Crain's Cleveland Business

Pandemic perserverance: Crisis is a ‘roller-coaster ride’ for Die-Cut Products. PAGE 4

PAGE 19

CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM I APRIL 20, 2020

COPING WITH COVID-19

THE DOCTOR WILL CALL YOU NOW Pandemic shows skeptics teleheath technology’s benefits, opportunities

BY LYDIA COUTRÉ

The payment models and regulations that have for years stymied the health care industry’s efforts to grow virtual-care options have been rapidly adjusted during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing a wave of patients to access their providers through telehealth.

The coronavirus crisis could be the push that the industry needed to establish telehealth as a reliable, broadly used option for accessing care. Patients, payers and providers who have long been skeptical of the technology are seeing the benefits it offers and the opportunities for its use in whatever the

new post-pandemic normal may be.

The numbers of Northeast Ohio’s telehealth growth are staggering: In four weeks, MetroHealth saw roughly 42,000 virtual visits, which is 20 to 25 times as many as it did during all of 2019. Enterprisewide, Cleveland Clinic’s telehealth visits, which previously accounted for 2% of all visits, now make up 75%. And at University Hospitals, telehealth visits, which at the start of the year accounted for less than 5% of primary care visits, now make up 80%.

Chicago developer buys Ohio City site

BY STAN BULLARD

See TELEHEALTH on Page 18

Just like all of you, Crain’s is adjusting with the times

Scott

SUTTELL

See NEWS on Page 17

REAL ESTATE

Stoneleigh is planning $60M apartment project

FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR

Reporters all over the country are covering the story of their lifetimes, and in most cases they’re doing it exceptionally well, bringing clarity to extraordinary developments in this pandemic and drawing ever-larger numbers of readers for their work.

The story of the news business?

That’s another matter, particularly in local news, where long-term audience trends and the near-term economic shock — with a sharp advertising pullback in many places, and cancellations/postponements of live events — have hit the industry hard.

Cleveland has been at the top of the news about the news lately as The Plain Dealer made major cuts to a staff that now has just four union reporters, and the 60-plus journalists at sister operation Cleveland.com represent a fraction of the editorial firepower that used to cover the city and region.

LOOK BACK It’s been 40 years since George Voinovich’s “public-private partnership” initiative spurred the region’s economy.

ILLUSTRATION BY ELENA SHARIPOVA

Stoneleigh Cos., a Chicago-based apartment and office builder, is preparing plans for a $60 million, 241suite project at the west edge of Hope Memorial Bridge between Ohio City and downtown.

Rick Cavenaugh, senior principal and Stoneleigh founder, said it’s the kind of site his company seeks because it’s central to people going to or from downtown, but also near restaurants and amenities where people like to live.

“It’s not an internal site in the neighborhood that’s near where people want to go; it’s on the way to where people are going,” Cavenaugh said. “It will have views of downtown Cleveland and be within walking distance from the West Side Market and West 25th Street.”

Stoneleigh on March 30 shelled out $7.6 million for the four-acre parcel to Brickhaus Integrity Ohio LLC, according to Cuyahoga County online property records.

The seller in 2013 had proposed One West Twenty, a much larger apartment complex of 500 suites that later was revised to a 300-suite first phase and a 200-suite later phase.

But nothing went forward. Brickhaus Integrity parted with the larger of two parcels at the site, but kept a two-acre portion for its future use.

An unseen factor also sold Stoneleigh on the location: It’s part of a federally designated Opportunity Zone. The zones are designed to aid growth of companies or projects in designated economically distressed areas by allowing investors in them to shelter capital gains from other investments.

See OHIO CITY on Page 17

NEWSPAPER

VOL. 41, NO. 15 l COPYRIGHT 2020 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

FOCUS | WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT  Prepping for post-pandemic: Lorain County Community College is working toward a time when the economy begins its restart and recovery. PAGE 8 Adviser: Remember essential workers when the economy bounces back. PAGE 10

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Cleveland company is trying to get on FDA fast track with antiviral spray Arms Pharmaceutical produces ‘a hand sanitizer for the mouth’

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Afif Ghannoum, CEO of Cleveland-based Arms Pharmaceutical LLC, was six years into a U.S. Food and Drug Administration new drug application process when the coronavirus hit and sent his work into overdrive.

Since 2012, Arms has been selling a product called Halo Oral Antiseptic over the counter as what Ghannoum has called “a hand sanitizer for the mouth,” meaning it could kill germs in the atmosphere. However, that was only the first step of taking full advantage of Arms’ proprietary formulation of cetylpyridinium chloride, which is also used in mouthwash. To be able to sell it as preventing infections, perhaps even COVID-19, the current strain of coronavirus, meant meeting a higher standard, and that required a full FDA review, which could take as long as 12 years.

“Everyone involved is so desperate to find a solution,” Ghannoum said.

“Up until now, our plan had been to sort of do crossing T’s, dotting I’s — smaller studies that would get a large partner involved to help us do like a massive study. In the age of corona, that accelerated where, to give you an Halo Oral Antiseptic had been sold over the counter, but the product has been removed idea of the scale, we had done a from the shelves as Arms Pharmaceutical LLC seeks FDA approval. | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO 100-person (Phase 1) clinical trial. This clinical trial is 4,400 people. That’s the ceived a call from University Hospi- people and contract out manufacturtals asking us if we would be willing ing to a company in Georgia, Ghanscale you do for Phase 3 approval.”

Now, to ensure that no one thinks to fund $1 million for a clinical trial of noum said. the over-the-counter product works this product,” said Ronn Richard, The idea for the Halo product came on the coronavirus, the product has president and CEO of the Cleveland to Ghannoum a decade ago, after the been removed from the shelves as the Foundation. “But their chief scien- H1N1 swine flu epidemic, which was tists and the head of infectious dis- a milder, less deadly infection than review is moving to FDA’s fast track.

Bringing a new prescription drug eases felt that this could prevent peo- COVID-19. He saw that while a person to market requires patience and ple from possibly getting COVID-19, could rid themselves of the germs by money. The drug approval process or at least make their symptoms less washing their hands, there was no can take as much as 12 years, encom- severe. We had an emergency, tele- protection from airborne germs. passing three phases of trials before phonic board meeting of the founda“So when we looked, we thought, the FDA will let something on the tion, during which we listened to two ‘OK, well you’re going to need to market. spray something University your mouth,’ ” “UP UNTIL NOW, OUR PLAN HAD BEEN TO in Hospitals will he said. “But if lead the trial, you had to use it SORT OF DO CROSSING T’S, DOTTING I’S, along with 20 and spit it out in SMALLER STUDIES THAT WOULD GET A other hospitals public, people around the counLARGE PARTNER INVOLVED TO HELP US DO p r o b a b l y try. The CWRU wouldn’t use it.

LIKE A MASSIVE STUDY. IN THE AGE OF medical school So we knew we has formed had to make it CORONA, THAT ACCELERATED ...

WE HAD COVID-19 workwhere people ing groups to DONE A 100-PERSON (PHASE 1) CLINICAL TRIAL. THIS could swallow it, support the work but also we had CLINICAL TRIAL IS 4,400 PEOPLE.” of Dr. Robert to make it that it Salata, chairman — Afif Ghannoum, CEO of Cleveland-based Arms Pharmaceutical LLC was a barrier in of the departthe oral cavity ment of medicine at UH Cleveland very senior doctors at University that would last for a long time. So Medical Center and professor of Hospitals, and the board decided to that’s what our technology does, and medicine, epidemiology and inter- fund this million dollars.” we found that we were able to keep Ghannoum, an attorney, worked that barrier up for six hours a day.” national health at CWRU. “It’s an entrepreneurial nightmare for several major law firms before Though he’s been investing in startand dream all at once,” said Doug striking out as an entrepreneur a de- ups for 20 years, Weintraub said he’s Weintraub, an Arms investor and cade ago. His focus has been on com- never experienced anything like this. board member and the CEO of mercializing research originating “We’re just in unprecedented Bounce Innovation Hub, an Akron with his father, Mahmoud Ghan- times and everything that you’ve business accelerator. “It’s just nuts noum, a professor at the School of trained for is pretty much thrown out because we were talking about a PK Medicine at CWRU and director of the window,” he said. “Things that study (an early part of a Phase I FDA the Center for Medical Mycology at normally take years to have discusapproval), and today we’re talking University Hospitals, where he stud- sions about are taking days. ... We about an Emergency Use Authoriza- ies fungal diseases. had a conversation with the CleveIn addition to Arms, Ghannoum land Foundation in regards to the tion with the FDA.” Under normal circumstances, that operates Next Trillion Services, funding for part of the clinical study. would require that Arms do another which does testing for pharmaceuti- It took four days to get a $1 million round of fundraising. Instead, the cal companies, and Biohm Health, commitment.”

Cleveland Foundation stepped in which markets Biohm, a probiotic digestive aid. with a $1 million grant.

Jay Miller: jmiller@crain.com, In all, the companies employ 15 (216) 771-5362, @millerjh “We got into it just because we re-

2 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | APRIL 20, 2020

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FINANCE

Banking industry is still grappling with imperfections of PPP rollout

BY JEREMY NOBILE

Community banking’s role

A week-and-a-half after submitting an application for a $150,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration that would help Noble Beast Brewing Co. pay staff and cover some other expenses, director of operations JoLyn Yasaki isn’t just waiting on the money, but an update on when funding might be expected.

She applied through Huntington Bank the day after the PPP launched on April 3. And while Yasaki said her request was given a loan number, indicating money is set aside for the brewery even if the loan has yet to officially close, the uncertainty creates anxiety for the small business — regardless of faith that the money will eventually arrive.

Yasaki said her banker told her that additional documents might be needed 48 hours prior to a closing date. But after a dozen days had passed since she applied, there was no word on when that date might be.

Yasaki’s experience is not unlike that of other small businesses looking for stimulus money to keep their companies operating and their workers paid, though experiences vary across the board. Some applicants have already received funding. Others are waiting in limbo since filing applications. Others, still, have simply been unable to get a loan to the SBA because of challenges their bank is facing with accessing government portals to file loan requests.

Meanwhile, shortly after 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 16, the PPP hit its $349 billion funding ceiling, just under two weeks since the program launched, stopping lenders from putting new requests into the SBA system until a fresh round of funding is allocated.

Many issues are being sorted out on the fly, some slower than others. A lack of clear guidance on what promissory notes to use led to some banks waiting for SBA clarification, while others used their own documents. At one time, the SBA said it would provide the loan documents. It later said banks could use their own.

There was additional uncertainty over whether someone sitting on a bank’s board of directors could apply through the bank they serve for a PPP loan for their own businesses. Meanwhile, banks didn’t know how to treat applications from sole proprietors seeking loans. Guidance on both things wasn’t provided until last week.

They’re some of the many examples illustrating the PPP’s rocky rollout, which has been rife with glitches and unexpected challenges that ultimately translate to delays in providing capital to small businesses that’s desperately needed to help them survive a pandemic-induced business downturn and pay employees.

It’s worth noting the PPP is a massive undertaking, with the SBA attempting to effectively process as many loans on a daily basis right now than it did in all of fiscal year 2019, which comprised $28 billion in loans. Through April 14, the SBA had approved 1.2 million loans valued at more than $270 billion, or 77% of the original $349 billion allocated for the PPP, according to a policy update from Squire Patton Boggs. By the next day, the other 23% of that money had been requested.

While that’s a lot of approved loans,

The Ohio Bankers League trade group recently surveyed a number of community banks in the state about the Paycheck Protection Program to get a sense of the demand they’re seeing.

Here’s a quick look at what the organization learned from the 15 community banks that have responded so far: Average number of applications per bank: 196 Average total dollar amount of applications per bank: $42.3 million Average number of loans closed per bank: 54 Average total dollar amount of loans closed per bank: $12.3 million

States and territories receiving PPP funds Approvals through April 13 State

Approved Approved loans dollars

Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana North Carolina Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Dakota Northern Marianas Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Virgin Islands Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia

19,244 2,703 1 14,803 10,898 54,922 28,469 11,930 1,974 1,663 52,021 29,423 238 8,426 8,846 44,453 23,583 22,295 19,915 17,216 17,097 27,315 11,937 10,889 24,974 33,819 14,209 34,088 10,372 23,786 18,565 4,209 7,113 17,187 5,365 40,975 8,232 29 38,016 26,451 9,508 36,604 1,001 4,110 14,273 7,986 19,074 88,434 12,914 26,880 68 4,886 18,906 31,702 5,211

$3,819,600,518 $602,911,645 $389,500 $2,166,563,254 $3,524,770,207 $20,853,495,045 $5,830,781,842 $2,923,132,220 $590,422,870 $791,004,872 $12,656,107,018 $6,725,718,213 $53,659,254 $1,626,051,108 $1,399,191,164 $12,503,648,850 $5,986,077,384 $3,748,993,223 $3,729,110,056 $3,336,402,794 $3,745,462,888 $7,073,245,593 $3,756,206,258 $1,710,424,025 $7,321,573,738 $7,633,395,870 $1,921,783,598 $6,433,368,771 $1,293,105,048 $5,729,549,254 $2,727,637,044 $1,255,172,600 $1,520,212,834 $5,897,533,934 $1,103,753,677 $11,737,950,918 $1,386,597,176 $7,540,546 $10,368,882,724 $4,009,914,991 $2,427,776,445 $9,910,549,957 $319,308,946 $875,591,033 $2,756,101,029 $1,156,576,164 $4,742,194,968 $21,776,306,479 $2,617,066,864 $6,615,120,527 $13,116,530 $853,707,598 $4,928,845,742 $7,288,143,288 $1,054,712,809

SOURCE: U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

stories like Yasaki’s indicate that there are some companies that simply haven’t seen the cash. The SBA on April 8 did clarify that lenders should provide funding to borrowers no more than 10 days after approval, but the Consumer

Bankers Association has since lobbied for a grace period for disbursement.

Efforts are underway to provide at least another $250 billion in funding to the PPP, but partisan politics have slowed down the approval of the additional money. As of 1 p.m. on April 16, new funding had not been allocated, but the industry is optimistic that it is a matter of when, not if.

Expectedly, several banks large and small have struggled to make applications or close loans.

Huntington, one of the biggest lenders of SBA loans in the country, was overwhelmed with requests, forcing it to pause intake of new applications — which it has only been accepting from existing customers — just five days after the PPP went live.

Much of last week for the bank was spent catching up on the backlog.

Huntington spokeswoman Emily Smith said the bank had received $6 billion in applications and secured $5 billion in guarantees as of the middle of last week. But it’s still unclear when the bank will open application intake again, or if it would take requests from non-Huntington customers. The latter is unlikely because of additional challenges with regulatory measures (like Know Your Customer requirements) attached to onboarding new customers on the bank’s end, which is why most banks, large ones in particular, are exclusively working with existing clients on the PPP, including Cleveland’s KeyBank, PNC Bank and Bank of America, which has been sued over that very policy.

The American Bankers Association has been lobbying Congress to streamline some rules in legislation providing the next round of funding to help expedite applications.

“We will begin accepting applications again as soon as we can work through the enormous demand we have received and confirm that federal funding is available,” Smith said. “We remain optimistic this important program will provide much-needed relief to small businesses, and we appreciate the unprecedented work by many to come together during this time.”

The availability of federal funding is another unknown factor. Concerns about when more money will be allocated, and how much, have contributed to worries with some would-be borrowers and community banks that have been challenged with filing PPP loan requests that money could run out before their applications are filed.

Robert Palmer, president and CEO of the Community Bankers Association of Ohio, said community banks — typically classified as those with fewer than $10 billion in assets — deserve a carve-out in any additional funding allocated to the PPP to ensure that sector of the industry, which often serves clients in rural areas, can provide stimulus money to their customers.

Banking trade groups expect movement on a fresh round of funding in coming days. And while one line of thinking is that $250 billion should cover all loan demands, and an allotment specifically for community banks would not, therefore, be required, it’s something the Ohio Bankers League is getting behind now all the same, said OBL spokesman James Thurston.

Jeremy Nobile: jnobile@crain.com, (216) 771-5362, @JeremyNobile

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Die-Cut Products works to stay ‘afloat’ during challenging times

BY RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY

The face shields Die-Cut Products Co. is helping to make could benefit those in the medical profession, but the work could also serve as a life raft for a small family business in a tough time.

Die-Cut Products in Cleveland is part of multiple efforts to make clear face shields, including a broadbased push by manufacturers across Ohio that was announced by Gov. Mike DeWine in early April.

This is an entirely new product for the company, which typically serves the aerospace and defense markets, as well as health care.

President Ari Jay Comet said being a manufacturer during the pandemic has been “a bit of a rollercoaster ride.”

Since Die-Cut Products serves the defense industry, those customers asked it to stay open, Comet said. Because of that, he initially thought the shutdowns might not have much of an impact on his company. But the commercial aerospace customers he serves have started furloughing employees or closing, and he’s started to see orders decline.

“What will hopefully keep us afloat as a small business with our market diversity is that health care companies for the most part will continue to produce because those are essential necessities,” Comet said.

Die-Cut Products works in metallic and nonmetallic materials, making small parts like gaskets or shims.

On the health care side, that includes parts for wearable glucose meters and EKG machines. In aerospace and defense, Die-Cut Products’ parts have gone into commercial airliners, the space shuttles, missile warheads and submarines.

Die-Cut Products’ roots date back to 1944, when it was started by two individuals, one of whom was Comet’s grandfather. Comet has been with the company full-time for almost 21 years, about 10 of those as president. He’s seen a lot of challenges in that time.

“WE WEATHERED THE STORMS THAT CAME POST-SEPT. 11. WE’VE SEEN WHAT HAPPENED IN ’08. AND WE’VE MANAGED TO PULL THROUGH THOSE TIMES, AND I REALLY FEEL CONFIDENT THAT WE WILL AS WELL HERE.” — Ari Jay Comet, Die-Cut Products Co. president

Die-Cut Products is part of a push to make clear face shields to combat the COVID-19 crisis. | DIE-CUT PRODUCTS

“We weathered the storms that came post-Sept. 11. We’ve seen what happened in ’08. And we’ve managed to pull through those times, and I really feel confident that we will as well here,” Comet said. “That said, manufacturing is oftentimes the first to be hit and the last to recover, and I feel that will definitely be the case here.”

Most of what Die-Cut Products makes has a lead time of five or six weeks from order to shipment, Comet noted, and payment follows after delivery. That means he hasn’t seen a financial drop just yet, but he expects that to come at the end of May or beginning of June. In the past month, he’s seen gross sales decline by about 30%.

He added that he is hopeful the

company’s diversity and the new personal protective equipment products it’s making could bolster it enough to avoid layoffs.

The company laid off about half its workforce in 2008 and 2009, in the trough of the Great Recession, ultimately bringing back those employees who hadn’t found other work.

Currently, Die-Cut Products has nine employees; Comet said its roster doesn’t usually go above 12. He said he’s sure no business owner wants to let employees go, but he feels it’s even more personal for a company as small as his. Comet not only knows everyone, he knows their spouses’ names and their children’s birthdays.

“My hope is that we can take some of this PPE business and allow it to help us weather the storm ahead a little bit,” Comet said.

The company will need to work overtime to get the PPE to the customers who need it. Comet said he’s hopeful that, too, will provide a cushion for any coming downturns.

Looking to the future, Comet wondered whether these domestic manufacturing efforts will bring back some overseas production or spark a desire to buy more U.S.made products.

“I realize that this is filling a need, an immediate need for a shortage because of a pandemic,” he said.

“When the pandemic is over, whether it be 12 months, 24 months, however many months (Dr. Anthony) Fauci or anyone else wants to tell us it’s going to be, there’s going to be some point, God willing, where there is no longer this immediate high demand for these personal protective equipment items. But you will have this multitude of manufacturers domestically tooled up and ready to produce a commodity.

And at that time, what I will be more curious to see is what is the longterm outcome of this.”

Rachel Abbey McCafferty: (216) 771-5379, rmccafferty@crain.com

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A journalism journey with many twists and turns

EDITORIAL

May Day W

e’re really going to do this.

May 1 figures to be quite a day for at least some workers in Ohio, as Gov. Mike DeWine last week announced May Day as the date for beginning to reopen the state and get the economy moving again. Are we ready for this? Not really, though a smart, slow reopening strategy could help mitigate some of the potential problems.

We certainly understand the impulse to get back to something approaching normalcy. Over the past four weeks, more than 855,000 Ohioans have filed initial claims for unemployment — a figure that is nearly 140,000 more than the combined 715,512 jobless claims in the state in the last two years, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Nationwide, about 22 million people have filed unemployment claims in the past four weeks, which has wiped out all jobs gains since economic expansion that began in mid-2009.

DeWine has been transparent and consistent throughout this coronavirus crisis, and we, like most Ohioans and people outside the state, have been impressed by his leadership. So when he says the plan to open Ohio back up is “going THERE ARE BIGGER to be gradual — one thing ISSUES AT PLAY HERE, after another,” and that his administration wants to do ONES THE GOVERNOR this “in a thoughtful way WILL HAVE A CHALLENGE that engenders confidence and ensures customers and TO SORT OUT AND employees are safe,” we take COMMUNICATE IN A him at his word that the strategy will be executed RELATIVELY SHORT with caution.

But there are bigger isPERIOD OF TIME. sues at play here, ones the governor will have a challenge to sort out and communicate in a relatively short period of time.

One big question: How meaningful can any reopening be until there is widespread testing available for COVID-19?

Our country has been painfully slow on this measure. By contrast, Germany, a leader among European nations in addressing the pandemic, is set to reopen small businesses this

week and schools on May 4. The reason: As the Financial Times reported, Germany has “a comprehensive testing regime that allowed authorities to identify and isolate those infected with the virus at an early stage.” It also has the capacity to run 650,000 tests a week.

America and its states still lag substantially on the testing front. Stay-at-home orders have helped to slow the spread of the coronavirus in most places, which in turn has prevented hospitals from becoming overburdened. But the country’s death toll has surpassed 35,000, and absent a bigger, more consistent testing effort, it’s hard to see how the economy returns to normal anytime soon, even after official reopening dates are set.

Are employers, who put a lot of effort into remaking their operations so people could work at home, ready in a matter of less than two weeks to start bringing people back in the workplace? How will they accommodate employees who, due to underlying health conditions and other factors, have legitimate reasons to be concerned about a May 1 restart? (It would have been a good idea for the Ohio Economic Business Recovery Advisory Board to have a member who’s not a CEO and represents employee perspectives.) DeWine at his media briefing on Thursday, April 16, said the state wants to see safeguards in place for companies where employees return to work, including taking temperatures and wearing masks. Are companies prepared to enforce that?

Restaurants and retail businesses have paid the heaviest price, and it’s not yet clear how they’ll be allowed to operate — and if consumers are ready to return in numbers sufficient to make for a meaningful reopening.

DeWine understands the magnitude of the task at hand. He noted last Thursday that nothing will be normal for Ohioans until a vaccine is developed, and that if the slow-moving reopening isn’t done right, the consequences would be “horrendous.”

“The world that we’re going to see is a different world,” he said. “Barriers, distancing, all the things we have talked so much about. The workplace is going to change.”

Time to get ready. Fast. The last thing we want is a reopening that exacerbates our public health crisis and turns our short-term economic pain into something more prolonged.

Publisher and Editor: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com) Managing Editor: Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com) Contact Crain’s: 216-522-1383 Read Crain’s online: crainscleveland.com

I’ve mentioned in this space before that I like to think my journalism career started at the age of 8. That’s when I began helping my five older siblings on their Youngstown Vindicator paper routes. It’s also when I decided I wanted to be a journalist.

Not every kid is lucky enough to end up in the career they dreamed about Elizabeth when they still had some baby teeth, but McINTYRE I was. A month after my college graduation, I landed my first real job in the business at the Morning Journal in Lorain. Within 14 months, I made it to what I considered the big leagues — The Plain Dealer.

The 1990s were a golden era at the paper. I was hired as part of the The Plain Dealer’s expansion into the counties surrounding Cuyahoga. By late 1992, roughly 60 additional journalists had been hired to cover and edit news from Lorain, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Summit and Medina counties.

More than 400 journalists staffed the paper and brought readers coverage from throughout Ohio, Washington, D.C., and the world when major stories that impacted Northeast Ohio developed: the Balkan wars, John Demjanjuk, Y2K among others.

But The Plain Dealer, like many daily newspapers in the mid-1990s, was slow to recognize the vast disruption of the internet and failed to adequately monetize its digital offerings. National Public Radio media correspondent David NOT EVERY KID Folkenflik, speaking on April 14 at a virtual City Club of IS LUCKY ENOUGH Cleveland forum, called the TO END UP IN THE decision of daily newspapers to put their reporting online CAREER THEY for free “the original sin of the DREAMED ABOUT digital age.”

By the mid-2000s, the toll of WHEN THEY STILL declining circulation and the HAD SOME BABY continuing shift of print advertising to digital, where rates TEETH, BUT I WAS. were a fraction of print ads, forced The Plain Dealer to scale back its coverage in outlying counties. I oversaw the paper’s Metro news operations then and made the difficult decision to close the last of the bureaus the paper had opened in the early 1990s.

A voluntary buyout followed a few years later, then layoffs and by 2010, I began evaluating my career. My husband, Mike, and I had both been at The Plain Dealer for 20 years then — he as a reporter and then columnist, and me as a high-ranking editor. Our two children were a few years from high school and then college. Did it make sense for McIntyre Inc. to have both our incomes reliant on such a fragile business model? That’s when I decided to leave.

A lot has happened in the 10 years since. I spent four years doing strategic communications for two nonprofits, and then journalism called again, when I was asked to take over as editor of Crain’s Cleveland Business six years ago this month.

Earlier this month, my husband was laid off after 30 years at The Plain Dealer. And while it’s painful to lose a platform where he profiled the many characters who make Cleveland such a special place, he considers himself fortunate. A decade ago, he took on an additional job hosting the public affairs “Sound of Ideas” program on WCPN 90.3 and will still be able to engage with the community and tell the stories of Northeast Ohio he so values.

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.

See MCINTYRE on Page 18

Sound off: Send a Personal View for the opinion page to emcintyre@crain.com. Please include a telephone number for verification purposes.

6 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | April 20, 2020

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OPINION

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PERSONAL VIEW

Look to multigenerational family businesses to survive disruption

BY RICHARD SEAMAN

As we face economic challenges thrust upon us by the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses could learn a lot from multigenerational family businesses that are prepared to withstand this current economic disruption.

In my 70-year-old family business, we endured the oil crisis of the 1970s, monetary challenges of 18% interest rates, the 9/11 terrorist attack and the 2008 financial crisis. Coming through these times and continuing to thrive keeps shareholders confident that both our economy and our companies can withstand economic challenges.

Multigenerational family businesses, by nature, develop long-term strategies. Decisions are made for what is in the best long-term interests of customers and employees, rather than the next quarterly or annual earnings report. Multigenerational family businesses recognize the important role employees play in sustaining the business, and often consider employees’ long-term welfare before profits.

Family businesses are generally pillars in their communities. Owners and leaders are involved in the community economically, philanthropically and politically.

Family businesses are often strategically conservative, particularly when it comes to debt. As a result, most have balance sheets that can withstand sustained economic disruption. Thus, leaders of family businesses don’t rush to Washington, D.C., demanding a bailout. They are not beholden to the financial interests of venture capital or private equity, wondering where the next cash influx will come from.

In 2012, my wife, Judy, and I attended the International Family Business Network Summit in London. Europe was still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis, in continued financial disarray, driven by concerns about the euro and the sustainability of the European Union.

Much to my surprise, there was no discussion at the conference about ongoing economic disruption. Why? Because centuries-old, multigenerational businesses had survived many crises: two world wars and a global economic depression in the last century alone. For them, the 2008 financial crisis was simply a speed bump. They were prepared to respond, with little concern about survival.

The history and culture of innovation implicit in multigenerational family businesses inform how they respond to a crisis. Having thrived through several generations, these businesses are used to constantly adjusting to a changing economic landscape, always aware of market disruptions.

As an example, at the London Seaman is former CEO and current summit, I met a woman whose family business was 300 years old. Her board chairman of Wooster-based company started as a blacksmith Seaman Corp., a shop — and today is England’s largest iron forger. To diversify family $200 million holdings, the family recently investmultigeneraed in shopping malls in South Afritional family ca. Family-owned businesses are business. nimble and responsive to new opportunities. Such will be the case in this economic disruption.

We are already seeing incredible changes to business processes. Restaurants are learning how to promote and grow takeout services with the help of food delivery technology platforms like GrubHub, DoorDash and UberEats. Academia is learning new ways of delivering content to students beyond the classroom (long overdue, particularly in higher education). Businesses are better understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of virtual meetings utilizing teleconference platforms such as Skype, Zoom and GoToMeeting.

When this pandemic resolves, it will not be “business as usual.” Consumers will maintain new ways to procure products and services. Businesses will maintain new ways to manage and conduct commerce, increasing efficiencies and customer satisfaction.

As business owners and leaders are “sequestered” in self-quarantine, we must think not only about how to navigate the challenges of the next several weeks or months, but begin thinking creatively about how this experience can positively impact our business models going forward.

PERSONAL VIEW

Math doesn’t add up for stay-at-home orders

BY ALLEN FREEMAN

Governors across the U.S. are being pressured nonstop with demands that everyone shelter in place and all non-essential businesses be shuttered.

But in many states, including Ohio, the math behind those demands doesn’t add up.

The only way Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will make a decision that is different from the current narrative is if fact-based questions are asked daily that demand statistically relevant answers.

To start, we must demand that numbers be presented in context. The ask is a simple one: Any time a report of COVID-19 “deaths/hospitalizations/cases” is presented, that report also must include the population numbers and percentages for the sample, like this: CUYAHOGA COUNTY COVID-19 UPDATE, April 14, 2020  Population of Cuyahoga County: 1,243,857  Deaths: 33  Percent of county population: 0.00265% (two one-thousandths of 1%)  Hospitalizations: 323  Percent of county population: 0.025967% (two one-hundredths of 1%)  Confirmed cases: 1,239  Percent of county population: 0.0996995% (nine one-hundredths of 1%)

A typical response to this type of statistical clarity is, “The numbers look so small because the stay-at-home orders are clearly working.”

But that response goes against basic statistical analysis, something called “correlation vs. causation.”

Yes, it is very much possible that the stay-at-home order correlates to the extremely low numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

But causation is required to show a statistic-based statement of fact.

Freeman is There are two ways to prove president of causation here.

Cleveland One way would be to completely Creative Inc., a open one county while all the others website remain in lockdown. But no goverdevelopment, content creation nor would ever have the guts to test it that way. and marketing The other way to prove causation company in would be to compare the death/hosBrecksville. pitalization/cases numbers of one city or county under lockdown with another similarly sized and spaced population that did not have a stay-at-home order in place. (Such a comparison can’t be done for the entire state of Ohio, because no similar-sized state has remained open.)

Earlier this month, there was only one county in the U.S. not under lockdown that compares to Cuyahoga County’s population: Salt Lake County in Utah.

So let’s compare the April 8 numbers: See FREEMAN on Page 12

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ADVISER Jill Rizika: It’s critical that we remember essential workers as the economy recovers.

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

PAGE 10

PREPPING THE POST-PANDEMIC WORKFORCE

ADA YOKOTA

Lorain County Community College trains next-gen nurses, first responders

BY DOUGLAS J. GUTH

As Ohio and the country at large reel from the coronavirus crisis, state leaders including Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine are determining when and how the economy can be reopened. Murkier still is the pandemic’s long-term financial impact, with some estimates predicting a national unemployment rate of nearly 16% by July.

Lorain County Community College is one local entity preparing for a post-pandemic future. The college is working with corporate partners on ongoing apprenticeship and workforce development programs, planning for a time when the pandemic recedes and the economy begins its restart and recovery.

Tracy Green, LCCC’s vice president of strategic and institutional development, said manufacturing, health care and IT jobs will continue to have value, a trend that started long before anyone ever heard of

COVID-19. The college is currently assisting students out of work due to the virus, with plans to expand short-term workforce programming into longer-term career pathways as the nation resets.

“I WOULDN’T BE SURPRISED IF MORE PEOPLE WANTED TO STEP UP AND SERVE THEIR COMMUNITY.’ — Cindy Kushner, director of school and community partnerships at LCCC

“Those sectors of the economy are going to be in high demand. I don’t think that will be any different once we get out of this,” Green said.

“We want to help individuals displaced from one sector to move into another sector.”

Health care is a particular area of growth and interest for the institution, noted Green.

In September, LCCC launched its first health care apprenticeship pathway, aiming to fill a talent pipeline that’s now garnering headlines nationwide in light of COVID-19.

As health care organizations historically integrate on-the-job learning as part of employee training, LCCC’s effort immediately puts students into State Tested Nursing Assistant (STNA) positions. Participants earn 15 college credits and 2,000 hours of paid training, putting them on a structured pathway to licensed practical nurse (LPN) to registered nurse (RN). Meanwhile, the college is developing additional apprenticeship roadmaps for those interested in EMS and paramedic positions.

The first group of STNA apprentices started classes last fall at two partnering organizations: Wesleyan Village and Lutheran Home.

Cindy Kushner, director of school and community partnerships at LCCC, called the health care program unique, as most of the college’s apprenticeship efforts focus on skilled trades like advanced manufacturing. Nor has the virus stopped participants from completing courses for their LPN or RN programs while preparing for clinicals, she said.

“Now is a tough time for the field, but we expect this to really grow,” Kushner said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if more people wanted to step up and serve their community.

Seeing health care workers flock to New York City to volunteer is incredible.”

See LCCC on Page 12

8 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | APRIL 20, 2020

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FOCUS | WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT | ADVISER

Recovery is an opportunity for a more inclusive economy

BY JILL RIZIKA

“Chris” came to Towards Employment underemployed due to a criminal record. Through a series of assessments, he discovered an aptitude for manufacturing. With a TE scholarship and ongoing coaching, he gained a CNC machining credential.

Four years later, up until the current coronavirus pandemic and resulting shutdowns — which reduced his hours, but did not eliminate his job — Chris was earning $23 an hour as a CNC operator, an 85% increase over his previous wage.

What can we learn from Chris’ success as we pivot from responding to the immediate health and financial impact of the pandemic to addressing the workforce needs of a rebuilt, more inclusive economy?

First, let’s acknowledge that even during our booming economy, Chris’ trajectory still represents the exception rather than the norm.

The current crisis shines a bright light on the structural inequities that compound disadvantage for low-income workers, particularly people of color. Disparities in employment and earnings by race, even controlling for education and skill levels, are distressingly consistent across local, regional and national data. Despite the economic growth over the last decade, stagnant real wages, automation of low-skill jobs and erosion of benefits left many workers behind.

And those workers are often first to lose their jobs in a recession and then the last to be hired in an upswing. We cannot accept an outcome that puts them at the back of the line again as the economy recovers.

As an organization that connects

people to jobs and businesses to talent, with a particular focus on those who otherwise would struggle to be successful, we sit in the middle of a whirlwind of change. Rizika is We have gone executive from a tight labor director of market, partner- Cleveland-based ing with busi- nonprofit nesses willing to Towards invest in provid- Employment. ing training and support to those overlooked in previous job markets, to massive unemployment.

In this changed environment, there are clear actions that contributed to Chris’ success that need to continue, while new actions require urgent attention.

COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION BETWEEN BUSINESSES AND THE WORKFORCE SYSTEM ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER: In 2018, Cuyahoga County and private philanthropy created Workforce Connect, which supports business-led intermediaries in manufacturing, health care and information technology. The goal is to bring together employers in the same industry to define common challenges and work to address talent needs.

As a partner in the manufacturing work, Towards Employment has helped design an on-ramp to entry-level manufacturing jobs, specifically for individuals with convictions —one strategy among many. While new strategies are needed in light of

WITH THE SPEED AND EXTENT OF THIS WAVE OF ECONOMIC DISRUPTION, MORE PEOPLE ARE EXPERIENCING THE CHALLENGES THAT LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS FACE ON A REGULAR BASIS. the present crisis, the infrastructure is in place to facilitate communication and prioritization. Deeper understanding of needs and potential, by both business and the workforce system, creates the ability to respond more nimbly and, importantly, to balance short-term needs with a continued focus on building an inclusive pipeline.

USE PROVEN CAREER PATHWAY FRAMEWORKS: Rigorous evaluations of workforce programming point to the effectiveness of industry-driven programming that aligns targeted outreach to disconnected populations, contextualized career readiness, relevant technical skills training, robust wraparound supports and career coaching. This alignment is one key lesson from the evaluation of WorkAdvance, a national demonstration project, financed locally by the Fund for Our Economic Future and implemented in Northeast Ohio by Towards Employment and its partners. Cost-

benefit analysis of WorkAdvance showed large financial gains for WorkAdvance participants and for society at large in all four participating sites.

INVEST IN DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND DIGITAL LITERACY: According to a 2018 American Community Survey, 27% of households in Cleveland had no internet access of any kind, and 44% lacked wireline connections (cable, DSL or fiber). Lack of access is also a matter of affordability. Compounding the challenge is a lack of skills to navigate remote work and online learning, which are key to navigating through the current crisis and success in a post-COVID-19 world. Investment in digital literacy is essential to avoid exacerbating the digital divide.

FOR BUSINESS, AN OPPORTUNITY TO FOCUS ON JOB QUALITY: In addition to wages, workers consistently cite quality supervision, safety, availability of paid time off and affordable health care, more control over their schedules, and opportunities for training and advancement as important to job satisfaction. These issues are more important than ever for low-wage workers, and the current crisis certainly demonstrates that low wages are certainly not the equivalent of low value.

These essential workers are now caring for the sick, driving buses, manning the checkouts at grocery stores and pharmacies, and preparing takeout food, while putting themselves and possibly their families at risk. They deserve better. Offering them better serves everyone’s interests.

DON’T LOSE SIGHT OF THE STARS (SKILLED THROUGH ALTERNATIVE ROUTES): Amid the pre-pandemic tight labor market, more employers were re-examining their requirements and successfully utilizing alternative assessments to measure applied skills rather than relying on traditional degrees and formal credentials. Falling back on the old approach disproportionately disadvantages young, minority and lower-income workers who have the right skills but lack the formal credentials.

RECOGNIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE SUPPORTS: With the speed and extent of this wave of economic disruption, more people are experiencing the challenges that low-income households face on a regular basis. Continued impact on employees’ home life can manifest in increased call-offs, tardiness, distracted attention and/or workplace conflicts. Partnerships with community agencies can bring navigators to the workplace to directly support and/or connect employees to appropriate resources. Towards Employment’s Achieve Solutions offers such a service, informed by membership in the national network WorkLab Innovations.

In the Chinese language, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters, one representing danger and the other opportunity. As we plan for a post-pandemic workforce, let’s take this opportunity to embrace the system alignment, human capital and infrastructure investments and scaling of proven practices needed to generate a more equitable and sustainable recovery.

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FOCUS | WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

Pandemic restrictions entangle employees with H-1B visas International workers face added costs, confusion from stay-at-home orders

BY KIM PALMER

Ohio’s stay-at-home order in response to the pandemic sent thousands of employees deemed nonessential to remote work and triggered a wave of layoffs and furloughs for more than 850,000 others during the month of March. For international employees here on H-1B work visas, getting laid off or even working remotely presents added layers of difficulties.

“The H-1B visa is tied to the employer. It is employer-specific, location-specific and job-specific, and any time there is a change in those things, amendments may be required,” said Erin Brown, an immigration attorney and partner at Brown Immigration Law. H-1B visas are employer-sponsored work permits issued to a limited number of highly skilled immigrants with at minimum a four-year degree. H-1B visa holders are at-will employees in Ohio, but layoffs and terminations invalidate their immigration status, while unpaid leave or furloughs are subject to a number of legal and logistical obstacles for employers.

“Benching is not permitted.

Benching means furloughing,” explained Brown. “Furloughed is essentially a layoff and then the employer has a legal obligation to notify United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that the visa holder is no longer employed there.”

Laid-off employees are no longer covered under an H-1B visa. Before recent changes, they’d have 60 days to either find another employer to sponsor their visa, apply for an F-1 visa and attend graduate school in the U.S., or

leave the country altogether. The last option, given expansive COVID-19 travel restrictions, would be very difficult if not impossible.

As of April 14, the 60-day period was extended to 240 days for employees with “applicable employment authorization with the same employer, subject to the same terms and conditions of the prior approval … when an extension-of-stay request is filed on time” with the USCIS office.

The 1998 American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act does allow employers to retain an H-1B employee during a “nonproductive” period, but requires that the worker be paid.

The conditions of the H-1B visa guarantee holders are paid a “prevailing wage” and those wages cannot be reduced commensurate to fewer hours worked or employers could be liable for “back wages.”

If an employer decides to terminate the visa, there is a legal obligation to pay for return travel to the employee’s country of origin.

“Essentially, they owe them a plane ticket,” Brown said, adding that it’s also possible for an H-1B employee to be rehired by the same employer before the end of that 60 days.

“If that is the case, (the employer) needs to file a new application for an H-1B,” said Brown. “Between legal fees and filing fees, they are looking at between $3,000 to $6,000. When you look at how much you are saving for a short furlough, you have to balance out a number of factors.”

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Working remotely presents another wrinkle for H-1B employees, as a worksite location is uniquely tied to the visa’s qualifications.

The U.S. Department of Labor, one of the agencies that oversees work visas, requires employers to file documentation regarding a visa holder’s worksite. That paperwork must be amended if an employee works remotely for more than 30 days.

“A lot of the visa holders are in IT so they both have the ability to work remotely and most companies are not cutting back in that area of their business right now,” Brown noted.

The guidance from USCIS states that if a new work location is “within normal commuting distance of the place of employment” nothing needs to be done. Brown pointed out the guidance is unclear at best:“Working from home is in some cases a new location, like when someone works in Cleveland but lives in Akron.”

Immigration advocates have pushed the federal government to loosen the location requirement in light of stay-at-home orders and other pandemic-related restrictions, but the USCIS has yet to comply.

Assurant Inc., a global insurance provider with a Cleveland office, is requiring all of its Ohio-based employ-

ees to work remotely until at least the end of May. Utkarsha Hazarnis, one of the company’s H-1B employees, said management has been supportive regarding the difficulties foreign workers face. Hazarnis added he knows of an H-1B visa holder working for a U.S. company who was in India for his wedding when travel bans were instituted, and is now unable to return.

“He is working from India and has not heard that his job is in jeopardy,” he said.

Hazarnis said his own experience echoes that of other H-1B visa holders who have also not experienced problems, since their companies are so far willing to use attorneys to negotiate the system during the COVID19 shutdowns.

That’s been made more difficult since USCIS offices closed to in-person meetings in March and a program expediting H-1B applications has been indefinitely suspended.

Immigration advocates hope the extension to 240 days allows noncompliant visa holders who have lost jobs and are unable to return home time to find other H-1B-compliant employment.

International students Visa regulations also affect international students. Of the 85,000 visas issued annually, 20,000 are set aside for international students studying at U.S. universities. Such students frequently receive a 12-month work authorization called Optional Practical Training.

Normally, if international students leave the U.S. for more than five

months, they risk invalidating their visa, making it more difficult or even impossible to look for work after graduation.

With the shuttering of university campuses nationwide, Ritu Mahna, president of the Cleveland chapter of the Federation of Indian Community Associations, said most international students went home to be with family.

H-1Bs are typically issued for a three-year period and can be renewed for another three years. If a visa holder applies for permanent residency, the H-1B continues, in some cases for decades, as long as they remain employed.

The process — considered broken or dysfunctional by immigration and employment advocates — has come under added pressure as the denial rate for H-1B applications has risen more than twofold under the Trump administration. That’s even as H-1B recipients represent less than 1% of the nation’s workers.

It took only two tries in the lottery for Ameet Bathiya, a plant engineer at Protech Powder Coatings, to get his H-1B, which is good until 2021.

Baythiya came to Case Western Reserve University in 2013 and graduated with a master’s in mechanical engineering two years later.

As the only plant engineer for his company’s multiple locations, Bathiya said he is not worried. “On a scale of 1-10, my concern was about a 2 or 3. With my position, it would be tough for my company to easily replace me,” he said.

Kim Palmer: kpalmer@crain.com, (216) 771-5384, @kimfouroffive

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FOCUS | WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

LCCC

“WE WANT TO HELP INDIVIDUALS DISPLACED FROM ONE SECTOR TO MOVE INTO ANOTHER SECTOR.”

From Page 8

Experience in the field LCCC houses a variety of apprenticeship programs at its Nord Advanced Technologies Center, certifying students in industries including automation, mcomputer numerical control (CNC) machining and pipefitting. The college is also a state-registered apprentice sponsor providing partner companies with administrative support on their workforce training programs.

Green said the college’s sponsorship role takes the paperwork burden from employers, concurrently providing students an innovative “earn-andlearn” job training model that combines curriculum with paid work experience. A microelectrical mechanical manufacturing student, for example, might spend two days in the classroom and the remaining three on the job.

“Students are getting exposed to the work they’d be doing in the field

— Tracy Green, LCCC’s vice president of strategic and institutional development

Students in the health care apprenticeship program can use the Health Care Simulation Lab at LCCC’s University Partnership Ridge Campus in North Ridgeville. | LCCC

at the start of the program,” Green said. “It’s a win for employers because they’re getting a look at the talent coming through the pipeline. If a student connects to something they love, that’s when they get to the completion line. They’re hands-on with

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equipment and will say, ‘This is the path for me.' ” As at most colleges and universities nationwide, the coronavirus has challenged LCCC to get creative in how it offers programming. The college moved 1,000 courses online in a week, with hands-on workforce programs instead delivered via hightech remote simulation. Nursing students and first responders are no longer practicing their skills on fully articulated mannequins; instead, they’re engaged in simulation scenarios that replicate live labs as closely as possible.

Green said the college’s workforce plans will evolve alongside state and federal recommendations. Partner companies shut down by the virus plan to bring back apprentices upon reopening. Though some learners may return to their previous roles, others may want to pursue a new career pathway.

“It’s going to be on a case-by-case basis,” she said. “For students who started a program, we’ll find a way for

them to finish that program.”

Skilled trades are a continuous growth area that Green expects to bounce back in an inevitable economic upturn. In February, LCCC announced an alliance with the Boilermakers Union on an apprenticeship accompanied by an associate of applied science in welding technology. The college is also addressing future workforce needs with the Lorain County Manufacturing Sector Partnership, which includes area employers Bettcher Industries, Avon Lake plastic injection-molder Thogus and Absolute Machine Tools.

LCCC reported that 85% of its apprenticeship graduates stay and work in Northeast Ohio. Looking ahead, college leaders plan to fill employment gaps left from changes wrought by COVID-19, empowering their charges to tackle any workforce challenges that arise from a kickstarted economy.

“The mission of a community college is to serve the greatest needs of the community,” Green said. “There’s no greater need than health and safety; second to that is economic recovery. Being able to work stronger together is one of the silver linings of this situation.”

Contact Douglas J. Guth: clbfreelancer@crain.com

FREEMAN

From Page 7

Counties: CUYAHOGA/SALT LAKE  Cases: 647/858  Hospitalizations: 248/78  Deaths: 22/6  Population: 1,243,857/1,120,805

Bottom line: Anyone saying that the stay-at-home order has worked to stop the spread of COVID-19 is making a correlative assumption, not a causative statement.

But these assumptions are being used to determine policy, and those policies have cost us our personal freedom and our country trillions of dollars.

An important question must be asked of the governor and the Ohio Department of Health. The current death/hospitalization/ case numbers for COVID-19 in Ohio affect but a sliver of a fraction of 1% of the population.

Yet the state’s existing orders are hugely burdensome and incredibly costly to more than 1 million Ohioans, especially when compared to the statistical relevance of the numbers.

So, might a better course of action be to allow as many problemsolving business owners as possible to implement their own mitigation plans based on sound recommendations, thereby serving their customers in a healthy way while ending the real possibility of economic collapse?

Ohioans won’t tolerate or patronize a business that doesn’t take their health concerns into account. Let the business owners of Ohio solve the problem. It’s a better idea than having government mandate an untenable solution that might not be the one we actually need.

WHAT’S YOUR NEXT MOVE?

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THOUGHT LEADER FORUM Tap into the power of virtual influence.

Showcase your industry expertise from the comfort of your home office in this new paid feature from Crain’s Content Studio – Cleveland. Use this opportunity to speak to the Northeast Ohio community about current events, trends and hot issues affecting the region alongside similarly themed content.

This is a fully integrated forum, encompassing print, digital and e-newsletter components.

JUNE 22 // Real estate JULY 20 // Employee benefits innovations AUGUST 17 // Future of work SEPTEMBER 21 // Family law OCTOBER 19 // Manufacturing NOVEMBER 16 // Impact investing DECEMBER 21 //Economic outlook Close date 4 weeks prior to publication date; materials must be received 2 weeks prior to publication.

See a topic you’re interested in influencing?

Contact Amy Ann Stoessel at astoessel@crain.com for more information on this custom advertising opportunity.

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TECHNOLOGY CHANGING THE WORLD, ONE INNOVATION AT A TIME Patented technologies are making a mark In 2019, the United States reported more patent filings than ever before — 333,530 were granted in all, a rise of 15% from the year earlier.

For the 27th straight year, IBM logged the most filings (9,262, 2% more than in 2018) followed by Samsung (6,469, an 11% year-over-year increase); Canon (3,548, a 16% upturn); Microsoft (3,081, a 31% rise); and Intel (3,020, a 10% uptick), according to IFI CLAIMS, a global patent data platform.

A look at some of the most renowned technology patents:

3D PRINTER The patent for the 3D printer was finalized nearly 35 years ago. Described as an “apparatus for production of three-dimensional objects by stereolithography,” the 3D printer remains as popular as ever. Affordable and smaller than ever, they’re now being used outside of factories — by artists, educators and hobbyists.

3G, 4G AND 5G WIRELESS MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS Let’s face it. Without the first generation of wireless mobile telecommunications technology, analog cellular phones probably wouldn’t have been developed.

And without the second generation, we likely wouldn’t have had digital cell phones. 3G changed everything though, as cell phones were connected to the Internet and GPS (due to a patent titled “mobile internet access,” granted in 2003).

Since then, it’s evolved to the 4G and widely discussed 5G networks.

It is important for business owners to consider how patents relate to their business, in terms of protecting their inventions and avoiding infringement. Below is a general overview of the patent system. However, you should consult with a patent attorney on how patents may impact your specific business.

WHAT CAN BE PATENTED: Patents protect new and useful machines, articles of manufacture, compositions, industrial designs, plant species and processes. Patents are different from trademarks and copyrights, which protect other types of intellectual property. Trademarks protect brand names or logos applied to goods and services, while copyrights protect creative expressions such as literary, audio and visual works.

THE APPLICATION PROCESS: To obtain a patent, an application is filed that describes the invention. The patent office examines the application and determines if it qualifies for a patent. Due to costs and various rules, the invention should be sufficiently described in the application when filed. If your invention is merely conceptual, it may be prema-

ture to apply.

For U.S. patent applications, the examination process usually takes three to five years. A U.S. patent provides protection only within the U.S. and its territories.

CLEVELAND

GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS)

iPHONE

GPS satellites were invented by the Navy in the 1950s. A patent -- known as “Navigation system using satellites and passive ranging techniques” -- ultimately was filed in 1970 by Roger Easton, who is considered the technology’s chief architect. The patent was granted in 1974. The technology, for which a patent was granted in 1974, has expanded considerably since, becoming fully operational in 1995. It eventually became the driving force behind the development of such household must-haves like Google Maps.

Patented on Jan. 5, 2007, the iPhone is arguably Steve Jobs’ and Apple’s most recognized invention.

Known as the “electronic device” when it first received its patent, the iPhone transformed the appearance and functions of smartphones forever.

SELF-DRIVING CAR For decades, geniuses around the world have been developing various forms of self-driving cars, leading to hundreds of patents, including one granted in 2012 (known as “Vision system for an autonomous vehicle”). But no company has succeeded quite like VisLab, a machine vision company based in Italy. In 2013, its BRAVE car autonomously navigated crosswalks, roundabouts and traffic lights in Parma, Italy.

Sources: IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, PatentSight, Google Patents, PCMag, Digital Trends, Popular Mechanics, Apple, VisLab

Patent essentials for business owners

C

CRAIN’S CONTENT STUDIO

Compiled by Chris Lewis, Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland

BRYAN FINK I Partner Pearne & Gordon LLP 216-579-1700 bfink@pearne.com Bryan Fink is a partner at Pearne & Gordon LLP in Cleveland.

His practice includes preparing and prosecuting patent applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as researching and drafting opinions for clients on infringement, invalidity and patentability.

tive marketing tool to attract customers and investors.

OWNERSHIP: In the U.S., the inventor is the owner of a patent unless those rights have been transferred. An employer may require its employees to assign their patent rights to the employer via a written agreement.

ENFORCEMENT: A patent gives you the exclusive right to practice your invention for the term of the patent. The term of a U.S. patent is either 20 years from its filing date for utility and plant patents or 15 years from the filing date for design patents. The patent owner may transfer or assign such patent rights to other parties but also is obligated to enforce those rights or risk forfeiture.

COSTS: Depending on the complexity of the invention and length of the examination process, a patent can cost between about $10,000 to $30,000 to obtain.

However, the value added from a patent can be well worth the investment. For example, patents can be used as an effec-

It is important to understand that even if you have a patent, your invention could still infringe an earlier patent. For example, your invention may consist of a new machine, but certain components or functions of that machine may have been invented and patented by someone else.

Ownership of a patent does not guarantee freedom to practice your invention over all other patents.

LOSS OF PATENT RIGHTS: The ability to patent your invention may be lost if, before filing an application, you or your agent publicly discloses the invention or offers it for sale. To prevent this, actions may be taken such as recording the date and content of information that is disclosed to a third party and requesting that the 3rd party sign a CDA/NDA (confidential disclosure agreement/nondisclosure agreement). Discuss any previous disclosure made or any planned disclosure with a patent attorney beforehand to understand the consequences.

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

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SPONSORED CONTENT

TECHNOLOGY REMOTE WORK: BY THE NUMBERS As COVID-19 continues to impact the health, safety and well-being of Ohioans, many nonessential workers are working from home – a move that has been enabled by technologies such as cloud computing and video conferencing.

For many, this has been a significant change. Yet, for some, it wasn’t much of an adjustment at all.

After all, remote work has become mainstream in recent years, increasing by nearly 160% from 2005 to 2017. In fact, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, more than 4 million Americans worked from home, as roughly 20% of companies exclusively hired remote employees.

Here’s a look at some of the stats – prior to COVID-19 – behind remote work.

HEALTH

FLEXIBILITY One of the most important aspects of remote work is the flexibility it provides; 40% of employees who work from home view it as the main benefit of their jobs, actually.

Sources: Forbes; FlexJobs; Owl Labs; Buffer; Indeed; Robert Half

By working from home, employees no longer need to worry about the germs they’re typically exposed to at offices.

As a result, 50% of remote employees have fewer sick days, while nearly 60% have decreased their absences. Not to mention, 86% of remote workers say their stress levels have decreased, and 77% have improved their overall health, as they’ve exercised more and have better diets now.

C

CRAIN’S CONTENT STUDIO

CLEVELAND

MORALE

PRODUCTIVITY

Prior to COVID-19, 90% of surveyed employees believe their morale would rise if they had more flexible work arrangements, particularly remote opportunities.

Almost 80% of surveyed employees believe the ability to telecommute (at least sometimes) is a tremendous incentive to accepting jobs. In addition, roughly 85% of remote workers prefer to work remotely at their homes, as their morale is highest there.

One of the most significant reasons employees prefer to work remotely is that they have fewer distractions. In fact, 75% consider this the primary factor for choosing remote opportunities.

And the remoteness is positively impacting their overall productivity too, as approximately 85% of surveyed workers are more efficient while working alone.

LOOKING AHEAD TO THE FUTURE Aside from having better health, higher morale, greater productivity and more flexibility, full-time remote employees also earn roughly $4,000 more than other workers (likely due to having higher level positions). By 2028, almost 75% of all teams will likely have at least one remote worker, in fact. This is vital too, as 75% of surveyed remote employees want to continue working at home for the rest of their careers.

Compiled by Chris Lewis, Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland

Stay secure while working from home ENCRYPT ALL DEVICES: When devices (PCs) leave the building, they often are lost or stolen. Most devices and operating systems can encrypt the device built into the operating system. There is no excuse not to protect your data with encryption.

MAKE SURE ALL DEVICES AND SYSTEMS ARE FULLY UP TO DATE ON PATCHES: Updating applications and operating systems on a regular basis are key to protecting your device from potential exploits.

USE A VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK (VPN) WITH MULTIFACTOR AUTHENTICATION/ONE-TIME PASSWORD: VPN is one of the best tools if configured correctly. Ensure MFA or One-Time Password (OTP) on all VPN connections to increase security. Verify with your IT department that split tunneling is not being used.

ENABLE YOUR LOCAL WINDOWS FIREWALL: Your home network is likely an uncontrolled environment. Don’t leave your work PC exposed to whatever could be lurking on your teen’s PC. CHANGE YOUR Wi-Fi PASSWORD: Wi-Fi passwords are easy to compromise. If it’s been awhile, change the Wi-Fi password to a 15- to 20-character, complex, random character phrase and update your Wi-Fi device firmware.

BRETT KIMMELL

ABDULLAH ALKHULAIWI

Kimmell Cybersecurity 330-338-4433 brett@kimmell.com

Kimmell Cybersecurity 330-319-4044 abdullah@kimmell.com

Brett Kimmell is a member of the AICPA and ISACA and has served as a board member of East Akron Neighborhood Development Corporation, Torchbearers and West Hill Neighborhood Organization. He has presented at the world renowned IT Security conference Black Hat and has a masters in accounting information systems.

Abdullah Alkhulaiwi holds a masters in digital science and multiple security certifications. He serves as a board member of KSU Academy of Advanced Technology and Engineering Advisory and Goodwill Industries of Akron. His experience includes ethical hacking, complex network design and information security assessments.

SECURE YOUR CLOUD APPLICATIONS: Cloud apps increase flexibility for employees; however, they introduce new challenges and complexities for keeping your organization secure. Ensure MFA is enabled and that corporate controls access to the data.

USE AUTHORIZED CLOUD STORAGE: We often find employees using their personal cloud storage to store or share company data. Organizations won’t be able to protect, and secure data stored outside of their control.

ENABLE MFA/OTP FOR ALL CLOUD APPS INCLUDING YOUR EMAIL SYSTEMS: MFA/OTP would help prevent common cyberattacks such as credential stuffing.

PROTECT DEVICES WITH WEB FILTERING: Antivirus software is specifically designed to detect many forms of malware and prevent them from infecting computers, as well as cleaning computers that have already been infected. Antivirus software often has web filtering built in, which will help prevent users from accessing malicious sites.

ONLY USE APPROVED APPLICATIONS AND SERVICES: Keep an eye out for shadow IT, in the event of breach, security administrators won’t be alerted as to the full potential scope of the threat, leaving the company unsure of what data has been compromised and when. Also, these shadow or rogue applications can leave your corporate data scattered around the internet.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A GOOD BACKUP. FOLLOW THE 3-2-1: The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team recommends the 3-2-1 backup strategy. You should have three copies, two media types and one offline or offsite copy.

WASH YOUR HANDS: IT and network administrators often help users by using their keyboard and mouse. Be careful and wash your hand for 20 seconds, and disinfect your keyboard and mouse with a disinfectant wipe.

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

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AKRON EDUCATION

Crisis brings unexpected challenge as Miller settles into UA role New president said he is making strides by building relationships, filling provost position BBY RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY

In his first six months as president of the University of Akron, Gary Miller has worked to build relationships with faculty and to put a new strategic plan in place.

These aren’t unusual efforts for a new president to take on, but they may be particularly important at a school that has been beset with turnover at all levels in recent years.

Miller, who took on the role of president at the start of October, said he had been pleased with his first six months at the University of Akron, though many efforts that had been underway have now shifted gears in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Most of what we thought about three weeks ago has changed,” he said.

Miller had been working to “re-engage” the faculty and staff in the shared governance process, and he thought the university had seen success in that space. He’s been working to build relationships, regularly meeting with the Faculty Senate executive committee and calling faculty members for conversations and to maintain transparency.

Miller became president after the short tenures of Scott Scarborough and Matthew Wilson, as well as that of interim president John C. Green. It was during Green’s tenure that the faculty union — the University of Akron chapter of the American Association of University Professors — released the results of a survey that expressed a lot of concerns about how UA was being run. One of the major contentions centered on the university’s decision to split the role of provost into two (as well as on one of the individuals who held one of those roles).

“IT’S NOT CLEAR YET WHAT THE SHAPE OF ALL THOSE WILL BE, BUT IT’S GOING TO BE A CHALLENGE THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS TO NAVIGATE THOSE.” ——Gary Miller, president of the Univeristy of Akron, about the long-term effects of the pandemic on the school

University of Akron president Gary Miller began in his role at the beginning of October and said he’s been pleased with the progress he’s made even as the COVID-19 crisis has stalled the school’s strategic planning for the time being. | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The union wanted the university to do away with those new roles and reinstate the role of provost.

It turns out that was one of Miller’s goals, too, and one he’s already accomplished. In early April, the university announced that John Wiencek would serve as its new executive vice president and provost, starting at the end of May. A provost is the “connection between faculty and staff and the university strategy,” Miller said, adding he wanted a provost with experience in teaching and research, as well as in administration. Wiencek has both. He has served as provost or dean at other universities, including the University of Idaho, as well as having taught.

“It’s such an important decision,”

Miller said.

Wiencek, who is from Northeast Ohio, said he thinks COVID-19 will cause dramatic changes to higher education. The big question will be how the higher education community reacts to it and other already existing demographic challenges, such as the shrinking high school population.

“We can either let the change overwhelm us and force us to do things that are not of our choosing,” Wiencek said, “or we can accept that change is upon us and define how we want change, and actually get ahead of things that are going to happen to us.”

In an email, Pam Schulze, president of the Akron-AAUP and professor of child and family development at the university, said the provost

search process was more inclusive than it had ever been.

“The chapter believes that shared governance is functioning well so far under president Miller. We hope to continue to build on this foundation with the administration to move the university forward as we welcome provost and executive vice president Wiencek to campus,” Schulze said.

Schulze also noted the inclusivity in the university’s recent strategic planning process. The composition of the strategic planning committees made Miller’s efforts to include a diverse range of campus constituencies evident, she said.

Miller said he thinks the university was able to create a strong foundation for the strategic plan, having gathered

broad input from the community. The plan is currently on hold, as the university will need to see how it is affected by the pandemic.

Miller expects UA to still have a plan in place by June, but the pandemic will necessitate some changes.

The university will have to look at the existing draft and decide what elements need to come to the forefront in light of the pandemic, what needs to be added and what should possibly be put on hold.

“We can use it to help us move forward from COVID,” he said.

Miller added he knows the pandemic will lead to enrollment and financial challenges for the institution.

Overall, he expects enrollment to decline but didn’t give specific projections. For now, the university has extended its admissions deadlines, with the expectation that college decisions will take students longer in this environment.

At the moment, Miller doesn’t know what the fall semester will look like in terms of when and how universities will reopen. The university launched a fundraising campaign in February in honor of its 150th anniversary, and Miller said that campaign will continue even if expectations have to change. The state of Division I athletics is in question.

And, of course, there’s the question of what will happen in the larger economy and how those financial concerns affect students’ ability to go to college.

“It’s not clear yet what the shape of all those will be, but it’s going to be a challenge the next couple of years to navigate those,” he said.

Rachel Abbey McCafferty: (216) 771-5379, rmccafferty@crain.com

FINANCE

Investor Engle and SAS Factory team up with Fusion Ventures Fund BBY DAN SHINGLER

Two of Akron’s active business investors are teaming up to increase their holdings and, they hope, their investment returns.

Marling Engle, founder of the software development firm Metisentry and its affiliated SAS Factory (SAS stands for software as a service), is teaming up his companies with Akron’s Fusion Ventures Fund.

“We’re partnering with Akron Fusion Ventures (Fund) to launch an SAS-specific fund,” Engle said.

That means, he explained, that he’ll put some of his recent acquisitions and between $1 million and $2 million in cash into the new fund.

Meanwhile, Fusion Ventures will put some of its SAS-oriented businesses into the same fund and continue to raise additional capital from outside investors.

The new fund will operate as a subfund of the existing Fusion Ventures Fund, said Bill Manby, who launched Fusion Ventures in 2018 and has since been doing deals and raising capital with a goal of eventually rais-

Manby

Engle

ing $20 million.

Investors in Fusion Ventures, including existing ones, will be able to assign all or some of their money to the SAS fund, or none at all, Manby said.

The arrangement combines Engle’s expertise in running and evaluating SAS companies with the financial acumen of Fusion Ventures partners Manby and Victoria Tifft.

Tifft also has technical experience, including in the realm of medical technology.

“We’re leveraging their (SAS Factory’s) expertise in SAS and their operational skills; they’re leveraging our expertise as a fund,” Manby said.

Engle, whom Tifft described as

“scary smart,” said he was already considering starting a fund on his own via the SAS Factory, but decided teaming up with Fusion would be more effective — Tifft and easier.

“We were going to raise and deploy a fund on our own, but they’ve already started it. Bill and Vicki have a lot of experience on the fund side, and we have a lot of experience on the SAS side,” Engle said.

How much Engle and Fusion each will contribute to the new fund will depend on the value of the companies they each contribute to the portfolio.

Manby, Tifft and Engle said they are all working now to have their companies valued by a third party.

Once they agree on those values, the positions of each party in the fund will be determined.

So far, the parties have decided they’ll seed the new fund with hold-

ings in at least four companies.

Fusion Ventures is assigning to the new fund holdings in Akron-based Wastebits, which matches waste haulers and landfills on its cloud-based site, and BioflightVR, a Californiabased company working in Akron on virtual-reality-based medicine applications.

MilitaryHire and Wilco, two companies Engle recently acquired that work in managing military training credentials and matching veterans with employers, respectively, also will be assigned to the new fund’s portfolio, he said.

Fusion Ventures continues to seek both new deals and investments, Manby and Tifft said, and is now more than halfway to its goal of raising and investing $20 million.

With the addition of Engle’s holdings and cash, the fund will have $11 million to $12 million in assets, Manby said.

He and Tifft said they’re counting on Engle to not only help them find and evaluate future investments in SAS companies, but also to help attract outside investors with his repu-

tation and expertise.

“I hope so, or we made a bad decision,” Manby joked.

Manby added he and Tifft intend to lean on Engle and his team for many aspects of investing in new SAS companies and, if needed, to advise and help manage the companies if they struggle.

“We fully intend to have those guys integrated into every SAS deal we evaluate and do,” Manby said.

SAS is currently a hot sector of the technology market, Tifft said, in part because the COVID-19 crisis that has so many people working from home also has their employers evaluating and investing in new technology.

Cloud-based applications that are part of the SAS universe are hot right now, she said.

“That’s what we’re seeing now, and we’ll see continue to see it in the future,” Tifft said, noting that the impact of the current pandemic is likely to be long-lasting and will continue to drive investments in technology.

See FUND on Page 17

16 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | April 20, 2020

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

NEWS

OHIO CITY

From Page 1

“We were interested in the project initially because it is in an Opportunity Zone,” Cavenaugh said. “A number of the family offices that we typically work with had interest in participating in the program. We’re finishing up one in St. Paul, (Minn.), on one of the last sites overlooking the Mississippi River. We are not merchant builders. We see our projects as 10year holds. They have to be for the Opportunity Zone program.”

Cavenaugh is having designers from the Cleveland-based Vocon architecture firm fine-tune drawings for a structure with two floors of parking and four floors of apartments. It will look like a five-story building on its northeast-facing side.

The company is using Vocon because the firm’s designers already were familiar with the site’s challenges, a location atop the bluff on the south side of Columbus Road.

“We’re working feverishly to design a really slick building,” Cavenaugh said — one that responds to current architectural philosophies and trends in the apartment business to build for efficient operations and not just “construct space.”

Cavenaugh declined to release a copy of the proposed design because the company has not shared its most current version with the Duck Island neighborhood block club. It hopes to do so next month.

Brickhaus Integrity Ohio City was formed by developers Andrew Brickman, who has built multiple for-sale townhouses from Beachwood to

FUND

From Page 16

In addition to being a financier, Tifft is also an infectious disease expert who has worked on epidemics of Ebola and other contagions. Tifft, who majored in biology before getting her MBA, spent 26 years as CEO of Clinical Research Management, a contract research firm in Hinkley that she founded, and is executive-in-residence at Akron’s Bounce Innovation Hub, where she works with medical technology companies.

Fusion Ventures works locally with Bounce and JumpStart, both of which back and support local startups, to find new investments. But it

Rocky River, and attorney Dan Siegel, who owns a substantial apartment portfolio.

Siegel said in a phone interview, “I believe in the site and the Cavenaugh downtown market, but I no longer liked the risk.

Construction costs have gone up, and a lot of projects are adding apartments in Ohio City and downtown. It would not produce the kind of yields we normally seek.”

The business partners are finishing the conversion of Mt. Zion Church in Tremont to apartments and are looking at constructing for-sale condominiums or townhouses on the remaining One West Twenty site.

Brickman, who originally launched One West Twenty alone, added, “That’s a nearly untapped (for-sale) market there.”

Cleveland city councilman Kerry McCormack, whose Ward 3 includes downtown and Ohio City, said the new project does not have the economic impact promised by the former one.

“But having a dynamic project there will add to the market,” McCormack said. “It’s a site that’s hot even though Opportunity Zones are not.”

Nationally, the Opportunity Zone program has been criticized for aiding real estate projects in areas with strong development potential rather than improving conditions for low-income residents.

In Cavenaugh’s view, the problem with Opportunity Zones stems from

a flaw in the concept.

“The intent is excellent,” he said.

“It’s just that Opportunity Zones are in the wrong place. All the money in the world will not fix the wrong neighborhood for a real estate deal.”

Cavenaugh said Stoneleigh also wouldn’t have considered a Cleveland project without the city’s 15year property tax abatement program for new residential structures.

He said rents have climbed here, but not by enough to cover high construction costs similar to those in cities with higher rent rates.

Funding for the project is nearly in place thanks to the Opportunity Zone’s equity investment requirements and a likely loan commitment from KeyBank, a lender to the company’s projects in other areas.

Stoneleigh, which was launched in 2008, owns 1,452 units. It’s building two projects now and pursuing three projects in Texas, in addition to the one in Cleveland. A sister company, Waterford Residential, operates six multifamily communities.

Cavenaugh said he is not intimidated by the more than 1,000 units under construction in and near downtown, nor the quick onset of economic woes from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Design and location matter, and I’d rather be starting to build going into a difficult economic environment than finishing at the tail end of a good one,” he said. “The last four weeks have upset the world’s apple cart. There will suddenly be fewer construction projects in the pipeline.”

looks farther afield, too, as Engle has done. MilitaryHire, for example, is based in North Carolina, and Wilco is based in Missouri.

Fusion Ventures also is working with out-of-state funds to participate in deals with them, including the San Francisco office of NextGen Ventures, a Washington, D.C.-based fund that invests nationally. For a firm like NextGen, it’s a way to put expertise from the Midwest, as well as capital, to work on the coasts, said NextGen managing director Ben Bayat in an email.

“Working with Akron Fusion Ventures accelerates the development and adoption of technology critical for success in today's market by bringing together industry leaders in Northeast Ohio and high-density,

startup ecosystems like the San Francisco Bay area,” Bayat stated.

Geographic diversity may become more important to investors because of the pandemic, as some cities on the coasts have been harder hit by COVID-19 than Ohio has been, Manby said.

That’s actually helping Fusion Ventures already, he added.

“We’re doing really well. We almost feel bad saying it, but we’re inundated with deal flow,” Manby said.

“Both coasts are kind of on shutdown mode, so a lot the venture stuff out of New York and San Francisco is just frozen, and a lot of people are bringing things to us.”

Stan Bullard: sbullard@crain.com, (216) 771-5228, @CrainRltywriter

Dan Shingler: dshingler@crain.com, (216) 771-5290, @DanShingler

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cisms and suggestions. We may not ultimately agree, but let us hear them.)

Just as the employers we write about are remaking their businesses, especially these days, we make changes to ours. Adjusting to demands in the marketplace keeps us sharp.

Last month, we added a coronavirus newsletter that goes out around 9 a.m. Monday through Friday. It includes stories from Crain’s Cleveland Business and other Crain Communications publications, as well as from local and national publications, all designed to keep you up to date on how the pandemic is changing the contours of daily life. In partnership with our sister publications in Chicago, Detroit and New York, we have introduced new podcasts that provide information for business owners, operators and executives on how to manage through the crisis. More of those are on the way.

From Page 1

The field of grass and pavement on Lorain Avenue on the west end of the Hope Memorial Bridge is a key part of the proposed apartment project. The $60 million development, according to industry estimates, was formerly the site of a proposed larger project by a group of local developers. The site extends through some of the trees south of Columbus Road and ends near Carter Road. | GOOGLE EARTH

|

Undoubtedly, a lot of you have heard, read or thought that reporting in Cleveland is dying. (By the numbers, it’s certainly not what it was.) At Crain’s Cleveland Business, though, where we’re in our 40th year of covering business in this region, I’d like to think we’re entering a period of creative middle age, covering stories that other media don’t.

This isn’t a time for rah-rah. It is, though, a time that calls all businesses, including news organizations, to push their limits to produce something great, and that has a high value to customers.

Our focus is on covering businesses in industries that are important to this region — banking, health care, finance, law, manufacturing, technology, real estate and sports among them — as well as other major employment sectors, including the THIS ISN’T A TIME FOR RAH-RAH. IT IS, arts, education, government, nonprofits THOUGH, A TIME THAT CALLS ALL and utilities. What BUSINESSES, INCLUDING NEWS was true 40 years ago is true today: We ORGANIZATIONS, TO PUSH THEIR LIMITS aim to help our TO PRODUCE SOMETHING GREAT, AND readers make better THAT HAS A HIGH VALUE TO CUSTOMERS. decisions by giving them thorough, timely, accurate Tough times require more creative news stories and analysis about thinking. businesses and institutions in We have faith in the idea that if Northeast Ohio, and the trends that you produce a consistent, quality affect them. product, people will pay for it. That’s Last week on our website, for in- especially critical now in the news stance, you could find stories about business, where two big pillars of key U.S. Food and Drug Administra- revenue — advertising and events — tion clearances for Cleveland bio- are constrained by the sharp ecopharmaceutical company Athersys nomic downtown. We don’t take Inc.; staff and overhead cuts at Inde- lightly the obligation to think hard, pendence-based minerals and ma- and creatively, to produce weekly terials company Covia Corp.; and print issues and daily stories for the Public Utilities Commission of CrainsCleveland.com that contain Ohio drawing closer to a decision on the type of information our readers whether a subsidiary of Akron-based find valuable, and that our advertisFirstEnergy Corp. can get into the ers see as creating an environment energy brokerage business. There that helps them convey effective were many other stories like those marketing messages. last week that helped paint a picture Everyone is working under unof where Northeast Ohio’s economy usual circumstances. Our staff stands. There will be more stories members, like those of a lot of busilike that this week. And the week af- nesses, have been doing their jobs remotely for about a month and ter that.

Do we hit the mark on everything have adjusted to work life on Zoom we write? No. It would be shocking if meetings. This is a time when it’s we did. Fortunately, we have readers natural to feel anxious. It’s our job to who call us on our mistakes, in fact bring clarity to the present and some and in judgment, and who help perspective on what’s coming next. point us to stories and topics that need to be explored. (Don’t be shy Scott Suttell: ssuttell@crain.com, with the questions, comments, criti- (216) 771-5227, @ssuttell

Advertising Section

CLASSIFIEDS To place your listing in Crain’s Cleveland Classifieds, contact Suzanne Janik at 313-446-0455 or email sjanik@crain.com BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

We Want to Wish You & Your Family Health and Safety During This Difficult Time mike@empirebusinesses.com www.empirebusinesses.com 440-461-2202

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TELEHEALTH

From Page 1

Granted, in part, virtual visits becoming such a large portion of care is a function of overall declines in volume as patients delay appointments.

Still, the numbers are significant, and hospital leaders say it is unlikely that telehealth volumes will ever return to the lower pre-COVID-19 levels.

“I think COVID is going to be a game-changer for how health care is practiced in the United States,” said Dr. Vik Bhalla, chief medical officer for Summa Health Medical Group. “The feedback that we’re getting from the patients and providers is you know, ‘Where has this been all my life?’ ” While patient demand and provider acceptance will be major factors that dictate the prevalence of telehealth after the pandemic, how regulations and reimbursement levels evolve will also be critical.

Some payers have begun reimbursing audio-only remote visits at the same level as audio-video connections during this time. Other changes include adding flexibility to originating site requirements or rules on whether a patient has a pre-established relationship with a provider.

“This pandemic has allowed us in three weeks to do what probably would have taken us six months to do,” said Dr. Rob McGregor, chief medical officer for Akron Children’s Hospital and currently co-director of the hospital’s incident command system.

Summa was also able to fast-track some of the telehealth strategies it had already been looking to put in place, Bhalla said. For about three years, the system has had a retail on-demand telehealth option offered through its website, which handled roughly eight visits a day before COVID-19. Now, it’s averaging about 100 visits a day after initially averaging more than 200 in the first days of COVID-19 restrictions.

But beyond that retail option, prior to COVID-19 there was no alternative to in-person appointments for established patients seeking regular routine follow-up and visits with physicians. Last month, Summa Health Medical Group quickly implemented

Bhalla

Faiman

its own telehealth platform for providers across the system, who are handling roughly 1,000 visits a day.

Many area hospitals had some form of telehealth infrastructure in place but had to quickly train hundreds of providers on the technology, reschedule thousands of patient appointments and, in some cases, expand bandwidth and IT capacity or purchase webcams and other technology.

Dr. Matthew Faiman, medical director of express care online at Cleveland Clinic, said the current iteration of express care online has been around for about six years, but the system had forms of telehealth for years before that. The Clinic last year announced it was working with American Well to launch a joint venture digital health company to provide broad access to care via telehealth, building on the existing partnership between the two.

Now that patients are thinking about the value proposition of telehealth (including convenience and time saved away from work or families) and providers are learning how much it can complement their day-to-day work, Faiman said he’s hearing from many that they don’t want to return to the reliance on the brick-and-mortar world.

Of course, in-person care must always exist for many cases, but the Clinic is working on carefully redesigning its approach in order to meet demand and patient needs while finding creative new ways to deliver care, he said.

People like Faiman, who have long thought that telehealth is the way of the future, now have a foundation on which to stand to make these changes stick.

Albert Ferreira, director of telehealth operations at MetroHealth, said he’s been hearing similar revelations from patients and providers, which he hopes governments and payers take into consideration in the

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Ferreira

Topalsky

coming months as they adjust their processes in response to the pandemic and beyond.

“I would hope that during this process they realize, whoever those stakeholders might be, that their perception about the value of telehealth has been completely incorrect,” Ferreira said.

The pandemic has given everyone an opportunity to really question how telehealth rules and payment have been structured historically, said Michael Biscaro, chief of behavioral health and addiction services at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, who joined the hospital at the start of this year in part to help stand up telehealth services there. Without the pandemic, the option probably wouldn’t have been available until later this year or into next year.

In addition to health systems expanding their existing telehealth options, smaller providers and health nonprofits have moved to rapidly add the option for the first time.

Neighborhood Family Practice had been planning to explore later this year how telehealth could fit into its strategy. Instead, it found itself in a matter of days rapidly shifting gears, a move that required “a lot of innovation and trust,” said Jean Polster, the organization’s president and CEO. In many ways, health care is “sort of in the dark ages,” asking patients to come to providers when many other industries have long used technology to meet customers where they are.

“And I think this is really going to throw a lot of that up in the air, where we’re going to be asking ourselves how can we use this technology to be more convenient for folks and still keep them healthy,” Polster said.

The Centers for Families and Children also had no telehealth services just a few months ago, but had the infrastructures in place that allowed

it to effectively flip the switch. It had been planning to launch some form of telehealth pilots this year, but nothing on this level. People who had been the most nervous and reluctant about telehealth have jumped aboard and “are doing amazing work,” said Dr. Vincent Caringi, interim chief medical officer and a psychiatrist at the organization.

Thrive Peer Support, which offers peer support services to people with substance-use disorders and/or mental health disorders, also quickly added telehealth services — a critical lifeline for clients at a time when anxiety is “through the roof” for many, said CEO Brian Bailys.

Denver-based Paladina Health, which offers a direct primary care model based on physician access, is already paid in a value-based model rather than fee for service, which made its pivot to telehealth easier, said Dr. Suzanne Morgan, Ohio regional medical director for Paladina Health, which has eight locations in Northeast Ohio. Nationally, the company saw telehealth visits grow fivefold between February and March.

Of course, the wide reliance on telehealth also highlights some challenges in individual access. For instance, many providers noted that significant portions, possibly a third, of their populations use a flip phone or don’t have internet access. They’re grateful for changes in regulations that currently (though possibly temporarily) allow audio-only telehealth connections, so those without video capabilities can simply call their provider.

Long-term, telehealth growth could push hospitals and providers to rethink their needs for physical space, said Dr. George Topalsky, vice president of the primary care institute at University Hospitals. Plus, the technology could have workforce implications. Providers may be able to handle more patients virtually, which could help address concerns around primary care provider shortages.

“I think a new standard of health care has been realized,” Ferreira said. “And I just don’t think there’s any way to go back.”

Lydia Coutré: lcoutre@crain.com, (216) 771-5228, @LydiaCoutre

MCINTYRE

From Page 6

We both realize that the news universe in Cleveland is nothing like it was when we started at The Plain Dealer three decades ago. But we also realize the value of dependable information, of context, of stories that help us understand our region, our industries and ourselves. We’re both committed to contributing to our community in this new ecosystem.

Like Mike, I consider myself fortunate, because as editor and publisher at Crain’s, I have the privilege of working alongside 13 Crain’s Cleveland journalists who are committed to bringing our readers the business news they need to make informed decisions on their operations; to hear about trends in their industries and others; and to learn about leaders on the cutting edge of innovation.

As much as the model has evolved, the mission remains the same. At Crain’s, we’re committed to that mission and fulfilling it for our clients and readers, even as we’re adjusting to life in the pandemic era.

We’ll be here each week with our print edition and digital e-edition.

Our website, crainscleveland.com, will be populated each day with what you need to know. We’ll send you our daily and weekly email newsletters.

We’re collaborating with our sister publications in Chicago, Detroit and New York on a weekly podcast — Small Business Lifeline — that for now is focused on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. And Crain Content Studio stands ready to help your business with any custom content needs.

The world has changed for my family, for the news industry and, due to the pandemic, for all of us.

There is so much uncertainty. Like so many, I’ve taken some time for reflection during this time of massive change. I realize how fortunate I am to still be working in the field I aspired to as a child. And in uncertain times, I offer this certainty: We at Crain’s Cleveland Business are here to help you and your business achieve your aspirations.

Advertising Section

To place your listing, visit www.crainscleveland.com/people-on-the-move or, for more information, please call Debora Stein at (917) 226-5470 or email dstein@crain.com.

CONSTRUCTION

CONSTRUCTION

CONSTRUCTION

NONPROFITS

NONPROFITS

Donley’s

Donley’s

Donley’s

Koinonia

Donley’s is pleased to announce the promotion of John Marchi to Project Executive of the Columbus Hilton Hotel project. John graduated from the University of Akron with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 2009 and joined Donley’s in 2010 as an Estimator.

John has a great deal of experience collaborating with clients and helping lead in the successful delivery of some of our most significant projects. He recently worked on The Hilton Cleveland Downtown and The Lumen at Playhouse Square.

Donley’s is pleased to announce that Mason Ruby has been promoted to Superintendent.

Mason graduated from Kent State University with a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management in 2016. He participated in a co-op program with Donley’s NEO concrete team in 2016 and was hired on full-time as a Project Engineer in early 2017. Most recently, Mason has worked on The Lumen project at Cleveland’s Playhouse Square and the Connection at Southside project in Pittsburgh.

Donley’s is pleased to announce the promotion of James Nadzam to Project Manager. James participated in a co-op program with Donley’s NEO concrete team in 2015 and officially joined the firm in 2017 as a Project Engineer. James graduated from Bowling Green State University with a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management Technology. Some of his recent projects include The Lumen at Cleveland’s Playhouse Square and the MetroHealth View Road Parking Garage at their main campus.

Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra GRAMMY-winning ensemble Apollo’s Fire announces the appointment of Howard Bender as Executive Director.

Bender, a Cleveland native, will lead all administrative and fundraising activities. He served as CDO at Florida Grand Opera, VP of Virginia Opera, Director of Institutional Advancement at Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival, and Founding CEO of TodiMusicFest USA. His singing career as a tenor with major opera houses and symphonies spanned four continents, and included the Metropolitan Opera.

Koinonia is pleased to announce the appointment of Stacy Soria as the inaugural Chief Strategy Officer. Stacy joined as Director of Organizational Learning in January of 2019 and quickly became responsible for Business Intelligence in addition to Organizational Learning. In her role as Chief Strategy Officer, Stacy will secure the future of Koinonia by enabling the nonprofit to evolve into a multi-entity enterprise that offers integrated services that focuses on whole-person care.

18 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | April 20, 2020

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND LOOK BACK | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Boosting regional economy takes ongoing effort Nearly two years ago, Jon Pinney, managing partner of the Kohrman Jackson & Krantz law firm, told a City Club of Cleveland audience that the region’s efforts to boost the economy weren’t working.

“We’re getting our butts kicked. We’re dead last or near the bottom in most economic metrics,” he said. “Our population continues to decline at an alarming rate, (and) our economy has not evolved into an innovation economy quickly enough.”

Perhaps unknowingly, Pinney was expressing a frustration felt by several generations of civic leaders who have worked to rebuild a sagging regional economy. — Jay Miller

``THE HISTORY

``IN THEIR OWN WORDS

After John D. Rockefeller began sending oil refined here around the world after the Civil War, the economy of Northeast Ohio took off on an upward arc for more than a century.

But by 1980, the economic fundamentals had changed dramatically and the region didn’t know how to change with it.

Employment in the Cleveland metropolitan area peaked in 1979 at nearly 903,000, but would lose 30% of that total by 1983, much of Voinovich it in manufacturing. Similarly, rubber and plastics manufacturers in the Akron metro area would see their employment decline from more than 26,000 workers in 1980 to 16,000 by 1990.

A study by the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm in 1980 concluded that the regional economy had relied too heavily on manufacturing, which was moving south, west and overseas, attracted by lower wage costs and low-cost capital financing. At the same time, the remaining manufacturing was becoming more automated, requiring fewer workers. The new jobs were in the service sector, which required skills that the laid-off factory workers of Northeast Ohio lacked.

George Voinovich, elected mayor of Cleveland in November 1979, would lead the way forward by bringing the private sector and nonprofit organizations into a collaboration that came to be called the “public-private partnership."

Over the next 40 years, a handful of organizations would be created to work with the universities and government to help grow and modernize existing businesses, make the region attractive to new companies and train a workforce to take the new jobs.

“I just kept involving people. I don’t believe government solves any problems. My contribution was to empower the private sector and all the people of the city to take their destiny in their own hands.”

——George Voinovich, Cleveland’s mayor from 1979-89, told Crain’s Cleveland Business in 1990

Jon Pinney in a 2018 City Club of Cleveland speech challenged the region to make changes that will accelerate economic growth. | JAY MILLER/CRAIN’S

``WHY IT MATTERS TODAY Northeast Ohio continues to lag.

While the nation is growing, the region is not. Team NEO, one of the region’s key nonprofit economic development organizations, reported in 2019 that between 2001 and 2017 the population in the18 counties the organization serves dropped by 152,000 to 4.3 million, the labor force shrank by 128,000 to 2.1 million and births were declining by 6,700 annually.

Even the best effort to grow the region and its economy can’t overcome people’s preference for milder winters and more sun. But a coordinated effort by government, the business community, educational institutions and other nonprofit organizations is essential to any effort to ameliorate those trends and improve the health of the region.

Organizations like Team NEO, as well as the economic development departments of the area’s cities and counties, have sought to stimulate business and job growth with financial incentives such as grants, low-interest loans and tax breaks, which have helped grow some jobs. But increas-

ingly, the more important incentive for a business to grow in Northeast Ohio is whether the region can bring welltrained workers to its doorstep.

These efforts to attract new jobs and businesses are not without their critics, especially in the city of Cleveland, where some leaders believe the central city’s large poor and minority populations were overlooked by the corporate-led development efforts.

More recently, in 2018, the Fund for Our Economic Future issued a report, “The Two Tomorrows,” which argued that maintaining and growing the region’s economic vitality will depend on the ability to improve the access of all people, many of whom don’t have access to a car, to good jobs. Without changes in the approach to economic development, the fund’s report stated, the region could face a bleak future.

“There’s a broad-based recognition that what’s happening isn’t good enough,” both for the individuals being left on the economic sidelines and for the region’s economy overall, said Bethia Burke, now the fund’s president, when the report was released. “We’re not seeing what we want to see.”

“The goal of all of this is to get faster response and take advantage of the fact that the economic development groups in the field are in contact with a greater number of businesses than any single representative could be.”

——Tom Waltermire, Team NEO CEO, in 2011

“When sparse numbers of African Americans are bringing their business perspective into civic leadership decisions, the result is that the plight of African Americans is not appropriately factored into critical economic development decisions, which hampers opportunities for black communities and the entire city as a whole.”

——Randell McShepard, board chair at PolicyBridge, a nonpartisan, African American-led public policy think tank

THE WEEK NEW LEADER: The Saint Luke’s Foundation named Timothy L. Tramble Sr. as its new president and CEO, effective June 1. Tramble joins the Saint Luke’s Foundation after serving 20 years as the executive director of Burton Bell Carr Development Inc. He succeeds former CEO Anne Goodman, who is starting a consulting business serving nonprofits.

FINALLY DONE: Novelis Inc. of Atlanta completed its $2.8 billion acquisition of Beachwood-based Aleris Corp. For Aleris, this is the conclusion of years of acquisition attempts. The acquisition was announced in July 2018, following a failed attempt by Zhongwang USA LLC to acquire Aleris. Novelis, an aluminum rolling and recycling company, is a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Ltd., which is itself part of the Aditya Birla Group in India.

PROGRESS AHEAD: The federal government gave Cleveland-based Athersys Inc. the go-ahead for a clinical trial to test the company’s MultiStem cell therapy in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) induced by the novel coronavirus. The

Novelis Inc. of Atlanta completed its $2.8 billion acquisition of Aleris, which has its headquarters in Beachwood. | TIM EVANSON VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

biopharmaceutical company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized it to “initiate a Phase 2/3 pivotal study to assess the safety

and efficacy” of MultiStem in patients with “moderate to severe” ARDS. Athersys plans to open the first clinical sites this quarter.

COST-CONSCIOUS: To preserve cash, Akron-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. suspended the dividend on what had been a very high-yielding stock.

The tiremaker had been paying a healthy quarterly dividend of 16 cents — or 64 cents per year — which meant that, until the cut, its shares had been yielding as much as 10% during some of the recent lows for its share price.

crainscleveland.com

Publisher/editor Elizabeth McIntyre (216) 771-5358 or emcintyre@crain.com Group publisher Mary Kramer (313) 446-0399 or mkramer@crain.com Managing editor Scott Suttell (216) 771-5227 or ssuttell@crain.com Sections editor Michael von Glahn (216) 771-5359 or mvonglahn@crain.com Creative director David Kordalski (216) 771-5169 or dkordalski@crain.com Web editor Damon Sims (216) 771-5279 or dasims@crain.com Associate editor/Akron Sue Walton (330) 802-4615 or swalton@crain.com Assistant editor Kevin Kleps (216) 771-5256 or kkleps@crain.com Senior data editor Chuck Soder (216) 771-5374 or csoder@crain.com Editorial researcher William Lucey (216) 771-5243 or wlucey@crain.com Cartoonist Rich Williams REPORTERS

Stan Bullard, senior reporter, Real estate/ construction. (216) 771-5228 or sbullard@crain.com Jay Miller, Government.

(216) 771-5362 or jmiller@crain.com Rachel Abbey McCafferty, Manufacturing/energy/ education. (216) 771-5379 or rmccafferty@crain.com Jeremy Nobile, Finance/legal/beer/cannabis.

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(216) 771-5384 or kpalmer@crain.com Dan Shingler, Energy/steel/auto/Akron.

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April 20, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 19

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