Crain's Cleveland Business

VOL. 40, NO. 12

MARCH 25 - 31, 2019

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

BUILDING A FILM INDUSTRY

Northeast Ohio readies for its closeup

By Mark Oprea | clbfreelancer@crain.com

I

t was a few weeks before Christmas last year when 31-year-old Robbie Chernow Inside arrived by car in Ashland, Ohio. He’d just taken a job as executive assistant at a new What’s new at CIFF | Page 12 film production company called Good Deed Entertainment (GDE), which had, like Q&A with indie filmmaker Chernow, relocated from Los Angeles the month before. Pining for job security and a Robert Banks | Page 12 breather— he'd been working 12-hour days — Chernow accepted GDE’s offer eagerly.

Gravitas Ventures has ¶ Now, at the start of December, instead of Sunset Boulevard, he found himself driving worldwide appeal | Page 14 amid falling snow and Amish buggies. ¶ “It was like jumping into a Hallmark movie,” New film studio planned Chernow recalled. “I remember going up Main Street in December, thinking, ‘I am in for Bedford | Page 15 the quaintest town in America.’ No joke.” ¶ Part of a trend of coastal film companies fleeing the burnout and high turnover of New York and L.A., GDE shows the potential for a startup to thrive in Ohio’s burgeoning film ecosystem. After the grand opening of Cleveland State’s standalone film school last August, GDE and a number of other companies are positioning themselves to shun tradition and do the previously unthinkable: attract and keep industry talent and productions in Ohio rather than Hollywood. ¶ With filmmakers and the Greater Cleveland Film Commission advocating for a $60 million increase to the Ohio film tax credit this year, every SEE FILM, PAGE 14 aspect of the industry is wondering: What the heck is taking so long for Columbus to act?

CRAIN’S PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID KORDALSKI; GETTY IMAGES

SPORTS BUSINESS

HEALTH CARE

Browns are ready for prime time A meeting of minds on dementia in NEO

By Kevin Kleps

kkleps@crain.com @KevinKleps

The Cleveland Browns have fan clubs in 17 countries.

In Baker Mayfield, they have a star quarterback. In Las Vegas, they have rapidly improving Super Bowl odds.

For a franchise that’s never hurting

Odell Beckham Jr.

Entire contents © 2019 by Crain Communications Inc.

for attention — even during a 1-31 stretch that was the worst in NFL history — the trade for Odell Beckham Jr. that was finalized on March 13 raised the hype to NBA player introduction levels.

TV networks are fighting over a team that still hasn’t had a winning record since 2007, and season-ticket sales likely are going to be capped, which hasn’t happened since Johnny Manziel was drafted in 2014.

It’s much too soon to know if Beckham, a 26-year-old wide receiver, was the missing piece of Cleveland’s first Super Bowl trip. What is clear is the Browns again are prominent primetime players.

The team hasn’t played on “Sunday Night Football” since 2008, when the Browns were coming off a 10-win season, and hasn’t been a part of “Monday Night Football” since 2015.

SEE BECKHAM, PAGE 26

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By Lydia Coutré lcoutre@crain.com @LydiaCoutre

An aging population and the more than doubling of new cases of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias projected by midcentury has fueled demand for prevention of and treatment for these conditions.

And momentum is growing.

The National Institutes of Health has increased research funding for Alzheimer’s and dementia five-fold since 2011, this year investing $2.3 billion in such research.

Northeast Ohio is seeing its share of that growing funding, with several multimillion-dollar grants awarded

to institutions and researchers in the past few months.

“It’s been a very good couple of years here in Cleveland in terms of NIH funding for our research,” said Dr. James Leverenz, director of the Cleveland Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health at the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute.

Cleveland could see another big win for this research soon. Several institutions in the region are working together to try to create a potential NIH-funded Alzheimer’s research center. The institutions — Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center and MetroHealth — expect to hear from the NIH soon.

SEE DEMENTIA, PAGE 24

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CONTENT

SPONSORED BY

NEWS AND TRENDS FROM NORTHEAST OHIO’S TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

TECH MATTERS THE EVOLVING FIELD OF TECH

OHTEC TECH WEEK OFFERS MIX OF FAMILIAR, NEW EVENTS

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his year’s Tech Week, set for April 8-12, features a mashup of established and new events throughout Northeast Ohio aimed at elevating the region’s technology community.

“We are really excited about the mix of traditional and new events that raise awareness of and promote the talented technology sector in Northeast Ohio,” said Doug Wenger, OHTec executive in residence.

AMONG THE MAIN EVENTS: ■ MONDAY, APRIL 8. Breakthrough! A panel discussion with local women developers and tech leaders. — 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., Greater Cleveland Partnership, 1240 Huron Road, Cleveland. A conversation about the resources and networks the panelists have either counseled, created or curated that help propel women into careers in technology.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Ramesh Kanjinghat is a lead software engineer at Cleveland-based FormFire who oversees the efforts of the development group, mentors team members and architects and develops new feature functionalities. While software engineers continue to be one of the most in-demand positions within the technology field, the industry is also experiencing an increased need for customer-facing IT positions, creating more pathways into the field.

F

or every dollar spent on a coding position, there is a two-fold spend on customer-interfacing jobs at Cleveland-based FormFire. The positions range from product strategist, IT operations and user interface designer, to the newer and increasingly relevant role of the customer success associate. The combination of technical expertise and client communication skills are essential for employees engaging with brokers, employers and those who use the health insurance benefits platform.

“You often hear, ‘it’s all about the code, silly.’ But it’s not all about the code when you have customers. When you’re interpreting a product to customers, there’s a lot more customer support required than you would think, particularly when the software is part of a solution,” said managing partner Colin Ingram.

The cross-section of infrastructure expertise and product knowledge illustrate the increasing range of job opportunities and skills needs in demand at companies such as FormFire and in the technology field in general. The evolution and sophistication of careers in technology mean that companies are getting more creative with recruiting and nurturing talent, a strategy that is essential in a growing sector that faces a persistent local talent crunch.

“We are looking beyond school qualifications when we are identifying and grooming talent in our customer success roles,” Ingram said.

“Capacity, intellectual horsepower, analytical reasoning, natural curiosity and a person’s sense of logic and empathy are as important as a person’s hard-core use and understanding of technology. Customer-interfacing individuals need those qualities in order to interpret and

A PRODUCT OF

2019 Tech Matters-3-25.indd 1

BIG DATA In Northeast Ohio, the number of filled jobs in computer IT increased 30.1% between 2010-19, which was on par with the national average of 30.8% and above the state increase of 28.6%. The most notable occupational increases included information security analysts (+86%), applications software developers (+78%), web developers and computer user support specialists (both +42%). The only employment declines were computer programmers (-33%) and systems software developers (-6%).

SOURCE: EMSI. DATA WERE ANALYZED FOR CARROLL, CUYAHOGA, GEAUGA, LAKE, LORAIN, MEDINA, PORTAGE, STARK AND SUMMIT COUNTIES.

IT PAYS TO WORK IN TECH In 2017, Ohio’s technology industry cluster’s average annual pay was $84,922, which was 75% higher than the statewide private industry average annual wage of $48,577.

SOURCE: OHIO DEPARTMENT OF JOB AND FAMILY SERVICES

problem-solve a customer’s need for a solution.”

At Richfield-based OEC, the profile of employees who have a solid understanding of the product and business side of tech includes business intelligence engineers, quality assurance specialists, product managers, product owners, scrum masters, and user experience and user interface designers, said Amy Jacko, senior recruiter.

“Five or six years ago, we didn’t even have a UX or UI business intelligence team,” she said. “We have a lot of openings in business intelligence,” which reflect the combination of strategy and tools needed to drive actionable insight into the needs of their customers.

OEC, which provides software to automotive and truck dealerships that facilitates the sale of original equipment parts, employs about 330 individuals in the U.S. and 1,000 worldwide.

The company has been intentional about its recruitment efforts, working closely with local

CRAIN CONTENT STUDIO C l eve l a n d

high schools and higher education institutions such as Baldwin Wallace University, as well as local coding boot camps to help infill the breadth of IT talent that represents 45% of its overall workforce.

OEC’s eight-month internship program also has been valuable in supplanting IT talent need. Last year, OEC hired 50% of its interns into full-time positions, an increase over the previous year when the company hired 40%.

The evolving technology landscape and spawn of new technical and customer-facing positions also has impacted the types of qualities OEC looks for in potential recruits.

“Anyone working in technology has to have a strong business acumen,” said Jennifer Schee, director of human resources. “We create software to solve a business need, so it’s critical that our teams can operate in an agile, iterative culture. More than ever, communication is critical.”

■ MONDAY, APRIL 8. Tech Tank – Advisory.

— 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Greater Cleveland Partnership. An advisory group of chief information officers and other technology executives will be meeting with a select group of established technology companies at this soldout event. The group will provide advisory input and guidance to help participants improve their business and grow.

■ TUESDAY, APRIL 9. RITE Site Visit Program (RSVP). – 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. As part of the RSVP program, the Cleveland Clinic’s Worldwide Classroom is being presented in a one-hour webinar, featuring a team from the Cleveland Clinic’s IT Department. (To register, go to ccf.org/wwclassroom.)

■ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10. Advancing your IT career.

— 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., The Bit Factory, 526 S. Main St., Akron. Interested in growing or developing a career in tech? A team of panelists, including a CIO, a tech recruiter and an associate dean will talk about what employers are looking for and what kind of education or experience is required to meet the career requirements.

■ THURSDAY, APRIL 11. Best of Tech Awards.

— 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Burke Lakefront Airport, 1501 N. Marginal Road, Cleveland.

Tech Week’s signature event returns with a twist. This event will be held at an airport hangar and will feature new award categories aimed at recognizing companies, products and leaders throughout the region.

■ FRIDAY, APRIL 12. HR IT roundtable.

— 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., Greater Cleveland Partnership. Industry professionals will come together with higher education institutions to identify specific actions to implement that will increase the quantity and quality of IT interns and graduates. Space is limited.

Visit techweekneo.com for a full calendar of Tech Week events.

This advertising-supported feature is produced by Crain Content Studio-Cleveland, the marketing storytelling arm of Crain’s Cleveland Business. The Crain’s Cleveland Business newsroom is not involved in creating Crain Content Studio content.

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Port’s new operator could pump up volume

By Jay Miller jmiller@crain.com @millerjh

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority will start the upcoming shipping season with a new general cargo handler.

Montreal-based Logistec Corp. will become exclusive marine terminal operator as of April 1. Port Authority officials believe Logistec will help expand the Port of Cleveland’s cargo handling operations.

Since 2017, Logistec has operated the 45-acre Cleveland Bulk Terminal (CBT) on Whiskey Island west of the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, which receives iron ore and limestone coming from the Upper Great Lakes. From there, the material heads upriver by shortline railroad or smaller ships, much of it to the Arcelor Mittal steel mill.

At the time, David Gutheil, the Port Authority’s chief commercial officer, told Crain’s that the Port Authority was looking for a partner whose primary business was cargo handling.

Until that time, the CBT was managed by the Carmeuse Group, a Belgian mining company that purchased the Oglebay Norton Co., the longtime operator, in 2008. Oglebay Norton was a 150-year-old Cleveland company that mined limestone in Michigan, in addition to managing the CBT. Now, Logistec will operate the docks and warehouses of the general cargo terminal on the east side of the river. It replaces longtime operator Federal Marine Terminals Inc., a subsidiary of Fednav Ltd., a Montreal shipping firm.

Unlike Fednav or Carmeuse, marine shipping is Logistec’s main business. It operates in 37 ports on the U.S. Gulf Coast and in Canada. The local port is its first foray onto the U.S. side of the Great Lakes.

“It was a natural relationship,” said Jade Davis, the Port Authority’s vice president for external affairs, in an interview at the port’s office at the foot of West Ninth Street, overlooking the docks. “They had a beachhead here (at CBT), and we wanted a company that was very aggressive in getting new cargo.”

Low-end commodity steel in coils and plates produced in Europe has been the primary freight of ships dropping cargo at the lakefront docks. The port also receives what the industry calls project and breakbulk cargo. Project cargo is high-value equipment or components, while break-bulk cargo is boxes, bags or barrels shipped on pallets.

The Port Authority also has built a modest container shipping business, called the Cleveland-Europe Express, and when firms drill for oil and gas in Eastern Ohio it has been a staging site for oil and gas piping.

At a Port Authority board of directors meeting on March 7, Port Authority and Logistec officials laid out a plan to expand the reach of the port by seeking to encourage shippers in southern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and Indiana to export or import through the Cleveland port.

In a phone interview, Frank Vannelli, a senior vice president of Logistec Stevedoring, the company’s dock managing business, said the company came to respect the work of the Port Authority staff in its two years of operating the CBT and to believe it can build the volume of cargo handled at the Cleveland port.

“When you look at the anchor cargo there now, several hundred thousand tons of (imported) steel to begin your program with is phenomenal,” he

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said.“Off of that, you can build by going out and creating business opportunities by looking at the other commodities you can bring to and from that location. That’s the intrigue in Cleveland. It’s very strategic (for Logistec) to be on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes.”

In an earlier email, Vannelli said Logistec was planning to set up a facility for processing break-bulk cargo that can be delivered by truck or rail to final destinations.

Vannelli also wrote that his company sees an opportunity to attract shippers of commodities that are transported in what he called “heavy-lift jumbo bags.” Heavy-lift bags are used to ship flowable products such as chemicals, fertilizers and pigment solids. The company also sees an oppor-

Logistec Corp. will be the Port of Cleveland’s exclusive marine terminal operator. (Contributed)

tunity to export more finished steel.

Cargo volumes were down at the Port of Cleveland in 2018 from a year earlier, an outcome foreseen by Port Authority president and CEO Wil-

liam Friedman as the shipping season began last year and the Trump administration started imposing tariffs, especially on Canada, a major trading partner.

Both Logistec and the Port Authority see an opportunity for the Port of Cleveland to be a base for imported wind-turbine components.

“We’re very much trying to set ourselves apart in the wind energy business, especially with the Leedco project hanging out there,” said Davis, referring to the six-turbine wind trial the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. is planning for offshore in Lake Erie. “And also getting more outbound steel going through our port.

We still make a lot of stuff in Ohio.”

Leedco’s project, called Icebreaker Wind, is awaiting approval from the

Ohio Power Siting Board. If approved, turbine parts would be delivered to the Port of Cleveland for partial assembly before construction on Lake Erie. Friedman is a member of the Leedco board.

Davis said the Port Authority believes the Icebreaker Wind cargo could be the first of many wind turbine deliveries as the Midwest adopts wind power.

The first vessel to arrive at the Port of Cleveland after the St. Lawrence Seaway opens, which has been announced for March 26, is expected to be a freighter from the Polish Polska Zegluga Morska, known as Polsteam.

The arrival time is not yet posted, but it takes a freighter 62 hours to reach the Port of Cleveland after it enters the St. Lawrence Seaway.

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Voss LLC, a manufacturer in Ohio City since the 1950s, has purchased a building and plans to move to Berea.

The company said it hopes to occupy one property but that it has not determined if some functions may remain in Ohio City. (Stan Bullard)

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West Side stalwart Voss Industries buys Berea plant

By Stan Bullard sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter

Voss Industries LLC, a manufacturer of clamps and related items for aerospace and associated uses, is preparing to move its 267 jobs and $11 million yearly payroll from its Cleveland plant to Berea.

The unit of Fullerton, Calif.-based Consolidated Aerospace Manufacturing LLC confirmed in an email to Crain’s that it plans to relocate to a more modern plant at 1000 West Bagley Road. The current facility is at 2168 West 25th St. “We do not know yet whether we will retain a presence in Ohio City, mostly due to variables in growth and acquisition, but it would be desired to be in a single location,” the email said.

Voss said it needed room to expand to meet anticipated demand for its products. The company said it was unable to find a vacant, modern plant in Cleveland that met its needs.

The location of its Ohio City home, should Voss vacate it fully, would put a major property into play on the southern edge of the West 25th entertainment district.

Voss is in a large, four-story building with a total of 239,000 square feet of office and industrial space. It also uses two large parking lots nearby for its employees. Voss has been on the site since 1957, and the main element of the structure dates from the 1930s.

The Voss email said, “The city of Berea welcomed us and provided support to help make the project work for both our company and the local community.”

Voss confirmed the move after the empty 95,000-square-foot building on 16 acres at 1000 W. Bagley was purchased Wednesday, March 13, by Bagley Road LLC for an undisclosed

amount from 1000 W. Bagley Road LLC, according to Cuyahoga County online property records.

The seller is an affiliate of Premier Development LLC, a real estate ownership and development firm in Cleveland, land records show.

The Premier affiliate had paid $3.35 million to buy the single-story building from Eaton Aeroquip LLC, a unit of Eaton Corp., on Nov. 30, 2017.

Eaton had shed about 100 jobs in 2016 when it shut the hydraulics plant in Berea.

Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem said in a phone interview that he is excited

The income tax incentive is also based on the company adding employees so its staff grows by 58 workers and its payroll increases to $17 million three years after it sets up shop in the suburb.

If Voss meets all the requirements, the mayor of Berea may forgive the company from repaying the incentive in 2029.

The legislation indicates Voss intends to invest about $5 million in construction, new equipment, moving and other costs not including the building’s purchase price.

Voss said it expects to be operating in Berea in a year or 18 months.

“We don’t actively pursue any The existing company to leave another Voss plant and community. In this case, I see it as headquarters is not owned by the keeping the company and jobs in company.

Instead, its owner the county and state.” is Apocalypse Development — Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem LLC of Cleveabout the company moving to his land, which was formed by former town because its workforce is so executives of Voss and at least one of much larger than Eaton had in the their estates. structure.

Tom McNair, executive director of Kleem said the city provided an in- the Ohio City Inc. nonprofit local decome tax incentive to Voss after the velopment corporation, refused to company contacted the suburb and speculate on potential uses of the said it was looking at a property in Voss building until he receives forthe suburb south of Cleveland. mal notice the company will exit the “When we found out they were neighborhood. looking to leave Cleveland and were “Voss has been a valued longtime looking at a Berea location, we were tenant in the neighborhood,” McNair very excited to work with them,” Kl- said. “If it does leave, we’ll be happy eem said. “We don’t actively pursue to work with whoever took over that any company to leave another com- property and ensure it would be a munity. In this case, I see it as keep- productive use for the neighboring the company and jobs in the hood.” county and state.”

The Voss email said the company The legislation Berea City Council manufactures highly engineered adopted Feb. 19, providing the in- products for the aerospace, defense come tax incentive, said Voss also and industrial markets. Its products might have expanded to an out-of- have been designed for use on the space shuttle, as well as major comstate location.

The suburb agreed to remit to Voss mercial aerospace and military plat1.2% of the city’s 2% income tax an- forms. Among its products are nually as well as provide a utility clamps, couplings and flanges. grant, due to substantial investments The company said it is currently in upgrading the building’s electrical recruiting to fill jobs in design engisystem, three years after the compa- neering, manufacturing engineering ny moves into Berea. The incentives and continuous improvement, as total $561,000 over 10 years, accord- well as welding, computer-controlled machining and maintenance. ing to city documents.

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Signet LLC adds CEO to real estate group

By Stan Bullard sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter

Signet LLC, the diversified investment firm that constructed $5 billion in properties while growing from its construction roots to owning varied operating companies, is taking steps to boost productivity in its core realty business.

The Akron-based concern has reorganized its real estate group and recently brought in Tracy Green, the retired founder and president of IRG Realty Advisors, as the unit’s first CEO. Signet also elevated Jason Perry, the president of its development unit, to president of its real estate group.

Tony Manna, Signet principal and chairman, said that over time, the company has grown by word of mouth among clients who need sophisticated or complex real estate and construction expertise, moving into various realty enterprises along the way. “(Green) has shown over the years he can work with various disciplines in real estate, and we are excited about the leadership and growth he can bring,” Manna said.

Ken Krismanth, Signet principal and CEO, said that as the company grew on a deal-by-deal basis, it

wound up having silos with individual leadership for its real estate development, economic development and property management practices.

“We want the real estate units to work more cooperatively and strategically to extract the value of each unit separately and together and as a team,” Krismanth said. “This is the first time we have put together an effort to have overarching management of the group.”

Mark Corr, the other principal of Signet and its chief operating officer, said in a phone interview last Thursday, March 21, that as the company’s realty ventures grew they needed more and more day-to-day management. All told, Signet has almost 70 people in its real estate operations, including a total of eight added over the last year in Akron and Jacksonville, Fla. Corr said, “We’ve made a concerted effort to balance our six operating companies and the real estate operations. We recognized over time that the efforts of the principals are best spent on (firmwide) strategic issues, networking and governance.”

The other challenging aspect of Green’s assignment is the variety of types of projects Signet pursues. They frequently are not typical deals. The firm often partners with medical institutions and universities, such as a

Krismanth

Manna

Corr

proton therapy center in Atlanta, which was followed by others in multiple locations and student housing.

Most recently, in partnership with The Village of St. Edward, a Fairlawn

“We’ve made a concerted effort to balance our six operating companies and the real estate operations.”

— Mark Corr, Signet COO

nonprofit, it opened a $22 million senior living facility in Wadsworth.

Moreover, Signet has capabilities in investment banking and raising capital that, Manna said, “other developers couldn’t or wouldn’t want to bring to the table.”

Green

One of Green’s tasks, Krismanth said, will be to put Signet into more traditional, market-driven real estate projects such as industrial or office properties that can be scalable.

For his part, Green said the opportunity to learn the health care and college markets was attractive.

“The types of projects that put Signet on the map are not areas where I have spent a lot of time,” he said. “Intellectually, it is a different type of company from what I’ve worked with in the past, while the fundamentals of property management and real estate are the same. The other aspect was the strong desire of the principals to grow the company. It’s really a perfect fit for the fourth quarter of my career.”

Green, 55, retired last year as president of IRG Realty Advisors of Richfield, the property management arm of Industrial Realty Group of Redondo Beach, Calif. Green had founded the

unit in 2001 as ORG Realty Advisors and grew it to 70 properties in 30 states.

In 2014, it was acquired by one of its largest clients, developers Stuart Lichter and Midwest partner Industrial Commercial Properties of Solon, and Green remained with the company.

Prior to that, he had worked for Grubb & Ellis Co., now Newmark Knight Frank, and Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. “I wasn’t immediately looking for another opportunity,” Green said, “but I still have a lot of desire to help a company grow. I was fortunate to be introduced to them. I was impressed by their pipeline of deals.”

Getting a recent email from Green with a Signet logo surprised Alec Pacella, a former colleague who is president of the Medina-based NAI Pleasant Valley Realty Corp. brokerage and management firm.

“I immediately called him and said I thought he was going to be sitting on a beach somewhere,” Pacella said. “He said (Signet) talked him out of it. Obviously, it was an interesting proposition for him and got his juices going.”

Pacella described Green as an energetic, creative problem-solver.

“His strongest skill is probably in terms of leadership,” Pacella said. “It will be interesting to see what he does at Signet.”

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SITE Centers Corp. executives operate Retail Value Inc. out of the firm’s Beachwood headquarters and its New York office. (CoStar)

Shopping center firm lands $900 million loan

By Stan Bullard sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter

Retail Value Inc., the public company that Beachwood-based SITE Centers Corp. formed last year to shed properties, has secured a $900 million loan to refinance the $1.35 billion loan it got last year to create the spinoff.

RVI, the stock symbol for RVI, announced in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing March 11 that it had entered into a new loan with Frankfurt, Germany-based Deutsche Bank’s Column Financial unit to replace the larger loan secured in 2018.

The balance of the loan was reduced by $408 million as RVI whittled its portfolio from 48 to 36 shopping centers since it was formed last July 2.

RVI said the new loan extends the term of the debt to 2021 from 2020 and gives the company the option to extend the interest-only loan annually for as much as three more years. In the SEC filing, RVI said the new loan is at a better interest rate and is more flexible than the original loan.

Richard Hill, a Morgan Stanley equity analyst who follows real estate investment trusts, said in a March 13 note that the new loan gives the company greater flexibility to sell properties and set a minimum debt repayment ratio at 10% before the lender can directly collect rents from the properties. Previously that ratio was 12%.

Joe McBride, director of research

P005_CL_20190325.indd 5

and applied data at mortgage information provider Trepp LLC of New York City, said in an email that a strategic financing move such as the one RVI just completed helps the REIT maximize proceeds through how it handles the debt, in addition to what returns property sales generate.

“It will likely take another few years to sell the properties off completely, so they might as well refinance the old debt before its maturity and lock in a more favorable cost of financing,” McBride wrote.

The new loan’s interest rate is 4.5%.

The original loan’s rate was 5.07%, although both change in tandem with the industry’s standard, the LIBOR, or London Interchange Bank Offered Rate, according to RVI’s March 11 filing and the original SEC filing on the loan on Feb. 11, 2018.

In a March 5 SEC filing, six days before the new loan was finalized, RVI estimated the value of the remaining portfolio at $1.9 billion after depreciation. However, the company hopes to secure more than that based on the sale prices it may obtain for the assets.

RVI closed Thursday, March 21, at $32.21 a share, up 3% from its initial closing on June 25, 2018, of $31.20 a share.

SITE Centers, formerly DDR Corp., operates RVI, which it formed to allow management of SITE Centers and investors to focus on remaining shopping centers it retained because they are grocery or neighborhood-service oriented or have potential for redevelopment.

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Akron’s leadership instability creates ‘Interim U’

By Rachel Abbey McCafferty rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

The University of Akron is in the midst of a presidential search, its third in about five years. That’s tumultuous enough for a university.

But in addition to being led by an interim president, six of its colleges — soon to be seven — are being led by interim deans.

“It’s really problematic to have so many interim administrators,” said interim president John Green. “In fact, some of our colleagues, in an only half-joking way, describe this as Interim U.” Although Green has certainly not shied away from making or propos-

ing changes, he said such leadership instability makes it difficult for people to plan for the future.

The University of Akron has 11 colleges and schools. Right now, six of them are being led by interim deans: the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences, the LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education, the College of Engineering, the College of Health Professions, the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering and the Williams Honors College. The College of Business Administration will soon join those ranks, as dean Ravi Krovi has submitted his resignation and will step down at the end of June.

That will leave four colleges or schools at the University of Akron with non-interim leadership: the Graduate School and the School of Law, as well

as the College of Applied Science and Technology and Wayne College, the university’s regional branch campus.

But the deans of the College of Applied Science and Technology and Wayne College also hold interim roles at the College of Health Professions and the College of Education, respectively.

And it’s not just an issue at the highest levels of leadership. It’s a concern that extends all the way to the level of department chair and school director, where a number of those roles are also interim.

The instability in leadership makes it difficult to do any kind of strategic planning, said Pamela Schulze, president of the Akron chapter of the American Association of University Professors and a professor of child and family development. When new leaders come

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in, they often have their own ideas.

The lack of permanent leadership at the school director or department chair level leaves those programs and their faculty without someone to advocate for them, Schulze added. In order to advocate for a program, someone needs to truly understand it: its courses, its accreditation standards. That can be difficult if someone is from outside the department or if they’re balancing multiple chair roles or a chair role with a dean-level role, as some in the university are.

“The bargaining unit, the chapter, has been making the case for a long time that all this interim leadership is hurting us, and it’s hurting programs, at a time when we can’t afford it,” Schulze said.

The university has been in this state for such a long time that it’s

practically the “norm,” said Linda Saliga, chair of Faculty Senate and a professor of mathematics.

Often, the term interim means someone who’s just in place to keep things running, Saliga noted. But that hasn’t necessarily been the case for this most recent round of interim deans. She pointed to the new Urban STEM Education Center at the College of Education, which opened under an interim dean, as an example.

“Luckily, most of the interim deans are actually trying to move things forward. They really are acting as a true dean,” Saliga said.

Jarrod Tudor said the College of Education has not been in a holding pattern in the more than a year and a half he’s been its interim dean. The college was facing accreditation, and that required immediate teamwork. It’s also revitalized its H. Kenneth Barker Center for Economic Education and the Center for Literacy, in addition to launching the Urban STEM Education Center.

“Everybody’s an interim. Nobody gets to hold these jobs for life, so we’re all interims,” said Tudor, who’s also dean of Wayne College. “But you run it as if you are the permanent dean, because the work of the university has to continue, and the development of a college, be it Wayne College or the College of Education, has to move forward no matter what.”

At the College of Health Professions, Elizabeth Kennedy is in her second year as interim dean. She’s also dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology, a professor of social science and a fellow of the Institute for Life-Span Development and Gerontology.

The college hadn’t had a dean for a “significant” period of time, she said, and had lost some other administrators.

She said she views her role as ensuring the college is running at “top speed” and making the position of dean an attractive one for her successor.

That means she hasn’t waited to move forward with initiatives such as strengthening relationships with health care providers in the community or the approval of a new program in allied health administration.

Though Green doesn’t view the leadership instability as a good thing, he does see some potential silver linings. For one, though the university’s reorganization talks are currently on hold, if Akron was to move forward with establishing some new colleges, the university would want to open up searches for new deans. For another, the university’s next president would have the chance to name a number of deans and build his or her own team.

The search for the next president is underway and a new president could be in place as early as this fall, Green said. But it’s more likely that someone will start after the fall semester or after the next academic year, as candidates will likely have academic jobs already.

Green said he hopes to recommend the university move forward with some searches for deans at the next board of trustees meeting in April. He added he thinks the university can begin looking for leaders for colleges that wouldn’t be affected by the current reorganization proposal, such as the College of Education or the College of Business Administration.

“In one way, it’s attractive to just leave them interim and let the new president deal with them,” Green said.

“But because I might be here another year, I don’t want to wait just for waiting’s sake. If there’s some good reason, we can wait. We’ve made a lot of progress here in the last couple of years and some of our colleges are ready to move.

All they need is leadership.”

3/22/19 11:54 AM

Growth by Design

CONTENT SPONSORED BY

Next month: The transforming role of economic development

Strong regional network relationships foster attractive business environment ALIGNING STRATEGIES, LEVERAGING STRENGTHS, TAKING AIM AT COMMON GOALS

By ANNIE ZALESKI

CRAIN CONTENT STUDIO-CLEVELAND

In 2018, a high-tech electronics company operating in the aerospace industry found itself at a crossroads. The growing firm “had secured a number of large long-term contracts with major aircraft manufacturers,” says Team NEO senior vice president Jay Foran, but it was facing a potential obstacle: A piece of technology that was crucial to their product’s successful operation was becoming scarce across the global marketplace.

However, after the company connected with Team NEO and two of its economic development partners -- the Greater Cleveland Partnership and JobsOhio -- the firm’s fortunes changed. Working together, the trio helped the company create a pathway to develop and produce the technology themselves in Northeast Ohio. “Most important, we were able to assemble financial resources through JobsOhio that would help the company meet stringent development and production requirements,” Foran says. The assistance provided was a clear win-win for all: The technology strengthened the company’s sustainability, while the region and state gained another key global manufacturing capability.

This success story not only illustrates how Northeast Ohio can strengthen its economy by encouraging the development of new technologies, it embodies the strategic way these three economic development organizations “cultivate investment opportunities in the Cleveland area,” says Team NEO’s director of network engagement Steve Fritsch. This strategic alignment is key: When economic development organizations do this — and then leverage their unique capabilities and effectively deliver them to companies — the region can successfully attract businesses, create jobs, nurture a talent pipeline and provide support for existing firms.

“Doing that consistently will allow us to reshape our economy and regional assets over time, creating a more vibrant economy,” says Team NEO CEO Bill Koehler.

A TEAM EFFORT These collaborative economic development efforts appear in practice as multiple organizations pooling together their unique resources and expertise, which fosters a business environment amenable to attraction, retention and expansion. Business-driven economic development efforts are strengthened by team-based collaboration — in no small part because forging partnerships ensures that state, regional and local initiatives are moving on parallel paths toward shared goals, and the right resources are dedicated to

For a breakdown of NEO’s economic development engine, go to CrainsCleveland.com/ econengine

creating an attractive business environment.

“Because we’re working as a team, it allows the company kind of one-stop shopping, if you will,” says Dana Saucier, vice president and head of economic development at JobsOhio, an organization dedicated to statewide business development. “They can engage with us as a team and they really can get all their needs met, as opposed to trying to work separately throughout the full economic development process. It’s very business friendly.”

This work also helps determine whether economic development activities and resources are best applied through regional organizations, or delivered via local means.

For example, recent strategies implemented in the Akron and Canton areas — called Elevate Akron and Strengthening Stark, respectively — “are community-created competitiveness strategies, developed by many stakeholders from the government, education, business and philanthropic sectors,” Fritsch says. Both of these strategies emerged out of community members realizing that changes were needed in order for the metro areas to be more competitive.

“We needed more than coordination improvements,” says Christine Mayer, president of GAR Foundation, which helped fund Elevate Akron. “We needed to update the playbook with practices that address the economic realities of today and tomorrow.”

Yet, what would help the Akron area polish its best practices is different from what might benefit even its nearby neighbor, Canton — a city located in Stark County, where industry strengths include metal manufacturing, petrochemicals and shale. Although it might be tempting to try and shoehorn regions into cookie-cutter initiatives, communities benefit by focusing on initiatives that enhance their unique attributes. Team NEO’s Koehler stresses that optimizing economic development success in Northeast Ohio “requires that we find the right balance in honoring unique qualities of each market while leveraging common practices throughout

A VIBRANT ECONOMY A region’s growth and prosperity increases when business attraction activities are spread out across multiple different sectors. “Economies that lack diversification are more susceptible to downturns and recessions, and often lack the critical factors we think of as being associated with vibrancy: the creation of new firms and jobs; the transition to new processes and products; and long-term sustained economic health,” says Jacob Duritsky, vice president of strategy and research at Team NEO. “Consciously working to strengthen our economic base while developing strategies for greater diversification over time will be critical drivers of Northeast Ohio’s economic trajectory.”

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Catch up on this series at CrainsCleveland.com/ TeamNEO

“Targeted calling and strategic discussions with companies, supported by aligned efforts, can change the business landscape over time.”

Bill Koehler CEO, Team NEO

the entire region.”

To Ray Hexamer, president of the Stark Economic Development Board, maintaining individuality matters as much as having access to broader expertise. “JobsOhio and Team NEO provide us with industry knowledge in those areas (of strength); connections because of their networking to the people in that industry; and funding,” he says. Having business-related assistance tailored specifically to those areas allows them to close deals that might otherwise be unattainable. “For Stark County to do that on their own, we could not do that,” Hexamer adds. “But if we have those resources behind us from the state level and from the region, it helps us save jobs — or grow jobs — in our community.”

PROACTIVELY CREATING OPPORTUNITIES The state, regional and local economic development organizations share a penchant for taking a proactive approach to business attraction, retention and expansion.

On a state level, JobsOhio keeps in close contact with job creators — Saucier estimates it visited 3,000 companies in 2018 — to keep tabs on potential projects and unique solutions through experts and organizations connected to JobsOhio’s targeted industry sectors, which include aerospace and manufacturing. “There might be something that’s triggering an interest, or we think that there could be an opportunity for a particular company,” Saucier explains.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership also has implemented its own strategic plan, Forward CLE, with an initiative centered on robust business support. “We’re conducting 1,000 (workplace) visits this year,” said Marty McGann, GCP’s senior vice president of government advocacy and strategic initiatives. “We drastically upped our touchpoints.”

As that demonstrates, Northeast Ohio’s economic development system is investing resources to encourage more of these activities. “Targeted calling and strategic discussions with companies, supported by aligned efforts, can change the business landscape over time,” Koehler says.

Consistent, strategic outreach to companies also amplifies the region’s economic development efforts, Foran says, because it “positions the economic development players to pursue the most strategic opportunities for growth and economic impact, while ensuring that the complete set of services available are delivered to companies in the most valued and efficient way.”

At the end of the day, aligning state, regional and local strategies, in tandem with executing effective outreach, strengthens companies and allows them to access unique resources that can accelerate or remove obstacles to growth in the Northeast Ohio economy.

This advertising-supported feature is produced by Crain Content Studio-Cleveland, the marketing storytelling arm of Crain’s Cleveland Business.

The Crain’s Cleveland Business newsroom is not involved in creating Crain Content Studio content.

NEO March v6.indd 1

3/20/19 9:20 AM

PA G E 8

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M A R C H 2 5 - 31, 2 019 |

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Cannabis school growing, operating in black

By Jeremy Nobile jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile

Cleveland School of Cannabis founder and CEO Austin Briggs expects the demand for his students “to grow rapidly.” (Contributed photo)

Chamber of Commerce and the related jobs board, Ohio420Jobs.com.

Acutely aware of this demand, the CSC is currently preparing for its first expansion, to a Columbus branch at 3700 Corporate Drive, Suite 125.

Tours and open houses are being hosted there until courses start up this summer.

There are other groups breaking into the educational front, of course.

Some programs are offered exclusive-

Ohio’s share of the total U.S. legal cannabis market

Potential jobs in the cannabis industry, by market share 5.6%

6%

50,000

5%

40,000

4% 3% 2% 1% 0.2% 0

2025

45,677

2018

30,000

Number of jobs

Projected Ohio percentage of U.S. market

Jobs in the cannabis field, which, according to some reports, are paying about 11% more than the current U.S. median salary, are in high demand as regulatory barriers come down and state-backed programs for marijuana and hemp industries open up.

So it’s a good time to get into the business of bud.

But it’s possibly an even better time to be in the business of training its burgeoning workforce.

That’s where the Cleveland School of Cannabis comes in, the only state-approved cannabis career school in Ohio and seemingly the only one of its kind in this half of the United States.

Getting up and running and securing state approval were their own challenges for founder and CEO Austin Briggs, whose school launched its first classes in January 2017.

CSC effectively operated at a deficit through its first 18 months before inching its way into the black last summer. Briggs chalks up much of that to the school not having a full program its first year, coupled with the time it took to get the word out.

The school logged revenue of $1.125 million in 2018, compared to $360,000 the year prior (some who took classes in 2017 were still paying those off the following year).

Business should only pick up for CSC from here as Ohio’s marijuana industry takes shape with cultivators, processors and dispensaries all slowly coming online. Those groups — in addition to marijuana-related businesses that don’t actually touch the plant — are clamoring for skilled workers, said Jeff LaFollette, founder of the Ohio Regional Cannabis

’18 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’23 ’24 ’25

SOURCE: New Frontier

20,000 10,000 0

6,180

1% 2% 5% U.S. market share

SOURCE: New Frontier

ideas ideals impact

ly online, such as through Cannabis Training University’s Ohio Marijuana College (CSC offers online courses as well). Other groups, like HempStaff, which recruits cannabis job seekers in 33 states, have hosted training seminars in areas across Ohio.

While online-only courses and pop-up programs serve a role, the CSC is unique as a physical, state-approved trade school, which has helped it align with various marijuana businesses here, including cultivators such as Buckeye Relief and Cresco Labs and dispensary brands like Terrasana and The Botanist. The school has internship programs with those firms and several others in Ohio that say they are either already drawing staff from CSC or plan to.

“Buckeye Relief interns, many of whom are CSC graduates, are the backbone of our trim and packaging teams,” said Bryan Procek, Buckeye Relief’s post-cultivation director. “We provide training and opportunities to take shifts in each department in our facility. We need all hands on deck for long hours on harvest days, and the interns consistently show up ready to work with a great attitude.”

While estimates vary, research firm New Frontier Data projects Ohio's medical cannabis field alone could surpass 30,000 jobs by 2025.

“So that’s our plan, to partner with companies with pretty aggressive growth plans so we can continue to fill their bottom line with employees and fuel their growth,” Briggs said.

CSC currently has 115 students enrolled in programs and has graduated 111. There are roughly 10 full-time staff today and about 16 instructors.

The school began tracking job-placement rates last summer and reports that 65% of grads since then are currently employed or in paid internships.

“Many of these students could be employed if they were willing to move,

but they are waiting for licensees to open closer to their homes,” Briggs said.

“More licensees are passing inspections every week, and we expect the demand for employees to grow rapidly.”

The school offers three separate programs today — cannabis horticulture, dispensary training and medical applications — and a fourth “executive” program that combines those three. As it plots expansion, CSC is preparing to roll out two additional programs. In the works are a marijuana processing major, which will be a strong focus at the Columbus branch, plus an industrial hemp and cannabidiol (CBD) major.

Ohio is one of a few states that failed to launch a hemp pilot program years ago, which has forced some hemp businesspeople here — including Cleveland’s Garett Fortune, CEO of FunkSac, HempSac and other brands — to establish related business in other states, such as Nevada.

But with efforts underway to pass a hemp bill in Ohio, that’s expected to be the next big industry to unfold here.

“Cannabis is going to create a lot of jobs, and not just in the medical industry. Hemp is right behind it,” said LaFollete. “That will be the next big wave, so we’ll need to educate people in the hemp industry.”

Briggs said ongoing plans call for CSC to expand into two new states with medical marijuana programs through 2021. On his radar are Florida and New Jersey.

Achieving that could mean pooling some dollars from private investors, as banks won’t finance a marijuana-related business because of federal laws.

“What CSC is doing is absolutely needed. Who knows what their future is?” LaFollette said. “They could become global for all we know and maybe start getting right into these companies to train them.”

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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PA G E 9

Q&A: Cathy Fisher

Senior vice president and Business Banking regional director, Citizens Bank “The volatility we saw last year was more a normalization than a warning sign, and businesses have carried their optimism into 2019.”

In her current role, held since 2014, Cathy Fisher leads more than 50 team members providing advice and banking services to small businesses in Ohio, Michigan and western Pennsylvania. A 20-year veteran of the bank, she previously held regional manager and sales training manager roles in Citizens’ Retail Banking division. Fisher began her career in investments and insurance, specializing in business, estate and retirement planning, in roles at Benefits Plus and Prudential.

— Crain’s staff report Small-business optimism has been strong for the past year. What's carrying that optimism forward, and are there potential headwinds that might cause it to wane?

Despite some of the volatility in the market to end 2018, business owners are still feeling confident in the overall economic conditions. The volatility we saw last year was more a normalization than a warning sign, and businesses have carried their optimism into 2019. Businesses will also see the impact of tax reform this tax cycle, removing the uncertainty of anticipation and replacing it with the tangible outcome. Even though the degree of impact will vary business to business — and many are finding it to be nominal — there’s a sense of relief in at least knowing what it is.

In 2019, rising rates will continue to be a headwind for businesses.

While rates are still relatively low,

there is a certain psychological impact of an increase, whether it’s reaction to all the noise around rates or just the sticker-shock of seeing a 6% or 7% term on a loan which five years ago may have been 3% or 4%.

We also saw a decrease in optimism in response to the recent government shutdown, but I think we’ll see that confidence come back.

Small Business Administration lending has become an increasingly important source of funding for small businesses. How did the government shutdown affect businesses relying on SBA loans, and what lessons were learned from it?

In 2018, the Cleveland SBA office lent $453.6 million to 1,811 businesses in the region. Clearly, SBA loans are a critical funding source, and the shutdown interrupted access to that capital and led to a

backlog of applications.

Businesses that already had approval on their SBA loan application were still able to get their loans funded during the shutdown, so the biggest impact was to businesses with applications in progress or being initiated. This was the longest shutdown we’ve had, and it showed the ripple effect on businesses that goes beyond funding. The inability to get inspections and approvals required by other federal entities impacted businesses and their supply chains even more than the disruption to SBA funding. While the shutdown was a disruption to many businesses, I think it highlighted the need for a strong business plan with contingencies to ensure business continuity when impacted by external forces out of your control.

Digital continues to be a buzzword in many industries. What does digital mean to small businesses?

For businesses, investment in technology has continued to be a key

focus area. Whether it’s updating existing systems and equipment or leveraging new technology to create more efficiencies and bolster security, we’ve seen strong demand for lending in this area. Businesses are also finding ways to use technology to solve for related issues. For example, integrated payables platforms are making it easier to receive and disburse payments, saving businesses time and helping to manage cash flows better. Of course, this helps with accounting, but on a larger scale it helps solve broader business concerns around data management, allowing for better archiving, integration and analysis.

What's driving small-business growth in the Cleveland area?

Over the past several years, people have started to look at regions like Cleveland as burgeoning innovation hubs. In fact, Popular Mechanics previously cited our manufacturing and biotech industries as key drivers in the city’s entrepreneurial growth.

Biotech and high-tech have become mainstays of the local economy, thanks to the synergies between our small businesses and larger institutions like the Cleveland Clinic.

A great example of how this sector has taken shape is the Cleveland Health-Tech Corridor, which created an innovation community made up of health care institutions, business incubators, academic centers and high-tech and health-tech companies to drive growth and investment.

New business starts have also been promising, as evidenced by some of the capital demand we’re seeing. In 2018, 65% of the businesses that received SBA funding in the Cleveland district were new businesses. That was a nearly 40% increase from 2017.

What are the current hurdles for small-business growth here, and what’s the best path for companies to overcome them?

In a tight labor market, adding and retaining skilled workers is a challenge we’re consistently hearing about across industries. Fortunately for businesses in Northeast Ohio, we have strong workforce development programs in place, like OhioMeansJobs, which help employers connect with talent as well as helping individuals update their skills and gain exposure to new career paths. For example, this month OhioMeansjobs is hosting an In-Demand Jobs Week, highlighting opportunities in growing sectors like manufacturing and technology.

Companies can also look at investments that will allow them to train their workforce or increase the competitiveness of their offer to employees. This is where we see a lot of convergence with investments in technology. Some businesses may invest in technology that aids training and development, while others may focus on technology that enables employees to do their jobs better or creates a best-in-class employee experience.

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INSURANCE Franki Henry hasIte Paul Jones hasIte Don James hasIte Shela Time hasIte Peter Yan hasIte volo ACCOUNTING George Group volo officte volo officte volo officte volo officte officte mpossitatint Moris Law mpossitatint volut mpossitatint volut mpossitatint volut mpossitatint volut volut fugiaec tibus, GROUP Yan hasIte volo SMITH Peter Inc. fugiaec Davis tibus, sumqui fugiaec tibus, fugiaec tibus, fugiaec tibus, sumqui sumqui temposa Shela Time hasIte mpossitatint officte Don James hasIte temposa ndianti sumqui temposa sumqui temposa temposa ndianti ndianti onserrumende volo officte volut fugiaec tibus, Paul Jones hasIte officte volo volut t hasIte onserrumende se et ndianti ndianti onserrumende se et onserrumende se et se et doles doles cus, mpossitatin Frank Henry sumqui temposa volo officte volut mpossitatin tibus, sumqui doles doles cus, quaeceres erro onserrumende se et tdoles doles doles doles cus, quaeceres erro doles doles cus, quaeceres erro quaeceres erro quia de fugiaec volo officte onserrumen ndianti mpossitatint volut tibus, fugiaecerro quia quia volorehendam aut cus, quaeceres quia volorehendam aut quia volorehendam volorehendam aut moloratem temposa ndianti doles cus, mpossitatint volut se et dolesaut fugiaec tibus, temposa sumqui de se et moloratem cus net aperibus volorehendam aut moloratem moloratem cus net aperibus moloratem cus net aperibus cus net aperibus dicta nem quia onserrumen erro fugiaec tibus, et quaeceres de se sumqui temposa ndianti onserrumen cus, quaeceres erro dicta nem ligenda nditis cus net aperibus dicta nem dicta nemdoles ligenda nditis dicta nem volorehend ligenda nditis ligenda nditis endantiaesed doles am aut moloratem sumqui temposa ndianti cus, quaeceres erro doles aut am doles nem endantiaesed quos doluptur ligenda nditis endantiaesed endantiaesed quos doluptur endantiaesed quos doluptur quos doluptur sitatur doles quia volorehend ndianti cus net aperibus dicta am aut onserrumende se et doles doles quia volorehend cus net aperibussitatur eprovidustenditis volende quos doluptur sitatur sitatur eproviduste volende volende moloratem endantiaesedeproviduste volende riatum onserrumende se et doles sitatur eproviduste ligenda quaeceres erro quia aperibus net cus, cus moloratem ligenda nditis riatum verum expel ipicatenis eproviduste volende riatum riatum verum expel riatum verum expel ipicatenis verum expel ipicatenis nemipicatenis dicta cus, quaeceres erro quia quos doluptur sitatur volorehendam aut moloratem nem ligenda nditis dicta ed quos dolupturdoluptatiunt volupta quam, volupta quam,dicta nem verum expel ipicatenis doluptatiunt volupta quam, doluptatiunt volupta quam, riatum endantiaes volende volorehendam aut moloratemdoluptatiunt eproviduste net aperibus ed quos dolupturommolup tatur? Quiaeperi volende ommolup tatur? endantiaes nem ommolupcus tatur? Quiaeperi auda doluptatiunt volupta quam, auda Quiaeperi auda ommolup tatur? Quiaeperi auda sitatur eproviduste cus net aperibus dicta nditis endantiaesed verum expel ipicatenis volende ligenda eproviduste ipicatenis ed sitatur expel pa cus in sitatur ommolup tatur? Quiaeperi auda pa cus in repudionem quamus et pa cus in repudionem quamus et pa cus in repudionem quamus et riatum verum ligenda nditis endantiaes doluptatiunt volupta quam, doluptur quosrepudionem riatum verum expel ipicatenis auda t volupta quam,aut velluptam videlic ieniet et aut velluptam videlic ieniet aut velluptam videlic ieniet doluptatiun quos doluptur sitatur volende riatum pa cus in repudionem tquamus ommolup tatur? Quiaeperi eproviduste volupta quam, hariam vero cus, audittatur? Quiaeperi auda et vero cus, audit doluptatiun quamus et aut aut velluptam videlic ieniet hariam hariam quamus ommolup eproviduste volende riatum pa cus in repudionem expel ipicatenis verum MORIS tatur? Quiaeperi auda quamus et ommolup velluptam videlic hariam vero cus, audit optatquatem expla doluptatur vero cus, optatquatem expla doluptatur repudionem in ieniet ipicatenis cus pa expel videlic quam, et verum t volupta aut velluptam doluptatiun repudionem quamus LAW cus indoluptatur pa expla ieniet hariamQuiaeperi vero optatquatem autatqui dolori ut faceprovidelic ieniet audit autatqui dolori ut facepro auda aut velluptam doluptatiunt volupta quam, tatur? hariam vero cus, audit ieniet ommolup videlic auda velluptam audit aut ut facepro cus, audit autatqui et dolori hariam vero cus, quamus ommolup tatur? Quiaeperi optatquatem expla doluptatur pa cus in repudionem hariam vero cus, audit quamus et m expla doluptatur facepro ut optatquate ieniet dolori pa cus in repudionem videlic autatqui aut velluptam optatquatem expla doluptatur autatqui dolori ut facepro aut velluptam videlic ieniet hariam vero cus, audit dolori ut facepro INSURANCE autatqui audit ACCOUNTING CONSTRUCTION LEGAL LEGAL cus, hariam vero optatquatem expla doluptatur optatquatem expla doluptatur autatqui dolori ut facepro Ground Up Marble Agency Calla LLP LEGAL Singletree LLP autatqui dolori ut facepro Jon & Jon Co.

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Carol Strong hasIte Jenn StoneINSURANCE hasIte Tina Bond hasIte Bella Jones hasIte Michael Banks hasIte volo officteCONSTRUCTION volo officte volo officte volo officte Singletree LLP volo officte mpossitatint volut mpossitatint volut Agency mpossitatint Calla volut LLP mpossitatint volut mpossitatint volut Marble Michael Banks hasIte fugiaec tibus, fugiaec tibus, sumqui fugiaec tibus,Bella Jones hasIte fugiaec tibus, sumqui fugiaec tibus, sumqui Ground Up volo officte Jon & Jon Co. sumqui temposa Tina Bond hasIte temposa ndianti sumqui temposa temposa ndianti temposa ndianti volo officte hasIte mpossitatint volut Jenn Stone ndianti onserrumende se et onserrumende se officte et ndianti onserrumende se et onserrumende se et volo mpossitatint volut Carol Strong hasIte fugiaec tibus, sumqui officte volo t volut doles doles cus, quaeceres erro doles doles cus, quaeceres erro onserrumende se et doles doles doles doles cus, quaeceres erro doles doles cus, quaeceres erro mpossitatin sumqui tibus, fugiaec volo officte t volut temposa ndianti mpossitatin tibus, quia volorehendam aut quia volorehendam cus, quaeceres erro quia quia volorehendam aut de se et quia volorehendam aut fugiaecaut ndianti temposa mpossitatint volut sumqui tibus, onserrumen fugiaec temposa moloratem cus net aperibus moloratem cus net aperibus volorehendamonserrumen aut moloratem moloratem cus net aperibus moloratem cus net aperibus sumqui de se et fugiaec tibus, doles cus, quaeceres erro ndianti dolesnditis temposa erro dicta nem ligenda nditis dicta nem ligenda nditis cus net aperibus dicta nemcus, quaeceres dicta nem ligenda dicta nem ligenda nditis ndianti doles aut am doles et sumqui temposa de se doles quia volorehend onserrumen de se et doles et quos doluptur endantiaesedonserrumen quos doluptur ligenda nditis endantiaesed doluptur endantiaesed quos doluptur se endantiaesed volorehendam aut endantiaesed quos cus net aperibus ndianti onserrumende cus, quaeceres erro moloratem doles quia quos dolupturquia erro doles erro quaeceres aperibus sitatur eproviduste volende sitatur eproviduste volende sitatur sitatur eproviduste volende sitatur eproviduste volende net cus, moloratem cus am aut doles doles cus, quaeceres dicta nem ligenda nditisriatum verum expel ipicatenis volorehend am aut moloratem riatum verumquia expel ipicatenis riatum verum volorehend expel ipicatenis eproviduste volende riatum ligenda nditisriatum verum expel ipicatenis doluptur dicta nem quos aperibus ed quia volorehendam aut net cus endantiaes nem dicta moloratem aperibus doluptatiunt volupta quam, doluptatiunt volupta verum expel ipicatenis doluptatiunt volupta quam, doluptatiunt volupta quam, cus netquam, endantiaesed quos doluptur nditis moloratem cus net aperibus eproviduste volende ed sitatur nem ligenda dicta endantiaesdoluptatiunt nditisauda ommolup tatur?

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Quiaeperi pa cus in repudionem quamus et pa cus in repudionem quamus et quos doluptur expel ipicatenis verumauda riatum t volupta quam, volende endantiaesed quos doluptur doluptatiun eproviduste riatum sitatur volende quam, aut velluptam videlic ieniet aut velluptam videlic ieniet pa cus in repudionem quamus et aut velluptam videlic ieniet aut velluptam videlic ieniet eproviduste doluptatiunt volupta tatur? Quiaeperi auda sitatur eproviduste volende ommolup verum expel ipicatenis riatum auda hariam vero cus, audit hariam vero cus, auditexpel ipicatenis aut velluptam videlic ieniet hariam vero cus, audit hariam vero et cus, audit verum tatur? Quiaeperi ommolup riatum verum expel ipicatenis in repudionem quamus t volupta quam, pa cus et doluptatiun t volupta quam, optatquatem expla doluptatur optatquatem expla doluptatur hariam vero cus, optatquatem expla doluptatur optatquatem expla doluptatur doluptatiun cus in repudionem quamus paaudit Quiaeperi auda doluptatiunt volupta quam, auda velluptam videlic ieniet autfacepro tatur? Quiaeperi autatqui ut faceprotatur? ieniet autatqui dolori ut facepro optatquatem expla doluptatur autatqui dolori ut autatqui dolori ut facepro auda doloriommolup ommolup videlic Quiaeperi et velluptam tatur? aut quamus ommolup hariam vero cus, audit quamus et pa cus in repudionem facepro quamus et pa cus in repudionem autatqui dolori ut vero cus, audit hariam m expla doluptatur pa cus in repudionem videlic ieniet optatquate ieniet velluptam aut videlic aut velluptam optatquatem expla doluptatur aut velluptam videlic ieniet autatqui dolori ut facepro hariam vero cus, audit ut facepro hariam vero cus, audit dolori autatqui doluptatur hariam vero cus, audit expla optatquatem optatquatem expla doluptatur optatquatem expla doluptatur autatqui dolori ut facepro autatqui dolori ut facepro autatqui dolori ut facepro

ACCOUNTING

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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE For more information, contact Debora Stein at dstein@crain.com CrainsCleveland.com/People-On-The-Move

3/21/19 1:52 PM

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Opinion From the Editor

Buyer beware when it comes to big ideas

Editorial

On a roll This is the time of year in Northeast Ohio when things are looking up.

Winter’s long slog is (almost) done. The Indians will soon play games that count. And, best of all if you like movies, the Cleveland International Film Festival is about to start, offering more than 400 features and shorts from 71 countries.

CIFF is a treat for film watchers and an asset to Cleveland in opening up the city to the world. This year, it’s spreading out with full weekends of programming in new “hubs” — called CIFF East and CIFF West — in two vibrant Cleveland neighborhoods: University Circle and Gordon Square. We applaud the festival’s commitment to spreading arts programming in the city. Something else that’s worth a hand: Nearly 40% of the films at the festival are directed by women. Hollywood, still dismal in this area, should do so well.

As a special package of stories in this week’s edition shows, Northeast Ohio is building momentum not just as a place to watch movies, but to make them. And to teach students how to make them. And to distribute them.

In Ashland, there’s Good Deed Entertainment, which is producing, financing and distributing entertainment for film, television, the web ... and whatever comes next. Gravitas Ventures, in Cleveland, is distributing more than 400 movies a year for a variety of platforms, and, taking advantage of its ever-expanding library, just launched a service called Gravitas Movies that is offering 1,000+ movies to consumers, for $4.99 a month.

Cleveland State University’s standalone film school launched last August, and it already has 300 students.

Ivan Schwarz, president of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission and an evangelist for movie production in the region, thinks Northeast Ohio has the right stuff to build a meaningful film industry. On the production side, it can look like “pretty much anything except desert, the tropics and mountains,” he said, and the region’s industry legacy means it’s filled with people capable of being grips, electricians and other production jobs. The industry might seem glamorous, Schwarz says, but it’s

filled with opportunities across the economic spectrum.

One catch: Ohio’s film tax credit, capped at $40 million annually, means the state misses some major production opportunities, Schwarz says. He’s once again urging the Legislature to raise the cap to $100 million, which would put Ohio in the upper echelon of states. It seems a bit of a long shot in this legislative session, though new Gov. Mike DeWine appears more amendable to the prospect than his predecessor.

For now, we can sit back, relax and enjoy the shows at CIFF — and the progress that’s being made in making Northeast Ohio a player in the movie industry.

All wet

Like a monster from a horror movie — “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” maybe — bad proposals keep arising from the Trump administration related to Cleveland’s waterways.

The administration last month proposed a 90% cut to the $300 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, continuing a budget cycle tradition under Republican and Democratic White Houses to try to erode a modest program that has been effective in helping preserve a vital natural resource for commerce and leisure.

Members of Ohio’s congressional delegation, working in bipartisan fashion, have consistently fought the tide to preserve funding. They’re confident they can do it again, and they should, since GLRI is a small investment with a big return.

Then last week, the administration unveiled a budget proposal that would end a ban on dumping material dredged from Cleveland harbor and the Cuyahoga River into Lake Erie without approval from the state of Ohio. As with the GLRI, lawmakers vowed they’d fight this ill-conceived proposal, too.

This administration doesn’t place much value on environmental preservation. Our congressional representatives need to stay united so Northeast Ohio’s water assets are preserved now and long into the future.

Publisher and Editor: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

CLEVELAND BUSINESS P010_CL_20190325.indd 10

Managing Editor:

Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)

Contact Crain’s:

216-522-1383

Read Crain’s online: crainscleveland.com

If your mother says she loves you, check it out.

That motto, passed down for decades from grizzled editors to cub reporters, is a simple reminder to journalists that you have to check the facts. Always. Never assume. Constantly question what you are being told, even if those closest to you are whispering in your ear. The public for whom you are reporting deserves nothing less.

After being immersed for the past few weeks — thanks to an ABC News podcast and two documentaries, one on ABC and the other on HBO — in the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her biotech startup Theranos, it struck me that the old journalism admonition also applies to business professionals, board members and investors.

Elizabeth If an entrepreneur promises the world, McIntyre check it out.

Holmes was a master storyteller. Her origin tale rivaled those of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Holmes dropped out of Stanford University at 19, convinced she could revolutionize blood testing by using a pinprick drop of blood and quickly, and inexpensively, running a litany of tests performed by a printer-sized machine called the Edison.

Her lofty concept transformed her from college dropout to black-turtlenecked entrepreneur, just like her inspiration, Steve Jobs. Former cabinet secretaries, senators and military brass sat on the company’s board. By 2013, Theranos Wellness Centers popped up in Walgreens stores in Arizona and California.

Investors put more than $700 million into the company and, by 2014, Theranos was valued at $9 billion.

Holmes graced the covers of Inc., Fortune and Forbes, which proclaimed her the youngest self-made female billionaire when she was 31. She spoke of creating “a world in which no one has to say goodbye too soon.” A 2014 New Yorker article quoted then Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove calling Theranos “potentially a breakthrough company.”

And that potential drove the Clinic to enter what it called a long-term strategic alliance with Theranos in 2015, with the goal of using the company’s devices when caring for its own patients. That same year, Holmes was the keynote speaker at the Clinic’s Medical Innovation Summit. Just 10 days before her appearance, though, The Wall Street Journal published an explosive investigation of what was going on behind the scenes at Theranos, raising serious doubts about its claims and whether its machine could deliver what Theranos promised.

That’s when the “breakthrough company” began to break.

The Clinic never saw a single Edison device. Walgreens closed the Theranos centers and stopped testing people with the technology by 2016. By September 2018, the company ceased operations.

Holmes now faces multiple charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Big ideas don’t always pan out. That’s the reality of entrepreneurship. In Theranos’s case, though, when a visionary’s dream began to evaporate, it became a lie she continued to sell. And people who should have known better were still buying it. They wouldn’t have if they’d followed the sage advice to check it out, to question everything, to be a skeptic first and an investor later.

They wanted investing to be as easy and painless as a pinprick.

The wounds Theranos inflicted suggest otherwise.

Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited. Send letters to Crain’s Cleveland Business, 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113, or by emailing ClevEdit@crain.com. Please include your complete name and city from which you are writing, and a telephone number for fact-checking purposes.

Sound off: Send a Personal View for the opinion page to emcintyre@crain.com.

Please include a telephone number for verification purposes.

3/21/19 4:31 PM

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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Personal View

Data shaming in Crain’s Lordstown cartoon was irresponsible

By Genna Petrolla

dustry drivers in Northeast Ohio. We released an in-depth report of those industry drivers in the Youngstown-Warren-BoardAs a former Clevelander who returned to man MSA on the same day that we released her hometown in the Mahoning Valley, I enthe GM economic impact analysis — a path joy staying in touch with the Northeast Ohio business community via Crain’s Cleveland forward toward diversification — but that went largely unnoticed.

Business.

The bottom line is this: You can portray I know that editorial cartoons are supposed people like me as “searching for data” at the to spark conversation, but I took particular ofexpense of action, but when you are faced fense to the cartoon in the March 11 issue of Petrolla with a situation like we have in the MahonCrain’s. You see, I commissioned the economic impact study of the General Motors Co. Lordstown plant ing Valley, the only way to cut through the ego and the closure the cartoon is mocking. What you may or may politics and the competing narratives and the prohibnot know is that an economic impact analysis is required itive infighting that has kept us in a downward spiral is as part of the formal application process to request fund- to show the numbers — to put us all on the same page.

Again, the impact study is a reing from the U.S. Economic DevelopSVNreAd-Liverpool-3-25.indd ment Administration. quired part of our funding It’s not exclusively Also, I happen to live and work in a quest for a recovery plan from the U.S. Economic Development Adplace where no one who claims to be about business doing “economic development” ministration. seems to know what economic devel- growth and The challenges we face here in opment actually is. My definition incentives — it’s the Mahoning Valley didn’t develstems from some recent work by the op overnight. And the solutions Fund for Our Economic Future. It’s about quality of life, will not happen overnight either. not exclusively about business growth creation of good jobs, Shaming the use of data to make and incentives — it’s about quality of informed decisions that will imlife, creation of good jobs, and access and access to those pact systematic change in a comto those jobs through training and re- jobs through training munity that has seen such disinvestment is extremely irresponsible transportation planning. sponsible. Painting those of us inWe have lower than average edu- and responsible volved day-in and day-out in this cational attainment here in the Matransportation work as insensitive to the plight of honing Valley and a legacy industry mix that keeps us competitive ... for planning. workers is also unfair. The whole reason we are assembling this rejobs that pay below a living wage and require very little by way of skills. GM gave good covery funding request is to attempt to right a ship that lives to many of our residents for a number of years, has been woefully off course for decades. but remained a silent and non-communicative giant As an economic development professional who is that always held the fate of our region in its hands. (In committed to disrupting the way it has always been addition, a recent analysis of property tax revenues for done in the Mahoning Valley, I use research, data and communities in Mahoning and Trumbull counties critical problem solving with the goal of creating an showed that the approximately 1,100 acres at the equitable, accessible and forward-facing economy. I Lordstown facility have generated minimal revenue use numbers to leverage resources, encourage alignfor the village of Lordstown for the past 50 years.) ment and create impact. I’ll remind you that people Instead, people want to wear blue and beg elected aren’t always honest — numbers, on the other hand, officials who cannot change the course of a company never lie. We have to get on the same page about doing what companies in America are allowed to do where we are, however painful as that may be, if we are — destroy communities to the benefit of their share- to move the Valley in a positive direction. If we continholders. If we try to explore other options or look to the ue to take whatever we can get — while literally giving future — toward rebuilding a middle class in the Valley away the farm in some instances — my hometown will and analyzing options for those being laid off — we are never move forward. told that we are insensitive.

Maybe create a cartoon about how decades of those Many people knew the closure of GM Lordstown practices now have us competing for jobs that don’t was coming. Those of us who study the economy, and pay enough for the majority of our residents to support specifically industry and employment trends, knew a family without public assistance? Just a thought. this day was approaching and have urged for diversification. I have been on an advisory committee led by Petrolla is an economic development professional Cleveland State University that identified growing in- living in Warren.

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district are exactly what downtown needs to be the kind of vibrant place that gives a new positive image to Cleveland. Congratulations to Downtown Cleveland Alliance and others who are leading this transformation. — Robert Brown In the late 1980s and early 1990s, we saw the opening of The Galleria and The Avenue at Tower City. Unfortunately, those two venues pulled people in opposite directions and killed what little retail remained on Euclid Avenue. Now that those two venues are being repurposed, perhaps Euclid will once again become the vibrant “Main Street” it once was. — skiwest

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3/21/19 1:53 PM

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Focus BUILDING A FILM INDUSTRY

New hubs on the East and West sides expand the festival’s reach

By Scott Suttell ssuttell@crain.com @ssutttell

In middle age, the Cleveland International Film Festival is getting around.

This year’s CIFF, the 43rd installment of an event Cleveland film lovers look forward to each year, takes place predominantly at Tower City Cinemas.

It opens Wednesday, March 27, with a screening at Playhouse Square of “The Etruscan Smile,” starring Brian Cox. But new this year is the establishment of two “hubs” — CIFF East in University Circle and CIFF West in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood — thanks to the financial support of PNC Bank. CIFF West kicks off in the festival’s first weekend, on the evening of Thursday, March 28, followed by two full days of programming on Friday, March 29, and Saturday, March 30, at the Near West Theatre and the Capitol Theatre. The following week marks the debut of CIFF East at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, starting on the evening of Thursday, April 4, followed by two full days of programming on Friday, April 5, and Saturday, April 6.

The film festival has staged regional screenings in the past, in Cleveland venues and in Akron, at one point having as many as 12 such locations, executive director Marcia Goodman noted. But this year’s hubs mark the most substantial effort to create sustained activity outside CIFF’s Tower City home base.

“These are established, exciting arts districts, and we think they’re a really strong fit for the festival,” Goodman

said. In searching for hub locations, she added, it was important to CIFF officials to stay within the city of Cleveland, “which has a high core value for us,” she said. Since both Gordon Square and University Circle are high-profile locations that host many large events over the course of a year, they have the kind of logistical infrastructure — access to public transportation, walkable areas, parking (even if it can get a little tight) and food/drinking/shopping options — to be convenient and appealing sites for filmgoers, Goodman added.

But there’s another factor at play.

As Goodman put it, “From year to year, we don’t know what our future is going to be at Tower City,” she said.

It has been an excellent home for CIFF, but given the massive challenges facing downtown retail properties, “Let’s just say there’s uncertainty about Tower City,” Goodman said.

“It’s important to us to be proactive in terms of our future,” which includes evaluating the viability of alternative sites.

“We’re going to learn a lot,” Goodman said, adding that the partners in the hub ventures “have been great to work with” and that she’s confident filmgoers will enjoy the experiences.

“We have an amazing audience,” she said. “They’re there for us. Always. We have great faith.”

Organizations in the new CIFF hubs are thrilled to have the festival come to their neighborhoods.

Carrie Carpenter, president and executive director of the Gordon Square Arts District, said that at past film festival screenings at the Capitol, a show of hands typically revealed that about half of the filmgoers were making their first trip to the district.

CIFF SPREADS THE CINEMATIC WEALTH The audience waits for the lights to go down at the Film Slam at Tower City Cinemas in 2018. (Andrew Wells/CIFF) Right: Plotting one’s screening schedule takes strategic thinking.

(Nathan Migal/CIFF)

CIFF executive director Marcie Goodman (Nathan Migal/CIFF)

Q&A: Robert Banks

Independent filmmaker; instructor at NewBridge Cleveland Center for Arts & Technology An institution on Northeast Ohio’s art and film scene, Robert Banks is among the most-renowned indie filmmakers to build a career here, whether he would’ve had it that way or not. It’s not been easy for the experimental filmmaker and documentarian, who has produced more than 30 truly original films through decades of honing his craft. He’s shown pieces across the world, from Sundance to SXSW to the BBC British Short Film Festival. Strongly opinionated, Banks is a purist who still shoots exclusively on 35mm film and bristles at the popularity of uninspired works churned out by major studios. But you’d expect nothing less from an artist who’s never been mainstream or conventional. Crain’s caught up with Banks to discuss the film industry in Northeast Ohio from an indie veteran’s perspective. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. — Jeremy Nobile You’ve stuck around Cleveland for family reasons, which is admirable. I know your friends have encouraged you to move to other markets. Do you regret staying here as a filmmaker?

That’s an interesting question. It’s

P012_013_CL_20190325.indd 12

true I didn’t really choose Cleveland.

When I was in the Air Force, my dad passed away and I promised I wouldn’t leave my mom by herself. The irony was my family on my mom’s side all have family out in L.A. But I figured I’d try to make it work here.

Deep down, I have a feeling I would’ve gotten further if I had left.

The problem was the kind of films I wanted to make were not really commercial films. But I'll always have thoughts of what might have been if I'd left 20 years ago. But things happen for a reason. Being here has made me more self-aware of my skills and the strengths that go with them. The films that I've produced and made on a small scale made me appreciate the process of the industry by working in a more simple environment. Plus, building a name for yourself and creating a mystic that stretches to the people in the business out west is a good buffer to when I make that move.

How would you describe the film

industry in Cleveland compared to regions like Los Angeles or New York?

When my films started getting to major festivals outside Cleveland back in the ’90s, I realized there is so much more to all this than we could imagine. Staying in Cleveland then was a big plus for me, but it was also a big setback. If you go to L.A. or New York, it’s a whole different universe.

The big issue here is Cleveland is an industrial city, very blue-collar. We are all about sports, drinking beer and partying. Stuff like that.

Construction. But when it comes to entertainment and the arts, it’s seen more as a recreational thing.

Because we are blue-collar, we have a strong production community, crew

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BUILDING A FILM INDUSTRY

C

Left: Gordon Square’s Capitol Theatre will be a western outpost for CIFF. (Nathan Migal/CIFF)

There will be plenty of CIFF swag for filmgoers. (Timothy Smith/CIFF)

organizations. But as far as the creative aspect of filmmaking, this city lacks that.

What are some benefits of working in Cleveland?

The geography is some of the best on Earth. Everything you want is here in terms of locations, landscape, mood, concept, the architecture, the old neighborhoods, the streets, the water, the daylight, the nighttime.

Cleveland is one of the greatest places to shoot and I love this place for that. That’s one of the few things — and I stress few things.

And we do have venues that will Banks is shown shooting his first full-length feature, “Paper Shadows,” a seven-year project slated to premiere this summer.

(Contributed photo)

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support you, like the (Cleveland Institute of Art) Cinematheque. They love cinema and movies and film.

Plus, there’s the Cleveland International Film Festival. And we have good support of certain people who believe in filmmakers. But there are also a lot of people here who are naïve and critical.

Do you have to approach investors in Cleveland differently from how that dynamic might work elsewhere?

Yes, potential investors here are either not clear on the monetary gain of a low-budget indie film or believe that they're making a donation or a charitable gift to an artist. Local Cleveland people with loads money have a different view of independent filmmaking than someone living in a real industry environment. Many of

“Our goal is to continually expand our arts programming to make ourselves an exciting place for people to come, and the film festival is a really strong addition,” Carpenter said.

Gordon Square will be ready to give filmgoers a good experience.

Carpenter said local musicians have been booked to play in public spaces to create a fun atmosphere for guests, and the district has worked with CIFF to promote awareness of bus lines and has added valet stations and dedicated parking areas for the hub weekend.

Similarly, on the East Side, University Circle Inc. president Chris Ronayne said the film festival hub weekend is “a showcase opportunity. It’s really a catalyst to open a wider lens to Cleveland.” University Circle is more established to many local residents as an arts district than Gordon Square, but the film festival brings in many visitors from out of town — including filmmakers — and helps shine a spotlight on the cultural and entertainment options in the area.

Beyond the new locations, Goodman said she’s proud that CIFF is continuing and amplifying its focus on female filmmakers — something with which the wider film world still struggles.

While fewer than 10% of movies each year are directed by women, Goodman noted that nearly 40% of the more than 400 feature films and shorts at CIFF43 have female directors.

Three women will receive special honors at the festival.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal from Canada is the recipient of the Director Spotlight Award, and three of her films will screen, including the new “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch.” CIFF has given the award annually since 2003 to “showcase directors with distinguished careers ... whose talents have been embraced and celebrated on a global scale.” Baichwal will be in attendance.

CIFF will give its Someone to Watch Award to Indian director Rima Das. The award is given to “midcareer filmmakers who are rising stars in international filmmaking,” CIFF said. Two of Das’ films, “Bulbul Can Sing” (2018) and “Village Rockstars” (2017) will be shown at this year’s festival, and Das will be in attendance for the screenings.

The film festival also has introduced a new program and award to honor the life and memory of David K. Ream, a longtime CIFF trustee who died in 2017, and to celebrate the work of LGBTQ filmmakers. The first honoree in the DReam Catcher program is director Jamie Babbit, a Cleveland native who has worked extensively in film (her comedy “But I’m a Cheerleader” is becoming a cult classic) and television, where her credits include “The L Word,” “Silicon Valley” and Netflix’s acclaimed “Russian Doll.”

A couple other new developments of note this year: JJCIFF is launching a daily podcast, hosted by iconic Cleveland arts interviewer Dee Perry and Aaron Spears, who co-hosts the excellent Cedar Lee Radio podcast.

JJThe festival is working with the Tribeca Film Institute on what’s called the “IF/Then Shorts” program for Midwestern filmmakers. The program calls for original pitches of short documentaries (10-20 minutes) on socially, politically and culturally relevant topics. Tribeca and CIFF will jointly select up to six finalists who will be invited to pitch their projects to a panel of industry judges on Sunday, April 7, during the closing weekend of the festival. The winning project will receive up to $25,000 in production support, allowing the filmmakers to complete their short documentary and to participate in Tribeca’s IF/Then Shorts program, which provides one year of distribution mentorship.

the films made have little to any commercial value without a name actor attached.

So if you tell a money person your investment of $10,000 will get me a B-list name actor like Billy Zane or Heather Locklear for three days, and that will guarantee a distribution deal, they may go for it. However, most Netflix subscribers aren't looking to download the latest Billy Zane movie shot in Cleveland unless there's a really strong story that would lead to bigger possibilities. In short, you're asking someone to bankroll your Powerball bill.

and community. Not just film schools that teach production. Educate the money community with proper business etiquette in the entertainment business. Maybe even open some proper entertainment law firms and proper entertainment insurance agencies. And finally, we need proper soundstages here. We also could improve our relations with our production unions and the companies that come here to make their movies.

What’s something Northeast Ohio could do to better support and develop a proper film industry here?

Offering education to young filmmakers and businesses in the city

Any advice for indie filmmakers?

If you're indie, be indie — don't try to be Hollywood. Make the most of your freedom as an artist. The bells and whistles of today, software has everyone bought and sold on being the next hot director without having any understanding of theme and identity as the storyteller with a piece of paper and a pencil.

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BUILDING A FILM INDUSTRY

Cleveland’s Gravitas goes global

By Scott Suttell ssuttell@crain.com @ssuttell

If you spend any time watching movies on Netflix, Amazon or Hulu — or in a theater, or on a gaming console, or a cable operator’s on-demand system, or just about anywhere people watch movies this days — you’ve probably seen something that comes from Gravitas Ventures in Cleveland.

The independent film distributor has more than 300 content partners and has released more than 2,000 films globally since it was launched in 2006

by CEO Nolan Gallagher, who learned the trade working on video-on-demand for a giant cable operator, Comcast, and a big studio, Warner Bros. The Cleveland native said he built the business in California “with a laptop and credit cards,” putting a particular focus on distributing movies to smaller, “mom-and-pop” cable operators. It since has grown as the appetite for entertainment content has expanded dramatically, as streaming and on-demand services have taken hold.

Gallagher and the company’s other top executives — brother Brendan Gallagher, the company’s executive vice president, and president Michael Murphy — spend a fair amount of time traveling to film festivals, including major venues like Sundance, SXSW and Toronto, where they acquire films and build relationships with filmmakers. This year, Nolan Gallagher said, the company will distribute about 400 movies, representing pretty much every genre. Documentaries are particularly strong for Gravitas, he said, but the company also distributes a lot of comedy, horror and action films. Over the years, more

than 60 Gravitas films have screened at the Cleveland International Film Festival; four of its films will be at this year’s CIFF, which opens on Wednesday, March 27.

“We want films that work for a variety of audiences, in Peoria and Parma and Phoe- Brendan Nolan Michael Gallagher Murphy nix,” Gallagher said. One Gallagher such film of late is “Abducted in Plain Sight,” a mind-bending true- Prominent films crime documentary that has found a distributed by large audience on Netflix and has generated significant interest in the enter- Gravitas Ventures tainment press. (Haven’t watched it JJ“Abducted in Plain Sight,” a trueyet? Be prepared for some big twists. As crime documentary about a girl who Gallagher puts it, “I’ve gotten a lot of was abducted twice by the same man text messages (from friends and ac- — and then the story gets stranger quaintances) about that movie.”)

The current distribution environ- JJ“Adventures in Public School,” a ment, marked for Gravitas by partner- comedy starring Judy Greer that ships with worldwide cable, satellite, screened last year at the Cleveland television and internet-based compa- International Film Festival nies, in both ad-based and ad-free for- JJ“The Bill Murray Story: Life Lessons mats, “is definitely great for consum- Learned from a Mythical Man” ers,” Gallagher said. “Films are getting JJ“California Typewriter,” a documenout there and are readily available.”

Gravitas’ focus is on distribution and tary that opened CIFF in 2017 making sure films get to as wide an audi- JJ“The Wall and the River,” a ence as possible. But Gallagher said well-received doc at this year’s SXSW Gravitas sometimes works with film- that will screen in 100 theaters in May makers in other areas, ranging from selecting a poster and designing a trailer to the love various people (including cecoming up with public relations initia- lebrities like Tom Hanks and Eddie tives to boost awareness of a film. In Vedder) have for typewriters. Nolan some case, Brendan Gallagher noted, Gallagher said Gravitas reached out to the company may work with filmmakers the country’s remaining typewriter to alter the title of a film, since in digital shops to “get them engaged in the environments, films often are listed al- message of the movie” and organized phanumerically, and an easy-to-find title a raffle held at the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights in which the can help a film reach a wider audience.

One notable Gravitas PR effort was winner received a typewriter that had on behalf of a crowd-pleasing docu- been owned by Hanks.

“We have built up a track record of mentary called “California Typewriter,” which was the Opening Night film working collaboratively with filmfor the 2017 CIFF. The film recounts makers, responding quickly and be-

FILM

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

To Chernow’s mind, the possibility of a gigantic tax benefit was just part of the reason to say goodbye to West Coast life.

He’d been shopping around a film he’d written, an Adam McKay-style comedy based on his experience “attending a bachelor’s party in Chicago alone,” and had even met with the producer himself. Two years spent shuttling between L.A. and New York for meetings on the project, while also working at NBC Universal — where he read an endless parade of cookie-cutter scripts — had led Chernow to grow cynical and experience a “loss of a lot of heart and soul.”

“But when I met with [GDE], I bought into their vision very much,” he said. “To me, their vision was a really exciting proposition. I mean, one that had me pack up my stuff and drive across the country.”

A Georgia state of mind As far as other states drawing West Coast film companies, there may be no better model these days than Atlanta. After the state uncapped its film tax credit program in 2017, there was a mad rush of production companies and actors into the city, leading to an economic impact of $9.5 billion. FilmLA, the nonprofit film office for the city and county of Los Angeles, dubbed Atlanta the No. 1 Filming Location in the World.

That model is what film heads in

P014_015_CL_20190325.indd 14

D

ing forward-thinking,” Nolan Gallagher said.

Brendan Gallagher said one of Gravitas’ “signature releases” this year is a timely documentary called “The River and the Wall,” from director Ben Masters. The doc follows a group of friends along a 1,200-mile journey down the Rio Grande in which they document conditions on the U.S.-Mexico border and explore issues of immigration, landownership, conservation and border security.

Gravitas acquired the film ahead of its recent premiere at SXSW, where “The River and the Wall” was well received. (Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke made an appearance during the post-film Q&A, the film website Deadline.com reported.)

The film will be released in about 100 theaters in May, Brendan Gallagher said, as well as on-demand platforms.

Gravitas has about 25 employees in total, split between Los Angeles and Cleveland, where it has seven people and has had an office for about seven years. Murphy said the company has two current job openings here and hopes to have a local staff of as many as 15 people by the end of summer.

The company also is on the move, literally.

It’s in the process of moving into the 10,000-square-foot second floor of a building in the hot Hingetown neighborhood with a significant arts pedigree: SPACES gallery occupies the first-floor space, and Fred Bidwell — the organizer of last year’s FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art — and his wife, Laura, live on the third floor.

The space so far is raw, but it’s being built out to accommodate a mobile

workforce and to include a screening room, Nolan Gallagher said.

Gravitas in late-2017 sold a majority stake in the business to Red Arrow Studios, a worldwide creator and distributor of entertainment content. At the time, Red Arrow said it bought Gravitas because members of the leadership team “are whip-smart and have created a great business — one we would be hard-pressed to replicate on our own. Partnering together, we will have tremendous capabilities to package and sell films and TV to the growing list of buyers worldwide.”

After more than a decade in the distribution business, Gravitas has built up a large library of titles, about 2,500 (and counting) in total. It’s about to take advantage of some of that library in a new way.

Gravitas just launched a streaming service, called Gravitas Movies, with a $4.99 monthly price point, or $40 for a yearly subscription. The new service offers a catalog of about 1,000 titles, commercial-free, with new movies added all the time. It’s available at gravitasmovies. com, as well as on Comcast’s Xfinity X1; Apple TV and iOS devices; Roku; Amazon Fire TV; and Android mobile and Android TV devices.

There’s obviously no shortage of movie services vying for consumer attention — and dollars. Murphy said that with the new service, the company is curating some of its most popular titles in genres that do well, in particular documentaries and romantic comedies.

Some of the categories are creative, too; Nolan Gallagher noted there’s a “conspiracy” vertical, another category of film that does well with audiences.

“We don’t have designs to be Netflix, with 100 million subscribers, but we see solid demand for more content,” Murphy said.

Cleveland and around Ohio point to as proof of this region’s potential if the current tax credit’s $40 million cap is raised to $100 million. Film commission president Ivan Schwarz asserted that the credit is not just a perk for out-of-staters, but an absolute necessity to draw and keep new startups working in Ohio.

“Having the $100 million incentive is the difference between having an industry and not having an industry,” said Schwarz, the writer of the original tax incentive in 2009. “I swear, we have over $250 million worth of production wanting to shoot here, and we’re going to lose it mostly because our incentive is capped.”

A proposition for the $60 million boost as part of Senate Bill 37, Schwarz said, could not only encourage more events like “Captain America” shooting on Public Square— a production that spent $35 million alone on wages, creating 3,875 temporary jobs — but create a stronger enviroment for more startups like GDE, film distributor Gravitas Ventures and the nascent Dakar Studios, looking to fund projects here that use local talent.

“And the only way to do that is to have a robust incentive,” he added.

“Without it — nope! They’re not gonna come.”

Frederic Lahey, the director of Cleveland State University’s new film school, said he’s right alongside Schwarz as far as convincing state politicians goes. Even if the $100 million incentive comes through, however, he noted that production companies, whether temporary or stationary, are still going to be on the

hunt for grips, assistants, lighting techs and postproduction talent at the ready. With applications to his program up 70% since last March, Lahey said his 290 students could fill production roles easily. He even wants to have GDE staff guest-teach a class someday.

“Meanwhile, we’ll be providing the farm team,” he said.

Although Atlanta’s Hollywood love affair seems solid, the outcome in Ohio isn’t guaranteed.

Critics of SB 37, such as Micah Derry, director of Americans For Prosperity — Ohio, claim that a $60 million increase to the incentive would actually have a negative impact on Ohio taxpayers. In testimony before the Ohio Senate in early March, Derry cited as examples Maryland and Michigan, states that made similar tax increases in the past few years that didn’t prove glowingly beneficial.

In Michigan, Derry noted, the “average job associated with film tax credits was an average of 23 days,” adding that such “subsidies” should be done away with — “fade to black on film tax credits” — to create “a stronger economic environment for all businesses.”

Schwarz countered that the benefit to Ohio is anything but short-term.

A $100 million budget, he said, would not only “cause my phone to be ringing for days,” but could lead to something grander: a 10-soundstage, 250,000-square-foot media tech campus. That, he added, would eventually generate up to 5,000 jobs.

“I want 15 GDEs coming here,” he said. “I’m not talking minimum-wage

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BUILDING A FILM INDUSTRY

Dakar Studios’ coming attraction

By Jeremy Nobile

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During a tour near the Bedford Automile, Arline Gant gestured broadly at the abundant open space around a large, currently vacant office building that housed some 400 U.S. Bank employees before it closed last year.

“Soundstages will be built out here,” said Gant, pointing to the back of the building, “and then this will become the creative studio for Dakar.

There will be costume, makeup, waiting rooms, postproduction, everything. We can also feed the crews. It will be just like Sony or Universal.”

Gant is a producer with California’s Dakota P. Productions, a former Bedford resident and an inductee in the Bedford schools’ hall of fame who gained renown for her dancing on the old WEWS Channel 5 show “Upbeat.”

Here, Gant is leading efforts to build a Hollywood-inspired movie studio in the city, one that — if everything goes according to plan — could be unrivaled in Ohio and possibly the entire Midwest.

She has been working to establish Dakar Studios in Northeast Ohio for well over a year. In its current state, the project, estimated to cost $30 million-$40 million, would build out the 78,000-square-foot facility near 17500 Rockside Road to 220,000 square feet. Plans call for six soundstages to be constructed over at least three years. Blueprints show a 40,000-square-foot stage with a sizable pool to be built down the line for shooting ocean scenes.

Between the former bank property and some adjacent land owned by the city that Dakar is looking at, the

None of the people behind those productions agreed to be interviewed for this story, however. Gant cited confidentiality with clients about works in progress. And Schildhouse indicated it’s also too early to discuss “specifics of who’s coming in,” considering the property hasn’t even been bought yet.

Why Bedford?

Arline Gant of Dakar Studios and Bedford city manager Mike Mallis talk about the building and the project at the site of the future Dakar Studios in Bedford.

(Ken Blaze for Crain’s)

entire campus could comprise more than 100 acres.

Dakar Inc. is the women-owned company that will operate the studio; Dakar Productions LLC was formed in Ohio to acquire the property.

But a sale has yet to happen.

Gant’s counsel, Beachwood attorney Mark Schildhouse, said that a purchase agreement signed in December with the private seller of the former U.S. Bank property is dated March 29, but may be extended if a deal doesn’t go through by then.

But that’s just a formality, Gant asserted, dismissing any concern about the purchase going through. Her realtors say the owner — which, according to property records, is Wisconsin holding company HIN LLC — is “highly motivated” to sell the property, valued at $4.59 million according to county records.

“We’re pushing to get everything

Highlights of the world of film tax incentives JJLouisiana

was the first state to adopt state tax incentives for film and television production, in 1992.

JJBy

2009, 44 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., offered some form of film and television production incentives.

JJSince

2009, though, 13 states have ended their film incentive programs; 31 continue to offer some sort of incentive.

JJGenerally,

in incentive programs, the producer gets a tax credit equal to some percentage — typically ranging from 20% to 35% — of qualified production expenditures, but there’s variation in which expenditures qualify. There also are significant differences in how incentives are structured and applied.

JJOhio

maintains a 30% refundable, transferable tax credit on production cast and crew wages, plus other eligible in-state spending. To be eligible, productions must spend a minimum of $300,000 per project in Ohio. There are $40 million in credits available each fiscal year. An independent audit of all in-state production activities must be performed before tax incentives are awarded.

JJNew

York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week floated the idea of eliminating his state’s $420 million film tax incentive — the largest in the country — to help resolve a budget crunch.

Sources: National Conference of State Legislatures, Variety, New York Post

States with the largest film tax incentives, based on annual caps for their programs 1. New York:

$420 million

2. California:

$330 million

3. Louisiana:

$150 million

4. Pennsylvania:

$65 million

5. New Mexico:

$50 million

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2.

5.

JJSeveral

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states prominent in the movie and television production business, though, do not have formal caps on their incentives programs. Those include Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Minnesota, as well as the District of Columbia.

Sources: National Conference of State Legislatures and KPM Film

P014_015_CL_20190325.indd 15

through, but it’s basically a done deal,” Gant said. “We wouldn’t be here if we were not confident this is going to happen.”

Why Ohio?

Dakar Studios’ path to Northeast Ohio can be traced back to Gant’s connections here and to members of the Bedford school board.

Gant is an actress, director and award-winning costume designer through Dakota P. Productions, which has produced and shot feature films, children’s videos for international distribution and dramatic shorts for cable.

Gant said West Coast production companies are hungry to shoot projects in the Buckeye State largely because of the economics. Folks in the business are keenly aware of efforts to expand Ohio’s film tax credits from jobs for a couple of months. I mean, I want an industry so big that a huge Marvel movie could take over the studio and make their move here.”

Into the spotlight After three months in operation on Main Street, Good Deed is beginning to ease into its new digs.

Success has come in flashes. Andrew Myers, who moved with his wife and two kids from L.A. to become GDE’s creative executive, said GDE is in the process of taking on a “grounded” sci-fi script that will be shot nearby. Nikki Stier Justice, GDE’s chief operating officer since 2014, is prepping promotion of five GDE films set to show at the Cleveland International Film Festival.

And Chernow, just three months in, is set to shed his role of executive assistant and get more involved in all aspects of production and distribution.

“It’s one thing that I told Scott (Donley),” he said, naming GDE’s founder. “That I’m down to work here for life.”

As far as missing Los Angeles, no one on GDE’s five-person staff appears nostalgic for the two-hour commutes and high rent (“I have, like, a two-bedroom now that’s $700 less than what I was paying,” Chernow bragged). Even if they need to fly out west to meet with executives, Justice said, the trips in sum cost less than what it would to live and produce out of Hollywood.

In fact, Justice is deep-down enamored of the company’s new headquarters, which will soon feature a 25-seat

$40 million to $100 million and are motivated to get a piece of that, Gant said. Beyond that, she estimates a project in Hollywood could cost 40% less in Ohio.

Besides a dollar stretching further here and some attractive Cleveland amenities, there are the aesthetics of the region itself, which is effectively a giant backlot.

“The difference between Ohio and Atlanta is Ohio can look like almost any place in the world,” Gant said.

“You have the trees, the settings, the backdrop, the water, the seasons. You can do it all here.”

With money on their minds, Gant said her contacts in California encouraged her to establish a studio here, adding she has a couple film and TV projects ready to move in and shoot this fall if and when the deal for the property goes through and construction can begin. screening room and a fully operational soundstage on the building’s third floor. They’ve even taken in four interns (one from CSU’s film program) to help with script screening.

A horror film set in Medina? Maybe a Christmas rom-com right on Main Street? It’s all possible in Ohio.

“The plan was always to have productions going in Ashland and the

Nonetheless, because of Gant’s extensive network, officials in Northeast Ohio learned of her vision.

In early 2018, Kevin Hurst, then mayor of Walton Hills, contacted Gant, who was working with Dakota in Orlando, about vetting space in the village for developing a studio.

Dakar Inc. was formed that April and initial plans were drafted. Phase 1 called for building out 140,000 square feet in Walton Hills to establish six soundstages. Phase 2 would involve another soundstage in Oakwood Village, complete with a helipad. Stakeholders went so far as to celebrate a “groundbreaking” ceremony in June at the Walton Hills site.

But nothing has been built there and those plans have been effectively scrapped.

Gant said that was because of a change in administration after Hurst resigned last summer in response to a sexual harassment lawsuit.

Bedford city manager Michael Mallis joined talks with Gant early last fall in the aftermath of that. When he pointed out that U.S. Bank was vacating a building off Rockside Road it had used as a mortgage lending office — which resulted in 260 layoffs — Phase 1 was shifted to the Bedford property.

SEE DAKAR, PAGE 24

surrounding areas,” she said. “We wanted to create a new model, have multiple projects going per year. And building that studio infrastructure around the community here.”

Justice added, “And we wouldn’t even have to have the film set in Ohio.

For us, there’s something here that just embodies small-town America.

And what’s not to love about that?”

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AKRON

Bailout chances may be good for FES plants

By Dan Shingler dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler

Akron’s FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) is still on track to shutter its Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants in 2020 and 2021, respectively, but some observers now predict the company will get a state bailout for the plants instead.

The company is hoping the state will grant what are known as zero emissions credits to the plants, which would effectively subsidize them, through fees on Ohio electricity users. The credits are for creating electricity without pumping carbon dioxide or other pollutants into the air.

The big question may be whether any charges on customers’ bills will be applied statewide, or just in Northern Ohio, where the company and its parent, FirstEnergy Corp., have long been the dominant electric utility.

Either way, observers don’t think state legislators will be willing to let Ohio lose the jobs the closings of the plants — Perry is in Lake County and Davis-Besse is near Toledo — would bring. The two plants employ about 1,500 people, but backers say there are over 4,000 jobs at stake when positions at FES in Akron and suppliers and contractors for the plants are included.

FES announced the plant closures in March 2018. Soon after, it entered bankruptcy proceedings and moved to split from its parent, FirstEnergy.

FES has since reached a restructuring agreement with its creditors, but that plan is still working its way through the courts. FES now operates independently of its parent, as a result of its bankruptcy case, but FirstEnergy remains the owner of FES pending a resolution of that case.

“Our expectations are generally that Ohio officials would like to advance legislation this session to stave off permanent closure of these reactors,” said Rob Rains, senior energy analyst at Washington Analysis, an independent research firm whose

The Perry Nuclear Power Plant is scheduled to close in 2021, but some observers predict zero emissions credits from the state will save the facility. (Crain’s file photo)

website describes it as one that seeks to anticipate and analyze changes in public policy that will impact financial markets. Rains corresponded with Crain’s via email.

Locally, Chagrin Falls energy consultant Matt Brakey, head of Brakey Energy, agreed.

“I would describe the likelihood of approval as more likely than not,” he said. “Based on comments that have been publicly made by members of the Legislature and just what I’m hearing on the general sentiment in Columbus, it’s my understanding that the prospect of losing jobs associated with these plants is politically untenable to a lot of people,” Brakey said.

Environmental groups also are watching and noting that the effort seems to be gaining steam in Columbus, though their views on nuclear energy are mixed and some are opposed to any bailout.

“Bailing out uneconomic power plants will only distort markets and restrict innovative and competitive technologies,” said Dick Munson, director of Midwest Clean Energy at the

New York-based Environmental Defense Fund, in an email. The fund has noted the “resurgence of interest” in an Ohio subsidy for FES that it attributes to the company’s lobbying and campaign contributions.

Before its bankruptcy proceedings, FES tried a similar approach but its lobbying efforts failed to gain support among lawmakers or then-Gov. John Kasich. That bailout, had it been enacted, would have cost the average Ohio electricity customer about $5 per month and generated $300 million a year for FirstEnergy’s retail customers.

What’s different now? The occupants of the statehouse and the governor’s mansion, Brakey and Rains said.

“All three Ohio House Republican leadership spots are occupied by supporters of the state’s nuclear plants, including House Speaker Larry Householder, Floor Leader Rep. Bill Seitz and Assistant Floor Leader Rep. Anthony DeVitis,” Rains wrote in a February report that he shared. “The odds favor approval of some measure to support the Buckeye State’s ailing

nuclear fleet before the end of June, when the state’s budget is due.”

As for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, when running for election last year, he said he favored keeping the nuclear plants open.

“Nuclear power provides a valuable, clean, reliable source of energy and should remain an important part of Ohio’s energy future,” DeWine said in the summer of 2018, according to multiple news outlets.

Householder did not return a call seeking comment, and his office referred questions on potential legislation to House Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Nino Vitale. Vitale could not be reached before press time.

With legislation not yet introduced, it’s not known what the cost of a potential bailout would be or how ratepayers would be affected.

Brakey said lawmakers will have to balance their desire to keep the nuclear jobs with the need to keep Ohio’s electricity prices competitive with other states to retain and attract industry. It’s likely to be an issue, though, he said.

“If this proves to be an Ohio-wide charge, yes it will — and that seems to be the direction proposals are trending,” he said. “But there’s also the prospect of it being just a FirstEnergy Ohio charge (in the utility’s traditional footprint), which would lend far more concern to the competitiveness of Northern Ohio.”

If lawmakers choose to bail out Ohio’s plants, they may have to choose between making the entire state less competitive in terms of electricity costs or making much of Northern Ohio even less competitive with a subsidy spread among fewer customers. Brakey suggested lawmakers look at ways to relieve the burden on other industries that also produce valuable jobs in the state, such as exempting some heavy industrial users from having the fee be applied to all of their electricity.

“There is always a hidden economic loss with a subsidy like this. … There

needs to be ways for Ohio customers to remain competitive in the face of this subsidy. Commercial and industrial users are going to be most affected.”

Meanwhile, FES is expressing optimism over its chances of getting some form of relief in the new state government.

“The company remains focused on seeking legislative reform and is encouraged by the interest in solving this problem by leadership in the state,” said FES spokesman Tom Becker in an email.

Becker said the company thinks the Ohio plants have at least 10 years of life left in them, in part because Davis-Besse has received more than $1 billion in investments over the past decade. But the company will have to make a decision soon, he said.

That’s because Davis-Besse will soon run out of fuel, and while FES might be willing to purchase the actual fuel rods that power the plant, it won’t spend millions more on building an assembly for the rods unless it knows the plants will continue to operate — and that will require a subsidy.

“No authorization will be granted without the needed legislative relief, and (Davis-Besse) will be decommissioned,” Becker said.

The company is also proposing that any relief it gets could be temporary. If another solution to the carbon issue was created, perhaps at the federal level, that also could make zero emissions sources of energy more competitive, Becker said.

“Legislative relief from the state should be viewed as an important, but interim, step to prevent the premature retirement of these carbon-free resources until a longer-term solution on carbon can be developed,” Becker said.

But something of that nature, such as a carbon tax, is not even being debated at either the state or federal level.

That means that the fate of Ohio’s two nuclear plants is, for now at least, firmly in the hands of the state Legislature and the governor.

Former intern leads Canton firm on growth path

By Beth Thomas Hertz clbfreelancer@crain.com

When Jeff LeBeau started working at WRL Advertising in Canton in 2006, he was an intern who was attending the University of Akron.

After graduation, he was hired fulltime and worked his way up the ladder, going from sales account executive to director of new business, then vice president. But his next move was the biggest: LeBeau bought the agency in September 2015.

He became the third owner of the 65-year-old comprehensive marketing, advertising and public relations agency that was founded as Wern, Rausch & Locke.

Now, LeBeau said the firm is on a steady growth trajectory: Annual sales have increased from about $3 million two years ago to around $3.5 million now. It’s also added three new positions in that time.

The agency prides itself on doing as much work as possible in-house — from strategy, content creation and design to video production and website

P016_CL_20190325.indd 16

development.

LeBeau describes the agency as being customer service-related.

“Our average client has been with us for over 12 years,” he said.

“It’s not unusual LeBeau for a customer to go from agency to agency every three to four years, but usually we will stay with that client. And if our contacts leave, we often are able to keep them or possibly go with them to wherever they are.”

That bent for longevity has helped the firm create a base of 150 to 200 clients, mostly in Northeast Ohio but also reaching into about a dozen states and several countries, he said.

Some of WRL’s bigger clients include the Timken Co. and Mercy Medical Center. The firm also designed the Pro Football Hall of Fame Bridge in Canton and recently collaborated with football legend Joe Namath on photography, video and content for his merchandise website.

LeBeau attributes WRL’s growth, in part, to adding new services such as food styling, interior design, digital signage and MoGraph videos, and incorporating 3D elements in real-time video.

“High-end 3D modeling, rendering and animation is something that a lot of agencies in this area don’t specialize in,” LeBeau noted. “What we can do here, you could do in Hollywood, as far as a lot of industrial applications. We take something like a Timken bearing or a Goodyear tire and put it in its natural environment and show, from an engineer’s standpoint, how things might work.”

B2B customers, which comprise about 60% of the agency’s client base, are big users of this service, as are trucking and logistics companies, he said.

Another growth area for the firm in recent years has been helping clients recruit employees, as opposed to strictly promoting products and services.

“As the economy has gotten better, it’s become more of a challenge from a workforce standpoint to employ drivers, production workers, things of that nature, so we are really chang-

ing (our clients’) messaging to focus more on their culture and what differentiates themselves,” he said.

LeBeau is proud of his own successes in the workforce arena. His firm’s 22 employees include eight he calls “lifers” — personnel who have worked there between 10 and 30 years.

Overall, he described the staff as a committed team that displays a healthy mix of age ranges and skill sets.

“Whenever we bring somebody on, they are adding to our capabilities and also to our network,” he said.

He added that when he was purchasing the firm in 2015, one big challenge was agencies don’t tend to have a lot of capital from a bank’s perspective. He was purchasing the accounts and the reputation of the agency, but without tangible goods behind them.

To secure financing, he had to sell himself and offer a solid business plan built on his 10 years of experience there. That the previous owner, Todd Locke, son of one of the original founders, was willing to stay on parttime as an adviser was an important part of the deal.

LeBeau declined to discuss the

overall purchase price.

Another potential challenge of buying a firm where he was once an intern was the process of assuming leadership, but he said his decade of experience paid off. For example, in his first six years as a full-time employee, he led the company in new business development, a task he wishes he had more time for today.

“When I took over, I honestly don’t think it was that big of a surprise. I think a few people were a little shocked, but for the most part, I think it was probably a good change,” he said. “The previous owner did an amazing job and built a wonderful company and culture. Now, I am really focusing on trying to empower our employees a little more and get their feedback. They are basically the product. Without good employees, we don’t have anything.”

Looking ahead, he said WRL has employees living all over Northeast Ohio and he is looking at possibly adding a second location closer to some of their homes that would allow WRL to access new opportunities that will help it continue its growth.

3/21/19 1:54 PM

SPONSORED CONTENT

DECISIONS TAKING CARE OF YOUR AGING LOVED ONES 2

LEGAL AFFAIRS

Tackling multigenerational estate planning and new rules on VA pensions eligibility

3

WELLNESS

Creative expression is key to maximizing quality of life

4-7

HEALTH CARE

Considerations behind in-home care, expanding senior living options, new opportunities after retirement and communicating with those who live with dementia

This advertising-supported feature is produced by Crain Content Studio-Cleveland, the marketing storytelling arm of Crain’s Cleveland Business. The Crain’s Cleveland Business newsroom is not involved in creating Crain Content Studio content.

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DECISIONS LEGAL

SPONSORED CONTENT S2 • MARCH 25, 2019

Multigenerational estate planning considerations

By VINCE GUERRIERI In the years prior to 2001, Arthur Gibbs of Wickens Herzer Panza said he worked with a lot of clients who were interested in estate planning. At the turn of the 21st century, the exemption for the federal estate tax was $675,000, while the exemption for the generation-skipping transfer tax was about $1.03 million.

Now, the tax burden for inheritances is far less, with both the federal estate tax and generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions at slightly over $11 million for singles. But that’s no reason to neglect estate planning, said Gibbs, the chair of the Avon firm’s estate planning, probate and elder law department.

“This is a marvelous time for people with modest wealth to plan because of the high exemptions, and to have them protected in the

DID YOU KNOW? The federal estate tax applies to the transfer of property at death. The generation-skipping transfer tax is an additional tax on a transfer of property that skips a generation, and thus not subject to the estate tax. future for when the tax laws change,” Gibbs said. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018 will sunset in 2025, potentially bringing the estate tax exemption down to historically lower levels, likely around $6 million, Gibbs says.

There are two main categories when considering estate plans, Gibbs says: The continuation of a family business and the distri-

bution of assets, which can be everything from real estate to cash to securities. And each of them introduces its own set of issues.

One of the considerations involved with distribution of assets is the protection of assets. If a child or grandchild gets into a bad marriage, there’s an option for a trust that the child can administer, but not the spouse. Or, if the heir is in a profession that can get potentially litigious, or is in debt, a trust can be established with a third party to administer, keeping the trust untouched by creditors.

“It’s not just filing forms at the probate court or drafting agreements for a trust,” Gibbs said. “Clients who have acquired wealth have been so focused on that that they don’t know how to give it away.”

With family businesses, the goal is to keep the business running — with or without the family.

“The real wrinkle with family business is how you get the next generation involved,” he said. “Do they have an interest? That’s only half the equation. The other half is if they have the capacity and skill set? It might not be the right fit. And then, how do you make the kids whole who aren’t in the business? It’s a question of equal vs. equitable.

There’s a lot more planning that needs to be done for a family business.”

There’s no hard and fast formula for who should sell a family business and who should keep it. Before any planning is initiated, an individual should consult with his or her attorney, the family business accountant and the family financial adviser.

“Legal, accounting and financial are the three key components,” Gibbs said. “And all the advisers bring value to the table when they work together.”

New rules impact veterans’ pension eligibility

By VINCE GUERRIERI Last October, new rules went into effect for determining veteran and spousal eligibility of VA pensions – a change that was long coming, said Allison McMeechan, a lawyer specializing in Veterans Administration benefits for Reminger, a Cleveland-based law firm.

“This is a pretty big overhaul, and it’s been in the making for quite some time,” said McMeechan, a shareholder and chair of the firm’s elder law and special needs planning group.

Compensation benefits for combat-in-

jured veterans are unchanged. The biggest change is to pension benefits available to veterans or surviving spouses of limited resources and/or income. To be eligible for the pension, the claimant would have to have a net worth no greater than $127,061.

“Now there’s a more bright line asset test,” she said. “Before it was a net-worth tool, but the test was if the assets would be exhausted paying for medical care.”

Net worth does not include a home with up to 2 acres of property, family vehicles, personal effects on a regular basis and prepaid funeral and burial lots.

That last part is key, McMeechan said. If

someone’s going to apply for VA pension benefits, she advises them to consider pre-paying for a funeral, make any purchases they might have been holding off on or engage in home improvements.

“We tell people to reduce assets,” she said.

“There are certainly those kinds of spenddown items.”

The other major change is a three-year “look-back period,” which is something that had been under consideration for years, McMeechan said.

“Before the rules went into effect, people were able to make transfers of assets to children or other family members,” she said.

“Now they can’t do that. If I apply for the veterans pension tomorrow, they’re going to ask if I’ve given away or transferred benefits going back three years that might make me ineligible for a pension.”

Any planning should take into consideration the gifts of any assets, and asset spenddown should be taken into account when determining whether a veteran or surviving spouse is eligible for the pension.

“Planning for VA benefits is very different than general benefits or end-of-life planning,” she said. “In most cases, we’re looking at how we’re going to get an aged or injured veteran medical expenses.”

Managing editor, custom and special projects: Amy Ann Stoessel, astoessel@crain.com Project editor: Kathy Ames Carr Reporters: Judy Stringer and Vince Guerrieri Graphic designer: Scott Goldman

For more information about custom publishing opportunities, please contact Amy Ann Stoessel.

LITIGATION

TRANSACTIONAL

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-Allison M. McMeechan Reminger Co., LPA Chair, Elder Law & Special Needs Planning

101 W. Prospect Avenue, Suite 1400 Cleveland, OH 44115 216.687.1311 www.Reminger.com AKRON CINCINNATI CLEVELAND COLUMBUS SANDUSKY TOLEDO YOUNGSTOWN INDIANAPOLIS FT. WAYNE NW INDIANA EVANSVILLE FT. MITCHELL LEXINGTON LOUISVILLE

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DECISIONS WELLNESS

SPONSORED CONTENT MARCH 25, 2019 • S3

THE ART OF AGING

Creative expression, engagement key to living with purpose

By VINCE GUERRIERI There’s an old song that says life begins at 40.

But as America ages, what used to be regarded as the “golden years” will remain a time for activity, particularly since the aging cohort is the baby boomer generation. Twenty years ago, the number of people over age 65 totaled 34.5 million, or 12.7% of the population. It’s projected that by 2030, more than 70 million people — or 28% of Americans— will be 65 or older, according to the National Center for Creative Aging. This aging population is more educated and wealthier on average than the generations that preceded it, according to the national nonprofit organization.

For some people, what was formerly considered retirement age might be the opportunity to embark on another career (it’s estimated that almost a third of small businesses started last year were launched by people over age 50).

But retirement can also provide a gateway into artistic hobbies or volunteer work.

For the better part of the last half-century, volunteering has grown among the elderly. While there’s no real consensus why, it might be as much self-preservation as altruism.

“There’s a body of research that would suggest a significant determinant of life satisfaction and actual health is strongly influenced by not being socially isolated,” said Stephanie FallCreek, president and CEO of Fairhill Partners. FallCreek noted that social isolation is a fast-growing research field in gerontology, and studies have linked it to higher blood pressure, a greater risk of heart disease and infectious diseases, and the earlier onset of dementia.

“Art is also a good way to engage with students or children. I definitely think it has therapeutic value for the seniors.”

Ashlee Williman, director, Paul W. Alandt Lakeshore Rose Center for Aging Well “There’s also a pretty big chunk of research that indicates health itself is affected by these types of activities. (Social engagement) helps with depression and quality of sleep, among others,” she said. “The benefits are especially enhanced for people who volunteer.”

Fairhill Partners, on Cleveland’s East Side, is a clearinghouse of activities, with a multipurpose nonprofit center that provides its own programs, from exercise classes to self management.

“All the programs are designed to be best delivered by peer facilitators, either by people who are experiencing those circumstances or caring for someone with comparable conditions,” FallCreek said.

The programs are designed to be administered peer to peer, FallCreek said, because Fairhill’s core components to successful aging include having dynamic relationships, either long-standing or newly formed, and having a purpose in life — both of which can be achieved through peer activities.

Additionally, the center offers volunteer opportunities for senior citizens of all walks of life, from people on a fixed income who can’t support a lot of philanthropic endeavors to people who might be more well-heeled and want to give back to their community.

“Our programs involve older adults giving back and getting back, and I think most of them would put it that way,” she said. “We’re more like an urban senior center, but

help is just a phone call away Telephone-based care coaching for people with chronic health issues and their family caregivers.

To get started, call 216.216.373.1797 benrose.org/services

people don’t come to play bingo.”

In addition to its own services, Fairhill leases space to about 35 other entities, such as Ohio State University Extension, which teaches both ornamental and vegetable gardening, and Progress with Chess, which helps seniors retain their mental acuity.

“It’s a potpourri of activities,” FallCreek said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a one-stop shop, but it offers that broad range.”

CENTER STAGE Studies have shown that engagement in artistic activities is beneficial to an individual’s well-being, particularly to senior citizens. The social bonds are helpful, and the activities themselves provide the kind of brain activity that can stave off dementia.

That’s why the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging offers a variety of

artistic programming in its seven senior centers throughout the Cleveland area, from painting, music and ceramics to things that might not be thought of as art, like gardening or knitting. In fact, the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging has partnered with other aging and arts organizations throughout the region to establish the Northeast Ohio Center for Creative Aging, one of 14 centers for creative aging in the U.S. and the only one in Ohio.

“We want people to participate in art without being intimidated in art,” said Ashlee Williman, director of the Paul W. Alandt Lakeshore Rose Center for Aging Well located in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood.

“Sometimes it’s just getting initially engaged in activities and getting out of your comfort zone,” she said. “People become engaged and committed in those activities, and there’s really a sense of pride.”

The centers offer a daily hot meal for senior citizens, and other various activities, from tax preparation help to group discussions.

“Each center is unique, but we all have a lot of core similarities in programming,” Williman said.

The Lakeshore center, not far from where Euclid Beach Park used

to be, offers a natural conversation prompt. “We love to provide opportunities for them to reminisce about Euclid Beach or in general,” she said.

The Rose centers also offer a musical theater project. “We want to offer programming to people who think a senior center might not be for them,” Williman said.

Seniors engage with students at local schools. Lakeshore center connects with students at the Lakeshore Intergenerational School, while the James Woods center in Ohio City works with students from nearby St. Ignatius High School, reading and rehearsing musicals.

“Both the students and seniors look forward to it,” Williman said.

“Intergenerational programming has always existed, but we’ve really expanded on it. It’s a chance for seniors and students to share their stories and work with one another.

“Art is also a good way to engage with students or children. I definitely think it has therapeutic value for the seniors,” she said. “Particularly for those who can’t express themselves in words, the arts are a great way to express themselves. And once you get a taste of art, you’re more apt to expand.”

The senior centers have even worked together to create their own talent show. Last year’s inaugural event featured poetry, music and even a drum circle. They plan to do it again this fall, too.

“We’d like to make it an annual tradition,” Williman said.

Meet the challenges of caregiving Caregiving can be difficult.

It can be joyful, too.

Building Better Caregivers, a workshop developed at Stanford University which meets 2.5 hours once a week for six weeks, can help you. Based on the experiences of thousands of caregivers, this evidence-based program can show you how to care for yourself as well as your loved one, and will open your eyes to the rewards of caregiving, as well as the challenges.

For more information, including class locations and dates, contact: Dr. Stephanie FallCreek Fairhill Partners 12200 Fairhill Rd. Cleveland, Ohio 44120 216-421-1350 ext. 111 sfallcreek@fairhillpartners.org

“BRI Care Consultation” [and design] is a service mark of the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging.

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A is It By

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You don’t have to do this alone.

Caring for someone with dementia isn’t easy.

Hospice of the Western Reserve is here to help.

With expertise in palliative and hospice care, we focus on alleviating symptoms while training caregivers on techniques to make life easier – for everyone.

Choosing to contact us isn’t about giving up, it’s about taking control and making the most of your days together.

We are privileged to have served Northern Ohio families for over 40 years and are committed to remaining the region’s hospice of choice.

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DECISIONS HEALTH CARE

SPONSORED CONTENT MARCH 25, 2019 • S5

A behavior is not a problem.

It’s a message.

At-home providers bring the care seniors need to their doorstep

By CAROLE KLINGLER

By JUDY STRINGER

The physical changes that occur in the brains of people living with dementia impact their ability to process information. As a result, they sometimes respond with puzzling behaviors. A loved one may become anxious or aggressive, repeating certain questions or misinterpreting what he or she hears.

Although the disease makes it impossible for a loved one to change how he or she responds, rethinking how to communicate and analyzing the underlying reasons for the behavior can be effective strategies.

• The first step is understanding that behaviors may not mean what you think.

Your loved one is not trying to be difficult.

The behavior isn’t a problem. It’s a message.

• Ask questions. Don’t assume you know what the behavior means. Ask who, what, when and where to get to the need your loved one is trying to express.

• Express your desire to help. This helps validate feelings and promotes a sense of comfort.

• Consider the person’s history to help uncover the true meaning behind their behavior. People living with dementia lose the ability to call on memories to problem solve. Once upon a time, your mother may have used stretching, exercising, heat or ice to address her low back pain. Today, she is unable to recall those coping strategies, so instead, you witness a behavior.

• Rather than focus on the behavior, enter her reality. Aggressive behaviors are often a way to communicate pain. View each situation and the resulting behavior as a clue. Is your mother hitting the person who is trying to help her stand up?

This may be her way of communicating pain.

• Regardless of the behavior, consider what the underlying message might be.

Wandering may indicate a need to find a bathroom or a sign of missing a loved one from years past. Hoarding may be a way to compensate for forgetting where things belong.

At Hospice of the Western Reserve, when we are managing pain, shortness of breath and anxiety, challenging behaviors improve. Sometimes, these causes are well-managed with medications. Other effective tools include art, music or massage. We are currently collaborating with health care providers, community organizations and caregivers to improve the quality of life for people living with dementia.

By understanding what dementia is and how it affects people, we can make a difference throughout the full continuum of care.

For more information on caring for those living with advanced dementia, please call 216-383-2222.

There’s a good reason why sayings like “Home is where the heart is” and “There’s no place like home” ring true. For many of us, home equates to family, security and comfort. That does not change as we grow older, said AARP Ohio spokeswoman Michelle Shirer.

“In every survey we give to our members and our member’s demographic age group, the overwhelming majority want to stay at home where they can be in their community for as long as possible and where they can live as independently as long as possible,” Shirer said.

Yet, aging at home is not without its challenges. A senior with advancing Alzheimer’s or dementia could forget to take medication, for example, or turn off the stove. Diminished mobility and agility increases the risk of falls and fractures and makes everyday chores difficult or dangerous. And, seniors who live alone often experience feelings of isolation and depression.

Enter home-based senior care: a win-win for the older adults who want to remain at home and for the caregivers who worry about leaving them there. Broadly speaking, in-home care falls into two categories: home care and home health care.

Home care is targeted at older adults who are experiencing difficulty with household activities such as driving, bathing, cooking and cleaning, according to Lisa Kristosik, president of the Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio. Caregivers are typically trained to assist seniors with daily activities and keep them safe and comfortable, but they are not necessarily medically certified.

Home health care, on the other hand, is for older adults who need skilled medical services, such as the management of IVs or catheters or extensive wound care. These services are prescribed by a physician and administered by a team of medical professionals, which often includes a registered nurse, a social worker, physical or occupational therapist and a home health aide.

“The typical home health care patient usually has some functional disabilities — maybe they are really weak from being in the hospital and not quite able to move around their home safely or drive,” Kristosik said. “One of the most important factors in qualifying for skilled home care under Medicare is being homebound.”

Another big difference between the two types of in-home care is who pays for it. While federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid differ from state to state, Medi-

Carole Klingler, RN, BSN, is team leader at Hospice of the Western Reserve’s Lorain County Office as well as a master trainer for Dementia Friends Ohio.

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Kristosik

Bartel

care typically covers medically necessary home health care, Shirer said, but will not pay for services like housekeeping. Seniors or their families are the primary payers of home care.

Shirer said, however, program changes are underway that may extend government program coverage for more services that fall under the home care umbrella, particularly for seniors who qualify for Medicaid.

“There is not a lot of information available at this time,” she said. “We just know in general it is something they are negotiating.”

SPECIALTY IN-HOME CARE Hospice and palliative care are two specialized areas of home health care, which also both support the family caregiver as well as the patient, said Judy Bartel, chief clinical officer of Hospice of the Western Reserve. While most Americans tend to think of this kind of “hospice” as a place – that patients have to go somewhere to receive it – hospice care can be provided in a person’s own home for those who have a medical prognosis of six months or less, she said.

“While we do have three inpatient care facilities when acute symptom management is needed, the majority of hospice care we provide is in the person’s own home or wherever a person calls home, whether that’s a private residence, nursing facility or assisted living community,” Bartel said.

In-home hospice services involve a team of providers, orchestrated by a nurse practitioner or registered nurse who acts as case manager. In addition to making sure the patient is comfortable and in as little physical discomfort as possible, capable hospice caretakers are trained to ease the patient’s journey spiritually and prepare friends and family for the loss of a loved one, she said.

Palliative care patients are suffering from serious, often life-threatening chronic illnesses — such as advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease or renal failure — but, unlike hospice patients, they are still undergoing treatment. In these cases, caregivers are deployed to help patients manage their symptoms, maintain independence and avoid unnecessary

PHOTO PROVIDED BY HOSPICE OF THE WESTERN RESERVE

A home care nurse provides hospice care for a patient.

trips to the emergency room, Bartel said.

“It’s a 24/7 extra level of security for very sick people,” she said.

“If your mom has COPD, for instance, and she’s coughing uncontrollably in the middle of the night, we can send out a nurse as opposed to you taking her to the ER. We do an awful lot of triaging at the home.”

Kristosik added that palliative care patients often have severe mobility issues and may even be homebound. The at-home service model “relieves the stress of getting them to a physician or an office visit,” she said.

WHEN IS IT TIME? According to the AARP, there are several signs that indicate an aging loved one may need additional support in the home: • Losing interest in meals. Be cognizant of weight loss/gain or changes in eating habits, such as eating more junk or processed foods. Check the fridge and cup-

boards for expired or rotten food.

Take note if new groceries go untouched.

• Piles of paperwork. Is mail piling up? Are bills going unpaid?

• Declining personal hygiene.

Has your loved stopped bathing?

Is he or she wearing dirty clothes when you come to visit?

• Scorched pots and pans. This is a telltale sign pots and pans have been left on the stove, either due to distractions or because they’ve forgotten to take them off after cooking.

• Becoming isolated. Has your normally social loved one missed multiple social engagements?

Also take note of full mailboxes or unattended gardens, as this could mean limited trips outside the home.

If you’re unsure, call a local care provider. Bartel said services like Hospice of the Western Reserve are a great resource of information.

“There is likely someone in our agency that can help you sort it out,” she said.

Resource Center Aging & Disability Resource Center is the starting point for information, assistance, options counseling and benefits screening Family Caregiver Support Program Information, respite, counseling and other services

Call for information 216.621.0303 or 800.626.7277

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DECISIONS HEALTH CARE

SPONSORED CONTENT S6 • MARCH 25, 2019

Senior living options expand to meet medical needs

By JUDY STRINGER With a whopping 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day — a phenomenon that is expected to continue into the 2030s, according to the AARP — senior living operators are preparing for an influx of newcomers by expanding their offerings. The landscape once dominated by nursing homes now includes a more diverse set of options.

“When it comes to senior living and care, consumers have more choices than ever,” said Jean Thompson, executive director of Ohio Assisted Living Association, a Columbus-based nonprofit. “It’s important, however, to understand what types of options are available and what those options can provide.”

At one end of the housing and health care spectrum is independent living, according to Andy

Ohman, administrator at Briar Hill Health Care. Along with his brother George, administrator of Holly Hill Health Care Residence, Andy oversees the Hill family of senior residences in Geauga County.

Broadly speaking, independent living includes any housing designed exclusively for seniors, such as retirement communities, retirement homes, senior housing and senior apartments. Typically, there

are minimal home and yard maintenance requirements in independent living settings, which Andy said is a big draw for aging adults who find household management difficult. Another draw is socialization, given the proximity to other seniors. Independent living may also include amenities like meal services or bus transportation, depending on the community.

Assisted living is one step beyond

We are Called to Serve Those Who are Entrusted to Us Introducing Ohman Family Living To patients, residents, families, and healthcare partners we serve, In 1965, our parents, George and Joan Ohman, answered a calling to care for others. Fueled by that calling and their love for others, the Ohmans founded Holly Hill, a nine-bed long-term-care residence in Middlefield, Ohio. One of Holly Hill’s first residents was our father’s brother Bill, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Treating residents as family goes back to our very beginning.

Fifty-five years and three generations later, we have grown into three exceptional campuses of care. We now form the largest post-acute healthcare and senior living provider in Geauga County. Recognizing that our family-owned, family-managed status is a rarity for a healthcare system, we believed it was time to operate under a name that better told our unique story.

Today, we proudly introduce to you Ohman Family Living, a new yet familiar name that distinguishes our 5-star continuous care and rehabilitation communities, formerly known as Holly Hill, Briar Hill, and Blossom Hill.

Our new name reaffirms our family-run operation for years to come, guided by our value of the supremacy of love and its power to elevate compassion and the quality of life of those entrusted to us.

By uniting our facilities and at-home care services under our family name, we more accurately represent the wellconnected, post-acute healthcare system we have become. All our skills and attention are available to every patient and healthcare partner, thus offering a diversity of medical specializations and a seamlessly integrated continuum of care.

We are also happy to announce major investments in our Ohman Family Living communities at Holly and Briar.

As we move forward and grow under our new brand, be assured that the ownership and team leadership will always remain readily accessible to the patients, families, and healthcare partners we serve.

We hope our family promise will give you added reason to consider us when seeking a caring place for your loved ones. We look forward to telling you more about the ways we are continuously improving our quality of care for those who need it most. Let one of our Ohman Family Living members give you a tour of all we offer, answer any of your questions, and most importantly, ease your mind.

Sincerely, The Ohman family

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independent living, Thompson said, offering an option for adults who require assistance with daily activities, such as bathing or eating, or have limited mobility. Unlike independent living, assisted living facilities are regulated by the state of Ohio and have a 24-hour staff.

Assisted living residents can suffer from chronic conditions or illnesses, like diabetes or chronic heart failure; however, the state limits the level of skilled care that assisted living facilities can provide, Thompson said. If the condition fluctuates so much it requires 24hour monitoring or if a senior requires more than eight hours of skilled care per day, for example, he or she must be placed in a nursing home or skilled nursing facility.

At a skilled nursing facility, a physician supervises each resident’s care, and a nurse or other medical professional is almost always on premise.

Many times, they also have physical and occupational therapists on staff.

Post-acute care and memory care are specialized practices offered inside a nursing home or as a standalone skilled care facility.

In post-acute settings, the goal is “to help people get home as quickly as possible and as safely as possible” following a surgery or accident, George said. A medical doctor or a nurse practitioner is involved in the patient’s care. And, seniors recovering in a post-acute unit receive needed therapies five to seven days a week — for two to three hours at a time — compared to people who recover at home, at which a therapist typically visits three times a week for about 45 minutes each time.

The goal in memory care, meanwhile, is to keep patients safe and provide activities to help slow the advance of dementia.

“They still may be able to walk and feed themselves, but they are typically not safe to be left alone,” he said. “Victims of dementia tend to wander, so they need to be kept in a safe environment.”

Not so long ago, “aging in place” was a phrase reserved exclusively for seniors who chose to continue living independently or semi-independently in their own home, as opposed to moving into a nursing home. Today, however, as senior living operators enhance their campuses to provide a continuum of care that can meet the needs of patients as they age, aging in place is taking on new meaning.

A popular senior living model is for adults at or near retirement to move into an independent living unit — a home, apartment or condo — on a larger campus that also includes assisted living and skilled nursing components, she said. Residents transition from one living situation to the next as the need arises.

Andy said the model has a few big benefits, the first of which is onsite therapy and other services that can help seniors get back on their feet quickly after an injury or hospital stay. The second is the avoidance of disruptive moves or hasty transitions for patients who may already be frail or vulnerable.

“Once they make a home with us, they build familiarity with their surroundings,” he said.

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DECISIONS HEALTH CARE

SPONSORED CONTENT MARCH 25, 2019 • S7

For many, retirement is an end and a beginning

By JUDY STRINGER After spending the first year of his retirement “doing absolutely nothing,” Larry Jemison, 71, got an itch to make more of his golden years.

In 2010, the former senior mail carrier began tutoring first-graders at Nathan Hale, a pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school that is part off the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

Nine years later, Jemison still relishes his time with students during the two-hour, three-daysa-week shift.

“They get so excited when they realize they can read a sentence themselves and understand it or write a sentence themselves,” he said. “At that age, they are starting to put words and meanings together, and it’s an empowering time for them.”

Jemison is among a growing number of retirement-age adults who aren’t interested in playing bingo, cutting coupons or watching TV. More and more, today’s aging adults want to stay active and involved — and for good reason.

“Working with younger kids keeps my mind active,” Jemison said. “We’ve all heard the phrase ‘use it or lose it.’ Well, I don’t want to lose it.”

Indeed, mental stimulation, along with social interaction and physical exercise, is a critical component of well-being among older adults, according to E. Douglas Beach, CEO of the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging, which provides meals, in-home care and other services for seniors in five Northeast Ohio counties.

Absence of one or all of these, he said, can lead to feelings of depression or lack of direction and purpose, or worse. A 2010 study by researchers at Brigham Young University, for instance, found that loneliness and social isolation are as dangerous to one’s health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic. In another long-term study of nuns, an epidemiologist at the University of Kentucky found that participants who stayed intellectually active as they aged showed fewer signs of dementia even as their brain tissue, analyzed post-mortem, revealed signs of the disease.

Meanwhile, exercise not only releases endorphins known to trigger positive feelings and stave off depression, it helps mitigate major health risks to seniors like hip fractures, blood clots, heart disease, diabetes and dementia.

“Exercise is the only thing that has proven to slow down all five of these,” Beach said.

Fortunately, today’s older adults — baby boomers, in particular — are more keenly aware of the relationship between mental and physical activity and their quality of life than their parents, said Sheryl Sereda, vice president of advancement and chief advance-

P017_P023_CL_20190325.indd 23

Sereda

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ENCORE CLEVELAND

Larry Jemison tutors students for Greater Cleveland Volunteers and the AARP Foundation Experience Corps literacy tutoring program in the Cleveland Metropolitan and Euclid City school districts.

ment officer at Eliza Jennings, an are also planning those activities Olmsted Township-based senior themselves.” care network.

Sereda said many senior living “They know the less physical communities today offer walking wellness they have and the less so- trails, fitness centers and somecial contact they have, the bigger times even swimming pools to the negative impact on their cog- provide a variety of exercise opnitive abilities and overall well- tions for residents. Group exercise ness,” she said. “One thing we classes, like yoga or chair yoga, are have noticed recently, certainly a great way to integrate socializamore than in years past, is that tion into a fitness regimen. older adults are not only looking Senior living operators may also for more opportunity to engage organize supper clubs, book clubs 4x4.33.pdf 1 2/22/19 10:15 AM both physically and mentally, they or off-campus outings where resi-

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dents can interact with their peers and make new friends. Musical concerts and, more recently, educational classes can provide both socialization and intellectual stimulation as well, she said.

“Every (senior living) community is distinct, so be sure find out what type of amenities and activities are offered when you are visiting a site or making a decision on where to live. That way, you can decide if those are the types of things that interest you,” Sereda said. “And, if you live in a community that does not offer something that will interest and engage you, ask about starting a new activity.”

Community-based senior centers and area YMCAs offer similar fitness and socialization opportunities to older adults living independently, according to Beach.

Many churches and synagogues, he said, have also stepped up to

the plate with a growing number of group exercise opportunities and social clubs aimed at their older parishioners.

One big concern, however, is transportation. Seniors with mobility issues who live independently or those who can no longer drive often are limited in their ability to participate in outside activities. Non-drivers make 65% fewer social, family, religious and other life-enhancing trips, according to data compiled by WRAAA. What’s more, Ohio spends less per person on public transportation than 44 other states.

“We find that once a senior gives up driving, that can be a major limiting factor, and given that Ohio does not have a robust public transit network, that can make it even worse,” Beach said, adding that isolation and inactivity only complicates existing medical issues.

“The revolution in senior programming over the last 20 years is to keep as many people in their homes as possible,” Beach said.

“Typically that is where they would like to age, but we’d like to see continued movement in public policies, including transit infrastructure, to support the seniors and their caregivers.”

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Collaboration like this is seen as increasingly critical in studying brain health, and Northeast Ohio institutions have been working to create opportunities for such inter-institutional, interdisciplinary research.

In late 2016, Kent State University launched its Brain Health Research Institute and, shortly after, CWRU announced the founding of the Cleveland Brain Health Initiative, a collaboration among Northeast Ohio health care institutions and universities. Both focus more broadly around brain health in general, but Alzheimer’s and dementia research will of course be a part of their

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work. And both stress the importance of collaboration.

The Cleveland Brain Health Initiative (CBHI), housed at CWRU, includes the Clinic, UH, MetroHealth, the local VA, NEOMED and Kent State University. So far, the initiative has spent a lot of time creating opportunities for collaboration, including a few established discussion groups that meet regularly to spark ideas. Dr. Lin Mei, director of CBHI, said he wants the initiative to be able to provide seed money for certain projects that wouldn’t be possible without that support. The initiative is also focused on recruiting scientists to the region, educating the next generation of neuroscientists and engaging the community through partnerships.

Kent State’s Brain Health Research

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Institute is a partner of CBHI and recently announced its inaugural director, Michael Lehman, who joins the school from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss.

“Our brain health institute is part of a network of regional relationships and collaborations, including the Cleveland Brain Health Initiative, that will allow us to essentially really translate basic science discoveries into clinical care and clinical outcomes, improve the health of Northeastern Ohioans and do it in a way that actually goes beyond the traditional structure,” he said.

Lehman, who’s worked in brain health at a number of institutions, said this institute at Kent State is unique. Such brain health structures are usually within one institution or a single university and an affiliated hospital, but it’s “rare” to see this kind of collaborative enterprise develop among so many institutions.

Dr. Alan Lerner, director of the Brain Health and Memory Center at UH’s Neurological Institute, said that there is better collaboration in the region as everyone recognizes that no one center can do it all.

“We need novel approaches, because what we’ve done so far hasn’t really totally done it,” Lerner said.

One such novel approach comes from Dr. Mukesh K. Jain, chief scientific officer at Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals and UH’s chief academic officer.

Jain has historically studied blood vessels. A recent $9.6 million grant for Alzheimer’s research from the American Heart Association-Allen Initiative in Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment, a new collaborative funding ef-

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Alzheimer’s and related dementia research funding at the NIH $2.3B

$2.5B

$2B

$1.5B

$1B $448M $500M

0

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’13

’15

’17

’19

SOURCE: Alzheimer’s Association

fort launched in 2018, is bringing together blood vessel experts and brain cell experts from across the country to investigate whether targeting red blood cells and blood vessels can keep brains healthy and prevent dementia.

“A lot of the great discoveries in science and medicine often occur at the intersection of disciplines because people bring new ideas into a field, and we’re hoping to do the same here,” Jain said.

The momentum behind funding for brain health starts with the government, he added, and has been followed by associations and foundations that also recognize the magnitude of the problem and are trying to fill in funding gaps, especially at the intersections of disciplines.

“The government and foundations and other philanthropic organizations are acutely aware of the problem. They want to address it,” Jain said. “And we as a community have gained significant strengths over the last, I would say, last 10 years. And so we’re in a great position to take advantage of this national call or national interest in brain health.”

In addition to investing in research, foundations and the government are also supporting programming for Alzheimer’s dementia patients in the region. In March, the Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland announced that it received more than $1 million to address the needs of individuals and families dealing with Alzheimer’s and other related diseases.

The funding comes from a three-year cooperative grant from the Administration of Community Living — an operating division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — with a portion of funds matched by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

Jonathan Haines, professor and chair of the department of population and quantitative health sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, last year received a $14.6 million grant from the National Institute on Aging at the NIH to lead a national multi-institution effort to understand the complete genetics of Alzheimer’s disease with a real focus on diverse and minority populations.

This research is critical today for a couple of reasons, he said. First, the technology to perform genetic studies has vastly improved in the past several years, and it can be done on a large scale at a still high but doable cost.

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“They are definitely putting in the legwork and seem committed to the region,” Mallis said, noting the city and school board are considering tax abatements on any new construction there. “If this works out and ultimately ends up in Bedford, we’d be ecstatic. But we understand there are still some hurdles to get through. We are very optimistic they get over those.”

As it turns out, the studio would fit even better in Bedford because there’s

already a facility there to move into and build out versus the plan in Walton Hills that was entirely new construction and didn’t include even a fraction of the land the new site offers. The site also offers a rare combo of excess land for future development — should the studio be in a position to expand years down the road — and seclusion.

There were other complications in Walton Hills as well, including the need to get rezoning for the project, which in the village must go before voters for approval. That alone could be a time-consuming process.

Mallis said he’s witnessed Gant’s in-

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vestors touring the building and validated their apparent interest. But funding may be one of the remaining hurdles.

This project is a first for the Dakar team. Plus, there’s no income in the empty Bedford building yet. Those are two key reasons banks aren’t jumping in to finance the project, leaving Gant to collect private investor dollars.

But if/when a sale goes through, construction should begin almost immediately. After all, Gant claimed productions are already lined up to move in this fall.

Once everything is up and running, the studio stands to have a major impact on Bedford and the surrounding area, as hundreds of people could be working in the studio at any given time with multiple projects going on. Hotels, restaurants, catering services and the regional housing market could all see a lift in demand.

Meanwhile, Gant said she’s planning an internship program that would involve the local schools and Cleveland State University in programs for children 17 and younger, 18 and older and even a program specifically for people 55 and older.

If pulled off, Dakar Studios could also have a significant impact on the film industry, which isn’t lost on Ivan Schwarz, president of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission. While other studios have started up here recently, such as Good Deed Entertainment, which has set up in Ashland, the scope of the Dakar project is unique in this market.

“I hope they are successful,” Schwarz said. “But my concern, and it’s not just with Dakar, is people keep approaching me about these studios, and my concern is we just don’t have enough business to make them sustainable yet.”

Gant asserts there’s no lack of interest in her project. And the team behind her clearly buys into her vision.

“Getting to the final finish line is going to take a few more efforts,” Schildhouse said. “But this is the dream Arline has put together, and it’s a compelling story.”

3/20/19 11:11 AM

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THE LIST

Largest Architectural Firms Ranked by local registered architects

LOCAL REGISTERED ARCHITECTS

THIS YEAR

COMPANY

TOTAL LOCAL 1-1-2019 1-1-2018 STAFF SPECIALTIES

MAJOR CURRENT PROJECTS

TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE

1

GPD Group 520 S. Main St., Suite 2531, Akron (800) 955-4731/gpdgroup.com

48

43

580

Schools, municipal and county buildings, retail, health care

Schools in Berea, Warrensville Heights, Hudson and the Highland Local School District; Akron Municipal Court House

Darrin Kotecki, president

2

DLR Group|Westlake Reed Leskosky 1422 Euclid Ave., Suite 300, Cleveland (216) 522-1350/dlrgroup.com

36

36

95

Architecture, interiors, mechanical, electrical, fire protection, structural engineering

Cleveland Clinic/CWRU Health Education Campus, Ohio State University Arts District, CWRU Maltz Performing Arts Center expansion

Matthew Janiak, principal, Northeast region leader

3

Vocon 3142 Prospect Ave., Cleveland (216) 588-0800/vocon.com

33

26

115

Workplace strategy, interior design, architecture, experiential brand design

KeyBank, Willis Towers Watson, PwC, WeWork

Deborah V. Donley, principal

4

ThenDesign Architecture (TDA) 4135 Erie St., Willoughby (440) 269-2266/thendesign.com

29

28

55

Architecture, planning, interior design, environmental graphics

North Olmsted grade 6-12 campus, Brecksville fieldhouse/ aquatics center, Thiel College Academic & Wellness Center, Gilmour Academy Weber Stadium/fieldhouse

Christopher D Smith Robert A. Fiala, partners

5

Perspectus Architecture 13212 Shaker Square, Cleveland (216) 752-1800/perspectusarch.com

29

31

51

Health care, senior living, education, government, historical architecture, hospitality, corporate, laboratory/technology

Summa Health West Tower, UH Parma surgery addition, Centers for Dialysis Care East, Mansfield Art Center, Prospect Yard, Laurel Lake Retirement Community

William Ayars, Michael Lipowski, Salvatore Rini, managing principals

6

Hasenstab Architects Inc. 190 N. Union St., Suite 400, Akron (330) 434-4464/hasenstabinc.com

27

26

48

Health care design, educational design, laboratory/research design, master planning, interior design

Akron Children's Hospital Health Centers, Akron Zoo exhibit, OhioMHAS Twin Valley replacement hospital, new Ohio State laboratory building

Dennis M. Check, president

7

Bialosky Cleveland 6555 Carnegie Ave., Cleveland (216) 752-8750/bialosky.com

23

20

55

Mixed use, religious, office, higher education, laboratories, culinary, multifamily housing, planning, interior design, MEP engineering

Mueller Lofts, Tri-C Metro Campus Center, NASA research support, Van Aken District, Cleveland Public Library facility master plan

Jack Alan Bialosky Jr., senior and managing principal

8

Onyx Creative 25001 Emery Road, Suite 400, Cleveland (216) 223-3200/onyxcreative.com

22

23

85

Design, architecture, electrical, interior design, branding, graphics, mechanical and structural engineering

Golden Gate Plaza, Parma Midtown Towers, Adidas, Biolife, Burlington, Codeverse, Delta Sonic, Fabletics, Kirkland's, Lifestance, Melt, Northern Tool

Mike Crislip, president, partner Carole Sanderson, CFO, partner

9

Bostwick Design Partnership 2729 Prospect Ave., Cleveland (216) 621-7900/bostwickdesign.com

16

17

33

Health/wellness, medical planning, higher education, library, civic, corporate offices, interior design

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hamot patient care tower

Robert Lewis Bostwick, president, director of design

10

NELSON Worldwide LLC (formerly KA Inc.) 6000 Lombardo Center, Suite 500, Seven Hills (216) 781-9144/nelsonworldwide.com

15

18

30

Tenant planning, corporate interiors including legal workplace, health care, hospitality, retail, mixed-use, multifamily

The East End, Brookfield Square in Wisconsin, Cross Creek Mall Sears redevelopments in Wisconsin, Seritage Chicago, The Shops at Riverside in New Jersey

John G. Burk, managing director, Cleveland Office

11

Richard L. Bowen + Associates Inc. 13000 Shaker Blvd., Cleveland (216) 491-9300/rlba.com

13

11

46

Commercial, education, housing, justice, transportation

Justice centers for Rocky River, Sandusky, University of Toledo; Central Ohio Transit Authority; Stark Area Regional Transit Authority; Hanover Crossing

Richard L. Bowen, president

12

RDL Architects Inc. 16102 Chagrin Blvd., Suite 200, Shaker Heights (216) 752-4300/rdlarchitects.com

12

13

37

Placemaking, interior design, all-markets housing, senior living life care communities, commercial

One Lakewood Place, Western Reserve Group new corporate headquarters, Uptown student housing, Quattro Condos

Ron Lloyd, president, founder

13

Sandvick Architects Inc. 1265 W. Sixth St., Cleveland (216) 621-8055/sandvickarchitects.com

11

NA

32

Historic preservation and adaptive reuse specializing in achieving Historic Tax Credits

The Centennial, Standard Building, Garfield Building, Dayton Arcade

Jonathan Sandvick, president

14

Domokur Architects 4651 Medina Road, Akron (330) 666-7878/domokur.com

11

10

22

Architecture, landscape architecture, planning, interior design, construction management

Kent State Design Innovation Hub, Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, J.M. Smucker, YMCA Camp Greenville, Westfield Bank

Michael Domokur, owner

15

CBLH Design Inc. 7850 Freeway Circle, Middleburg Heights (440) 243-2000/cblhdesign.com

11

11

18

Health care, higher education, libraries, interior design

University Hospitals, Geauga County and Elyria public libraries, VA medical centers, Cleveland Clinic, University of Akron, Allegheny Health

Marc B. Bittinger Michael D. Liezert Jeffrey Valus, principals

16

Prime AE Group Inc. (formerly Braun & Steidl) 540 White Pond Drive, Suite E, Akron (330) 864-7755/primeeng.com

10

11

32

Higher education, hospitality, federal, religious, K-12, historic preservation, office, municipal, recreation, multifamily housing

Hale Farm and Village expansion, Kent State University MACC Annex

Dana S. Mitchell, senior vice president, architecture and engineering

17

SoL Harris/Day Architecture 6677 Frank Ave. N.W., North Canton (330) 493-3722/solharrisday.com

10

NA

25

K-12 education, higher education, recreation, corporate office

Lake Local Schools elementary school, Tallmadge City Schools middle school, Bluffton University science building, Stark Parks Wildlife Center, Securitas corporate offices

Domenic Ferrante, partner, COO

18

Dimit Architects 14414 Detroit Ave., Suite 306, Lakewood (216) 221-9021/dimitarchitects.com

10

9

20

Architecture, interiors and urban design, multifamily housing, planning, mixed-use retail, office, hospitality, renovation

The Dexter, Legacy Rochester Hills, One University Circle, Harbor Verandas, Forest City Square Apartments

Scott Dimit, managing principal Analia Nanni Dimit, principal, director of interior architecture

18

HBM Architects LLC 1382 W. 9th St., Suite 300, Cleveland (216) 421-1100/hbmarchitects.com

10

11

20

Public, academic and medical libraries and other design-driven projects for civic and cultural institutions

Bay Village Library, Lakewood Library, Toledo Main Library, Jackson Library, South Branch Library, Tuscarawas Library, Middleburg Heights Library

Peter Bolek, president, director of design; James Shook, Kevin Kennedy, principals

20

Makovich & Pusti Architects Inc. 111 Front St., Berea (440) 891-8910/mparc.com

10

7

17

Health care, higher education, laboratories, building enclosures, code consulting, interior design, behavioral health

MetroHealth new hospital, Cleveland Clinic Behavioral Health upgrades, Cuyahoga County on-call services

Donald Rerko, principal

21

AECOM 1300 E. 9th St., Suite 500, Cleveland (216) 622-2300/aecom.com

9

14

245

Education, federal services, laboratory technologies, architecture, interior design, landscape design and planning

NA

Molly E. Page, vice president Laura Rees, vice president, principal, buildings and places

22

Dorsky + Yue International 23240 Chagrin Blvd., Suite 325, Beachwood (216) 468-1850/dorskyyue.com

9

11

40

Mixed-use developments, multifamily residential, office buildings, retail centers, hospitality and entertainment

West Bay Plaza, Bruckner Commons in New York, Lake Nona mixed use in Orlando, Fla.

Victor Yue, managing principal

23

City Architecture Inc. 1368 E. 55th St., Cleveland (216) 881-2444/cityarch.com

9

7

17

Urban design, planning, mixed-use developments, civic, residential, corporate, restoration, preservation

Tri-C Metropolitan Campus plazas, Glenville Circle North mixed use, Woodhill Choice Plan, Statler Arms renovations, El Mercado at La Villa Hispana

Alex Pesta John Wagner August Fluker, principals

24

Stantec Architecture 1001 Lakeside Ave., Suite 1600, Cleveland (216) 454-2150/stantec.com

8

11

65

Science and technology, education, health care, workspace

Yale University science building; Chagrin Falls Intermediate School; Lake Forest College science center renovation/ addition; Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute

Michael Reagan, VP, science and technology

25

K2M Design 3121 Bridge Ave., Cleveland (216) 357-2794/k2mdesign.com

8

8

26

Architecture, interior design, engineering

Marriott Key Center, Statler Arms Apartments

Scott C. Maloney, president

26

HSB Architects + Engineers 1250 Old River Road, Suite 201, Cleveland (216) 586-0229/hsbarch.com

8

6

23

Commercial office, medical, restaurants

Universal Windows headquarters, Flats riverfront restaurants, National Weather Service, Stella Maris detoxification unit, St. Maron Church

Jim Streff, president

27

DS Architecture LLC 315 Gougler Ave., Suite 102, Kent (330) 678-6144 /dsarchitecture.com

8

12

21

Restaurant/retail, police/fire/administration, K-12/higher education, adaptive transformation, health care

NA

Jeffrey G. Meyers, CEO, owner

28

Strollo Architects 201 W. Federal St., Youngstown (330) 743-1177/strolloarchitects.com

8

7

16

Health care architecture, government, education, recreation, corrections

Mercy Health, Meadville Medical Center, Builders Association

Gregg Strollo, president, principal

RESEARCHED BY GERALD SCHIFMAN (GSCHIFMAN@CRAIN.COM)

Get all 47 firms in Excel format and more executive names. Become a Data Member: CrainsCleveland.com/data To prevent ties, firms with the same number of architects are then ranked by total staff size. Information is supplied by the companies. Send feedback to Chuck Soder: csoder@crain.com.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

BECKHAM

Instagram followings: By the numbers

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

According to research by Advertising Age reporter Anthony Crupi, the Browns have played in only nine national-TV windows in the last seven seasons, a total that is just two above the league minimum and trails the Dallas Cowboys by 65.

By adding Beckham, “they are kind of a team made for prime time,” “Sunday Night Football” producer Fred Gaudelli told The Athletic.

Crupi predicted to The Athletic that when the league’s schedule is announced in April, the Browns will be slated to play in four or five national-TV windows.

“There’s one day that a Browns fan should circle on the calendar, which will define what the league and the rest of the country thinks about them.

That will be the day the NFL schedule gets announced,” said Steve Rosner, a partner at Rutherford, N.J.-based 16W Marketing who represents such notable broadcasters as Cris Collinsworth, Phil Simms, Boomer Esiason and Howie Long.

“That,” Rosner said, “will dictate it.

If you see them on prime-time games, that will mean they’ve arrived. That will be the first sign of what the league thinks of them.”

Everyone else, it seems, has chimed in, and the Browns, for once, are league darlings.

International appeal Beckham, as of March 21, had 12.8 million followers on Instagram.

The tally was more than double the next-closest NFL player — six-time Super Bowl champ Tom Brady — and was 15 times that of the Browns’ team account.

The only other Browns players in seven figures on the social media platform are wide receiver Jarvis Landry (1.8 million) and Mayfield (1.4 million).

Beckham’s 3.9 million followers on Twitter are more than 3.3 million ahead of Mayfield, and nearly 10 times that of good friend and former Louisiana State University teammate Landry.

A comparison between the Instagram followings of Browns stars Odell Beckham Jr. and Baker Mayfield: Beckham

Mayfield

12.8 million

1.4 million

578,000

168,000

5,000

2,000

4.5%

12%

21

8

Followers ages 18-24

55%

71%

Followers ages 25-34

19%

13%

Male followers

77.79%

82.79%

Female followers

22.21%

17.21%

59%

85%

Source: OpenSponsorship

Followers Average likes per post Average comments per post Engagement rate Posts per month

Followers in the U.S.

Ishveen Anand, whose OpenSponsorship platform connects athletes to brands, said something that separates Beckham from other NFL stars is his international appeal.

According to OpenSponsorship, which has half of the league’s players on its platform, 41% of Beckham’s Instagram followers are from outside the U.S. By comparison, 85% of Mayfield’s Instagram followers are from the U.S. “The Browns have probably never been so international,” Anand said.

Beckham also has a strong appeal among females, who make up 22.2% of his Instagram following — which would amount to more than 2.8 million accounts. Almost 83% of Mayfield’s Instagram following are males.

“Celebrity in digital can really create an impact for a team,” Anand said. “When you think about what that does for an audience, there are a lot of fans out there that watch sports for the athlete, the players.”

That can also be true in fantasy football, whose fans make up a key NFL demographic.

With Mayfield, Beckham, Landry, running backs Nick Chubb and (once his eight-game suspension ends) Kareem Hunt, and tight end David Njoku, the Browns will also be popular among wanna-be general managers.

“If it’s between two wide receivers,

you may pick the guy you enjoy watching more,” Anand said.

‘Dynamic’ personality In May 2017, Beckham, who is represented by Elite Athlete Management, signed a five-year deal with Nike that, at the time, easily was the richest ever for an NFL player.

The contract, according to NiceKicks.com, is worth more than $29 million over five years, with the potential to max out at eight years and $48 million.

Last August, Beckham agreed to a five-year, $90 million contract extension with the New York Giants that is the largest ever given to a wide receiver. If he plays out the deal, the Browns would be on the hook for at least $77 million of that through 2023.

The three-time Pro Bowler, however, had expressed frustration — in the media and via on-field outbursts — over the Giants’ losing ways. New York won six or fewer games in four of Beckham’s five seasons, and quarterback Eli Manning has been a shell of his two-time champion self.

Rosner, whose firm is a few miles from Met Life Stadium, said that as an advertiser, he’d be “a little bit concerned” about such antics. But the marketer and agent who once repre-

sented former Giants star Lawrence Taylor said Beckham checks off two key boxes for potential partners.

“He’s a dynamic player and personality,” Rosner said.

Anand, the OpenSponsorship founder and CEO, pointed out that the wideout has had lucrative deals with Verizon and Head & Shoulders, and his list of current and past endorsements includes Buick, Dunkin’ Donuts, Footlocker, Visa, Dannon and Lenovo.

She said her company does a lot of “one-offs” with athletes such as a backup quarterback or “a lineman who still has influence on social media.” Those players, Anand said, could benefit from Beckham’s influence — and his savvy social posts.

“He got his mom a car on social media,” Anand said. “His teammates might say, ‘Oh shit, I can do that, too.’ ”

Closing in on a ticket cap The Browns’ creative marketing team likely isn’t going to join Beckham in giving away vehicles on social media.

But after the Manziel experiment went terribly, and the 2016 and ’17 seasons were even worse, the club has had to pull out all the stops — or hope a marquee opponent was coming to town — to fill FirstEnergy Stadium.

Thirteen of the Browns’ 31 home games since 2015 have failed to sell out, and the actual crowds late in the season too often have been abysmal.

(The 2017 home finale against the Cincinnati Bengals barely drew 30,000.)

As the losses piled up faster than the names on the infamous QB jersey, the team’s season-ticket base had “dipped,” chief operating officer David Jenkins told Crain’s in January.

A promising finish to the 2018 campaign began to change that, and the Browns, even before the Beckham trade, believed they had a chance to reach their season-ticket cap. In 2014, that figure, a source told Crain’s at the time, was in the 62,000 range and included required comps.

On the day the Beckham trade was announced, the Browns said season-ticket holders had renewed at a “high rate” and the remaining inventory was expected to be “quickly claimed.”

The buzz will only grow, as the schedule is released and the draft follows, though the Browns, because of the Beckham trade, don’t have a firstround pick.

It appears to be a relatively small price to pay for one of the best players in the game.

And football is just one piece of the Odell Beckham Jr. experience.

Advertising Section

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

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ARCHITECTURE

HEALTH CARE

LEGAL

REAL ESTATE

REAL ESTATE

Stantec

Cigna

DeWees Real Estate Group

NorthStar Title Services

Kate Csontos has joined Stantec’s Cleveland office as senior associate and office leader. With more than a decade of experience, Kate has focused on managing corporate commercial interior renovations and new construction across the U.S. She is skilled at teambuilding, specializing in an integrated project approach and open communication between consultants, clients, contractors and landlords. Kate has a special affinity for philanthropic events.

Dr. Laura Reich is Cigna’s new market medical executive, providing leadership and clinical guidance in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware and West Virginia. Her role will focus on physician and hospital system collaboration, network development, client growth and retention and total medical cost reduction. Reich previously served as COO of CignaHealthSpring. She also worked as a hospitalist and clinic physician at Cigna’s Bravo Health Advanced Care Center and Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP

Join us in welcoming our new sales associate, Tyler Light, to the brokerage team. Light was born and raised in Canton Ohio. “Tyler has an upstanding personality and is best known for his integrity and perseverance. We are excited to have someone with his drive and passion to assist in the growth of our firm,” said Sam DeWees, President and Broker in Charge of DeWees Real Estate Group.

NorthStar Title expands its sales department with the addition of Joe Tymoszczuk as Regional Account Manager for the west side. Joe’s responsibilities will be to work in conjunction with Doug Sabin, and develop business in the residential real estate market for NorthStar Title.

Prior to joining NorthStar Title, Joe’s career was in residential mortgage lending, and this background is the cornerstone of his understanding of the real estate industry.

P026_CL_20190325.indd 26

Porter Wright is pleased to announce Cleveland attorney Rebecca Kopp Levine was elected to the partnership of the firm. Kopp Levine is in the Labor and Employment Department at Porter Wright and focuses her practice on defending and managing workers’ compensation claims, including allegations of violations of specific safety rules and permanent total disability claims.

She earned her B.S. from Purdue University and her J.D. from Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law.

3/22/19 12:05 PM

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SOURCE LUNCH

Otto Orf Entrepreneur and former Cleveland Crunch/Force goalkeeper On April 26, the 1994 Cleveland Crunch are reuniting at Goodyear Hall in Akron for an alumni game that will celebrate the 25th anniversary of their National Professional Soccer League championship. Otto Orf, the standout goalkeeper of a club that won three indoor titles in a six-season span, is helping to organize the event, which will benefit his HandsonSports Foundation, as well as The Max Cure Foundation. ¶ Orf is a partner with Rubber City Sports Group, which manages the 20,000-square-foot gymnasium in Akron’s East End development, and he’s working hard to ensure that the former players, fans and partners (there will even be replica jerseys for the VIPs) will have a great time at the event. ¶ Orf’s to-do list might be even longer than the Kent resident’s curly locks. In addition to the fundraiser, his foundation and Rubber City Sports, Orf plays a bunch of roles in futsal (a variation of soccer that’s played on a court with no walls and a smaller ball), including serving as the director and owner of the Heart & Sole Futsal Academy. — Kevin Kleps

The Orf file Random fact Orf and his wife, Marty, are friends with Wayne Newton.

Family ties The couple have a 19-year-old daughter, Olivia.

Giving back Orf said his foundation has taken medical supplies and thousands of pairs of soccer shoes to Costa Rica.

The organization also holds international clinics for kids.

Lunch spot Bistro on Main 1313 W. Main St., Kent 330-673-9900

The meal Both had the jambalaya special with coffee. One had an iceberg wedge salad and the other had the Baby Blue salad.

The vibe The family-owned restaurant is a favorite of Orf’s. It can fill up quickly at lunchtime — and the food lived up to the pre-meal hype from Orf.

The bill $58.45, plus tip

You’re trying to get a lot of former players together for the alumni game. How extensive is this going to be?

Soccer has been my life and has meant a lot to me, and here in Cleveland, doing camps and building futsal courts all around, it’s been my life and I want to continue to give back. And I want to include everybody.

This event that we’re doing here, the one thing I want to make super-clear is that every player from the Cobras (an indoor team that played from 1974-81), the Cleveland Stars (who played in 1972 and ’73), the Cleveland Force, the Cleveland Crunch, is invited to participate. Even some of the Canton Invaders (an indoor club that played from 1984-96) guys are coming because they’re part of the professional soccer community in Northeast Ohio.

We want to celebrate the game and the players and not isolate any group.

How enjoyable were those days with the Crunch and Force?

When you watched us, it was a lot of fun. It was end-to-end almost all the time. And Zoran Karic (a Yugoslavian forward who starred on those teams), whose English got way better as the years went by, he used to yell at me because I liked to come out (of the goal) and play also. I’d get caught sometimes, but I would also go out and score some goals. It was fun, it was nerve-wracking, our owner would get mad at me sometimes. … It’s awesome to be in town, where we still have a lot of the guys. And coaching kids, I see a lot of them around the country. I play in some reunion games here and there.

It’s been a blast.

The moment you’re celebrating on April 26 — the 1994 championship — what was that like for you?

After that, everything changed. I was able to play with the confidence and do things a little more comfortably. I started to enjoy an entirely different way. I loved having people watching me play and playing comfortably, and knowing I can play well. For me, it was different once you get that confidence that you can do it.

Those teams were beloved. Do you still see and hear that now?

I live just on the outskirts of Kent, and a couple of my friends work at Kent State. We’d meet at a bar and go and get a drink and do some design work for one of my websites or whatever. I’d get drunk because these kids who were in college would say, “Hey, Otto, I got your jersey, can I buy you a drink?” It was awesome.

Well, now all of these people are in their 30s and 40s, and you can’t recognize them because they were kids and they’re now grown men and women. Just the other day I came back from the (futsal) nationals in Kansas City, I’m in the airport and a guy said, “Hey, Otto.” It happens all the time. ... Our fans were awesome.

You’re organizing the alumni game, you’re running a foundation, you’re part of Rubber City Sports Group and you do a ton with futsal in the U.S. and internationally. How do you keep everything straight?

Most of this stuff gets done. I very rarely miss meetings, and I ask people embarrassingly sometimes, but I’m not good with a calendar — give me a shout as a reminder. I

never want to be disrespectful, but it’s hard to get everything done. I could be a rich person probably if I focused on three of those five or six things, but my it keeps my ADD occupied and I love doing all of it.

You believe futsal is kind of the wave of the future?

It is. In indoor soccer, the ball just rockets around, it hits the board, it never goes out. There’s no real benefit to being accurate or putting the right pace on the ball. In futsal, the ball is made to stay on the floor.

It rolls smoothly all the time, so you put a premium on passing. Then the ball is at your feet more because the ball is on the floor, so you’re actually developing your footwork. That’s what soccer players need. And then you make the court smaller and put things closer together, so it puts you under pressure. Mentally, you have to make quicker decisions, which is a huge benefit for outdoor soccer.

When you look back on your career in Cleveland, are you gratified by how it turned out?

I was a baseball player who always wanted to be football player. (Indians legend) Mel Harder took me to his house when he found out I was a baseball player. I got to throw out the first pitch a couple times at Jacobs Field with Hector (Marinaro). I didn’t know anything really about Cleveland sports. What a great sports history, and to be part of it now, it makes me sad that the team is not there and makes me excited to hopefully bring futsal back and have it kind of replace the modern version of indoor soccer. It’s really the world’s version of indoor soccer.

CLEVELAND BUSINESS 700 W. St. Clair Ave., Suite 310 Cleveland, OH 44113-1230 Phone: (216) 522-1383 www.crainscleveland.com Twitter: @CrainsCleveland Publisher/editor Elizabeth McIntyre Group publisher Mary Kramer Managing editor Scott Suttell Sections editor Michael von Glahn Creative director David Kordalski Web editor Damon Sims Associate editor/Akron Sue Walton Assistant editor Kevin Kleps Senior reporter Stan Bullard, Real estate/construction Reporters Jay Miller, Government Dan Shingler, Energy/steel/auto/Akron Rachel McCafferty, Manufacturing/ energy/education Jeremy Nobile, Finance Lydia Coutré, Health care/nonprofits Senior data editor Chuck Soder Cartoonist Rich Williams Events manager Ashley Ramsey Marketing coordinator Megan Lemke Integrated marketing manager Michelle Sustar Managing editor custom/special projects Amy Ann Stoessel Associate publisher/Director of advertising sales Lisa Rudy Senior account executives Dawn Donegan, John Petty Account executives Laura Kulber Mintz, Loren Breen People on the Move manager Debora Stein Office coordinator Denise Donaldson Pre-press and digital production Craig L. Mackey Media services manager Nicole Spell Billing YahNica Crawford Credit Thomas Hanovich Crain’s Cleveland Business is published by Crain Communications Inc.

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THE WEEK In the money

Tall order

Midwestern health care companies raised $2.5 billion in capital last year, building slightly on a huge increase in 2017.

BioEnterprise’s 2018 Midwest Healthcare Growth Capital Report tracks capital investments made in biomedical companies across 11 Midwestern states in three sectors: medical device; biotechnology and pharmaceuticals; and health IT/software and services.

The organization said 438 companies raised a total of $2.499 billion in 2018. That put the year about on par with 2017, when 364 companies raised a total of $2.465 billion. The 2016 total was $1.728 billion.

Cleveland companies drew $294 million in investment last year, up from $218 million in 2017.

Downtown Akron’s tallest office building, the 27-story Huntington National Bank Tower, is for sale. Nick Browning, Huntington’s Akron regional vice president, said the bank put the building on the market after he met with several real estate developers interested in turning it into apartments or a combination of residential, office and retail use. Huntington occupies 11 floors of the tower. Five floors are occupied by other tenants and 11 are vacant.

P027_CL_20190325.indd 27

Zone offense

Huntington plans to list its 27-story building at 106 S. Main St. in Akron for sale. The bank hopes to tap into its potential for redevelopment to a mixed-use property. (CoStar)

A group of Cuyahoga County economic development organizations hopes to take advantage of an expected rush to turn capital gains into tax-sheltered investments in target neighborhoods called Opportunity

Zones. The group, under the banner “Opportunity CLE,” has put together an investment prospectus and is developing a website and digital portal to attract both local and national investment to federally designated census tracts considered economically distressed. It also wants to ensure the investments have as much of what the group calls “social impact” as possible.

Thinning out The University of Akron is offering buyouts or early retirements to some of its 720 full-time faculty members.

Trustees approved offering a Voluntary Separation or Retirement Program, but only for positions that are not in what the school is calling strategic investment areas. The university last year told Crain’s it projected a $16 million deficit for fiscal year 2018-19.

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