Crain's Cleveland Business

By STAN BULLARD and JAY [email protected], [email protected]

The proposal by developer GeisCos. to buy the former Ameritrustcomplex for a mixed-use project thatwould include a new headquartersfor Cuyahoga County should dodowntown Cleveland a lot of goodby injecting life into the intersectionof East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue, real estate types agree.

However, the potential deal’s

impact on the office market, statis-tically speaking, would be nil at best— and could have negative implica-tions for Cleveland due to the ten-dency of outsiders to gauge thehealth of a metropolitan real estatemarket by its vacancy rates.

Under its plan, Geis would turnthe 29-story Ameritrust Tower into210 apartments, would renovate the

$2.00/DECEMBER 17 - 23, 2012

Entire contents © 2012 by Crain Communications Inc.

Vol. 33, No. 49

07447083781

749 SPECIAL SECTION

2012NEWSMAKERSProfiles of the individuals who made the biggestheadlines over the last year ■■ Pages 11-16

NEW

SPAP

ER

‘Mompreneur’ranks are growing

More mothers —such as Cindy Perryof Avon Lake, who launched Pello last January — realize they can start abusiness and be a parent. PAGE 3

PLUS:■ East Cleveland-based GE

Lighting finds room for LEDs in theindustrial market. PAGE 3

INSIDELast of Duke portfolio may be soldSources say N.Y. firm in talks for REIT’s 11 NE Ohio office sitesBy STAN [email protected]

Duke Realty Corp.’s long good-bye from Northeast Ohio soon maybecome a final farewell.

The Indianapolis-based real estateowner and manager is in talks to sellits last 11 suburban office buildingshere to Och-Ziff Real Estate, the

property affiliate of big hedge fundfirm Och-Ziff Capital Managementof New York. Och-Ziff Capital is aninstitutional alternative asset man-ager with more than $30 billion ininvestments under management.

Two sources said Och-Ziff and anoperating partner are pursuing thepurchase of the group of propertieson and near Rockside Road in Inde-

pendence and Seven Hills, perhapsin hopes of a year-end close of thepurchase. The sources asked not tobe identified because they are notauthorized to speak for the partiesinvolved.

The properties are blue-chip office buildings that total 1 millionsquare feet. They include the threePark Place buildings in Indepen-

dence that Duke itself constructed,as well as office buildings such asCorporate Place I on RocksideWoods Boulevard that it acquired toenter the Cleveland market in 1996.

If the deal is concluded, Dukewould complete the departure fromNortheast Ohio that it began in 2005.It sold its substantial industrial port-folio in 2005, its portfolio of nine of-fice buildings in the eastern suburbsin 2007, and three office buildings in

See DUKE 8

Fiscal cliffimpactingcharitable gift givingDonors gauge effects ofpotential tax changes;groups push for clarityBy MICHELLE [email protected]

This December, the month whenmany charities raise the bulk of theirdonations, uncertainty about the taxclimate in 2013 is driving somedonors to increase their gifts — because at least they know how theirincome and gifts will be taxed thisyear — while others are outright de-laying gifts until more clarity is had.

Lawmakers are working to resolvethe so-called fiscal cliff, and they’reweighing whether the charitable deduction should be limited, plusother options that would diminishthe tax breaks one can reap for givingto nonprofits.

Charities aren’t taking it lightly.United Way of Greater Cleveland

on its website asks people to writemembers of Congress and urge themto preserve the charitable deduction,not “reform taxes on the backs of thepoor.”

And the Cleveland Foundationhosted two presentations aboutcharitable giving strategies in uncer-tain economic times, one in mid-November for about 80 professional

See CHARITIES Page 17

Ameritrust deal won’t be market panaceaEmpty office spacealready absent fromvacancy rates, whichindustry observersuse to judge metros’real estate health

ANALYSIS

See OFFICE Page 4

RENDERING PROVIDED

A vision of what a new Cuyahoga County headquarters could look like at the south end of the former Ameritrust complex on East Ninth Street.

20121217-NEWS--1-NAT-CCI-CL_-- 12/14/2012 4:54 PM Page 1

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Our annual compilation of research includes lists publishedthroughout the year, along withfour new lists that have yet to appear in these pages. Plus, ourHealth Care, Executive Searchand Staffing and Bioscience directories.

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22 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM DECEMBER 17 - 23, 2012

Big Issue ........................9Classified .....................18Editorial .........................8Going Places ..................6

Letter.............................9Personal View.................8Reporters’ Notebook.....19What’s New...................19

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NOT SO FASTThe U.S. labor force has grown considerably more slowly since 2000 than itdid in the previous five decades, and that trend is not expected to change anytime soon, according to projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.Even though the size of the population will grow, “its annual growth rate is pro-jected to slow in the coming decades,” BLS says. The decline in the growthrate of the U.S population is due to a variety of factors, such as the aging ofthe baby boomers, declining fertility rates and a reduction of the growth in immigration.

Annual population and labor force growth rates by decade, 1950-2010, and projected for 2010-2050

Decade Population growth Labor force growth

1950-1960 1.1% 1.1%

1971-1980 2.0% 2.6%

1991-2000 1.2% 1.3%

2011-2020 1.0% .7%

2031-2040 .9% .7%


By GINGER [email protected]

A 2011 scare with melanoma convinced CindyPerry to finally turn a hobby into a career.

Ms. Perry, an Avon Lake mother of two, lastJanuary launched a business from her home selling“pellos” — baby floor pillows she initially designedfor her own children. Thepellos essentially are 33-inch round pillows withdepressed centers thatcan be used for newbornslying down or for babieslearning to sit or crawl.

Now, nearly a year afterits debut, Ms. Perry con-tracts with a local manufacturer — Western Reserve Sewing Co. in Cleveland — to make thepellos, and she said her product is sold at 37 bou-tiques in 17 states. She already has an intern andis about to take on her first employee.

Ms. Perry is among a growing number of mom entrepreneurs, or “mompreneurs,” who are

DECEMBER 17 - 23, 2012 WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 3

INSIGHT

THE WEEK IN QUOTES“The old constructionparadigm ... was toput a 20-year-old nextto a 50-year-old andyou teach them. Therehas not been that opportunity for theyounger workers.”— Jeff Riddell, chairman of theOhio Ready Mixed Concrete Association. Page 7

Industrial focus boosts lineup at GE Lighting

As economy improves, manufacturers want fair fight vs. ChinaCall for currency revaluation due to disadvantage in buying raw material


Randy Solganik, owner of CityPlating in Cleveland, wants a levelplaying field against China.

Mr. Solganik, whose company putszinc plating on steel parts used inthe automotive industry, is onevoice among many local manufac-turers calling for China to revalue

its currency. “Definitely, Northeast Ohio would

benefit from any type of move tohelp China revalue their currency,”he said. “Because of the manufac-turing base that’s in NortheastOhio ... it’s a Northeast Ohio issue.”

China’s currency, which is knownas the yuan or renminbi, is “signif-icantly undervalued,” according tothe U.S. Department of the Trea-

sury’s Semi-Annual Report to Con-gress on International Economicand Exchange Rate Policies. TheNov. 27 report stated that “furtherappreciation of the RMB againstthe dollar and other major currenciesis warranted,” yet to the chagrin ofmany manufacturers, it did not goas far as to label China a currencymanipulator.

“I think we can compete on a

level playing field, but the playingfield right now is tilted,” Mr. Sol-ganik said. “As a business person, youwant to be able to compete againstpeople. You don’t want govern-ments stepping in supporting par-ticular industries, especially to yourdetriment.”

While the valuation of China’scurrency long has been a thorn inthe side of manufacturers, the issueagain is becoming prominent ascompanies look for ways to growbusiness post-recession.

“When the economy improves,you’re going to see more and moreof a negative impact,” said WilliamGaskin, president of the PrecisionMetalforming Association, a tradeassociation for metalworking com-panies in Independence.

Mr. Gaskin said prices of rawmaterials in the United States likelywill rise as the global economy recovers. Yet he doubts the price ofthose same materials will appreciatein the same way in China.

GELightingCEOMaryroseSylvesterMCKINLEYWILEY

LED manufacturer sought market entry as demand emerged By CHUCK [email protected]

GE Lighting wants to start lightingup factories and warehouses withLEDs.

The company’s fast-growing LEDbusiness dove into the industrialmarket on Nov. 26, when GE Lightingagreed to buy Albeo TechnologiesInc. of Boulder, Colo., for an undis-closed price.

The deal immediately will fill agap in the product lineup and customer base of GE Lighting,which is based at Nela Park in East

Cleveland. The General Electric Co.unit previously did not own an LEDproduct designed to provide generallighting for high-bay industrialbuildings. Albeo specializes in thesegment, marketing itself as aprovider of “industrial strength LEDlighting.”

Albeo will help GE Lighting capi-talize on the industrial market’sgrowing demand for products thatuse light-emitting diodes, which aremore efficient — though more expensive — than most other lightingproducts.

The GE unit started looking for a

producer of industrial LED lightingto buy after noticing that demandamong industrial customers was“emerging faster than we thought itwould,” said Maryrose Sylvester,CEO of GE Lighting.

Factories and warehouses arelooking for ways to cut their energybills, which tend to be a big part oftheir operating costs, Ms. Sylvestersaid last week during a news con-ference in Boulder.

Plus, they tend to be large cus-tomers that buy more products, Ms.Sylvester said.

See LIGHTING Page 18

See MOMS Page 5

See FIGHT Page 10

“Congress shouldhave productivitystandards. If I was asunproductive as thoseguys are, I would losemy job.”— From a response in The Big Issue. Page 8

“Cleveland has becomea national leader inthe school reformconversation. … It’sbeing watched byboth critics and sup-porters alike.”— Terry Ryan, vice president forOhio programs and policy, ThomasB. Fordham Institute. Page 12

MARC GOLUB PHOTOS

Cindy Perry, owner of Pello, which helps babies like the one at right — a neigh-bor of Ms. Perry’s, Willa — get more comfortable.

MOMS MAKINGTHEIR OWN WAYRanks of ‘mompreneurs’ grow with realizationthat they can both work and be a parent



The Cleveland Jet Center is a sub-tenant in an office building and freestanding airplane hangar at 26380 Curtiss Wright Parkway, Richmond Heights, Ohio 44143.

Sale is subject to Court approval, where is, as is, without warranty or representations.

Bids being accepted for a Receiver’s sale of the Cleveland Jet Center,

located at the Cuyahoga County Airport.

Receiver’s SaleCleveland Jet Center

For additional information contact via email: Tim L. Collins, Esq., Receiver Collins & Scanlon LLP 3300 Terminal Tower Cleveland, Ohio 44113 [email protected]

No telephone calls, please. Do not contact the Court.

Postmark Deadline for bids: January 15, 2013

McDonald Hopkins LLC600 Superior Ave., East, Suite 2100, Cleveland, OH 44114 • 216.348.5400Carl J. Grassi Shawn M. RileyPresident Cleveland Managing Member

Chicago • Cleveland • Columbus • Detroit • Miami • West Palm Beach

mcdonaldhopkins.com

Is your businessready for 2013?

Start here

Attorney Insight.Business Foresight.

Volume 33, Number 49 Crain’s Cleveland Business (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly, except for com-bined issues on the third week of May and fourth week of May, the fourth week of June and first week of July,the third week of December and fourth week of December at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland,OH 44113-1230. Copyright © 2012 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’sCleveland Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48207-2912. 1-877-824-9373.

REPRINT INFORMATION: 800-290-5460 Ext. 136

Office: Deal would enliven key corner1010 Euclid Building — also knownas the Swetland Building — to moreresidential and retail space, andwould demolish two buildings onthe complex’s Prospect Avenue sideto make way for the county head-quarters.

The steps would slice a total of800,000 square feet of office spacefrom the market. However, that losswouldn’t do anything to vacancyrates. That’s because office marketsurveys by brokerage firms haveturned a blind eye to the complex,either because it was not in use orwasn’t marketed. The complex hasbeen empty since 1996.

“It will be better if it’s gone, butstatistically speaking, it’s a nonfactor,”said Alec Pacella, a vice president ininvestment sales with the NAI Dausbrokerage firm who cut his real estateteeth as a property market researcher.

Robert Redmond, a managing director for the Mohr Partners brokerage’s Cleveland office, agreed.

“The Ameritrust complex has notbeen in our statistics for about 15years,” Mr. Redmond said. “But I’ll beglad to see the whole mess resolved.”

The former Cuyahoga Countycommissioners acquired the Amer-itrust complex in 2005 with the ideaof the property becoming a central-ized county headquarters. That plancame to naught because of escalatingcosts and financing constraints dueto the county building a new juvenilejustice center. But the new countycharter government formed in 2011again has taken up the issue of findinga new headquarters.

If Cuyahoga County Executive Edward FitzGerald, a county reviewteam and real estate consultant CBREGroup Inc. had opted to lease head-quarters space in an existing office

continued from PAGE 1

Legislators push to save taxbenefits in retirement plans By DARLA MERCADOInvestment News

Retirement industry groups haverallied around a proposal championedby Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.,and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., toprotect the tax incentives of savingin retirement plans.

The so-called “sense of the Con-gress” resolution stressed that notonly do tax incentives for saving inplans help encourage plan sponsorsto maintain the plans and push par-ticipants to contribute, but they alsohave increased the number of peoplewho are covered by a retirement plan.

As the attention turns to reducingthe federal deficit and cutting taxexpenditures, retirement plans onceagain have come under scrutiny. Aproposal in 2010 by Alan Simpsonand Erskine Bowles, co-chairmen ofthe National Commission on FiscalResponsibility and Reform, tackledexpenditures tied to retirement savings, capping tax-preferred con-

tributions to the lower of $20,000 or20% of income.

Sens. Blumenthal and Isaksonsaid $4.7 trillion is held in 401(k),403(b), 457 and other defined-con-tribution plans, while another $2.3trillion is in private defined-benefitplans. Individual retirement accountshold nearly $5 trillion, with much ofthat amount coming from rolloversfrom workplace retirement plans.

The accounts have been a boonfor lower- to middle-income earners,as more than 70% of workers makingbetween $30,000 and $50,000 annu-ally are contributing to their own retirement when they have a savingsplan at work, according to the pro-posal. Three years ago, 79% of fed-eral tax incentives for defined con-tribution plans were attributable totaxpayers with less than $150,000 inadjusted gross income. ■

Darla Mercado is a reporter withInvestment News, a sister publica-tion of Crain’s Cleveland Business.

building, the impact on the down-town office market’s 20% vacancyrate would have been dramatic.

Two existing buildings were amongthe finalists in the county’s head-quarters search. Inland AmericanReal Estate Corp. of Chicago offeredto lease 271,455 square feet at its 45Erieview Building, which also facesEast Ninth Street. Miami-based Optima Ventures offered 265,212square feet at the 925 Euclid Building,the landmark structure formerlyknown as the Huntington Building.

The proposed, 222,000-square-foot building Geis would constructto accommodate the county wouldrequire demolition of 190,000 squarefeet of obsolete office space that hasn’t factored into calculations ofvacancy in the downtown market.That’s because commercial broker-age surveys cover what brokers anddevelopers care about most: money-making office space.

The vacancy issueMr. Redmond likened the impact

of the county going into a new, build-to-suit structure to a company newto downtown searching for space inthe city and deciding not to lease here.

“It’s a missed opportunity interms of the market,” said Mr. Red-mond, a student of the NortheastOhio and national office markets.

The larger impact of the county’spotential move is that many nationalbrokerages and consultants publishoffice vacancy statistics to gauge thehealth of markets. Companies use thedata to guide investment decisionsand evaluate the attractiveness of ametropolitan or downtown area.

For instance, the Marcus & Mil-lichap investment brokerage esti-mates downtown Cleveland vacancyby year end at 20.7%, compared with

17% among metropolitan areas onan average basis. Detroit has thehighest vacancy rate, at 26%, andNew York City the lowest, 10%.Thanks to the recession’s lingeringeffects on the office market, stellarmarkets such as Austin and Atlantahave high vacancies as well, 19% and20%, respectively.

Besides sending a positive signalto prospective tenants, lower occu-pancies also enable rents to rise, increasing the chance for landlordsto profit and produce more valuableproperties.

An eye on revitalizationMr. FitzGerald said the Geis pro-

posal was the strongest in terms ofimpact on downtown and efficiencyof the building for the county.

“We know there are landlords who would have liked us to fill theirbuilding,” he said. “This is a propos-al that does reduce excess officespace in downtown, and it does it ina way that’s $180 million addition toeconomic development in down-town Cleveland and helps revitalizeEuclid Avenue.” The $180 millionfigure refers to the total investmentGeis plans in the complex.

Ryan Jeffers, a first vice presidentat CBRE who was part of the teamthat aided the county in its search,said it is “pretty clear is that a massive chunk of space is going tobe put into development, go on thetax rolls and be removed from thevacant defunct inventory.”

Mr. Redmond acknowledged thatthe Geis plan would enliven one ofthe dead zones of Euclid Avenue.Many office brokers also see the project as a plus because the Geisplan would strengthen downtown asa residential district, which aids theoffice market. ■



For more information stop by your local branch today.

ThankYou

starting their own business whilerunning a family. These are womenwho cradle a phone in one hand, ababy in another and make salescalls while packing lunches.

“It was a big decision because, ofcourse, we started with our personalfunds,” Ms. Perry said of starting her business with the help of her husband, Andrew Perry, an attorneywho helped her secure a patent andline up an accountant. “It was a decision, but it wasn’t really a longdiscussion.”

For 10 years prior to opening thebusiness, called Pello, Ms. Perry hadsold the pillows to family and friends,even providing pellos to a numberof Cleveland Indians players startingfamilies. She knew there was a market but just had to take the leap.

While surviving melanoma spurredMs. Perry to get a patent, othermoms move to action for a combi-nation of reasons — to supplementthe family income, for empower-ment or to serve as a role model fortheir children, local moms say.

“It’s such a great example for mydaughters,” said Tricia Price, co-ownerof Reflect Who I Am. It’s a businessthat produces girls’ T-shirts withpositive messages in reverse print,so that the wearer can read themwhen they appear in a mirror.

“You don’t have to just be a mom,”said Ms. Price, who operates fromher home in Hudson. “You don’thave to just work. You can do both.”

And it seems many women arecoming to the same conclusion.

Balancing actThe number of moms launching

businesses — from website-basedcompanies to consulting firms — isgrowing, said Traci Bisson, founderof The Mom Entrepreneur SupportGroup, a national online community.

“It’s definitely increasing,” Ms.Bisson said.

She attributes the rise in momentrepreneurs in part to the reces-sion, which forced many women to start contributing to household income. And, by starting their ownbusinesses, moms still can generateincome, while remaining in the homewith their children.

Mom entrepreneurs face a differ-

ent set of challenges than other newsmall business owners, the momssay. While trying to launch a newventure, they’re also juggling the responsibility of raising children.

“The key thing is really to surround yourself with a team,” Ms.Bisson said. “We all say we’d like totry to do it all. It really is unrealisticif you’re going to keep yourself saneand your business moving forward.”

Carrie Crawford, who this yearstarted Comfy Cradle, a companyselling a pillow that wraps around aparent’s arm for use while holdingor feeding a baby, opted to contractout services as her business grew.She now has the Comfy Cradlesmade by RS Sewing in Canton; thepackaging is created by Design Interface in Westlake.

“It’s hard to balance the familyand work and being a mom and being a wife. It’s been a struggle trying to balance it all,” said Ms.Crawford, a mother of two from Reminderville in Summit County.

Home teamMobile technology has been a big

factor in helping Ms. Price and MarciHower, co-owners of Reflect Who IAm, launch their business.

When the business began lastJuly, Ms. Hower was on her way toMontana for vacation. Using com-puters and smart phones, the twowomen could communicate as thoughthey both were in Northeast Ohio.

The business truly becomes afamily affair, Ms. Hower said.

“Both of our families are huge advocates. The kids have actuallyhelped us with projects we’re doingand photo shoots,” she said.

Her three sons even have beenthe force behind the company’s plansto launch a boys’ line of T-shirts.

“The boys are not ones to holdback on their ideas,” she said. “Theyare directing the concepts.”

In Ms. Perry’s case, her two sons,ages 8 and 11, put stickers on Pellopackages before the products aremailed to customers.

“It’s been a very good learning experience for the kids,” said Ms.Perry, who likes that her sons seeher not only tackling her dream, butalso dealing with budgets, contractsand production orders. ■


Moms: Recession spurs ajump in two-income families

While the oval officeis quite ornateand the wine roomis for Mom and

Dad, much of the Chagrin Fallshome of Azim and CarenNakhooda was built with theirchildren in mind.

Mr. Nakhooda, managingprincipal and CEO of CedarBrook Financial Partners inPepper Pike, lives with his family in a home that featuresan indoor grill, unusual energy-efficient technology and a nookaccessible only by ladder.

Feast your eyes also upon akitchen where the stove isn’tthe only thing that packs heat.Take the tour now: www.crainscleveland.com/housecalls.

STEPHEN HERRON PHOTOS


AppolitoWilliamsNygaard

SmithTomsicAdams


GOING PLACESJOB CHANGES

ARCHITECTUREC.C. HODGSON ARCHITECTURALGROUP: Mark Duluk to senior design architect; George Gatta to design architect/project director.

CONSTRUCTIONBEACON MARSHALL COS.: DanielPillar to director of marketing.

EDUCATIONCLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF MUSIC:HaeSun Paik to piano faculty.NORTHEAST OHIO MEDICAL UNIVERSITY: Sergio A. Garcia tochief of staff; Barbara A. Tobias todirector of human resources.

ENGINEERINGMANNIK & SMITH GROUP INC.:Thomas M. Adams to senior roadwayengineer; Steve Tomsic to seniorbridge engineer.TECHNICAL ASSURANCE INC.:Dan Jackson to senior roof consultant;Jackie Spencer to database adminis-trator; Matt Walder and AdamMcHale to field technicians, roofs;Garrett Moeller to director of spatialsolutions; Carrie Ann Tripodo tocontracts administrator; Bob Maslankato field technician.

FINANCECHARTER ONE/RBS CITIZENS:Cheri Henson Smith to senior vicepresident and manager, CRA adminis-tration team. LAKE NATIONAL BANK: Amy Cossickto business development officer.

FINANCIAL SERVICEFAIRPORT ASSET MANAGEMENT:Lindsay Suster to client service representative. SS&G: Ross Vozar to associate director; Chad Leikin to associate. SS&G HEALTHCARE: Patricia Baker to billing specialist. WARFIELD & CO. CPAS LTD.: Edwin Repphun to tax consultant;Barbara Benden to paraprofessional;Richard Leach to manager.

GOVERNMENTMEDINA COUNTY: Anne Murphyto director of community relations, Auditor’s Office.

HEALTH CAREKAISER PERMANENTE OHIO: Dr.Nabil Chehade to president and executive medical director, Ohio Permanente Medical Group. SURGICAL THEATER LLC: Peter R.Brumbergs to chief financial officer.

INSURANCEOSWALD COS.: Barbara Belovichto consultant.

LEGALBENESCH: David C. Weiner to attorney, litigation practice group.MANSOUR, GAVIN, GERLACK &MANOS CO. LPA: Andrew C.Geronimo and Justin J. Eddy to associates. PLEVIN & GALLUCCI CO. LPA:David R. Grant to chair, product liability. WALTER & HAVERFIELD LLP: TylerS. Bobes to partner, real estate lawgroup.

MANUFACTURINGMIDWEST MATERIALS: Kerrie A.

Rusnak to logistics manager; MikeAlley Jr. to logistics coordinator. WALLOVER OIL CO.: Patrick G. Nygaard to regional sales manager,Northeast Ohio.

MARKETINGQUEZ MEDIA MARKETING: JaeSean Davis to administrative coordi-nator; Holly Mathews to graphic desginer; Tyler Thornton to marketingmanager, web.

NONPROFITCLEVELAND ORCHESTRA: MarkWilliams to director of artistic plan-ning. ELIZA JENNINGS SENIOR CARENETWORK: Chuck Viers to directorof marketing.

SERVICECLEVELAND MEDICAL MART &CONVENTION CENTER: Mike Mangan to chief engineer; Ron Willner to director, event services. PNC FAIRFAX CONNECTION: Col-lette Appolito to executive director.

STAFFINGDIRECT RECRUITERS INC.: JonahWeiss to lead recruiter, plastics andflexible packaging practice area.

UTILITYFIRSTENERGY NUCLEAR OPER-ATING CO.: Peter P. Sena III topresident and chief nuclear officer;Sam Belcher to senior vice president,operations and COO.

Send information for Going Places [email protected].

PaikGattaDuluk

BendenRepphunCossick

ChehadeMurphyLeach

Metro still awaiting Medicaid waiverExpansion would cover about 30,000 countyresidents who wouldn’t typically fit in program

By TIMOTHY [email protected]

The MetroHealth System still iswaiting on federal and state regula-tors to sign off on a complicated legal maneuver that has the poten-tial to extend Medicaid coverage toas many as 30,000 people in CuyahogaCounty who otherwise couldn’t payfor their health care.

Previously, MetroHealth officialssaid the so-called “waiver” likelywould be approved in November,and the health system subsidized by Cuyahoga County could beginenrolling patients at the start of December. However, state and federal regulators are waiting forMetroHealth to get its back-end operations ready to handle the administrative burden of such acomplex program and to train itsstaff on how to screen patients forthe program’s eligibility.

“I wish I could predict a date whenwe would be ready to go because I’dbe very popular around here, butwe’re still plugging forward on this,”

said John Corlett, MetroHealth’s vicepresident for government relationsand community affairs and formerdirector of the state Medicaid pro-gram.

“Everything with Medicaid is verycomplicated,” Mr. Corlett said.

If approved, the move would expand Medicaid coverage in Cuya-hoga County to those who don’t meetthe typical guidelines for coverage.Children or the disabled normallyare covered under Medicaid. Thewaiver would extend coverage tocounty residents ages 19 to 64 whoare uninsured, not eligible for regu-lar Medicaid and have an income ator below 133% of the federal povertylevel.

Because MetroHealth is a publicentity, it could use its $36 millioncounty subsidy to draw about $64million in additional federal matchingfunds to finance the Medicaid expansion.

Expecting an influx of newly insured patients, MetroHealth thisyear finished tweaking its primarycare operations at its satellite clinics

and is doing the same for its specialtyservice lines, according to PhyllisMarino, the health system’s vicepresident for marketing and com-munications. Some of those changesincluded freeing up physicians fromadministrative duties and shiftingscheduling models to accommodatemore patients.

In October, Cook County in Illinoisstarted enrolling individuals in asimilar program — albeit on a largerscale. The Cook County program immediately would extend coverageto 115,000 individuals who wouldn’tbe eligible for Medicaid until it wasexpanded in 2014 as part of Presi-dent Barack Obama’s health careoverhaul.

Unlike Illinois, Ohio has waffledon whether it would buy into Oba-macare’s Medicaid expansion, whichthe U.S. Supreme Court ruling saidstates could sidestep. However, Mr.Corlett said the state’s decision toproceed on the Medicaid expansionwould have no bearing on the waiver.

“One of the things that’s attractiveto (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and the stateabout this waiver is that it’s as muchabout care coordination as it is aboutthe coverage,” he said. “How can weimprove care?” ■


By CHUCK [email protected]

Because of Dr. Conor Delaney’ssoftware, it was clear that the divi-sion of colorectal surgery at Univer-sity Hospitals was onto something.

In September 2011, the divisionstarted using a new anesthetic during operations. With the help ofthe software, the group noticed thatpatients receiving it were recoveringmore quickly and leaving the hospital 30% sooner, going homeon nothing but Tylenol. So, the divi-sion decided to use the anestheticduring all surgeries.

Now UH aims to market to otherhospitals the software that helped itmake that decision.

The hospital system last monthlicensed the right to market the software to a UH spinout calledSocrates Analytics Inc. The softwareis designed to help hospitals analyzevarious data. For instance, it can tellhow many operations a surgeonconducted over the course of amonth, how long each surgery took,what equipment was used, the costof the equipment, how long the pa-tients tended to stay and how muchthey were charged.

Or, it could be used to analyze whysome patients cost more to treatthan others with the same condition.Or why some don’t respond as wellto treatment that works for theirpeers.

Analyzing that data without special software is “pretty much impossible,” said Dr. Delaney, whois chief of the division of colorectalsurgery at UH Case Medical Center.

In addition to providing care topatients, Dr. Delaney for about 12years has been studying how to makesurgery more efficient and effective.However, gathering the data was tedious because it was contained inseveral different databases.

At UH, information on what patientsare charged is in one. Data on howmuch the hospital spent providingthe care are in another. Details fromoperating rooms are in a third anddischarge codes are in a fourth.

“It was extremely labor-intensiveto get all the information,” he said.

So, in 2007, Dr. Delaney appliedfor and won a $100,000 grant fromthe Ohio Savings Foundation thatallowed him to have an early versionof the software developed. He gotanother $250,000 from the Cleve-land Foundation in 2010, in addi-tion to significant financial supportfrom UH that allowed him to developthe current version, which pulls thedata from each database, standard-izes them and can present them indifferent formats for people in dif-ferent positions.

Socrates Analytics in late Novem-ber won a $100,000 grant from theInnovation Fund at Lorain CountyCommunity College; it will use thatmoney to finance installation anddevelopment expenses related toinstalling the software at its first twonon-UH hospitals.

Beyond UH wallsThough some administrators and

departments at UH were using thesystem already, the team behindSocrates Analytics started promotingit throughout the hospital systemjust two months ago. Several projectsusing the system are under way,said Dr. Delaney, who added that it helped another department determine that it wasn’t being reim-bursed for the use of expensive instruments.

Dr. Delaney is the company’schairman, but it is run by an interim team from Reach Ventures LLC, a Chagrin Falls company thataims to help launch several busi-nesses that analyze digital informa-tion.

Socrates Analytics’ interim CEO,Kendall Wouters, is head of ReachVentures, which could receive equityin the company if it hits certainmilestones. Socrates Analytics plansto hire a permanent managementteam by the end of March.

The company plans to market the software to small and midsizehospitals, because many don’t haveanalytics software and can’t affordsome of the more expensive prod-ucts on the market.

Socrates Analytics has yet to determine how much the productwill cost, but Mr. Wouters said it willbe affordable for a 200-bed hospitalwith “razor thin margins.”

Plenty of companySocrates Analytics will have a lot

of competition, said Wes Rishel, avice president and distinguishedanalyst covering health care at GartnerInc., a technology research servicesfirm based in Stamford, Conn.

Mr. Rishel was not familiar withthe startup, but he noted that manycompanies sell software designed to analyze operational data fromdifferent databases. The softwarewould stand out more if it was altered to analyze claims data in away that would help hospitals iden-tify high-risk patients and managetheir care.

“That’s the leading edge,” hesaid.

Socrates Analytics plans to createa web-based version of its software,which could be important as de-mand for “cloud” analytics softwareis rising, said Nancy Fabozzi, a prin-cipal analyst who focuses on healthcare information technology forconsulting and business researchfirm Frost & Sullivan of MountainView, Calif.

Ms. Fabozzi said many companiessell analytics software to hospitalsbig and small, but she added that agrowing number of hospitals wantit.

“The macro market trends are veryfavorable for analytics solutions,”she said. ■

“The macro markettrends are very favor-able for analytics solu-tions.” – Nancy Fabozzi, principal analyst focusing on health careIT, Frost & Sullivan


UH doc’s software gives hospitals ammofor smarter decisions Data make surgeries, processes more effective

LCCC students to pore over concreteNew program will giveconstruction industrynew specialists, couldadvance technology By GINGER [email protected]

Lorain County Community Collegenext year will launch a programaimed at filling a need in the con-struction industry.

The Concrete Technology program,which will be offered in partnershipwith Rhodes State College in Lima,will allow students in Lorain to earn an associate of applied science degree with a major in concrete technology from Rhodes State. Theprogram will start in the spring se-mester.

Students in the program will become civil engineering technicians,skilled in testing concrete and howdifferent chemicals can be manipu-lated to advance the product, saidJeff Riddell, chairman of the OhioReady Mixed Concrete Associationand president of Consumers BuildersSupply, a ready mix concrete com-pany in Lorain.

LCCC opted to start the programat Mr. Riddell’s urging. He said theprogram could lay the groundworkfor innovations in the concretebusiness moving forward.

Like many trades, the concretebusiness suffers from a lack of newtalent coming into the work force.Because there are few concretetechnology training programs —the program at Rhodes State is oneof the few in the country, college officials maintain — companies are left without workers to replaceretiring baby boomers, Mr. Riddellsaid.

“The old construction paradigmfrom 20 years ago was to put a 20-year-old next to a 50-year-old andyou teach them,” Mr. Riddell said.“There has not been that opportu-nity for the younger workers to workside by side with the older workersbecause there’s been insufficientwork.”

The concrete industry in 2011 increased its production for the firsttime in six years, according to a report released in October by theNational Ready Mixed Concrete Association.

“We’re expecting that it will growfast enough to provide opportuni-ties when you add in the retirement

factor,” Mr. Riddell said. The LCCC program will target

existing workers as well as collegestudents, who will sit in via videoconference on classes taught by ErikRobey, chairman of Rhodes State’sCivil Engineering Technology pro-gram.

“We’re able now to put more of these students out in different areas,” Mr. Robey said. “That’s thebeauty of what we’re doing. The geographies and the demographicsare coming together. We’ll be ableto better find students to matchthese jobs.”

The partnership with LCCC is abeta test for future partnershipswith other educational institutions,which possibly will take place in ayear or two, Mr. Robey said.

“I think the future certainly isopen to being able to possibly dothis in other places,” he said.

Kelly Zelesnik, dean of LCCC’sEngineering Technologies division,said there’s little overhead involvedin launching the program becauseLCCC already is equipped withvideoconferencing technology atthe Lorain Learning Center at St.Joseph’s Community Center in Lorain.In addition, Rhodes State is lendinglab equipment to LCCC. ■


By DENNIS TEREZ

Our federal government is like a three-legged bar stool. Thekind a friendly drunk would useto belly up to the bar. And at the

bar, he can’t control his wild spendinghabits, buying drinks for everyone —even paying IOUs when he runs out ofcash.

Let’s take a look at the stool. Imagineits three legs are like the three branchesof our federal government: the executive,the legislature and the judiciary. By theway, if you didn’t know those were thenames of the three branches of our government, don’t feel too bad. Well, actually you should feel rotten about that,since those three branches are the verygenius of our Founding Fathers. What I

mean is that you have a lot of companyif you didn’t know those three branches.More Americans can name The ThreeStooges than the three branches of ourgovernment — by a wide margin.

Now, let’s take a look at our friendlydrunk’s household budget. In his sobermoments, he earns $40,000 a year. Onone of his wild vacations he drank away,he spent $4,000 (10% of his salary) on ajalopy that got him to his favorite vaca-tion spot; $400 on two nights at a fancyhotel for him and his wife (1% of hissalary); $40 for a dinner for him and hiswife (0.1% of his salary); and $4 tippingthe valet who parks his jalopy (0.01% ofhis salary).

After he sobers up, our friend takesstock of his vacation binge. He totals up$4,444 plus the dollars he drank away. If we told him to straighten up and flyright, we probably wouldn’t point to the$40 he spent at the restaurant or the $4on his valet parking. We might insteadsay to him that he blew too much doughon his liquid refreshment, his hotel roomand his jalopy.

Congress is our friendly drunk who issobering up. Problem is, in analyzingwhere its spending habits fell off thetracks, it is looking at the cost of the dinnerand the valet parking instead of the coststhat really mean something. And it is doing so by weakening the bar stool —our federal government — by weakeningone of its three legs.

Mr. Terez is a federal public defender forthe Northern District of Ohio.

This page regularly chides law-makers for their unwillingness tocompromise or work together toforge solutions to the problems

we voters face.Not so last week, when our two U.S.

senators, Rob Portman and SherrodBrown, joined a group of their colleaguesin a denunciation of Chineseactivities that hurt NortheastOhio workers. In a letter, thegroup asked the Commerce Department to maintain anti-dumping duties and other pro-visions that stop Chinese steeltube makers from deployingunfair competitive practices inthe American market.

Tubular steel products madehere for use in oil exploration —especially in the shale plays — comefrom V&M Star in Youngstown, Warren’sWheatland Tube, JMC Steel in Brook-field, and U.S. Steel in Lorain.

Sen. Brown reminded officials in theCommerce Department that oilfieldtubular steel means hundreds of jobs inour region “that are vulnerable to unfairtrade practices carried out by the Chi-

nese, including currency manipulationand duty evasion.” He said keeping duties on Chinese imports was “criticalto ensuring that the steel pipe industry inOhio remains intact.”

The letter was signed by, among othersenators, Democrats Carl Levin of Michigan and Al Franken of Minnesota

as well as Republicans RichardShelby and Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Sen. Portman, also a Repub-lican, said the Ohio jobs werecritical at a time of weak eco-nomic growth and stubbornunemployment. “American man-ufactured goods must be on alevel playing field with theirglobal competitors, and I urgethe Commerce Department to

protect these workers in Northeast Ohioand across the country,” he said.

The letter criticized Chinese tubularsteel makers with evading or circum-venting American trade protection orders,and called on Commerce officials towork more closely with U.S. Customsand Border Protection officials to stopany schemes to avoid existing U.S. trade

orders.Sens. Brown and Portman and their

colleagues should be applauded for theircoming together in a singular fashion.Now if they could just get their colleaguesto act in the same way on the broader fiscal problems we’ve managed to bringon ourselves.

****IT WAS ENTERTAINING, as always, to

read and listen to the reaction as thisyear’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in-ductees were announced. Retiring RockHall CEO Terry Stewart joked in an inter-view that now that Canadian rockers Rushwere in, he could turn on his email again.

It’s a testament to the power of theRock Hall as a centerpiece of the musicworld that devoted fans are so emotionalabout their favorites. I understand. Mywife was a big disco fan (as well as rockand roll, country, etc.) and she loves the Donna Summer choice. I still vividly recall Rush in its first Cleveland appear-ance at the old Agora.

We’re both happy, but to the fans ofother bands — like the devotees of ourpro sports teams — well, there’s alwaysnext year. ■


Good dealT

he former Cuyahoga County commissionersmade a bad deal when they bought theAmeritrust complex back in 2005. CountyExecutive Ed FitzGerald’s recommendation

that the county sell the property to respected devel-oper Geis Cos. represents a splendid opportunity toturn that real estate lemon into lemonade.

On its face, the proposed deal is a bitter drink fortaxpayers to swallow. The county commissionerspaid $21.8 million for the complex with the idea oftransforming it into a centralized county headquar-ters. However, that initial price more than doubledafter the county spent millions removing asbestosfrom the property and buying an adjacent parkinggarage.

Under its offer, Geis would pay $27 million for the complex — well below the county’s total outlayfor a property the commissioners never put to usebecause it became a financial sinkhole. However,considering the state of the real estate market afterthe last recession and the large amount of officespace sitting vacant in downtown Cleveland, it’s adecent price. It’s $8.5 million more than anyone elseoffered in the bidding competition the county setup to unload the property.

There are two sweeteners in the lemonade Mr.FitzGerald hopes County Council will buy as thatbody considers whether to approve the Geis pro-posal. One is reviving a property at a key intersectionin the city’s downtown that has sat empty for 16years. The other is the trigger that Geis’ plans couldbe for other development along a bedraggled seg-ment of the Euclid Avenue corridor.

Geis is no slouch at real estate development, and though it largely is known for its work in thesuburbs, it also has shown an increased interest inurban projects. Its Hemingway Development divisionearned its stripes in Cleveland with its MidTownTech Park, a groundbreaking, two-building complexon Euclid that showed there is an appetite for officeand lab space in the city’s Midtown neighborhood.

Now Geis is ready to try its hand at a far biggerproject with its planned investment of $180 millionin the Ameritrust complex. Geis would raze twobuildings and construct in their place a new, eight-story county administration building. It also hasproposed turning the 29-story office tower into upscale apartments and restoring for retail or another public use the grand Ameritrust rotunda,plus renovating the adjacent Swetland Building asoffices and/or apartments.

The life that the Geis proposal could bring to EastNinth and Euclid through the presence of 750 county employees and potentially hundreds of newdowntown residents could serve as a spark formuch-needed redevelopment on Euclid betweenEast Ninth and East 13th streets. It is a stretch ofCleveland’s Main Street that continues to languishdespite revival on each side of it.

The proposal before County Council would let thecounty put what Mr. FitzGerald correctly has called“the Ameritrust fiasco” behind it. We urge its speedyapproval in the new year.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

PERSONAL VIEW

BRIANTUCKER

Another call for more collaboration

Avoid judiciary in trimming fed spending

PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR:Brian D.Tucker ([email protected])

EDITOR:Mark Dodosh ([email protected])

MANAGING EDITOR:Scott Suttell ([email protected])

OPINION

See VIEW Page 9



DONNA CONRYShaker HeightsI’ve heard some talk thereisn’t a real crisis on Dec.31, and they have a fewextra weeks. … Do I wantthem to go past Dec. 31?Definitely not, but they’repoliticians.

➤➤➤➤ Watch more of these responses by visiting the Multimedia section at www.CrainsCleveland.com.

THE BIG ISSUEAre you concerned about the U.S. going over the ‘fiscal cliff’ at year’s end if President Obama andCongress can’t hash out an agreement on how to reduce the deficit?

DENNIS ROBERTSMayfield HeightsI hope they’ll figure some-thing out. Am I concerned?Yes. From what I under-stand about it, everyone’staxes would go up, andparticularly those folks inthe middle class aren’t in aposition to withstand anyadditional expenses.

BRIAN DEANBroadview HeightsI sure hope they find anagreement because I don’tknow what my taxes aregoing to look like nextyear.

PATRICK SMITHMentorI am. Congress shouldhave productivity standards.If I was as unproductive asthose guys are, I wouldlose my job.

CORPORATE SERVICES [email protected]

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

PRESENTED BY

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www.CrainsCleveland.com/BREAKFAST

What you think you know, but don’t… and how much that could cost you in your succession strategy

In the latest budget discussionsin this supercharged post-electionseason, some in Congress want toreduce the budget of our judiciary.If no action is taken, our federal judiciary’s budget will be reduced inthe New Year by roughly $600 million.

Let there be no mistake — that’sa heck of a lot of money. But if youlove this country and you think thegenius of our Founding Fathers wasindeed that, then you have to makesure you spend enough cash to keepthat genius running.

The entire judiciary’s budget — Imean the whole thing, from the person who empties the waste bas-kets at our gorgeous Carl B. StokesU.S. Courthouse to Chief JusticeJohn Roberts’ salary — is under $8billion. That’s a heck of a lot ofmoney. But in terms of our entirefederal budget, it doesn’t evenamount to 0.2%.

That’s right — not even onemeasly percentage point. Heck, noteven a half of a measly percentagepoint. And Congress now wants to reduce that further by slightlymore than a half-billion dollars. Thatmeans that despite 83 vacancies inour federal court system, we aretelling our federal courts — that important third leg of our bar stool— they may need to fire people andcut budgets even further.

The impacts are very real for all ofus. Court officials across the countrypredict, for example, the temporarysuspension of federal civil jury trials,the furloughing of federal court andprobation employees, and a reductionin federal court security officers.

If you’re not a litigant in federalcourt, lucky you. But your employeror others on whom you dependmight be. And regardless, justice delayed is justice denied.

The furloughing of employeeswho supervise ex-offenders whenthey come out of prison affects all ofour communities. And I have neverheard anyone suggest our court-houses are so safe we should reducesecurity in them. Oh, and for thosewho live in the western part of the state, sequestration will likelytranslate into further delays in the construction of the much-neededToledo federal courthouse in yourcommunity.

Spending on our third branch ofgovernment is like our fellow’s expenditure on dinner and the valetparking. Congress should be lookingat the 99.8% of the federal budgetrather than dithering with the 0.2%that represents the entire funding ofone-third of our government.

Take away the third leg of the barstool, and our friendly drunk quicklyfinds himself on the floor. I don’twant to see our government fail. ■

View: Target bulk of spending LETTERS

Shale magdrills into hot topic■ Great job on the new Crain’s Shalepublication! It captures the easternOhio business revolution story verywell and contributes to the excitementthe oil and gas activity is causing forour part of the world.

As a longtime reader of Crain’s, Iam not surprised that your organiza-tion gave a strong start to coveringthe news of this welcome new industryfor Ohio. We needed it very much tokeep our state in the forefront of theeconomic recovery that is really hap-pening.

I am a former chief executive officerof the Cleveland Area Board of Real-tors and a vice president of public affairs and administration of theOhio Association of Realtors. The oiland gas story signals a bright futurefor Ohio real estate.

Thomas E. LaRochelleCEOStark County Association of Realtors

WRITE TO USSend your letters to: Mark Dodosh,editor, Crain’s Cleveland Businesse-mail: [email protected]


NASA Glenn plan focuses on core areasBy CHUCK [email protected]

NASA Glenn Research Centeraims to narrow its focus.

The Cleveland center has put together a reorganization plan that,if approved by NASA headquarters,would move some employees intodifferent departments and differentbuildings in an effort to help thecenter focus on its four core areas ofexpertise: power, propulsion, com-munications and advanced materials.

The plan would allow NASA Glennto put more resources toward work

in those four areas while also freeingup time to focus on winning businessfrom private companies, accordingto outgoing center director RamonLugo III and deputy director JimFree. Mr. Free will step into Mr. Lugo’sposition at the end of the year.

Today, employees with expertisein one area sometimes work in dif-ferent departments, which makes itharder to collaborate, they said duringa wide-ranging discussion last weekwith a group of reporters.

Mr. Free said he doesn’t think thereorganization will have an impacton the size of NASA Glenn’s work

force, which consists of more than3,000 government employees andcontractors. However, focusing onthe center’s core strengths shouldhelp it endure anticipated budgetcuts because it will be able to com-pete more effectively for work, bothfrom NASA and private companies,Mr. Lugo said.

NASA Glenn over the years has tosome degree diluted its abilities bytrying to work in too many differentareas, Mr. Lugo said. The reorgani-zation, if approved, would help thecenter rebuild a critical mass of exper-tise in its four main focus areas. ■



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“When you start talking about

Fight: ‘Reshoring’ so far only a trickle metal parts, metal should be pricedpretty consistently around theworld if it’s the same material,” Mr.Gaskin said.

Yet in the past, that hasn’t beenthe case.

Steve Schler, founder of ProMold-Gauer, a Tallmadge-based maker ofmolds and dies for the plastics andrubber industry, has been outbid byChinese competitors dating back to 2002. He even lost a roughly$250,000 project, for which his com-pany did the design and develop-ment, to a company in China thatoffered to build the project for lessthan ProMold’s material costs.

“If the Chinese are buying steelfrom the world market, we shouldbe paying the same price,” Mr.Schler said.

Mr. Schler is encouraged by signsthat the Chinese are raising their labor rates and increasing the value oftheir currency. In its Nov. 27 report,the U.S. Treasury said the renminbisince June 2010 has appreciated by9.3% — or by 12.6% factoring in inflation.

“The trend is in the right directionright now, but there’s a long way togo,” Mr. Schler said. “So keeping thepressure on is definitely warranted.… They still have a huge advan-tage.”

Shared painMr. Solganik of City Plating

would like to see a greater trend toward reshoring, or bringing man-ufacturing located overseas back tothe United States. He said it willhappen if China doesn’t offer whathe considers to be unfair advan-tages to manufacturers operatingthere.

Because Mr. Solganik’s businessdeals with heavy parts, its customerreach only extends to neighboringand nearby states due to the expense of shipping items. So, if itscustomers’ business disappears toChina, City Plating feels the effects,too.

“We’re really dependent on localsupply chain,” Mr. Solganik said.“So, if it’s cheaper to manufactureoverseas, that directly affects themetal finishing business.”

He recalled one large customerfor which City Plating provided tinplating services moved its entire

manufacturing operation to Chinaand consequently reduced its vol-ume of business with City Plating by 98%. He would not identify thecustomer.

However, the reshoring Mr. Solganik wants to see isn’t a trendyet. Instead, it’s more of a “trickle,”according to John Colm, executivedirector of WIRE-Net, a Cleveland-based manufacturing advocacygroup.

“It’s good news, believe me,” Mr.Colm said. “I think Cleveland is wellpositioned to benefit from thereshoring trend, but we have a longway to go.”

Applying the pressureMr. Colm said he thinks it’s up

to manufacturers to continue to ad-vocate for strong trade policies, including confronting China aboutits currency valuation.

“The currency issue is just one ofa host of issues, but it is by far themost significant,” he said.

For that reason, the PrecisionMetalforming Association and theNational Tooling and MachiningAssociation, with which WIRE-Networks, on Nov. 29 issued a state-ment decrying the U.S. Treasury’sfailure to cite China as a currencymanipulator.

Labeling China a currency ma-nipulator would lead to a lengthyinvestigation by the World TradeOrganization, with a direct impactin the United States that wouldn’tbe felt for potentially six years, Mr.Gaskin of the Precision MetalformingAssociation estimated. And that delay is why manufacturing associ-ations are continuing to push theU.S. government to take a strongstand against China, so that whenthe U.S. economy recovers, manu-facturers won’t be at a disadvan-tage, he said.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon,agrees.

“While China flouts trade laws,the U.S. Treasury Department con-tinues to give China a free passwhen it comes to its currency ma-nipulation,” Sen. Brown said in anemail. “Meanwhile, American man-ufacturers are paying the price. Ad-dressing China’s currency manipu-lation is critical to our economicrecovery and for job gains.” ■


TAX LIENSThe Internal Revenue Service filed taxliens against the following businessesin the Cuyahoga County Recorder’sOffice. The IRS files a tax lien to protectthe interests of the federal government.The lien is a public notice to creditorsthat the government has a claimagainst a company’s property. Liensreported here are $5,000 and higher.Dates listed are the dates the docu-ments were filed in the Recorder’s Office.

LIENS FILEDM A & K Enterprises Inc. 700 Turney Road, BedfordID: 34-1097195Date filed: Oct. 23, 2012Type: Employer’s withholding, unemploymentAmount: $17,049

R. Heard Painting Inc.25021 Forbes Road, Oakwood VillageID: 34-1808763Date filed: Oct. 9, 2012Type: Employer’s withholding, failure

to file complete return, corporate incomeAmount: $16,658

Records Central Inc.4700 Lakeside Ave., ClevelandID: 34-1035430Date filed: Oct. 19, 2012Type: Employer’s withholdingAmount: $15,827

Architectural Products Development Inc.6605 Clark Ave., ClevelandID: 34-1790635Date filed: Oct. 23, 2012Type: Employer’s withholdingAmount: $13,593

Nott-One Inc. Nottingham Auto Body19425 Saint Clair Ave., ClevelandID: 34-1577544Date filed: Oct. 9, 2012Type: Employer’s withholding, unemploymentAmount: $11,767

Imperial Glass & Door Co.

6517 Bessemer Ave., ClevelandID: 34-0858987Date filed: Oct. 19, 2012Type: Employer’s withholdingAmount: $9,782

York Gym Inc.7389 State Road, ParmaID: 34-1714634Date filed: Oct. 9, 2012Type: Employer’s withholding, unemployment, failure to file completereturn, corporate incomeAmount: $8,326

Scimone Enterprises Inc. CreativeAwards & Impressions26405 Broadway Ave., Oakwood VillageID: 34-1627419Date filed: Oct. 23, 2012Type: Employer’s withholdingAmount: $7,710

C & C Investors Inc.4411 Clark Ave., ClevelandID: 34-1655137Date filed: Oct. 19, 2012Type: Failure to file complete returnAmount: $6,445


See GILBERT Page 12

2012NEWSMAKERS2012 was both a year of firsts and a

year of change.

We welcomed the state’s first casino,

and steps were taken to improve the

city’s schools as well as the direction of

the convention center and medical

mart and our beloved Browns.

And that’s just the beginning.

Behind each of the region’s big

stories, of course, are people who are

helping to drive that news.

In this section, we take a look back at

some of those whose work helped

shape the past year’s headlines in

Northeast Ohio.

THE ROSTER

JIMBENNETTCleveland Medical Mart & Convention CenterBy JAY [email protected]

Jim Bennett, who has put anew, more reassuring face on the convention center andmedical mart under construc-

tion on Cleveland’s Mall, hasbeen playing a role in the city’s revitalization for more than 20

years.Indeed, in

1989, as he reflected on theold TerminalTower concoursethat was beingtransformed intoTower City Center and the

new sports palaces that were on thehorizon at what would becomeGateway, Mr. Bennett told Fortunemagazine, “You need big symbolsof physical progress. They are momentum-building and pride-building. You can’t move a citywithout physical splashes.”

Since April, Mr. Bennett has beenguiding the city’s latest physicalsymbol of progress as senior vicepresident of MMPI Inc., the devel-oper and operator of the tradeshowcomplex. A Youngstown native, Mr.Bennett came to Cleveland in 1982with the McKinsey & Co. consultingfirm, where he specialized in healthcare management. He later servedas a senior executive vice presidentof KeyCorp and then went on hisown as a management consultantwith Bennett Group LLC.

■ JIM BENNETT, Cleveland Medical Mart& Convention Center■ DAN GILBERT, Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, Bizdom■ ERIC GORDON/FRANK JACKSON, Cleveland Metropolitan School District PAGE 12■ THE HARRINGTON FAMILY, University HospitalsPAGE 12■ JIMMY HASLAM, Cleveland Browns PAGE 12■ MARCY KAPTUR, U.S. House of RepresentativesPAGE 14■ AUBREY MCCLENDON, Chesapeake EnergyPAGE 15■ BARBARA SNYDER, Case Western Reserve University PAGE 15■ TERRY STEWART, Rock and Roll Hall of Fameand Museum PAGE 16■ ZEV WEISS, American Greetings PAGE 16

In his nine months with MMPI,the 69-year-old Mr. Bennett has reshaped the $465 million project,moving the emphasis to the235,000-square-foot conventioncenter under the Mall and reimag-ining the four-story medical mart atOntario Street and St. Clair Avenue.

Most importantly, as the year isending, MMPI had leases in hand formore than half the leasable space inthe building and the number of con-ventions booked had risen from 27 atthe start of the year to 59 by Dec. 10,with 31 proposals being considered.

Those 59 conventions are esti-mated to book 97,000 hotel roomnights and give the regional economya $100 million boost, said DaveJohnson, the complex’s director ofpublic relations and marketing.Among the conventions booked arethe Ohio Music Educators Associa-tion, which will bring 9,000 attendeesa year in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

The new business and marketingplan, Mr. Bennett believes, is a keyto the turnaround.

Instead of trying to sell medicalsupply vendors on leasing their ownshowrooms, Mr. Bennett listened tohealth care industry leaders on anew advisory panel and shifted themarketing to emphasize thematicareas where vendors can collaboratewith each other to create, say, anoperating room of the future orstate-of-the-art patient exam rooms.

His vision also includes show-rooms where early stage medicalproducts companies — from localcompanies to foreign startups —could show off their developingproducts. In May, he said he wastalking to trade representatives fromChina and Israel, who expressed interest in the idea.

The shift has brought in several

key tenants, including GE Health-care, Johnson Controls andPhillips Healthcare.

It hasn’t hurt that the project itself has moved along — on budget — with little controversy.MMPI was even able to announceearlier this year that the buildingswould be ready for occupancy twomonths ahead of the planned September 2013 opening.

What he said■ Oct. 29, Crain’s: “When you

have a plan and a strategy, peoplerespond better. … There is muchgreater willingness to commit.”

What others are saying■ Baiju Shah, CEO, Biomotiv

LLC and a member of the med-ical mart advisory board: “JimBennett’s presence gives all whohave been involved with this initia-

tive great confidence in its suc-cessful launch next year. He hasdemonstrated expertise in convening,listening and collaborating withnational industry leaders who havein the process become anchor tenants for this initiative.”

■ Jeffrey Applebaum, ThompsonHine LLP attorney and CuyahogaCounty’s construction adviser onthe project: “By the first of (2012),construction of the facility was ingreat shape, but it was time to review the business and marketingplan of the medical mart concept.That was addressed by the advisorycommittee impaneled by EdFitzGerald and the hiring of JimBennett in April. Since that time,with Jim’s leadership on the medical mart side, tremendousprogress had been made in devel-oping the business concept anddeveloping the marketing plan.”

DANGILBERTHorseshoe Casino Cleveland, BizdomBy STAN [email protected]

As well as his tweets to prodbetter performance, Cava-liers players should alsotake a cue from owner Dan

Gilbert’s business behavior. Mr.Gilbert just keeps shooting. However,in this risk-taker’s case, the shots

are multimillion-dollar businessventures thatmay help trans-form downtownCleveland andhis hometown ofDetroit.

More are onthe way. Next

year, Mr. Gilbert’s Rock Gamingand partner Caesars EntertainmentCorp. in Rock Ohio Caesars alreadyare investing $150 million to open aracino at Thistledown Race Track inNorth Randall and build a $400 million casino in Cincinnati. That’squite an encore after investing $350million into readying the HigbeeBuilding to serve as Ohio’s firstgaming palace this year at HorseshoeCasino Cleveland.

Insiders expect the founder andchairman of Quicken Loans Inc.,which has a major downtown pres-ence, to undertake more projects inCleveland in the future. Mr. Gilbertcontinues to vow to build a largercasino on Huron Road near Higbee’sand the Q. The project that promisesto be one of downtown’s biggest

TRACKING BENNETT’S 2012

■ April 19: MMPI announces the appointment of Jim Bennett assenior vice president for the Cleve-land Medical Mart and Conven-tion Center.

■ May 21: Crain’s reports thatMr. Bennett has been soliciting thethoughts of community and medicalindustry leaders on a new strategyfor the complex, and what he washearing was that “medical mart” nolonger describes what will go on inside the building.

■ Oct. 11: The developer of acompeting medical mart plan inNashville said it would end its effortto develop its 1 million-square-footcomplex. Mr. Bennett offered hiscondolences, but suggested the

mammoth project overshot the market.

■ Oct. 23: Mr. Bennett toldCuyahoga County Council that thehealth care community in NortheastOhio would like to see the buildingcalled something other than the“Medical Mart,” to better reflect itsnew focus. It might be called the“Health Innovation Center,” he said.

■ Oct. 31: County Executive EdFitzGerald announces the signing oftwo major medical mart tenants —GE Healthcare and the ClevelandClinic. Mr. Bennett says his companynow has signed leases from 25 ten-ants for 50,000 of the 95,000leasable square feet in the medicalmart building.


1122 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS DECEMBER 17 - 23, 2012

GILBERTbuilding projects after workers finish the Medical Mart and Cleve-land Convention Center and Ernst& Young Tower.

Horseshoe Casino Cleveland already gave the city a big boostwith a plethora of visitors and theaddition of thousands of jobs. Toready the casino, Mr. Gilbertbought downtown Cleveland realestate as if playing Monopoly.

With the purchases of the Ritz-Carlton hotel and the 250 Huronbuilding below it, he entered thecity’s hotel and office business sectors. A $10 million update isplanned for the Ritz. The casino is one of the reasons first-floor retail is on the upswing downtown.In the meantime, he’s bought numerous properties in downtownDetroit.

Mr. Gilbert also is adding othersports teams and associated ven-tures here. He is aiding job andwealth creation here through theCleveland office of Bizdom, a startup business investment andcoaching effort that has graduatedthree classes.

Mr. Gilbert is also known as agiver. He underscored that bymaking the pledge this year toleave half his fortune to philan-thropy, a move that puts him incompany with business icon Warren Buffett.

A big test for Mr. Gilbert’s

gaming concern is how it handlesthe quest to demolish the StanleyBlock Building on Ontario Street.When the casino did not gain complete control of the building, ittore down its neighbors and builtaround it. A messy end that leavespreservationists wounded wouldbe a big negative among manypluses Mr. Gilbert and his teamhave scored here.

Local media outlets often reflecton Mr. Gilbert’s popularity intown, which so far has survivedpoor Cavs performance in thepost-LeBron James era.

That said, media already see thepassion of new Browns owner Jimmy Haslam as fresh competi-tion for Mr. Gilbert in the hearts ofClevelanders. It will give Mr.Gilbert a run for his money.

What he said■ Oct. 30, USA Today:

“Looking back now, that probablywas not the most brilliant thingI’ve ever done in my life,” referringto his promise to fans in 2010 thatthe spurned Cavs would win anNBA title before LeBron Jameswon it with the Miami Heat. TheKing got his ring last spring.

■ May 13, Las Vegas ReviewJournal: “There is communitypride and Cleveland pride in beingthe state’s first casino. … Cleve-land needs a great win. This cityhas hardworking, great peoplehere. They’ve had the rug pulledout from under them so manytimes.”

What others are saying■ Robert Simons, professor,

coordinator, graduate certificateprogram in real estate, financeand development, Levin Collegeof Urban Affairs, Cleveland StateUniversity: “From our perspective,Dan Gilbert has a huge impact onCleveland. Through all of his enterprises and the jobs he hascreated from the casino and newsports teams he’s brought to themarket, he probably has as mucheconomic impact on downtown asCleveland State University. Notonly does he have a lot of employ-ees here, he’s added them herethrough new ventures, so they aregold jobs rather than silver ones. I

wish we had 10 more like him.”

■ William West, partner, Ostendorf-Morris Co.; chairman,Downtown Cleveland Improve-ment Corp.; executive boardmember, Downtown Cleveland Alliance: “People in town have gotten tired. You get a new guy intown with new ideas and he doesthings. He likes to win. It’s amazingto me what he is doing here as wellas in Detroit. He’s a first-class operator, from the casino in Hig-bee to the new parking garage andleased parking lots. He’s kept hisword to downtown restaurant op-erators in terms of not competingwith them, and through rewardssending business their way.”

TRACKING GILBERT’S 2012

■ April 26: Cleveland Cavaliersend 2011-12 season with a win-lossrecord of 21-45 as they fall to theChicago Bulls. Sports commenta-tors again call the Cavs “lowly.”

■ May 14: Horseshoe CasinoCleveland opens in the HigbeeBuilding downtown, which sports a$350 million update to the buildingand in gaming devices. Ohio’s firstcasino employs 1,600 people. Cus-tomers line up in droves outside itstwo entrances, which lasts for weeks.

■ June 6: Plans are unveiled for aracino at Thistledown Racetrack inNorth Randall, adding 1,500 videolottery terminals, a 60-seat restau-rant and other improvements. Look

for a spring 2013 opening. ■ Aug. 16: Bizdom, a startup

business accelerator created in Detroit and brought to Cleveland byDan Gilbert unveils a half-floor officeat his 250 Huron Road building thatprovides co-working space for entre-preneurs invited to its three-monthtraining program.

■ Nov. 14: Horseshoe CasinoCleveland announces 2.6 millionguest visits in first six months. Theventure said it is responsible for26,000 room nights at downtownhotels and its rewards program generated more than $500,000 inmeals at participating downtownrestaurants.


ERICGORDONFRANKJACKSONCleveland MetropolitanSchool District

By AMY ANN [email protected]

Mayor Frank Jackson andCleveland MetropolitanSchools CEO Eric Gor-don this year seemed

to do the impossible.After introducing a radical school

transformation plan early in theyear, they successfully set the foundation for and pushed througha staggering four-year, 15-mill levyin a school district plagued withforeclosures and high poverty levels.

Messrs. Jackson’s and Gordon’sefforts to redirect the course of the40,000-student urban school districtare considered transformational ineducational circles nationwide.

In addition to eliminating seniority as the sole criterion for determining teacher layoffs, theplan called for a “portfolio approach” to school management,which would give school principalsgreater responsibility over budgetingand hiring.

It also allowed for some charterschools to receive money from thedistrict’s levy for their programs.

Indeed, the transformation planwas so dramatic it required law-maker approval since it requiredchanges to Ohio law that onlywould apply in Cleveland.

Gov. John Kasich — a vocal supporter of the plan — in Julysigned it into law after legislativeapproval, a step that Mayor Jacksonconsidered critical to passing thelevy that is expected to generate upto $77 million more a year for thedistrict.

Of course, such change rarelycomes without controversy. The6,000-member Cleveland teachers’union initially pushed back againstthe plan, expressing disappoint-ment that the Greater ClevelandPartnership had been involved inits creation while its members hadnot.

Eventually, though, the unionoffered its support, which helpedin gaining the reform plan’s approval in Columbus.

Since the November passage of

Issue 107, school leaders havewasted no time.

Steps already have been taken torestore in 2013 a full school day forkindergarten through eighthgrades; increase exposure to art,music and physical education in asmany schools as possible; and addreading, mathematics and scienceintervention where determined.

According to a district news release, $6.8 million in tax dollarswill be used to replace the lost instructional time.

TRACKING GORDON, JACKSON THROUGH 2012

■ Feb. 6: Mayor Frank Jacksonpresents to the teachers union andother officials his plan for transformingCleveland’s schools.

■ April 12: David Quolke, president of the Cleveland Teach-ers Union, announces along withMessrs. Jackson and Gordon duringa meeting at Cleveland City Hallthat the union had agreed to sup-port the plan, which helped in get-ting legislative approval. Still, Mr.Quolke was quoted as saying, “Thisagreement is far from perfect.”

■ July 2: Gov. John Kasichsigns into law a bill allowing forCleveland schools’ transformationplan to move forward. Legislative approval was needed since the plan

proposed changes to Ohio law thatwould only apply to Cleveland. Itwas approved — after debate andsome compromise — by thestate Senate, 27-4, and House, 78-16.

■ July 18: A 15-mill levy is proposed for the November ballot. Itis estimated to cost the owner of anaverage-priced Cleveland home —$64,000 — $294 more a year intaxes.

■ Nov. 6: Voters approve by amargin of 57% to 43% the four-yearlevy. It is expected to bring in up to$77 million more a year for the dis-trict, which has an operating budgetof $670 million — and a $65 milliondeficit.

HARRINGTONFAMILYUniversity Hospitals’Harrington Project forDiscovery & Development

By CHUCK [email protected]

It makes it easier to attract money from big donors whenyou can put their names inhuge letters on the side of a

building.University Hospitals didn’t have

that advantage.Fortunately, the hospital system

already had a close relationshipwith the Harrington family of Hudson, which spent the last twodecades turning Edgepark MedicalSupplies in Twinsburg from a struggling pharmacy into a big distributor of medical supplies.

Last February, UH announcedthe creation of The Harrington Pro-ject for Discovery & Development,an ambitious effort that aims tochange the way new drugs are developed and commercialized.

The Harrington family — husbandand wife Ron G. and Nancy Har-rington, their daughter, Jill, theirson, Ron M., and his wife, Lydia —helped launch the effort with a $50 million donation. UniversityHospitals is contributing $100 million, and it aims to raise another$100 million.

Had it not been for the Harringtons,the project still might be an idea sitting on the shelf, said Dr. AchillesDemetriou, chief operating officerat UH.

“I don’t think we could havepulled it off,” Dr. Demetriou said.

Today, the project is well underway. The $50 million went entirelytoward financing the project’s non-

JIMMYHASLAMCleveland BrownsBy JOEL [email protected]

On July 27, the ClevelandBrowns were a day awayfrom a training camp inwhich they had plenty of

questions to answer, includingwhether rookie running back TrentRichardson and quarterback Brandon Weeden could meet loftyexpectations.

One question they weren’t expecting, though, was whetherthey’d have a new owner. That day,the team confirmed that RandyLerner was in discussions to sell theteam to Jimmy Haslam III, then theCEO of Knoxville, Tenn.-based PilotCorp., which operates travel centersnationwide, and a minority ownerof the Pittsburgh Steelers.

A week later, Mr. Haslam wassigned, sealed and delivered for $1billion, and introduced to Cleve-land media at team headquarters inBerea.

Since, Mr. Haslam has given theBrowns a much-needed jolt of energy, even if the on-field productisn’t appreciably improved. He’ssaid publicly that a new namingrights sponsor for ClevelandBrowns Stadium would be in placefor the 2013 season, a deal that likely will bring the team multiplemillions of dollars per season.

Mr. Gordon also early this monthpresented a 33-page document,“The Cleveland Plan: Four-Year Implementation Strategy,” whichoutlined plans for the school dis-trict overhaul.

A final version, following com-munity input, is expected to be presented to the board for adoptionin mid- to late-January.

What they said ■■ Mayor Jackson, March 12,

Crain’s: “… In order for us to haveany chance or likelihood of passinga levy, we have to demonstrate tothe public they will get a differentoutcome than they are getting nowand that there is accountability forwhat they pay for.”

■■ Mr. Gordon, July 16, Crain’s:“It really is about having a plan inplace that voters can depend on fordifferent ways of getting better results with their tax dollars.”

What others are saying ■ Terry Ryan, vice president for

Ohio programs and policy,Thomas B. Fordham Institute:“Cleveland has become a nationalleader in the school reform conver-sation. … It’s being watched byboth critics and supporters alike.”

■ Ronn Richard, CEO, TheCleveland Foundation: “Clevelandis fortunate to have such a visionarymayor and schools CEO. They crafteda nationally significant educationplan, spearheaded the passage ofgroundbreaking state legislationneeded to implement the plan, andrallied the community to supportthe district’s first levy in 16 years toexecute the plan. The ClevelandFoundation is proud to supportthem every step of the way. We believe their efforts will lead to a remarkable transformation of ourcity’s school system, which willopen up magnificent new opportu-nities for our children.”

2012NEWSMAKERS


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profit arm, The Harrington Discov-ery Institute, which two weeks agogave 10 $200,000 grants to physi-cian-scientists trying to developnew drugs at a time when pharma-ceutical companies are scalingback early stage research and development efforts.

In addition to the grants, the institute also aims to connect recipients with industry experts,investors, access to laboratories,grant writing services and other resources to help ensure their discoveries become products asquickly as possible.

The project also has a for-profitarm, BioMotiv LLC, a ShakerHeights company that is scouringlaboratories worldwide in a questto license promising technologiesand develop them to the pointwhere investors or drug companiesare willing to commercialize them.

The Harringtons invested in thatpart, too: The family and UH haveinvested a total of $21 million inBioMotiv. Ron G. Harrington is thecompany’s chairman.

He and his wife boughtEdgepark in 1990, and soon aftertheir children joined the company.

The family in 2007 sold a majoritystake in Edgepark’s parent companyto The Jordan Co., a New York private equity firm, for an undis-closed amount. A year later, theHarringtons donated more than$22 million to what now is called

the University Hospitals HarringtonHeart & Vascular Institute.

In 2010, the parent company,HGI Holdings Inc., was sold again,this time to private equity firmsClayton Dubilier & Rice and GSCapital Partners, which is owned byGoldman Sachs. The purchase pricewas roughly $850 million, accordingto a report from Dow Jones LBOWire. At the time, the companyemployed about 800 people.

What they said■■ Ronald G. Harrington, in a

statement released in Februaryby University Hospitals: “We’d liketo assure physician-scientists thattheir discoveries are carried furtheralong to completion. Secondly, we would like to create in theCleveland business community aninvestment into the health carearena. And last, but not least, is tosave lives.”

What others are saying■■ Dr. Achilles Demetriou, chief

operating officer, University Hospitals: “It’s easier to give money for buildings or an institutebecause you can see it. Here,they’re supporting a concept.”

■■ Baiju Shah, CEO, BioMotivLLC: “They’re just incredible indi-viduals that have given so muchboth in the development of theircompany … and their contribu-tions back to the community.”

■■ Feb. 27: University Hospitalsannounces the creation of the Har-rington Project for Discovery &Development, as well as the $50million donation from the Harringtonfamily.

■■ Sept. 1: Baiju Shah leaves hislongtime role as president of BioEn-teprise Corp., a Cleveland nonprofitthat assists health care companies in

the region, to become BioMotiv’s CEO.■■ Sept. 5: BioMotiv announces

it has raised $21 million in equity financing from both UH and the Harrington family.

■■ Dec. 5: The Harrington Discovery Institute awards its first10 grants. Among the recipients isDr. Sanford Markowitz of Case Western Reserve University.

The Harringtonfamily, fromright: Ron andNancy withdaughter, Jill(middle), and sonand daughter-in-law, Ron and LydiaPHOTO PROVIDED

CRAIN’S TOP WEB STORIES OF 2012

TRACKING THE HARRINGTONS’ 2012

He’s met with some of theleague’s most successful owners,including New England’s BobKraft, the New York Giants’ JohnMara and others to learn best practices. He told Cleveland CityCouncil in September — a week after stepping down from his CEOpost at Pilot in order to focus moretime on the Browns — that “every-thing is on the table” in terms ofimprovements or changes to bemade at Cleveland Browns Stadiumto turn it into a year-round venue.

In a meeting with Crain’s onHalloween, Mr. Haslam said he’dlook to markets outside Cleveland,

most notably Columbus, to recon-nect with fans and perhaps evenengage the business community asBrowns partners.

He’s even paired with his wife’smedia company, RIVR Media, on aTravel Channel show, “NFL RoadTested: The Cleveland Browns,”that will explore how the teamtravels and will expand the team’sbrand. The show began Dec. 4.

A self-described football man —his father, Jim, who founded Pilot,played at Tennessee, where thefamily remains involved infundraising efforts — Mr. Haslam

NEWSCOM

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam (left) chats with general manager Tom Heckert ata preseason game. Mr. Heckert’s future is one of the major decisions Mr. Haslamfaces.

See HASLAM Page 16

A look at the top stories featuredon www.CrainsCleveland.com thisyear, with URLs for you to relivethe top news:

■■ March 5: “WKYC-TV names co-anchor for 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news-casts.”

http://tinyurl.com/akhz7d8

■■ Jan. 4: “Report: WKYC morningnews anchor Mark Nolan to leave station.”

http://tinyurl.com/bepz4ba

■■ Aug. 2: Safeguard Properties toacquire Bank of America’s field serviceoperations.”

http://tinyurl.com/bz9r2xq

■■ June 25: “Longtime radio execplans launch of new Cleveland rock station.”

http://tinyurl.com/a8zrtt4

■■ March 7: “Former ClevelandBrowns beat writer Tony Grossi leavesThe Plain Dealer.”

http://tinyurl.com/afcsopb

■■ Jan. 13: “Winking Lizard owner toopen Lizardville Bar in Cleveland’s Galleria.”

http://tinyurl.com/avo3qxv

■■ Feb. 13: “Baldwin-Wallace Collegenames new president, reveals pendingname change.”

http://tinyurl.com/artfxgs

■■ June 8: “The Taylor Cos. announces plans to go out of businessafter nearly 200 years.”

http://tinyurl.com/ajpwkd6

■■ June 25: “United execs laud efforts to back local hub.”

http://tinyurl.com/bz868nj

■■ June 4: “Scott Wolstein namedCEO of Starwood Retail Properties.”

http://tinyurl.com/b53gc77

■■ Jan. 26: PD managing editor

says Tony Grossi crossed the line withRandy Lerner tweet.

http://tinyurl.com/b9h3lfh

■■ Jan. 26: Potbelly sandwich shop to set up shop in downtownCleveland

http://tinyurl.com/a3r9hwr

2012NEWSMAKERS


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1144 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS DECEMBER 17 - 23, 2012

MARCYKAPTURUnited States House of Representatives

By SCOTT [email protected]

Northeast Ohio’s congres-sional delegation will losethree familiar faces in2013 — U.S. Reps. Dennis

Kucinich, Steve LaTourette andBetty Sutton — but through themagic of redistricting, it gains theveteran voice of longtime Rep.Marcy Kaptur of Toledo.

Rep. Kaptur, 66, has been amember of the House of Represen-tatives since 1982. But her road toa 16th term in Congress was altereddramatically by the redistrictingprocess, which forced her to faceoff with liberal icon Rep. Kucinichin a Democratic primary in the redrawn 9th District. The districtruns from the West Side of Cleve-land through Lorain, Erie and Ottawa counties into eastern LucasCounty and parts of Toledo.

The primary was a tough fight,and she won it handily, takingabout 56% of the vote. This fall’sgeneral election against RepublicanSamuel Wurzelbacher — “Joe thePlumber,” of 2008 fame — was arout, as Rep. Kaptur garnered 70%of the vote.

Republicans were effective, inthe partisan sense, in redrawingthe state’s congressional districts.Although the overall vote in con-gressional races was about 50-50,Rep. Kaptur will be one of just fourDemocrats in the state’s congres-sional delegation, compared with12 members of the GOP.

Rep. Kaptur, a Toledo native andthe longest-serving woman in theHouse, brings lots of insiderknowledge of Washington to hernew district. Most importantly forNortheast Ohio, perhaps, she’s themost senior Democrat on theHouse Appropriations Committee,which makes government spendingdecisions. Rep. LaTourette was onthat committee, too, so Rep. Kaptur’s work there takes ongreater importance to making sureOhio doesn’t lose congressionalclout.

She’s also a member of three important House subcommittees:Defense, Agriculture, and Trans-portation/Housing and Urban Development.

However, House Democraticleaders earlier this month choseRep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., over Rep.Kaptur for the position of ranking

member on the AppropriationsCommittee. Although Rep. Kapturhad seniority on the panel, “herpast independence from leadershipand stance on abortion rights were

seen as factors in the race,” according to TheHill.com.

Rep. Kaptur ran against Rep.Nancy Pelosi of California to beminority leader in 2002. And, ac-cording to the National AbortionRights Action League, Rep. Loweyhas a 100% ranking on abortion-related issues, while Rep. Kaptur isranked as a “mixed-choice,” at70%. (Rep. Kaptur was a holdout,for a while, on the 2010 health carereform bill because of concernabout abortion language thateventually was resolved.)

She is something of an economicpopulist and opposed, for example,the North American Free TradeAgreement. Rep. Kaptur “has longargued for the need for political reform, calling on her own party togrow less dependent on fundraisingand to better listen to the workingclass,” according to a WashingtonPost profile from earlier this year. A member of the CongressionalProgressive Caucus, Rep. Kapturhas described herself as part of the“non-money wing of our Democ-ratic caucus.”

What she said ■■ Oct. 26, 9th District congres-

sional debate: “All you have to dois drive over to General Motors’transmission plant, if you go to theChrysler Jeep plant, you will seethat all former hires have beenbrought back on, and in fact theyare hiring off the street. The recov-ery of the automotive industry hasbeen astounding.”

What others are saying

■ David B. Cohen, professor ofpolitical science and fellow of theRay C. Bliss Institute of AppliedPolitics at the University of Akron:“Marcy Kaptur has really earnedthe respect of people in both parties. She’s a workhorse and apolicy wonk. And maybe most importantly, given the political situation today, she’s a more inde-pendent spirit in Congress.”

■ Chris Redfern, chairman,Ohio Democratic Party: “Thereare auto suppliers all throughoutthe lakefront who would have beendevastated without the work ofMarcy Kaptur and others to rescuethe auto industry. … Clevelanderswill find her to be accessible andhard-working and completelycommitted to constituent service.”

TRACKING KAPTUR’S 2012

NEWSCOM

Marcy Kaptur will be one of just four Democrats remaining in the state’s congressional delegation.

■ March 6: In a matchup ofHouse heavyweights, U.S. Rep.Marcy Kaptur of Toledo easily de-feated fellow Rep. Dennis Kucinichof Cleveland in the Democratic pri-mary race to represent the new 9th

District. The gerrymandered districtruns from the West Side of Clevelandthrough Lorain, Erie and Ottawacounties into eastern Lucas Countyand parts of Toledo. Rep. Kapturwon about 56% of the vote.

■ Nov. 6: Rep. Kaptur won morethan 70% of the vote to defeat her

Republican opponent, SamuelWurzelbacher — you know him as“Joe the Plumber” — with morethan 171,000 votes cast in the 9th.

■ Dec. 4: The House Democra-tic caucus passed over Rep. Kaptur, the most senior member ofthe House Appropriations Com-mittee, for ranking Democrat on theinfluential panel. U.S. Rep. NitaLowey of New York outpolled Rep.Kaptur in a closed-door meeting ofthe Democratic caucus’ Policy andSteering Committee.

2012NEWSMAKERS

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DECEMBER 17 - 23, 2012 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 152012NEWSMAKERS

BARBARASNYDERCase Western Reserve University


Since taking the helm of CaseWestern Reserve Universityin July 2007, Barbara Snyderhas pushed the university to

new levels of fundraising, develop-ment and student interest. Not onlythat, she also has become a well-respected voice and face for CWRUin the education community.

The former Ohio State Universityexecutive vice president andprovost has led the university’sclimb back to operating with a surplus — something with which itstruggled in the early 2000s — andhas propelled the university’sfundraising efforts.

In her first year as president, Ms.Snyder led the university in June2008 to adopt its first strategic plan,the University Plan, in nearly 20years. Under that plan, the universitycommitted to increase outside investments in research, involvealumni and enroll students of higher quality.

Now, more than four years later,the university is achieving all ofthose goals and is on track to continue that success.

In October 2011, CWRUlaunched a $1 billion capital cam-paign, which, as of Nov. 30, hadraised $774 million. And the univer-sity in fiscal years 2011 and 2012broke fundraising records, raising$126.5 million and $134.5 million

respectively. CWRU also in 2012 was awarded

the largest grant ever received inNortheast Ohio. The $64.5 milliongrant, known as the Clinical andTranslational Science Award, recog-nized the university’s five-year collaboration with area medical facilities to take medical discoveriesfrom the laboratory to the patient.

Under Ms. Snyder’s lead, CWRUhas started a concerted effort to improve the university’s facilities,including both its student centerand its medical school. The $50 million student center, for whichground was broken in May, wasaided by a $20 million donation byThe Veale Foundation and the $50million medical school was buoyed

by $10 million grants from theCleveland Foundation and the Mt.Sinai Health Care Foundation.

In addition to that, the number of students interested in the schoolhas doubled since Ms. Snyder assumed the role of president. Theuniversity in 2012 received 14,800applications and, since Ms. Snyderbecame president, has climbedfive places in U.S. News and World Report’s annual ranking of collegesand universities, coming in at No.37 on this year’s list.

What she said■■ June 1, Crain’s Cleveland

Business: “We continue to behumbled and honored by the generosity of our graduates and

other supporters. These individu-als and organizations recognizethe remarkable work of our facultyand students, and have made investments that will allow evengreater advances in the years tocome.”

What others are saying■■ Jim Petro, chancellor of the

Ohio Board of Regents: “As president of Case Western ReserveUniversity, Barbara has had atremendous impact on the univer-sity and the surrounding commu-nity. She has a dynamic vision ofwhere she wants this university tobe, and is taking the steps to get itthere, as evidenced by the plansfor the new medical school. As a

FILE PHOTO/MARC GOLUB

TRACKING SNYDER’S 2012

■ May 30: CWRU broke groundon a $50 million 82,000-square-footstudent center, the Tinkham VealeII University Center.

■ June 1: CWRU for the secondconsecutive year breaks itsfundraising record, raising $134.5million, which is $8 million morethan was raised the previous fiscalyear.

■ Aug. 10: CWRU receives a$64.6 million grant — the Clinicaland Translational ScienceAward — from the National Insti-tutes of Health to advance medicalbreakthroughs.

■ Sept. 12: CWRU for the thirdstraight year surpasses its recordnumber of applicants, receiving ap-plications from 14,800 prospectivestudents.

■ Sept. 24: The Cleveland Foundation and the Mt. SinaiHealth Care Foundation eachcommitted $10 million — thelargest grants either foundation hasmade to date — to CWRU for a new$50 million, 160,000-square-footmedical school.

graduate of the law school at CaseWestern, I am especially proud ofall Barbara has accomplished and Ilook forward to seeing where herleadership will take the universityin the years ahead.”

■■ C. Todd Jones, president ofthe Association of IndependentColleges and Universities of Ohio:“She’s recognized as a significantleader in higher education in Ohio.And it’s more than just becauseCase is one of the largest and mostacademically elite campuses in ourstate. It goes beyond that. It’s also,in a sense, personal presence.”

AUBREYMCCLENDONChesapeake EnergyBy DAN [email protected]

Reckless risk addict or thegenius and driving forcebehind the shale gas boomsweeping Ohio and the

U.S.?Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey

McClendon might be both. And,while he may not be from NortheastOhio, evidence of his firm’s impactcan be found all over the regionthese days.

Mr. McClendon is known forstarting his career as an oil and gasland man, signing up landowners tomineral rights leases with energycompanies eager to drill in placeslike Oklahoma and Texas in the early 1980s.

Some say that’s his main gift —and that Chesapeake Energy, whichhe founded in 1982, is still today asmuch a mineral rights trader as it isan oil and gas driller.

Chesapeake does indeed still makemillions of dollars, if not billions, inbuying and reselling interests inmineral rights, including in Ohiowhere it sold a portion of its hold-ings for about $2.3 billion earlierthis year at a large profit. But, alongthe way, Chesapeake also becamethe second-biggest natural gasdriller in the U.S. — not to mentionthe biggest player, by far, in Ohio’sUtica shale play, where by some estimates the Oklahoma City-based

giant controls 70% of all shale gasleases in the state.

Many industry observers giveMr. McClendon and his companycredit for getting the shale boomgoing in the U.S., as well as forbringing the Utica to prominencewhen his company became knownfor spending more than $1 billionon leases in the play in 2011 and2012.

Mr. McClendon, however, remainsa highly controversial figure. Hewas blamed for pushing down theprice of Chesapeake’s stock in2008, when margin calls forcedhim to sell more than 30 millionshares of the company’s stock,which dropped nearly 40% in pricethat same week. He also sold thecompany maps from his personalcollection and had to buy themback for $12 million when share-

holders complained in 2011.Such issues prompted Chesa-

peake’s board to announce thatMr. McClendon would be replacedas chairman, and he stepped downfrom the board in June. No soonerhad he left the board room that newmedia reports surfaced claimingthat he used company employeesfor his own personal projects andthat he did the same with the company’s private aircraft. To putit mildly, it was a rough year, PR-wise, for Mr. McClendon.

For the most part, the controver-sies have subsided, but not beforethey got the attention of billionaireactivist investor Carl Icahn, whodisclosed last summer that he hadamassed a 7.6% stake in Chesapeake— and who upped that stake toabout 9% of the company’s stockin November. Mr. Icahn was

reportedly instrumental in gettingMr. McClendon removed from theboard, but so far he has not askedfor further changes after recentlydisclosing his larger stake.

In the meantime, Mr. McClendonhas adopted a low profile — partic-ularly for a man used to the limelight,whether it’s on the cover of a na-tional business magazine or prowlingthe sidelines of an Oklahoma CityThunder NBA game. (He owns approximately 20% of the team.)

But even his critics, for the mostpart, give him credit with havingthe business nerve necessary tojump-start shale gas drilling in theU.S. — and for being among thefirst to recognize the potential ofOhio’s Utica shale and bring it tonational prominence.

What he said■ November conference call

with securities analysts: “I thinkour Utica wet gas acreage is between300,000 and 400,000 acres out of

our 1 million plus acres there. Sowe’re thrilled with the Utica. … Ifyou’re in that (wet gas) corridor,which stretches from Columbianadown through Carroll and Harrison(counties) and maybe a little fur-ther south from there, you have results that are as good as any fromany play in the country.”

What others are saying■ Billionaire activist investor

Carl Icahn, in an open letter toChesapeake’s board in May: “Werecently had dinner with AubreyMcClendon to suggest a mannerby which that credibility gap mightbe filled. The company has publicly identified several actionsincluding reduced spending andasset sales which will relieve someof the funding gap, yet the boardstill seems to miss the point. Webelieve that a management teamand a business plan without strongoversight and accountability isdoomed to fail.”

TRACKING MCCLENDON’S 2012

■ January 2012: ChesapeakeEnergy, with Mr. McClendon aschairman and CEO, announces it isselling a 25% interest in its Uticashale holdings to France-based Total SA for $2.3 billion. Chesa-peake had previously announced itspent $1.3 billion acquiring all of itsUtica leases up to that point.

■ April 2012: Reuters reportsthat Mr. McClendon had been usinghis own personal stake in Chesa-peake’s oil and gas wells to securemore than $1 billion in loans forhimself, presenting what some said

was a conflict of interest.■ May 2012: Spurred in part by

activist investor Carl Icahn’srequest, Chesapeake’s board of directors announces that Mr. Mc-Clendon will step down as chairman.

■ November 2012: Chesapeakereports a $2 billion loss, caused bythe writedown of the value of its oiland gas reserves as prices for natural gas fell, but the company andMr. McClendon say they are still con-fident that the Utica play will live upto its expectations as a majorsource of production.

NEWSCOM


has shown an intimate knowledgeof the game and a willingness totalk X’s and O’s with the media.

One thing he hasn’t addressed isthe future of second-year coach PatShurmur and general manager TomHeckert, whose roles have beenconstantly analyzed since Mr.Haslam took over.

Both men were hired by formerteam president Mike Holmgren,who Mr. Haslam announced onOct. 16 would retire from the team.At that same news conference, fromChicago, where he was unanimouslyapproved as Browns owner, Mr.Haslam said Joe Banner, a longtimePhiladelphia Eagles executive,would be taking over the CEO role.

Messrs. Haslam and Banner havesaid evaluations of all personnelwill take place at the end of the sea-son, and Browns fans are anxiouslyawaiting decisions and whether theteam will go through yet anotheroverhaul.

What he said■■ Aug. 3, CrainsCleveland.com:

“We have one mission and one mis-sion only: to bring winning footballback to Cleveland.”

■■ Nov. 5, Crain’s: “We’re selling

1166 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS DECEMBER 17 - 23, 20122012NEWSMAKERS

HASLAMcontinued from PAGE 13

the Browns, and it’s not just inCleveland. … This is a big state,with a lot of people and a lot ofsuccessful businesses, and weneed to get them more involvedwith the Browns.”

What others are saying ■■ Cleveland City Councilman

Joe Cimperman: “His backgroundis farther south (Tennessee), buthe’s one of us. I thought (Cleve-land Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert)was a once-in-a-century guy, butstruck gold with the two of them.They bought into the franchise,

but they also bought into the DNAof Cleveland.”

■■ Joe Roman, Greater Cleve-land Partnership: “It’s pretty obvious, but he’s taking a 24/7 approach to the Cleveland Browns.That means not only on the fieldand off the field in terms of howthe Browns are viewed, but howthe Browns could be catalytic insome other things.

“His enthusiasm is contagious.He’s hitting the town at a timewhen other things are really workingwell, and that additional shot in thearm for the town has been amazing.”

TRACKING HASLAM’S 2012

■ June: Cleveland Brownsspokesman Neal Gulkis emphaticallydenies a report from Philadelphiathat the Browns could be for sale.

■ July 27: Browns confirm thatRandy Lerner is in discussions withJimmy Haslam III, a PittsburghSteelers minority owner and CEO ofPilot Corp., to sell the team.

■ Aug. 3: The deal is official, for$1 billion, and Mr. Haslam is intro-duced to the media at team head-quarters in Berea. That day, Mr.Haslam says “it’s a marketing world”when asked about potential businessopportunities, including a namingrights deal for Cleveland Browns

Stadium. ■ Sept. 19: Mr. Haslam meets a

caucus of Cleveland City Councilmembers and tells them that “every-thing is on the table” when it comesto stadium improvements and making the venue a year-round option for events.

■ Oct. 16: NFL owners unani-mously approve Mr. Haslam’s pur-chase of the Browns at a meeting inChicago.

■ Oct. 31: In a wide-ranging inter-view with Crain’s, Mr. Haslam talks ofhis desire to push into Columbus tore-engage with fans and perhaps lurenew business partners to Cleveland.

ZEVWEISSAmerican Greetings Corp.By MICHELLE [email protected]

While it’s not known yetwhether a special committee will acceptan offer from the Weiss

family and related parties to takeAmerican Greetings Corp. private,the family’s proposal makes it clear

that companyleadership be-lieves it has aplan that willbetter serve thecompany.

News of theoffer from descendants ofthe company’s

founder to buy up all of the stockthey don’t already own came inSeptember in a letter from the family, including CEO Zev Weiss, tothe greeting card company’s boardof directors. Since then, the boardhas set up a special committee toconsider the go-private offer, and theWeisses have revealed in anotherletter that they have financing commitments totaling $742 millionto make the deal a go.

That letter revealed that some bignames — among them, KeyBank,PNC Bank and Bank of America —are behind the Weisses, noted ScottFine, a professor of banking and finance at Case Western ReserveUniversity Weatherhead School ofManagement.

“Some very prominent financialinstitutions are committing a lot ofmoney to the long-term vision thatthe Weisses have,” he said. “Whatwe (the public) don’t see are the details of the plan that will keep thiscompany a vital, vibrant part of ourlandscape for another hundredyears.”

Mr. Fine says he’s surprisedAmerican Greetings hasn’t goneprivate already, considering itsbiggest competitor — HallmarkCards Inc. — is private and its stockisn’t heavily traded. The companyfaces strategic challenges, he said,and those challenges require long-term solutions, not the short-termthings the public markets mightwant.

The go-private offer makes it allthe more likely that one of North-east Ohio’s hallmark companies —pun intended — is likely to stay put,Mr. Fine added. If a strategic buyerbased somewhere else was proposingto buy American Greetings, the riskof the company’s operations beingmoved elsewhere would be greater,he added.

Already, though, Northeast Ohiohad reason to believe the companywasn’t going anywhere: After asearch for a new headquarters site,the company in 2011 committed tostaying in Northeast Ohio in a moveto Crocker Park in Westlake. How-ever, the company recently delayedthat project in light of the go-pri-vate offering.

In another multimillion-dollarmove in 2012, American Greetingsin May acquired all of the senior secured debt and then in June acquired certain assets of ClintonCards and related brands, includingabout 400 stores. Those moves werean effort to protect American Greet-ings’ interests since Clinton CardsPLC — one of American Greetings’largest customers — had beenstruggling.

TRACKING WEISS’ 2012

■ May 21: American Greetingsunveils first designs for its $150million to $200 million headquartersproject in Westlake, revealing ren-derings of a 655,000-square-footbuilding wrapping a third-floorsquare courtyard. At the time, construction was projected to beginin early 2013 and be complete bymid-2014.

■ Sept. 25: The Weiss family, including Zev Weiss, CEO, and Jeffrey Weiss, president and chief operating officer, reveals in a letterto the American Greetings boardthat they want to buy all of the company’s outstanding shares thatthey don’t already own at $17.18apiece and take the company pri-vate.

■ Oct. 22: The board of Ameri-can Greetings forms a special committee of independent directorsto consider, among other things,the go-private proposal by theWeiss family and related parties.

■ Nov. 28: American Greetingsannounces that it is delaying itsheadquarters project at CrockerPark in Westlake in light of the proposed go-private offer from theWeiss family. The company reas-sured in a news release that it stillintends to develop its new worldheadquarters at the site and saidthe delay will be short and have nomaterial adverse impact on thecompany.

American Greetings noted inpublic filings that it expects to notrecoup millions of dollars in unse-cured accounts receivables basedon information about ClintonCards’ ongoing administration, aprocedure similar to Chapter 11bankruptcy.

What he said■ May 21, prepared statement

after the company unveiled plansfor a new Westlake headquarters(the project later was delayed):“Crocker Park is a vibrant retail center, with a variety of stores instep with the latest trends and appealing to a wide range of con-sumers. This will create an energyand synergy that will inspire ourability to create products that meetthe needs of our consumers and retailers.”

■ Sept. 25, go-private offer tothe American Greetings board ofdirectors, written along with hisbrother, Jeffrey Weiss, the company’spresident and chief operating officer: “Since its founding over acentury ago, the descendants of Jacob Sapirstein, and now the Weissfamily, have guided AmericanGreetings, including after it becamea publicly traded company in 1958.After careful consideration, we have concluded that the bestcourse of action is for AmericanGreetings to return to its roots. ...We believe that $17.18 per share is a compelling price and thatAmerican Greetings public share-holders will find this proposal attractive.”

What others are saying■ Scott Fine, professor of

banking and finance, Case WesternReserve University WeatherheadSchool of Management: “It takescourage for the Weiss family, whichdoesn’t need to do this, to put theirmoney where their mouth is. Theyare not only continuing to own thecompany, they’re adding all this financial risk. There’s going to be aboatload of debt.”

TERRYSTEWARTRock and Roll Hall ofFame and Museum

By TIMOTHY [email protected]

Terry Stewart might notdominate a stage like BruceSpringsteen or walk withMick Jagger’s swagger, but

the departing CEO of the Rock andRoll Hall of Fame & Museum knowsrock music.

Perhaps moreimportantly, heknows how torun a museum— as he’s donesince 1999 —that pays homageto the celebratedart form. And2012 was a banner

year for the Rock Hall, and much ofthe success could be chalked up toMr. Stewart’s leadership.

In 2012, the Rock Hall unveiled$6.9 million worth of enhancements,which were the most dramatic upgrades since the museumopened along Cleveland’s lakefrontin 1995. Among the many upgradeswere improved way-findingthroughout the exhibits and newinteractive displays.

The upgrades were completedjust in time for the 2012 inductionceremonies, which were held inCleveland’s Public Hall andbrought star power of the likes ofRed Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N’Roses, Donovan and others toCleveland. Since 2009, the inductionshave been shared between NewYork City and Cleveland, withCleveland hosting the festivitiesevery three years.

Moreover, under Mr. Stewart’swatch, the Rock Hall achieved consistent profitability and closed a$35 million capital campaign,which allowed for the museum’srenovations and the establishmentof its new library and archives,which also opened this year.

Mr. Stewart’s legacy likely will befelt at the Rock Hall for years tocome, as he courted his successor,Greg Harris, to the museum as vicepresident of development and government relations after the latter had served 10 years with theNational Baseball Hall of Fame.Mr. Harris made a point during hisintroduction to say he would carryon Mr. Stewart’s work with thestaff he had built during his tenure.

Mr. Stewart, who prior to runningthe museum was a top executive at Marvel Entertainment Group,hasn’t been explicit about hisplans beyond life at the Rock Hall.He hinted in an interview withCrain’s after he announced his re-tirement that he may write a book.

Others in the community havesuggested he and his massiverecord collection may be involvedin a new music club on WaterlooRoad in Cleveland’s Collinwoodneighborhood as part of localrestaurateur Alan Glazen’s plans to transform the entertainmentdistrict into an indie-rock mecca ofsorts.

What he said ■ In an interview with Crain’s

upon his May 11 announcementhe would be step down from hisduties at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum: “The Cleve-land we came to and have lived infor 14 years is going to be differentthan the Cleveland coming next.We’re in the middle of this greatrenaissance. We’re thankful tohave been here, live here and beable to see the next stage as it involves.”

What others are saying ■■ Frank Jackson, mayor of the

city of Cleveland: “He was verygood for the museum itself andvery good for the city as a whole.Plus, he knows it. He’s a walkingencyclopedia for rock and roll. Hehas a passion for it, and he canbreak it down so people can understand it.”

■■ Cindy Barber, co-owner ofthe Beachland Ballroom: “What-ever comes next for Terry, it will besignificant for Cleveland and themusic scene in general. He lovesmusic and goes to a lot of shows. Alot of people appreciate his honestlove of music and look forward towhat Terry gets himself involved innext.”

TRACKING STEWART’S 2012

■ Jan. 17: The Rock Hall’slibrary and archives is opened to thepublic. The archives, which are locatedat Cuyahoga Community Col-lege's Metropolitan Campus,house more than 200 collections, including the personal papers of performers, journalists, critics, histo-rians and more.

■ April 4: The Rock Hall unveiledits “walk of fame” — a series ofplaques embedded in the sidewalkthroughout the city that showcasesthe names of Rock Hall inductees.

■ April 14: The Rock and RollHall of Fame holds its 27th inductionceremony at Cleveland PublicHall. Inductees included the RedHot Chili Peppers, the BeastieBoys, Guns N’ Roses, Faces,Donovan and others.

■ May 11: Terry Stewartannounces he would retire from hisrole at the Rock Hall, noting in an interview that he was “retiring fromthe Rock Hall — not retiring fromwork or life.” He joined the Rock Hallin 1999.

■ Dec 3: The Rock Hall intro-duced Greg Harris, the organiza-tion’s current vice president of development and government relations, as its next president andCEO. Mr. Stewart courted Mr. Harristo join the Rock Hall staff after thelatter had served 10 years with theNational Baseball Hall of Fame. Herebuffed the initial offer, but Mr.Stewart came calling a few years later, and Mr. Harris ultimately decided to move to Cleveland in2008.



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Charities: Uncertainty surrounding tax deduction may spur giving advisers and one on Dec. 5 forroughly 50 donors.

Standing at the front of the roomduring both presentations was SteveGariepy, who co-chairs the estateplanning group at Hahn Loeser &Parks LLP, a Cleveland-based law firm.

Mr. Gariepy said a majority of hisclients are exploring options for accelerating into 2012 the charitablegiving they might do in future years.One client who normally gives$100,000 is doing five times thatamount this year to take advantageof the tax climate he knows exists today, Mr. Gariepy said.

“That’s a way of taking advantageof the certainty of the 2012 deduc-tion versus taking the risk of a limited2013, 2014 deduction,” he said.“There are changes in the offing thatcould impact and reduce the taxbenefit of making large charitablegifts next year.”

Stuck in neutralWhile Mr. Gariepy’s clients either

are continuing to give as they usuallyhave or are giving more, other advis-ers say they see donors at a standstill.

“A lot of clients are kind of ham-strung,” said Jess Hurst, presidentand partner at the Millennial Group,an Akron wealth advisory firm. “Anumber of them have delayed or notgiven when they normally wouldhave just because they don’t knowwhat to do at this point in time.”

The wait-and-see attitude couldn’tcome at a worse time, said Mr. Hurst,who also sits on the board of twoAkron nonprofits, OPEN M, a faith-based ministry that delivers foodand health care through free clinicsto the needy, and Weathervane Play-house.

“We’ve kind of got a perfect stormout there from a charitable stand-point,” he said. “Our clients who aredonors to charities are sitting outthere with a lot of uncertainty, whichleads to inaction, and you’ve gotcharities who are trying to supportand help people in need who havesubstantial needs at this time of year.The combination of those two hascreated a really bad scenario forsome nonprofits in the area.”

‘A higher element of crazy’Many donors deciding to give

more this year to dodge the uncer-tainty of next year are doing itthrough donor-advised funds, Mr.Gariepy said. Donors who set up suchfunds take the charitable deductionthis year, but distribute their fundsin amounts they choose to charitiesthey choose into the future.

True to the trend Mr. Gariepy describes, interest in such funds isup at two local organizations thatadminister them.

Since the November election, theCleveland Foundation is fielding agreater number of calls from advisersand donors asking about openingnew donor-advised funds or addingmoney to existing ones, said Kaye Ridolfi, the foundation’s senior vicepresident for advancement.

Ms. Ridolfi said she isn’t aware ofa lot of people giving way more orway less, but she does hear them debating their timing.

“The question is, should I do it inDecember, or should I wait untilnext year?” she said.

The American Endowment Foun-dation, a Hudson public charity thatadministers donor-advised funds totaling about $275 million forroughly 1,600 families nationwide, as

continued from PAGE 1 of mid-December had seen thenumber of new accounts year-to-date rise at least 40% from the likeperiod last year, estimated LauraMalone, director of gift planning.

“December’s always crazy for usanyway,” Ms. Malone said. “I thinkthere is going to be a higher elementof crazy. We’re still getting callsnow with families that are trying todo stuff with illiquid assets. Thoseassets are not that easy to transferto a donor-advised fund.

“(Donors) feel pressure to act,”she added. “They feel they have to do something, but they’re not really sure what the true result isgoing to be if they don’t do anything.”

Certified financial planner Mr.Hurst anticipates a flurry of giving

in the last week of the year if Con-gress takes action that provides aclear tax liability picture.

Gifts with benefitsWhile tax breaks are not the only

reason people give to philanthropy,Ms. Malone noted they are “oftenthe icing on the cake.” Without theincentive to give, charities fear peo-ple will give less.

“Some people — not all people— do take into account the tax benefits of the gift, and the larger thetax benefit, the more they will give,”Mr. Gariepy said. “What you see onthe horizon is that if larger gifts areno longer fully deductible, peoplewill take that into considerationand perhaps give less.”

A query to various charitiesaround town reveals that some —the Cleveland Foodbank, for one —are on pace to raise this year aboutwhat they did last year from indi-vidual donors. Others, however,have raised more money. Amongthem are College Now GreaterCleveland and the Cleveland Clinic,which reported that its year-to-datedonations as of mid-Decemberwere up in the range of 12% to 15%from the like period in 2011.

Nelson Wittenmyer, vice chairmanof the Clinic’s Philanthropy Insti-tute, isn’t convinced the increasehas much, if anything, to do withtax uncertainty. When it comes tomedical charitable causes, tax ben-efits are less of a motivator for

donors, who often give out of intensegratitude for medical care they orsomeone they know received, he said.

Year-to-date giving for the Cleve-land Foundation was up throughDec. 12 over the like period in 2011,though Ms. Ridolfi said she couldn’tdisclose how much until the foun-dation’s year-end close.

Like many in the nonprofit sector, Ms. Ridolfi said she hopeslawmakers will leave the charitablededuction as is.

“The charitable deduction is important to how we will do busi-ness in the future,” Ms. Ridolfi said.As government support to manypeople decreases, she said, “I thinkthe need for services that nonprof-its provide will only increase.” ■


“This acquisition was all aboutgrowth … and getting to big cus-tomers faster,” she said.

Revenue from GE Lighting’s LEDbusiness already is growing about50% to 70% annually, Ms. Sylvestersaid. Today it accounts for about25% of GE Lighting’s sales, up from15% a year ago, she said. That figureshould jump to 35% next year, sheadded. The unit does not release itssales figures.

A switch at the switchToday, most of GE Lighting’s

LED sales come from products used

to light streets, parking lots and retailstores. Although the company offersLED bulbs to replace the incandes-cent bulbs most people use in theirhomes, they have yet to be widelyadopted because of what Ms.Sylvester described as “a price pointchallenge.” Even though the LEDbulbs use less electricity and are expected to come down in price, theyremain many times more expensivethan incandescents.

The popularity of commercialand industrial LED lighting prod-ucts has slowed sales growth relatedto GE Lighting’s fluorescent andhigh-intensity discharge lighting

products, Ms. Sylvester said. Salesof those products soon should startto shrink as LEDs replace them, shenoted.

“The market’s moving veryquickly,” she said.

Between 60% and 70% of GELighting’s product developmentbudget goes toward LED products,up from about 20% four years ago,said Steve Briggs, general managerof global product management forGE Lighting. The overall size of thebudget has grown, too. The companyhas added about 200 people to itsglobal engineering team since 2009,through internal growth and acqui-


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North Olmsted a year ago.The office buildings on and near

Rockside languished as the real es-tate boom of early last decade wentbust and the 2008 Great Recessionhit home. The last prospective dealfor the buildings on Rockside fellthrough in 2007 and Duke called a timeout on the sales effort in 2008when a different buyer lost its financing.

However, in recent months, multiple prospective buyers havereviewed the properties, insiders say.

Originally, Duke sought to rede-ploy capital to areas with strongereconomies and higher rents. How-ever, as the real estate credit crunchtook hold and leverage became a

dirty word to stock analysts and investors, the real estate investmenttrust began selling properties to reduce leverage and consolidateinto core markets.

Today, Duke is pursuing a goal ofreducing its suburban office hold-ings to 25% of its portfolio from thecurrent 30% and concentrating onindustrial and medical office build-ings and build-to-suit opportunities.In a Nov. 1 conference call with investors, Duke executives suggestedthey would conclude a major prop-erty sale by the end of this year.

A bit of foreshadowingAccording to a Seeking Alpha

transcript of the conference call,Dennis Oklak, Duke chairman and

CEO, said disposition activity hadbeen relatively slow the first ninemonths of the year, but that “youwill see overall disposition activitypick up by the end of the year.”

Last December, Duke sold toBlackstone Real Estate Partners, anaffiliate of the Blackstone Groupprivate equity firm in New York, 79suburban office buildings — ornearly 10 million square feet of officespace — for $1 billion.

Tom West, director of office services at the Cresco real estatebrokerage in Independence, saidhigh vacancy in the 20% range hascontinued in the Rockside Road office corridor, but the Duke prop-erties gained traction this past year.For example, Duke in October filled

most of an empty building on RockRun in Seven Hills with a 50,000-square-foot lease to CambridgeGroup, a unit of Sedgwick ClaimsManagement Services.

No information on the pricing ofthe Rockside Road properties wasavailable. However, Ryan Moore,an office investment sales specialistat the Independence office of theMarcus & Millichap Investmentsbrokerage, said the portfolio is likelyto be sold at a discounted price.

Word of a looming sale comes asa bit of a surprise. In what appearedto be a sign it would remain in themarket longer, Duke shifted theleasing and property managementassignment for the portfolio toJones Lang LaSalle’s Cleveland office

from CBRE Group.Tom Fox, a Jones Lang senior

vice president who heads its Cleve-land agency business, and DavidBrowning, managing director ofCBRE’s Cleveland office, both de-clined comment on Duke’s potentialsale of the properties.

Jim Clark, a Columbus-basedDuke senior vice president whooversees Cleveland operations, declined comment. In an email, Mr.Clark said, “As a publicly held com-pany, Duke Realty cannot discussany development, leases, acquisi-tions, or dispositions that may ormay not be pending.”

Och-Ziff did not return twophone calls and an email by Crain’sdeadline last Friday, Dec. 14. ■

Duke: Firm stems vacancy tide at Rockside properties continued from PAGE 1


Lighting: LED demand growing globally sition, according to a companyspokesman. Of the 700 people whowork at Nela Park, about 100 are engineers.

“We’ve practically doubled thesize of our engineering team,” Mr.Briggs said.

World of growthDemand for LEDs is on the rise,

especially among industrial cus-tomers, said Vrinda Bhandarkar, director of research related to LEDsat Strategies Unlimited, a marketingresearch and consulting firm inMountain View, Calif.

Worldwide sales of LED lightingproducts are expected to hit $12.3billion for 2012, up 26% from $9.8billion in 2011, according to Ms.Bhandarkar’s research. By her fig-

ures, the 2012 sales total would morethan double the $5.5 billion sold in2010.

In the industrial market, sales ofLED lighting products grew by 17%worldwide in 2012 versus 2011, butthe market climbed by 70% in NorthAmerica, she said. Demand hasbeen driven partly by incentivesthat utilities in some regions are giving to encourage companies touse less energy, Ms. Bhandarkar said.

“It’s really taking off,” she said.Ms. Bhandarkar added that GE

Lighting found a solid company inAlbeo, which has 65 employees andalso makes LED fixtures for non-industrial businesses.

“They have been really good atproducing quality products,” shesaid. ■


Mr. Egre engineers a Grammy nomination■ What do Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swiftand Bruce Egre — a music instructor at CaseWestern Reserve University and the Cleve-land Institute of Music — have in common?

Grammy nominations.After 25 years working as an audio engi-

neer, Mr. Egre last week learned he earned a Grammy nod for the best engineered classical album for his work on the Brentano

String Quartet’s Beethoven: TheLate String Quartets, Op. 127 &

131.The work also is featuredin the film “A Late Quar-tet,” starring Christo-pher Walken andPhilip Seymour Hoff-man.“My wife was in an-

other room and the iPadwas sitting next to her,and all of a sudden she

says, ‘Why are all these people sending youmessages saying congratulations?’ I had noidea what she was talking about,” Mr. Egresaid in The Daily, a Case Western ReserveUniversity newsletter. “Then it hit me whathappened.”

Northeast Ohio’s own Black Keys scoredfive Grammy nominations for their work on “El Camino,” the duo’s seventh studio album. The LP is up for album of the year and best rock album, while their song“Lonely Boy” is nominated for record of the year, best rock performance and best

rock song.Grammy winners will be announced Feb.

10. — Timothy Magaw

The price isn’t right, and probably won’t be■ ’Tis the season for holiday sales, and one prominent industry in Northeast Ohiostill is struggling to tackle the ever-presentdilemma of maintaining price integrity.

After I wrote a story in the Dec. 10 editionof Crain’s on issues facing golf course owners — including declines in per-roundrevenues due constant discounting ofgreens fees — Jonathan Palmer of MallardCreek Golf Club in Columbia Station calledto offer his easy solution: Stop discounting.

“Discounting rates and selling to thirdparties is the death of public golf. It trainsyour customer to look for the lowest rate,”Mr. Palmer said of sites through which clubowners can sell off-peak tee times for sub-stantially less than normal.

(You can read all of Mr. Palmer’s com-ments on a subsequent Crain’s SportsBizblog at http://tinyurl.com/bpr2cjt.)

But Chuck Bennell, president of TamO’Shanter Golf Course in Canton, said discounting isn’t going anywhere.

“Discounting is always a contentious issue, but it’s part of the marketing mix forall sorts of businesses,” Mr. Bennell saidwhen told of Mr. Palmer’s comments.“Everyone wants ‘the other guys’ to stop dis-counting so ‘we’ are not forced to discount.”— Joel Hammond

A favorable wind blows WIRE-Net’s way■ There was a fair amount of credit givenlast week to Lake Erie Energy DevelopmentCo. when it secured about $4 million in federal money to develop a wind energyfarm off the Lake Erie shoreline. But theWest Side manufacturing advocacy groupWIRE-Net had a pretty good week on the alternative energy front, too.

WIRE-Net, which is also the parent of theGLWN wind energy supply chain network,got word that it was one of seven entities nationwide tapped by the U.S. Departmentof Energy to help spur domestic manufac-turing’s role in the offshore wind energybusiness. WIRE-Net said it expects to receivebetween $250,000 and $350,000 from theEnergy Department to help fulfill that role,with the exact amount to be decided as thescope of the project is determined.

WIRE-Net will work with entities in theU.S. Manufacturing Extension Partnership,including the Cleveland-based manufacturingsupport organization Magnet, and othersacross the country to identify manufacturersand service providers that can supply theoffshore wind energy sector.

WIRE-Net and the six other organizationsselected by the Energy Department willcompete next year as the government whit-tles the number of organizations working onthe effort to three, said WIRE-Net presidentJohn Colm.

“We’ve made the first round of the play-offs,” Mr. Colm said. — Dan Shingler

WHAT’S NEW

Beyond the coasts■ John Dearborn, president of JumpStartInc., used a Huffington Post column to talkup the Midwest as an emerging “entrepre-neurial hotspot.”

This fall, he noted, “entrepreneurs andinvestors from all over the country” gatheredin downtown Cleveland for theNational Association of Seedand Venture Funds annualconference, during whichAOL founder and StartupAmerica chairman Steve Casesaid a “broader entrepreneurialecosystem” with many hubs of innovation is possible.

The Midwest, Mr. Dearborn wrote, “isworking hard to make Case’s vision a realitysooner rather than later.” He noted that arecent JumpStart entrepreneur expo “drew117 startups and more than 1,000 people toan afternoon-long showcase of transforma-tive technologies.”

Several trends have emerged to explainwhy entrepreneurship is “no longer solelythe domain of the coasts,” Mr. Dearbornwrote. Among them:

■ Communities are developing their ownhomegrown resources. With cheap rentand plentiful real estate, the Midwest “is agood place to form an accelerator or an incubator,” he wrote.

■ There’s a growing angel influence. InOhio especially, “angel funds continue to bea major force: Two of the biggest angelfunds in the U.S. (as measured by membersize), Ohio TechAngel Funds and NorthCoast Angel Fund, are located there.”

■ Venture capitalists are entertainingdeals that aren’t on the coasts. For in-stance, from 2007 to 2011, 67% of the nearly$1 billion raised by Northeast Ohio startups

The maker of performance exhaust sys-tems for motorcycles, ATVs and cars saysthe Road Legends Phantom Pipe II “providesa truly unprecedented look with a neighbor-hood-friendly sound.”

It’s an updated version of the original Phan-tom Pipe for Softails and the Baffled FLHPhantom Pipe, and it comes at a substantialprice: MSRP $1,390.

The Phantom Pipe II is available in a baf-fled, black ceramic version, and it includes a2-inch removable and rebuildable core “that’stough sounding and even better performing,”SuperTrapp says.

A four-piece, stylized chrome-plated heatshield comes pre-installed, and a turned-upclaw end tip “features a domino dot-engraveddecorative billet end cap that makes a boldstatement without the drag pipe sound ar-rival,” according to the company.

The Phantom Pipe II features a 2-inch pri-mary pipe and a 3.5-inch diameter collector.It’s designed by well-known bike builder PaulYaffe.

For information, visit www.SuperTrapp.com.

Send information about new products to managing editor Scott Suttell at [email protected].

REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOKBEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS

THEINSIDER

THEWEEK DECEMBER 10 - 16

The big story: Cuyahoga County ExecutiveEd FitzGerald recommended to County Councilthat the county sell for $27 million the Amer-itrust complex in downtown Cleveland to devel-oper Geis Cos., which in turn would build aneight-story county administration building at thecorner of East Ninth Street and Prospect Avenue.In total, Geis is proposing an investment of $180million in the complex, which would includehigh-end apartments in the vacant AmeritrustTower. The former county commissionersbought it in 2005, spending $40 million on thepurchase and environmental cleanup of the former bank buildings. (See story, Page One.)

Campaign money: University Hospitals secured a $32.5 million gift from the RainbowBabies & Children’s Foundation, which has allowed the health system to reach its $1 billionfundraising goal a year earlier than expected. Asa result, University Hospitals is raising the goalof its “Discover the Difference” fundraisingcampaign to $1.5 billion. The gift from the Rain-bow Foundation, an independent organizationformed in 1887 as an advocate for UH RainbowBabies & Children’s Hospital, was made in honorof the children’s hospital’s 125th anniversary.

A different route: The Ohio Turnpike willnot be privatized, but it will become the vehiclefor raising at least $1 billion for highway im-

provements, largely in northernOhio. The money will comefrom existing turnpike toll revenue, which is sufficient tocover existing turnpike debtand new debt of at least $1 bil-lion. Gov. John Kasich said thisnew financing arrangementwill allow projects such as theCleveland Inner Belt and therevamping of Cleveland’s West

Shoreway to move ahead at a faster pace. Thatmeans the second Innerbelt Bridge might openbefore 2016.

Bidding starts at …: The Cleveland Metro-politan School District plans to auction off itsheadquarters building at 1380 E. Sixth St. The“open outcry” auction is set for noon on March7, 2013, at the Sheraton Cleveland Airport Hotel.The building sits across the street from the newCleveland convention center rising on the city’sMall, and has been viewed as a potential site ofa hotel, apartments or a mixed-use property.

Breaking the ice: The Lake Erie Energy De-velopment Corp., a nonprofit helping organizethe project, won a $4 million federal grant thatwill be used to pay engineering, site design andother costs the project’s developers will incurprior to construction. LEEDCo’s private partnerscommitted another $1 million to the project aswell. Winning this grant will give LEEDCo thechance to compete for as much as $46.7 millionmore in financing that could be used to pay forconstruction of the “Icebreaker” project, whichwill consist of five to nine wind turbines locatedseven miles off the coast of Cleveland.

On the move: Architecture firm Westlake ReedLeskosky architecture firm announced plans tomove to the Hanna Building, 1422 Euclid Ave. indowntown Cleveland, from its current offices at925 Euclid, better known as the former Hunting-ton Building. The architectural and engineeringfirm said it will occupy the third floor of the Hanna, which is owned by the real estate affiliateof the PlayhouseSquare Foundation. … WillisNorth America, a unit of insurance broker WillisGroup Holdings, is relocating its Cleveland office to 1001 Lakeside Ave., Suite 1600, from 200Public Square. Willis said the move is part of itsstrategy “to continue to elevate its presence inthe state and drive growth in this key market.”


BEST OF THE BLOGSExcerpts from recent blog entries onCrainsCleveland.com.

came from investors based outside of Ohio.

Chronicling presidents’ pay■ The Chronicle of Higher Education did theheavy lifting of compiling compensationdata for nearly 500 presidents of private,nonprofit colleges in the United States, andthe numbers, as you’d expect, are eye-catching.

In 2010, the most recent year available,the best-paid president was

Bob Kerry of The New Schoolin New York City, with total

compensation of $3.05 million.His base pay, though, was a relatively modest $602,539.The data included 24 presidents

of private colleges in Ohio. Topsin pay among those leaders was

Barbara Snyder of Case Western ReserveUniversity, with total compensation in 2010 of just over $730,000. That ranked 68th

nationwide among the private school pres-idents.

Marvin Krislov, president of Oberlin College, was No. 6 in Ohio, with total com-pensation of $462,058 in 2010. That put himat No. 192 nationwide. No. 15 in Ohio wasRichard Durst of Baldwin Wallace University,at $330,441.

One is too many■ Unfortunately, the city of Cleveland landedon a list from TheAtlanticCities.com of citieswith the highest rates of gun-related deaths.

Cleveland was ninth on the list, with 25.2gun deaths per 100,000 residents in 2011.New Orleans was the worst, at 69.1 gun deathsper 100,000 people, followed by Detroit, at41.4.

For the entire Cleveland metro area, therate was 10.9 guns deaths per 100,000 resi-dents. That was the lowest metro rate for the10 cities on the list.

THE COMPANY: SuperTrapp Indus-tries Inc., ClevelandTHE PRODUCT: Road LegendsPhantom Pipe II

Kasich


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