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3/23/2012
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MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2012
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
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THEINSIDER
THEWEEK MARCH 19 - 25 The big story: Williams Partners L.P. agreed to acquire the Caiman Eastern Midstream subsidiary of Caiman Energy for about $2.5 billion. The planned acquisition will provide Williams Partners with what it called “a significant footprint and growth potential in the natural gas liquids-rich portion of the Marcellus Shale.” Caiman Eastern Midstream is an independent gathering and processing business located in northern West Virginia, southwestern Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Sweet music to Tri-C’s ears: Tommy LiPuma, a Cleveland native and music industry veteran, donated $3 million to Cuyahoga Community College — the largest private gift in the school’s history. With the gift, the Tri-C Foundation — the fundraising arm of the college — will establish an endowment for equipment, music programs and scholarships. Mr. LiPuma, who has worked with musicians such as Barbra Streisand and Paul McCartney, also plans to mentor students and foster collaborations between Tri-C and others in the music industry. Shuffle complete: Cleveland Clinic officials appointed Dr. Mark Froimson, a 14-year veteran of the health system, as president of Euclid Hospital. Dr. Froimson, who starts in his new role May 1, most recently served as vice chairman of the Clinic’s Orthopaedic and Rheumatologic Institute. He replaces Rich Lea, the hospital’s interim president since January, when Joanne Zeroske left her role as Euclid’s chief executive to Froimson take over as president at Marymount Hospital in Garfield Heights. Mr. Lea will return to his former role as Euclid Hospital’s vice president of operations.
Get ready to shop: Making it official, First Interstate Properties said it inked an agreement for a Walmart Supercenter at its proposed Oakwood Commons shopping center in South Euclid. The center would cost $25 million to develop and is expected to open in the summer of 2013. Oakwood Commons would go on 63 acres of the former Oakwood Country Club property. Answering the bell: Bellwether Real Estate Capital LLC of Cleveland plans to merge with a unit of Columbia, Md.-based Enterprise Community Investment Inc., which was founded by the late James Rouse, a famed mall and housing developer. Enterprise’s multifamily mortgage finance business and the Cleveland mortgage firm will become Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital LLC, which the two companies estimate could produce more than $1.5 billion in mortgages this year.
Paint them pleased: Sherwin-Williams Co. entered into a multiyear supply partnership with Riverstone Residential Group, one of the country’s largest third-party managers of apartment properties. The agreement lists SherwinWilliams as Riverstone’s exclusive marketing partner for paint and one of Riverstone’s preferred marketing partners for flooring through 2014. Back to school: Longtime WKYC-TV, Channel 3 correspondent Eric Mansfield is leaving the station after 18 years for a job at Kent State University. Mr. Mansfield, who starts in his new role June 1, will earn $110,000 a year as Kent State’s executive director of university media relations. He’ll lead the university’s media relations team and will teach and mentor students within Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS
A burning question will be answered
Catch this wind turbine, and a ball game, too
■ The empty storefronts lining the Hanna Building and annex at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland got a facelift this
month — not with sparkly advertising or new shops, but a series of striking photos of Cleveland landmarks. “We wanted to give a gift to this neighbor■ Have you seen the new wind turbine at hood,” said Cindy Schulz, director of public Progressive Field — the one that looks like a affairs and strategy at the Cleveland giant corkscrew with a couple of fans on the Foundation, one of the groups financing the side? Wonder where in the world you’d find project. “We are not doing this for commercial a company able to make such an odd and reasons. We wanted to give people someunique item? thing beautiful to look at and talk about.” Shame on you if you thought anyone Ms. Schulz said the campaign to spice up would need to go outside Northeast Ohio to the empty storefronts, which has been dubbed find such expertise. “Re: Cleveland,” is aimed at reminding The contraption is known as a wind Clevelanders about the city’s assets. For accelerator. The big plastic enclosure panels instance, one empty storefront dons a shot were designed and produced by Astro of Lake Erie and carries the tagline “resource Manufacturing and Design in Eastlake, the city,” while another shot of the West Side which worked for two years with engineers Market says “refresh the city.” from Cleveland State University to perfect The project, which showcases the photos them. of local photographer Jennie Jones, also is If the turbine works, as engineers believe financed by PlayhouseSquare Real Estate it will, it will force air to move even faster Services and Pepper Hill Graphics. The than the prevailing winds, according to campaign was develAstro spokesman Rich oped by Nesnadny + Peterson, who hopes Schwartz, a design firm his company is getting with offices in Cleveland. in on a breakthrough Ms. Schulz said the technology. campaign was started In the meantime, by people in the neighthough, the turbine will borhood, but she now provide at least some believes it could expand power to Progressive to other parts of the city. Field. It also probably “We decided not to will provide publicity throw advertising in PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION for Astro. these windows,” she The device will stand said. “Let’s not just dress them up. Let’s put more than 40 feet high, and the panels made a public art exhibit on the street.” — Timothy by Astro will be backlit at night to draw Magaw attention. — Dan Shingler
MILESTONE
BEST OF THE BLOGS
■ Now we’re gonna find out if they used to make ’em like we think they used to make ’em. General Electric Co. is going to put the juice to a 100-year-old light bulb GE made in the days when Thomas Edison was alive and trying to sell people on the idea of an electric car. We’ll all get to see whether the bulb lights up like GE hopes it will during a time capsule opening ceremony today, March 26. Early workers at GE’s Nela Park knew this day was coming. They’re the ones who buried a few light bulbs, along with other memoraPHOTO PROVIDED bilia, back when Nela Park BY THE SCHENECTADY MUSEUM was converted from vineyard to the nation’s first industrial park in 1913. GE is digging up the time capsule as part of a year-long countdown to Nela Park’s 100th birthday on April 18, 2013. Nela Park, in East Cleveland, still serves as world headquarters for GE Lighting. — Dan Shingler
It sure beats blank space
Excerpts from recent blog entries on CrainsCleveland.com.
Line blogger, Greg Sargent, in a piece that said the Brown/Mandel race is shaping up as pivotal to Democratic hopes of holding the Senate. Sen. Brown leads in polls and he has experience on his side, but Mr. Sargent notes that outside conservative groups “have spent nearly $5 million on ads” attacking the ■ Quicken Loans Arena is among the Democrat from Avon. businesses nationwide that has figured out Why the focus on Sen. Brown? “One is something about the modern age — in that despite recent polls showing Brown many cases, customers would rather interact with a sizable lead over (Mr. Mandel) … this with technology than people. could be a close contest,” he writes. For a generation of shoppers raised on Also, he writes that Sen. Brown “is an outGoogle and e-commerce, the spoken working class progresanswer to ‘Can I help you?’ is sive who has crafted a populist increasingly a firm ‘no,’ even message that resonates among at retailers such as Nordstrom the blue collar white swing votthat have built their reputations ers the GOP is fighting for.” around customer service,” The Plus, “the fielding of a tough New York Times reported. Dem challenger in MassachuBut instead of getting defensetts, (has) increased pressure sive, “some stores and brands on the GOP to win in Ohio if are embracing the change by Republicans are to take back creating new personal touches LeBron James the Senate.” that feature gadgets rather than a doting sales staff,” the newspaper said. For instance, LeBron James’ shoe store in Miami has 50 iPads to describe its merchan■ The Wall Street Journal profiled Chris dise. Macy’s is testing cosmetic stations Jansing, anchor of the 10 a.m. MSNBC news where tablets offer reviews and tips. Quicken program “Jansing & Co.” and a native of Loans Arena gives suite visitors an iPad so Fairport Harbor in Lake County. they can order food and drinks directly from Ms. Jansing, 55, is “one of the hardestit, while Aloft Hotels, a Starwood division, working women in television journalism” has installed tablets instead of concierge and a rising star at MSNBC, the newspaper stations. said. Ms. Jansing grew up in Fairport Harbor as the youngest of 12 children. She told The Journal that she remembers sitting at the dining room table as a child when she heard a woman who visited regu■ The U.S. Senate race between incumbent larly refer to her mother as “Mom.” Sherrod Brown and state Treasurer Josh “I said, ‘Why are you calling her mom?’ Mandel “appears to be the target of more She said, ‘Because I’m your sister.’ She’d spending by GOP-aligned outside groups moved out of the house when I was a baby,” than … any Senate race in the country.” Ms. Jansing said. “I learned early on you So wrote The Washington Post’s Plum need to ask a lot of questions.”
The Q and LeBron still have something in common
The Palace Theatre at PlayhouseSquare, a recent project of Frank Novak & Sons Inc.
THE COMPANY: Frank Novak & Sons Inc., Bedford Heights THE OCCASION: 100th anniversary A business that started a century ago as a painter of residences and small commercial structures has evolved into a major contractor doing projects for, among others, MK Ferguson, Turner Construction and Albert M. Higley Co. Frank Novak Sr. launched the business in 1912 from a home office on East 135th Street in Cleveland. A pivotal point in the company’s history came in 1959, when then-president Frank Novak Jr. brought on Allen Pinchot as estimator/project manager. In the early 1960s, Mr. Pinchot changed the direction of the company to focus on commercial construction, and the company outgrew its second location, on Harvard Avenue in Cleveland, and moved to its current home in Bedford Heights. The Pinchot family has run the company since Frank Novak Jr.’s death in 1989. The company today employs 80 to 100 people in the summer. It operates three divisions: Flooring Specialties, focusing on health care, institutional and commercial operations; Acoustic Wallcraft, specializing in acoustical wall surfaces; and Molded Extruded Specialties, which makes extruded and molded products of either metal or polymer.
She’s reaching an even bigger audience than her family
The road to Senate control likely runs through Ohio