20150112-NEWS--19-NAT-CCI-CL_--
1/9/2015
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JANUARY 12 - 18, 2015
THE WEEK JANUARY 4 - 11 The big story: United States Steel is laying off 614 workers as it idles its Lorain mill for an undetermined period beginning the first week of March. The company said a downturn in one of its major markets is causing the shutdown. “This temporary idling is a result of the softening in the energy market,” said U.S. Steel spokeswoman Sarah Cassella. See related story, Page One.
Betting on downtown: Columbus-based Woda Group likes downtown Cleveland so much that it acquired a five-story building near Cleveland State University with plans to convert it to 40 apartments in an estimated $14 million project. Through an affiliate called Prospect Yard LLC, Woda paid $775,000 for the former City Blue Building at 1937 Prospect Ave. Woda bought the building from an affiliate of Cleveland-based USA Parking LLC, which paid $250,000 for it in June 2011. Woda is seeking the historic designation to receive federal historic tax credits and to pursue fiercely contested Ohio State Historic Preservation Tax Credits.
Early departure: DDR Corp. of Beachwood said its CEO, Daniel B. Hurwitz, stepped down from that job and as a director of the company, effective Dec. 31, 2014. In September, DDR said Hurwitz and directors of the shopping centerfocused real estate investment trust agreed not to renew his employment agreement, which was to expire Dec. 31, 2015. At the time, DDR said, “it is anticipated” that Hurwitz, who was 50 at the time of the announcement, would remain CEO through 2015. With Hurwitz’s departure, David J. Oakes, DDR’s president and chief financial officer, became the company’s “principal executive officer.” In addition to his bonus for 2014, Hurwitz will be entitled to receive cash and non-cash stock compensation of about $9.8 million.
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
Quite a deal:
Menards, the large-format home improvement retailer, planted its flag in the Cleveland inner-ring suburb of Brooklyn by buying a former Super Kmart Center at 7700 Brookpark Road. However, it so far has no announced timetable for when a store will follow its investment. Land records show Menard Inc. paid Kmart Corp. $10.4 million for the property. Eau Clair, Wis.-based Menard got a bluelight special on the empty building, as Cuyahoga County assigns the building and land a $15 million market value for property tax purposes.
New in town: A New Zealand-based company is the new owner of Quail Hollow Resort in Concord in Lake County. Pandey Hotel Corp., the Aurora, Colo.-based U.S. unit of Pandey Hotels, through GP Hotel Ohio LLC paid $6.75 million for the 176-room hotel. The purchase is Pandey’s first Ohio property. The seller was Quail Hollow Holdings LLC, which has owned the resort and conference center since 2008 when San Francisco-based Interwest Capital Corp. purchased a distressed mortgage and obtained control of the property for an undisclosed amount.
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REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS
Tech that happens in Vegas comes to your home soon
smart phone, your computer and even your front door (if you have a fancy one that can communicate via Bluetooth Low Energy). Carbon Origins started as an aerospace company but now is trying to commercialize a computer chip that’s jam-packed with sensors for recording data. — Chuck Soder
Local tech companies unveiled some pretty cool products at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. My favorite: A patch that can monitor a child’s temperature. Of course, you can’t buy it yet. Blue Spark Technologies of Westlake can’t start selling the TempTraq patch until it gets approval from federal regulators. But if the device works well, I imagine it’ll sell. Would you rather stick a thermometer up a baby’s butt or stick a patch under a baby’s armpit? And that patch can monitor the baby’s temperature continuously and send it to your smart phone, via Bluetooth. The patch is powered by a thin, flexible battery developed by Blue Spark. ■ If I was a kid, I might also like the new Boogie Board Play n’ Trace Paperless Doodle Pad developed by Kent Displays. It’s a colorful, see-through version of the original Boogie Board — which works like an electronic white board that lets you erase what you’ve written with the press of a button. And the Play n’ Trace is shaped like an artist’s palette. But it’s not for sale yet either: It’ll be available for the 2015 holiday season, and it’ll cost $30. ■ Waxman Industries of Bedford Heights unveiled a product that Clevelanders might’ve been able to use when temperatures dropped last week: It’s sensor that can shut off the water to a home when pipes are about to freeze, or when there’s a water leak. You place the leakSMART sensors near appliances and plumbing fixtures that could leak or freeze. If they detect water or if the temperature falls too low, they can remotely trigger the system’s water shut-off valve.
■ Wireless connectively seems to be a theme: A mobile app developed for MTD Products, the lawn mower company in Valley City, was named a finalist at the Bluetooth Breakthrough Awards during the show. Owners of the new Cub Cadet XT Enduro series lawn tractors can use the new Cub Connect app to monitor when they need to change the oil, the blade or conduct other maintenance. And they can watch video instructions and order new parts through the app, which was developed by a Cleveland marketing company called Recess Creative. ■ And that’s not all. A fleet of nine companies with ties to Case Western Reserve University made the trip out to Vegas. Two of them, Everykey and Carbon Origins, presented at a pitch competition hosted by ShowStoppers, a tech-focused event management company based in Solon. Everykey recently raised $117,000 through Kickstarter, the crowdfunding website. The money will help the company commercialize a wristband that can unlock your
WHAT’S NEW
BEST OF THE BLOGS
Diebold has the touch for a germ-free ATM
The leakSMART sensors made by Waxman Industries of Bedford Heights can shut off the water in a home before pipes freeze.
Excerpts from recent blog entries on CrainsCleveland.com.
Heart of the matter: Cleveland Clinic named Dr. Lars Svensson, a 14-year veteran of the health system, as the new head of its worldrenowned heart and vascular program. Svensson takes over as chairman of the Clinic’s Heart & Vascular Institute for Dr. Bruce Lytle, who had served in the role since the institute launched in 2007. The Clinic announced in August that Lytle would step down once his successor was named. Previously, Svensson served as director of the Aorta Center, director of the Marfan Syndrome and Connective Tissue Disorder Clinic and director of quality and process improvement in the department of thoracic cardiovascular surgery.
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Sign of the times
COMPANY: Blue Spark Technologies, Westlake PRODUCT: TempTraq Blue Spark, a developer of thin, flexible products for printed electronic systems, describes TempTraq as a “wearable, intelligent Bluetooth thermometer in the form of a soft patch” that monitors body temperature around the clock. It made its debut at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. TempTraq is powered by Blue Spark’s patented, printed flexible battery and includes a free downloadable Apple or Android app. “TempTraq allows parents to keep a close watch on their child’s temperature without having to continually disturb them,” says John Gannon, president and CEO of Blue Spark. Users press the “start” button to activate the thermometer and connect it to the app via a provided code. As long as the caregiver is within range of the thermometer, they can review data and receive alerts, up to 40 feet away. They then can apply the thin, flexible patch thermometer to the underarm of the child, similar to an adhesive bandage, the company says. TempTraq measures temperatures between 86.0°F and 108.3°F. The app displays both real time and historical temperature data transmitted from the patch in graphical or tabular view, making it possible for caregivers to see fluctuations. For information, visit www.TempTraq.com.
The New York Times’ comprehensive review of the year in theater included a look at the best theater posters of 2014, and the Cleveland Play House earned a spot on the list. Great theater posters, wrote The Times’ Erik Piepenburg, “sell by design. Whether it’s the sexed-up photograph of Neil Patrick Harris on Broadway or the pared-down treatment of a domestic drama in a regional theater, the best posters convey the conceptual complexities of the plays they serve.” Among his six choices was the poster for “Yentl,” staged in early 2014 at the Play House. Here’s how Michelle Berki, the company’s graphic designer, described the poster: “The gender identity crisis that Yentl has is central to the play. One of the defining moments is where she cuts off her braids and decides to live as a man, so we focused on that. “We wanted to show both the male and female sides within one person. That’s where the braid and payos in one hat came from. It went well with the composition to have the hat anchor the braid and the payos. A yarmulke wouldn’t have done it as well.”
Up, up and away Gizmodo.com picked its most interesting 2014 stories about cities, buildings and infrastructure, one of which recounted an infamous moment in recent Cleveland history. “In 1986, a mass balloon release in Cleveland went really, really wrong, when 1.5 mil-
ATMs are becoming more futuristic as banks themselves evolve in the modern world. JPMorgan Chase Bank, for example, has announced efforts to develop its first palmscanning machine that would eliminate the need for bank cards and PIN numbers. But one new ATM technology has been pioneered in Northeast Ohio by North Canton-based Diebold Inc., a designer and manufacturer of ATMs that has partnered with Corning Inc. to create germ-free, touch-screen glass for a line of its machines. The Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass is embedded with ionic silver, an agent that inhibits the growth of algae, mold, mildew, fungi and bacteria. A prototype featuring the apparently sterile glass debuted at last week’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “Touch screens are found on a growing number of ATMs today. Offering antimicrobial glass on frequently touched surfaces such as the ATM touchscreen will help financial institutions address the concerns of the public,” said Frank Natoli Jr., Diebold’s executive vice president and chief innovation officer. The glass is being offered as an option on certain new ATM series and as a retrofit on others — at least until mind-reading machines become the new norm. — Jeremy Nobile
lion helium-filled floaters were let loose into the sky, got caught in a storm, drifted down to earth, and caused a hell of a lot of problems,” according to Gizmodo.com. Balloonfest ‘86 “was a fundraising effort organized by the United Way, an attempt to break the world record for biggest simultaneous launch,” the website said. (Disneyland’s 30th birthday, the year before in Anaheim, was the previous champion.) “For a while, it was an incredible display,” Gizmodo.com wrote. “Photographer Thom Sheridan captured the surreal event on film, and the images are unbelievable — somehow equal parts genuinely heart-lifting expression of wonder, horror-film urban infestation, and terrifying unidentifiable civic explosion. But then, things changed. “The ‘asteroid field’ of airborne debris clouded the sky, shut down a runway at a local airport, interrupted Coast Guard attempts to rescue a pair of fisherman, spooked some prize-winning horses and generally made a mess of … garbage on land.”
The rent is too damn high America’s 41 million renter households spent $441 billion on rent in 2014, up 4.9% from 2013 due to the combination of rising rents and a growing renter population, according to data compiled by Zillow.com. In Cleveland last year, 288,000 renter households spend $2.381 billion on rent this year, an increase of about 5.1% from last year, Zillow.com estimated. The website said America’s rental expenditures are “roughly similar in size to the total economic output of North Carolina and about double what Americans spent on new cars.”