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DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2013
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NRP Group expands its market, reach Garfield Heights company is building developments to meet apartment demand By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
This Northeast Ohio real estate firm is active in 13 states and operates eight regional offices seeking out deals that have resulted in upscale apartment developments in
Austin, Dallas and San Antonio, Texas; St. Petersburg and Orlando, Fla.; and Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C., among other places. Which developer is it? If you guessed giants Forest City Enterprises Inc. or Associated Estates Realty Corp., you’re wrong. Instead,
those projects are the handiwork of NRP Group, which since 1995 quietly has been building apartments well beyond its base in Garfield Heights. The surge in popularity of apartments nationwide has provided NRP an opportunity to accelerate
rapidly its development pace and to broaden its efforts beyond its original market of affordable housing for tenants of modest means. NRP is building 10 market-rate luxury apartment developments across the country this year, including one in Beachwood. It also
INSIDE: Apartment construction could be the next big thing in Downtown Cleveland. Page 13 plans to start construction of seven more between Thanksgiving and next April, said David Heller, an NRP principal and the company’s president of property management. See NRP Page 18
THE WEEK IN QUOTES
INSIGHT
“We have all of these data out there that we’ve been collecting, and no one has been looking at that in a big way. That’s what we’re trying to do.” — Dr. Jonathan L. Haines, who will lead the new Institute of Computational Biology. Page One
“The financial prowess of Warren Buffett will not necessarily translate into real estate success at a local level. It’s the brand and the model and the sales associate who knows the people and gets the referral that produces the business.” — John Ludwick, an operating principal of Keller Williams Realty Greater Cleveland. Page 7 MCKINLEY WILEY
Marty Albrecht has concocted many inventions in his Lakewood basement. His latest is a pressure regulator designed to help welding equipment work in the wind. By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com
BRINGING IDEAS M TO FRUITION New tech transfer office at LCCC helps individuals cultivate their inventions
arty Albrecht’s fourth attempt to get a big company interested in one of the many inventions to come out of the machine shop in his Lakewood basement would have failed — just like the first three — if he hadn’t taken that six-hour meeting with Russ Donda. Donda Today, Mr. Albrecht says, a major corporation is in talks to license his latest creation, a pressure regulator designed to help welding equipment function in the wind. But those talks wouldn’t have begun if it weren’t for Mr. Donda’s new Office of Community Technology Transfer, said Mr. Albrecht, a machinist and training aide specialist at Ohio Technical College in Cleveland. See IDEAS Page 12
Job cuts deal ‘visible’ hit to manufacturing Industry’s employment growth has slowed, but not by as much as well-publicized layoffs at such firms as Lockheed Martin indicate By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com
Tom Waltermire, CEO of business attraction group Team NEO, doesn’t view the recently announced plans for local layoffs at Lockheed Martin, PPG Industries and Honeywell as a harbinger of
manufacturing job losses to come. But Mr. Waltermire said those announcements — which could represent up to 850 jobs lost at those three companies — underscore the need for the economic attraction and retention efforts carried out by local chambers of commerce and state and regional
economic development groups, such as Team NEO. “It’s a reminder of the importance of doing this well,” Mr. Waltermire said. Recently, a lot of the “big visible chunks” of jobs gained or lost have been in the form of losses, Mr. Waltermire said. And while there are
exceptions, job growth has tended to be more incremental, coming in clusters of five and 10 positions, often at smaller companies that don’t have the visibility of a Lockheed Martin or PPG. But at least this year in Northeast Ohio, the gains only have allowed manufacturing employment to break even at best. And the job losses at companies such as Lockheed Martin loom as the region looks to 2014 and 2015. See MANUFACTURING Page 9
“We are thrilled to have the courts penalize individuals who spread false and malicious information about the industry.” — Rhonda Reda, director, Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program. Page 8
“We really are running out of buildings downtown that are convertible to apartments.” — Doug Price, CEO of K&D Group. Page 13
“I don’t see myself moving any time soon. I’m painting the walls and getting comfortable.” — Gabe Stokes, a 25-year-old who is studying exercise science at Cleveland State University and living at The Langston. Page 14