CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM I OCTOBER 2, 2023
Akron retailers find new ways to survive, thrive City’s downtown businesses have suffered through construction, pandemic lockdowns By Dan Shingler
downtown as the Tea Lady for the eponymous shop she runs in the They might be bruised and bat- Chemstress Building on Main tered in some cases, but the Street. On many days, you’ll find restaurants, clubs, bars and retail stores in downtown Akron have Woods-Baylor outside her shop, with a small cart dismostly held fast the past playing some of her fine few years. In some cases, teas and other wares on they’re even thriving, the sidewalk, hoping to thanks to grit, tenacity meet new customers. and no small amount of She said it’s been disinnovation. heartening to do that But it’s not easy, and and not have more peowhile they await the ple passing by. completion of current “It’s heartbreaking to projects they believe Renee Woods-Baylor me as a business owner,” will bring better days, they don’t sugarcoat the chal- she said. “Part of my projections lenges they’ve faced recently and were based on people walking by and discovering us — and that’s still confront today. “Outside today, for more than happened, but there’s just not an hour there was no one walk- enough people every single day.” ing down the street,” said Renee Woods-Baylor, better known See RETAILERS on Page 17
Dr. Alexa Fiffick with a patient. Fiffick established her own concierge medicine practice last month. | CONTRIBUTED
Concierge medicine eases access to care The membership-based model offers personalized attention — for a price By Paige Bennett
For Dr. Alexa Fiffick, the traditional route for physicians interested in women’s health seemed too limited. She saw a gap between women’s reproductive care and the care they receive in other aspects of their lives.
That’s why she decided to use the concierge model when she established her own practice last month. “The traditional route of going and having a job as a physician in one of these larger systems is basically that you’re an employee and you have to meet their numbers, meaning you have to
see 20-, 30-plus patients a day,” Fiffick said. “But when these patients are already falling through the cracks, getting seven minutes, 15 minutes, whatever that small amount of time is, is really limiting my ability to understand them and to help them.” See MEDICINE on Page 15
Bedrock’s riverfront plan moves forward Mayor, landowner can sign deal for partnership on the proposed $3.5 billion redevelopment By Michelle Jarboe
The city of Cleveland can forge ahead on a master development deal with Bedrock, the Detroit-based landowner that plans to remake roughly 35 acres along the Cuyahoga River. Cleveland’s City Council signed off late Monday, Sept. 25, on legislation that advances an ambitious plan to awaken a barren stretch of downtown’s waterfront. Now Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration and Bedrock, the real estate arm of Dan Gilbert’s
Rock family of companies, can ink an agreement that outlines the broad strokes of a complicated public-private partnership. That master development agreement doesn’t put any taxpayer money on the table. But it describes the city’s plan to lean heavily on tax-increment financing, or TIF, to fund part of the public infrastructure improvements for Bedrock’s long-term project. In a new-to-Cleveland approach, the Bibb administration See BEDROCK on Page 16
VOL. 44, NO. 36 l COPYRIGHT 2023 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
HOPE FOR HALLUCINOGENS Survey finds growing agreement that psychedelics show promise in treating psychiatric disorders. PAGE 8