20160815-NEWS--1-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/12/2016
4:27 PM
Page 1
VOL. 37, NO. 33
AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016
Source Lunch
Business of Life
Dana Mitchell, site manager for AECOM Giant firm plays a major role in Northeast Ohio construction. Page 16
Yoga is extra refreshing at Platform Beer Co.
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
The List
Highest-paid non-CEOs Page 19
Page 15
BANKING
GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY
Regional Microwave market is internet an ripe for volatility alternative By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile
Banks are rather sweet on Northeast Ohio right now. And whether they’re already at the dinner table or trying to pull up a seat, everyone wants a bigger bite — or, in some cases, their first taste. Banking M&A in this market and across the country has been steady for years now. But some recent deals shaping the market today are creating fresh opportunities for banks large and small to capitalize on disruption and gain size in a tough banking climate inconveniently underscored by low, flat interest rates and a costly regulatory environment. For one, there’s a widening gap between regional and community banks in the wake of Akron’s FirstMerit Corp. merging into Huntington Bancshares Inc. That, alone, eliminates a significant competitor in the lending business while simultaneously allowing neighboring banks to pick up both customers and bankers alike who are caught up in the shuffle. While it will be Huntington’s goal to stem those losses, they’re simply going to happen — and have already. Several FirstMerit bankers have joined competing companies since that deal was first announced early this year. “My sense is that banks have been opportunistic in this market and have been long looking to grow through acquisitions or acquiring talent,” said Fred Cummings, president at Cleveland’s Elizabeth Park Capital, a bank-focused hedge fund. “But this is an opportunity to accelerate their growth, particularly in that human capital standpoint.”
SEE BANKS, PAGE 4
to fiber
Providers installing antennas on buildings, towers all over town
By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com @ChuckSoder
Microwaves: They’re good for heating up burritos and transmitting data at incredibly high speeds. At least three local companies are setting up microwave antennas on tall buildings and towers throughout Northeast Ohio. Their goal: Provide faster internet service to companies turned off by the cost of putting fiberoptic cable in the ground. Granted, microwave technology has been used to transmit data for decades, but it’s better and cheaper than it used to be — which is why some companies now use it to offer ultra-fast gigabit speed service. One of them is NetX Internet. The Westlake-based company has grown “exponentially over the last two years,” said CEO Ron Deus. NetX has microwave antennas in a long list of cities SEE INTERNET, PAGE 18
Groups go to ballot for causes By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh
If it weren’t for a volatile and entertaining presidential election campaign, a trio of ballot issues that test the limits of local government would be getting more attention. These initiatives — an alternative process allowing citizens to enact legislation or even charter and constitutional amendments — are appearing on Northeast Ohio ballots even though they are not entirely citizen-initiated. Two of the issues affect the city of Cleveland. One would raise the minimum wage in the city, and the other seeks to expand the rights of parttime workers. The third issue, being pursued in Medina County and several other parts of the state, seeks to reclaim from the state local control over the oil and gas industry. Toledo attorney Terry Lodge, who represents the Medina County group, sees the efforts as a response to citizens being left out of the political decisionmaking process and feeling powerless. “What you are seeing is increasing public frustration,” he said. “People are trying to take back power locally.” Local officials, though, view things differently. City councils and others, including the Ohio Secretary of State, see outside groups using their communities as guinea pigs for broader agendas. In the case of these three local issues, two are attempts to get around harder-to-challenge state laws. The other introduces new concepts in employment regulation that its backer couldn’t get on the ballot in his home state but would like to see spread. Last Wednesday, Aug. 10, in Cleveland, city council chose not to contest an initiative that would require employers to give part-time workers
Ron Deus, CEO of NetX, has microwave towers on top of Erieview. (McKinley Wiley for Crain’s)
Entire contents © 2016 by Crain Communications Inc.
SEE BALLOT, PAGE 18
FALL CULTURE PREVIEW
Our look at popular music, classical music, museums, theater and comedy FOCUS, Pages 11-14
20160815-NEWS--2-NAT-CCI-CL_--
PAGE 2
8/12/2016
3:37 PM
Page 1
z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Tom Murdough is back in the toy game Founder of Little Tikes and Step2 is starting third rotational molding company By BILL BREGAR Plastics News
Tom Murdough, who made Northeast Ohio a major center of U.S.-made toys by founding Little Tikes Co. and Step2 Co., is getting back in the rotational molding game by starting a company called Simplay3. Murdough said Simplay3 plans to start shipping products this fall, from a 70,000-square-foot factory in Streetsboro, not far from Step2. Simplay3’s line will include toys, home and garden items and products for other markets, he said. Murdough, 77, retired in 2007, the year after a private equity buyer bought Step2. He said he enjoyed spending more time with his family and activities like golf and tennis, all of which will continue. But he missed creating new businesses. “I’m not happy being retired or semi-retired,� Murdough said. “I really enjoy the challenge of building a new line of products with a new group of people, and breaking new ground.� Murdough said he will play an active role in Simplay3. Key managers also are shareholders in the company, he said. Simplay3 has about a dozen employees now, and Murdough thinks the company will employ 50 in the future. The plastics industry veteran said plant-floor employees are critical for rotational molding, which can be physically demanding work. “We love our people, and we’ve always put a high premium on having
a close relationship with our employees. And we’ll be doing that again,� he said. “Building a team again, that’s one of the things that attracted me to get back into the business.� In an Aug. 11 telephone interview, Murdough said the factory already has two rotomolding machines, and a third is coming. He declined to provide details about the equipment but said Simplay3 will use new technology. “We’re pioneering new methods of manufacturing. We pioneered the rotational molding process starting in 1970, when we started Little Tikes,� he said. Hudson-based Little Tikes grew to become a major toy manufacturer. Murdough sold Little Tikes to Rubbermaid Inc. in 1984, and remained as its top executive until 1989. He started Step2 in 1991, first making trash containers and later, when his noncompete agreement expired with Rubbermaid, adding a line of toys. Murdough said he did not face noncompete issues when starting Simplay3. He said he looked for a building in the area of Hudson, Aurora and Twinsburg. “We could not find a building in the market that we wanted to be in for really a year and a half to two years,� Murdough said. He called locating the right building for the new rotomolding company “one of the big delays in getting this project off the ground, and it took us a while.� His team had looked at the Streetsboro building before, but then the owners decided to sell it.
Tom Murdough has started another company — Simplay3. (Plastics News) Murdough said Simplay3 co-owns the building. “This is very much right for us,� he said. Murdough has been a critic of mass retail for squeezing suppliers. But he said Simplay3 is not going to sell to big-box stores. “That’s one of the reasons I’m back in this thing. We’ll be taking a new approach to how we reach the consumer and market to them,� he said. The market for rotomolded toys and garden equipment is crowded, especially from nearby companies spawned by Murdough. To differentiate Simplay3, the company has assembled a team of designers, includ-
ing Jim Mariol, who designed the iconic Cozy Coupe for Little Tikes. Murdough said he coaxed Mariol out of retirement to get involved with Simplay3. “The designers have worked with me before, and they have a very key interest in developing products that are unique and different, and hopefully better than anything currently on the market,� he said. Little Tikes and Step2 employ more than 1,000 people, which makes Northeast Ohio a center of U.S.-made toys in an industry dominated by toys from China. Jim Nagy, who worked with Murdough’s companies — he started as
a design engineer and ended as vice president of manufacturing — said the spinoff economic impact is greater than just the jobs at Little Tikes and Step2. “He gave me a great opportunity. I’m indebted to him,� said Nagy, now chief operating officer of rotomolder Premier O.E.M. in Cuyahoga Falls. “He’s the one person that has given so much economic opportunity in terms of the rotomolding industry,� Nagy said. “And the people that came out of Little Tikes, they became owners of companies. And they got their start at Little Tikes, (their) experience up there. He gave them the opportunity to get general knowledge skills.� Jack Hill knew Murdough back in the early days. Hill in 1967 started Rotadyne Inc., a rotomolding company that got into toys. Murdough, who had worked at Wonder Products Co., a rotomolder of rocking horses, joined Hill at Rotadyne. He bought the company in 1970 and built it into Little Tikes. “Tom Murdough is a classic entrepreneur — aggressive, market-oriented, and with vision,� said Hill, who now is a plastics consultant in Milwaukee.
CORRECTION An Aug. 1, Page One story about hospital ratings misstated the guidelines Zocdoc uses in its reviews. Zocdoc has a closed-loop system to ensure comments are written by patients who booked through Zocdoc and saw the doctor they are reviewing.
has been acquired by
WE HELP
BUSINESS AT T H E H I G H E S T L E V E L .
7KH XQGHUVLJQHG DFWHG DV ÀQDQFLDO DGYLVRU WR Q \ //& LQ WKLV WUDQVDFWLRQ When a company has a problem that gets kicked upstairs, upstairs kicks it to us.
Mergers & Acquisitions . Capital Raising . Financial Opinions & Valuations . Restructuring & Bankruptcy For more information, visit vorys.com.
For more information, please call (216) 589-0900 or visit www.wesrespartners.com
Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP 200 Public Square, Suite 1400, Cleveland, Ohio 44114 106 South Main Street, Suite 1100, Akron, Ohio 44308
Columbus
3XEOLF 6TXDUH 6XLWH &OHYHODQG 2+
$ SURXG PHPEHU RI WKH SUHPLHU LQWHUQDWLRQDO DOOLDQFH RI LQYHVWPHQW EDQNLQJ ÀUPV
Washington
Cleveland
Cincinnati
Akron
Houston
Pittsburgh
20160815-NEWS--3-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/12/2016
3:37 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 3
Manufacturing has climbed from ‘bottom’ Northeast Ohio firms are optimistic about industry’s present and future By RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty
While the automotive industry may finally be reaching its peak, and global headwinds remain, analysts and economists see signs of optimism for manufacturing amid a strong real estate market and healthy consumer spending. And national indicators point to optimism, too, as the Manufacturing ISM report for July showed expansion in economic activity in the sector for the fifth month in a row. There’s a sense that the industry has “touched bottom” and started to move back up in recent months, said Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers in D.C. Americans are beginning to open up their pocketbooks again, and the housing market is strong. That’s not to say there aren’t challenges to the industry: The dollar is still strong, and commodity prices are still low. But the sentiment around manufacturing is moving in the right direction, he said. While some area companies have seen strong results so far this year — like Cleveland-based paint maker Sherwin-Williams Co., which reported what it called “record” net sales of $3.22 billion in the second quarter — others have been celebrating smaller wins. For example, TimkenSteel Corp. in Canton has struggled as rig
counts have dropped, and its results for the year-to-date are still below 2015. But the steelmaker reported smaller net losses last quarter: $10.5 million, or minus 24 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2016, compared to a net loss of $24.3 million, or minus 54 cents per share, during the same time last year. “TimkenSteel remains focused on operating efficiently and managing costs in a year that has been a real test for us,” Tim Timken, the company’s CEO, president and chairman, said in a statement emailed to Crain’s. “As a result, we achieved positive EBITDA and strong cash flow in the second quarter.” “Looking ahead at the markets we serve, automotive demand remains strong,” he continued. “Our customers in energy and industrial are still feeling the effects of weak, but somewhat stabilized, markets. We continue to earn new business through our people, innovation, assets and products.” Mekael Teshome, an economist with Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group, said the stabilizing energy market is a positive factor for manufacturing, as prices have started to inch back up after hitting bottom, though he doesn’t expect that market to experience a big turnaround any time soon. Manufacturers are also benefiting from a balance in production and demand, whereas in 2015 and the first half of 2016, there was a lot of inventory on deck, he said.
SALT • SALT • SALT • Water Softener • Industrial • Food • Ice Melt • Sea Salt
Call For Pricing!! Minimum Delivery:1Pallet
Talan Products Inc., a Cleveland-based metal stamper, grew its sales by 30% last year, according to CEO Steve Peplin. (File photo) Overall, Teshome said manufacturers tied to consumer spending and the real estate market — including those in automotive — are probably going to be in a good place for the next 12 to 18 months. At Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in Akron, second-quarter sales were down to $3.9 billion from $4.2 billion at this time last year, but sales volume was up. Spokesman Keith Price attributed the dollar decrease mainly to the deconsolidation of its subsidiary in Venezuela and to currency translation. Overall, Price said, segment operating income for the company’s three business units was up. The critical underlying fundamentals in the United States — miles driven, fuel consumption, gas prices — are all favorable for Goodyear at the
moment. “People are driving, and that’s good for tire companies,” Price said. But auto sales are expected to slow or plateau, and that could hurt some suppliers. While many of the approximately 1,300 members of the Cleveland-based National Tooling and Machining Association have diversified away from automotive, president Dave Tilstone said those that haven’t are seeing a decrease in orders in platform tooling for new models. “And that’s a big deal,” he said. Companies in his industry are expecting the rest of the year to be better than the past 12 months, but not dramatically. Quoting activity is picking up, but he said orders aren’t being released just yet.
John Colm, president and executive director at manufacturing-focused economic development group Wire-Net in Cleveland, is seeing a lot of sectors that are soft, but he’s hoping it’s a matter of “pockets of problems” and “pockets of prosperity,” not an indication of a downturn. A company’s current outlook really depends on the markets it’s in, he said. Take Talan Products Inc., for example. The Cleveland-based metal stamper grew its sales by 30% last year, CEO Steve Peplin said. This year, he’s expecting 5% to 10% growth. The company has sales between $40 million and $50 million, Peplin said, and employs 80. There’s an aspect of luck to Talan’s growth, but Peplin said the company identified and targeted areas it thought would be highgrowth, like solar and LED lights. And even commercial building products, which Peplin called the more “mundane” part of the business, are strong right now. There are a lot of positive and negative areas in manufacturing still, so diversification is serving manufacturers well, said T.J. Monico, who works in diversified industrial investment banking for Cleveland-based KeyBanc Capital Markets. But since organic growth hasn’t taken off quite yet, he expects companies to invest in inorganic growth, like acquisitions. Many Northeast Ohio manufacturers have already been taking that approach, such as Mayfield Heights-based Ferro Corp. and Medina-based RPM International Inc., both of which highlighted acquisitions as part of their increased sales growth this year in recent news releases.
Turn your dream business into a reality. Small Business Loans Rates as low as
%
3.75
3Fixed Rate 35-Year Term 3No Origination Fees Call on your local lending team. Now located in downtown Cleveland. 216.496.2530 I HomeSavings.com
1-800-547-1538 Salt Distributors Since 1966
*The 3.75% interest rate applies to small business loans $250,000 and under, 80% LTV for loan terms up to 60 months for qualified credit applicants. A higher rate may apply based on lower credit score or a higher LTV. All credit products are subject to underwriting guidelines and credit approval. Advertised rate is as of 6/08/2016 and is subject to change without notices.
20160815-NEWS--4-NAT-CCI-CL_--
PAGE 4
8/12/2016
4:24 PM
Page 1
z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
BANKS
LEASED
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
LA CENTRE II
25777 DETROIT ROAD • WESTLAKE, OHIO
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank is pleased to announce the expansion of the SpyGlass Group at 25777 Detroit Road in Westlake. The building is now fully occupied. Terry Coyne and Kristy Hull represented the landlord.
Visit
TerryCoyne.com Or Call Terry at
216.453.3001
Other large banks, meanwhile, may see this as a motivator to gain additional size to remain competitive. Huntington, after all, grows to the largest bank in Ohio by market share, overtaking Cleveland-based KeyCorp in the state. Huntington also claims the No. 2 spot in Cleveland market, coming in second to Key — which is digesting its own acquisition in western New York with First Niagara Financial Group — and stepping in front of PNC Bank. “For bigger players, they could be saying, ‘Oh boy. Huntington just got a lot bigger. Maybe we should get bigger, too,’ ” said Ben Mackovak, a managing member at Strategic Value Bank Partners LLC, a bank investment fund based in Beachwood.
Talent play
1350 Euclid Ave., Suite 300 Cleveland, Ohio 44115
DON’T BE PUZZLED BY OTHER LENDERS
440.526.8700 • jmokri@cbscuso.com www.cbscuso.com
Community banks, particularly those hovering around or under $1 billion in assets, find the Huntington deal most meaningful because it creates that shakeup allowing them to draw customers and relationship managers who may prefer a smaller bank to a large company. Middlefield Bank, for example, which is in progress of acquiring Beachwood-based Liberty Bank and its $223 million in assets, has attracted some of those bankers displaced by the Huntington merger. Middlefield grows to about $970 million in assets with their deal, which also introduces the bank to Cuyahoga County, a region the 115year-old bank has operated on the fringes of for quite some time. “I think folks know that currently, we are on a path to continue growing the franchise and growing our market presence,” said Middlefield president and CEO Thomas Caldwell. “This puts us in position to make other acquisitions.” Those with an even smaller presence in Northeast Ohio think they’ll catch some bankers and customers in the shakeout. “The disruption there, especially with Huntington acquiring FirstMer-
it, we look at as opportunity,” said David Zimmer, president of ERIEBANK, a division of Erie, Pa.based CNB Financial Corp, which recently acquired the $152 million-asset Lake National Bank in Mentor and its two branches, introducing the bank to Northeast Ohio. “When PNC acquired National City, they were in all our markets, and we were very successful in converting some National City customers,” Zimmer said. “We’re hoping we could see some similar success here.” CNB itself grows to about $2.5 billion in assets with that deal. And ERIEBANK is working on an Ashtabula banking office expected to open in January. It’s worth noting that FirstMerit was a unique company in this market. With $25.5 billion in assets and Akron headquarters, it had the feel of a community bank with all the offerings of a larger counterpart — a “super community” bank, as Cummings puts it. There really aren’t any other banks of a profile like that around here anymore. Banks like Key, Huntington and PNC are going to be buyers, not sellers. And that widening gap between the largest banks and smaller players means the veritable midsize level FirstMerit held down is practically gone. So in terms of M&A, what’s left to buy? That’s where these community banks come in.
The Pennsylvania factor Whether as acquisition targets or buyers themselves, M&A activity should be most active in that community bank space. Besides large companies trying to claim additional size in Ohio, buyers likely will be those strong community banks that are big and profitable enough to make a deal, but still at an uncomfortable size where regulatory costs coupled with profitability headwinds make organic growth quite tough. There’s a sense among bankers and analysts that $2 billion in assets is a comfortable size that companies below that threshold, yet in realistic reach of it, want to achieve. Meanwhile, banks who have been holding out for that meaningful interest rate hike that hasn’t come may
be realizing acquisitive growth is the way to go. “Some management teams were holding out, hoping for that uptick in interest rates,” Mackovak said. “It’s very hard to see interest rates coming back to historical norms. So given that reality does it make sense for a bank to stay put making a return on equity that’s subpar?” Maybe not. Besides some other inter-market activity, there’s yet another interesting factor shaping deals in Northeast Ohio, and it’s coming from our eastern neighbors. Investors like Cummings and Mackovak say there’s a lot of interest from Pennsylvania banks to break into Northeast Ohio. Besides the regulatory and profit pressures all banks are facing, the regional economy is both attractive and similar to their hometowns. Establishing here also makes the expansion down to central Ohio even easier. Those elements combined are revving up interest in this region. First Commonwealth Bank, a $6.6 billion-asset bank whose parent company is based in Indiana, Pa., will debut in the Canton and Ashtabula markets with its purchase of 13 bank branches — 11 in Canton and two in Ashtabula comprising $735 million in deposits and $115 million of retail and business loans — being shed by Huntington to resolve antitrust issues ahead of its FirstMerit buy. ERIEBANK, of course, is planting its flag in Northeast Ohio. And then there’s Lorain National Bank, which was bought out by Warren, Pa.-based Northwest Bancshares Inc., pushing it over $9 billion in total assets in a deal consummated last year. That’s just some of the activity worth mentioning. Expect Pennsylvania companies to be just as hungry for acquisitive growth in this market as the banks already here. “Pennsylvania banks are being bigger players here,” Mackovak said. “It’s a new market for them. And they won’t go east … where it’s already very competitive. This is the biggest market contiguous to where they already are, but not hyper competitive. So I think they’re looking regardless. But their interest is definitely higher.”
Call Northeast Ohio’s #1 Credit Union Commercial Lender Business Lending in Partnership with Area Credit Unions SM
CLEVELAND BUSINESS 700 W. St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113-1 1230 Phone: (216) 522-1 1383 www.crainscleveland.com @CrainsCleveland
Is your health insurance program the wrong fit?
Publisher/editor
Elizabeth McIntyre
Managing editor
Scott Suttell
Events coordinator
Kim Hill
Sections editor
Tim Magaw
Integrated marketing manager
Michelle Sustar
Associate editor/Akron
Sue Walton
Assistant editor
Kevin Kleps
Senior reporter Reporters
Stan Bullard Real estate/construction Jay Miller, Government
Dan Shingler Energy/steel/auto Rachel McCafferty Manufacturing/energy Jeremy Nobile, Finance Lydia Coutré, Health care Research editor Creative director Cartoonist
Deborah W. Hillyer David Kordalski Rich Williams
LEARN MORE J www.ArmadaRisk.us/Private-Exchange or call 216 350 5050 CLEVELAND BUSINESS 700 W. St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113 Phone: (216) 522-1 1383; www.crainscleveland.com
We Protect. You Grow.
TAMPA
Reprints: Krista Bora
212-210-0750 kbora@crain.com,
Customer service and subscriptions 877-824-9373
Jessica Rasmussen
Managing editor custom/special projects Amy Ann Stoessel Advertising director
Nicole Mastrangelo
CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. Chairman
Keith E. Crain
President
Rance Crain
Treasurer CIO
Mary Kay Crain Anthony DiPonio
CFO
Bob Recchia
Group publisher
Mary Kramer
Senior account exec.
Dawn Donegan
Account executives
Lindsie Bowman
Exec. VP/operations
William A. Morrow
John Banks
Exec. VP/director of strategic operations
Chris Crain
Chuck Soder, Technology
Right size it, keep employees healthy and reduce costs.
CLEVELAND
Events manager
Laura Kulber Mintz Office coordinator Web editor Digital strategy/audience development director
Denise Donaldson
***
Damon Sims
Exec. VP/director of corporate operations VP of production and manufacturing
KC Crain Dave Kamis
***
Nancy Hanus
Production director
Craig L. Mackey
Production assistant/ video editor
Steven Bennett
Billing
Peter Iseppi
Credit
Rod Warmsby
s Cleveland Bus sines ss Volume 37, Number 33 Crain’s (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 441131230. Copyright © 2016 by Crain Communications Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio, and at additional mailing offices. Price per copy: $2.00. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Crain’s s Cleveland Bus sines ss, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48207-2912. 1-877-824-9373. REPRINT INFORMATION: 212-2 210-0 0750
G.D. Crain Jr., Founder (1885-1973) Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr., Chairman (1911-1996) Reprints: Krista Bora
***
212-210-0750 kbora@crain.com
Customer service and subscriptions 877-824-9373
Subscriptions: In Ohio: 1 year - $64, 2 year - $110. Outside Ohio: 1 year - $110, 2 year - $195. Single copy, $2.00. Allow 4 weeks for change of address. For subscription information and delivery concerns send correspondence to Audience Development Department, Crain’s Cleveland Business, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, 48207-9911, or email to customerservice@crainscleveland.com, or call 877-824-9373 (in the U.S. and Canada) or (313) 446-0450 (all other locations), or fax 313-446-6777.
20160815-NEWS--5-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/12/2016
4:24 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 5
Spruced-up plaza lands a major tenant By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter
The placemaking that RMS Investment Corp. and the city of Shaker Heights are undertaking in the multimillion-dollar remaking of Van Aken Plaza as the centerpiece of a new town center is starting to bear fruit as the development attracted a specialty insurance company from Mayfield Heights as an anchor tenant. ABA Insurance Services Inc., or ABAIS, a former Progressive Corp. unit now owned by Bermuda-based American Mutual Benefit Insurance Corp., has agreed to lease 17,500 square feet on the top floor of a proposed 60,000-square-foot office building with first-floor retail space at the corner of Farnsleigh and Warrensville Center roads. Vision as well as economics attracted the provider of insurance products to community banks and small businesses to the project, according to John Wells, CEO of ABAIS. “We see the potential of the Van Aken District,” Wells said in a phone interview. “I’ve always felt that a location with a Main Street feel to it would be ideal for us. It also fits with our employees and the things we like to do. There is access to green space (and Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority) train access to downtown, and being in a community such as Shaker interests us.” After most of the existing Van Aken Plaza is razed and the surroundings are refigured with new retail space, including a food hall housing multiple eateries, ABAIS will
ABA Insurance Services Inc. will lease the top floor of a proposed 60,000square-foot office building in Van Aken Plaza. (Bialosky rendering) move about 70 employees to the building in 2018 from the Landerbrook Corporate Center II office building, 5910 Lander Drive. Wells said the company had searched the east suburban office market before renewing its lease at Landerbrook a few years ago, so Van Aken “was the only consideration we had for the real estate.” It will use slightly less space than the 18,000 square feet it currently occupies. Todd Evans, ABAIS chief operating officer, said heading to the inner-ring suburb was more attractive for the company than other options for a newly constructed building on the “outskirts of town.” Moreover, Evans said Shaker Heights is a central location for many of its employees.
For developer RMS, the lease means it has put in place enough preleasing to obtain loans to launch the redevelopment’s office component. RMS also has leased more than 6,000 square feet to a financial services firm that has asked not to be identified. In addition, RMS will move its offices to 7,000 square feet of the structure from the office space portion of the current Van Aken Center, according to Luke Palmisano, RMS president. “We’re super excited to have ABAIS,” Palmisano said. “We’re looking good on the office side of the project.” The office component of the project will include another 30,000 square feet that will be available for other tenants. Palmisano said there have been
several other companies discussing space at Van Aken already. “This shows there is a market for new office space in an urban environment — and that’s what we’re building,” he said. Moreover, it also shows demand for new rental office space in the eastern suburbs after a long hiatus. The 3600 Park Place building that real estate developers Dino Palmieri of Solon and Welty Construction Co. of Akron are constructing in Beachwood is the first east suburban multitenant rental building to go in since 2008. To woo ABAIS, the city of Shaker Heights will provide a forgivable loan of $500,000, which primarily will go to defraying costs for the interior design of the office that is usually shouldered primarily by the tenant. Tania Menses, Shaker Heights economic development coordinator, said that if ABAIS stays 10 years in the city and has a $6 million payroll, the city will forgive the loan. She said the city will know if its requirements are met by looking at how much municipal income tax the company’s workers pay.
“This is a very significant part of the project,” Mennes said. “It’s at the corner and the windows will face the streets. To bring that amount of payroll — about $6 million annually — to the city is significant.” One thing ABAIS will not bring is a rapidly expanding workforce. Wells said his company’s business plan calls for exploiting technology as much as possible rather than adding staff. Wells said ABAIS sells banks professional liability, property and casualty insurance, as well as fidelity bonds. The program was developed in the 1980s as an American Bank Association-endorsed program for community banks and has members of the trade group on one of its boards but was not owned by the association. Progressive shed ABAIS in 2010 by selling it to AMBI. Wells, who spent more than 20 years at Progressive, said he continues to have friends at the firm. Wells and Evens also addressed the question most often asked about business moves — that execs are moving to the suburbs where they live. Neither lives in Shaker. Palmisano said RMS plans to demolish the 1950s-vintage portions of the shopping center this fall and to begin construction on a first phase of the Van Aken District plan. RMS is owned by members and heirs of the founding families of Forest City Realty Trust Inc. of Cleveland — the Ratners, Millers and Shafrans. It consists of properties the partners did not put into the Forest City portfolio when the company went public in the 1960s and has conducted its own realty operations over the years.
- THE PAUL J. EVERSON REAL ESTATE CENTER PRESENTS -
2016 REAL ESTATE CONFERENCE WEDNESDAY · SEPTEMBER 14 · 2016
- FEATURED SPEAKERS -
Spencer Levy
Joe Marinucci
Dr. Michael J. Seiler
REGISTER TODAY csuohio.edu/real-estate
20160815-NEWS--6-NAT-CCI-CL_--
PAGE 6
8/12/2016
3:37 PM
Page 1
z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Pair purchases 12-building park in Solon for $11.5M
For Sale - 5,040 SF Industrial Building Outstanding Investor / User Opportunity 2-INCOME PRODUCING, SHORT-TERM LEASES IN PLACE
By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter
5121 W. 161st Street, Brook Park, OH • 5,040 SF Freestanding Industrial Bldg.
• One 8’w x 10’ h Drive-In Door
• 2,520 SF Warehouse; 2,520 SF Office
• 10’ - 14’ Ceiling Height
• Situated on .40 Acres
• 100AMP/240V/3-Phase Power
• New Roof, HVAC & Windows
• Convenient Access to I-480 & I-71
Joseph J. Martanovic
216.861.5434
JosephMartanovic@HannaCRE.com
HannaCRE.com
Hosted by the Recovery Resources Associate Board
Partners in health. Partners in hope.
4th Annual Run for Recovery August 20, 2016 Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Kids’ Fun Run 8:30 a.m. 5k Walk 8:45 a.m. 1.5 Mile Walk 9:15 a.m.
Thank You to our Sponsors *
By CHUCK SODER ARC-Active Recovery Consulting “with you every step of the way”
*
fM
LANDERHAVEN
For life’s most important moments. New Image Photography
Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Showers, Weddings. Flexible event space with a variety of rooms and outdoor locations.
CONTACT ONE OF OUR EVENT CONSULTANTS TODAY! 440.449.0700 or info@landerhaven.com 6111 LANDERHAVEN DRIVE CLEVELAND, OH 44124
— Bob Garber, principal, Cushman & Wakefield CRESCO said that sector is not a focus. Brouman said the duo likes the variety of the buildings — with a range of building sizes and vacancies — as well as the ability to house young companies that may grow into larger properties. As Titan is based in Solon, it’s also a city they know well. Raintree retained Bob Garber, a principal at the Independencebased Cushman & Wakefield CRESCO brokerage, to represent them exclusively in leasing Raintree Industrial Park because he has handled leasing for them through three prior ownership groups. Garber also represented Equity Commonwealth in the sale, while the buyers represented themselves. Garber is looking forward to working with the new owners, whom he has known for a decade, and a different approach from local investors than the institutions and real estate investment trusts he previously worked with on the properties. The
properties line Naiman Parkway, named for the original owner and builder, Solon real estate developer Joseph Naiman. “These are back-of–the-napkin guys,” Garber said. “As a small organization, they can be in the park every day. They understand what it takes to do a deal in Cleveland rather than go through committees, make sure it checks every box for the company and matches the pro forma. They can hear about a 3,000-squarefoot deal and say, `Let’s do it.’ ” The portfolio has some space to fill with a 15% vacancy rate. Since Raintree Holdings completed the purchase late last month, the new owners have started a plan to spruce up the park, from engaging a landscaper to removing overgrown shrubbery and repairing parking lots. The acquisition loan, Mintz said, also includes some funds to make improvements to the buildings and adapt the properties to new tenants. Mintz, 38, and Brouman, 37, had to be convinced to discuss the acquisition by Garber. “We realized this is large enough people would want to know about it,” said Mintz, whose sister, Jackie Mintz, serves as vice president of operations. None of the three men would discuss the sale price for the portfolio, which Equity disclosed in its most recent results July 30. Peggy Dorman, Solon economic development coordinator, said she needed no introduction to Titan’s operators. She said the city has worked with them for years to attract new businesses to their properties.
InTouch spreads Bluetooth beacons throughout Cleveland
Register online at wizathon.com/runforrecovery
*as of May 19
After 30 years of institutional and public real estate company ownership, Raintree Industrial Park in Solon is back in local hands after two below-the-radar 30-somethings snagged it for $11.5 million. Lowell Mintz and Geoffry Brouman, who operate Titan Realty Co., late last month bought the 12building portfolio from Chicagobased Equity Commonwealth, the Sam Zell-led realty behemoth aggressively shedding noncore properties in second-tier markets. Equity also is expected by realty insiders to close soon on the sale of the North Point Tower downtown to San Bernardino, Calif.-based Hertz Investment Group. While Raintree is also huge — half-a-million square feet of rentable industrial and office space — its 1970s-vintage precast construction does not have the glitz and profile of the downtown office building or even as industrial property the newness valued by big-wheel out-oftown real estate investors. But that suits Mintz and Brouman just fine. “It fits squarely in our portfolio,” Mintz said. “We can buzz there in five minutes.” Mintz declined to disclose the size of the Solon-based firm’s portfolio but said it includes seven industrial properties in the southeast suburbs, other industrial buildings elsewhere and shopping centers. The stable includes one office building, but he
“These are back–ofthe-napkin guys. As a small organization, they can be in the park every day. They understand what it takes to do a deal in Cleveland.”
csoder@crain.com @ChuckSoder
Throughout Northeast Ohio, there are 250 little beacons waiting to send a message to your smartphone, if you have the InTouch app. The Cleveland-based startup has been installing Bluetooth beacons on light posts and inside small businesses throughout the city — the starting point in InTouch’s quest to become the go-to platform for all things beacon-related. But unlike many startups pursuing big goals, InTouch isn’t racking up huge losses, at least for now. The company’s relatively modest operating costs are currently covered, thanks to a contract with Cisco Systems: The massive technology company has used a white label version of the InTouch app at three Cisco Live conferences this year, according to Jesse Kracht, chief operating officer for InTouch, which has five employees. The company sees opportunity in the event business, but it would be “leaving a lot of money on the table” if it ignored its broader goals of turning cities into “smart cities,” Kracht said. “The sky’s the limit with this technology,” he said. An unidentified InTouch investor
is helping the company offer free beacons to small businesses in 12 local communities, mostly within the city of Cleveland. Local bars, restaurants and retail stores can use the beacons to send information on deals and events to customers who come inside or even pedestrians on the sidewalk. Outdoor beacons could be used to help visitors learn about their surroundings. For instance, one of InTouch’s newest customers is Lake View Cemetery, a historic cemetery on the border of Cleveland and East Cleveland. Other paying customers include Case Western Reserve University, Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Little Italy Redevelopment Corp. and Cleveland Beer Week. Future customers could include museums, concert venues and groups that promote tourism (InTouch aims to test that last use case: Data from its beacons will soon be fed into Destination Cleveland’s new app). Kracht knows the company is casting a wide net. Its goal is to install beacons all over the place and figure out what works best. If the Lake View Cemetery beacons prove popular, the company could “call up every historical cemetery across the country,” he said. The company’s founders — Kracht, CEO Alex Bernot and chief
technology officer Rob Walker — started developing the app in May 2015, shortly before they entered the Flashstarts business accelerator in downtown Cleveland. They released an Android version of the app on Oct. 9. On that same day, the organizers of Cleveland Beer Week began using it to send messages to participants as they visited local bars. InTouch uses events like that to get people to download the app. “It doesn’t work unless you market it well,” he said. So why did Cisco want to work with such a young company? Like InTouch, Cisco DevNet Systems Manager Matt DeNapoli works out of the StartMart, a coworking space in the Terminal Tower. He wanted to find a mobile tool that could help Cisco engage with the software developers at Cisco Live events. InTouch happened to be selling one. The app has worked well so far, DeNapoli said. At the three events where the app was used, about 20% of the attendees who registered to join Cisco’s DevNet network did so through the app. Plus, when Cisco used the app to collect survey responses at its Las Vegas conference last month, it got about 1,400 responses. “I have no complaints about it whatsoever,” DeNapoli said.
20160815-NEWS--7-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/12/2016
4:14 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 7
Evolving Blair maintains a steady course By CHRIS SWEENEY Rubber & Plastics News
Blair Rubber Co., like most rubber product manufacturers, is constantly evolving. The difference is Blair is doing it both physically and mentally. The physical side came to fruition in June, when the firm completed a 50,000-square-foot addition to its facility in Seville, in Medina County, including 40,000 square feet of production and warehouse space and increasing the size of its maintenance shop. It also added a new training room, the Michael Burkholder Training Center, named after the firm’s late sales manager, who died in May 2015. The company just launched a revised website, BlairRubber.com, complete with new tools to assist end users of rubber linings, the firm’s primary product line. It includes a revamped engineering manual, video tutorials, specification sheets, installation guidelines and material safety data sheet documents. But the company’s mental evolution, a focus on internal continuous improvement and employee engagement, began in 2012 and never really ends. That was the core message president Dave Jentzsch delivered to visitors from the Association of Rubber Products Manufacturers, which the firm hosted on an ARPM tour event July 12. “It’s all part of how we’re able to change, move forward and progress,� Jentzsch said. “It’s been reported that 44% of executives say they’re disappointed with their employees. They’re unengaged, they’re uncommitted. The old leadership model where there’s this leader in charge and everybody follows is
A Blair Rubber employee operates one of the new lines installed during the firm’s recent expansion. (Chris Sweeney) dead. Anyone that tries to do that now, their organization is going to collapse. It’s just a matter of time.� Blair adopted a new leadership model called “Leader-Leader,� designed to get everyone from the top down involved. But for the program to be adopted, it had to start at the top. Jentzsch said he had to look inward and found three things: ■Approach every problem with curiosity; ■Assume the best outcome; and ■Look in the eye and voice feelings. “Every time I see someone look at me, I wave,� he said. “It’s amazing how that turns things around. When I started doing that, everyone else started doing that, and things started happening. But it had to start with me and carry to everyone else.� Recently, Blair invested in a new ERP system and barcoding, which was a huge change for the firm. Jentzsch said the company used to
Are you an individual with $10 million or more seeking advice? Advice and insight across generations 5PEBZ CBDLFE CZ UIF FYQBOTJWF HMPCBM SFTPVSDFT PG 6#4 BOE JUT ZFBS USBEJUJPO PG TFSWJOH TPNF PG UIF XPSMEà T XFBMUIJFTU GBNJMJFT PVS UFBN IBT OFWFS CFFO CFUUFS QPTJUJPOFE UP TFSWF PVS BGGMVFOU DMJFOUT BOE UIFJS GBNJMJFT 'SPN DPNQMFY NVMUJHFOFSBUJPOBM QMBOOJOH UP XFBMUI QSFTFSWBUJPO TUSBUFHJFT BOE USBOTGFS XF BSF ZPVS USVTUFE TPVSDF PG GJOBODJBM TUFXBSETIJQ BOE BEWJDF Cleveland Wealth Management Team William G. Murphy, CIMAŽ 4FOJPS 7JDF 1SFTJEFOUž 8FBMUI .BOBHFNFOU 1SJWBUF 8FBMUI "EWJTPS
Owen C. McBride, CFPŽ, CLU 4FOJPS 7JDF 1SFTJEFOUž 8FBMUI .BOBHFNFOU 1SJWBUF 8FBMUI "EWJTPS
Chad Arthur Hartup, CFPÂŽ, CRPCÂŽ, CLU 4FOJPS 8FBMUI 4USBUFHZ "TTPDJBUF
UBS Financial Services Inc. 4VQFSJPS "WF &BTU UI 'M $MFWFMBOE 0)
ubs.com/team/cwmt $FSUJĹ–FE 'JOBODJBM 1MBOOFS #PBSE PG 4UBOEBSET *OD PXOT UIF DFSUJĹ–DBUJPO NBSLT $'1ÂŽ and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERĂ? JO UIF 6 4 $*."ÂŽ JT B SFHJTUFSFE DFSUJGJDBUJPO NBSL PG UIF *OWFTUNFOU .BOBHFNFOU $POTVMUBOUT "TTPDJBUJPOÂŽ JO UIF 6OJUFE 4UBUFT PG "NFSJDB BOE XPSMEXJEF $IBSUFSFE 3FUJSFNFOU 1MBOOJOH $PVOTFMPS4. BOE $31$ÂŽ BSF SFHJTUFSFE TFSWJDF NBSLT PG UIF $PMMFHF GPS 'JOBODJBM 1MBOOJOHÂŽ "T B GJSN QSPWJEJOH XFBMUI NBOBHFNFOU TFSWJDFT UP DMJFOUT XF PGGFS CPUI JOWFTUNFOU BEWJTPSZ BOE CSPLFSBHF TFSWJDFT 5IFTF TFSWJDFT BSF TFQBSBUF BOE EJTUJODU EJGGFS JO NBUFSJBM XBZT BOE BSF HPWFSOFE CZ EJGGFSFOU MBXT BOE TFQBSBUF DPOUSBDUT 'PS NPSF JOGPSNBUJPO PO UIF EJTUJODUJPOT CFUXFFO PVS CSPLFSBHF BOE JOWFTUNFOU BEWJTPSZ TFSWJDFT QMFBTF TQFBL XJUI ZPVS 'JOBODJBM "EWJTPS PS WJTJU PVS XFCTJUF BU ubs.com/workingwithus h6#4 "MM`SJHIUT SFTFSWFE 6#4 'JOBODJBM 4FSWJDFT *OD JT B TVCTJEJBSZ PG 6#4 "( .FNCFS '*/3" 4*1$ @"E@ Y @-% @.D#0 *4 &YQ
use a kanban system, and most of the employees needed to be retrained on using the system and handgun scanners. During the transition, there were growing pains. He called the workforce together with a simple slogan: Don’t sink the ship. Jentzsch said he told the team, “Do it right, do it slow, don’t be concerned about going fast. If you don’t know, ask the question. It’s more important right now to do it right. Speed and productivity will come. Right now, we’ve got to learn the system. Don’t sink the boat by going fast.� Not long after that, he said he ended up in the hospital. The team signed a get well card. One member of the team wrote, “We won’t sink the ship.� Jentzsch also wanted to focus on improving employee recognition. One of the first things Blair did was to establish a leadership award, given to an employee not in a leader-
ship role. He said, however, there had to be a wow factor. If there wasn’t one, nobody gets the award, he added. For instance, one winner showed up to work while battling colon cancer. Jentzsch said if he wasn’t in the hospital, he was at work with his chemo pump on. He added that the employee’s efforts were an inspiration to the entire team. The firm also gives awards for 100% attendance, and like with the leadership award, if nobody meets the goal, nobody receives one. In addition, it gives points based on safety ideas generated by employees. However, to receive points, the firm must implement the idea. Jentzsch said employees also can earn points for volunteering on various committees. At the end of the year, cash awards are given to employees with the most points in each category. He said another way the firm helps to recognize achievement is by handing out candy bars, an idea he adopted from his managers after they constantly gave him Snickers bars. The candy bars Blair distributes now come with messages stuck to the wrapper, such as, “Your work is greatly appreciated, thank you� or “Your commitment to excellence is inspiring to others.� “The monumental problems we face in the future and that are going on can’t be down to just a few minds,� he said. “We have to have everyone in the company, their minds engaged.� Blair found traditional training sessions were unproductive, so Jentzsch decided to do something different. He split the class into groups and divided the lesson, chal-
lenging each group with responsibility of their portion of the lesson. Each team had to present the most important points to the class. He said all members of the class passed the test. This is just one of many types of teaching methods Blair uses. Another involves role-playing scenarios, and yet another involves building examples and putting people through them. A very effective one is mutual peer tutoring. For instance, if someone were to cut themselves on a mill, the entire team would spend time learning the proper way to cut. Jentzsch said having to avoid these kinds of tutorial acts as a self-policing incentive for employees who see others deviating from their training. He said retraining is very effective because now when employees see someone doing something wrong, they police themselves because they know it only takes one event to cause a team-wide retraining. The firm has another rule: Performance reviews only can be positive. Jentzsch said the goal is to try to find each employee’s unique ability and then line that up with the job. “If there’s a problem you have to discuss with the person, it’s done at another time,� he said. “That’s your job. Do it at another time. Performance appraisals are positive. You might learn something from the employee, and he might say something.� All of the firm’s work culminated in the establishment of its core values, represented in the acronym SILPHA — “shared knowledge, integrity, long term, performance, humility and agility.� Jentzsch said he doesn’t mind if people make mistakes, as long as those mistakes can be tied back to Blair’s core value set.
20160815-NEWS--8-NAT-CCI-CL_--
PAGE 8
8/11/2016
5:48 PM
Page 1
z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Opinion From the Publisher / Editor
Waving goodbye
Editorial
Don’t settle There are dumb ideas, and there are abhorrent ideas. Building an outlet mall — a big, bulky box lacking any character whatsoever — on a prime piece of lakefront real estate in downtown Cleveland falls into the latter bucket. Nevertheless, it’s an idea being tossed around by Horizon Group Properties, a Michigan-based developer — and it appears to have some local support. We could dissect what’s wrong with this concept at length (the design, the utility, the optics of having a discount shopping center straddling our region’s greatest asset). However, what’s even more problematic is that the idea, as first reported by The Plain Dealer, has yet to be soundly rejected by our local leaders. The outlet mall proposal, though, is illustrative of a larger issue: for too long, local leaders and even some developers have come off as so desperate for outside investment that even the silliest of ideas gain some traction. But given the city’s recent momentum, it should be negotiating from a position of strength, not desperation. Cleveland, with a dash of unhelpfulness from the state and other bureaucratic bodies, has a knack for watering down projects ripe with potential. Take the modest drawbridge for pedestrians and cyclists planned for North Coast Harbor by acclaimed Boston architect Miguel Rosales (the man also charged with the much more ambitious pedestrian bridge running from the mall to the lake). Just recently, after years of bureaucratic runaround from
the feds and state, the city tossed Rosales’ proposal for an underwhelming — and cheaper — backup plan from engineering firm CDM Smith. Rather than work with Rosales or another designer to appease the regulators, the city bought in to mediocrity. It’s as if we were planning to go out to a nice dinner, hit some traffic and ended up settling for a Big Mac. Meanwhile, one of the big controversies surrounding lakefront development is the future of Burke Lakefront Airport. Mayor Frank Jackson has opposed closing the airport, which covers roughly 450 acres of coveted lakefront real estate. Critics have argued that the airport is underused and hinders further lakefront development. But were those 450 acres freed up, it’s almost frightening to think about what could be dreamed up. We’re dealing with limited acreage now and an outlet mall was floated as a possibility. Cleveland was built on bold ideas, and they haven’t completely escaped us. The $50 million redo of Public Square has, by most measures, been a rousing success. For many, it was difficult to imagine that what had been a concrete wasteland littered with cigarette butts could be an inviting and lively public space. Cleveland is faced with a great opportunity. Last month during the Republican National Convention, the rest of the nation got a close look at the incredible things happening here. The city didn’t mail in its planning for the convention, and it shouldn’t mail in its development efforts, either.
The outlet mall proposal is illustrative of a larger issue: for too long, local leaders and even some developers have come off as so desperate for outside investment that even the silliest of ideas gain some traction.
PUBLISHER AND EDITOR: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
MANAGING EDITOR: Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com) SECTIONS EDITOR: Timothy Magaw (tmagaw@crain.com)
I keep telling myself I’m ready. Later this week, my husband and I will pack the car and drive the 140 miles to Columbus. We’ll line up with thousands of others on Saturday and drop off our first-born child at Ohio State University. Sorry, now that he’s enrolled, we’re legally required to say THE Ohio State University. I’m ready. Really. I am. I swear. The linens are purchased, including the obligatory XL sheets and bedding. A clip-on lamp and a power strip. A first-aid kit and cleaning supplies. They’re all checked off the list. (My list, actually. Our son would probably be OK with a bare mattress and a flashlight.) I’m ready. Really, I am. What? You don’t believe me? OK. OK. If you’ve sent a child off to college, Elizabeth I’m sure you can see right through me. McIntyre Yes, it’s true, I’ve checked a Costco-sized bundle of Kleenex tissues off my list, too, and they’re staying with me. I’m forcing myself to display a steely resolve, but there are times when it begins to melt away. Last week, my son and I stayed up way too late one night, sitting next to each other on the couch and talking about our fears and excitement as he takes this next step. I looked at this bearded man sitting next to me, in the same spot where I’d sat countless times cradling him, all wrapped up like a burrito. I felt a twinge of what’s to come. I know what that moment will look like. I’ve played it on a loop in my head the past few months. Aidan, my husband, Mike, and I will stand across from each other, probably outside his dorm. We’ll talk about various minutiae and, after a while, a lull will settle in. The only thing left to do will be to say goodbye. No one will want to make the first move. Then one of us will break the silence, probably not me. We’ll embrace and hold tight as long as we can. And then we’ll pull away. We’ll pull away because that’s what we’re supposed to do — as parents and children. That thought never occurred to me when Mike and I walked out of the hospital with Aidan. I was convinced the doctors and nurses would quickly realize their mistake and come running after us, demanding we return this poor defenseless creature they mistakenly entrusted to our care. The sleepless nights of early parenthood blurred into preschool, kindergarten, parent/teacher conferences, sports practices, school lunches. He became a big brother. There were sleepovers with friends, marching band, mock trial. He got a driver’s license and spent nights out with his girlfriend as one of us waited up, because you can’t really sleep until all of your children are safe in the nest. And then, suddenly, here we are. At goodbye. I vowed long ago not to be the helicopter parent who swoops in to solve every problem. And I’ll continue to fight that urge, with him as he leaves and with his sister, who is just a few years behind. He has to stub his own toes and learn from his own mistakes. That’s what my parents did, and trust me, I broke some ankles and made some doozies. They never said, “I told you so.” They were there if I needed them, of course, but they knew I would grow only from handling things myself. That’s not an easy thing for a parent to do. And it’s certainly not easy for me to do. In business, leaders talk about setting the direction and letting talented people do their jobs. My husband and I, we hope, have set the direction. It’s his job to make his way as an adult, beginning with day one of college. And it starts at goodbye.
WRITE US: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited. Send letters to Crain’s Cleveland Business, 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113, or by emailing letters@crain.com. Please include your complete name and city from which you are writing, and a telephone number for fact-checking purposes.
SOUND OFF: Send a Personal View for the opinion page to emcintyre@crain.com. Please include a telephone number for verification purposes.
20160815-NEWS--9-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/11/2016
5:50 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 9
Stockbroker fraud? Bad investment advice?
Web Talk Re: Growth at Park Place Technologies
Re: Impact of OT rules on nonprofits
Park Place is a great business partner and provides a real value to their marketplace. That makes it even more exciting to see another Cleveland-area company grow and flourish. Congrats on the success. — Jeremy Wilson
It’s way past time for nonprofits to adjust to the reality that their employees do the same work and live in the same world and have the same obligations and dreams as those who work in Silicon Valley. If they want to operate with volunteers, that is perfectly legitimate, as is the reality that all industries do not offer equal economic opportunity. However, abusive overtime practices in the name of the nobility of their mission really need to stop. — Frank Bruno
Re: Hall of Fame Game cancellation I’m so angry and disappointed at the action of the Pro Football Hall of Fame leading up to what was supposed to be a preseason game on Sunday, Aug. 7. We all kept buying food/beer/merchandise, while all the time, the Hall of Fame knew the game was canceled. NO ANNOUNCMENT was made at all; word started spreading by fans who found out via ESPN. Shame on you, Hall of Fame. I won’t be back, and I don’t think anyone there that night will, either. What a black eye on the city of Canton, the Hall of Fame and the NFL, and a big win for GREED. — T2 The NFL has become so obsessed with putting on multimillion-dollar spectacles, they’ve forgotten how to lay down 100 yards of grass for a football game. Amazing. — Donald Templeman
Re: Cleveland HQ in works for Explorys
Call a trusted law firm who knows how to navigate the world of investment claims.
Lose money due to bad advice from your broker?
216.658.9900 | investorloss.com
This is great news for everyone. It will definitely help move the effort underway by the Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp. in its effort to continue total redevelopment southward from Cedar along the new Opportunity Corridor. As Fairfax Renaissance is one of the most effective community development corporations around, this will demonstrate that the investment in Opportunity Corridor will make a big difference for all of us. — Neil Dick
Walter | Haverfield law firm is growing at record rate Midsized group has added 24 attorneys in the last year By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile
Midsize Cleveland law firm Walter | Haverfield is making some aggressive moves to build out the firm at a record pace. While many firms in the Northeast Ohio market are seeing solid growth through the past year, Walter | Haverfield is on track to set a new growth record since its founding in 1932. In the past year, the firm has added 24 attorneys and four new practice areas. Its current bench of 74 Ohio attorneys marks a 15% increase since the end of 2015 alone. “In terms of absolute numbers and percentage, this is the largest and most sustained period of growth we have experienced,” said managing partner Ralph Cascarilla. He declined to discuss financial performance but said the firm has logged consistent revenue growth annually through the past five years. The firm’s newest practice areas in intellectual property, liquor control law and public and structured finance show a strategic move to expand the client base and complement existing services. It’s certainly not a new strategy. IP, for instance, has been tagged as one of the fastest-growing practice areas in the legal field, and more firms are getting on board. What’s particularly notable, though, are some lateral hires the firm has secured to bring this growth to fruition. The IP group was formed with the absorption of Peter Hochberg Co., LPA in June. Also in June, the firm recruited the Cleveland-based IP group of Kegler Brown Hill & Ritter. That firm’s former Cleveland office director, Jamie Pingor, is leading the IP group at Walter | Haverfield. Those hires are among several that are building out
their existing practice areas, and they underscore an aggressive move by Walter | Haverfield to build out the firm. “We are obviously excited about where these new lawyers will allow us to proceed as a firm,” Cascarilla said. “Now our task is to go out and pursue the opportunities they Cascarilla present.” The firm has been building up to this point for some time. Cascarilla told Crain’s in February that the firm was hitting an acquisitive mode, looking to launch new practices to build itself out in Ohio. When Cascarilla became managing partner in 2003, the firm had 45 attorneys. Across the industry, law firm mergers hit a record high in 2015, according to data from Altman Weil, a group that provides management consulting to law firms. And that pace has been expected to continue through this year. The recent lawyer growth places Walter | Haverfield near the 10 largest law firms in Northeast Ohio, according to Crain’s research. Could this be a sign of the firm looking to grow into a regional firm? Not exactly. Any additional growth will continue to be focused on Northeast Ohio, Cascarilla said. And the acquisitions of people and practices this far are strategic and not part of plan to hit a massive size. “We are clearly wanting to grow, but we want to grow because it’s logical and consistent with our overall plan,” Cascarilla said. “When I look at where we are going to be at in two to three years, we are definitely going to be a larger firm. But we’re not shooting for a particular number.” There’s no interest in becoming a multi-state firm, he added. The firm is content for now with its two offices in Avon and downtown Cleveland, but Cascarilla said he’s open to additional geographic expansion in this region. “Right now, I think we want to try and grow and develop our presence here in Northern Ohio,” he said. “But when something presents itself, we’re going to pursue it. That goes hand-in-hand with our entrepreneurial approach.”
IMPRISE FINANCIAL
MANAGE RISK. MAXIMIZE WEALTH.
WEALTH ADVANTAGE Imprise Financial develops customized captive insurance programs VCKNQTGF VQ [QWT DWUKPGUUoU URGEKƂE TKUM RTQƂNG 1WT URGEKCNK\GF programs provide coverage for losses that traditional insurance companies cannot cost-effectively insure, including: Crime & Employee Dishonesty
Loss of Key Talent
Cyber Risk
Regulatory Risk
Insurance Deductible Expense
Supply Chain Interruption
Loss of Key Customer
Litigation Expense
Franchise Dispute Expense
Reputation Risk
CALL TODAY 877-220-0180 WWW.IMPRISEFINANCIAL.COM © Imprise Financial PCC, Inc. 2016
20160815-NEWS--10-NAT-CCI-CL_--
PAGE 10
8/11/2016
5:51 PM
Page 1
z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
THE DISH: Lee Chilcote
From ‘pasture to plate,’ Lucky Penny is delivering In the former Portage County Labor Temple in Kent, Lucky Penny Creamery churns out artisan cheeses that are distributed to chefs across Ohio. Owner and cheese maker Abbe Turner has lived on a farm in Garrettsville with her family since 2002. She first started making cheese in 2006 and became licensed to sell it in 2010. Today, Lucky Penny distributes its product to restaurants in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton. Turner also runs a nonprofit called Recycle Pots and Pans that distributes household wares to families in need, and volunteers to help lead efforts to reduce regional food waste. It’s all in a day’s work for this local food evangelist, who believes sustainably made food is not only healthier, but also helps build community and support the local economy. “We really are pasture-to-plate,� Turner said during a recent tour of the facility. “I truly believe eating is a sacred act, and we need to pay attention to the whole system. I love food, and I get great joy from the production — and eating — of food and wine.� Abbe and Anderson Turner first moved into the area after landing jobs at Kent State University. She got into cheese making when she began tending goats at the farm and using their milk to make cheese. “People said, ‘This is good, you should go into business,’ and I
Chilcote is a freelance writer and editor who has written for Vanity Fair, Next City, Belt and other publications. He is cofounder of Literary Cleveland.
naively said OK,� Turner said. “Half a million dollars later, we’re still trying to figure it out.� Although the business model may be somewhat vexing, Turner certainly knows how to make great cheese. They purchased the labor temple because it was inexpensive and had floor drains on one side, making it a good fit for a food production facility. Lucky Penny purchased its equipment from old farms. “This was a Cadillac in its day,� Turner said, patting an old sour cream vat now used to make cheese. The bulk milk tank originally hailed from a farm in Columbiana County, while the stainless steel piping came from a cow dairy in Vermont. Turner has also benefited from her great relationships with local farmers. Her goats were put out to pasture years ago, and she now sources her milk from eight different
workers during the busy season. Lucky Penny produces cheese from March through December. Turner shuts down during the first two months of the year because she can’t get local milk. While cows produce milk yearround, goats and sheep only do so a few times a year. “As an artisan producer and seasonal dairy, we really are in tune with when there is lush grass available,� she said. “JanuAbbe Turner, owner of Lucky Penny Creamery in ary and February Kent, has been making cheese there since 2006. are quiet be(Contributed photo) cause two-thirds dairy farms across Northeast Ohio. of our production is pregnant and “We rely on the Amish, because waiting to deliver their young.� dairying is hard, especially doing “I’m OK with that,� she added. small ruminants, meaning goats and “We’re trying to do things in a natural sheep,� she said. “They’re also a way that coincides with the seasons.� wonderful source of labor for us.� Despite the lack of product availTurner is the only full-time staff ability during the middle of the winperson at Lucky Penny Creamery, but ter, Lucky Penny’s chefs have stuck she frequently employs contract labor with the creamery because of its losuch as student interns and Amish cal, high-quality product.
“We’re so lucky to have such a fantastic local food scene here,� Turner said. “Chefs understand our food systems, farming and the gifts of Ohio land.� Premier Produce One distributes Lucky Penny’s cheeses across Ohio. The company still does a few farmers markets, but 90% of its business is with restaurants. Turner said Lucky Penny is part of a rich network of artisan creameries in Ohio, including Snowville Creamery in Pomeroy, Kokoborrego in Mt. Gilead, and Paint Valley Farms in Beach City. Lucky Penny makes goat milk chevre, feta cheese and many other types. Cheese making isn’t sexy, Turner said. “People come in here, and they find out it’s hot and wet and there’s lots of cleaning,� she said. “It’s not making cheese and sipping chardonnay. The dishes around here are very big.� Yet it’s worth it to be able to produce delicious, local food for customers. “This is yesterday morning’s milk, and it will go to Premier Produce tomorrow,� she said. “Chefs and customers will get it within 24 hours of production by the animal, which is the way cheese is supposed to be.�
Email Chilcote at clbfreelancer@ crain.com or follow him on Twitter @leechilcote
PRESENTED BY
FAMILY BUSINESS FORUM THANK YOU! MAJOR SPONSORS
On August 3, nearly 200 guests gathered at Stillwater Place at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo to discuss the unique challenges associated with family businesses. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, the Ahola Corporation, and everyone else who made Crain’s second-annual Family Business Forum such a success.
1
2
4
5
3
DATA SPONSOR
SUPPORTED BY
6 Photos by Baron Photography
1. -HĎƒ $KROD DQG .DWK\ 2YHUEHNH SRVH ZLWK WKH $KROD &RUSRUDWLRQ /HJHQGV $ZDUG 2YHUEHNH DFFHSWHG WKLV \HDUâV DZDUG RQ EHKDOI RI (UQHVWR 3R]D 2. 0LFKHOOH 6WHLQ +LUVFK 7RGG 6WHLQ 5DFKHO :HLQEHUJ DQG $GDP 'LDPRQG ZLWK %UXQVZLFN &RPSDQLHV 3. *XHVWV OLVWHQ WR RQH RI WKH IRXU EUHDNRXW SDQHOV 4. -RKQ .DKO &(2 ZLWK 6KXU7HFK %UDQGV DGGUHVVHV WKH DXGLHQFH LQ KLV NH\QRWH SUHVHQWDWLRQ 5. 5LFKDUG 3HUU\ 0HOLVVD 5HJLVWHU DQG 5R\ 0HVVLQJ VDW RQ WKH SDQHO WLWOHG ĂŹ<RXU )DPLO\ %XVLQHVV 6XSSRUW 7HDP Ăş 6. 6DUDK =LPPHUPDQ $EEH\ 'H:LWW /DXUHQ *RRG DQG .ULVWLQ &KDSPDQ GLVFXVV VXFFHVVLRQ SODQQLQJ IRU QH[W JHQHUDWLRQ EXVLQHVV RZQHUV
20160815-NEWS--11-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/11/2016
Focus
5:51 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 11
FALL CULTURE PREVIEW
Painting a perfect fall From the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra to the offbeat brilliance on display at MOCA Cleveland, Northeast Ohio has no shortage of cultural offerings. Here are just a few of the can’t-miss performances and exhibitions happening this fall. For a closer look at what’s happening in the region, visit CrainsCleveland.com each Thursday for a weekly roundup of things to do around Northeast Ohio.
INSIDE Popular Music: Page 12 Classical Music: Page 12 Museums: Page 12 Theater: Page 13 Comedy: Page 13
DAVID KORDALSKI
20160815-NEWS--12-NAT-CCI-CL_--
PAGE 12
8/11/2016
5:52 PM
Page 1
z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
FALL CULTURE PREVIEW
Popular Music
Museums
Amanda Shires
Black to the Powers of Ten
Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College Aug. 30-June 12, 2017 Ellen Johnson Gallery Oberlin.edu/allenart “Race, time, memory and meaning” are among the concepts explored in this exhibition of works created from 2003 to 2014 by artist Fred Wilson. Through glass works, paintings, sculpture, prints and video, “Wilson challenges assumptions about history, culture, and display practices, offering alternative interpretations and encouraging viewers to reconsider how they think and what they know.” Wilson is a 1999 recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” grant and is known for unorthodox installations in museums.
Sept. 15 Musica $15, Ticketweb.com Amanda Shires perhaps plays the biggest stages while touring with Ryan Adams, John Prine or her husband Jason Isbell, but her solo act shouldn’t be missed this fall in Akron. The alt-rock songstress who fiddles, sings and plays guitar is touring in support of her forthcoming “My Piece of Land” record. The debut single “Harmless” is a tender ballad about forbidden love.
Lauryn Hill
Sept. 18 Hard Rock Rocksino $68-$102.50, Ticketmaster.com Inspired by the former Fugees-songstress’s inaugural Diaspora Calling! festival in Brooklyn, Lauryn Hill’s latest concert series promises special guest performances by artists “from throughout the African diaspora.” In announcing the MLH Caravan tour, Hill said, “In these days of tension, tumult and transition, an exchange of this kind can yield direction, expression, understanding and empowerment as well as connection, self love and appreciation that hopefully overflows into our respective communities.”
Kanye West
Oct. 1 Quicken Loans Arena $29.50-$129.50, TheQArena.com The 22-time Grammy Award winning — and no doubt controversial — hip-hop star will bring to the stage songs from his The Life of Pablo record, which made history as the first album to debut at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart based on streaming only. West’s performances have been described by the Seattle Times as a “two-hour rapopera of a performance that was grandiose yet minimal, unsettling yet inspirational.”
Sturgill Simpson
Oct. 14 Cleveland Masonic Auditorium $30-$40, Ticketmaster.com Fresh off his critically acclaimed “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth,” singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson has seemingly found common ground among hipsters and those who appreciate classic country. Simpson strategically blends what could be described as the best of Merle Haggard and country soul with the tender musings of a new father. “Hello, my son, welcome to earth,” Simpson croons on the album’s opening number. “You may not be my last, but you’ll always be my first.”
Teenage Fanclub
Oct. 20 Beachland Ballroom $20, Ticketweb.com These indie pop pioneers are revered for their jangling guitars and sensible harmonies — consider
Classical Music Black Violin
Sept. 23 Ohio Theatre $10-$40, PlayhouseSquare.org Wilner “Wil B” Baptiste and Kevin “Kev Marcus” Sylvester’s blend of classical music, pop and hip hop is nothing short of jaw-dropping. This genrebending duo has opened for such diverse names as Kanye West, Aerosmith and Tom Petty and also collaborated with Wu-Tang Clan, Linkin Park and Wyclef Jean. Black Violin released its major label debut, “Stereotypes,” last year.
The Cleveland Orchestra: Opening night
Sept. 29-30 Severance Hall $29-$149, ClevelandOrchestra.com The Cleveland Orchestra’s 99th season will kick off with Ives’ Symphony No. 3, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, and Copland’s Symphony for Organ and Orchestra. The performance will also feature the orchestra debut of organist Paul Jacobs. This season will be the 15th for the orchestra’s music director Franz Welser-Möst. In announcing the 2016-2017 programming for the orchestra, Welser-Möst said, “With constant and focused effort, we work to maintain and enhance the excellence of this Orchestra to stay relevant in a changing society.”
A gala evening with Emanuel Ax
Oct. 1 Severance Hall $75-$140, ClevelandOrchestra.com One of the most brilliant and universally acclaimed
Three Voices: Conversations on Life & Conflict
Elvis Costello will perform at the Akron Civic Theatre in October. (Roberto Ricciuti/Redferns) The Byrds, if they had used a distortion pedal. Teenage Fanclub is perhaps best known for its 1991 masterpiece “Bandwagonesque.” The Guardian recently characterized the group as one “you loved when you were young, but who grew old with you, without turning into a caricature, or going through the motions.”
Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Oct. 28 Akron Civic Theatre $49.50-$95 New wave pioneer Elvis Costello’s fall tour will focus on his 1982 classic “Imperial Bedroom” — a record that garnered critical acclaim but failed to produce any hit singles. In announcing the tour, Costello said, “You must have known by now that we wouldn’t play this kind of show by anyone else’s rules. You’ll hear all the songs that fit the bill; hits and headlines, waifs and strays. In the words of the great Eric Morecambe, ‘I am playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order.’”
Lisa Loeb
Nov. 3 Music Box Supper Club $28 (advance), $32 (day of show), MusicBoxCLE.com The Grammy-nominated songstress best known for her hit “Stay” remains the only artist to have a No. 1 single while not signed to a recording contract. A gifted songwriter and storyteller, Loeb’s career has gone beyond pop music and included film, television, voice-over work and children’s recordings.
pianists paired with the revered Cleveland Orchestra? Impressive. Concerning Emanuel Ax, the Los Angeles Times writes, “His greatness, his overwhelming authority as a musician, technician, and probing intellect emerges quickly as he plays. Within minutes, we are totally captured by his intensity and pianistic achievement.” The gala concert includes a pre-concert cocktail reception and a post-concert dinner. Proceeds from the evening benefit the orchestra’s education and community programs.
Resplendent Purcell with Apollo’s Fire
Oct. 7-8 First Baptist Church (Shaker Heights) $34-$70, ApollosFire.org English composer Henry Purcell wrote much of his work for royal events at Westminster Abbey, including joyous birthday celebrations for the queen to lamentations at her funeral. Cleveland’s baroque orchestra — now in its 25th year — will be joined by the acclaimed Apollo’s Singers for this program. At the Saturday performance, toast with the performers at a light dessert reception.
Songs Without Words
Oct. 15 SPACES Gallery $25, LesDelices.org Baroque oboist Debra Nagy — accompanied by viola da gamba, harpsichord and a few special guests — will perform songs spanning the 17th to 20th centuries in this program of original arrangements and improvisations. Nagy’s Les Délices (pronounced Lay day-lease) French baroque ensemble was founded in 2006 and “brings together artists with national reputations who share a passion for this exquisite yet seldom heard repertoire.”
Band of Horses
Nov. 4 Cleveland Masonic Auditorium $30-$40, Ticketmaster.com A mainstay in the indie-rock scene for the last decade, the South Carolina-based Band of Horses has played alongside rock giants like Pearl Jam and Neil Young. This summer, the band released its fifth studio album, “Why Are You OK.” The band’s atmospheric anthems are, at times, transcendent.
The Avett Brothers
Nov. 15-16 Akron Civic Theatre $45-$57.50, Ticketmaster.com Newgrass favorites The Avett Brothers are returning to the Rubber City in support of the band’s newest record, “True Sadness.” The new release doesn’t stack up to the band’s back catalog, but the Avetts’ live performances are typically high-energy affairs where the chairs in the audience only get in the way of a foot-stomping good time.
Art Garfunkel
Nov. 18 Hard Rock Rocksino $35-$65, Ticketmaster.com Paul Simon, arguably, was the genius behind Simon & Garfunkel, but it was Art Garfunkel’s soaring vocals that secured the duo’s place in pop history. While his voice isn’t as strong as it once was, it has recently recovered some of its former might. Even without Simon by his side, Garfunkel still puts forth admirable renditions of “The Sound of Silence” and “The Boxer.” — Timothy Magaw
Belcea Quartet
Oct. 18 Plymouth Church, UCC $30, ClevleandChamberMusic.org Founded at the Royal College of Music in London in 1994, the Belceas “still play like a young quartet, seizing the music’s energy, shocking us out of our seats with every fortissimo,” so said The Guardian. Anchored by Romanian violinist Corina Belcea and the Polish violist Krzysztof Chorzelski, the quartet will perform works by Shostakovich and Schubert. The concert is presented by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society.
Superman at the Symphony
Oct. 30 Severance Hall $15-$25, ClevelandOrchestra.com Swap those dress slacks for some blue spandex and a red cape. As part of its Halloween Spooktacular, conductor Brett Mitchell will lead the orchestra through a performance of all things Superman. The performance will feature music from John Williams’ score for the “Superman” film and Michael Daugherty’s Metropolis Symphony — all accompanied by classic images of the Cleveland-born Man of Steel. A costume contest starts at 2 p.m., with a special prize for the best Superman or Superwoman. Protip: Leave that kryptonite at home.
National Parks: Sights and Sounds with the Akron Symphony
Nov. 4 E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall $20-$55, AkronSymphony.org Teddy Roosevelt would be proud. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park
Canton Museum of Art Sept. 1–Oct. 30 CantonArt.org This all-Ohio exhibit features artists Judy Brandon of Cleveland, Leslie Shiels of Cincinnati and Carol Snyder of Columbus. The artists “bring their thoughts, concerns, and life experiences to our attention through watercolor, oil, and porcelain creations,” the museum says. The three “are looking for visual threads to sew eras, cultures and people together; to tie our lives with our natural world – creating a life experience for audiences to reflect upon.”
Opening of Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center & Woods Garden
Cleveland Museum of Natural History Sept. 3 CMNH.org The first addition to the museum from its Centennial Transformation Project opens to the public on Labor Day weekend. The museum says the all-new Perkins is “a fully immersive, natural environment that brings you closer to native Ohio plants and animals than ever before.” Guests will be able to walk below the waterline as they stroll into a wetlands community featuring fish, turtles and frogs. The museum says a highlight of the new Perkins is a winding elevated walkway that places visitors in the canopy of beech and oak trees, tracking animals below.
Anders Ruhwald: Unit 1: 3583 Dubois
Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists MOCA Cleveland Both shows run Sept. 23-Jan. 8, 2017 MOCACleveland.org The first exhibition, from Detroit artist Ruhwald, is an installation that repositions the identity of a dilapidated brick apartment building from the Motor City, “intertwining its past, present and future.” The exhibition presents several life-sized rooms and corridors based on a permanent installation that
SEE MUSEUMS, PAGE 14
System, conductor Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony will lead the audience through a special performance featuring panoramic images from dozens of the country’s national parks and a special photogenic tribute to the history, heritage and beauty of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Jorge Caballero
Nov. 12 Plymouth Church of Shaker Heights $22-$40, CLEGuitar.org A native of Lima, Peru, Jorge Caballero is the only guitarist to win the Naumburg International Competition Award, a prestigious award given to performers of any instrument. He has performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Chamber Symphony and the Presidential Symphony of Ankara, Turkey, among others. The performance is presented by the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society. This is his Cleveland debut.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
Nov. 18 Severance Hall $15-$25, ClevelandOrchestra.com Students, sure, but fine ones at that. The youth orchestra bills itself as one of northern Ohio’s premier musical destinations for aspiring student musicians. In its opening night of its Severance Hall season, the youth orchestra will host a program featuring Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 and the world premiere of Roger Briggs’ Fountain of Youth, commissioned by the youth orchestra. The youth orchestra is led by Brett Mitchell. — Timothy Magaw
20160815-NEWS--13-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/11/2016
5:53 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 13
Theater The Mystery of Love & Sex
Sept. 2-Oct. 2 Dobama Theatre $10-$29, Dobama.org Dobama’s offering the Midwest premiere of this 2016 Lambda Literary Award finalist written by Bathsheba Doran. Its lead characters, Charlotte and Jonny, have been best friends since they were nine. She’s Jewish, he’s Christian; he’s black, she’s white. Their differences intensify their connection “until sex and love complicate everything in surprising, compulsive ways,” according to Dobama, which says the play is “a love story about the consequences of growing up.”
Ruthless!
Sept. 16-Oct. 16 Mackey Theater at the Beck Center in Lakewood $12-31, BeckCenter.org “Ruthless!” is a “campy cult favorite,” the Beck Center says, about Tina Denmark, the “greatest song-and-dance sensation to ever hit the third grade.” When her school holds auditions for a musical, Tina goes to, well, unusual lengths to land the lead. The show, a winner of Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards, spoofs Broadway musicals such as “Gypsy” and “Mame,” as well as classic films including “The Bad Seed” and “All About Eve.”
Urinetown
Sept. 16-25 Near West Theatre $8-$20, NearWestTheatre.org Talk about a dystopia: “Urinetown” depicts a world contending with a catastrophic drought in which megacorporation Urine Good Co. “has passed laws forbidding private restrooms and requiring payment for the usage of public ones, so as to conserve water,” Near West says. Those who don’t pay for “the privilege to pee” are sent to a mysteriously place called Urinetown. This envelope-pushing musical is “inspired by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill” and is “an irreverently humorous satire in which no one is safe from scrutiny,” according to Near West.
All the Way
Sept. 17-Oct. 9 Allen Theatre, Playhouse Square $25-$80, ClevelandPlayHouse.com If real-life presidential politics seem grim these days, you might take more pleasure in the Cleveland Play House production of “All the Way,” which drama-
tizes President Lyndon B. Johnson’s efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and win the American people over to the side of momentous social change. “Backroom deals and showdowns between the infamous and the influential take center stage in this absorbing Tony Award-winning drama,” the Play House says.
My Fair Lady
Sept. 23-Oct. 29 Hanna Theatre, Playhouse Square $15-$80, www.GreatLakesTheater.org Great Lakes Theater opens its season with this Lerner and Loewe musical favorite, adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” and directed by local favorite Victoria Bussert. You know the story: Linguistics professor/bachelor Henry Higgins bets he can convert Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady of high society, but he doesn’t see coming the changes she’ll bring to him. There are all sorts of recognizable songs, including “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” “The Rain in Spain” and “Get Me to the Church on Time.”
Twelfth Night
Sept. 30-Oct. 30 Hanna Theatre, Playhouse Square $15-$80, www.GreatLakesTheater.org The second play in the Great Lakes repertory is Shakespeare’s romantic comedy that takes place after a violent shipwreck separates young Viola from her boat and twin brother. However, “tragedy quickly turns romantic when she washes ashore in Illyria — an exotic island that is about to be turned topsy-turvy by love,” Great Lakes notes. This enchanting comic work is filled with, as Great Lakes puts it, “misplaced affections and misunderstood intentions.”
Fun Home
Oct. 2-22 Connor Palace, Playhouse Square Single tickets on sale Sept. 9, PlayhouseSquare.org This groundbreaking show based on Alison Bechdel’s best-selling graphic memoir of the same name won five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. “Fun Home,” written while Bechdel was a student at Oberlin College, shows the audience the lead character at three different ages “as she explores and unravels the many mysteries of her childhood,” Playhouse Square says. The story is most poignant in depicting Bechdel’s relationship with her gay father and her attempts to unlock the mysteries surrounding his life.
home audio theaters security lighting control conference rooms automation audiocraft.com info@audiocraft.com 216.431.7300
44 Plays for 44 Presidents
Oct. 6-29 James Levin Theatre at Cleveland Public Theatre $12-$35, CPTonline.org Cleveland Public Theatre dips into history and politics with a “chronological, biographical survey of the lives and presidencies of each of the 44 men who have held the office so far” — and it features “a singing, dancing all-female cast.” This collection of short plays was developed by Chicago’s Neo-Futurists and features “live music, farce, wicked satire and rapid-fire storytelling,” CPT says. Audience members will “consider their role in shaping the history they’ve just witnessed, as they are left to ponder where the presidency has gone since its fall from paradise — and where it will go next.”
Silence! The Musical
Oct. 21-Nov. 5 Blank Canvas Theatre $18, BlankCanvasTheatre.com Ever watched “Silence of the Lambs” and thought, “This might be interesting as a musical?” Here’s your chance to see if that’s true. Blank Canvas presents what’s billed as an “unauthorized parody” of the Academy Award-winning film, featuring “a singing chorus of floppy eared lambs” narrating the action; killer Buffalo Bill dancing a hoedown while kidnapping Catherine Martin; and Dr. Hannibal Lecter singing about the life he’d like to lead someday outside the prison walls.
Comedy Hannibal Buress
Oct. 2 Cleveland Masonic Auditorium $35-$65, Ticketmaster.com With three acclaimed comedy specials under his belt, a role on a popular TV show (“Broad City”) and appearances in a handful of recent blockbusters, Hannibal Buress’ career shows no signs of slowing. Last year, The New York Times described him as “a storyteller whose punch lines are as likely to be silly as sharp. It’s an act that tiptoes closer to the comedy of Bill Cosby.” It was a Buress bit that many credit with putting the spotlight on sexual assault allegations against Cosby.
Amy Schumer
Oct. 6 Quicken Loans Arena $42-$112, TheQArena.com
Oct. 16 Akron Civic Theatre $25-$45, Ticketmaster.com The root of David Sedaris’ quiet yet wickedly witty comedic style is his own life experiences. At his Akron stop, the master satirist will read selections from his eight books, essays from magazines such as The New Yorker and original unpublished works. Sedaris’ books include “Barrel Fever,” “Holidays on Ice,” “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” and “Me Talk Pretty One Day.”
Dave Attell
Oct. 28-29 Hilarities 4th Street Theatre $28-$33, PickwickandFrolic.com Definitely don’t take the kids to this one. Attell’s comedic style — as described in his own press materials — is “very adult.” In 2001, Attell — dubbed by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 25 funniest people in America — used this love of booze and laughter to create and host the hit series “Insomniac with Dave Attell.” His newest project, “Dave Attell’s Comedy Underground,” and his new one-hour special, “Road Work,” are both airing on Comedy Central.
Andrew W.K.
Sex with Strangers
Oct. 22-Nov. 13 Outcalt Theatre, Playhouse Square Single tickets on sale Aug. 7, ClevelandPlayHouse.com This hot show — in every sense — has been well-received in many cities, and now it comes to Cleveland with a production from the Cleveland Play House. It features Olivia, an obscure novelist on the cusp of 40, and Ethan, a famous blogger still in his 20s. They meet at a remote B&B and sparks fly. The Play House says it’s a “smart, tantalizing take on modern love” that “flirts with the ever-blurring line between public and private in our digital age.” — Scott Suttell
David Sedaris
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images She was the first female comedian to sell out New York’s Madison Square Garden. She’s an actor, writer, producer and director. She is the creator, star, writer and executive producer of the awardwinning “Inside Amy Schumer” on Comedy Central. And we can thank her for LeBron James’ first role in a major motion picture (“Trainwreck”). This shouldn’t be missed.
Nov. 14 Capitol Theatre $20-$25, Ticketfly.com A musician, sure, but Andrew W.K. would prefer to be referred to as a “party guru.” That’s why he’s stepping off the music stage and embarking on a speaking tour — something that could be a tad bizarre albeit entertaining. Each evening promises to be an “intimate celebration of discussion, a pep rally for the inner spirit, and an optimistic look at the overwhelming intensity of life. The tour sees Andrew continuing his eternal mission to defend and promote human joy, and the neverending collective search to find truth through partying.” — Timothy Magaw
20160815-NEWS--14-NAT-CCI-CL_--
PAGE 14
8/11/2016
5:53 PM
Page 1
z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
FALL CULTURE PREVIEW
Museums
Intersections: Artists Master Line and Space
Ruhwald is creating in one apartment of the building, which the artist bought in 2014 and is restoring, MOCA Cleveland says. Meanwhile, “Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists” features works from 30 artists from across the globe that “cuts across issues of design, art, décor, production and geopolitics,” according to the museum. The woven carpets in “Wall to Wall” are structured by five basic categories for comparative analysis: “Eastern,” Geometry, Icon, Text, and Materiality.
Akron Art Museum Oct. 1-Jan. 15, 2017 AkronArtMuseum.org This exhibit showcases recent work by six sculptors “for whom working on paper is also an essential part of their practice,” the museum says. Each of the artists’ works in two and three dimensions “relate in different ways, although all are distinguished by their mastery of both line and form.” Works by each of the six will be on display in dedicated gallery spaces, “allowing for understanding of their processes and the diversity of ways they work across media,” according to the museum.
Design Zone
Dinner with a Slice of History
CONTINUED FROM PAGE12
Great Lakes Science Center Oct. 1-Jan. 2, 2017 GreatScience.com The Science Center says this exhibition will help visitors “discover the secrets behind how video game developers, music producers, roller coaster designers and other creative problem solvers do what they do.” What, for instance, does it take to create an addictive and fun video game? How many beats per second does a DJ need to get bodies moving on the dance floor? And what goes behind creating a roller coaster or skate park that produces the most fun and biggest thrills? Guests will find those answers, and more, in this new exhibit.
International Women’s Air & Space Museum at Burke Lakefront Airport Oct. 7, 6:30 p.m. $15 for members and $17 for nonmembers Iwasm.org Longtime museum supporter Bill Meixner delves into what might seem like an esoteric subject — the history of air mail — but actually reveals much about the beginnings of U.S. commercial aviation and how air mail helped lead to important developments in airports, navigation techniques, communications and pilot safety. He’ll also focus on Cleveland’s role in what the museum characterizes as a “dangerous early aviation profession.”
make one. The Libbey Dolls, formerly known as the Doucet Dolls, were the product of the World War I aid effort. (Porcelain factories in Limoges and Sèvres put wounded soldiers and others to work making French novelties.) Out of their production, the Toledo museum says, came this collection of 78 fashion figures, depicting French style from the fifth century to 1915. The dolls were purchased in 1917 by Toledo Museum of Art founder Edward Drummond Libbey. The exhibition “will explore the extraordinary story of this collection while showcasing French fashion design and the strong connection between fashion and the art world.”
A 1963 Pilurs-Smith DSA-1 Miniplane built by Tracy Pilurs, winner of the 1962 Women's National Aerobatic Championship, is on permanent display at the International Women’s Air & Space Museum. (Cole Goldberg) Myth and Mystique: Cleveland’s Gothic Table Fountain
Cleveland Museum of Art Oct. 9-Feb. 26, 2017 Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery ClevelandArt.org The “most complete surviving example of a Gothic table fountain” will be on display at the museum. The medieval automaton dates to about 1320–40 “and was likely produced in Paris for a person of high status, perhaps a member of the royal court,” according to the art museum. The
CONTENT STRIKES BACK! THE LARGEST CONTENT EVENT RETURNS TO CLEVELAND! September 6-9, 2016
FirstMerit Convention Center Of Cleveland contentmarketingworld.com • #CMWorld
Cleveland fountain “is internationally recognized as a unique example of a genre now understood primarily through documentary sources,” the museum says.
The Libbey Dolls: Fashioning the Story
Toledo Museum of Art Oct. 28-Feb. 12, 2017 ToledoMuseum.org The excellent Toledo museum is always worth a trip, and this exhibit will give Northeast Ohioans a good excuse to
Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art Nov. 19-March 19, 2017 Prints and Drawings Galleries ClevelandArt.org This exhibition celebrates pastels made from the second half of the 19th through the early 20th century, which the museum calls “a remarkably creative period of richness, diversity, and experimentation in the use of the medium.” Famed Impressionists Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt “were attracted by the spectrum of available colors with which they could capture the transient effects of nature and light — from a windswept field of golden wheat to the blush on a youthful cheek,” the museum notes. — Scott Suttell
3.95% OWN YOUR BUSINESS?
OWN YOUR BUILDING. 3.95% fixed for 5 years Due in 5 years with up to 20 years amortization*
CLOSING KEYNOTE:
MARK HAMILL
Owner-occupied commercial real estate purchase or refinance Loan amount from $100,000 up to $1,000,000 per loan We pay your closing costs up to $2,000 on loans from $250,000 up to $1,000,000 and $1,000 on loans under $250,000
“2015 was my third year attending Content Marketing World and it just keeps getting better. I’ve attended other conferences, but no other has given me such powerful insights and actionable tools I can put to work 1%" ! 6 $"1 ( 1, 1%" ,ƛ& "ǽȋ Jennifer Green, New Balance Learn more at talmerbank.com or call (800) 456-1500 | OFFER ENDS 9.1.2016
REGISTER TODAY! Save $100 By Using Coupon Code CRAINS100
Application must be received between 6/1/2016 and 9/1/2016 and loan must be closed by 12/1/2016 to be eligible for this special offer. Closing costs offer only valid on commercial real estate loan applications received and booked within the specified offer dates. We pay your closing costs up to $2,000 on loans from $250,000 up to $1,000,000; $1,000 on loans under $250,000. This offer applies to qualified types of owner occupied commercial real estate and qualified borrowers. Owner occupied real estate requires the owner to occupy 51% of the real estate. Offer not valid in conjunction with any other rate discount or offer. Customer is responsible for reimbursing Talmer Bank and Trust for any closing costs assistance if the loan is paid off within the first 36 months of loan origination. This offer does not apply to loans used to refinance existing loans with Talmer Bank and Trust. You may call us at any time during our business hours at 1-800-456-1500 to check on current rates. Rates and offers are subject to change at the Bank’s discretion and without notice. All loans subject to approval, including credit approval. Credit, collateral and underwriting standards apply. Customer is responsible for all closing costs and fees outside of any special promotions. *A balloon payment will be due at maturity if the amortization period exceeds the loan term.
20160815-NEWS--15-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/12/2016
1:58 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 15
Business of Life
Jackie Sanfilippo, a yoga instructor and events coordinator for Artsy Academy, leads a “brewga” class in the second floor of the Platform Beer Co. in Cleveland. (Marc Golub for Crain’s)
‘Brewga’ gets a local platform By JEREMY NOBILE Most things are better with beer. Yoga is no exception. The pairing of yoga exercises with frosty, delicious suds has resulted in an activity of growing popularity. In some trendy West Coast circles, it’s being aptly called “brewga.” In Ohio City, though, it’s just being called fun. Platform Beer Co., in collaboration with Artsy Cleveland, recently began hosting yoga classes at its Lorain Avenue brewery, adding a new appeal to the activity. And while more than two dozen participants during an Aug. 2 class weren’t drinking during their hourlong session in a window-lined, second-floor space above the brewery beautifully illuminated by the twilight sun, they had drinks — and food— waiting for them right downstairs. The classes are led by Jackie Sanfilippo, one of three Cleveland event coordinators with Artsy Cleveland, which may be better known by its wine-fueled paint-and-sip events, among other activities. Sanfilippo also is a store manager with The Grocery OHC, Ohio City’s take on a local farmers market where goods are also featured in dishes at their own cafe. Because Platform doesn’t have a kitchen of its own, The Grocery routinely comes in during the week with its own satellite food station. Last Tuesday, they were serving up grassfed beef and organic veggie bagel burgers. While yoga has grown in popularity through the years, some “brewga” classes were started specifically to
draw more male participants. Despite more men and women alike being drawn to yoga’s inherent health benefits, “some guys might think it’s wimpy,” as Sanfilippo bluntly puts it. But that wasn’t a main driver behind this effort. For Sanfilippo, adding yoga to the mix just seemed natural. “We weren’t really trying to attract a certain type of person, but just trying to bring everyone together while also getting the word out that The Grocery is doing food here and linking everything together with yoga for the summer,” she said. “But there are some people who have never done it before who like drinking, and like Platform, and end up trying it because it’s here.” The hour classes are $15 and include one house beer. Sanfilippo’s efforts seem to be working. The class last week was comfortably full — and it was at least 25% men. “Does drinking make yoga better? I would say so,” said David Pietrzycki, a 27-year-old landscaper. Chad Schmitz, a 27-year-old attorney, said he has tried yoga before, but isn’t a regular and is not keen on the studio atmosphere of typical yoga classes. Like him, several participants said there was simply a more relaxed feel to having a class at Platform. “For me, it’s a get-me-out-of-thehouse factor. But if she was doing it at a yoga studio, I wouldn’t be here, I don’t think,” he said. “And now it’s a social event, too, because I can have a beer with a couple friends afterward.” Having the yoga class at a brewery
London Carson, above, Darryl Walls and Claudia Luilson enjoy the class almost as much as Jordan Daugherty and Molly Lehane enjoy a post-workout drink. undoubtedly adds a new flair. Yoga and beer is one of those awesome combinations that somehow feel unlikely and brilliant at the same time. And while it’s no chicken and waffles, the trend seems to be catching on — at least in Ohio City. “It’s more fun because when you do it at a studio, you go home and it’s over. But when you’re at a brewery, you stay out and about instead of just going home and sitting back on the couch,” said Gina Dottore, a 28year-old administrative assistant. “You get to socialize with other people who enjoy what you enjoy. And they serve food, too, which is just another reason to be here.” “It’s more than just yoga,” she said. “It’s an event.”
20160815-NEWS--16-NAT-CCI-CL_--
PAGE 16
8/12/2016
1:58 PM
Page 1
z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
BUSINESS OF LIFE
Source Lunch Dana Mitchell is the site manager for the 300-person Cleveland office
of AECOM, a global heavyweight in architecture, engineering and construction based in Los Angeles. His role has changed some since 2014, when URS Corp. was acquired by AECOM. Since AECOM is organized by business line rather than geography, he serves as vice president in the Chicago/Midwest area for the Design and Consulting Services Group and as the strategy and growth principal for AECOM‘s Building + Places Business Unit. Those titles mean that the Shaker Heights native now spends part of his professional time in Chicago. The firm plays a major role in Northeast Ohio, with projects ranging from the Global Center for Health Innovation to the Flats East office building and Aloft Hotel. The firm is currently part of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History project. Mitchell joined URS 20 years ago after working in Chicago for the architecture firm SOM, previously known as Skidmore, Owings Merrill, and a smaller Chicago firm. During summers in college, he interned at Dalton, Dalton, Little & Newport, a substantial architecture firm here later acquired by URS. — Stan Bullard
How do you feel about all the real estate and development action in your hometown? I believe that the Cleveland economy is strong and will hopefully continue this trend over the next several years. We saw a lot of projects initiated in the buildup to the RNC and there is a lot of excitement about Cleveland as I travel the country. However, I am curious to see what the post–RNC environment looks like for downtown and the rest of the city. How would you describe the design of the company’s new office at AECOM Center? As a corporation, AECOM has adopted an open concept workplace strategy for all its new offices around the world. This spring, we consolidated our three Cleveland operations into our new, 70,000-square-foot home named AECOM Center. The new office implements AECOM’s workplace design and technology standards that are geared to enhance collaboration and productivity while providing the flexibility of a variety of daily work environments. It has not taken us long to adapt to the space and enjoy the great views of downtown and the lakefront. How do you see the building business going in Northeast Ohio? There was a bit of a slowdown immediately before the Republican National Convention. I’m hopeful of an uptick in activity as things
get back to normal. In the future, we’re tracking and expect to have growth in commercial and industrial facilities. We expect health care will continue its steady growth path. We believe higher education may slow down a little, however we expect corporate workplace to pick up over what it has been, particularly as companies change the way they work and reduce their square footage needs. What is the outlook for hiring at the company and in the industry? We have made many new hires in the company; both regionally and locally. These new hires range the spectrum from recent graduates to folks who have had long careers with other organizations. We are always in the mode where we are looking for talent to grow the organization. We are a diverse firm and when a candidate is identified, say at Kent State University, we can offer opportunities here in Cleveland and potentially in other offices. However, in my personal opinion, the job market is more open than it was just a few years ago. Obviously with a tighter job market, candidates found firms. Now that work is more plentiful, job candidates have more options and companies have to do a better job finding talent. What advice would you give young people pursuing their first job in architecture or engineering?
Dana Mitchell
Take advantage of as many experiences in your profession as possible. Not only internships, but short-term opportunities. This business is multifaceted. There are a lot of different directions you can go with careers in this industry. I constantly preach this to my daughter, Morgan. She is in her third year studying interior design at Ohio State University. Just this past summer, she had a chance to spend a few weeks in Rome through a study-abroad program and upon her return, she was able to shadow a group of interior designers in Chicago. Those types of experiences are invaluable. Do you have a favorite architect? I can’t say I have a favorite. I appreciate all architecture. I can get excited about a Frank Gehry building as equally as I can with a Frank Lloyd Wright project. What is your favorite pastime away from the office? I’ve always liked building things, from putting together models of cars as a kid, to making models for projects in college. As an architect, you have to know how things are put together. Now I spend time on home improvements. I’ve done flooring, drywall, decks and electrical work. The last few months, I installed hardwood on the second floor of my home. I love those projects from conception to completion. If I weren’t an architect, I might be in construction.
ARCHITECTURE
FOUR THINGS: FAVORITE GAME
Golf. I’ve been playing since I was in graduate school in my 20s. I’m a member at the Signature of Solon. During a typical season, I play twice a week. Golf is a great sport. You can play with all sorts of people of different ages, good for both young people and older people, and men and women. It’s also great for business.
ON THE RADIO
I listen to WCPN 90.3 and WTAM 1100. It’s how I get a lot of my news in that downtime driving. My favorite Pandora stations are jazz and the “Sinatrastyle” standards.
FUN NIGHT OUT
I enjoy concerts at Blossom and plays at Playhouse Square. My most recent favorite was “Kinky Boots.”
FAVORITE READS
History and historical fiction. I just finished “The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War,” by Stephen Kinze.
LUNCH SPOT Urban Farmer Steakhouse 1325 East Sixth Street, Cleveland 216-771-7707 urbanfarmercleveland.com
The meal One had the shaved sirloin sandwich with white cheddar and mustard onion jam on ciabatta with farm fries. The other had the farm burger with white cheddar, aioli and house-made English muffin with a salad.
The vibe This restaurant is part of the Westin Hotel. Country planks couple with contemporary chic, along with great graphics and an open kitchen. It’s busy at lunch and buzzing with conversations.
The bill $37.80 + tip
20160815-NEWS--17-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/12/2016
3:49 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 17
ADVERTISING
Crain’s People on the Move promotional feature showcases Northeast Ohio job changes, promotions and board appointments. Guaranteed placement in print, online and in a weekly e-newsletter can be purchased at www.crainscleveland.com/peopleonthemove. ACCOUNTING
INSURANCE
LAW
NONPROFITS
Annmarie Chirico
Kari Bush
Jon W. Groza
Director of Tax Services
Sales Executive
Partner
TruAssure Insurance Company
KJK
McManamon & Co., LLC McManamon & Co. is pleased to welcome Annmarie Chirco, CPA, to its team of directors. Annmarie will assume the role of Director of Tax effective immediately. Annmarie has more than 35 years of experience in individual and business taxes, including 25 years at PwC. She's worked on a variety of personal and corporate tax matters, including research, compliance, audit representation, planning and the tax implications of international employment. She's also consulted in the real estate, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and construction industries.
TruAssure Insurance Company is pleased to announce the hiring of Kari Bush, who will join the company as sales executive for the Northeast region. Bush will be responsible for sales in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Bush brings over a decade of business-to-business sales experience to her role at TruAssure, along with over fifteen years of experience with group insurance plans.
Rebekah L. Dorman, Ph.D.
Jon Groza, KJK's newest Partner, focuses his practice on business litigation and corporate counseling, helping businesses achieve thoughtful solutions to their most pressing and complex issues. Jon is a talented litigator and trusted counselor to a wide variety of public and private corporations spanning a variety of industries. His recent engagements have involved business torts, securities, trade secrets, and contractual issues in federal and state courts.
Magnolia Clubhouse Dr. Dorman, a psychologist, is Director of Cuyahoga County's Office of Early Childhood and its Invest in Children programs. She is joined by Linda Springer, Vice Chair; Kenneth Surratt, Treasurer; and Gabriella Celeste, Secretary. Located in University Circle, Magnolia offers rehabilitation and employment opportunities to men and women with mental illness. One of 320 Clubhouses worldwide, it is based on a researchproven model centered on the idea that work and relationships are rehabilitative.
List your commercial, executive property, industrial or retail space Here! Crain’s Cleveland Business’ classifieds will help you fill that space.
Contact Lynn Calcaterra at 216.771.5276
Giving Gu ide 2015
PRESENTED
BY
TURNING PASSION IN TO
PURPOSE
Presented by:
Phone: (216) 771-5276 Contact: Lynn Calcaterra E-mail: CLBClassified@crain.com
U.S. General Services Administration
As MRI's first ever Chief Marketing Officer, Mandira will be charged with further building and communicating MRI Software's corporate brand and product brands around the globe. Ms. Mehra brings more than 15 years of technology marketing leadership experience in private and public company environments, from start-up to global Fortune 500. She will be responsible for marketing strategy, branding, communications, demand generation and product marketing for the company.
Powered by:
REAL ESTATE realestatesales.gov or (312) 353-6039
MRI Software
Contact: Nicole Mastrangelo 216-771-5158 • nmastrangelo@crain.com
Use this advertising opportunity to showcase your organization along with your commitment to Northeast Ohio.
631 acres/28850 OH-621, Fresno, Ohio Former USDA Watershed Research Facility
Chief Marketing Officer
ISSUE DATE: OCTOBER 31 AD CLOSE: SEPTEMBER 1
Giving Guide
FOR SALE
Mandira Mehra
Chair, Board of Trustees
UPCOMING CUSTOM SUPPLEMENT
INVESTMENT PROPERTY
TECHNOLOGY
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY VERMILION, OHIO 14,750 SQ. FT. Industrial Building Currently Operating as SINGLE BUSINESS, but set up for FIVE Separate BUSINESSES. ONLY $18 per SQ. FT. (440) 967-4362 PRIME COMMERCIAL LAND AVON, OHIO 23+ Acres, North East Corner, Chester & Jaycox Roads. Close to I-90.
For more information Call 440-476-3714
OFFICE/WAREHOUSE SPACE WAREHOUSE SPACE FOR RENT 10,000 SQ FT 13170 York Rd. N. Royalton 440-554-5215
CLASSIFIED
Copy Deadline: Wednesdays @ 2:00 p.m. All Ads Pre-Paid: Check or Credit Card BUSINESS SERVICES
C.W. JENNINGS INDUSTRIAL EXCHANGE Global Industrial Consulting Construction • Acquisitions Exporting • Financing (855) 707-1944 OEM Inside Sales Estimating, product assessment. Sheet metal fabrication background.
Extend the Life of your ROOF Commercial/Industrial Roof Restoration. 1/3 the cost of replacement. FREE Inspection Report
BUSINESSES FOR SALE MICRO BREWERY FOR SALE 7621 Mentor Avenue Mentor, Ohio $495,000 7,200 S.F. Building
For Information
Call Rick Jr. 216-219-0290
440-842-4753
www.buildingretrofit.com (216)533-0563
NEW BUSINESS FOR SALE
FLYNN ENVIRONMENTAL
For daily on-line
www.empirebusinesses.com mike@empirebusinesses.com 440-461-2202
UST REMOVALS • REMEDIATION DUE DILIGENCE INVESTIGATIONS
updates, sign up @
Electrical contractor commercial, industrial & residential customers. Sales $1.7M
CrainsCleveland.com/Daily
(800) 690-9409
Looking to fill a position on your staff? Place an Executive Recruiter ad in Crain’s
Call Lynn Calcaterra at 216-771-5276
20160815-NEWS--18-NAT-CCI-CL_--
PAGE 18
8/12/2016
4:23 PM
Page 1
z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
BALLOT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
KNOW-HOW We have over 75 years of experience as a paving contractor. There isn’t much we haven’t done. Can your paving contractor say that?
•
• Pavement Milling • Pavement Marking Hot Mix Production Facility Concrete and Excavating Services
Asphalt Paving
•
•
Quality and Excellence in Asphalt Paving Since 1939
800.PAVE.NOW www.RonyakPaving.com
STAY CONNECTED! FOLLOW US TODAY.
Facebook.com/CrainsCleveland Twitter.com/CrainsCleveland Instagram.com/CrainsCleveland
wages and benefits comparable to fulltime employees. The initiative petition had five Clevelanders listed as the initiative’s organizing committee, but Bob Goodrich, a movie theater owner in Grand Rapids, Mich., paid professional campaigners to gather the roughly 5,000 signatures needed to force Cleveland City Council to put the issue on Cleveland’s November ballot. Goodrich, who financed a similar initiative in Youngstown, said he believes that the protections in what he calls a Part-time Workers Bill of Rights are important because they help workers, who may be juggling two part-time jobs and a family. But he said he chose to sponsor initiative campaigns in Cleveland and Youngstown only because getting on the ballot in those cities required far fewer signatures than it would have taken in Detroit or Kansas City, places where he does business. But the concept struck Cleveland City Council president Kevin Kelley almost like an unwanted foreign object invading his political body. “This is not a well-thought-out initiative,” he said. “It’s not homegrown, it’s not something Clevelanders are clamoring for, and it seems pretty bad for development.” However, council approved putting the issue on the November ballot since its signatures and petition met all the requirements of the city charter. At the same marathon council session, however, city council rejected a ballot initiative that would set a citywide minimum wage of $15 an hour. This issue, backed by the Service Employees International Union and a newly formed local group, Raise Up Cleveland, attempts to move forward
INTERNET CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
stretching from Beachwood to Lorain. The company, which is profitable, is now working to expand into other metropolitan areas, Deus said, declining to identify them. He’ll have competition. 䡲 First Communications in Akron started offering microwave internet service to a few customers in Akron in 2015. The technology services firm added more customers in the Akron, Canton and Youngstown areas earlier this year, and it plans to enter the Cleveland and Columbus markets before the end of 2016, said CEO Margi Shaw. 䡲 Agile Networks of Canton entered the Cleveland market at the end of 2012. By July 2015, it had established at least a small foothold in each of Ohio’s 88 counties with the help of an early customer: the Multi-Agency Radio Communications System, which serves public safety agencies throughout Ohio. But these days about half of Agile Networks’ revenue comes from offering both fiber and microwave internet service to businesses and even residential customers. The company has raised $6.7 million from investors since it was founded in 2010, and it aims to provide services nationally in five to 10 years, said CEO Bob Brick. “Our objective is to grow as aggressively as we can,” he said. 䡲 At least one big national company, Windstream, offers microwave internet service to businesses in the Cleveland area. The company offered the service in only six other metropolitan areas when it announced the Cleveland launch in September 2015.
locally an issue that the SEIU and others are struggling to make headway on at a state and national level. Both Kelley and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson believe that only the state, not an individual city, can set a minimum wage. Because of the city council rejection, which may only slow down the initiative, the minimum wage issue may not make the November ballot, though the SEIU and Raise Up Cleveland will be considering their options.
Beware ‘a false promise’ Further south, in Medina County, a young citizens group is trying to block both construction of a an oil and gas pipeline and fracking — the drilling process that uses water to extract oil and natural gas from shale — in the county. The group, Sustainable Medina County, on Aug. 9 sued the Ohio Secretary of State and the Medina County Board of Elections to overturn decisions that kept their issue off the November ballot. This effort is one of several around the state supported by a Pittsburgh group, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), to curtail fracking with proposals called Community Bills of Rights. In a news release, the CELDF said it has helped four Ohio cities enact bills of rights, including Broadview Heights. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted last August rejected bills of rights initiatives in Athens, Fulton and Medina counties because, he said, they circumvented state laws that regulate fracking. “The issue of whether local communities can get around state laws on fracking has already been litigated,” Husted said in a press release at the time. “Allowing these proposals to proceed will only serve a false promise that wastes taxpayer’s time and money and will eventually end
Other big telecommunications companies certainly understand what microwave technology can do. Their networks already use it behind the scenes to transmit data from one place to another (say, from a hardto-reach cell tower to a data center). Use of microwave technology could grow as mobile service providers launch next-generation “5G” networks. For instance, on July 14, the Federal Communications Commission passed new rules designed to accelerate that transition. Among other things, the FCC created an “Upper Microwave Flexible Use” area within the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Those new rules pushed First Communications to become more aggressive with its rollout of microwave technology: During 2017 and 2018, the company plans to spend a total of $10 million to $15 million on the rollout, Shaw said. First Communications already owned 15 licenses in the 28 gigahertz portion of the microwave spectrum — licenses that cover 95% of Ohio’s population. Granted, it was already using them to offer wireless internet service to fixed locations, but the FCC vote clarified deployment rules, Shaw said. The rules also should make First Communications’ spectrum more valuable to mobile carriers that might want to use portions of it, she added. Why is First Communications so interested in microwave technology? For one, it gives the company a fast, affordable way to provide a customer with high-speed internet service — especially in areas that don’t have easy access to fiber. “You don’t need to dig up streets or anything,” she said. The technology also will give the company greater independence,
in sending the charters to certain death in the courts.” But these local skirmishes on fracking appear to be a part of a broader campaign. The CELDF release described the fracking initiatives as part of “the broader Community Rights Movement building across the United States. Local communities and state Community Rights Networks are partnering with CELDF to advance fundamental democratic and environmental rights.” Lodge said that at same time CELDF is pushing the oil and gas initiatives it is also running a low profile campaign to gather signatures for a statewide constitutional amendment that would restore a lot of power to local communities.
City charter ‘is what it is’ Local officials are aware that these initiatives are not always locally based, and while they could make it more difficult to get an initiative on the ballot, they aren’t ready to consider that broad option. “The city charter is what it is and we will abide by it,” said Jackson in an emailed statement. “People have a right to grieve their concerns by following the rules of the charter.” Council president Kelley agreed with Jackson. “I don’t want to disadvantage true citizen initiatives and efforts,” he said, though he was less sympathetic to well-financed outside groups and was thinking about alternatives to limit those legislative challenges. “There needs to be an avenue for (citizens) to get the result they want.” Youngstown Mayor John McNally isn’t thinking about any changes in his community’s initiative process, but he said, “I am concerned to some extent that we seem to be governing on these major issues by going to the charter amendment process.”
since it won’t have to lease as much fiber from other companies. Deus mentioned each of those benefits, noting that NetX doesn’t lease any fiber. He expects the company’s sales to double this year, adding that they typically grow by 50% to 100% annually. Even so, NetX still faces challenges. Even though customers have more faith in wireless technologies these days, he still has to educate them about microwave technology and convince them to do business with a company with eight employees instead of, say, AT&T. So it helps that NetX has a few marquee customers: It provided temporary wireless service when Marvel Studios came to town to film “The Avengers” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” The company also served Twitter, Google and CNN when they set up shop downtown during the Republican National Convention. Deus said he’s not particularly worried about whether microwave technology will be able to compete as fiber becomes available in more places. He said that customers “are looking for ways to be untethered.” So why does Agile Networks offer both fiber and microwave connections? For one, fiber is “great for aggregating and transporting large amounts of data,” Brick said. Plus, customers that can’t afford to lose internet access will sometimes set up fiber and microwave connections, giving them a backup if one goes down. But microwave technology does have its advantages — especially if you need to hook up a building in the middle of Wayne National Forest (Agile Networks has done that). “It’s hard to service everybody from a wireline perspective,” Brick said.
20160815-NEWS--19-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/12/2016
2:00 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z AUGUST 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 19
The List NAME THIS COMPANY YEAR TITLE
HIGHEST PAID NON-CEOS Ranked by 2015 Compensation TOTAL COMPENSATION 2015 % 2014 CHANGE SALARY
(1)
BONUS
STOCK AWARDS
OPTION AWARDS
COMPANY COMPANY NET NET INCOME % INCOME NONEQUITY CHANGE TO CHANGE 2015 ALL OTHER INCENTIVE PENSION VALUE COMPENSATION (MILLIONS) FROM 2014 PLAN
1
Kevin M. Stein/TransDigm Group Inc. COO, Power & Control
$16,056,976 NA
NA
$558,750
$17,602
$2,319,980
$12,658,246
$502,398
$0
$0
$466.6
47.5
2
Robert S. Henderson/TransDigm Group Inc. COO, Airframe
$9,545,780 $7,613,083
25.4
$551,250
$11,160
$0
$8,438,830
$528,840
$0
$15,700
$466.6
47.5
3
Lee C. Banks/Parker Hannifin Corp. president, COO
$7,088,531 $5,541,488
27.9
$795,167
$0
$2,818,417
$1,900,379
$987,524
$442,954
$144,090
$842.8
-22.7
4
Christopher M. Gorman/KeyCorp president, Key Corporate Bank
$4,986,353 $4,362,632
14.3
$623,077
$0
$2,249,981
$249,997
$1,800,000
$27,998
$35,300
$916.0
1.8
5
John T. Lucas/Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. senior vice president, chief human resources officer
$4,919,692 NA
NA
$495,000
$600,000
$1,914,118
$449,992
$1,305,768
$111,181
$43,633
$307.0
-87.5
6
Stephen R. McClellan/Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. president, Americas
$4,781,110 $3,971,100
20.4
$541,250
$0
$445,029
$637,494
$2,657,663
$455,714
$43,960
$307.0
-87.5
7
Gregory L. Smith/Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. senior vice president, global operations
$4,468,835 $3,645,650
22.6
$550,000
$0
$439,370
$629,394
$2,583,862
$238,066
$28,143
$307.0
-87.5
8
Steven T. Oakland/The J.M. Smucker Co. vice chair; president, U.S. Food & Beverage
$4,187,091 $2,710,192
54.5
$526,000
$10,520
$1,020,000
$1,674,750
$295,900
$651,647
$8,274
$407.4
-26.4
9
Ronald A. Rice/RPM International Inc. president, COO
$4,148,444 $4,625,921
(10.3)
$700,000
$0
$1,556,661
$1,073,000
$650,000
$55,385
$113,398
$329.8
49.7
10
Matthew V. Crawford/Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. president, COO
$4,117,833 $3,921,052
5.0
$550,000
$600,000
$2,923,200
$0
$0
$4,159
$40,474
$48.1
5.5
11
Revathi Advaithi/Eaton COO, Electrical Sector
$3,875,138 NA
NA
$609,012
$0
$1,611,431
$417,635
$905,758
$269,803
$61,499
$1,979.0
10.4
12
Edward J. Burke/KeyCorp co-president, Key Community Bank
$3,863,283 $2,822,931
36.9
$571,154
$0
$2,144,988
$104,998
$1,000,000
$20,943
$21,200
$916.0
1.8
13
Richard A. Zimmerman/Cedar Fair LP COO
$3,642,278 $1,797,051
102.7
$570,723
$0
$2,234,052
$0
$825,000
$0
$12,503
$112.2
7.7
14
Leila L. Vespoli/FirstEnergy Corp. executive vice president, corporate strategy, regulatory affairs; chief legal officer
$3,549,958 $5,680,795
(37.5)
$752,789
$0
$1,861,510
$0
$860,125
$61,876
$13,658
$578.0
93.3
15
Mark M. McGuire/Eaton executive vice president, general counsel, secretary
$3,173,646 $3,300,153
(3.8)
$564,241
$0
$1,025,688
$339,758
$780,991
$426,121
$36,847
$1,979.0
10.4
16
Ronald A. Ratner/Forest City Realty Trust Inc. executive vice president, development
$2,733,093 $2,174,271
25.7
$500,000
$0
$1,413,259
$0
$743,825
$23,846
$52,163
$496.0
6,631.2
17
Robert W. Bond/Parker Hannifin Corp. president, Fluid Connectors Group
$2,724,544 $3,073,757
(11.4)
$548,700
$0
$553,158
$716,024
$511,151
$295,210
$100,301
$842.8
-22.7
18
James A. Ratner/Forest City Realty Trust Inc. executive vice president, development
$2,720,973 $2,143,322
27.0
$500,000
$0
$1,413,259
$0
$743,825
$11,777
$52,112
$496.0
6,631.2
19
Robert J. Davisson/Sherwin-Williams Co. president, Americas Group
$2,659,467 $2,229,626
19.3
$586,214
$0
$900,554
$510,590
$506,000
$0
$156,109
$1,053.8
21.7
20
James H. Lash/FirstEnergy Corp. president, FirstEnergy Generation
$2,655,824 $2,978,463
(10.8)
$599,176
$0
$1,073,006
$0
$535,434
$439,717
$8,491
$578.0
93.3
21
William M. Cody/Progressive Group of Insurance Companies chief investment officer
$2,503,840 $2,008,744
24.6
$448,269
$0
$1,012,553
$0
$1,031,018
$0
$12,000
$1,267.6
-1.1
22
Donald R. Schneider/FirstEnergy Corp. president, FirstEnergy Solutions
$2,312,048 NA
NA
$552,404
$0
$989,768
$0
$518,488
$242,397
$8,991
$578.0
93.3
23
Gregory H. Trepp/Nacco Industries Inc. president, CEO, Hamilton Beach Brands Inc.
$2,287,835 $2,324,375
(1.6)
$599,450
$0
$0
$0
$1,321,553
$229,303
$137,529
$22.0
157.7
24
George D. Blankenship/Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc. executive vice president; president, Americas Welding
$2,164,266 $2,072,144
4.4
$497,917
$0
$225,731
$217,668
$703,999
$512,151
$6,800
$127.5
-50.0
25
Christopher A. Coughlin/The Timken Co. executive vice president, group president
$2,150,201 $4,318,127
(50.2)
$515,041
$0
$936,096
$405,241
$162,238
$84,000
$47,585
$70.8
-141.5
26
Colin Wilson/Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc. president, CEO, Hyster-Yale Group
$1,898,470 $1,826,710
3.9
$640,000
$0
$343,372
$0
$634,951
$81,708
$198,439
$74.7
-32.0
27
Clifford T. Smith/Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. executive vice president, business development
$1,888,306 $2,944,479
(35.9)
$402,000
$0
$930,587
$211,211
$277,862
$35,000
$31,646
($749.3)
89.6
28
Terry Fedor/Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. executive vice president, United States Iron Ore
$1,884,394 NA
NA
$402,000
$0
$930,587
$211,211
$277,862
$42,800
$19,934
($749.3)
89.6
29
John J. Keane/Nordson Corp. senior vice president
$1,873,725 $2,150,096
(12.9)
$405,000
$0
$449,308
$362,930
$283,500
$337,997
$34,990
$209.4
-17.8
30
Maurice Harapiak/Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. executive vice president, human resources
$1,841,096 NA
NA
$372,000
$0
$861,137
$195,457
$257,126
$67,400
$87,976
($749.3)
89.6
31
Edward W. Moore/RPM International Inc. senior vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer
$1,795,332 $1,763,803
1.8
$330,000
$0
$616,214
$321,900
$400,000
$46,470
$80,748
$329.8
49.7
32
Meredith S. Weil/TFS Financial Corp. COO, Third Federal Savings and Loan
$1,782,737 $1,189,765
49.8
$450,000
$0
$351,129
$429,974
$484,682
$6,546
$60,406
$73.8
11.0
33
Dennis A. Devine/KeyCorp co-president, Key Community Bank
$1,781,440 $1,753,259
1.6
$571,154
$0
$539,990
$59,996
$575,000
$0
$35,300
$916.0
1.8
34
William P. Richgels/FirstMerit Corp. chief credit officer, senior executive vice president
$1,711,612 $2,253,147
(24.0)
$478,600
$0
$471,023
$0
$341,684
$348,466
$71,839
$229.5
-3.6
35
Cathy W. Zbanek/TFS Financial Corp. chief marketing and human resources officer
$1,621,590 $1,008,080
60.9
$373,078
$0
$351,129
$429,974
$409,273
$2,076
$56,060
$73.8
11.0
RESEARCHED BY DEBORAH W. HILLYER Source: Numerical information provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, www.spcapitaliq.com, with additional research by Crain's Cleveland Business. Crain's Cleveland Business does not independently verify the information and there is no guarantee these listings are complete or accurate. (1) This list does not include CFOs- the list of Highest Paid CFOs will publish on Oct. 3.
20160815-NEWS--20-NAT-CCI-CL_--
8/12/2016
1:58 PM
Page 1