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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
THE WEEK DECEMBER 8 - 14 The big story: The MetroHealth System plans to add two stories to its 10-year-old critical care pavilion — a project estimated to cost around $80 million. The project is the first piece of MetroHealth’s effort to overhaul its aging main campus on West 25th Boutros Street on the city’s West Side. Until recently, health system officials offered few specifics of what the campus makeover could include other than conceding that the iconic — and dilapidated — patient towers likely would come down. MetroHealth CEO Dr. Akram Boutros said he’s pushing for the pavilion expansion, which will add about 75,000 square feet to the building, to be finished by summer 2016. When complete, the pavilion will house 88 beds and include a landing pad for MetroHealth’s Life Flight.
End of an era: GrafTech International Ltd. selected new locations for its company headquarters and its new Innovation & Technology Center. The maker of graphite electrodes and other carbon-based products said it would move its global headquarters to Independence from Parma — its home for nearly 60 years. About 50 employees in areas such as finance and human resources will work there. The new Innovation & Technology Center will be in Brooklyn Heights. The moves are expected to be completed by the end of the 2015 first quarter. Clothing down: The Hugo Boss plant in Brooklyn will close on April 30, 2015, at a cost of about 170 jobs, the company said in a letter filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The plant was slated to close in 2010, but representatives of Workers United SEIU and the German clothing manufacturer eventually reached a contract agreement. At the time, it had 375 employees, but the agreement included unspecified job cuts. In the new letter, Hugo Boss said it is moving manufacturing out of the United States. Old building, new use: The Children’s Museum of Cleveland will be on the move to Midtown. The institution bought a property on Euclid Avenue between East 36th and East 40th streets that’s referred to as the Stager-Beckwith House. The property was built in the 1860s and was the longtime home of the University Club. It was renovated and became the home of Myers University about a decade ago but has been vacant since 2008. The $50,000 purchase of the property was a gift from a longtime donor and board member, Doreen Cahoon, and her husband, Richard. The museum will remain open in its current University Circle location until summer 2015. Color them pleased: Cleveland-based Sherwin-Williams Co. won a huge piece of business with a deal to sell house paint at Lowe’s Cos. The companies said Sherwin-Williams paint, including a new brand called HGTV Home, will be available at Lowe’s stores and on Lowes.com beginning in March 2015. Additionally, SherwinWilliams will provide Lowe’s with two independent brands of paint that will serve professional painters and property managers: Painter’s Masterpiece and Property Advantage.
Flight plan: Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is getting a new carrier, as JetBlue Airways will launch twice-daily service between Hopkins and Boston Logan International Airport starting April 30, 2015. Cleveland will become JetBlue’s 88th destination. Since December began, both United and Frontier have announced service cuts at Hopkins, so the JetBlue announcement was a welcome win. JetBlue plans initially to serve Cleveland with its 100-seat Embraer 190 aircraft featuring two-by-two seating.
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
DECEMBER 15 - 21, 2014
REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS
MetroHealth’s former CEO to receive token of appreciation Former MetroHealth CEO Mark Moran will return this week to the health system he led for about five years to receive a pat on the back from its current chief executive, Dr. Akram Boutros. At a board meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 17, Boutros will present Moran with the Presidential Challenge Coin. The award is inspired by the military tradition of carrying a challenge coin — a small medal or token that signifies a person as a member of the organization. Boutros adopted the practice at MetroHealth to recognize those who make contributions of the highest level to the health system. Boutros credits Moran with putting some of the initiatives in place that reversed the financial fortunes of the health system. For one, Moran was one of the architects of MetroHealth’s outpatient strategy that resulted in a new health center in Middleburg Heights, which has been a boon to the health system’s bottom line. Also, he oversaw the development of the experimental Medicaid waiver program that expanded access to the public insurance program ahead of the statewide Medicaid expansion. That said, Moran’s administration had been chastised by some in the community for its substantial payments to consultants and its disclosure practices. Previous winners of the Presidential Challenge Coin are John Corlett, MetroHealth’s former vice president of government relations and community affairs who recently took the top job at the Center for Community Solutions; Dr. Jennifer Hanrahan, an in-
WHAT’S NEW
fectious disease specialist, for her work preparing for a possible, yet unlikely, Ebola outbreak; and Larisa Evans, a longtime nurse in the intensive care unit who recently retired. — Timothy Magaw
Oberlin refuse fleet is moving quickly to hybrid Oberlin’s refuse and recycling fleet is getting a bit greener this year. The city recently bought three trucks that are equipped with Parker Hannifin Corp.’s hydraulic hybrid truck systems. The trucks replace the fleet that was destroyed in a fire last February. Parker has been producing the fuel-efficient systems since 2010, said Hybrid Drive Systems Division sales manager Mark McGrew, but this is the first RunWise fleet on the ground in Ohio. To date, the system is produced just for refuse trucks, but it’s also in pre-production for medium-duty vehicles, and Parker is looking at expanding to the bus market, McGrew said. The system is able to capture energy in the braking process and store it for use at low speeds, said Oberlin’s public works director Jeff Baumann. That leads to reduced costs from diesel fuel consumption. Baumann said that for a small operation like Oberlin’s, those savings aren’t enough to offset the cost of the system entirely, but that it might in larger operations. Oberlin plans to track its fuel consumption for comparison purposes. McGrew said the vehicles can produce up to 50% savings in diesel. It also reduces emissions and extends the life of the brakes, he said.
Smart move
COMPANY: Bar 145, a Toledo-based gastro pub LOCATION: Avon, the company’s fifth restaurant in Ohio Just in time for the holidays, Bar 145, a gastro-pub and live music venue based in Toledo, has opened its fifth Ohio location, at 35566 Detroit Road in Avon. The Avon restaurant is the largest to date for Bar 145, which says it specializes in “burgers, bands and Bourbon.” Bar 145 owner-operator Jeremy Fitzgerald called Avon “an ideal location” for the company’s concept. “We’re hoping to fill a niche for higherend, chef-driven restaurants with great drinks and great live entertainment,” Fitzgerald said. He said Bar 145 is supplied by local farmers and buys fresh products daily for a menu that features gourmet burgers, entrees and small plates. The restaurant also boasts an extensive list of craft beers and more than 45 bourbons and bourbon-based cocktails. Executive chef Robby Lucas oversees Bar 145’s menu at each of its locations. The first Bar 145 first opened in Toledo in May 2011. The company launched a franchise program in July 2012 and since then has opened restaurants in Columbus, Kent and Norwalk, in addition to Avon. Ft. Wayne, Ind., is the next market for the company’s expansion.
Ship finally has come in for Great Lakes ore Great Lakes ore shippers can say they’ve had a good year, as shipments are up, yearto-date, over 2013. But it took them until November to catch up, thanks to an early 2014 shipping season shut down by ice. As of the end of November, though, ore shipments topped 53.2 million tons and were 86,721 tons ahead of last year’s pace. “While the increase is minute, the achievement is huge. The winter of 2013/2014 was the most brutal in decades,” reports the Cleveland-based Lake Carriers’ Association. “The U.S. Coast Guard started breaking ice on Dec. 6, the earliest on record. Iron ore shipments slipped 20% in December and then plunged 37% in January. A few cargos moved in February, but one voyage that should have taken 50 hours stretched 10 days.” So, while it seems cold, take heart. Better yet, take a look at Lake Erie, where freighters and not ice ridges still dot the horizon. — Dan Shingler
BEST OF THE BLOGS Excerpts from recent blog entries on CrainsCleveland.com.
Bar 145 owner Jeremy Fitzgerald, left, and executive chef Robby Lucas.
Oberlin planned to introduce the trucks to the public with an event on Friday, Dec. 12. Baumann said two of the trucks already were in service. Those trucks each cost about $375,000; one more yet to launch cost about $425,000. The city also bought two trucks without the Parker system to replenish its fleet. Baumann said the city had set aside about $853,000 to buy new trucks. It also received insurance reimbursement, a grant from the Ohio EPA to go to single-stream recycling, and some funding from Oberlin College’s Green Edge fund. — Rachel Abbey McCafferty
Cleveland State University is among colleges that “are trying to make sure students understand a basic math lesson: 120 credits equals a bachelor’s degree.” So wrote The Wall Street Journal, which said that as student-loan debt hovers near all-time highs and operational costs for colleges continue to rise, “administrators are pushing to get students through their undergraduate educations more efficiently, particularly at public institutions.” Full-time students “complete four-year degrees with an average of 134 credit hours, according to Complete College America, a nonprofit focused on boosting collegegraduation rates,” The Journal reported. “That is well over the minimum of 120 hours … required by most undergraduate degree programs.” That, in turn, “means many students don’t graduate after the typical four years, which can weigh on a school’s reputation and a student’s wallet,” the newspaper said. At Cleveland State, where students graduate with an average of 148.8 credits, administrators are trying to minimize students’ scheduling mistakes. President Ronald Berkman told the paper that the school was standing in its own way by requiring well over 120 credits for certain degrees and by making it difficult for students to map out their course plans. Two years ago, The Journal said, Cleveland State began allowing students to register for fall, spring and summer classes at the same time so they don’t accidentally wait until spring for a class that was only offered once a year.
Cream of the crop Innovation in Ohio doesn’t just come in the technology and medical sectors. Bloomberg Businessweek profiled Cody Schultz, 27, a farmer in Youngstown. But Schultz is not your typical farmer. “His scraggly beard, his Eminem skullcap,
his yen for the first-person shooter video game ‘Borderlands’ should fool no one,” the magazine said. “This is not some slacker looking to dodge the 40-hour week. Schultz is a cricket farmer, joining two other Wisconsin-bred millennials this summer in a Youngstown warehouse to create Big Cricket Farms, which they say is the first in the U.S. to produce the insects for human consumption.” Crickets, it turns out, are becoming popular for use in nachos, cookies, pesto and, for braver foodies, in butter and garlic, sautéed whole. The magazine said farm founder Kevin Bachhuber “scouted the most needy of urban settings, not simply for the economic incentives that distressed areas offer. … He wants the bug startup to inspire others to join in a Rust Belt revival, to come to build their own job-creators and repaint the gloomy landscape.” The farm’s website dedicates its effort to the Hebrew phrase “tikkun olam,” or “repair of the world.” The current cricket census at the farm: 2 million. “If it can happen in Youngstown,” Schultz said of his crop surge, “it can happen anywhere.”
Lighting it up Northeast Ohio native Anthony Doerr got a nice early holiday present: A spot on The New York Times’ list of the 10 best books of the year for his novel “All The Light We Cannot See.” “With brisk chapters and sumptuous language, Doerr’s second novel follows two characters whose paths will intersect in the waning days of World War II: an orphaned engineering prodigy recruited into the Nazi ranks, and a blind French girl who joins the Resistance,” The Times said of the novel by the Novelty native, who graduated from Bowling Green State University. “Tackling questions of survival, endurance and moral obligations during wartime, the book is as precise and artful and ingenious as the puzzle boxes the heroine’s locksmith father builds for her,” the paper noted.