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JANUARY 18-24, 2010
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
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THEINSIDER
THEWEEK JANUARY 11 - 17 The big story: Cleveland public relations firm Edward Howard & Co. soon will be on its own no more. Directors of Columbus-based Fahlgren Inc., one of the nation’s largest marketing communications companies, and majority shareholders of Edward Howard announced that Fahlgren plans to acquire Edward Howard. The acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter of 2010, “although integration and coordinated new business and marketing efforts will begin immediately,” according to a news release issued jointly by the two companies. Fahlgren operates Fahlgren Mortine Public Relations, and it’s those two businesses that will be combined, though both brand names will remain.
Cap’n pay: The next president of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority will make less money than the last port boss. A Port Authority committee effectively has pegged the top salary for the new chief at slightly less than $220,000. The agency had been paying Adam Wasserman $283,000 until his departure last November. The Port Authority’s transition committee is recommending to the port board that it hire Boyden Global Executive Search of New York to find the best candidate for the job. Boyden’s fee will be a maximum of $65,000, based on 30% of the new president’s first-year salary. That fee was set because the Port Authority is expecting to pay the new president no more than $220,000.
Recycler recycled: The sale of compounder and recycler Michael Day Enterprises Inc. to Italian plastics maker Radici Group was approved by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Akron. Radici was the stalking horse bidder in the deal and will pay $5.7 million for the assets of Wadsworth-based Michael Day. Michael Day filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last Nov. 10, citing assets and liabilities each valued at between $10 million and $50 million. To their wealth: Dawson Wealth Management of Rocky River merged with Rehmann, an integrated accounting, business consulting and wealth management firm based in Michigan, to create a company with more than $1.3 billion in assets under management. The new entity will remain in Rocky River and operate under the Rehmann name. Dawson Wealth Management, formerly a unit of Dawson Cos., has served clients in Northeast Ohio and across the state for nearly two decades. The government, here to help: With the aid of a federal program created as part of the government’s stimulus plan, the MetroHealth System sold $75 million in bonds, the proceeds of which it will use for capital projects throughout the system. While MetroHealth will have access to the $75 million raised through the bond sale, it also will receive from the U.S. Treasury a portion of the interest that it pays on the bonds under the Build America Bond program. Under the program, state and local government bodies that issue bonds receive a direct federal subsidy payment for a portion of their borrowing costs equal to 35% of the total interest paid to investors.
This and that: CBiz Inc. acquired National Benefit Alliance, an employee benefits firm in Midvale, Utah. National Benefit has 16 associates and recorded about $2 million in revenue during the past 12 months. … Ferro Corp. said its Ferro Electronic Materials unit, a supplier of materials for producing photovoltaic solar cells, was awarded $1 million by the Ohio Department of Development to develop advanced durability sealing systems for solar cells. To keep up with local business news as it happens, visit www.CrainsCleveland.com
REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS
Fleischman’s firm gets the point ■ Richard Fleischman + Partners Architects Inc. recently clicked on the lights at its new offices in the Osborn Building, the structure shaped like a slice of pie at the intersection of Huron Road, Prospect Avenue and East Ninth Street near Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. Known for namesake architect Richard Fleischman’s modernist designs, the firm just moved into a triangular office at the point of the building. It occupies space that has remained dark since the 1898-vintage Osborn Building became apartments in the mid-2000s. Mr. Fleischman pooh-poohs the design contrast between the spaces his firm creates and the one it now calls home. He said the European modernist architects he studied before launching his firm in 1961 often located in old buildings in Italy and Germany. “We’re all about openness and light,” Mr. Fleischman said, and the first-floor former retail space offers both in abundance. Still visible from his worktable is the firm’s former home, a building at 1025 Huron Road that it converted to a studio in 1988 and sold in 2007. Mr. Fleischman said he could not come to terms with his buyerturned-landlord, so he found less expensive space at the Osborn Building. He would not disclose the rent. Despite a recession that has been deadly for architects, the firm remains busy; current jobs range from a $27 million updating of a University of Cincinnati dormitory complex to a redo of the landmark Epworth-Euclid
WHAT’S NEW
STAN BULLARD
Architect Richard Fleischman in his company’s Osborn building space in downtown Cleveland United Methodist Church at University Circle. The firm occupies the same amount of space as before, about 5,400 square feet, but has added two registered architects this past year, giving the firm eight in a staff of 26. Mr. Fleischman said business cycles are part of the design life. “Architects have been at work for thousands of years,” he said. “We’ll be here.” — Stan Bullard
Mr. Whipple (not that one) would love to hear from you ■ Cleveland State University students who are preparing for a research trip to London next spring are looking for five local businesses to partner with beforehand. A group of 15 students from CSU’s Nance College of Business Administration in May will go to London as part of an international marketing and business research class. However, they’re hunting for local businesses to begin working with to design research
Where there’s a Will, there’s an argument
This is not your grandfather’s turntable. The AT-LP120-USB includes a direct-drive turntable, PC- and Mac-compatible software, a USB cable and other accessories. AudioTechnica says it’s “rugged and durable to meet the demands of professional use, and provides consumers with the flexibility to enjoy topquality vinyl playback and easily transfer records to digital media files and CDs.” “With the continuing popularity of enjoying records and dubbing them to digital media, we recognized the time was right to introduce a true high-performance USB turntable system that combines exceptional record playback performance and sound quality with total ease of use,” says Crystal Griffith, AudioTechnica’s consumer marketing manager. The turntable features a high-torque, direct-drive motor for quick startups with both forward and reverse “back-cueing” play capability, the company says. It’s available online or through AudioTechnica authorized retailers at a suggested retail price of $429. For more, visit www.audio-technica.com. Send new product information to managing editor Scott Suttell at ssuttell@crain.com.
Circling the carcass for opportunity ■ Office buildings and parking lots aren’t the only properties that people watching the bankruptcy of AmTrust Financial Corp. are keeping an eye on. The former holding company of AmTrust Bank also owns a piece of vacant land in Arizona, about 50 or 60 miles from Phoenix. Robert Goldberg, a director of the company, said in a meeting with creditors that the company had owned the land for two or three years with the intent of using it for solar energy. The company also owns a Euclid Avenue parking garage and office buildings on Chagrin Boulevard and in Rocky River. — Arielle Kass
BEST OF THE BLOGS Excerpts from blog entries on CrainsCleveland.com.
COMPANY: Audio-Technica U.S. Inc., Stow PRODUCT: AT-LP120-USB DirectDrive Turntable System
projects based on issues facing Northeast Ohio companies. While in London, the students will visit business libraries, contact businesses and conduct interviews to gather marketing information that will benefit those Northeast Ohio companies. Last year’s class analyzed the competition and market for steel tube and bar products for Timken Steel, assessed the potential for a new product from Snap-On Business Solutions, and surveyed the off-site fabrication business for PCX Corp., which makes prefabricated electrical centers. Companies interested should contact Thomas Whipple, chairman and professor of marketing at the Nance College, at 216687-4770. — Shannon Mortland
■ Forest City Enterprises CEO Charles Ratner upbraided columnist George F. Will for a recent Washington Post column that attacked the company’s controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, N.Y. In a Jan. 12 letter to The Post, Mr. Ratner complained that Mr. Will “never contacted the developer — my Ratner company — or supporters of the project, who include the governor, the mayor and the Brooklyn borough president,” and that the columnist misrepresented the use of eminent domain in the project. (Mr. Will said eminent domain “has become elastic in the service of avarice.”) “At the start of this project, my company announced that it would try to avoid the use of eminent domain,” Mr. Ratner wrote. “To that end, we bought properties in the footprint, many of which were abandoned warehouses and empty lots. A group of holdouts announced early on that they were opposed to the development and pledged to sue often. They kept their word — but lost every battle.” Now Mr. Ratner has something in common with environmental advocates who say Mr. Will consistently misrepresents things in columns on climate change.
Greener pastures in reach for Cleveland initiative ■ The Economist lauded the efforts of the Evergreen Cooperatives of Cleveland to
“create 10 green, for-profit businesses that local residents will own and operate.” The magazine spoke with Mienyon Smith, a 31-year-old mother of five who works at Evergreen Cooperative Laundry and for the first time in her life is making more than minimum wage. After eight years with the company, Ms. Smith could own a stake worth $65,000.
A little bit of this, A little bit of that ■ Here’s a staggering statistic, according to an analysis by The Associated Press: Of 128 manufacturing plants in North America closed since 1980 by the Detroit Three automakers and their largest suppliers, three of every five now sit idle. Those 128 plants had a payroll of 196,000 workers at the time they closed, the AP reported. “Today, only 36,500 people work at those sites that have been redeveloped, and at only three of the revived plants does the number of employees match or exceed the number in their carmaking past,” according to the AP. ■ The world is getting a little bigger for Cleveland’s Great Lakes Brewing Co. The Washington Post reported that a bar called The Big Hunt has become the first establishment to offer Great Lakes’ award-winning beers on draft in D.C. Credit here goes to Big Hunt general manager Dave Coleman, a Cleveland native. Now you know where to go for a taste of home the next time you’re in the nation’s capital. ■ A Wall Street Journal piece on the history of the “Gatorade shower” called the Cleveland Browns’ Jan. 3 celebration for head coach Eric Mangini “one of the most questionable decisions in dousing history.” Hey, if fans and players can’t get excited about four consecutive Browns wins, when are we ever going to do so?