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AUGUST 2-8, 2010
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
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THEINSIDER
THEWEEK JULY 26 – AUGUST 1 The big story: The Cleveland Clinic broke ground on a $75 million home for its Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute and Cleveland Clinic Laboratories — a move that will create hundreds of new jobs. Consisting of steel and glass, the three-story, 135,000-square-foot structure will be located at East 105th Street and Carnegie Avenue. Upon its planned completion in the fourth quarter of 2011, the building will become the easternfacing cornerstone of the main campus. The Clinic plans to expand its current laboratory staff of 1,300 by about 350 over the next five years.
Come together: Cleveland’s convention and visitors bureau and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission are joining in what the two nonprofits describe as a “coordinated alliance,” which they say means operating separately but under one chief executive, the sports commission’s David Gilbert. Dennis Roche, who now heads Positively Cleveland, the updated name for the convention bureau, will step down at the end of 2010 into a consulting role. End of the road: Solon-based Insurance.com was sold to a California online marketing company, which will shut down the company’s Solon office and will eliminate 144 positions over the next year. According to a notice filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Insurance.com on July 26 agreed to sell its assets to QuinStreet Inc. of Foster City, Calif. Insurance.com’s headquarters will close in the next several months. A source close to the deal said Insurance.com will keep a small team of people at its Solon office during a threemonth transition. QuinStreet went public last February after buying Insure.com in fall 2009 for $16 million.
Healthier numbers: Health care companies in Northeast Ohio attracted more venture capital dollars during the first half of 2010 than they did during the like period last year, but not nearly enough to rival money raised in 2008 or 2007, according to BioEnterprise Corp.’s Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report. Seventeen health care companies attracted a total of $36.7 million, up about 20% from $30.5 million during the first half of 2009, but down 39% from $59.9 million during the first half of 2008 and off 82% from $199.1 million during a record-setting first half of 2007. Beige Book blahs: The latest Beige Book report by the Federal Reserve Board indicated that economic activity continued to rise in most Fed districts except Cleveland and Kansas City, where “the level of economy activity generally held steady.” Zeroing in on the Cleveland Fed district, the Fed said manufacturers reported the rise in production that began late last year “is leveling off.” According to the report, capital outlays “continue at relatively low levels, and business owners are approaching spending decisions with caution.”
This and that: Great Lakes Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Beachwood raised $3.1 million to finish a clinical study of a technology it is developing to reduce infections caused by catheters. … Bird Technologies Group, a Solon-based supplier of radio frequency measurement and management technology, said it has acquired X-Com Systems of Reston, Va., for an undisclosed price. X-Com, founded in 1994, makes radio frequency (RF) test equipment, among other things.
REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS
Effort on to straighten out roundworm problem
■ It sounds so bad: The U.S. headquarters
of a German wind developer leaves Cleveland for Boulder, Colo. The reality is much kinder to Cleveland, if not ideal, according to Michael Rucker, CEO of juwi wind, which is part of juwi group, a German renewable energy company. A few executive and administrative positions at juwi’s office at 1900 Superior Ave. are gone, but the company so far this year has added a few people to the office, keeping the size of its staff consistent at about 15. Plus, they’re getting a bigger office. They’re about to move into a space that’s more than twice as big, at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East Fourth Street, so juwi can keep hiring locally, Mr. Rucker said. The company plans to hire at least two more people in Cleveland this year. The Cleveland office now consists mainly of project developers and the company’s real estate team. The Boulder office, however, is growing faster for the moment. Juwi wind plans to add 20 people in that city, which also is home to the parent company’s solar business. Mr. Rucker is one of the additions. Hired in April, he spoke with Crain’s via phone while driving a car full of his belongings to Boulder from California, where he previously worked for wind turbine maker Clipper Windpower. Hiring should continue in Cleveland, too, depending on the strength of the U.S. wind energy market, Mr. Rucker said. “I really don’t want to give the impression that we’re abandoning Ohio,” he said. — Chuck Soder
WHAT’S NEW
BEST OF THE BLOGS
■ An estimated 14% of the American population suffers from roundworm passed from animals, but a new foundation aims to put an end to that problem in Cleveland. The van Bakeren Foundation is a new nonprofit consisting of veterinarians, doctors, researchers and public health professionals that is raising money to stop the spread of zoonotic diseases such as parasitic roundworms through research, education and the care of animals, said Dr. Anna van Heeckeren, a veterinarian and executive director and chair of the foundation. In its first initiative, the foundation is trying to raise $500,000 by next July to launch a mobile vet clinic that would provide subsidized animal care in underserved communities, which is where zoonotic diseases are most prevalent, and to collect data for future research, she said. Cuyahoga County is estimated to have 10,000 dogs infected with roundworm, she said. The foundation also has created programs to educate students, veterinarians and allied health professionals about zoonotic diseases, Dr. van Heeckeren said. Over the long term, the foundation hopes to build a veterinary health campus that would perform more difficult procedures on animals and to develop a vaccine for parasites, she said. — Shannon Mortland
A fair wind still blows in Cleveland
Excerpts from blog entries on CrainsCleveland.com.
As Cramer sees it, Eaton’s CEO Cutler is a cut above
COMPANY: Ridgid, Elyria PRODUCT: K-45 manual and K45AF Autofeed drain cleaning machines Ridgid says its new drain cleaning machines are ideal for uses such as sinks, bath tubs and showers, and they come with variable speed up to 600 RPM. The K-45 drain cleaners are designed for ¾- to 2½-inch drain lines. Cable is available in three sizes — ¼, 5 16 and 3 8 each in varying of lengths of up to 50 feet. Ridgid says the K-45AF drain cleaner features a two-way Autofeed function, enabling the operator to “clean drains better and faster, quickly working back and forth through drain blockages to completely clear lines.” The ability for users to advance and retrieve the cable without stopping to reverse the motor reduces job times by about 15%, the company says. An inner drum on the machines prevents leakage to reduce on-site cleaning and cleanup times. The K-45 machine weighs 12.6 pounds and the K-45AF machine weighs 13.8 pounds, making both easy to carry and store, Ridgid says. For information, visit www.ridgid.com. Send new product information to managing editor Scott Suttell at ssuttell@crain.com.
■ Eaton Corp.’s Sandy Cutler is one of the top CEOs in America. So says no less an authority than CNBC’s Jim Cramer, who maintained recently on his “Mad Money” show that top-quality CEOs give some companies, including Eaton, a huge edge in the still-rough economy. “If you’re wondering how the Dow can rally 202 points (on July 22), with the S&P 500 popping a sizable 2.3%, all in the face of weak home sales, disappointing jobless claims and little to no growth, look no further than some of Cutler America’s top CEOs,” according to the CNBC recap of the show. “They were the driver behind stocks’ big push up.” Mr. Cutler and the CEOs of companies including 3M, Pepsico and UPS “are delivering results in spite of a struggling U.S. economy,” Mr. Cramer said. Indeed, Eaton posted great secondquarter numbers, and it projects strong demand for projects for the rest of the year.
Cleveland Research says huge retailer has its back to wall ■ A report about a strategy change at Walmart Stores Inc. from Cleveland Research Co. caught the attention of the Bloomberg news service. The Cleveland-based independent equity research firm noted that Bill Simon, the new U.S. stores chief at Walmart, is “shifting
If the name is Amsdell, the business is self-storage ■ The sun rises. The sun sets. The Amsdells are buying new self-storage warehouses again — and just added two to the fold. Todd Amsdell, president of Compass Self Storage, announced last Friday, July 30, that Compass acquired two properties in Novi and Rochester Hills, Mich. In a news release, Mr. Amsdell said the miniwarehouses are the company’s first acquisitions in the Detroit area. Compass’ web site says it owns eight other properties in Florida. Mr. Amsdell did not return two calls by mid-day Friday, but it looks like a classic sign Mr. Amsdell is ramping up the family business he, his father, Bob Amsdell, and uncle, Barry Amsdell, know so well. The Amsdells parted ways with the bulk of the 377-property self-storage empire that they had taken public in the U-Store-It Trust after a public spat with Dean Jernigan, a CEO they recruited who wrested control of the company from them and moved most operations from here. (The company retains a Cleveland headquarters address.) Compass operates from the Amsdell family’s original Middleburg Heights headquarters. And, to boot, Steve Hryszko, a Cleveland-based CB Richard Ellis vice president and former Amsdell acquisition specialist, represented the seller in the deal. Terms were not disclosed, and Mr. Hryszko declined comment on them. — Stan Bullard
away from widening profit margins through inventory reductions to focus on sales growth,” according to Bloomberg. “We are seeing the ‘old’ Wal-Mart approach surface on merchandising as well as pricing,” wrote Jeff Stinson, a Cleveland Research analyst. “Rebuilding top-line sales looks to be the No. 1 objective.” Bloomberg noted that sales at U.S. stores open at least a year have fallen for four consecutive quarters after the removal of grocery products and increases in gasoline prices, putting pressure on Mr. Simon to lure back shoppers. Walmart did not make Mr. Simon available to Bloomberg to discuss any changes the retailer is making.
For job-hunting grads, Cleveland’s not bad ■ College graduates should take a hard look at coming to Northeast Ohio. That’s the opinion of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which puts Cleveland at No. 17 on its list of “Best Cities for New College Grads,” up 11 spots from its 2009 ranking. The city comes out ahead of several places, including Charlotte and Seattle, that have much better reputations as good spots for young talents. (No. 1 on the list was Houston.) “Although manufacturing remains (Cleveland’s) primary industry, science and engineering run a close second, and the city is emerging as a research base for biotechnology,” the magazine reported. Now obviously, calling any city a “best place” for new grads these days is relative, since it’s awfully hard for anyone just out of college to find a good job. But we hope your cynicism doesn’t run quite as deep as that of one commenter, who noted of this blog post, “And unemployment checks go a long way in Cleveland!”