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Motown’s blues don’t ring true in Cleveland Detroit’s economic woes aren’t felt as much here because of solid planning By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
For decades, Cleveland has been yoked to Detroit. Both watched their economies erode as manufacturing rusted; both watched as their residents fled to the suburbs and beyond.
EDITORIAL CARTOON: Mayor Frank
MCKINLEY WILEY
John Matricardi helps Elyria-based KS plan construction projects that range from docks to waterfront buildings.
Mergers building momentum As construction climbs back from wreck of recession, acquisitions are picking up By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
John Matricardi ran Matrix Engineering in Lakewood for 27 years before selling it recently to KS Associates. He now commutes to Elyria-based KS to build its new
coastal engineering group, but his work is the same: planning construction projects ranging from docks to waterfront buildings on Lake Erie and its tributaries. Mr. Matricardi said he had been trying to sell his niche firm for years — even before the most severe building
downturn since the Great Depression. He found his buyer thanks to a gradual revival of construction-related spending in Northeast Ohio and nationwide that has the industry’s many disciplines and vendors spreading their wings with acquisitions, mergers, new offices and even new products. It is a big switch from the constant shutdowns and consolidate-to-survive atmosphere of the most recent recession, which
roiled the construction field. Selling or merging as a business comes back — rather than digging in to make up for lost time, as typically happens in the construction industry after most downturns — is a hallmark so far of the tepid recovery. In Mr. Matricardi’s case, he started seeking a buyer because of his age. He is 61 and wants to work five more years before he retires.
Jackson meets Nero, who has advice from Detroit. Page 8 But now, with Detroit facing bankruptcy, Cleveland isn’t sharing its neighbor’s unwanted attention over its finances — even though both cities have struggled with the same challenges, including housing foreclosures and a declining income tax base. Why has Cleveland been able to avoid the fiscal crisis now facing Detroit and threatening other cities such as Chicago and Cincinnati? See CLEVELAND Page 6
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See MERGERS Page 7
PD delivering bad news to small businesses Some advertisers could be stung by paper’s reduced home delivery By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
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Daniel Ungar is a small Plain Dealer advertiser. But he sees big
problems ahead. The owner of Mar-Lou Shoes in Lyndhurst has no plans to abandon the daily newspaper when it drops home delivery on Mondays, Tues-
days and Thursdays starting next week. But that change, he says, “opens up a can of worms.” Mar-Lou is a general shoe store, but since his father, Henry, and
mother, Marcia Lou, opened their first store in 1958, it has had a focus on shoes for big and tall women — a generally older audience that still reads print newspapers. Mar-Lou typically runs small ads in The Plain Dealer, sometimes two columns
Huge things happening Little Tikes Co. executive vice president Thomas W. Richmond — shown with his son, Enzo — attributes much of the company’s growth to the fact it is manufacturing more of its toys in Hudson. PAGE 3
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SPECIAL SECTION
FINANCE Bankruptcies are down, but some experts are skeptical the trend will continue ■ Pages 11-16 PLUS: ADVISER ■ RETIREMENT CONTRIBUTIONS ■ & MORE
Entire contents © 2013 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 34, No. 30