-verify program that compares documents with Social Security and Homeland Security records.

But, he said, the limited number of visas available and the slow-moving bureaucracy encourage illegal immigration. And he disputes the idea that he could hire local residents to fill his needs. People have moved off the farms to cities, he said, and that makes it hard for people without cars to get to the jobs.

“The farms are in rural America, and even though we’re even in close proximity to cities, it’s not easy for people to get to the jobs,” he said.

While the landscapers are working with a different visa program, the two industries are linked.

“There’s tremendous concern as we get into the peak of spring. We’re going to have labor shortages,” said Craig Regelbrugge, national co-chair of the Ag Coalition for Immigration Reform and senior vice president of AmericanHort, a Columbus-based trade association for the landscaping industry.

“If the landscaper is backed up and can’t get contracts they’ve sold installed, the pipeline backs up and the plants sit at the nursery, and the nursery can’t ship,” he said. “The whole ecosystem is affected.”

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PA G E 3

Former U.S. attorneys form powerful pair BakerHostetler considers Rendon hiring a coup; she joins Dettelbach in the firm’s national litigation group “I knew that if Carole decided to come back to the practice of law, she would be one of the most sought-after lawyers in the country at that point�

By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile

When word spread earlier this year that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forcing out U.S. attorneys put in place under the Obama administration, Steven Dettelbach wasted no time in recruiting Carole Rendon to the law firm he returned to following his own service as the head prosecutor for this part of the state. “I knew that if Carole decided to come back to the practice of law, she would be one of the most sought-after lawyers in the country at that point,� said Dettelbach, who served as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio from 2009 to February 2016, when he resigned to return to private practice at Clevelandbased BakerHostetler, where he is co-leader of the firm’s national white collar defense and corporate investigations team.

Now, the duo are reunited in Cleveland, thanks to a hire that partners consider a coup for the firm.

Dettelbach sought Rendon as his first assistant U.S. attorney when he took on the district’s lead prosecutor job in 2009. Rendon is the first woman to hold that position in the Justice Department’s Northern District.

Upon Dettelbach’s resignation, Rendon filled in, receiving Senate

— Steven Dettelbach, BakerHostetler, on colleague Carole Rendon Rendon

Dettelbach

confirmation for the job last July. At the direction of the Donald Trump administration’s top federal prosecutor, though, Rendon and 45 of her U.S. attorney colleagues were directed to resign in March. “We all assumed that we would eventually be replaced,� Rendon said. “That’s the norm.�

Administrations in the past have kept some U.S. attorneys. And the typical progression is for current U.S. attorneys to tender resignations once a successor is nominated.

But the country now has an atypical president. And the experience for those prosecutors was similarly atypical. “I was not expecting that on a Friday afternoon that suddenly we’d be asked to resign effectively immediately,� Rendon said. “That type of transition was not ideal.�

While her time was seemingly cut a bit short, there was a silver lining in the opportunities it created for her in the world of private practice.

As a U.S. attorney, Rendon fo-

cused efforts on, among other things, the prosecution of public corruption, civil rights, drug trafficking, consumer fraud, human trafficking and firearms crimes. Prior to serving as a chief federal law enforcement officer in Ohio, Rendon served 10 years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston, and would eventually become chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Some cases she worked on there were tied to infamous gangster Whitey Bulger (one of the mobsters that inspired the movie “The Departed").

In Cleveland, she served as lead counsel on some major civil matters, including the 2015 consent decree with the city of Cleveland reforming the police department (a result of an investigation Dettelbach oversaw).

Rendon, an alumna of Mayfield High School, surely had her pick of firms to work at. But ties to Cleveland — and encouragement from her predecessor in the Justice Department — kept her here. “When I heard the news they had

let all those U.S. attorneys go,� Dettelbach said, “I waited a respectable amount of time before I tried to get my call in a long line of calls I knew she would be getting to have her come to work.�

That period of time was about 20 minutes.

Rendon said she didn’t really take much convincing, though. “I’m a Cleveland girl, and a proud resident of ‘Believeland,’ � she said. “I spent seven-and-a-half years of my life pouring blood, sweat and tears into this city. So there was no way I was leaving.�

What really sealed the deal, Rendon said, was an opportunity to stay involved with work that’s been personally important to her in crime prevention, the heroin epidemic, improving education and cybersecurity. Rendon tutors at Memorial Elementary School in Cleveland, which she’ll continue doing. She also can stay involved in the Justice Department’s heroin task force and the Northeast Ohio CyberConsortium she established.

Those opportunities are all in addition to joining a firm with a prominent white collar and corporate investigations practice.

Yet, even for a firm with a history of landing U.S. attorneys, having two recent ones with Cleveland roots is quite meaningful for their practice.

And it’s something the firm sees attracting client interest. “Just knowing what I knew about her from following her career while she was in government, and also seeing what Steve brought to us with the same experience, I knew two had to be better than one,� said Hewitt Shaw, BakerHostetler’s managing partner of the Cleveland office. “This was a no-brainer for us.

To have them in tandem is pretty powerful.� “Here in Cleveland, we have the benefit of 100 years of roots, but that’s augmented by the perspectives and experience and expertise you get from talent across the country,� he added. “So this is hugely important for us.�

Ray Whitman, chair of the firm’s national litigation group — which comprises some 350 litigators, making it the firm’s largest practice group — said Rendon’s hire couldn’t have come at a better time for the firm. He said the practice has been a major growth point for the last seven years or so, and each year the firm is adding more people to the practice.

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017 |

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

For Sale: 71,300 SF Industrial Bldg.

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NEO is ‘a little untapped’ for DiRocco, Fifth Third

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CALL NORTHEAST OHIO’S #1

As Fifth Third Bank executes a three-year plan calling for growth in profits and cuts in costs, it’s digging for some buried treasure in its backyard of Northeast Ohio.

The Cincinnati-based bank of $143 billion in assets is certainly no stranger to the market, ranking sixth in terms of deposit market share in this region. And its swath of business lines outside the retail bank are active here, from capital markets and investment banking teams to wealth management — all of which are significant drivers of fee income for banks in a prolonged low-interest rate environment.

Yet, a recent transition in regional leadership for Fifth Third signals the bank’s efforts to grow market share in this particularly fragmented part of the state.

“When we look at the market, what we do realize is that there’s a little untapped opportunity for us in Northeast Ohio,” said Joseph DiRocco, Fifth Third’s new Northeast Ohio president. “And when you consider us collectively working together — and we have a significant number of businesses here — we think we can do

DiRocco

Kelsheimer

even more in the marketplace, and we’re going to find ways to drive that.”

DiRocco is but a few days on the job at Fifth Third, but he’s no new face, having previously served for three-and-a-half years as market president for Citizens Bank before his recent recruitment. He’s also an Akron-area native.

In his new role, DiRocco takes on daily oversight of the market here from Jerry Kelsheimer, who has stepped up into a regional chairman position.

So what’s that mean for the bank here?

Kelsheimer is not DiRocco’s immediate supervisor — Ralph “Mike” Michael, group regional president and head of Fifth Third Wealth and Asset Management, is. But the two undoubtedly will work closely together.

The transition frees up Kelsheimer, who has been market president for Northeast Ohio since 2011, to focus

more on strategies for growing some of those overall business lines, particularly fee-generating operations, as DiRocco takes on growth of the consumer and retail banks.

“We plan to add new clients across all of our business lines: commercial, wealth and consumer,” Kelsheimer said. “Joe’s arrival is a clear message to Northeast Ohio that we are very serious about that.”

When it comes to the bank’s 10-state, Midwest-centric footprint, though, Kelsheimer said the bank sees the region as an important growth market.

“Northeast Ohio, Cleveland, all the metro markets in this region, all are extremely important to Fifth Third,” Kelsheimer said. “This is a unique point at Fifth Third in we are truly investing in incremental capacity here to serve the market.”

It’s not at all surprising that Fifth Third was in the market for a veteran official in Northeast Ohio considering the bank’s efforts today.

Last September, Fifth Third CEO Greg Carmichael publicly outlined what the company has dubbed Project North Star, a three-year plan targeting a reduction in costs with an increase in revenues.

Long-term goals of that project call for achieving returns on tangible SEE FIFTH THIRD, PAGE 8

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Volume 38, Number 19 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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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017 |

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Kent’s DEEDS program has Key’s backing

By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

When Jordan Wilkins first came to Kent State University, he never thought he’d become a tutor or a mentor or a student leader. He thought he’d just go to his classes and graduate.

But Wilkins got involved in a number of programs, like the Academic S.T.A.R.S. program that helps students get acclimated to campus, and Student Support Services, both of which made Kent State feel like a smaller school. They helped him connect with administrators who care, he said, and helped him believe in himself.

“It makes it all worthwhile,” said

HE

AL TH

Wilkins, a junior marketing major and pan-African studies minor.

Today, students can find programs like these through the university’s wide-reaching Dynamic Education and Engagement of Diverse Students strategy, or DEEDS, which aims to better serve under-represented student populations. And, thanks to a new grant from the KeyBank Foundation, Kent State this fall will be embarking on a new plan to drastically increase graduation rates for those under-represented students.

DEEDS officially began in fall 2016.

It specifically works to support students who are African-American, Latino/Latina American, Native American or multiracial students whose backgrounds include one of those races, said N.J. Akbar, assistant

DEEDS program at a glance The DEEDS strategy has five main elements, said N. J. Akbar, assistant dean of University College. The programs it draws on are designed to help students: JJSucceed

academically, like through Student Support Services or tutoring a sense of belonging through programs such as support groups JJAffirm their cultures through events such as the pre-graduation Karamu Ya Wahitimu celebration JJCreate professional pathways by helping students think about career options and experiences JJInstitutionally commit to the program by looking for ways to help faculty and staff develop cultural competence or remove barriers for students JJDevelop

dean of the University College at Kent State. The strategy also serves low-income students and first-generation students.

DEEDS lets Kent State leverage existing resources that used to be in silos and find gaps in services, said Eb-

YS MIL M E S = H A P PY E

oni Pringle, dean of the University College. To that end, it’s led by the University College and the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, as well as Student Affairs, Pringle said, but spans the university community.

Overall, DEEDS is about being more

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“intentional,” Akbar said, collaborating across the university on best practices.

The strategy looks different for each student, and the university is looking to put students on personalized success plans to direct them to the programs most helpful for them. Akbar said that process was piloted this year.

On May 10, KeyBank Foundation will present Kent State with a $1 million grant for DEEDS to be spread out over four years. The university will receive $250,000 every April from 2017 through 2020, which will allow DEEDS to directly serve a cohort of 400 students through grants, a Living-Learning Community, peer-topeer mentoring and other programs.

Pringle said the goal for the grant is to raise the four-year graduation rate of the students DEEDS serves to 60% by 2021 from the 20% four-year graduation rate of the 2010 cohort. The larger DEEDS strategy will also continue to serve students outside of that cohort.

The KeyBank Foundation has been investing in education for years, said foundation chair and CEO Margot James Copeland. It believes education is the path to success, and this gift speaks to the heart of that, as it’s aimed at helping under-served students stay in school and ultimately graduate from university, she said. Often, the focus is on just getting students there.

“The game is not over,” Copeland said of entering college. “The game is really just beginning.”

Copeland said this grant to Kent State follows a similar one it gave to Cleveland State University about 18 months ago. The goal with these grants is to build the supports students need to succeed and graduate with minimum debt, Copeland said.

Pringle said that while retention and graduation rates for the under-represented student populations at Kent State had increased in recent years, it wasn’t to the same level as the other student populations. For the university’s 2010 cohort, there was a 20% gap in six-year graduation rates between under-represented students and other populations. And Akbar noted that the populations have similar academic characteristics, like GPA or ACT scores, when they enter the university.

It was important for the university to see if there were things it could do differently to better serve under-represented students, Pringle said.

Students from under-represented backgrounds don’t always do well at predominantly white universities, as they don’t feel as connected to the institution, Pringle said. And when a population feels marginalized, they may not take advantage of resources, like tutoring, that could further put them in the spotlight. One of the goals of DEEDS is to help form those connections.

Felix Reynoso, a senior air traffic control major, said programs he’s been involved with like the Male Empowerment Network, as well as the mentors he’s met along the way, have helped him stay at Kent. The network supports men of color (though it doesn’t discriminate, and is open to others) academically, professionally and socially, and helped him become a leader, he said.

Reynoso is also a URS male ambassador who represents men of color on campus. Oftentimes, he said, men of color can feel overwhelmed at Kent State, where most of their peers aren’t going to share their culture. His responsibility is, in part, to help share concerns and help the university be more racially conscious. The DEEDS-related programs he’s been involved with have been “life-changing,” he said.

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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PA G E 7

ESPN Cleveland puts premium on podcasts

By KEVIN KLEPS

marketing to an online platform to the advantage of both without hurting themselves,� the veteran of 49 years in the industry said. “This is the challenge of our times.�

kkleps@crain.com @KevinKleps

ESPN Cleveland’s May 1 announcement that it is offering commercial-free versions of its radio programs to paid subscribers has elicited nearly opposite responses from the social media and radio industries.

Chris McNeil, a digital marketer whose popular Reflog Twitter account has taken aim at ESPN Cleveland in the past, knew he was going to have a bunch of new material as soon as he saw a tweet announcing The Land On Demand.

In the first few days after ESPN Cleveland said it was going to charge monthly and yearly rates for the extended podcasts, McNeil’s 51,000 Twitter followers probably noticed countless GIFs, jokes and screenshots of negative reviews of The Land On Demand app. It wasn’t quite the “Perfect Season Parade� McNeil had been planning for a winless Browns campaign in 2016, but a lot of Northeast Ohio sports fans were joining in on the fun. “Just about anything that comes up can be mocked,� said McNeil, a Revere High School graduate whose family owns Pinnacle Metal Products in Columbus. “I think in this case, ESPN Cleveland, some of their personalities, especially on social, have kind of gone out of their way to be a little bit aloof.�

Michael Harrison, the publisher and founder of TALKERS Magazine, doesn't find the thought of subscribers paying $8.50 a month or $85 a year for WKNR-AM, 850 programming amusing. He used another description: innovative. “The reason it doesn’t surprise me is because the biggest problem facing commercial radio is the commer-

Ask and you shall ...

“We know the way fans are consuming media in an on-demand world. They don’t have the time or resources they once had. We’re providing them what they asked for.� — Keith Williams, ESPN Cleveland’s vice president and general manager

cials,� Harrison said. “It’s really a problem.�

On the surface, what ESPN Cleveland, which is owned by Beaver Dam, Wis.-based Good Karma Brands, is doing — charging for content — is far from new, even in the still-taking-off world of podcasting. But a radio station reproducing its content and charging for it, instead of relying on sponsorships, is a bit outside the box, Harrison said. “This is part of a bigger trend. The challenge facing AM and FM radio is to integrate their programming and

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Keith Williams, ESPN Cleveland’s vice president and general manager, said full-length podcasts — rather than a couple segments from each show that had been available as free podcasts — are “the No. 1 thing our fans have been asking for.�

The company is investing resources into the programming that is posted on The Land On Demand’s website and app, from the staff needed to edit out the commercials to the Boxcast equipment that provides a live video feed of each show that is made available to subscribers. “We know the way fans are consuming media in an on-demand world,� Williams said. “They don’t have the time or resources they once had. We’re providing them what they asked for.�

The latter obviously is only true of a small portion of any terrestrial radio station’s audience, since getting customers to pay for content they’re accustomed to receiving for free is a constant battle for any broadcasting and publishing entity. “If they’re charging people to listen to it on the air, then people should grumble,� TALKERS’ Harrison said. “But what the hell do they have to grumble about? They don’t want radio stations to make a living?�

The criticism, however, has been widespread, and it’s not just because McNeil and his crew got involved. The iTunes and Google Play reviews for The Land On Demand app have been mostly negative, and Williams admits there have been “some glitches.�

An updated version of the app will be out soon, he said, and the expected early hiccups are why ESPN Cleveland initially offered a free seven-day trial of The Land On Demand.

On May 4, they extended it to 14 days. “We see everything,� Williams said of the social-media reactions. “We don’t pay too much attention to it, but we want to hear from our fans, and hear what they want from this app.�

And the app has had some early success, the ESPN Cleveland VP said.

In the first three days, The Land On Demand had more than 1,300 downloads.

‘It’s tough out there’ For ESPN Cleveland to build and sustain a sizable customer base for its premium podcasts, the content has to be compelling, Harrison and other radio executives told Crain’s.

With that in mind, The Land On Demand has bonus material available, and more is on the way.

WKNR Classics looks back at memorable radio programs, and the episodes from such hot-topic days as the Cavs’ championship parade and the Browns finally cutting ties with Johnny Manziel. There will also be some “uncensored shows,� which Williams describes as “off-the-cuff� discussions that would come under FCC scrutiny on the traditional AM dial. “We love the FCC, but this gives us a platform to do that,� Williams said.

Mark Biviano — a senior vice president of Rubber City Radio Group, which operates three Akron stations (WAKR-AM, 1590; WQMX-FM, 94.9; WONE-FM, 97.5), plus Independence-based WNWV-FM, 107.3 — said he isn’t sure if enough listeners will be willing to pay for full shows in

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podcast form. But he likes the idea. “The content is already there,� Biviano said. “They’ve already produced it. Why not repurpose the content?�

Rubber City Radio, like most traditional stations, makes certain radio segments available as free podcasts.

Those have a sponsored page on each station's website. “Are we going to make money doing it?� Biviano said. “It’s going to be pennies. But pennies have a way of growing into dollars. We’re all looking for new revenue streams. It’s tough out there.�

A prominent Cleveland radio personality, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Crain’s he thinks ESPN Cleveland’s asking price for The Land On Demand is excessive, but he believes the model is one that will be watched by industry pros. “It’s risky because you don’t want to nickel-and-dime people for content that was previously free, but consumers may also be evolving to say they’re OK with it,� he said.

John Gorman, a Cleveland radio vet who launched oWow, an internet radio station, in 2015, said ESPN Cleveland is “overvaluing� its programming. But, he added, “I admire any terrestrial radio station these days that thinks outside of the box and tries to improve upon the listening experience.�

Williams, who has been with Good Karma for more than 18 years, said ESPN Cleveland will continue to post free podcasts — but they will be only brief snippets (thus far, in the 3-minute range) of an interview or segment.

The rest comes with a price.

That’s OK, Harrison said. “The fact of the matter is people are willing to pay for things we never thought they’d pay for before,� the TALKERS founder said.

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Simply by the nature of the Clinic

COSGROVE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

and the position it holds nationally, whoever next holds the title of CEO will have a national platform in health care, said Tim Jarm, president and CEO of the Center for Health Affairs, an advocacy group for Northeast Ohio hospitals.

Of course, that individual will then have to earn their own reputation, he said. “But I think just initially, that individual will have a voice just merely because of the space that the Cleveland Clinic occupies in health care delivery.”

New leader Earlier this year, Cosgrove withdrew his name from consideration to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — the second time he was on the list of potential leaders for the department.

Both times, names of potential successors were tossed around, a couple of which appear on a current list making the rounds: Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic, CEO of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi; and Dr. Brian Donley, the Clinic’s chief of staff.

According to a Clinic insider, the list of possible successors also includes Dr. Wael Barsoum, president of Cleveland Clinic Florida and a member of the Clinic’s board of governors and executive team; Dr. Conor P. Delaney, chairman of the Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute; Dr. J. Stephen Jones, president of the Clinic’s regional hospitals and family health centers; Dr. Daniel F. Martin, chairman of the Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute; and Dr. Robert Wyllie, chief of medical operations.

Cosgrove’s announcement didn’t come “as a bolt from the blue,” said Bob Rich, chairman of the board of directors for the Cleveland Clinic.

Cosgrove said he has been seriously considering retirement for a num-

ber of years. While there’s never a perfect time to leave, now is “as good as we’re going to get.”

“I have had the opportunity to continue to grow the organization. We are in great shape right now,” Cosgrove said. “We have a whole group of leaders that have been groomed over time, and I thought there was never a better time to make this happen.”

Rich, who has known Cosgrove since the two were fraternity brothers in college, said he first heard that Cosgrove would be leaving his role last year. The Clinic has long been preparing for such a day. Recognizing that the Clinic would need bandwidth of leadership both for anyone who needed a successor as well as for the Clinic’s continued growth, Cosgrove was behind a major program for succession planning, Rich said.

“Thanks to Toby’s wisdom in that, we’re well-positioned,” he said.

Rich will chair the selection committee, which will be comprised of several members of the board of directors, and an equal number of members from the board of governors, including Cosgrove, who chairs this board.

Though there’s been a lot of speculation on the system’s next leader, Rich stresses that everyone who throws their hat in the ring has the opportunity to get a fair hearing. Though he didn’t say the search would exclusively be internal, he noted that Clinic doctors “are going to have a tremendous leg up on anybody else.”

Whoever comes next will have some big shoes to fill, said Fred DeGrandis, president of NorthShore Healthcare, who worked at the Clinic for much of Cosgrove’s tenure. The next CEO will need to check many of the leadership boxes: vision, wisdom, experience, intellect.

And especially, DeGrandis said, courage to make the decisions that aren’t obvious and may not have a consensus.

“Who’s going to advance the interests of the patients? Who’s going to

More online: For a timeline of Toby Cosgrove’s career with the Clinic, go to crainscleveland.com

advance the interest of the community?” he said. “And how are we going to be assured that this leader is going to take on the qualities which Toby lived, which is to be a servant leader.

And that’s what they should look for.”

The committee isn’t looking for someone to overhaul the Clinic, which is “so exceptionally strong,” Rich said. They’re looking for someone with ideas for the future and a deep understanding of the Clinic’s culture so they can put their own personality into the job.

Cosgrove’s legacy Asked what Cosgrove’s legacy will be, his friends and colleagues list accomplishments from his time as a surgeon in the U.S. Air Force, when he served in Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam; to the 22,000 operations he performed in his near 30-year career as a cardiac surgeon; to, of course, his tenure at the helm of the Clinic.

“He has led this organization to heights that I don’t think any of us could imagine when he started this job 13 years ago,” Rich said.

Between 2004, when Cosgrove became CEO, and 2016, many metrics at the Clinic more than doubled: Revenues grew from $3.7 billion to $8.5 billion; total visits from 2.8 million to 7.1 million; the number of physician-scientists from 1,800 to 3,400; and research funding grew from $121 million to $260 million.

“Toby had many, many great accomplishments, but I think his best was on day one,” DeGrandis said.

“And on day one, Toby articulated the mantra of ‘patients first,’ and Toby stayed on it every day.”

This set the foundation for the next 13 years, during which he hired the system’s first chief patient experience officer, launched major wellness initiatives, envisioned same-day medical appoint-

ments and reorganized clinical services into a patient-centered model of care around organs and diseases.

The system now has multiple locations in Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Canada, Abu Dhabi and, coming in 2020, London.

In many ways, Cosgrove’s legacy is still being shaped, with many of his initiatives just taking root (like international operations) or yet to come, such as the health education campus, a joint effort with Case Western Reserve University.

Barbara Snyder, president of Case, said she looks forward to continuing to work on the health education campus with Cosgrove in his advisory role and with his successor, who she hopes will have “similar enthusiasm for interprofessional education and stateof-the-art teaching and learning.”

Rich said Cosgrove’s legacy will be measured on his time as a surgeon, his leadership of the Clinic, his respected voice in health care across the country and globe, and also, who comes next.

“Any leader will be and should be judged by what he does as far as succession,” he said. “We know his past, we know the present, but this will speak to how the Clinic structures itself and is ready for the future.”

As for Cosgrove’s future, he’s been vague. Beyond the advisory role, Cosgrove said he’s been approached by different organizations, but “my first commitment is to Cleveland.”

Those who know him, however, are confident that he will never fully retire.

There are other chapters for Cosgrove, DeGrandis said. And more chapters for the Clinic, as a leader in health services and policy.

“The impact of the individual that will take on this role has broad reach,” he said. “No question the country is watching, because they’re aware of the influence Dr. Cosgrove has had not only at the clinic but in health care in general across the country and beyond.”

FIFTH THIRD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

common equity of 12% to 14% (it was at 11.6% in 2016, according to company filings) and return on assets of 1.1% to 1.3% (it was 1.1% in 2016) by the end of 2019. During the bank’s recent first-quarter earnings call, Fifth Third CFO Tayfun Tuzun told investors the bank already was running ahead of schedule in meeting some of those goals because of the interest rate hike, adding the company is assuming the Fed will raise rates at least twice more this year.

Yet, a goal of Project North Star, which executives generally consider a roadmap for making Fifth Third a high-performing bank, is to not lose vision of those goals, regardless of those market factors.

“A big part of that project is to identify revenue growth opportunities and focusing on areas for top-line growth in the business overall,” Kelsheimer said. “Northeast Ohio is one of those identified areas.”

In terms of cost savings, the bank is shrinking its branch footprint to save millions. Kelsheimer wouldn’t get into whether there are plans for further retail office reductions in Northeast Ohio, saying only that “we never stop thinking about the right balance” in the branch network. He added that the bank “feels good” about where the consumer bank is — but it may try to push for more deposit growth under DiRocco’s leadership.

According to Crain’s research, the bank grew its deposits in the 15-county Northeast Ohio area by just more than 1% in 2016 over the prior year, which was the smallest increase of the top 15 banks in this region that saw growth. (Three of those banks saw their deposit numbers fall.)

On the lending front, DiRocco said hiring more commercial and relationship bankers is “probably” his first priority, which would fuel growth by acquiring new clients.

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Opinion From the Editor

What would you say to graduates?

Editorial

Well done, Toby The Cleveland Clinic’s growth over the last decade or so is the result of the hard work of many, but there’s no denying Dr. Toby Cosgrove played a critical role in defining the Clinic’s modern era. From the crisp white walls and cold steel outfitting the system’s newest facilities to the hard-line stance against smokers, Cosgrove’s influence at the system runs deep.

He announced last week that he would be stepping down as CEO by year’s end after 13 years in the role, and it’s difficult to imagine what a Cosgrove-less Clinic might look like. But given Cosgrove’s lengthy reign — one that outlasted the typical tenure of a hospital CEO — it’s due time for fresh leadership.

The Clinic, of course, is hardly struggling — and we’re certainly not cheering Cosgrove’s departure.

After all, under Cosgrove’s watch, its revenues more than doubled to a staggering $8.5 billion, its reputation was bolstered across the country and abroad, and it opened a series of remarkable facilities that have treated the sickest of the sick. And though last year was moderately challenging — it still boasted an impressive profit margin of about 3% — the Clinic continues to be an economic anchor in Northeast Ohio.

However, even the best-run institutions can benefit from fresh eyes in the top job. And when you have one as powerful as the Clinic — Cuyahoga County’s largest employer — that need for a fresh perspective is only amplified.

The Clinic has a long-running tradition of choosing a physician as its chief executive — one likely from its own ranks. And there are a handful of attractive candidates already on the Clinic’s payroll.

Perhaps the highest-profile, at least locally, is Dr. Brian Donley, an orthopedic surgeon now serving as the Clinic’s chief of staff. Donley, who has swiftly risen through the ranks in recent years, has proven himself to be an articulate spokesman for the Clinic.

Another rumored contender is said to be Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic, the chief executive at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, an ac-

complished heart surgeon and one of Cosgrove’s most-prized recruits. And, of course, there are others.

Cosgrove’s predecessor, Dr. Floyd Loop, had no intention of leaving his post as the Clinic’s head of cardiothoracic surgery to pursue the chief executive role, which he held from 1989 through 2004.

In 2010, Loop told Crain’s, “I only threw my hat in the ring after I listened to 30 proposals from people who wanted to be the head of the Clinic and I didn’t like any of them. So I sat in my library over the weekend and wrote a plan for the Cleveland Clinic.” Loop passed away in 2015.

We’re hopeful any docs vying for the job in 2017 take a similar approach. After all, the Clinic is far from perfect — the same can be said for any business. And given the uncertainty facing the industry, we’re hopeful the Clinic taps an innovative physician who is also comfortable on the national stage pushing for sensible health care policies that work for the American people.

Also, upon his retirement, Loop largely separated himself from the health system and let Cosgrove make his own mark on the enterprise — something he most certainly did. It would be admirable for Cosgrove to follow a similar path.

But as we speculate what role Cosgrove may tackle next, it’s important to remember this is an individual whom many never expected would make it through medical school, much less onto a decorated military career or the highest rung in medicine.

In college, Cosgrove — who has struggled with dyslexia his entire life — majored in history because, as he told Bloomberg in 2015, it was “the only thing I could major in, because my grades were so bad in everything else.” Talk about an inspiration.

Yes, Cosgrove has his rough edges and made a few headline-grabbing gaffes over the years. But his sincerity and passion for his work has elevated the Clinic — and, in turn, Cleveland — to new heights.

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

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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Commencement season is about ready to start, with Northeast Ohio colleges such as Cleveland State, Case Western Reserve University and Tri-C holding their ceremonies later this month. Soon fresh-faced graduates will be joining the work ranks, but before they do, they will hear inspirational words from their commencement speaker.

Hopefully, this year’s speakers will leave graduates with memorable nuggets of advice that they will carry with them as they chart their future. They probably will hear something similar to what Amazon founder Jeff Bezos told the Princeton class of 2012: “Cleverness is a gift; kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard.”

I unfortunately don’t remember any words of wisdom from my graduation speaker. My Elizabeth memories are of standing in freezing cold drizMcIntyre zle as actor Bernie Casey delivered his remarks at my graduation from Bowling Green State University in 1989. (You might have seen the BGSU alum in “Revenge of the Nerds,” “Never Say Never Again” or “Cleopatra Jones.”) All I remember from that May day was a feeling of profound gratitude that he kept his comments mercifully short because of the weather.

Knowing most graduates will be hearing blah blah blah … I reached out to a handful of Northeast Ohio’s business leaders to see what message they’d want to deliver to this year’s graduates, the young people about to enter the working world. Their comments are brief and meaningful, perfect no matter the commencement day weather.

Darrrell L. McNair, president and CEO of MVP Plastics, did not, as you might expect, deliver his advice in just two words: “Plastics, Benjamin.” Most of the class of 2017 wouldn’t get the reference as they weren’t even born when “The Graduate” hit the big screen in 1967.

“Dear Graduate — First and foremost, congratulations on the commitment you have made to your education over the last few years. The time spent has allowed you to sharpen your tools in pursuit of great things. Achieving great things requires extraordinary effort. Now that you have completed step one, continue to dream and always believe.”

Paul Wellener, managing principal for Deloitte in Cleveland, reminds graduates that school isn’t the only place to get an education.

“Learning is a life-long endeavor, so your education is not over on graduation day! Every day, every encounter, everything you do should help you grow as a person. Pay attention to the people around you along the way. Reach out to them, leverage friendships, create and maintain relationships for the future. Be generous. Get involved in your communities. Remember, it’s not where you start, but where you finish.”

Paul Clark, regional president for PNC Bank in Cleveland, says it boils down to one word.

“Always enthusiastically say YES to new career opportunities and to community engagement opportunities! You ARE ready NOW! You don’t have the time to do community work, but you WILL make it work. You’ll never know where YES will take you on your professional journey and how cool that future will be!”

And, he says, you have to put in the work.

“Buy an alarm clock. Set it for 5:00 a.m. and don’t ever change it.

Go in early and stay late. You will distinguish yourself with your personal work ethic. You will get more done. You will be there when some senior leader is looking for someone to do something!”

Robyn Minter Smyers, Cleveland partner in charge for Thompson Hine LLP, wants the Class of 2017 to value diversity.

“Work for inclusion as you go out into the world. It’s not just the right thing to do — studies show that diverse teams are both SEE MCINTYRE, PAGE 11

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.

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HOW BAD IS THAT LEAK?

MCINTYRE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

more profitable and more innovative. As you advance in your career, you’ll have the opportunity to form teams, mentor others, participate in hiring decisions and perhaps eventually even be the boss. Remember to combat affinity bias and include people who differ from your own age, gender, ethnicity, etc. Your organization will benefit from your efforts, and everyone will benefit from your example.”

She also shared the best piece of professional advice she has ever received: Become indispensable.

“What makes a person indispensable? Of course, the answer depends upon the context. At a law firm, the young lawyer who keeps

track of every document, creates lists of outstanding issues and tasks without being asked and stops by my office and asks if he/ she can be of assistance quickly becomes indispensable. Wherever you land when you graduate, there will always be a place and advancement opportunities for the person who is indispensable.”

And Jack Schron, the CEO of Jergens Inc. and a member of Cuyahoga County Council, says it is important to always aspire.

“When you graduate from school. you are in your youth, having just completed your preparation to move down life’s pathway. To ensure you will always stay young, make sure your list of dreams and hopes is always a longer list than your list of accomplishments. Remembering that they are just as per-

sonal to you if your dreams and hopes are for your family, friends, business, community or your faith.”

Robert J. Klonk, CEO of Oswald Companies, encourages graduates to get into the game.

“Don’t take one minute of life for granted. Time is your most precious commodity. We have enough bystanders in the game of life.

Don’t take up space. Make a positive difference in the world and pursue your dreams with passion and never settle for anything less than excellence in what you deliver. Life is simple. You can make excuses or you can make things happen, but you can’t do both!”

And for what it’s worth, here’s my advice to graduates: “Ask a diverse group of smart, driven and successful people for their advice.

And follow it.”

Letter to the Editor

Fund CVNP to keep it a well-maintained economic asset Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s waterfalls, scenic railroad, biking, hiking and horseback riding trails make it a popular place to experience Ohio’s natural and historic treasures. A recent National Park Service report makes it clear just how important CVNP is to Ohio’s economy as well: In 2016, 2.5 million visitors generated $87 million in local spending and supported more than 1,000 jobs (“Cuyahoga Valley National Park generates $70 million in visitor spending, report says,” April 24).

But what also should be understood is that the park’s 250 historic buildings, trails, and roads — and the economic impact that visitors to our national parks bring — are imperiled by a deferred maintenance price tag of about $42 million, part of a $12 billion

backlog faced by national parks across the country.

Fortunately, a solution is at hand. The National Park Service Legacy Act, co-introduced recently by U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, would establish a dedicated funding source to repair and maintain our parks by allocating $50 million annually from the government’s revenues from oil and natural gas royalties.

CVNP has long been a beloved place for Ohioans.

It’s time for our lawmakers in Washington to protect its future so that generations of visitors may continue to enjoy the majestic wonders and historical treasures offered by our national parks.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017

Focus Jules Belkin, 86 Page 14

Jean Murrell Capers, 104 Page 15

Peter van Dijk, 88 Page 16

Eight Over 80 F

Clara Rankin, 99 Page 17

William Denihan, 80 Page 19

or these eight individuals, age is simply a number — not a defining characteristic. While they might have retired in the traditional sense, they remain active in civic affairs and, in a few cases, the business world. They continue to teach, counsel and — perhaps most importantly — inspire.

This year’s Eight Over 80 class was culled by our editorial team from a pool of more than 100 nominations.

And certainly, all of the individuals nominated were remarkable in their own right, but this group quickly rose to the top. We weren’t looking for people who simply had lengthy and distinguished careers, but rather those who continue to embody hard work, compassion and intelligence and use those attributes to better our society.

From the unshakable public servant in William Denihan, who just recently turned 80, to Cleveland’s favorite daughter, the sage 104-year-old Judge Jean Murrell Capers, we’re hopeful you’ll find inspiration in the stories of these eight.

Portraits by Jason Miller for Crain’s

Dr. Russell Platt, 89 Page 20

Bruce Akers, 83 Page 18

Walter D. Mueller, 89 Page 21

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PA G E 13

PA G E 14

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017 |

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

EIGHT OVER 80

Jules Belkin, 86

By TIMOTHY MAGAW

The Belkin file

tmagaw@crain.com @timmagaw

Mentor: Collectively, his Russian ancestors. “We’re first-generation Americans. I go back to my own family and wonder how in the 1920s they came over from a foreign country not knowing the language and were able to become very successful.”

J

ules Belkin’s importance to Cleveland’s rise as a destination for musicians of all genres is evidenced by the thousands of concert tickets bearing his family’s name now stowed away in old cigar boxes.

It’s been more than half a century since he and his brother, Mike, produced the first Belkin Production — a double bill featuring The Four Freshmen and The New Christy Minstrels. They sold their operation to Live Nation in 2001, but even today, many artists’ appreciation for Cleveland is due largely to having worked with the Belkins.

Still, even while discussing the business, Jules is very matter-of-fact about it all. The brothers sort of stumbled into the business while working for their family’s clothing store and doing some booking on the side.

“When we started the business, it was relatively new. There were no guidelines,” said Jules Belkin, who handled the marketing and production aspects while Mike handed most of the bookings. “There were no examples to go from. Nothing out there. Everything out there was being improvised on both sides of the concert stage — performer and promoter. Everything was by the seat of your pants.”

It didn’t take long for them to be pegged as the go-to promoters in Cleveland — after all, they were the only ones. And during their reign over the Cleveland concert scene, Belkin was in the midst of some of

Best piece of advice he’s received: “When you have to negotiate a business deal or solve a domestic problem, it’s best if both parties involved feel like it’s a win/win.”

Secret to life: “If it’s too loud, you’re too old!”

Jules Belkin: “I made up my mind when I left the business that I wanted to not totally cut the ties, but I don’t want to know who the upcoming band is or the new guys on the block are.” (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

the greats: Simon & Garfunkel, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, among others.

Belkin said it might have been the Northeast Ohio Jazz Festival in 1966 — just a few weeks after the Hough riots — that put Belkin Productions on the map. It was the Belkins’ first profitable venture, and one that couldn’t have come at a more critical time. The pair had become disillusioned with the business after a cancellation from The Mamas & The

Papas that, while no fault of the Belkins, had put the burgeoning company’s reputation on the line.

Looking back, Belkin doesn’t necessarily rattle off names of the rock ‘n’ roll elite with whom he rubbed elbows when describing the company’s run. It was just a way to make a living. That said, Belkin had a humanistic approach to the industry — one that’s not always apparent in the cutthroat concert business.

“The No. 1 lesson I learned from

Jules is that you have your name.

That is the most important thing you can do business on, so don’t ruin it,” said longtime Belkin associate Barry Gabel, now senior vice president for marketing and sponsorship sales for Live Nation.

Gabel added, “I know a lot of people like me who have worked for mom-and-pop promoters around the country and were very jealous of the relationship Jules has had with his employees. Through all the years

I worked with Jules, he made you feel like a partner and not necessarily an employee.”

These days, Belkin is involved with the Cleveland International Film Festival, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

“I made up my mind when I left the business that I wanted to not totally cut the ties, but I don’t want to know who the upcoming band is or the new guys on the block are. I really didn’t stay away deliberately, but I’d go down to the hall when there were bands I was friendly with or I knew the management. It was a new experience for me. When I was working, I’d never get to see a band.

I’d be backstage settling a show, so for me, sitting out in an audience is something I’d never experienced.”

Some recent ones? Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Bruce Springsteen and, of course, Paul Simon, a favorite of his wife, Fran, to whom he’s been married for 55 years.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017

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PA G E 15

EIGHT OVER 80

Jean Murrell Capers, 104

By TIMOTHY MAGAW

The Capers file

tmagaw@crain.com @timmagaw

Mentors: Her parents, Edward and Dolly Murrell

J

Best advice she’s received: Be persistent, if you fail initially. “There are so many aspects of learning that you can pursue. It’s not just one or two that are very important. That’s not the way the individual is made and conceived.”

udge Jean Murrell Capers is as iconic in Cleveland as the Guardians of Traffic on the Hope Memorial Bridge — and whose presence, despite her small frame, is just as imposing. During her lengthy career —and well into her retirement — Capers has been a champion for the rights of the disenfranchised.

And with her having lived a life of many firsts, her influence still is felt today more than 30 years after she retired from the bench.

Capers, who was born in Kentucky in 1912 and moved to Cleveland when she was a child, graduated from Western Reserve University in 1932. She went on to become a teacher and even won the city of Cleveland tennis championship in 1941 (the tennis courts at Rockefeller Park in Cleveland now bear her name).

However, it was after earning her law degree from Cleveland Law School (now Cleveland-Marshall) in 1945 that set the stage for the rest of her career — one that would be defined by her passion for helping the poor.

What intrigues Capers most about law is that it is something that needs to be continually studied — well beyond law school. Continual education and the persistent need to better one’s understanding of the subjects at hand were values instilled very early by parents, Edward and Dolly Murrell, who met at Kentucky’s State Normal School for Colored Persons, which later became Kentucky State.

“The law is something that you just continue to study because it leads

Secret to life: When asked, “I didn’t know there was a secret. It has a great deal to do with what your definition of ‘secret’ would be. Living is about life, and that’s all that we are here for every day.”

Judge Jean Murrell Capers: “The law is about people and their experiences. For that particular reason, it meant that you were changing continually. You didn’t stay on one path at all.” (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

from one thing to another,” Capers said. “The law is about people and their experiences. For that particular reason, it meant that you were changing continually. You didn’t stay on one path at all.”

Capers was the first African-American woman elected to Cleveland City Council, in 1949. By compari-

son, it wouldn’t be until over 20 years later that Chicago would elect its first African-American councilwoman.

During her tenure, Capers fought against segregation in local industry and fought for more jobs for black Clevelanders. She never considered herself much of a politician, but rather a student of the law — and thus the

rights guaranteed by it to people of all backgrounds.

Among her many roles, she served as a special counsel to the Ohio Attorney General from 1964 to 1966 and was an original member of the Women’s Advisory Council of the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services. She was appointed a judge for

the Cleveland Municipal Court in 1977 and served on the bench until 1986 before pursuing a career in private practice.

At 104, Capers remains an inspiration to many Clevelanders — old and young. One of those is William Tarter Jr., one of Cleveland’s civic-minded young professionals. Capers’ father was friends and neighbors with Tarter’s great-grandfather, Dr. Ulysses S. Tarter, who passed away in 1946.

“Judge Capers has told me all of these stories about him, so it feels like I have gotten to know him, even 70 years after his passing,” said Tarter, a policy planning associate at The Center for Community Solutions.

He added, “Judge Capers inspires for who she is, and what she stands for, as well as the knowledge and experiences that she freely shares. She is a trailblazer and is a window into history of the black community in general, life in the city of Cleveland, the state and our country.”

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PA G E 16

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017 |

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

EIGHT OVER 80

Peter van Dijk, 88

By STAN BULLARD

The van Dijk file

sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter

Mentor: Eero Saarinen, his first boss in architecture, who was known for a neofuturistic style.

P

eter van Dijk continues to sketch today, as he did as a youngster and as a young architect who drew pictures of Italy’s buildings during a Fulbright in Rome.

The latest is of a grain elevator and pair of silos he spotted along the Ohio Turnpike, which he chose because it resembled a crucifix. It’s on the wall of his Cleveland home along with a gallery of drawings serious and whimsical as well as mementos of a storied career.

He retired in 2006 from what is now DLR | Westlake Reed Leskosky, a firm where he’d been a name principal since 1966 and joined in the early 1960s after coming to Cleveland to oversee design of the 1 millionsquare-foot Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building. However, he keeps his hand in attending architecture programs, evaluating senior projects at architecture schools and keeps an active schedule of civic activities. “When he attends a Cleveland AIA event or lecture, the young architects in the room look at Pete the way others around the country look at starchitects,� said Robert Maschke, principal of the namesake Robert Maschke Architects of Cleveland. “He has made a major influence on Cleveland. He spends a lot of time with architects like myself and those just out of school.�

Civically, he is on the board of the Cleveland Arts Prize, which he won himself, and remains on the board of the Cleveland Institute of Art, which he joined 40 years ago. He serves on

Best piece of advice he’s received: “There’s no one solution. Design really means exploring the possibilities,� which he heard from Saarinen.

Secret to life: “My life has been a series of lucky breaks. Be ready when opportunities show up.�

Peter van Dijk designed more than 50 buildings in Northeast Ohio as his firm had a hand in projects at local colleges and universities, hospitals and theaters. (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

the Cleveland City Planning Commission’s Euclid Corridor design review panel, and until two years ago served on the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s bond accountability commission on construction spending.

Van Dijk has lived long enough to see some of the projects he designed as a young man celebrate their 50th anniversaries, as Blossom Music Center will next year, and others such as the federal building, four buildings that launched the campus of Ur-

suline College in Pepper Pike and University School’s first building in Hunting Valley.

The arc of his work in Cleveland is tremendous. From the 32-story federal building that was finished when he was 32, he has designed more than 50 buildings in Northeast Ohio as his firm had a hand in projects at local colleges and universities, hospitals and theaters.

Van Dijk is widely celebrated. He is a fellow in the American Institute of Architects and received the Ohio

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AIA’s gold medal. He also was inducted into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame for swimming.

He was born in what’s now Indonesia where his father and mother lived due to his father’s assignment as an engineer for Shell and spent his formative years in Venezuela. However, World War II changed his life.

On a regular visit home, he and his brother were scheduled to remain behind and attend a Dutch boarding school when the war broke out. He remembers watching German planes

fly overhead en route to bomb England. Instead of remaining at Shell’s headquarters as planned, van Dijk’s father was assigned to its New York office. In the end, they remained in the United States. He studied architecture at the University of Oregon.

After graduating, the new U.S. citizen was drafted during the Korean war. He’d planned on going to work after the service, but a fellow soldier and architect convinced him to attend graduate school on the G.I. Bill.

He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied with famed architect Louis Kahn, which led him to the powerhouse firm of Eero Saarinen in Birmingham, Mich.

While working one evening in graduate school, he was told Saarinen would like to talk with him. They conversed and as the great walked away, he asked him to draw a horse. “I thought, how do the hoofs and the heels go together,� van Dijk asked himself. “When Saarinen returned, I had drawn the rear end of a horse with a tail.�

That drawing of a horse’s ass launched his storied career.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017

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PA G E 17

EIGHT OVER 80

Clara Rankin, 99

By LYDIA COUTRÉ

The Rankin file

lcoutre@crain.com @LydiaCoutre

Best piece of advice she’s received: “Go forward with multiple interests.”

S

taff and board members at Hopewell have proposed naming buildings after the therapeutic farm community’s founder, but “she will have none of that,” said Rick Karges, executive director and CEO. “It’s just not her style,” he said.

The only piece of the nonprofit organization that displays her name is a series of nature trails, the Clara Rankin Preserve.

Seeing the need for a unique space to take care of those with mental illnesses, Rankin founded the farm in 1993 in what she calls a “late life endeavor that has kept me busy.”

It offers a residential community for adults with serious mental illness, which typically include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder and major depression. Residents all work collaboratively on the farm to sustain it, building a sense of community.

Residents, who come from across the country, care for animals, tend to the gardens, work in the kitchen, assist with housekeeping, take care of the grounds and more. From the beginning, Rankin said her major interest was in socialization, backed by medical treatment as needed, but not with the prominence it may have in a more traditional health care setting.

Rankin is quick to shift the spotlight from herself to the board members, staff and residents living on the farm.

“Rather than talk about my role, I would like to emphasize the role of all those who have kept it going,” she said.

“With a broad emphasis on the staff, who do a very hard job day after day.

Secret to life: “Stay engaged, and be curious.”

Clara Rankin: “I think that the stories of those who have benefited from the treatment at Hopewell really are a testimony to its efficacy.” (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

And they do it with great care for each separate individual.”

Hopewell, located on 300 acres in rural Mesopotamia, Ohio, accepted its first residents in 1996. It can serve up to 40 adults on its main campus and five individuals in the adult family home located nearby. Typically, the organization is at 80% to 85% capacity, with an average length of stay of about three to four months, Karges said.

“Everybody knows that the need is out there, and the question is (how) to get care to the many people who need it,

and get them off the streets,” said Rankin, whose background is in the arts rather than health care. “They need to get the care, and it’s not always easy to make the connection between the one who needs it and the place to go.”

Karges, who has been with Hopewell for almost a decade, said Rankin is a “remarkable” person. She had an idea and ran with it, pulling together key people to make it happen. And she continues to look ahead at how Hopewell can grow.

“She’s modest, and she’ll say, ‘Well, I was just one of the founders,’

or ‘I was just one of the people involved,’” he said. “It was her initiative, her drive to make this happen.”

Hopewell is the only therapeutic farm community in Ohio. A few more exist in the country, but the model remains rare.

Hopewell’s vision is more holistic, engaging residents in meaningful work in a therapeutic supportive community. Residents can participate in group counseling, nature studies, meditation, spirituality groups, equine-assisted learning and creative

expression, such as art therapy and music. They also learn money management, independent living skills and independent relationship skills and have opportunities for their education.

“I think that the stories of those who have benefited from the treatment at Hopewell really are a testimony to its efficacy,” she said. “I just think it’s the most heartwarming thing to see how people have been helped.”

Residents have gone on to different jobs, educational opportunities and more. Only about 15% of residents who leave Hopewell return to the hospital, Karges said. Many move onto more self-sufficient living situations, he said, either independently, with their family or in group homes.

Though Hopewell has gained some ground in getting insurance reimbursements, a heavy portion can still be self-pay. Contributions during an annual fundraiser, Summer Solstice, all go toward subsidizing care.

Still an active member of the board of directors, Rankin steps back to ensure that everyone’s opinion counts in decision making, Karges said.

“She’s extremely intelligent, very likable, very engaging and really is very genuine in terms of what she wants to accomplish,” he said. “She’s one of the most unique people I’ve ever met, and one of the most special people I’ve ever met.”

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PA G E 18

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017 |

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

EIGHT OVER 80

Bruce Akers, 83

By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY

The Akers file

rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

Mentor: No one stands out in particular, but he was fortunate to have parents who encouraged him to get involved.

T

Bruce Akers, on making a difference: “I believe very strongly that it’s critical for everybody to give back to their community in one way or another.” (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

The David Cutler Conservatory on Hopewell’s 300 acre farm campus in Mesopotamia, Ohio

Hopewell Congratulates Its Founder, Clara T. Rankin One of Crain’s “Eight over 80” in 2017

he common thread running through Bruce H. Akers’ life has always been the desire to make a difference.

“I believe very strongly that it’s critical for everybody to give back to their community in one way or another,” Akers said.

He’s chosen to dedicate his time to a variety of causes over the years, from local government to human services to education.

His official post-Air Force career was in marketing and communications for banks including National City Bank and Ameritrust. As Ameritrust became Society National Bank and then KeyBank, Akers also served as chairman of its charitable giving foundation. He was senior vice president for civic affairs when he retired from Key in 2001.

And for much of his time in banking, he also held what he called a “side career” in politics. That includes 16 years on Pepper Pike’s city council and 20 years as its mayor. Akers said he did most of his political work in the evenings and on the weekends, save for the occasional breakfast meeting, noting the banks never discouraged his political work.

Akers has been interested in politics since he was young; his parents would get him and his two brothers talking politics and the news around the dinner table. He’s been to five political conventions, and his first was the Republican National Convention in 1948 in Philadelphia, when he was 15. That was the second time Thomas E. Dewey was nominated. His most recent convention was last summer in Cleveland.

As mayor, Akers co-chaired the citizens committee that led to Cuyahoga County’s executive and council model. Prior to that, the county had a three-commissioner form of government, which Akers said lacked checks and balances, noting that it had fallen into scandal in the past.

“Things are far more efficient. And I think it was something this county

Best piece of advice he’s received: “To thine own self be true.” His father shared the Shakespeare quote with him and he never forgot it.

Secret to life: “Live life to the fullest.

Make an effort to make a difference.

I’ve said to my kids, ‘I hope when my day comes, they will say, well, he made a difference.’”

badly needed,” Akers said.

In addition to a love of politics, Akers’ parents also instilled in him the importance of volunteering. And Akers has built upon that lesson well. He has been part of a number of organizations over the years, but two standouts are City Year Cleveland, which he’s been involved with since the organization got its start locally in 1996, and the Salvation Army of Greater Cleveland, where he’s been a member of the advisory board for almost 50 years.

When Akers commits to something, he’s in 100%, said Major Lurlene-Kay M. Johnson, divisional secretary for Greater Cleveland area services for the Salvation Army. And, in part because of his time as mayor, he knows a lot of people.

And Akers holds strong to his convictions and doesn’t give up easily, she said. When the Salvation Army was working to open a new facility in East Cleveland, there were a number of challenges. Any time the organization considered giving up, Johnson said Akers reminded them of the need in the community. Today, the site is open and doing well.

Akers said the “vastness of the services” the Salvation Army provides is what drew him to it. It has shelters, programs for victims of human trafficking, help for those with drug and alcohol addictions. He always has chosen what to devote his time to based on the job the organization is already doing and whether he feels he can somehow make it better.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017

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PA G E 19

EIGHT OVER 80

William Denihan, 80

By JAY MILLER

The Denihan file

jmiller@crain.com @millerjh

Best piece of advice he’s received: “Keep your friends close and those who are not your friends closer.”

W

hen he “retires” later this year William Denihan intends to write a book, “A Half Step Ahead of the Devil: How to Make Government Work.” He’s been trying to do that since he became a deputy administrator of what was then called the Ohio Bureau of Workmen’s Compensation (BWC) in 1974.

Now, Denihan’s seven-page resume lists 15 government jobs over a 43-year career of public service.

“I had a number of jobs that were short-term, they were all troubleshooting, change-agent type of jobs,” he said.

That’s the common thread he sees as he looks back. He’s especially proud of clearing up a BWC scandal in the mid-1970s over the filing of claims by people injured for what turned out to be a phantom company.

Now, and until he retires later this year, Denihan is serving as CEO of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County. The ADAMHS board is an agency with a $170 million budget that oversees the public behavioral health services of the county. His change-agent role there has been overseeing the merger of the Cuyahoga County Community Mental Health Board and the Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board of Cuyahoga County that culminated with the creation of the ADAMHS Board in 2009.

Perhaps his most controversial role began in December 1993 when he was director of Cleveland’s Department of Public Safety under Mayor Michael White. During that time he served twice as acting chief of the Cleveland Division of Police. At the time, the police unions were clashing with the White administration over reforming the department, and they argued against Denihan’s interim appointment because he lacked police experience. The courts eventually upheld the interim appointments.

He left that job in January 1999 to become director of Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services.

There he had to restore morale after the agency and its director had come under attack for mishandling several deaths of children in county custody.

Again, questions were raised about his appointment by county commissioners because he had no experience in social work or in social service administration.

He also served as director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, executive director of the Ohio State Employment Relations Board and director of Cleveland’s Department of Public Service.

Denihan left the county job to run unsuccessfully for mayor of Cleveland in 2001 after White announced he would not seek a fourth term. After that, in early 2002, Bishop Anthony Pilla named Denihan, a Catholic, chairman of a lay commission to review the Diocese of Cleveland’s policies and procedures regarding cases of sexual abuse. That June he was named CEO of the Cuyahoga County Community Mental Health Board.

Douglas Bugie, president of Antal International, an executive recruiting firm based in London and still a parttime Clevelander, is a longtime Deni-

Secret to life: “Wake up knowing we have another opportunity to make a positive difference in life.”

han friend. What impresses him is his friend’s civic activism.

“He only thinks ‘What’s next?’ and ‘What can I do for people, for the city?’” Bugie said. “Bill Denihan is the epitome of this and has been for decades. There is no one like him around anymore, as the greatest gen-

eration fades. But Bill ain’t fading.”

That civic commitment is expressed on his resume with a list of memberships past and present in 29 volunteer or nonprofit groups — everything from president of the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Authorities to his memberships in Friends of Edgewater Park and the Ward 16 Democratic Club.

Early in his career, as he was moving from government job to government job, his father, who worked for the same company for his entire career, once asked, “Are you OK, Billy?

You take a lot of jobs.”

“Yes,” he told his father, “it’s what I like to do.”

“(Bill Denihan) only thinks ‘What’s next?’ and ‘What can I do for people, for the city?’” says longtime friend Douglas Bugie. (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

PA G E 2 0

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017 |

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

EIGHT OVER 80

Dr. Russell Platt, 89

By DAN SHINGLER

The Platt file

dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler

Mentor: Former Akron Physician Uffe Jensen. “He was really my mentor and a surrogate father, because I went through some tough times during my residency and he helped me get through.�

S

Dr. Russell Platt: “I’m too old to retire.� (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

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umma Health System’s Dr. Russell Platt spent years getting an education in the Jim Crow South and then making himself a top doctor in Akron.

He’s not about to quit now, just because he’ll be 90 this summer. “I’m too old to retire,� he said.

He has cut back a bit, but he still sees patients three days a week from his upstairs office on Mull Avenue in Akron — an office that is purposefully placed to remind him of the upstairs office of “Dr. Carpenter,� the man who inspired him to become a doctor. When Platt was just 2, Dr. Carpenter saved his life when he went into respiratory arrest from whooping cough, Platt said. “He picked up this flabby little baby, and he breathed life into me,�

Platt said.

It was only later that Platt realized Dr. Carpenter was a rare breed — a white Southern doctor in the pre-Depression South who was not only willing to see African-American patients, but who went out to save the young boy who grew up to be Dr. Platt. “To me, he was always like the guy in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’� Platt says.

Through the determination of his family and the enterprising nature of his father, Platt was able to go to the University of South Carolina.

He and all four of his siblings attended college, he said. “It was like going to church, there was no question — you’re going,� he said.

But it was still rare for the era, he said. When he was young, he remembers going to “the colored school,� because it was long before anyone dared mention desegregation. His mother told him it didn’t matter, as long as he studied. “I remember having my fourthgrade arithmetic book and she told

Best piece of advice he’s received: “It’s always too soon to quit.�

Secret of life: “I don’t give myself advice. I take the advice that I give to other people.�

me, ‘It’s the same math they’re learning over in the white school,’�

Platt said.

After South Carolina, Platt went on to graduate school at Ohio State University — in part because he realized he would not have a chance at a good residency on his route to become a doctor in the South.

Then, he did a stint in the newly integrated U.S. Air Force, where he studied aviation physiology. Those old photos with test pilots and future astronauts on centrifuges and rocket sleds? Platt was one of the guys dreaming up and running those tests. “I even got to take blood from General Curtis LeMay,� Platt said.

But, since 1960, Platt has been in Akron. He started as an intern at Akron City Hospital, and since then he reckons he has seen at least 25,000 patients over the nearly 60 years that he’s been practicing internal medicine. “He is a boundless supporter of bringing health care directly into the communities and is always the most recognized face at the hundreds of health fairs he has worked over the years. He is such a staple that when he misses an occasional community event, the first question everyone inevitably asks is, ‘Where’s Dr. Platt?’� said Summa spokesman Jim Gosky.

And Platt might still have a few thousand patients to see. “I’m not a quitter,� he said.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017

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PA G E 21

EIGHT OVER 80

Walter D. Mueller, 89

By CHUCK SODER

The Mueller file

csoder@crain.com @ChuckSoder

Mentor: His father, Walter J. Mueller, who founded Dealer Tire in 1918.

A

Best advice he’s received: His father once told him, “God put us on this Earth to do the best we can do, every day.”

s a kid, every Sunday after church, Walter D. Mueller and the rest of his family would pile into their old Dodge sedan and make stops at gas stations all over town.

Those gas stations bought tires from his father’s company: Mueller Tire. So each week, his dad would pay them a visit. But he wasn’t just trying to sell more tires: He was making friends.

All the while, his son was paying attention.

Today, that boy is 89 years old. He’s been working for the family business — which is now called Dealer Tire — for roughly 75 years. But he has not forgotten the lessons he learned from his father, Walter J. Mueller, so many years ago.

His dad genuinely enjoyed running the business, meeting new people and helping others in any way he could. Those traits rubbed off on his son in large quantities.

“The business was built on friendships, customer relationships — one on one,” Mueller said.

Today, his sons Dean and Scott run Dealer Tire, a tire distribution company that employs roughly 450 people in Northeast Ohio alone. But their father still keeps an office at the company’s new headquarters on Euclid Avenue, where he regularly entertains visitors. And if any of those visitors are kids, they usually walk out with a $5 bill.

He was generous in other ways back when he was running Mueller Tire, which owned a regional chain of tire stores before the family sold the retail business to Tire Kingdom in 2002.

Mueller said he was willing to hire people who really needed a job, even if they didn’t have a sparkling resume.

He occasionally hired homeless people and let them sleep in the shop.

Years ago, Dean Mueller would get frustrated when his dad would hand an employee in need some extra cash, but these days he sees things differently.

Secret of life: “From my point of view, it’s to give of yourself. To help people on their way through life. To show kindness and love to people.

My whole family — we tried to help people all along.”

“You don’t see that very often.

That’s special,” he said.

Walter D. Mueller never thought about doing anything else in life. He started working for the company in his teens, sweeping floors, changing tires and doing odd jobs. Eventually his father taught him how to balance the books and work with customers.

Mueller spent two years in the Army after World War II ended, serving in South Korea. He got on a boat to head home just as the Korean War was starting.

“And I thought, oh boy, they’re going to turn the ship around — we’re all going back. But for some reason they didn’t,” he said.

Shortly thereafter, Mueller earned a business administration degree from Mount Union and went back to work for the family business.

“It was just a natural thing ... I never questioned it. I just knew it was going to be my life,” he said.

He says he never pushed his sons to join the business, but he’s glad they did. He’s always enjoyed the goodwill and the atmosphere that came from being part of a family company (a company that now has well over $1 billion in annual revenue).

He also enjoys spending time with friends and reading newspapers and history books (reading anything, really). He exercises regularly, and he’s thinking about getting back into tennis.

One of his favorite sayings is “keep moving” — so don’t expect him to retire anytime soon.

“It just isn’t for me. I’ve worked all my life,” he said

Walter Mueller on joining the family business as a young man: “It was just a natural thing ... I never questioned it. I just knew it was going to be my life.” (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

PA G E 2 2

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017 |

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

THE LIST

Largest Public Companies in Northeast Ohio Ranked by Market Value COMPANY/TICKER SYMBOL THIS LAST HEADQUARTERS YEAR YEAR PHONE/WEBSITE

MARKET VALUE (MILLIONS) 4-28-2017

4-29-2016

NET INCOME (MILLIONS) PERCENT CHANGE

FY 2016

FY 2015

PERCENT RETURN ON CHANGE EQUITY (1)

LINES OF BUSINESS

TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE TITLE

1

1

Eaton/ETN 1000 Eaton Blvd., Beachwood 44122 (440) 523-5000/www.eaton.com

$33,928.8

$28,977.7

17.1%

$1,922.0

$1,979.0

-2.88%

12.76%

Electrical, hydraulic, aerospace, truck and automotive products

Craig Arnold chairman, CEO

2

2

Sherwin-Williams Co./SHW 101 W. Prospect Ave., Cleveland 44115 (216) 566-2000/www.sherwin.com

$31,168.2

$26,574.7

17.3%

$1,132.7

$1,053.8

7.48%

82.49%

Manufacturer of coatings and related products

John G. Morikis president, CEO, chairman

3

3

Progressive Group of Insurance Cos./PGR 6300 Wilson Mills Road, Mayfield Village 44143 (440) 461-5000/www.progressive.com

$23,073.3

$19,005.8

21.4%

$1,031.0

$1,267.6

-18.67%

13.06%

Insurance and financial company

Tricia Griffith president, CEO

4

4

Parker Hannifin Corp./PH 6035 Parkland Blvd., Mayfield Heights 44124 (216) 896-3000/www.parker.com

$21,433.6

$15,674.6

36.7%

$806.8

$1,012.1

-20.28%

16.67%

Fluid power systems, electromechanical controls

Thomas L. Williams chairman, CEO

5

8

KeyCorp/KEY 127 Public Square, Cleveland 44114 (216) 689-6300/www.key.com

$20,018.0

$10,351.7

93.4%

$754.0

$893.0

-15.57%

6.07%

Bank holding company

Beth E. Mooney chairman, CEO

6

5

The J.M. Smucker Co./SJM One Strawberry Lane, Orrville 44667 (330) 682-3000/jmsmucker.com

$14,755.3

$15,197.6

-2.9%

$688.7

$344.9

99.68%

9.77%

Manufacturer of branded food products

Mark T. Smucker president, CEO

7

6

FirstEnergy Corp./FE 76 S. Main St., Akron 44308 (800) 736-3402/www.firstenergycorp.com

$13,285.6

$13,841.4

-4.0%

($6,177.0) (2)

$578.0

NM

-66.20%

Electric utility holding company

Charles E. Jones president, CEO

8

7

TransDigm Group Inc./TDG 1301 E. Ninth St., Suite 3000, Cleveland 44114 (216) 706-2939/www.transdigm.com

$13,038.3

$12,210.4

6.8%

$583.4

$443.8

31.44%

NM (3)

Designer and producer of highly engineered aircraft components

W. Nicholas Howley chairman, CEO

9

9

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co./GT 200 Innovation Way, Akron 44316 (330) 796-2121/www.goodyear.com

$9,122.5

$7,704.4

18.4%

$1,264.0

$307.0

311.73%

28.96%

Tire manufacturer

Richard J. Kramer chairman, CEO, president

10 15

Nordson Corp./NDSN 28601 Clemens Road, Westlake 44145 (440) 892-1580/www.nordson.com

$7,204.7

$4,372.8

64.8%

$271.8

$211.1

28.77%

35.97%

Adhesives, coating and sealant applicators

Michael F. Hilton president, CEO

11 10

RPM International Inc./RPM 2628 Pearl Road, Medina 44258 (330) 273-5090/www.rpminc.com

$7,021.1

$6,712.7

4.6%

$354.7

$239.5

48.12%

26.79%

Specialty coatings for industrial and consumer markets

Frank C. Sullivan chairman, CEO

12 12

Steris plc/STE 5960 Heisley Road, Mentor 44060 (440) 354-2600/www.steris.com

$6,268.1

$6,069.1

3.3%

$110.8

$135.1

-17.99%

5.43%

Maker of sterile processing and infection prevention systems

Walter M. Rosebrough Jr. president, CEO

13 13

Forest City Realty Trust Inc./FCE-A 50 Public Square, Suite 1100, Cleveland 44113 (216) 621-6060/www.forestcity.net

$6,010.7

$5,356.1

12.2%

($158.4) (4)

$496.0

NM

-5.06%

Owner and developer of real estate

David J. LaRue president, CEO

14 16

Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc./LECO 22801 St. Clair Ave., Cleveland 44117 (216) 481-8100/www.lincolnelectric.com

$5,858.2

$4,312.2

35.9%

$198.4

$127.5

55.63%

24.12%

Designs and manufactures welding products

Christopher L. Mapes chairman, president, CEO

15 14

TFS Financial Corp./TFSL 7007 Broadway Ave., Cleveland 44105 (216) 441-6000/www.thirdfederal.com

$4,596.1

$5,145.3

-10.7%

$80.6

$72.6

10.97%

4.75%

Bank holding company

Marc A. Stefanski chairman, CEO

16 18

Cedar Fair LP/FUN One Cedar Point Drive, Sandusky 44870 (419) 627-2233/www.cedarfair.com

$4,030.4

$3,253.0

23.9%

$177.7

$112.2

58.33%

NA

Amusement and water parks in the United States and Canada

Matthew A. Ouimet president, CEO

17 11

DDR Corp./DDR 3300 Enterprise Parkway, Beachwood 44122 (216) 755-5500/www.ddr.com

$3,932.6

$6,376.1

-38.3%

$60.0

($72.2)

NM

1.82%

Real estate investment trust

David R. Lukes president, CEO

18 20

The Timken Co./TKR 4500 Mount Pleasant St. N.W., North Canton 44720 (234) 262-3000/www.timken.com

$3,763.2

$2,822.7

33.3%

$152.6

($70.8)

NM

11.54%

Specialty steels and highly engineered bearings and related products

Richard G. Kyle president, CEO

19 19

PolyOne Corp./POL 33587 Walker Road, Avon Lake 44012 (440) 930-1000/www.polyone.com

$3,205.7

$3,023.9

6.0%

$165.2

$144.6

14.25%

23.07%

Provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions

Robert M. Patterson chairman, president, CEO

20 21

Applied Industrial Technologies Inc./AIT 1 Applied Plaza , Cleveland 44115 (216) 426-4000/www.applied.com

$2,498.0

$1,798.8

38.9%

$29.6

$115.5

-74.39%

4.23%

Distributor and provider of industrial parts and service

Neil A. Schrimsher president, CEO

21 22

Diebold Nixdorf/DBD 5995 Mayfair Road, North Canton 44720 (330) 490-4000/www.dieboldnixdorf.com

$2,127.5

$1,707.6

24.6%

($33.0)

$73.7

NM

-22.69%

Integrated self-service delivery systems and services

Andreas W. Mattes president, CEO

22 25

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc./CLF 200 Public Square, Suite 3300, Cleveland 44114 (216) 694-5700/www.cliffsnaturalresources.com

$1,991.8

$958.7

107.8%

$174.1

($749.3)

NM

NM

Full-service iron ore company

Lourenco Goncalves chairman, president, CEO

23 23

Ferro Corp./FOE 6060 Parkland Blvd., Mayfield Heights 44124 (216) 875-5600/www.ferro.com

$1,498.7

$1,070.2

40.0%

($20.8)

$64.1

NM

15.39%

Manufacturer of specialty performance materials

Peter T. Thomas chairman, president, CEO

24 28

Fairmount Santrol Holdings Inc./FMSA 8834 Mayfield Road, Chesterland 44026 (440) 214-3200/http://fairmountsantrol.com

$1,155.3

$645.7

78.9%

($140.2)

($92.1)

52.16%

-146.92%

Provider of highperformance sand and sand-based products

Jenniffer D. Deckard president, CEO

25 27

Chart Industries Inc. (5)/GTLS One Infinity Corporate Centre Drive, Suite 300 Garfield Heights 44125 (440) 753-1490/www.chartindustries.com

$1,121.4

$787.3

42.4%

$28.2

($203.0)

NM

3.6%

Maker of cryogenic processes and equipment

Samuel Thomas, chairman, CEO (transitioning out); William Johnson, president, COO, incoming CEO (6)

RESEARCHED BY CHUCK SODER Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence (Marketintelligence.spglobal.com) and Crain's research. Net income figures represent income attributable to ordinary shareholders. NM=Not meaningful. Crain's does not independently verify the information and there is no guarantee these listings are complete or accurate. If you have suggestions on how we can improve this list, please contact Chuck Soder: csoder@crain.com. The full list includes 61 companies and is available for purchase at CrainsCleveland.com.

(1) Return on equity is designed to show how efficiently a company is producing profits. The figures were calculated using this formula: 2016 earnings from continuing operations / ((2016 total equity + 2015 total equity)/ 2) (2) FirstEnergy attributed this loss to a $9.2 billion pre-tax impairment charge related to its decision to close plants and exit competitive power generation operations by mid-2018. (3) TransDigm has had negative shareholder equity each year since 2013 because its debt load has exceeded its assets. (4) Forest City lists several reasons for this decrease in its 2016 annual report. For one, the company noted that its income taxes were particularly high in 2016, partly because of its conversion to a real estate investment trust. (5) Chart Industries plans to move its headquarters to Georgia before the end of 2017 as part of a broader corporate restructuring plan. (6) Johnson is slated to

replace Thomas as CEO at the board's May 25 meeting. Thomas will continue on as executive chairman.

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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M AY 8 - 14 , 2 017

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PA G E 2 3

List: Local stocks get yuge lift from Trump

By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com @ChuckSoder

Northeast Ohio’s largest public companies had a very good year, if the stock market is any indication.

On average, the top 25 companies saw their total market value grow by nearly 27% during the 12-month period that ended on April 30.

Compare that to last year, when the average creeped up by 1.49%.

So what caused this increase? It varies by company, but lots of businesses here and across the country saw their stock prices jump after the election.

Investors clearly like having Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress.

For instance, KeyCorp’s market value has nearly doubled over the past year. Most of that increase has taken place since October. It’s now the fifth-largest public company in Northeast Ohio, up from eighth last year.

Other banks that do business in Northeast Ohio saw their stock prices jump as well — perhaps because investors expect the federal government to roll back regulations.

But not every bank has been able to maintain those high share prices.

Take TFS Financial, which owns Third Federal of Cleveland. The company actually dropped one spot on the list, to 15th. Its stock price hit a record $19.83 per share in early December, but it quickly fell back into the $16 range. Why? Here’s a theory from one investor who spoke with Crain’s in February: The company just isn’t growing fast enough.

Two other companies that moved up a few spots on the list are in the business of extracting resources from the ground: Cliffs Natural Resources and Fairmount Santrol.

Cliffs’ market value jumped by nearly 108%, the biggest gain on the list.

In December, Cliffs CEO Lourenco Gonclaves told Bloomberg that a Trump presidency will have a hugely positive impact on the company, especially if he does some of the things he’s talked about: pass an infrastructure bill and crack down on unfair trade.

Of course, other factors helped the companies that moved up the list.

For instance, Nordson moved up five spots and is now the 10th-largest local public company by market value.

Its stock price was moving up long before the election. The company, which makes equipment for dispensing adhesives, coatings and sealants, is intent on growing aggressively: It has acquired four companies so far this year.

So who moved down the list? DDR Corp. fell six spots to No. 17. The company, which recently overhauled its management team, owns and operates shopping centers, which is a tough place to be these days. And though it turned a $60 million profit in 2016, it lost the same amount during the first quarter of 2017.

FirstMerit is completely gone, now that it’s owned by Huntington Bank of Columbus.

The biggest company on the list is still Eaton (even though it’s technically based in Ireland). The smallest?

When you look at all 61 companies on the digital version of the list, you’ll see a tiny mining company called Gold Lakes Corp. at the bottom.

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170

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AKRON

New fund to focus its investing on Akron companies

By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler

Vlipsy.com’s home page allows users to search for short clips from their favorite movies or TV shows.

Startup website lets the stars say it for you

By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler

You know the feeling: What you want to say is really best summed up by a quote from the great George Costanza. Maybe, for example, you need to convey exactly how you feel about getting stuck with the bill for someone else’s big salad.

But where to find it — especially if you don’t want to wade through a whole episode of “Seinfeld,” let alone spend time editing out what you want for a three-second clip.

Enter Canton-based entrepreneur Chris Nickless and his new website, Vlipsy.com.

“It’s a video clip search engine soundboard,” Nickless said.

What that means is that the site offers video clips the way some other places, like Giphy.com, provide users with GIFs that they can use in their emails, tweets and other online communications. However, Vlipsy’s pieces are actual video clips with sound.

“Face-to-face communication is no longer prevalent,” Nickless contends. So, he said, it is increasingly important to communicate online in

ways that properly convey things like humor or sarcasm.

“Expressive media, like emoji and GIFs, have really grown in power.

Vlipsy is the next wave in that trend,” he said.

The site is new. Nickless has been rolling it out since April and is working hard to increase its content and exposure, he said. But he’s already got an app available for use on Apple devices and clips can be shared through Reddit, Tumblr, Facebook and Pinterest, or just embedded in the form of a URL link.

If he succeeds, Nickless said, using the site will become second nature to a growing base of users. He’s counting on ease of use and convenience to make that happen.

As an example of how the site makes video clipping easier, Nickless used a famous Tom Hanks’ quote from the film “Apollo 13.”

“Let’s say I want to say, ‘Houston, we have a problem.’ That’s a four-minute video, and it takes Tom Hanks about two seconds to say, “Houston, we have a problem,” Nickless said.

Vlipsy, however, gives users just the two seconds of video with the famous quote, no editing required. All you have to do is type the phrase into

Vlipsy’s onboard search engine.

To be sure, the site is hardly a compendium of every quote a user would want. But, like YouTube, Vlipsy will be driven by users who post their own videos, so it’s no surprise that not every video is there now.

And some clips will never be there.

Like other sites, Vlipsy will be limited to materials already available online — so as not to violate copyrights — and there will be standards prohibiting things like hate speech, sexual content or other offensive materials.

If he succeeds, Nickless could be a very wealthy man. Giphy, for example, has a reported value of over $600 million even though it’s just 4 years old and has yet to turn a profit.

Nickless has a second-tier strategy as well. “Our goal is to be doing specific branded accounts, not unlike a YouTube channel,” he said.

That will hopefully bring him sponsored content.

What might be the most surprising thing about Vlipsy, though, is that it’s based in Canton and not a more trendy location. Nickless, a 2007 Ohio State University grad, moved back from California to start the company.

“I love Northeast Ohio. So for me, it was, ‘Why not here?’ ” Nickless said.

“We’ve seen a lot of talent from this area get moved out to bigger cities or have to find a job remotely working for someone else. … I want to make sure they can stay here,” he added.

So far, the company is extremely lean — just Nickless and his childhood friend and now partner Matt Tew, who, like Nickless, is an Ohio native.

The company probably will never need thousands of employees, but as it grows, the plan is to hire additional people to edit content, manage the site and help market it, Nickless said.

Once he does begin to hire, he’ll likely look for office space, too — possibly in Akron, his hometown.

For now, Nickless is compiling new clips and meeting with local economic development officials.

Some have been impressed with what they see.

“He has returned to (Northeast Ohio) to launch a tech startup that sounds to me like it has exciting, high-growth potential,” said Heather Roszczyk, an Akron entrepreneurship fellow for Fund for Our Economic Future. “He's very enthusiastic about Akron, and purposely chose this area to launch the business because of his desire to assist revitalization and bring tech jobs to the area.”

Bill Manby might just be the most important Akron businessperson that you’ve never heard of — he’s the man behind the money that’s behind some of the city’s more notable recent startups.

He might become even more important, too. As managing director of Akron's Acquire Investments, Manby is about to launch a venture capital fund specifically aimed at growing companies in and around Akron.

“Bill fills a very difficult gap to jump for entrepreneurs,” said Rob Heiser, CEO of Akron-based Segmint.

Heiser explained that most entrepreneurs follow a familiar path: First, they raise money from friends, families and existing connections, usually in chunks of $10,000, $25,000 or $50,000. If they’re successful, they end up raising millions from some sort of debt or equity offering, or maybe even by going public.

It’s the in-between stage that is often the greatest challenge, Heiser said.

That’s when companies are starting to succeed and need more money for marketing or scaling up their production, but they don’t yet need the big dollars that attract big investment banks.

“I talk to entrepreneurs all the time, and that’s a really difficult leap to make. That jump to $250,000 or $500,000 is really tough, and there aren’t many places to help you do it …

Bill lets you step up,” Heiser said.

Heiser should know, too. He founded Segmint 10 years ago, and since then, the company, which helps financial service businesses and others analyze and use customer data, has grown to more than 40 employees and has gained an international reputation. It does not disclose its revenues.

Manby helped Heiser raise his secondary rounds of capital, which were key to keeping the company in Akron, Heiser said, noting that finding local money to keep the company in town was an important but difficult goal to achieve.

To date, Manby said he has worked largely as a senior vice president of New York-based TriPoint Global Equities and by helping raise money for companies one at a time through Acquire.

Now, however, he’s launching Acquire’s first fund. Manby said he’s currently raising money for an open-ended venture capital fund that will be focused on investing in local businesses.

He thinks he can raise $6 million or more before closing the Acquire Investments Growth Fund sometime around the end of summer. He’s already gotten more than $2 million in commitments, mostly from local investors.

Once the fund closes, Manby figures it will take him three to five years to fully invest the capital. He said he intends to invest in local companies, in part because he wants to support growth in and around Akron, and be-

“There’s a surprising high level of deal flow.”

— Bill Manby, managing director, Acquire Investments

cause he can visit and communicate with area companies more easily than if his money is invested out of state.

“There’s no reason for me to go to Colorado or someplace like that to invest,” he said.

Manby, along with his Acquire partners Victoria Tifft and Michael Rademacher, has some skin in the game as well. Manby said their firm is investing $600,000 of its own money in the new fund.

And, aside from three support employees, that’s pretty much Acquire’s entire staff, by the way — something Manby said is by both design and necessity at the 5-year-old firm.

“We can’t afford to not be really skinny. That’s just the way it is,” he said.

The firm typically will take a minority stake in companies with initial investments of $50,000 to $200,000 and follow on investments of up to $500,000, Manby said.

Like most private equity investors, it won’t be looking for fast profits but will invest in companies over a number of years.

Its local focus should not be a problem, because there are ample opportunities to work with area companies. In addition to Segmint, Manby also has already raised money for Akron-based Wastebits, among others.

He said his investor clients at Acquire so far have invested more than $50 million and created or retained more than 200 Akron-area jobs in the process.

That last point is not one some investment funds would highlight, but Manby pitches the fact that his money will do good locally as much as he talks about hoping to fetch annual returns of 20% for his clients.

“We think there are enough opportunities locally. There’s a surprising high level of deal flow,” he said.

“And we believe by sticking our stake in the ground and drawing notice to this we can draw more companies here.”

Most of his investors are local and share his enthusiasm for the area, he said.

That includes Heiser, who said that while his company likely has outgrown Acquire’s scale in terms of raising additional money, he himelf has become an investor in Acquire’s fund.

“I introduced him to Wastebits, and I’ve introduced him to several other entrepreneurs that he’s in the process of doing deals with … He cares a lot about the success of the community. It’s not just investment dollars. It’s the community for Bill,” Heiser said.

C R A I N ’ S C L E V E L ACRAIN'S ND BUS I N E S S | BUSINESS M AY 8 - 14 2 017 | PA G E 2 525 CLEVELAND μ ,MAY 8, 2017 μ PAGE

HOUSING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

However, the impact is muted by Cleveland’s tendency to think of the swath as different areas. The western rim is known by many names, from the Edgewater, Cudell, Detroit-Shoreway and Ohio City neighborhoods to new ones such as Hingetown and SoLo — south of Lorain Avenue.

Similar dynamics are at work in the transformation, prodded by local development corporations and stoked by property tax abatement, neighborhood financial incentives and, most of all, by the rush of millennials to the urban core.

The impact of the most recent development wave, launched by Mariner’s Watch, which added the first new building with 62 suites of luxury rentals on the near West Side in decades, is just starting to be felt.

The first eight residents recently moved into Vine Development Co.’s Edge 32 project at West 32nd Street and Detroit Avenue. Builder Chip Marous said the tenants are in on the threefloor side of the building south on the side street. The taller five-story wing facing Detroit will be finished in July.

The building already is one-third leased, and the key rental season is just beginning.

“It’s just 60 suites. It’ll go fast,” Marous said.

Likewise, tenants will start moving in this Wednesday, May 10, at Clinton West Apartments, as the doors will open in the first of 70 suites at 3107 Clinton Ave. That project, by developers Fred and Ethan Geis and Chad Kertesz, will have one-bedrooms above $1,000 monthly; units with two bedrooms, a den and 2 1/2 bathrooms go for $3,500 a month.

At West 65th Street and Breakwater Avenue, the first 100 of 306 suites at The Edison are open for occupancy.

Even before all these new neighbors move in, more projects are underway.

Chagrin Falls-based Snavely Development Co.’s 25D project — its formal title is still under wraps — includes apartments, retail and office space on the north side of Detroit at West 25th in a $60 million first phase.

A second phase across Detroit incorporates renovating the Forest City Building on Detroit’s south side as offices and retail, and in the future, affordable housing.

And before that five-story building rises all the way up, the latest project to surface is an 11-story apartment building with 161 suites and first-

A 19th-century home on Clinton adjoins the southern edge of the Edge 32 apartments, which recently opened in Ohio City. More suites are still being constructed in the project. (Stan Bullard)

floor retail at 2817 Detroit. The $50 million Church and State Apartments project is planned by a team that incorporates Hemingway Development, which includes Fred Geis, along with Hingetown developers Graham Veyse and Marika Shioiri-Clark, and entrepreneur Brent Zimmerman.

This whirlwind of activity has many components.

Rick Foran, who developed the Brewery Lofts in a complex that incorporates an 1872-vintage building in an 83-suite complex at 1526 W. 25th St., said, “Ohio City is more of a neighborhood than downtown. People think they can walk downtown to eat and drink.” There’s also a Dave’s Supermarket nearby.

While the mass of millennials moving in is driving the changes in the West Side neighborhoods, older people are increasingly joining them.

“A third of our tenants are over 60,” Foran said.

Pete Snavely Jr. said his family-owned company settled on its site because of its location near the Lakefront West project, the $90 million remaking of the West Shoreway as a tree-lined boulevard with multiple access points to the lakefront. The operation of the Ohio City business improvement district was another plus, as were plans for the park on nearby Irishtown Bend.

“We’ve seen first-hand what this kind of investment can do in other cities,” said Snavely, who also has built in Denver. He traces his interest in the Cleveland neighborhood to visiting a friend’s home at Battery Park, the lakeview community at

West 73rd Street, where he saw what the area offers.

While developers tout lakeviews of their projects, more is afoot than that.

Bob Brown, a former Cleveland city planning director, said the lakeviews are nice and an asset, but what made the area grow was the revitalization of the neighborhoods as attractive places to live.

“It’s the people, not the views,” Brown said. “Most people on the West Shore corridor do not live on the lake.”

The idea of remaking the Shoreway to a boulevard came out of the city planning department, spawned by a view of seeing the area develop as a mixture of uses in a walkable neighborhood. Another factor often cited is proximity to downtown and University Circle, the city’s largest and second-largest job centers, and growth of downtown as a sports, entertainment and cultural setting.

“We were more tentative then,” Brown said of the city’s Civic Vision 2000 plan. “Planners are optimistic.

But we’d be more confident today.”

Other factors are more fundamental to real estate development. Most observers downplay the impact of low-interest rates in the period following the Great Recession, but it’s part of the picture. Another is that lenders want multifamily projects, several developers say, which accounts for more rentals than multifamily for-sale suites.

Moreover, Detroit Avenue has a huge number of parking lots along its entire spine. Tom McNair, executive director of the Ohio City Inc. neighborhood development group, said the parking lots and underused industrial

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properties create opportunities for development sites of three-quarters of an acre. That’s tiny in typical development terms, but land-wealthy in an urban setting where single family homes are on tiny lots.

Adrian Byrne, a real estate consultant who is chairman of the Cleveland chapter of the Urban Land Institute development trade group, said developers are responding in the neighborhoods to the 5% vacancy rate in the expanding downtown rental market. Also important: Cleveland City Hall has been stable and lacks the many fights of decades past.

“People feel more comfortable doing development because it’s a stable environment,” Byrne said. “There has to be a feel for a developer to say, ‘I’m in the right place, doing the right thing.’ ” Much of today’s action builds on inadequacies of the past.

Norman Krumholz, a former Cleveland planning director and retired urban studies professor at Cleveland State University, said that suburbs for decades benefited from the inner city’s woes.

“In my view, in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, simply no one wanted to live in the city, particularly after the Glenville and Hough riots. Black or white, why live in a chaotic area?” Krumholz asked. “Now with the influx of several thousand people, mostly white and (working) in eds and meds, the city has become a more desirable place. It is architecturally distinct. And it’s not as violent as before.”

He is skeptical about drawing broad conclusions about the movement back to the West Side and notes that other, vast, poorer portions of the city are receiving no such property boost.

In the late 1960s and 1970, developers in Cleveland concentrated on downtown projects in urban renewal areas, especially Erieview along northern East Ninth Street, Krumholz said. “There were subsidies in land write-downs in urban renewal areas,” he said. “So developers went there.”

Willoughby-based Vine Development’s Battery Park is evolving in this environment. Marous, one of the three brothers who own Marous Construction Co., estimates 160 forsale units have been completed at the project sprawling from West 73rd to 76th Streets, some $60 million in development since 2006.

“It feels like a city now,” Marous said of the project. “With the lake and restaurants and other assets, why wouldn’t anyone live in this neighborhood?”

Marous’s family-owned company is working on its last two sites within

Battery Park itself. One will go for an 82-suite apartment building that will rise five stories Vine plans to build this year after closing a $12 million financing package. Another site will go later for 42 condos in a multistory building — as much as lenders will consider.

However, demand is such that Vine with its next phase of 20 townhouses will jump to a site on the northeast side of West 73rd. About 30 people are on waiting lists to see the yet-to-rise project, he said. Marous bought that land years ago for when Battery Park proper sites were exhausted. Now it’s doing master planning for other sites it has acquired farther south on 73rd’s east side.

It’s eye-opening the developer is starting to move beyond the onetime home of an Energizer Battery plant, which created a 13-acre site for redevelopment.

Although land prices are rising, none of the local development corporations, Marous or other developers believe there will be any shortage of sites or even demand for more projects.

There also is strong anticipation about how the added residents will support restaurants and entertainment spots in the West Side neighborhoods.

Jenny Spicer, managing director of Detroit-Shoreway Development Corp., expects the new residents to bring more entrepreneurs to the area with new concepts. She said she gets regular requests for office space that is not available in the neighborhood.

She foresees potential construction of boutique office buildings and mixed-use properties on empty sites.

Today two sleek, white modernist homes that Cleveland architect Robert Maschke built in 2008 occupy a slope on West 53rd Street, near where The Edison is opening up. He lives in one and relishes walking to a nearby office in a building he owns on Detroit, walking to the Capitol Theatre for a movie as well as the area’s wellknown restaurants.

“When I started working on this in 1998, people thought I was nuts,” Maschke said. “I’m pleasantly surprised to see how the neighborhood has taken off.”

He feels a lot of opportunity remains in the entire area.

“I see this all becoming one neighborhood,” he said of the area from West 25th to West 117th surrounding Detroit and bordered by the lake.

“We need more services, more barber shops and professional services and residences. Some day this will be the size of University Circle.”

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Source Lunch Alice Cable

Executive director, AWT Foundation When Alice Cable was a kid, robots were basically a thing of the future. Sure, they existed, but they weren’t part of daily life like today, with robotic lawn mowers and voiceactivated homes. ¶ As executive director of the Alliance for Working Together Foundation, Cable now oversees an annual competition focused solely on designing, building and destroying them. ¶ The RoboBots program is what first attracted Cable to Mentor-based AWT, which promotes manufacturing careers. The program, which this year took place on April 29, matches students with area businesses to build robots that they fight with during the competition. ¶ Cable doesn’t have a background in manufacturing (she worked with groups like local chambers of commerce and is educated in music history and performance), but likes that her role at AWT lets her explain complicated ideas and work with students. — Rachel Abbey McCafferty

Five things What she wanted to be when she grew up The list included an orchestra pit musician, a writer, an astronaut or a doctor.

Best spot to take out-of-town visitors The pond at the art museum.

University Circle is “amazing,” she said.

Favorite book “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell”

Hobbies They include reading, gardening and singing in her church choir.

Special talent Cable can sight-read music like it’s English.

Lunch spot Brim Kitchen + Brewery 3941 Erie Street, Willoughby 440-306-8183

The meal Both had avocado toast (one with eggs and one without), plus waters and one coffee. Sides were fries and soup.

The vibe Sleek and modern with high ceilings and industrial-looking details. The restaurant boasts two floors, including a second-floor outdoor patio.

The bill $28.89, plus tip

What drew you to AWT? It was actually the RoboBots competition that drew me to AWT. I try to either volunteer or show up with my kids every year. I’ve attended when we sponsored a table, I’ve handed out programs, and I’ve been a spectator. It’s a fun event to watch with sparks literally flying, jumbotrons and high school kids battling robots. It’s such a great way to give kids some manufacturing experience and let them learn about jobs they might not otherwise have any exposure to.

What are your main goals for the organization?

AWT has been a 501(c)(3) for five solid years now (although it existed before that as a consortium). I want to see us work on our long-term strategies and our business resilience, and I also want to continue to build strong partnerships with schools, businesses and organizations that promote manufacturing in different ways. I attended Tri-C’s advanced manufacturing skills pipeline summit in November, and we’re working with Lakeland on producing a Lake County summit this May. We want to discover where the gaps and overlaps are.

What did you think of manufacturing when you were younger? Has that perception changed?

I would think of factories with smoke rising up, or of “I Love Lucy” with the conveyor belts going through! I was so, so wrong. I work in the office of a manufacturing facility (Fredon), so I go to the back frequently and ask questions and try to learn. The folks I work with are so brilliant, and I’m learning how much I don’t know. Now I can look at a piece of metal and see it as a part of something larger.

What would you like to see manufacturers do to help change the way people view the industry?

When manufacturers work with schools, that’s the biggest and most effective way. Whether it’s a CNC machinist speaking to a class, or being open to tours, or working with a RoboBots team, or even sponsoring a baseball team, that helps your community begin to see you as a place they’d like to be and a place

that they value. Another thing is that a lot of shops don’t do much marketing for themselves because that’s not how they find more customers. And in order to get a job in many local shops, you just walk in and complete an application. In today’s world, if your company doesn’t have a website where bright talent can check you out first, doesn’t get involved in the community, and just puts out a sign saying “now hiring,” you’re not going to get many applicants.

What should parents and schools know about manufacturing?

I want them to know so many things!

First, these are interesting jobs — not the conveyor belt thing that I had pictured. Secondly, many local manufacturers will pay for a good worker to go to college. Third: There are clearly defined career ladders in most of these places, and your income and quality of life will increase if you work hard and are willing to learn. I heard once that while people may be concerned that manufacturing jobs are going overseas, those are the less-skilled jobs — and because of changing demographics there will still be more jobs available than we will have people to fill them. But manufacturers don’t just want anybody from the street — they need CNC machinists, industrial repairmen, welders.

Depending on the place, you can work your way up from zero skills, or you might have to have a two-year certificate to be considered. So the last thing is although we promote manufacturing careers, we also know they’re not for everybody — and if you are interested in a manufacturing career, do your homework — at school and in researching careers.

What role does manufacturing play in our region’s economy? Do you think there will continue to be a place for it going forward?

We will always need “stuff.”

Occasionally people will mention to me that they’re concerned about automation reducing the workforce.

While it’s true that companies are becoming more efficient and producing more with fewer people, who’s going to build the robotic arms? Who’s going to program them?

We’ll always need people to make the stuff, too.

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MARKETING, ADVERTISING & EVENTS INSIGHTS.

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Integrated Marketing Manager Crain’s Cleveland Business

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