CRAIN’S LIST Hospitals dominate Physician Groups list.
BUY NOW, BYE LATER: Cleveland’s athletes tend to rent rather than buy homes. PAGE 2
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Invacare investors look Owners aim to jazz up historic complex Mixed-use project to to chart a turnaround fill Slovenian Workmen’s Steep hill to climb for medical equipment manufacturer BY JEREMY NOBILE
Before it was the target of a federal consent decree, before it posted repeated financial losses and before its stock tanked to less than $1, Invacare Corp. was a powerhouse in its highly regulated and potentially lucrative field. The times have certainly changed for the global maker of medical equipment, which once was revered as a leading innovator for products such as its powered wheelchairs, among other things. Now, activist investors, led by an
See INVACARE on Page 23
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Ohio investment firm Azurite Management, are trying to restore the Elyria-based manufacturer to its former heyday. But there is a steep hill to climb to reach that point. According to quarterly filings, through the first half of 2022, Invacare has reported $390 million in sales (a 7.5% decrease compared to midyear 2021) but a net loss of $46 million (an 86% increase over midyear 2021). “No matter how much they restructure or consolidate or how much they drop off products that are not profitable, they just can’t seem to make any money,” said Matt Mishan, an equity research
BY MICHELLE JARBOE
The Slovenian Workmen’s Home opened in 1927 and was owned by members of the Slovenian community until 2017. Now it’s the subject of a redevelopment effort led by investors including Beachland Ballroom co-owner Cindy Barber and booking agent Eric Hanson. | MICHELLE JARBOE/CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
“THIS IS ALL SORT OF MY VISION FOR THE NEIGHBORHOOD, THAT MUSIC SAVES THE NEIGHBORHOOD MUCH LIKE THEATER SAVED GORDON SQUARE.” — Cindy Barber, co-owner of the Beachland Ballroom and the Slovenian Workmen’s Home
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For 90 years, the Slovenian Workmen’s Home in Cleveland’s North Collinwood was a gathering place, a cultural center where families dined, bowled and played balinca, or bocce. Now an eclectic group of investors aims to bring life back to the largely empty complex, which occupies the largest contiguous site in the Waterloo Arts District. They’re tuning up plans for a mixeduse project centered on a jazz club that will fill the hall’s historic auditorium. In May, the 2-acre property at 15335 Waterloo Road changed hands for $700,000. The buyer is a company owned by five investors, including Cindy Barber, co-owner of the Beachland Ballroom, a venerable music club that occupies a former Croatian social hall down the street. “This is all sort of my vision for the neighborhood, that music saves the neighborhood much like theater saved Gordon Square,” said Barber, referring to the impact of the Cleveland Public Theatre on the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood across town. See JAZZ on Page 20
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