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FINANCE

Shopping’s woes snag landlords, lenders

PPP Flexibility Act addresses some concerns of businesses Still, uncertainties are leading to frustrations

Notable NEO centers are feeling the pinch

BY JEREMY NOBILE

BY STAN BULLARD

For Fred Luecke, senior managing director for CBIZ and leader of its health care and accounting service practice in Northeast Ohio, the most frustrating element of the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for both him and his medical practice clients is the ongoing lack of guidance from the Small Business Administration and Treasury on how to ensure complete forgivability of the loans.

Despite all the challenges inherent in it, Luecke sees the PPP as unquestionably a net positive. Everyone who’s received funding is getting

The Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted and Pinecrest mixed-use center in Orange Village are in fiscal distress in vastly different arenas.

Great Northern, the 1972 enclosed mall that put the suburb west of Cleveland on the map as a shopping destination, is in play in Israel. It’s one of five malls that Starwood Retail of Chicago used to back a $254 million bond issue sold in 2018 on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Investors declared the bond in default June 6, according to TASE filings.

The woes of the bond issue, which may trigger a default on a loan on the properties, are being covered internationally, including by high-profile U.S. trade publications such as Real Deal and Commercial Observer.

Meanwhile, negotiations about Pinecrest, the newest mixed-use center in Northeast Ohio, are taking place behind closed doors.

Pinecrest is not subject to formal proceedings, nor even an insider trade report on financing. However, talks are underway between Square Mile Management of New York, which loaned $172 million on the property in 2019, and the owners, Pinecrest Property Partners, according to multiple sources.

Investors in the property are optimistic about an amicable workout with Square Mile, which recently has become more willing to talk, according to a source familiar with the situation.

“What Pinecrest has going for it are the apartments and, to a lesser degree, the office space, but most of the revenue comes from the retail portion of the property,” the source said.

Two industrial buildings in Euclid. Apartments scattered from downtown Cleveland to the city’s near West Side. A corporate headquarters relocation. A freestanding Starbucks.

Those real estate projects are among the first in Northeast Ohio where investors are taking advantage of a new state tax credit meant to lure more cash to Opportunity Zones, tax-favored geographies established by the federal government two years ago.

A list of applicants and approvals for those credits — a public record, obtained from the Ohio Development Services Agency — offers the first detailed look at what types of projects and neighborhoods are attracting investors through the otherwise opaque federal program.

money they wouldn’t have had otherwise amid a pandemic-induced economic downturn that’s led to record levels of unemployment.

However, uncertainty about elements of the program, fostered by the slow pace at which questions with it are answered by government officials, has led to frustration and worry. Many individuals previously awarded PPP dollars have returned them out of fear they would be unable to spend the money in time or comply with requirements enabling 100% forgiveness of the loan.

See RETAIL on Page 22

See ZONES on Page 25

See PPP on Page 26

PPP in the Great Lakes

IN THE ZONE

REAL ESTATE

The Tappan, a just-opened apartment building in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, attracted investors who took advantage of the tax savings offered by the Opportunity Zone program and the state’s complementary credit. | MICHELLE JARBOE/CRAIN’S

From spec industrial space to Starbucks: State tax credits offer snapshot of early Opportunity Zone projects | BY MICHELLE JARBOE

NEWSPAPER

VOL. 41, NO. 22 l COPYRIGHT 2020 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

As of June 6, more than 4.5 million PPP loans had been approved nationally. In the six-state Great Lakes region, more than 681,000 small businesses and nonprofits had been approved.

State

Illinois Indiana Michigan Minnesota Ohio Wisconsin Region total

PPP loans PPP loan amount

186,337 74,758 114,361 92,906 131,887 81,232 681,481

$22 billion $9.4 billion $15.7 billion $11 billion $18.2 billion $9.8 billion $86 billion

SOURCE: U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CRAIN’S

This year’s class includes active, driven young professionals who will help steer the course of Northeast Ohio into the future.

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A broad group of local partners is planning an unusual apartment project southeast of downtown Cleveland, with the lofty goal of lifting two generations out of poverty.

The Cleveland Scholar House would offer affordable housing, free childcare and support services to college students with young children, on a site within walking distance of Cuyahoga Community College and Cleveland State University.

The project, the first of its kind in Northeast Ohio, aims to replicate a model that took root in Kentucky and spread north to Cincinnati and Columbus. Such scholar houses hinge on community collaborations that extend far beyond an initial real estate deal.

In Cleveland, CHN Housing Partners has been exploring the concept since 2017. The most recent iteration of the nonprofit developer’s plans is a 40-unit, $11.8 million project on a vacant lot along Community College Avenue, just north of Tri-C’s Metropolitan Campus.

CHN and its partners, chief among them United Way of Greater Cleveland, suffered a setback last month, when the scholar house failed to land critical tax credits for low-income housing. It was the second time that the project missed out in a fiercely competitive, annual process overseen by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.

But the developer and its collaborators say they’re undeterred. They plan to apply yet again for tax credits early next year and to keep searching for other potential funding sources.

Nancy Mendez, vice president of community impact for United Way, said the need for this type of housing is more urgent than ever, in the midst of a pandemic and economic slump.

“We really feel that this project speaks to that second part of COVID19, which is recovery,” she said.

“We’ve got to get people back to work and we’ve got to do it with a livable wage. This is about that divinity of being able to get yourself and your family out of that cycle of poverty.”

Scholar houses predominantly attract single mothers in their late 20s and early 30s, with one or two children. Some parents are struggling to stay in school. Others dreamed of

higher education but couldn’t act on those dreams without stable housing and reliable childcare.

Kevin Nowak, CHN’s executive director, said that college and early childhood learning are equally important to the model. Cleveland State and Tri-C would refer prospective tenants to CHN and offer life-skills training and academic counseling to residents. United Way would coordinate on-site services, such as mental health counseling and financial literacy education.

The nonprofit Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland would provide childcare both in the building and at its nearby William Patrick Day Early Learning Center. The Cuyahoga Metropolitan

comes a prestigious thing,” Greybar Milliken said of living at the scholar house. “That from a workforce development standpoint that residents would be able to put this on their résumés and talk about it in interviews.

That employers would know that the people who got into that had all sorts of resources and support.”

Nowak said there’s room on the site for additional phases of development, once the team gets the first building onto the ground.

He said the project struggles to compete in the state housing finance agency’s scoring process, due in part to its atypical nature; modest size; location near public and low-income housing; and the high share of costs associated with childcare facilities,

“THESE ARE THE KINDS OF INNOVATIVE THINGS THAT DON’T ALWAYS BUBBLE TO THE SURFACE. IT’S REALLY ABOUT AFFECTING PEOPLE’S LIVES. I’VE HAD OCCASIONS WHERE I’VE BEEN IN MEETINGS WHERE IT’S ABOUT CHECKING OFF A BOX. THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS IS.” — Jacklyn Chisholm, president and chief executive, Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland

Housing Authority would supply the land, through a ground-lease arrangement, and 40 vouchers to ensure affordable rents.

A project summary shows that tenants might pay $300 to $550 a month for housing.

“These are the kinds of innovative things that don’t always bubble to the surface,” said Jacklyn Chisholm, CEOGC’s president and chief executive. “It’s really about affecting people’s lives. I’ve had occasions where I’ve been in meetings where it’s about checking off a box. That is not what this is.”

At Tri-C, most of the students are women, and 40% of those women are single parents, said Michael Schoop, the college’s vice president for evidence, inquiry and retention. He and Shannon Greybar Milliken, vice president of student affairs and dean of students at CSU, expect the Cleveland property to have a waiting list.

“What I would hope is that it be-

computer rooms and other spaces that won’t draw rent. But OHFA has encouraged CHN to reapply for credits.

At this point, construction won’t start until spring of 2022, at the earliest, with a mid-2023 opening date.

Meanwhile, the partners will continue to meet, to fine-tune an alliance that they expect to go well beyond bricks and mortar.

“I think part of its importance is, frankly, the model,” Schoop said.

“The model of support for students but also the model of collaboration.

Just think about how this changes a community and connects people in that community. … It’s more the ripple effect than just the direct service, although it’s really important not to discount the significance of having somebody in your family complete a college degree.”

Michelle Jarboe: michelle.jarboe@ crain.com, (216) 771-5437, @mjarboe

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Nonprofits with self-funded unemployment insurance face big bills Option that typically saves organizations money is costly during crisis

BY LYDIA COUTRÉ

lower experience rating, paying into the state system would mean nonprofits are essentially taxed to subsidize for-profit unemployment, Thompson said. This prompted a 1970s exception for nonprofits and others, including federally recognized tribes and some governments, he said.

YMCA of Greater Cleveland belongs to a third-party trust that helps the organization establish, invest and ultimately draw from its unemployment reserves, said chief financial officer Holly DuPlain.

less with no penalties until they’ve had a period of time to recover.

“Frankly, in a time when we’re In recent years, Goodwill Indusbailing out — to the tune of billions of tries of Greater Cleveland and East dollars — huge corporations … I Central Ohio averaged about $34,000 think we could afford to bail out our in unemployment costs it paid the nonprofits,” Antonio said. state.

A resolution currently in the state Having laid off 650 of its 715 emsenate finance committee asks voters ployees for several weeks, that cost is to approve in November the issuance nearing $1 million for the nonprofit, of bonds to repay any federal borwhich self-funds its unemployment rowing to support Ohio’s unemployinsurance rather than paying into the ment compensation program. Richstate system. ards, of Goodwill, was among those This is an option nonprofits have who testified. had for decades that, in more typical Vocational Guidance Sertimes, saves them money. vices (VGS), a nonprofit voBut the self-funded model is “WE ASSUMED THAT WE cational rehabilitation presenting a huge financial WOULD NEVER HAVE TO agency focused on serving burden for these nonprofits, which by nature often operNEED TO PAY TWO MONTHS people with disabilities or other barriers to employate on very slim margins.

OF UNEMPLOYMENT ment, has self-funded its The Coronavirus Aid, Reunemployment insurance lief and Economic Security BENEFITS TO PEOPLE, for nearly 15 years. Susie (CARES) Act is offering BECAUSE THAT’S NOT WHAT Barragate, VGS president some relief, with the federal and CEO, estimated that has government paying 50% of WE DO. WE KEEP PEOPLE WORKING.” saved the organization the reimbursable unem$100,000 annually — funds ployment benefits through — Anne Richards, president and CEO, Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio VGS can use to help the the end of the year. But nonthousands of individuals profits and advocates say that’s not enough, especially in a Where it would typically spend with disabilities it serves each year.

“It has worked beautifully right up time when nonprofits are forced to $50,000 annually on unemploycancel, postpone or completely re- ment costs, she said the total bill to this moment, which nobody think critical fundraising events. could increase to $150,000 or even planned for,” Barragate said. “It left a Plus, many have had to drastically as high as $300,000 for the year to lot of us exposed.”

The self-funded plan that VGS has reduce or completely close reve- pay for the benefits of the 63% of nue-generating services. And they’re staff that were laid off, which it’s offers coverage on the first $300,000 of claims, a threshold the nonprofit is seeing huge increases in demand for working to bring back.

If the total bill is on the higher quickly approaching after several their services as communities grapple with the impact of the pandemic, end of that estimated range, the or- weeks with hundreds of employees including unprecedented unemploy- ganization would be responsible furloughed. for half. DuPlain said $50,000 would Barragate said the organization’s ment rates.

“We’ve been self-funded for a very come from its contributions to the liability is likely between $30,000 and long time,” said Anne Richards, pres- trust, and the remaining $100,000 $40,000 a week. She doesn’t anticipate being able to bring ident and CEO of Goodwill back 100% of her staff until Industries of Greater Cleve“IT HAS WORKED perhaps next year, “so we’ve land and East Central Ohio.

BEAUTIFULLY RIGHT UP got some long claims that “The reason we made that business decision was beTO THIS MOMENT, WHICH we could be looking at for these individuals,” she said. cause our mission is to put NOBODY PLANNED FOR. Having lost $1.4 million people to work. So we asin revenue so far this year sumed that we would never IT LEFT A LOT OF US due to COVID-19, the unhave to need to pay two EXPOSED.” employment insurance bills months of unemployment are one more expense the benefits to people, because — Susie Barragate, president and CEO, $26 million organization that’s not what we do. We Vocational Guidance Services has to figure out how to keep people working.”

After the CARES Act 50% is fac- would be an operating expense. fund.

Barragate called the situation tored in, the nearly half a million dol- The YMCA’s $25 million budget oplars that the Goodwill chapter is erates on narrow margins and has “frightening.” The idea that the panlooking at is still significant. Though seen big drops in its revenue pro- demic and its financial fallout could tear apart the infrastructure of nonRichards said the organization has gramming.

“Any expense is an unwanted ex- profits in the region is “really unforreopened 21 of its 22 stores, its customer count is still 40% below nor- pense for a nonprofit,” DuPlain said, tunate and kind of heartbreaking,” mal. Even if it makes budgeted sales noting the organization is seeking she said.

Goodwill Industries of Greater for the rest of the year, which she is community and foundation supCleveland and East Central Ohio has not anticipating, the nonprofit will port.

State Sen. Nickie J. Antonio, had to close several programs that lose $3.9 million.

The organization has already talk- D-Lakewood, who has a history rely on the revenue from its stores, ed about closing certain stores if cus- working in nonprofits, said she has including those that help people find been sounding the alarm on this is- jobs. There are simply no funds for tomers don’t start coming back.

Federal and state laws allow cer- sue every chance she’s had since a those programs, Richards said, nottain employers — including non- constituent brought it to her atten- ing the nonprofit doesn’t have the profits — to opt out of paying into tion. Nonprofits are the organiza- funding now to pay its bills and has the state system as for-profit, con- tions that communities count on to had to work with landlords to defer tributing employers do, said David rebuild after a tragedy or emergency, payments.

But those costs will still come later L. Thompson , vice president of she noted.

“We would not be able to do that if this year — on top of their unemploypublic policy at the National Council of Nonprofits. A third group of these organizations don’t exist any- ment costs, Richards said.

“If the virus shows up again, we employers, including religious or- more, and I’m fearful that we will won’t make it if they shut it down, ganizations and very small non- lose some of them,” Antonio said.

One of the items that Antonio is unless we get help from the governprofits, are exempt from unemployment laws and their employees asking for is a relief package that of- ment,” she said. aren’t eligible for benefits if they fers nonprofits grants rather than loans to bridge the needed cash flow Lydia Coutré: lcoutre@crain.com, lose their job.

Because nonprofits tend to have a and, importantly, hold them harm- (216) 771-5479, @LydiaCoutre

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MANUFACTURING

Energy Focus looks to lighting benefits beyond energy savings Solon company hopes new lighting control platform can flip switch from survival to growth

BY RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY

James Tu said he thinks “human-centric lighting” is the way of the future, and he wants the company he leads, Energy Focus Inc. in Solon, to be at the forefront.

“We believe that innovation is critical,” Tu said.

Energy Focus is a maker of LED lights and technologies. The story of LEDs has been about energy efficiency and cost, Tu said, but LED lights are like small computers. A lot of “powerful technologies” can be incorporated into them. Tu wants to do that at a lower cost than his competitors.

Energy Focus has struggled in recent years, and Tu is on his second shift at the helm. He stepped away as the company’s leader in early 2017, as the company looked to cut its expenses in the face of falling sales, only to rejoin Energy Focus in April 2019. Today, he serves as its chairman and CEO. Sales were still a concern when Tu returned to the company. Net sales in the fourth quarter of 2018 were $3.1 million, down from $4.7 million in the fourth quarter of the year prior.

But by the fourth quarter of 2019, sales had started to turn a corner. In the first quarter of 2020, Energy Focus saw net sales grow by about 19% year over year to $3.8 million. Commercial orders made up about 46% of that, with military and maritime products making up the remainder. The company still reported a net loss, but one that shrank to $541,000 from a net loss of $2.9 million in the first quarter of 2019, according to a news release.

At the start of June, the company

James Tu, chairman and CEO of Energy Focus Inc. in Solon, is on his second stint as the company’s leader. Since his return, sales have started to turn the corner. | MICHAEL STEINBERG

announced plans for a reverse stock split to help it meet minimum requirements for the Nasdaq Capital Market. The company needed a minimum bid price of $1, and planned to combine five shares of common stock outstanding into one to make that happen, drastically reducing its total number of shares. The stock closed at $1.37 on Tuesday, June 9, prior to the reverse split. In the 52 weeks prior, it had seen a low of $0.16 and a high of $1.78.

When Tu rejoined Energy Focus, he turned his attention to cutting costs, closing offices in California and Taiwan and consolidating the company in Solon. Energy Focus currently has about 50 employees, he said.

He put a premium on regaining the company’s market share in the military industry, which had once been its bread and butter. The company had fallen behind in terms of costs as competitors entered the space, and Tu said it hadn’t done anything to “catch up” over the years.

In recent months, Energy Focus has secured some large new Navy-related contracts.

Those two initial measures were critical to stabilizing Energy Focus.

Yet it still wasn’t enough.

“I didn’t come back to the company to make the company survive,” Tu said.

“I need to grow the company, and I see huge opportunity in this industry.”

This spring, Energy Focus

disinfecting lights, a project that predates the COVID-19 pandemic but that could garner more attention because of it.

Mark Lien, industry relations manager for the Illuminating Engineering Society in New York, said there’s “surprisingly little” data on how light actually affects the human body. Indoor lighting tends to have a static temperature and intensity, unlike natural lighting, which varies by the time of day.

“And intuitively, we know that they should be closer,” Lien said.

Not everyone agrees, he noted, but it’s a debate that won’t be solved without funded research.

The issue is that as LEDs have matured, they’ve become commodity products, Lien said. Those lower prices mean there tends to be less money for research.

But circadian lighting is an area without much risk to consumers if companies want to try it out. That’s not necessarily the case with germicidal ultraviolet lights, another lighting trend that’s gained more attention during the pandemic, Lien said.

The society would like to see FDA controls put in place around these products.

Ultimately, the lighting industry is going through rapid change, Tu said.

A lot of the big players in the market, such as GE Lighting or Eaton’s lighting business, are changing hands due to recent sales. That gives companies that innovate quickly the chance to become leaders in the space.

Energy Focus recently launched EnFocus, a lighting control platform. | CONTRIBUTED

launched a lighting control platform called EnFocus. The retrofit platform allows customers to dim lights or change their color, following “human-centric lighting.” It can be done quickly, without permits, because there’s no need to rewire buildings.

Users could, for instance, make lights bluer and brighter in the morning hours to promote alertness, turning them redder and dimmer as the day goes on, following the circadian rhythm. Instead of just saving money on energy costs, the goal would be for the platform to help companies increase productivity.

Tu views that as just the beginning for EnFocus. For example, Energy Focus is in the process of creating UV

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

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EDUCATION

University of Akron’s redesign process aimed to be fast but inclusive Financial stress of pandemic sped up Zips’ need to restructure

BY RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY

Whether you think the University of Akron’s recent academic redesign happened at the speed of light or dragged on semester after semester is a matter of perspective.

The university has been discussing the idea of reorganization for years. But the COVID-19 pandemic, and the financial challenges it poses, meant the university’s new leadership needed to pick up the pace.

And pick up the pace they did.

Plans to trim the university’s standalone colleges and schools from 11 to five were first mentioned in a video from President Gary L. Miller

More change on campus: Consolidation leads to a new era for UA’s polymer program. Page 24

in early May. By the end of the month, a plan had been approved.

The five standalone colleges and schools are the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences; the College of Engineering and Polymer Science; the College of Business Administration; the College of Health Professions; and the School of Law. Names could change, and some of the other former colleges, like the polymer science and polymer engineering program and the education program, will become schools under these new colleges.

The University of Akron isn’t alone in these efforts. In fact, it could be at the start of a growing trend. The pandemic — and a pre-existing trend of disinvestment in higher education — has led to financial constraints for such institutions, said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C. That means many are looking to consolidate programs, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, and to focus on the ones students will find most attractive, such as in STEM. Executive vice president and provost John Wiencek helped oversee the creation of the new structure at

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Akron executive vice president and provost John Wiencek said the university needs to “make some lemonade” after struggles brought on by COVID-19. | THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON

the University of Akron. Wiencek wasn’t even supposed to be on campus until late May, but opted to join the university in late April to be part

of this work. He said he knows this kind of change can be stressful, and he felt it was a good opportunity to be a leader and build relationships.

The restructuring conversation would have likely taken place without the pandemic, Wiencek noted, but over a longer period of time.

COVID-19 put more financial stress on the university, which means it needs to create new revenue sources now, instead of in four years.

“I think this is a good thing. You know, we’ve got lemons, so let’s make some lemonade,” Wiencek said. “I think this is an opportunity for us to move forward.”

He compared the university to a holding company and its colleges to business lines. Each college — think subsidiary — has its own mission, as well as its own budget and expenses. That means many view themselves as “autonomous,” he said, and they may not be as likely to collaborate and work together.

“So the intent here was to dissolve some of those barriers and bring things together that are natural fits,” Wiencek said.

See AKRON on Page 24

ent kept in good shape during crisis “THANK GOD FOR THE RESIDENTIAL END OF IT TO KEEP OUR BUSINESS GOING AND OUR GUYS EMPLOYED AND OUR SALESMEN SELLING. IT’S BEEN NONSTOP.”

ply-

with man ntial cou-

— Chuck Herman, owner of Specialty Fitness Equipment

ple of months accounted for 100% of his business.

“It basically flips your world around, like with everybody,” said Herman, who started the business in 2012. “We’re obviously not doing development — business stopped there. But thank God for the residential end of it to keep our business going and our guys employed and our salesmen selling. It’s been nonstop.”

Herman and his wife work alongside two 1099 salesmen at Specialty Fitness. His delivery and installation business, White Glove Installs, employs another two people.

A direct distributor for manufacturers, Specialty Fitness Equipment typically doesn’t keep much inventory on hand in order to make sure clients get “the latest and greatest,” he said.

But in March, Herman invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into building an inventory. Where he used to have two to three spin bikes on hand, for example, he bought 20.

It’s a gamble he’s glad he took.

Many suppliers are backed up until July, August or September to get more equipment out.

“Nobody was prepared for this in our industry,” said Herman, who’s worked in fitness for 25 years. “This beats any time that I’ve been in this business, and I’ve been in the retail

end of it earlier in my career where, you know, you’ve had the holiday season, you would have Black Friday, or any type of timing where people would be buying fitness equipment. This surpasses it a million times. I’ve never experienced backlogs and delays and back orders for equipment.”

By the end of May, he’d sold most of the inventory he’d rapidly built up.

The growth in residential sales didn’t make up for the loss of commercial revenues, “but it definitely helped,” Herman said.

His revenues from when the stayat-home order went into place in March through mid-May were down about 40% of what the business typically would have been doing in that time.

In the future, Herman expects Specialty Fitness Equipment’s historical 85%/15% split of commercial and residential business to look different. The last couple of weeks in May, Herman started to see commercial business return.

But residential business will continue to occur more regularly, he predicted, as people are afraid to go back to gyms. Herman pointed out, though, that as consumers consider the risk of COVID-19-transmission at gyms, not all are created equal. Smaller fitness rooms such as in apartment buildings or corporate wellness facilities can be safe places to work out as they are eas-

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JUNE 15, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 7

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FROM THE EDITOR

RICH WILLIAMS FOR CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Yes, we can — and must — do better

EDITORIAL

Get ready T

he ongoing nightmare that is 2020 produced another one last week, of a smaller scale than what we’ve become accustomed to, but with big implications for the rest of the year in Ohio and nationwide.

It happened in Georgia, where primary elections produced a textbook example of a breakdown of the voting system. Reduced polling locations due to the novel coronavirus, combined with new voting equipment and an understaffed volunteer corps, led to huge lines. As The Washington Post put it, “Residents waited for hours to cast ballots, some past midnight.”

That’s completely unacceptable in a functioning democracy.

The Georgia debacle underscores an unsettling truth: Much of the country is not prepared to hold a presidential election in November in a pandemic that could be worse then than it is now.

It’s a good sign in Ohio, though, that Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, has launched a five-member, bipartisan commission to explore ways to get the state ready for elections in November.

The first meeting was held June 2. The next one takes place this Tuesday, June 16, and, like the first, it can be watched MUCH OF THE COUNTRY IS on The Ohio Channel.

NOT PREPARED TO HOLD A The board describes its PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN mission as evaluating “the and needs of NOVEMBER IN A PANDEMIC challenges our county boards of elecTHAT COULD BE WORSE THEN tions to administer a safe, secure and accessible elecTHAN IT IS NOW. tion in the fall, and how the state can help support their efforts.” It promises to “learn from county elections administrators and what their needs and requirements are, consider and disseminate best practices, and receive information about the evolving health situation.”

At least in its early stages, the board is sending all the right signals. Ohio’s delayed primary this spring was understandably a little bumpy, but LaRose, unlike some Republicans, has defended by-mail voting as safe and fair, and has shown an admirable commitment to making sure voting rights are widely upheld.

We’re only about 140 days from Election Day, so there’s not

much time to get this right. We encourage the board to be expansive in its thinking about how to make sure all Ohioans are heard when it’s time to vote in November.

Quick service F

ormer Ohio Gov. John Kasich was fond of saying that he wanted state government to work at the speed of business. That didn’t always happen — and sometimes it shouldn’t happen.

But in instances of government working at a fast pace, the Ohio House of Representatives last week approved two pieces of legislation designed to help a vital industry — bars and restaurants — that has been financially challenged to the extreme by COVID-19 and the resulting (and appropriate, given the health risks) closure orders.

The House last Wednesday, June 10, passed by an 84-8 vote House Bill 669, which, as the Columbus Dispatch noted, “would make the legal sale of to-go alcoholic drinks, which was allowed temporarily during the coronavirus pandemic, permanent, with no limit on how many a customer can purchase.”

The bill would apply to takeout orders or deliveries, and it would allow permit-holders to expand their sales areas to adjacent properties, including outdoor areas on the property, outdoor public property or private property, with written consent.

A day later, the House by a 75-16 vote approved the somewhat more controversial House Bill 674, which would allow bars and restaurants to stay open until 4 a.m. on weekends and sell liquor on Sundays without a special permit.

Both bills now head to the Senate, which we hope will approve them. The pandemic has hit most businesses hard, but bars and restaurants have taken a particularly big hit, and they’re only now starting to regain their footing, with limited indoor dining augmenting outdoor seating. The industry is a big employer with an outsized role in adding vibrancy and character to our communities.

These special measures will require extra vigilance to keep neighborhoods safe and to make sure operators are following the rules. But in the interest of helping this industry bounce back as soon as possible, they deserve a toast.

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

In the wake of George Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests demanding racial justice and police reform, difficult but important conversations about race have been happening across the country.

We at Crain’s Cleveland Business are like many workplaces where these discussions are taking place. It’s often been said that media is the mirror of society, Elizabeth and we have been taking a hard look at McINTYRE whether we as a business publication are accurately reflecting what the Northeast Ohio business community looks like.

In this week’s issue, reader Alex P. Michaels, the founder of Prelude2Cinema, challenges Crain’s to do a better job of reflecting the diversity of our community.

We hear you, Alex, and we recognize we have more work to do.

In his letter to the editor, Alex references a column that was written by my predecessor as publisher with the headline “Prediction: We’ll do better at diversity.” That column was written in reaction to a cover story featuring 32 business leaders predicting what they saw happening in 2014 with business, education, the economy and so on.

The problem with the predictions was that of the 32 people we interviewed, 29 were white men, two were white women, and one was a Hispanic man. No African Americans. No Asians. No other diverse voices. And again, one-sixteenth of those featured were women.

WE ARE TAKING THIS As he wrote in that column, “We should have dipped into a MOMENT TO LISTEN, deep and diverse pool of voices UNDERSTAND AND for our predictions. … And we should do it every time we un- MOVE BEYOND dertake a feature like this. I try WORDS. to look at mistakes as ‘opportunities in disguise,’ and this mistake presents a golden one.”

Crain’s was rightfully called out for ignoring an important portion of our business community, and we recognized that we needed to improve. With the help of MVP Plastics CEO Darrell McNair, we formed the Crain’s Business Diversity Council in spring 2014. Since our first meeting until today, our mission has been and remains to improve Crain’s coverage of minority professionals and businesses and the issues that affect them. We also want to be a catalyst and champion for business inclusion activities in Northeast Ohio.

The council has provided valuable feedback and direction as we have striven to make our coverage more representative of what is happening in the overall business community in Northeast Ohio and to widen our network of experts and sources to include all different types of people and viewpoints. Over the past six years, our recognition programs — such as this week’s 20 in their 20s — have seen a marked increase in the breadth and depth of the nomination pool, thanks to the help of Crain’s Business Diversity Council.

I am grateful for the counsel of Darrell McNair and the Crain’s Business Diversity Council. They are a valued resource. I believe with the assistance of the council, we have done more than just promise to do better. But, as Alex rightfully points out, there is still plenty more work for Crain’s Cleveland Business to do to even better reflect the business community in Northeast Ohio.

We are taking this moment to listen, understand and move beyond words, including by discussing and improving our own internal policies and practices.

We will continue to strive for inclusive sourcing in our coverage, and I encourage readers to reach out to me at emcintyre@crain.com with story ideas, opinion pieces and general feedback.

As always, we appreciate your readership.

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

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

8 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | JUNE 15, 2020

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OPINION

Commercial Real Estate & Construction Services Throughout Northeast Ohio

Construction Services

PERSONAL VIEW

Establishing prevalence is first step toward herd immunity

BY FIROUZ DANESHGARI, M.D.

Experts tell us that the COVID-19 pandemic can be contained by either herd immunity or an effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Interim Guidelines for SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Testing” states that “antibodies most commonly become detectable 1-3 weeks after symptoms onset, at which time evidence suggest that infectiousness likely is greatly decreased and that some degree of immunity from future infection has developed. However, additional data are needed before modifying public health recommendations.”

The effort to obtain additional data has been slowed due to misrepresentations by the lay media. Many articles have come out suggesting the unreliability of antibody tests for SARS-CoV-2. These articles have created confusion, impertinent fears and more unknowns about this pandemic. The Federal Drug Administration and its staff have been working very hard to review and validate the rates of false positives and false negatives in the antibody tests that have been introduced to the market and have issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to those products meeting the FDA’s standards.

The confusing message is rooted in the difficulty of communicating the statistical relationship between the prevalence of a disease and the ability of a test to accurately detect that disease (called positive predictive value).

The fact is that until and when we know the prevalence of COVID-19 in every community and in our nation, we cannot judge the predictive value of ANY test in diagnosis of that disease, based on this relationship. The antibody

tests for SARS-COV2 are used to detect “some degree of immunity from future infection,” and not the diagnosis of COVID-19 singlehandedly.

In addition, because the duration of antibody response to SARS-COV2 is unknown at this time and because of the high proportion of individuals without known or documented exposure to the virus, an argument can be Daneshgari made that widespread testing for the is a professor of presence of antibodies with the easysurgery at Case Western Reserve to-use rapid flow tests will actually give us the best chance to establish the University. prevalence of exposure to SARS-COV2 in any community and in our nation.

The FDA has taken a leadership role in reviewing and issuing EUAs for those rapid-flow tests meeting FDA’s standards. Availability of these “point of care” tests will allow for detection of antibodies at the time of testing, and its repetition would allow us to more accurately estimate the durability of antibody presence.

As the CDC indicated, positive predictive values of 95% can be achieved if samples initially positive are tested with a second different testing assay. Discovery of such valuable information in every community (how many of us have antibodies against the virus and how long the antibodies are present) is our next best hope for the establishment of prevalence and the durability of an individual’s immune response to SARS-CoV-2, and thus could help define our trajectory toward a desired level of herd immunity and help define the portion of the community that may benefit from an effective vaccine.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

‘We’ll do better at diversity’ isn’t enough Crain’s Cleveland Business recently published an article about their approach to being more inclusive and opening the doors of diversity. Crain’s said it wants to be there to “help tell all of the community’s stories.”

So, as a black man who is the owner of a movie company, Prelude2Cinema, and a reader of Crain’s, I welcome this news. Yet, wait, I have a flashback to January 2014 when Crain’s highlighted no people of color in its “predictions for the year” feature and wrote a follow-up article with the title “Prediction: We’ll do better at diversity”.

Seriously, every time something happens, we find ourselves in the “we’ll do better,” and there are letters and conversations, and then things calm down. Yet, at times, there are reports where organizations receive money to study the issue. The reality that most of those organizations are led by whites who see these conversations as beneficial to the “minorities” are demeaning.

Still, some organizations and people do take things to heart and bring aboard voices of people of color and implement programs to help create an even playing ground.

At Prelude2Cinema, we have always been about diversity and inclusion and will be working on offering to help market businesses led by people of color or those that have a diverse workforce or serve people of color with respect and decency.

The times of waiting for Crain’s to reflect the diversity of the community that it lives in or recognize the value of people of color are past. While we have talked to some reporters there who are sincere in the endeavor to create a voice for people of color, leadership must do more than offer another “we’ll do better”.

Prelude2Cinema will be working on telling stories by people of color immediately and helping those businesses impacted by the “peaceful protests” that took a violent turn. We have a diverse team and are ready to go.

We believe words are meaningless without action.

To be honest, Crain’s is not the only one here who should be held accountable. We will also be holding up a spotlight to others who have pledged to help fight systematic racism. “You know who you are.” Expect in the next few weeks to hear from us about what you are planning to do.

In closing, we don’t have all the answers and because we create movies, and art, that is where our focus will be. Prelude2Cinema will entertain, but also stand on our principles of diversity and inclusion. We are here for any honest “conversations” Crain’s wishes to have. We will help you do better. We sincerely hope that your words create action and in the year 2026, Crain’s doesn’t have to publish another letter that begins, “We’ll do better at diversity.”

Alex P. Michaels Cleveland cinema czar, Prelude2Cinema

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State’s Icebreaker ruling was correct Lake Erie is the source of fresh drinking water for 11 million people. Tourism-related spending for the Ohio counties bordering Lake Erie is $15.1 billion, supporting 127,000 jobs and generating $1.9 billion in taxes.

Lake Erie Foundation supports the state of Ohio’s decision to require carefully thought out conditions for Icebreaker Windpower and all utility projects proposed for Lake Erie. That is consistent with our support for clean, alternative energy.

Icebreakers’ developers state they plan to build only six wind turbines in Lake Erie. Yet, they privately acknowledge that Icebreaker is merely the first step in their long-term goal of erecting over a thousand wind turbines overall Typically, the cost of constructing and maintaining offshore wind turbines is three times higher than the cost of a similar size onshore wind turbine. Furthermore, the number of permanent jobs created and potential economic benefits claimed by Icebreaker’s developers demand much closer scrutiny.

The state of Ohio has an obligation to protect its greatest natural resource for all citizens and future generations who seek its use and enjoyment. Lake Erie Foundation strongly encourages further in-depth studies such as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) versus the less reliable Environmental Assessment that has been quoted.

Jim Stouffer President, Lake Erie Foundation JUNE 15, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 9

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FOCUS | TWENTY IN THEIR 20S

Leen Ajlouni, 23

Investment associate, North Coast Ventures AT AGE 13, Leen Ajlouni received a full scholarship to attend American Community School in her native Amman, Jordan, the first step in her dream of studying at an elite university in the U.S. She realized that vision a few years later, attending Smith College to study engineering, then veering into the realm of early-stage tech investment with North Coast Ventures.

Ajlouni prescreens investments and ensures that all aspects of deal intake and portfolio support activity are successfully executed. The Rocky River resident said the job allows her to meet Ohio’s creative class while making a difference in the region.

“The venture capital space isn’t just about capital: It’s an opportunity to connect entrepreneurs with the right people and the right resources at the right time,” Ajlouni said.

She joined North Coast Ventures in

January, following a stint at BioMotiv, where she assisted in drafting commercialization plans for multimillion-dollar drug development grants.

She’d only visited Cleveland once prior to moving here in 2018. Ajlouni said aspects of the city remind her of her faraway home.

“Cleveland feels small enough for you to know someone who knows someone, and there’s a kindness that I’ve seen here that I haven’t seen anywhere else in the U.S.,” she said. “Many people sympathize when they meet me and learn that I don’t have family here, and next thing I know they’ve invited me over for dinner that night. In Jordan, it is very common for strangers to invite you over for coffee after having just met you in the streets.”

Ajlouni often is the youngest person in the room during meetings, which she initially found intimidating. However, there’s also an empowerment in

Mac Anderson, 29

Co-founder and chief marketing officer, Cleveland Kitchen MAC ANDERSON WAS 4 when his mother, Donita, helped found the North Union Farmers Market in 1995.

He remembers carrying produce, meeting farmers and watching them market their products.

“We kind of had our fingers on the pulse and always kept track of who was coming in, how they were branding and positioning their products, what made a good product and how they were interacting with their customers,” Anderson said.

The experience proved invaluable when Mac and his brother, Drew, and brother-in-law, Luke Visnic, started selling their Cleveland Kraut at farmers markets in 2014. By 2015, Mac helped the company get its line of sauerkrauts onto the shelves at Heinen’s, which ramped up business enough to bring an end to his brief career as a financial adviser.

Five years later, Cleveland Kraut has

been rebranded as Cleveland Kitchen, which in addition to its signature sauerkrauts features a selection of dressings that, like the sauerkrauts, are fermented and come in slick packaging. The company’s sauerkrauts are in 8,100 stores, including Walmart, Whole Foods, Target, Safeway and Publix, and the dressings are expected to be available at about 1,600 locations by the end of 2020.

Cleveland Kitchen, which has raised $5.6 million in venture capital in the last three years, had a 400% spike in revenue in 2019 and is projecting a 300% increase this year.

You could say the days of working two jobs and sleeping on friends’ couches in between visits to stores have paid off for Anderson.

In addition to “pure hustle,” a key for the trio has been clearly defined roles.

Mac is the sales and marketing specialist. Drew, the CEO, is the leader with a strong background in fi-

Ogechukwu ‘Oge’ Anoliefo, 29 Associate, Jones Lang LaSalle THREE YEARS AGO, Oge Anoloiefo was selling men’s clothing at the Nordstrom department store at Beachwood Place. Now, he’s marketing office space at the tallest building in the state.

Anoliefo parlayed his retail experience — and networking skills — into a job at the Jones Lang LaSalle brokerage in Cleveland, where he started as an analyst in early 2018 and recently graduated to an associate position. He’s part of a team responsible for leasing at Key Tower in downtown Cleveland and the Convergent office project in Westlake, near Crocker Park.

The son of Nigerian immigrants, Anoliefo stands out in a field long criticized for its lack of diversity.

Born in Euclid and raised on Cleveland’s East Side, he still lives in walking distance of his parents’ home.

His mother is a social worker. His

father is a community-development leader focused on affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization.

For Anoliefo, getting into real estate was a shot at selling something bigger than shirts and suits but more tangible than stocks or bonds. It also was a chance to cut a path for other candidates who might not look the part of the stereotypical real estate broker.

“I think that in real estate you have the ability to do well for yourself monetarily, but you can also do good for others at the same time,” he said.

When asked for his thoughts on how nonwhite candidates can break into commercial real estate, Anoliefo took a long pause. He pointed out that his story, which includes a private education at Hawken School and a business administration degree from Wittenberg University, isn’t the typical arc for a

collaborating with seasoned investors, she said, especially when a successful investment enables economic development in her adopted home.

North Coast Ventures managing director Todd Federman said she made an immediate impact, taking point on a 600-person virtual event on how startups can thrive during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Leen joined us at the beginning of 2020 and has hit the ground running,” Federman said. “She is a great listener and thinker, and can really get things done.”

That includes teaching others. On the executive committee of Empowering Youth Exploring Justice, she supports board management, fundraising and strategy development, and confers with an underserved population who perhaps never knew a young Arabic woman could have a powerful voice in her city’s growth.

“Empowering a community starts with kids,” Ajlouni said. “I tell teenagers and preteens about being independent since I was 17 when I came to live in the U.S.” — Douglas J. Guth nance. Visnic, the chief operating officer, is a former architect who excels in process management.

That versatility proved crucial in early March, when a huge natural-foods trade show in California was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There, Cleveland Kitchen had planned to launch its rebrand and its new line of dressings. Instead, the company put more of an emphasis on digital marketing, and its sales were really strong as many people scrambled to stock their pantries in March and April.

Terry Schulke, a consultant with an extensive background in consumer goods, met the young entrepreneurs when a company he was advising was considering an investment in what was then a startup. Schulke said Anderson is a “very intelligent” and “very strategic” person who excels at branding and understanding the marketplace.

“They are also likable guys,” Schulke said of the Anderson brothers and Visnic. “They’re just going to continue to expand and have more programming. They’ll continue to make it even more special.” — Kevin Kleps young, black man in Cleveland.

“Cleveland is one of the most segregated cities in this country and, naturally with that, some people will not have the same opportunities immediately available to them,” he wrote in an email. “Even interracially, the experiences of the black community are wide and vast. The privilege and access that I have been afforded during my life is not commonplace for people who look like me.”

If counseling someone with a similar background, he’d advise them to use their connections. For aspiring brokers without such a network, he would offer up his own.

Dominic Ozanne, president and CEO of Cleveland-based Ozanne Construction Co., lauded Anoliefo’s work contributing not only to the real estate industry but also to the broader community through involvement in programs focused on entrepreneurship and growth.

“He is a champion of diversity and inclusion and social impact,” Ozanne wrote in support of Anoliefo’s nomination. — Michelle Jarboe

10 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | June 15, 2020

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6/11/2020 12:48:01 PM

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Introducing Crain’s 2020 Twenty in their 20s.

Here you’ll find the typical roll call of accomplishments beyond their years, impressive feats of leadership, advocates, healers and entrepreneurs. You’ll find something more, too: an inspirational cohort of young people responding with grit and grace to the coronavirus pandemic. The community engagement manager who found ways to stay in touch with residents despite the cancellation of big neighborhood events. The chief marketing officer who pivoted his rebranding launch to digital-only when the big annual trade show didn't happen.

The nonprofit manager who in a matter of days turned a major fundraiser virtual and brought in more money for her organization than the previous year's in-person event. Their lives, their businesses and their worlds are upside-down, but they’re doing what they can to keep going and give back.

To maintain safe social distancing, we decided not to send a photographer out for portraits and asked this year’s honorees to submit selfies instead. We think they really captured this moment, and look great, too.

PAGE 10 Leen Ajlouni, 23 Investment associate, North Coast Ventures Mac Anderson, 29 Co-founder and chief marketing officer, Cleveland Kitchen Ogechukwu ‘Oge’ Anoliefo, 29 Associate, Jones Lang LaSalle PAGES 12-13 Joi Carter, 26 Community engagement and marketing manager, MidTown Cleveland Inc. Logan Fahey, 26 Managing partner, Fahey Group; CEO, Robin Autopilot Mia Garcia, 29 Associate, Frantz Ward LLP Max Herzog, 26 Program manager, Cleveland Water Alliance Brenden Kelley, 29 Attorney and director of marketing and business development, Wuliger & Wuliger LLC PAGE 14 Haojia Li, 25 Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering, Case Western Reserve University Sydney Martis, 26 Research manager, Team NEO Patrick Mohorcic, 24 Director of workforce development, Lake County Board of County Commissioners

PAGES 16-17 Andrew Newsome, 26 Chief of staff to the chief improvement officer, Flynn Restaurant Group Olivia Ortega, 26 Manager, government advocacy, Greater Cleveland Partnership Dinola Phillips, 28 Staff attorney, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland Jeffrey Pritt, 29 Co-founder and creative director, Pritt Entertainment Group PAGES 18-19 Ashley Rader, 29 Program administrator in medical operations, Cleveland Clinic Jareed Robinson, 29 Assurance manager, BDO USA LLP Miles Senior, 26 Credit risk analyst, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland PAGE 20 Lo Smith, 26 Curatorial assistant, Front International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art Kayla Webb, 28 External relations manager, Providence House

The Case School of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University warmly congratulates

Haojia Li PhD student, Biomedical Engineering

Crain’s 2020 Twenty in their 20s Haojia Li is a lead researcher in the Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics, led by Anant Madabhushi, PhD, the Center’s director and the F. Alex Nason Professor II of Biomedical Engineering. Li uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict breast cancer progression. In Fall 2019, she was lead author on breakthrough research that could help better predict which patients with noninvasive breast cancer are likely to develop invasive breast cancer.

We are proud of Li’s exceptional contributions to advance breast cancer treatment and look forward to her future successes.

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The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland congratulates Miles Senior on his 20 in their 20s recognition!

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FOCUS | TWENTY IN THEIR 20S

Joi Carter, 26

Brenden Kelley, 29

AFTER RECEIVING HER DEGREE in apparel merchandising and product development from Bowling Green State University, Joi Carter knew she wanted to combine her love of art with philanthropy and community development, but she was not sure how to make that happen.

“I did a Google search about philanthropy, neighborhood development and the arts, and this company LAND Studio popped up,” she said.

LAND Studio offered her an internship. Her first job was to manage “Inner City Hues,” a collaborative arts project that culminated in four public murals created by local artists in the Mount Pleasant and Buckeye-Shaker neighborhoods.

“I put together an event where the people who lived in the neighborhood could actually meet the artists,” Carter said.

After her internship, Carter found a permanent position at the MidTown Cleveland Inc. economic development agency, in marketing and community engagement, a position that was relatively new when she took the job.

Carter jumped right in with MidTown’s Leo’s Listening Party, a summer concert named after a famous Euclid Avenue music club. The event brought about 200 attendees last year to the corner of East 69th and Euclid, with Motown, modern hip-hop and rap acts.

She credits its success to residents, who came up with ideas during a dinner/dialogue she organized — something MidTown Cleveland director Jeff Epstein said he appreciates.

“Joi leads through trust and relationship-build-

WULIGER & WULIGER owner and managing partner Amy Wuliger is the first to admit she “inherited” Brenden Kelley when she assumed leadership at the boutique litigation firm following her father’s passing in 2019. Yet, she’s grateful for this hand-me-down.

“So many lawyers are good at either trial presentation or research and writing,” Wuliger said. “But in my dad’s words, ‘Brenden is the total package.’ ” Bill Wuliger took Kelley under his wing way back in 2008, when the illustrious trial lawyer allowed the Gilmour Academy student to shadow and assist him as part of a senior project. Kelley returned to work at the firm during his breaks from Washington & Jefferson College and then even more while he attended Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University.

Upon graduating law school in 2015, Kelley said it was only natural that he join his mentor full-time.

“Bill was a big believer in being David against Goliath and representing the little guy wronged or pushed around by a big company or by an employer,” he said. “I enjoyed being a part of that. … I want to represent people that I care about and that I feel deserve justice.”

Kelley’s experience at Wuliger & Wuliger has ranged from a stolen horse to complex environmental cases, although he spends much of his professional time in commercial litigation. Most recently, the Cleveland

Community engagement and marketing manager, MidTown Cleveland Inc.

ing, and through inspiring others by her passion for community empowerment, the arts, cultural storytelling and racial equity,” Epstein said.

Community engagement has taken on a whole new meaning during the COVID-19 pandemic, with large community gatherings and concerts on hold, but Carter has found other ways to remain in contact with residents. She’s set up many of her older contacts with Zoom and FaceTime and put together a virtual concert for the area’s younger, more digitally savvy community.

“We had a concert on Instagram and Facebook Live and had about 80 or so impressions.

It was our own version of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert,” she enthused. — Kim Palmer

Attorney and director of marketing and business development, Wuliger & Wuliger LLC

Heights native has been charged with leading the firm’s marketing and business development efforts as well — an assignment linked to his gregarious personality. Last year alone, Kelley said, he handed out 500 business cards.

Out of the office, Kelley makes time to support the same institutions that gave him such a strong start. He’s president of Gilmour’s alumni association, on the alumni executive council of Washington & Jefferson and on the board of visitors at Cleveland-Marshall.

“I am happiest when I have a million things going on,” he said with a chuckle. — Judy Stringer

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Logan Fahey, 26

Managing partner, Fahey Group; CEO, Robin Autopilot LOGAN FAHEY’S SUCCESS is rooted in failure.

The managing partner of Fahey Group, a 3-year-old holding company and investment firm in Strongsville, has already started and ended more businesses and projects than many entrepreneurs twice his age.

A landscaping business he started as a teenager, an advertising magazine and a painting company all fell apart before he took a job in finance he eventually left. And all that was well before a botched bid for a city council seat that ultimately steered the political junkie away from public affairs.

“Those failures have all helped me,” said Fahey. “If I didn’t fail running for city council, if I didn’t have three ventures that completely failed early on, if I didn’t come close to filing bankruptcy and having the lights shut off, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Today, Fahey is more than com-

fortable with building a business. Fahey Group operates several companies, including Landmark Lawn and Garden Supply of Avon, which sold its Strongsville location in 2019, and Robin Autopilot, a U.S. franchising platform for robotic mowers — a business he expects will take off in America in the coming years.

Fahey also operates what was formerly known as Bloom Bakery, a small business previously run by Towards Employment to provide jobs for those with barriers to employment.

Fahey designed the business concept himself before leaving the nonprofit for other opportunities — only to buy the business in 2019 after it failed. He plans to reopen Bloom as Fahey Bakehouse in late fall.

Robin Autopilot is Fahey’s core focus. Having left the nonprofit world because of the red tape, he said he feels he can make a bigger impact on the

Mia Garcia, 29 Associate, Frantz Ward LLP MIA GARCIA LEARNED about empathy early on from parents who taught her to recognize and give back generosity in equal measure. A biracial background — Garcia’s mother is from Taiwan and her father’s family emigrated from Spain — had its own impact, leading her to understand different perspectives at a young age.

Ingrained compassion has served Garcia well as an attorney with Frantz Ward’s business law group, where she guides individuals and businesses through complex trust and estate planning, nonprofit formation and corporate governance.

“I’ve always been a naturally empathetic person, for better or worse,” Garcia said. “I want people to feel like they’re being taken care of.”

A downtown Cleveland resident originally from Conneaut, Garcia handles wills, trusts, beneficiary designations and incapacity planning

forms for families facing the loss of a loved one. In her early 20s, Garcia cared for her own father before he died of cancer. Experiencing intense grief prepared the young attorney to lead tough conversations with clients in a calm, knowledgeable manner.

A Case Western Reserve University law graduate, Garcia initially had criminal justice aspirations, but a summer working at the U.S. Attorney’s office turned her from adversarial courtroom litigation to a new path emphasizing community service. While at Frantz Ward, she began volunteering at Hospice of the Western Reserve, paying forward the care her family received during her father’s illness.

Garcia supports her firm’s diversity and inclusion committees, recently developing guidance for a new mentorship program. She emphasizes the importance of relaying constructive criticism to attorneys of varied back-

Max Herzog, 26 Program manager, Cleveland Water Alliance GROWING UP IN MISSOURI, with his father a biology professor at Washington University and his mother working in philanthropy at St. Louis’ The Nature Conservancy, Max Herzog absorbed a great deal of their social consciousness and awareness of the impact humans have on the world around us.

While studying political science and environmental studies at Oberlin College, Herzog spent three summers working with Foresight Prep, a pre-college institute based at Loyola University of Chicago that links interested high school students with professionals in the fields of sustainability and social justice.

Herzog’s years in Oberlin familiarized him with Cleveland, which “checked all the boxes” as far as what he was looking for in a place to settle: a smaller, diverse city facing real issues where he could make an impact.

“It’s easy to love this city,” he said.

Following graduation in 2016, he started work for the Cleveland Water Alliance, a network of Northeast Ohio public agencies, academic institutions and corporations whose aim is to foster economic development through water-related innovation.

Herzog may be best known for his work there spearheading Erie Hack, a 2017-19 series of competitions that motivated more than 500 entrepreneurs and 100 partner organizations to devise technology solutions to tackle Lake Erie’s challenges. In addition to that work investing more than $200,000 into CWA’s innovation ecosystem, Herzog engaged over 300 Northeast Ohio high school students and college undergrads in hackathons and other Erie Hack projects.

Another major project is the Smart Lake Erie Initiative, a collection of programs that brings the tech approach of the Smart Cities movement to natural

world in the realm for for-profit business. He still gets his dose of nonprofit work via the board of the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland.

“I just thrive on the ability to really build something from scratch,” Fahey said.

Randy Samsel, founder and CEO of eSearch Talent Solutions, met Fahey on the board of Towards Employment and then invested in Fahey Group due to the potential he sees in the business and the man running it.

“Logan is not like most people his age. He has this combination of being able to recognize opportunity and thinking big. ... He’s an upbeat person with a mindset that has no fear,” said Samsel.

To manage what Fahey has already achieved at 26, he added, is “unusual.”

“I’m in the business of talking with people about their careers, and he’s already accomplished more in his career than what some people would view as a lifetime of achievement,” Samsel said. “He is absolutely destined for additional greatness.” — Jeremy Nobile grounds. “Lawyers are teachers for either clients or future attorneys,” she said. “You have to tell them when they make mistakes and navigate them through that.”

Frantz Ward managing partner Christopher Keim noted that far from being a mere paper-pusher, Garcia recently orchestrated resolution of a bankruptcy litigation matter that saved a client from a seven-figure loss.

“Mia brings thoughtful attention and detail to clients,” Keim said in an email. “She is first and foremost a problem-solver with a laser-like focus on the task at hand. The clients she works with truly appreciate her professional demeanor and responsiveness along with her good humor.”

Garcia recalled how her father ended every phone conversation with “Do your best” and an appeal for grace in the face of adversity.

“When things knock you down, the true definition of grit is how you respond,” Garcia said. “I still have so much more to learn, but I love being in a job that helps foster my thirst for knowledge.” — Douglas J. Guth resource management. In addition to generating research projects and industry collaborations, the initiative has so far landed Herzog more than 20 conference speaking engagements and multiple publications.

His focus on sustainability and water extends to his volunteer activity as well, as an adviser and judge for the LIFT Intelligent Water Systems Challenge and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s multi-agency Nutrient Sensor Action Challenge. He also serves as an adviser and evaluator for an effort by Vermont to identify, accelerate and commercialize mitigation and beneficial reuse solutions for the state’s phosphorus imbalance situation.

“Whether supporting innovation for industry giants like Moen and AT&T or leading democratization of water data through citizen science, Max has been instrumental in growing Cleveland’s Blue Economy,” Julius Ciaccia, senior adviser for Isle Utilities and former director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, wrote in his nomination of Herzog. — Michael von Glahn June 15, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 13

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FOCUS | TWENTY IN THEIR 20S

Haojia Li, 25

Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering, Case Western Reserve University THE WORK DONE by Haojia Li, a Ph.D. student at Case Western Reserve University, takes place behind the scenes.

Li, who studies biomedical engineering, is part of CWRU’s Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics. Specifically, her work looks at how artificial intelligence can be used to better diagnose and treat breast cancer.

Already, Li is making some “pretty significant clinical impacts in the area of breast cancer,” said Anant Madabhushi, professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve and research health scientist at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center.

She has developed algorithms that can look at images of a certain kind of pre-malignant breast lesion

and determine which ones are likely to lead to cancer. That could help physicians decide how aggressively to treat individual patients, Madabhushi said.

The research is getting more widespread attention: An article on Li’s research was published in the journal “Breast Cancer Research” in the fall of 2019.

Li said she was always drawn to engineering, and knew she wanted to make a difference by doing work related to health care or cancer.

“That’s why I majored in biomedical engineering,” she said.

That program, as well as the university’s relationships with area hospitals and her undergraduate alma mater of Tianjin University in China, brought her to Case Western Reserve. Add in an interest in image processing, and

Sydney Martis, 26 Research manager, Team NEO ATTRACTING TALENTED WORKERS or convincing educated Northeast Ohioans to stay here will be crucial for the region in the decade ahead.

Sydney Martis — one of those who is staying — plays a key role in that effort.

Martis, manager of research at Team Northeast Ohio, gathers information on what skills employers will need for the jobs of the future and identifies what it will take to train and educate the region’s young people for those jobs.

A big part of Martis’ job is managing Team NEO’s “Aligning Opportunities” report, a comprehensive look at the region’s workforce needs. The most recent report highlighted a major concern: that the region’s population is shrinking and its workforce is 5% older than the national average. Those trends lead to an undersized pool of well-qualified workers for the region’s

employers and for any company considering a Northeast Ohio location.

Martis, though, is undaunted by the challenge.

“I’m really inspired by a lot of the work that Team NEO and other partner organizations are doing around emerging talent,” she said. “We’re exposing people younger and younger to the in-demand jobs. It’s getting people inspired so they can make thoughtful career choices.”

Martis said she is also working on several pilot programs around the region to figure out how to connect people who may have the right skills for a given job but don’t have a car to get to that job.

“Now, it’s important to think about how to connect people through transit to those job opportunities,” she said. “It’s definitely one of the more sustainable and equitable economic development strategies that I think

Patrick Mohoric, 24 Director of workforce development, Lake County Board of County Commissioners IT SOUNDS CORNY, but Patrick Mohorcic is very clear that whatever he’s doing, he wants a job where he is helping people.

“I’m always going to take a job or be in a role that I could help the most people. Public service has been a good fit for me,” said Mohoric, director of workforce development for the Lake County Board of County Commissioners. “I’m always going to be where I can help the most people, wherever that is.”

That approach to life got Mohorcic, an offensive lineman at The College of Wooster, a prestigious football award. He was one of 22 players chosen as a member of the 2017 Allstate/ American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team: athletes from major and smaller colleges chosen for the efforts they made to serve their communities. Mohorcic was cited for his work for a Wooster stu-

dent organization, Men Working For Change, which advocates for and raises awareness about ways to prevent sexual assault on campus.

Mohorcic has been in his current job since May 4. Before that, he was economic development director for the Lake County Port and Economic Development Authority.

Among his key accomplishments so far in Lake County are the creation of two programs. One, “Career Bound,” was a job and internship fair for students home for the holidays in December. It attracted more than 50 Lake County companies and 100 students.

The other program tackled the problem of connecting people from low-income neighborhoods in the region to jobs in Lake County. While the coronavirus pandemic has slowed the progress of this project, Mohorcic said the county is working

the Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics turned out to be a “perfect match,” Li said.

While her work is done on a computer, she often talks to pathologists about the type of information that might be useful to them and then works to find ways to provide it.

Li said she likes the actual work she does with image processing software, finding ways to extract different types of information from images, but she’s also motivated by what her work could help doctors accomplish in the future when it’s put in practice in a clinical setting.

“By doing this kind of research, I am actually making an impact,” she said. “Maybe in the future, my research can be transferred into clinical and make an extra impact in the patient treatments.”

Outside of work, Li said she enjoys swimming, skiing, singing and watching horror movies. — Rachel Abbey McCafferty can be successful.”

Team NEO is Martis’ first employer after graduating from Cleveland State University’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, where she earned a master’s in urban planning and development. The native of Concord in Lake County got her undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Akron.

Jacob Duritsky, Team NEO’s vice president of strategy and research, credits Martis for pulling together the data collected for the Aligning Opportunities reports and translating it into a format that can be presented to younger people so they can think about their career opportunities in Northeast Ohio.

“One of the cool things Sydney has done,” he said, “along with Junior Achievement, is gone into James Ford Rhodes High School (on Cleveland’s West Side) and done some deep dives with students about their passions and interests — things like video games — and just having the conversation in a way that tells them how those skills align with the jobs” that will be available. — Jay Miller to expand a dial-and-ride program for seniors. “We said, ‘What if we pilot this with workforce?’ ” he said.

“We have a lot of transportation deserts because our transportation systems sometimes make it tough to get people to work. Because they want to work, but they can’t get to work.”

In his less than two years at the Lake County port authority, Mohorcic did what’s called business retention and expansion calls: calling on or visiting businesses to find out what their plans were and to let them know what programs the county had that could help them.

“He was like a machine,” said Mark Rantala, who until he retired in December was executive director of the port authority. “He happened to have the right personality and he caught on quickly. He made 150 calls in his first year, which is a lot of calls.”

At the same time, Mohorcic began working toward a Master of Public Administration degree at Cleveland State University. Last fall, he also ran for city council, unsuccessfully, in Highland Heights. — Jay Miller

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Strengthening our commitment to Ohio Throughout our community, we see families, neighbors, businesses and teammates working together more than ever. To help, we added $100 million to our ongoing support to organizations making a difference — national and local nonprofits addressing critical needs here, including Greater Cleveland Food Bank and University Hospitals.

The funds will help increase medical response capacity, focus on vulnerable populations and address food insecurity.

We’re also providing $250 million in capital to Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) loan funds and CDFI- and minority-owned banks to extend assistance to more small businesses.

As your neighbors in Ohio, we are all in this together. Our thoughts are with all of you and your families.

Jeneen Marziani Ohio Market President

To see how we’re supporting our local communities, please visit bankofamerica.com/community.

Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. © 2020 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.

FOCUS | TWENTY IN THEIR 20S

Andrew Newsome, 26

Olivia Ortega, 26

D

BORN AND RAISED IN SEATTLE, Andrew Newsome said that his father’s death when he was 9 played “a huge role” in shaping the person he is today. “Losing someone at such an age really taught me the importance of following your passions and taking action, because you never know how long you may have.”

A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Newsome initially followed the same path as many of his classmates into consulting, with an eye on eventually joining a Fortune 500 company. That plan took an unexpected detour while he was working in Chicago, when he visited his girlfriend (now fiancée), who lived in Cleveland. “I was surprised by the diversity of Cleveland’s food scene, the vibrancy of Playhouse Square and the warmth of the people within the community,” he recalled.

Serendepity raised its head with a call for an interview at the Independence headquarters of Flynn Restaurant Group, the largest restaurant franchisee in the U.S., which owns and operates Applebee’s, Panera, Taco Bell and Arby’s. Impressed by chief improvement officer Ron Bellamy’s passion, Newsome signed on as his chief of staff and moved here in March 2018.

A self-described “numbers guy” whose sweet spot is the intersection of data and people, Newsome uses data to help the restaurants run more efficiently and ensure a positive work environment for all employees. His redesign of the pricing strategy contributed to substantial revenue growth across Flynn’s 460 Applebee’s locations.

Newsome’s activity outside work is informed by his mother instilling in him the idea that “we rise by lifting others.” He serves as strategy director for Cleveland Can’t Wait, helping to teach entrepreneurship skills to high school students in underserved commu-

THIS YEAR, OLIVIA ORTEGA planted a garden in front of her Gordon Square-area apartment, a consequence of her COVID-19 quarantine downtime.

“The job is really rigorous,” Ortega said of her position as manager of government advocacy for the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP). “I have had to ramp up what I do outside of the job to keep my sanity.”

Ortega, who came to Case Western Reserve University from Newark, Ohio, graduated with a degree in political science, international studies, Spanish, and a minor in public policy.

“I was always only interested in working in public service,” she said, referring to her father’s time in the military, a family tradition.

“I had the view that public service was the way to make an impact.”

After her time at CWRU, which she said exposed her to people from different backgrounds and to the city of Cleveland, Ortega worked with the International Rescue Committee, managing the Central American Minor Refugee Program, and helped more than 60 families as part of an effort to reunite Central American parents with their children.

Ortega was then invited to be part of the first Cleveland Foundation Public Service Fellow class, a program designed to match recent graduates with public-sector jobs.

“We were truly guinea pigs in this program, but it was an amazing program and now it is on its fifth or sixth year,” Ortega said.

Through that program, she was placed with Cleveland City Council to work on economic and community development, sustainability and public safety policies. Using her bilingual skills, she managed a Language Access Program to help the approximately

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nities, and as vice president of G-PAC, where one of his proudest accomplishments has been leading technology initiatives to help organize the Unified Endorsement Process, in partnership with the NAACP and FINNPAC, to vet and endorse judges based on their stances on judicial reform, implicit bias and cultural competency.

“I believe this work is extremely important in making sure elected officials are cognizant of issues affecting the black community,” Newsome said. He also moderates discussions for The Solution, a monthly forum on issues in the black community.

“Andrew Newsome is one of the most innovative, creative thinking data- and solutions-oriented young people I have ever worked with,” said Jerry Primm II, founder of The Solution and someone Newsome cites as an “incredible” mentor. “He far exceeds my expectations for a 20something-year-old and I am anxious to see who he will be in future.”— Michael von Glahn

Manager, government advocacy, Greater Cleveland Partnership

Sta

6,000 limited-English-speaking households in the city.

“Before my work with council, even though I had been in Cleveland for four years, I did not understand much about how the city works and the (fellowship) program threw me into the trenches of the public policy that affects the city,” Ortega said.

She stayed on at City Council past her fellowship and became part of the city’s Vision Zero Taskforce, a global pedestrian-safety movement.

She then accepted a position at GCP, where she works on advocacy programs such as the Cleveland Innovation Project, which aims to stimulate innovation and drive inclusive economic growth in Greater Cleveland.

“Smart, driven and thoughtful are a few words I would use to describe Olivia Ortega.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership is fortunate to have her on our team,” said Joe Roman, GCP’s president and CEO. — Kim Palmer

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16 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | June 15, 2020

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Dinola Phillips, 28

Jeffrey Pritt, 29

FOR DINOLA PHILLIPS, LAWYERING isn’t just about helping people, but becoming the advocate her friends and relatives could’ve used when they were navigating legal troubles without anyone in their corner.

When she was very young, she thought about being a painter, but it turns out she has shaky hands. At one time, she wanted to be a pro golfer — “I thought I’d be a little Tiger Woods back in the day,” she said.

It was a drive to really help other people, though, that began steering her toward the legal field as early as 8 years old.

“My vision is to just give back daily in the work that I am doing,” Phillips said.

Today, Phillips is achieving just that as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. There, in the housing practice group, she specializes in using the law to create stability for school-age children whose families are dealing with legal problems, job loss, eviction and many other flavors of hardship.

The legal aid job posting called to her as she wrapped up law school, during which she participated in a “Street Law” program that took her to juvenile detention centers to work with incarcerated minors. Many of them, she said could’ve avoided the justice system if they had just had some level of support.

“It was in working with these minors I knew I wanted to have some type of impact in their households, changing what their normal is for generations to come,” Phillips said. “That’s why, when I saw the posting for legal aid, I knew it was a perfect fit.”

Phillips has already worked a variety of cases that have helped children stay in homes, stay with parents and stay in school.

Her efforts help the city’s most vulnerable children.

“By removing barriers that prevent or lim-

JEFFREY PRITT WASN’T GOING TO WAIT to rise up through the ranks of someone else’s company. Heck, he didn’t even wait until he finished high school to start his own business with his older brother, Ryan.

Perhaps more impressive still, more than a decade later that business is still around and has grown into the Pritt Entertainment Group that the two brothers still own and run, with Ryan as president and Jeffrey as creative director. The firm has eight employees, a slew of clients, accolades that include multiple Emmy nominations, and is redeveloping its own building on Main Street in downtown Akron to facilitate future growth.

The brothers started operating out of Ryan’s bedroom in their hometown of Suffield, mostly working for sports teams on things like scoreboard animation graphics for a cadre of clients that would include the Lake Erie Monsters, Cleveland Indians and the (Las) Vegas Golden Knights — the latter team introduced with a Pritt-produced video.

“I started with the Indians when I was a sophomore in high school,” Jeffrey noted.

They still create videos, graphic design, animation and photography for sports teams, but these days the list of clients has grown and become more varied.

“It used to be 100% sports when we first started,” Pritt said. “As the years have gone on, that’s shifted. It was 50-50 and now it’s probably 60-40 or even 70-30 (sports-corporate work). It’s definitely leaning more toward corporate.”

That’s becoming evident on his firm’s website, which lists work for clients ranging from the Cleveland Cavaliers to Akron-Canton Airport and General Electric.

Last year, the Pritts bought the 120-yearold Carlton Building in Akron, through the formation of a second company, Pritt Prop-

Staff attorney, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

Co-founder and creative director, Pritt Entertainment Group

it a child from succeeding at school — housing instability, guardianship issues, unsafe living conditions at home — Dinola helps families establish a strong foundation for academic achievement and engagement in school,” said Colleen Cotter, executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

“Dinola’s dedicated, compassionate approach to her work inspires trust and confidence in her clients.”

“I do it all for my clients,” said Phillips, who also serves as the legal aid liaison for “Say Yes to Education.”

“I know that sounds really cliché,” she added, “but I’m not just doing my job. I’m there to help. Hearing from my clients, even just in terms of checking in with them during the pandemic, having them make statements like ‘I really appreciate you; no one has ever been in my corner before, no one has ever really fought for me,’ that gives me the energy on even the most stressful days to keep fighting.”

— Jeremy Nobile

erties. Their plan is to renovate the space and move in, while finding a tenant to occupy the street-level retail space.

Jeffrey keeps multiple 3D printers running both at home and in the office, and has made several custom parts for cameras and other gear that have changed how his staff works.

If it’s a surprise that someone is an executive, an entrepreneur and a developer, all at the age of 29, those who know Jeffrey saw it coming, said his former teacher and ongoing mentor Theresa Brugler.

“I’m not at all surprised. … I was his marketing teacher in high school,” Brugler said.

“He and his brother just took what they knew and made a business out of it. … They were doing work for major clients in high school.

I’ve never seen or experienced that with a student before.”

If you’re wondering, Pritt did get an “A” in marketing — all three years that he took it.

“He was definitely one to remember,” Brugler said. — Dan Shingler

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JUNE 15, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 17

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FOCUS | TWENTY IN THEIR 20S

Ashley Rader, 29

Miles Senior, 26

WHEN A HEALTH INSURANCE CLAIM is denied for an inpatient service, the time doctors spend on the phone working toward a resolution with the insurance company is time spent away from patients.

Ashley Rader, program administrator in medical operations for Cleveland Clinic, saw this issue and helped launch a novel program called Physician Advisers, a team of dedicated physicians who make those calls to insurance companies.

“They’ve been really financially successful for the Clinic, but more importantly, they help patients get their care in a more timely fashion,” Rader said.

Medical operations is the intersection between business and clinical. Rader manages the Clinic’s joint venture with Select Medical and the seven post-acute hospitals within that arrangement. She also helps coordinate intensive care unit operations and manages the eHospital program of remote ICU monitoring.

“In her role, she is a leader and innovator,” wrote Dr. Alice Kim, medical director for medical operations at the Clinic, in her nomination of Rader. “She far surpasses expectations for all things given to her.”

Rader saw a huge change in her responsibilities and daily work under COVID-19. When the pandemic emerged, she got a call around noon from executive leadership asking her to stand up a COVID-19 hotline by 4 p.m. that day. Drawing on the partnerships she had developed over four years at the Clinic, she was able to launch the hotline — with IT systems in place, phones routed and eight clinical profes-

MILES SENIOR IS AN AFICIONADO of oddities.

There’s the old transistor radio and the green rotary phone in his downtown Cleveland apartment. And the 1993 Saab 900 Turbo he found on Craigslist, in terrible condition in far northern Michigan. Senior bought that car with his sign-on bonus from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and has been lovingly restoring it since 2017.

By day, this quirky collector is a buttoned-up banker, working as a credit risk analyst at the Fed. While studying economics at Ohio’s Miami University, he interned twice with the Fed. When he graduated, the central bank snapped him up, offering him a role where he works both within the Federal Reserve system and with the financial institutions it regulates.

Senior credits his mentor, Fed vice president Douglas Banks, with cultivating his interest in the job and encouraging him to make the most of every opportunity. He’s done just that, based on a nomination submitted by Diana Starks, a vice president and the diversity, inclusion and opportunity officer for the Cleveland district.

“It is rare for an analyst who is early in their career to not only be active but also have influence in system projects outside of Cleveland’s district; Miles is the proven exception,” she wrote.

Three years in, Senior is the youngest payment system risk subject-matter expert in the country.

He’s been called upon to assist three other Federal Reserve districts and participates in a series of working groups that touch on policy and the Fed’s internal and external operations.

“I’m always getting invited to rooms and opportunities that are not typical for someone

Program administrator in medical operations, Cleveland Clinic

sionals to answer calls — in four hours.

She’s also helped outside of her direct responsibilities, including hosting an inaugural Main Campus Thanksgiving dinner, serving 15,000 employees in one day as an appreciation gathering for staff.

As an administrator, Rader noted, she can make changes that affect a lot of people and impact an entire health system — or even the health care industry.

“The coolest thing about the Clinic is nobody thinks anything is impossible,” she said. “I’ve had several big ideas that have nothing to do with what I work on that I’ve brought up, and every time, it’s been welcomed with advice on how to move forward.” — Lydia Coutré

Ja R

Credit risk analyst, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Ass

my age. … It’s encouraging and humbling, but you can’t take it lightly,” he said. “So I’m always trying to be ahead of the game and on the ball.”

The last few months, working from home due to the pandemic, have been strange. Acknowledging the office isn’t likely to reopen anytime soon, he’s upgraded his home workspace from a barstool to a desk and chair.

“It has been extremely intense. … There’s a lot of policy changes, reacting to the crisis and trying to mitigate the impact as much as possible,” he said. “But there’s such a sense of pride — not only pride, but appreciation — that I’ve gained working at the bank seeing not only how my role but my department is helping to stabilize the economy as much as we can.” — Michelle Jarboe

A S Jare skill men ents nee A Clev vise pan mill sent esta ing Th testi lead mot Broo eoco assi agen ly h he’s info bers kno grow “I beca mat age sion give let t A Lea focu opm sion gear dire with com mod T ofte prog

With rising stars like Mia Garcia, our future is brighter than ever.

Mia’s passion, commitment and devotion to her career and community demonstrate why she is one of this year’s Twenty in Their 20s.

Congratulations Mia, and all of the recipients.

FrantzWard.com 18 FW155_CrainsAdMiaGarcia_10.25x7_060920.indd | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | JUNE 15, 2020 1

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6/9/20 1:03 PM

6/11/2020 1:18:27 PM

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Jareed Robinson, 29

Assurance manager, BDO USA LLP

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A SELF-PROFESSED “math nerd,” Jareed Robinson uses the natural skills he honed beginning in elementary school to help BDO’s clients coordinate their accounting needs.

As assurance manager for BDO’s Cleveland office, Robinson supervises audits of multinational companies sporting revenues from $50 million to over $300 million, representing industries including real estate, construction, manufacturing and distribution.

The coronavirus pandemic is testing the lifelong Clevelander’s leadership capabilities. Working remotely from his home in Old Brooklyn, Robinson is hosting videoconferences where he delegates assignments and covers that day’s agenda. Though Robinson generally has a laid-back leadership style, he’s not shy about delivering more information than his team members require, since acquiring knowledge is key to their team’s growth.

“I probably overcommunicate, because I don’t want to hoard information,” Robinson said. “I encourage people to make their own decisions, which is how I learned. You give people a bit of autonomy and let them know you’re there to help.”

As a member of the Emerging Leaders Network, Robinson is also focused on the growth and development of his fellow young professionals at BDO. The program, geared toward employees under director level, provides participants with resources as well as the soft communication skills crucial in the modern office.

Tina Salminen, a partner at BDO, often consults with Robinson on programs and projects. With her

colleague’s help, Salminen recently delivered a multinational audit that included complex international transactions as well as changes brought about by COVID-19. Salminen, who also serves as Robinson’s career adviser, said her hard-working associate brought a sense of learning and fun to a difficult project.

“Jareed is 100% about personal development and is constantly challenging himself — and asking me to challenge him — to be his best self,” Salminen said in an email. “We delivered on time while maintaining a strong sense of team.

It’s my privilege to work with Jareed: He makes me want to be better every day.”

Though Robinson is not afraid to take charge, his calm confidence works as a stabilizer during times of stress and uncertainty, she added.

“He is one of the most organized individuals I know, which is critical in managing multiple audits and teams throughout the year,” Salminen said.

Attracting new talent to BDO is another means of giving back, Robinson noted. Pre-pandemic, he made recruitment trips to Cleveland State University and his alma mater, Ohio University. Robinson views his recruitment efforts as reciprocating an opportunity that took his passion for math and made it something real.

“The key is finding something you love to do,” Robinson said. “All of this teaches us that life is too short. The more things you can do to make you happy, the better off you’re going to be. I want to be a resource for people who may not know that accounting is a career for them.” — Douglas J. Guth

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JUNE 15, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 19

PM

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FOCUS | TWENTY IN THEIR 20S

Lo Smith, 26

Kayla Webb, 28

BEING A CURATORIAL ASSISTANT, according to Lo Smith, can be like being an investigative journalist. Curatorial assistants scour scholarly texts and news articles, interview artists and archivists and even research and locate historical artifacts to uncover the most engaging and impactful way to tell the story of artwork or artists.

Smith vividly recalls, for example, tiptoeing through Cleveland’s Woodland Cemetery one spooky day last October in search of Sara Lucy Bagby Johnson’s headstone. Johnson, the last person prosecuted under the Fugitive Slave Act, “was buried right here in Cleveland, which is something I did not know,” Smith said.

Getting to see their hometown in a new light has been one of the biggest blessings of Smith’s relatively new engagement at Front Exhibition Co., the organizer of Front International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. Front leaders recruited the Brown University graduate back to Cleveland from Providence, R.I., in 2019 to join the artistic team for its second edition, planned for summer 2022.

“Part of my job is also to develop the project’s artists and that is what really hooked me : the opportunity to help make other people’s art happen,” said Smith, a printmaker who prioritizes message over medium.

“I do a lot of community-based collaborative work so that means zines, books (and) workshops. I also do video work and sound work. It’s about looking at what we are trying to achieve and then doing that by any means possible.”

At Front, Smith works daily with a far-flung

KAYLA WEBB ALWAYS WANTED to be a teacher. As a child, she gave fake spelling tests to friends and hoped to one day own her very own overhead projector.

When enrolling in John Carroll to pursue her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, Webb decided to also get her MBA through the university’s five-year program.

She figured that if she ever decided she didn’t want to teach, that second degree would help.

Today, as external relations manager at crisis nursery Providence House, she calls that move one of the wisest decisions she ever made.

Webb joined Providence House as an intern and after six years now leads fundraising and communications for an organization she has admired since early in her college career.

Last year, she took on a lead role in “Giving Hope for the PHuture,” the organization’s $13 million campaign to support its expansion to Cleveland’s East Side. Through Webb’s leadership, it has brought in nearly $5 million to date, with another $5 million pending.

Due to the pandemic, Webb had to rethink the organization’s annual luncheon scheduled for April. In just a couple of days, she helped turn the event virtual and develop a new plan to promote it. Although there were ultimately fewer people attending, lower expenses meant Providence House actually netted more money than its in-person event the year before, she noted.

“Her drive, passion and love for her work comes through in everything she does,” Natalie Leek, president and CEO of Providence House, wrote in her nomination of Webb.

Curatorial assistant, Front International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art

team of curators and artists under the direction of artistic directors Tina Kukielski in New York and Prem Krishnamurthy in Berlin, according to nominator and Front Exhibition CEO Fred Bidwell.

They also maintain an active public schedule of exhibitions — including a recent showing at the Cleveland Institute of Art — panels and programming, both independently and as an ambassador for the Transformer Stationbased international art collaborative.

“Lo is a powerful representative and advocate for new voices in the art world locally and internationally that challenge traditional institutions and narratives in ways that bring new conversations and innovations to life through contemporary art,” said Bidwell. — Judy Stringer

External relations manager, Providence House

“Kayla Webb is a phenomenal employee, a consummate professional, a compassionate emerging leader in the nonprofit sector.”

Webb also manages the organization’s “PHriends” Young Professionals Group and is on the Leadership Council of Engage!Cleveland.

As Providence House expands east, Webb hopes to help create a planned giving society and an endowment through the capital campaign to ensure the organization’s stability.

She said children who want to grow up to work with kids often don’t think of options beyond teaching. “Whereas being able to do what I do now, I know that it benefits children and families in need,” Webb said. “It’s almost like the best of both worlds.” — Lydia Coutré

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CLOSE DATE: June 19 | ISSUE DATE: July 20 20 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | June 15, 2020

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THE LIST

Public Companies, Northeast Ohio Ranked by market value

THIS YEAR

LAST YEAR

1

MARKET VALUE (MILLIONS)

NET INCOME (MILLIONS) FY 2019

% CHANGE FROM 2018

REVENUE (MILLIONS) FY 2019

% CHANGE FROM 2018

TYPE OF BUSINESS

TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE(S)

COMPANY

5-1-2020 (1)

% CHANGE FROM 2019

1

Progressive Corp./PGR 6300 Wilson Mills Road, Mayfield Village 44143 440-461-5000/progressive.com

$44,588.2

-2.3%

$3,970.3

51.81%

$38,997.7

22.04

Insurance company

S. Tricia Griffith, president, CEO

2

2

Sherwin-Williams Co./SHW 101 W. Prospect Ave., Cleveland 44115 216-566-2000/sherwin.com

$43,491.0

3.7%

$1,541.3

39.02%

$17,900.8

2.09

Manufacturer of paint, coatings and related products

John G. Morikis, chairman, CEO

3

3

Eaton/ETN 1000 Eaton Blvd., Beachwood 44122 440-523-5000/eaton.com

$32,828.0

-6.6%

$2,211.0

3.08%

$21,390.0

-1.01

Manufacturer of electrical, aerospace, hydraulic and vehicle products

Craig Arnold, chairman, CEO

4

6

FirstEnergy Corp./FE 76 S. Main St., Akron 44308 800-736-3402/firstenergycorp.com

$22,125.2

-0.9%

$912.0

-32.34%

$10,844.0

-1.98

Electric utility holding company

Charles E. Jones Jr., CEO

5

5

Parker Hannifin Corp./PH 6035 Parkland Blvd., Mayfield Heights 44124 216-896-3000/parker.com

$19,649.8

-16.1%

$1,512.4

42.57%

$14,320.3

0.13

Provider of fluid power systems and electromechanical controls

Thomas L. Williams, chairman, CEO

6

4

TransDigm Group Inc./TDG 1301 E. 9th St., Suite 3000, Cleveland 44114 216-706-2960/transdigm.com

$18,761.2

-26.5%

$889.8

-7.03%

$5,223.2

37.05

Designer and producer of highly engineered aircraft components

Kevin M. Stein, president, CEO

7

8

The J.M. Smucker Co./SJM One Strawberry Lane, Orrville 44667 330-682-3000/jmsmucker.com

$13,172.5

-5.6%

$514.4

-61.57%

$7,838.0

6.54

Packaged food, coffee and pet food manufacturer

Mark T. Smucker, president, CEO

8

9

Steris/STE 5960 Heisley Road, Mentor 44060 440-354-2600/steris.com

$11,992.6

8.2%

$304.1

4.52%

$2,782.2

6.19

Provider of sterilization and procedural products/services to the health care industry

Walter M. Rosebrough Jr., president, CEO

9

7

KeyCorp/KEY 127 Public Square, Cleveland 44114 216-689-6300/key.com

$10,796.8

-39.3%

$1,717.0

-7.98%

$5,923.0

-4.13

Banking and financial services company

Christopher M. Gorman, chairman, president, CEO

10 10

Nordson Corp./NDSN 28601 Clemens Road, Westlake 44145 440-892-1580/nordson.com

$9,133.0

9.2%

$337.1

-10.67%

$2,194.2

-2.68

Industrial technology manufacturer

Sundaram Nagarajan, president, CEO

11 11

RPM International Inc./RPM 2628 Pearl Road, Medina 44258 330-273-5090/rpminc.com

$8,297.8

4.4%

$266.6

-21.08%

$5,564.6

4.56

Provider of specialty coatings, sealants and building materials

Frank C. Sullivan, chairman, president, CEO

12 12

Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc./LECO 22801 St. Clair Ave., Euclid 44117 216-481-8100/lincolnelectric.com

$4,566.3

-16.7%

$293.1

2.11%

$3,003.3

-0.84

Manufacturer of arc welding products

Christopher L. Mapes, chairman, president, CEO

13 13

TFS Financial Corp./TFSL 7007 Broadway Ave., Cleveland 44105 800-844-7333/thirdfederal.com

$3,932.8

-14.2%

$80.2

-6.05%

$295.9

-5.61

Banking and financial services company

Marc A. Stefanski, chairman, president, CEO

14 15

The Timken Co./TKR 4500 Mount Pleasant St. N.W., North Canton 44720 234-262-3000/timken.com

$2,697.1

-26.1%

$362.1

19.58%

$3,789.9

5.84

Manufacturer of engineered bearings and mechanical power transmission products

Richard G. Kyle, president, CEO

15 16

GrafTech International Ltd./EAF 982 Keynote Circle, Brooklyn Heights 44131 216-676-2000/graftech.com

$2,129.2

-36.0%

$744.6

-12.83%

$1,790.8

-5.54

Manufacturer of graphite electrodes and cathodes

David J. Rintoul, president, CEO

16 21

PolyOne Corp./POL 33587 Walker Road, Avon Lake 44012 440-930-1000/polyone.com

$2,034.5

-5.4%

$588.6

268.34%

$2,862.7

-0.64

Provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions

Robert M. Patterson, chairman, president, CEO

17 20

Applied Industrial Technologies Inc./AIT 1 Applied Plaza, Cleveland 44115 216-426-4000/applied.com

$1,991.1

-13.9%

$144.0

1.67%

$3,472.7

13

Distributor and provider of industrial parts and service

Neil A. Schrimsher, president, CEO

18 18

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc./CLF 200 Public Square, Suite 3300, Cleveland 44114 216-694-5700/clevelandcliffs.com

$1,666.2

-41.0%

$292.8

-74.04%

$1,989.9

-14.68

Iron ore mining company

C. Lourenco Goncalves, chairman, president, CEO

19 17

Cedar Fair LP/FUN One Cedar Point Drive, Sandusky 44870 419-626-0830/cedarfair.com

$1,569.5

-48.6%

$172.4

36.09%

$1,474.9

9.37

Operator of amusement and water parks

Richard A. Zimmerman, president, CEO

20 14

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co./GT 200 Innovation Way, Akron 44316 330-796-2121/goodyear.com

$1,542.7

-65.5%

($311.0)

—

$14,745.0

-4.72

Tire manufacturer

Richard J. Kramer, chairman, president, CEO

21 26

CBIZ Inc./CBZ 6050 Oak Tree Blvd. S., Suite 500, Independence 44131 216-447-9000/cbiz.com

$1,227.6

17.2%

$70.7

14.85%

$948.4

2.87

Financial, benefits and insurance services provider

Jerome P. Grisko Jr., president, CEO

22 19

Site Centers Corp./SITC 3300 Enterprise Parkway, Beachwood 44122 216-755-5500/sitecenters.com

$1,099.9

-53.7%

$100.7

-12.00%

$516.1

-25.98

Real estate investment trust

David R. Lukes, president, CEO

23 23

Materion Corp./MTRN 6070 Parkland Blvd., Mayfield Heights 44124 216-486-4200/materion.com

$1,009.2

-14.4%

$50.7

143.02%

$1,185.4

-1.85

Engineered materials supplier

Jugal K. Vijayvargiya, president, CEO

24 22

Ferro Corp./FOE 6060 Parkland Blvd., Suite 250, Mayfield Heights 44124 216-875-5600/ferro.com

$736.9

-49.8%

$6.0

-92.46%

$1,018.4

-5.9

Manufacturer of specialty performance materials

Peter T. Thomas, chairman, president, CEO

25 25

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc./HY 5875 Landerbrook Drive, Suite 300, Mayfield Heights 44124 440-449-9600/hyster-yale.com

$610.2

-45.0%

$35.8

3.17%

$3,291.8

3.55

Manufacturer of lift trucks, provider of aftermarket parts

Alfred M. Rankin Jr., chairman, president, CEO

26 NA

Ranpak Holdings Corp./PACK 7990 Auburn Road, Concord Township 44077 440-354-4445/ranpak.com

$543.4

—

($36.2)

—

$269.5

0.6

Manufacturer of in-the-box paper protective packaging systems and products

Omar M. Asali, executive chairman, CEO

27 41

Athersys Inc./ATHX 3201 Carnegie Ave., Cleveland 44115 216-431-9900/athersys.com

$481.4

108.6%

($44.6)

—

$5.6

-76.81

Biopharmaceutical company

Gil Van Bokkelen, cofounder, chairman, CEO

RESEARCHED BY CHUCK SODER: CSODER@CRAIN.COM

Get all 60 companies and historical data in Excel format. Become a Data Member: CrainsCleveland.com/data Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence (Marketintelligence.spglobal.com) and Crain's research. Net income is income attributable to ordinary shareholders.

(1) Market value date is approximate in some cases.

June 15, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 21

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6/12/2020 3:23:56 PM

LIST ANALYSIS

RETAIL

COVID-19 fallout hit small stocks the hardest

BY CHUCK SODER

Local public companies large and small saw their share prices decline significantly because of the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic — but larger companies fared much better than smaller ones, according to data from our Northeast Ohio Public Companies list.

The median company on the list saw its market value fall by 19.9% during the 12-month period ending on May 1, according to the list, which uses data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

But the median market value decrease was much lower for bigger companies: It was 6.1% for the 10 largest companies by revenue and 15% the top 20. For everyone else, it was 29.8%.

When you add up the total market value of all 60 companies on the full digital list, they were worth a combined $266 billion on or about May 1 — down about 11% from the prior year. Likewise, combined net income for the entire group fell by about 5.2% in 2019, despite the fact that the pandemic didn’t really rock the U.S. stock market until February 2020.

On the bright side, the stock rally that began after the market bottomed out on March 23 continued well past May 1. Between May 1 and the closing bell on June 11, the Russell 3000 Index climbed 6.8% — and that percentage

The four are all present locally.

Washington Prime operates Great Lakes Mall in Mentor. Kohan holds Chapel Hill Mall in Akron, undergoing a tax foreclosure proceeding, and the enclosed mall piece of Richmond Town Square. Namdar owns Midway Mall in Elyria and Severance Town Center, the big-box remake of the Cleveland Heights site of Severance Town Center mall. Starwood also owns the SouthPark Mall in Strongsville and Belden Village Mall near Canton.

Retail real estate as a group is experiencing pandemic pain exceeded only by hotels, and malls had already been showing increasing financial woes for more than a decade.

Trepp, a reporting service that follows commercial real estate lending and mortgage-backed securities, provides a window into how tough things are in the commercial property business. Trepp on June 5 reported that in May, mortgage-backed securities on commercial realty 30 days delinquent climbed to 8% from 2.2% in April.

And retail accounts for 10% of the 30-days-delinquent loans, exceeded only by the hotel group and followed by loans on office buildings and apartments.

The big difference from the Great Recession of 2008 is who has the money to be patient and work things out.

Alec Pacella, president of NAI Pleasant Valley of Medina and a frequent instructor of trade groups on commercial real estate investments, said the lenders now generally are in a stronger position than after 2008, when they had too little liquidity to do property workouts. That’s not the case this time. However, he noted re-

From Page 1

The pandemic has put lifestyle and mixed-use properties such as Pinecrest in a unique position in the suffering shopping center world. Restaurants are closing on a wholesale basis.

Some are paying no or discounted rents due to the pandemic-prodded, state-ordered shutdowns in spring, and it’s unclear how they will do under social distancing requirements after reopening. The movie theater and entertainment venues were allowed to reopen Wednesday, June 10, but whether people will return remains to be seen.

A workout with the lender is easier for Pinecrest than the malls, the source said. Old-breed malls are mostly dedicated to retail and don’t have offsetting revenue sources. With the last Sears store in Ohio set to close at Great Northern, JCPenney shedding mall stores, and apparel stores sapped by online sales, resolving mall issues will take long-term property plays where the value is found only in the ground beneath the malls for new uses.

Left pending for a future investor meeting by the Israeli bond-holders was what to do with the ailing assets, which also include Franklin Park Mall in Toledo. Investors are weighing offers to operate and acquire stakes in the portfolio, including Starwood itself. Other bidders include familiar names: Washington Prime Group of Columbus, and Kohan Retail Investment Group and Namdar Real Estate, both based in Great Neck, N.Y.

would’ve been a lot higher had the index not fallen by 6% on June 11.

Plus, roughly half of the companies on the list saw net income rise in 2019, including Progressive Corp., which for the third straight year is No. 1 on the list. The insurer saw its net income rise by 51.8% in 2019 — no small feat considering that its net income grew by more than 50% in both 2017 and 2018.

Likewise, Sherwin-Williams Co., No. 2 on the list, saw net income rise by 39% in 2019. PolyOne Corp. can claim the biggest percent increase: 268.3%. The polymer materials manufacturer jumped from No. 21 on last year’s list to No. 16 this year.

Athersys Inc. made an even bigger jump: The stem cell therapy company saw its market value more than double in the 12 months ending May 1, putting it at No. 27 on the list, up from No. 41 last year. Why? For one, Athersys’ MultiStem therapy is in clinical trials as a possible treatment for COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome.

On the flip side, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which used to regularly appear in the top 10, dropped to No. 20 from No. 14 over the past year. Its market value fell by 65.5% in the 12 months ending May 1, or 55.3% if you take it through June 11.

Chuck Soder: csoder@crain.com, (216) 771-5374, @ChuckSoder

tailer bankruptcies and store closings today are unprecedented.

“It’s too early in the game to see how bad this is going to be,” Pacella said. “Not even a small real estate investor wakes up today and says, ‘The sun is shining. It’s going to be a good day.’ And it’s worse for owners of larger properties, from Pinecrest to Crocker Park, and the malls have worsening problems for 20 years.”

The situation will resolve itself when landlords or lenders begin seeing sales transactions that assign post-COVID-19 values to properties, Pacella said. The U.S. is far from that point, he added.

Lenders seem able and willing so far to work with property owners as retail woes mount, according to Pacella.

“We really won’t know anything until we see what the retail landscape looks like during the holidays,” he said. “It could be very different than it is today. But the vacancies will be substantial and noticeable. After that, lenders and property owners will have tough decisions to make.”

Pinecrest is a joint venture of Fairmount Properties, which has an office at the property, and the family behind the DiGeronimo Cos., which owns the Independence Excavating Co. and related building firms based in Independence. The DiGeronimos have taken growing and increasingly public real estate positions over the past decade.

Starwood declined comment. Principals or executives at Pinecrest did not return calls or emails last week from Crain’s Cleveland Business.

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

July 22 | 11 a.m.

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EVENT QUESTIONS • clevents@crain.com | SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES • scott.carlson@crain.com 22 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | JUNE 15, 2020

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AKRON HIGHER EDUCATION

Consolidation leads to new era for UA’s polymer program Opinions are mixed about the move to make the internationally respected college a school BBY DAN SHINGLER

Soon, the University of Akron will no longer have a College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering. It will become a school within a new college of engineering instead, according to the university’s reorganization plans.

The university’s board of trustees on May 29 passed a plan that will consolidate its 11 colleges and schools into five to address what UA president Gary Miller said was a “$65 million to $70 million challenge” as the university faces both the COVID19 crisis and enrollment that has been decreasing for years.

Depending on who you ask, the move at the polymer college will either mark the end of the university’s vaunted international reputation in the field — a reputation that already had been diminished — or it will be little more than a change in name that cuts administrative costs while leaving the school’s polymer expertise intact.

Amy Randall is one who fears the worst. She’s the executive director of research and development for Firestone Building Products in Nashville, Tenn. She’s also a member of the polymer college’s advisory board. She earned her doctorate in polymer science and engineering at UA in 2006.

“Akron will not compete with polymers as a subset of their engineering program,” Randall said. “Those (prospective students) will go get an engineering degree where there’s a topnotch engineering program, and I would do the same thing. I would not go there to get a degree within the college of engineering because that’s not a nationally known institution.”

Randall said she supports the polymer college and made her comments because she’d like to see it retain its prominence. She said UA already has seen its reputation in polymers diminished in recent years.

That has come as UA as a whole has shrunk, but particularly, she said, because the polymer college has lost some high-profile faculty and researchers.

For example, Matthew Becker, a well-known researcher who applies polymer engineering to medical devices, left UA in 2019 and took his lab and 13 researchers to Duke University, but only after he’d been vocal for

AKRON

From Page 6

He added he viewed the ability to share support services as a “peripheral” benefit, but cutting back on the number of employees in IT and student support services in those colleges could have a budgetary impact.

Also, many of the colleges being consolidated had interim leadership; while the university may turn some of those open dean roles into director positions, those salaries are likely to be lower.

The big question mark for faculty is still whether these college consolidations will actually save money, said Linda Saliga, Faculty Senate chair and mathematics professor. It will save some administrative costs, she

The Goodyear Polymer Center on the University of Akron campus houses the polymer science program. | SHANE WYNN FOR AKRONSTOCK

more than a year about UA not supporting the polymer departments and losing other researchers.

Randall said she keeps in touch with colleagues at the college, including as sources for finding hires among its graduates, but she said that’s becoming harder to do as the school shrinks and people leave.

“What they have been fully destroying when they lose key faculty is they lose that connectivity with me — the alumni,” Randall said.

It also may be Randall’s last chance to speak up. She doesn’t think she’ll have significant input much longer, because once the polymer college is done away with, she doesn’t foresee it having a separate advisory council.

That’s part of a loss of autonomy she expects will be damaging if the college becomes a school.

“I consider myself to be a realist, definitely not a pessimist.

But I do not see how they’re going to be given the opportunity to act autonomously enough to be as Wiencek successful as they need to be,” Randall said.

Not everyone sees it that way, though.

“I disagree with her. It’s a name change, in my opinion,” said one longtime polymer science professor, who asked not to be named to stay out of university politics.

“The university needs to save money, and what they did was figure out how to get rid of some administrators. … But, reputation-wise, I don’t think this affects things too much,” he said, noting that UA built its reputation in polymer science before the college was formed in 1988.

University leaders said their intent never has been to diminish the role of polymers at UA, but that the university’s current challenging financial situation leaves them no choice but to make changes. They said

they’ll continue to support polymers, but that a budget for the new school has yet to be determined. For the most recent fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, the polymer college had a budget of $6.7 million, which included $1 million for research labs.

“Of course, (the polymer departments) have some significant stature in the scientific and research community. They certainly have a national and international reputation,” said John Wiencek, who was named provost and executive vice president at UA in April as part of efforts to increase enrollment and boost the university’s research work.

A chemical and biochemical engineer with a doctorate, Wiencek is no stranger to the value of engineering and research.

He said the reorganization plan, largely complete when he came aboard, has buy-in from faculty across the university, including among its engineering disciplines.

The cuts aren’t easy to make, he said, but they also may have benefits.

One is that as part of the new college of engineering, polymer researchers will work more closely with colleagues from other disciplines, rather than being in a silo.

acknowledged, but even the dean salaries aren’t complete writeoffs if those employees will still be on the faculty. They’ll just be lessened.

Wiencek said the budget should be finalized by the end of June.

Despite the quick turnaround, Saliga said she thought Wiencek heard and seriously considered comments from the faculty.

“It was the most inclusive that we’ve had in a long time,” Saliga said.

Take the fate of the math department. The initial proposal planned to move that to the engineering college from the arts and sciences college.

Faculty didn’t see the rationale for a change, and leadership ultimately backed down from the switch.

But not everyone agrees the process was inclusive enough, or got the outcome they wanted. For example,

John B. Nicholas, professor of computer information systems, is afraid the former College of Applied Science and Technology programs will lose some synergies by being scattered across the university. The college had been solely focused on undergraduate degrees, instead of graduate options.

Ultimately, Nicholas said he felt the process was too fast for faculty to give meaningful feedback, and he doesn’t see any benefit to the computer information systems program moving to the engineering college.

Wiencek said the idea behind the consolidations isn’t to diminish any one program, but instead to “amplify” them by having programs work more closely together. Under the new structures, faculty who have been focused on instruction may benefit

from working with faculty who have experience in getting grants to fund research, he said, and research-focused faculty may find more opportunities to work with undergraduates.

For instance, the university’s education program, which had been its own college, is now becoming a school that’s part of the larger arts and sciences college. Even though there has been collaboration in the past, Wiencek said he thinks the new structure could reduce barriers, allowing faculty in the disciplines that educators will be teaching to work more closely with those future teachers.

That kind of collaboration, as faculty and students interact, could lead to the creation of new interdisciplinary programs. The goal at the mo-

Randall

Dhinojwala

“That’s exactly part of the intention,” Wiencek said.

The current interim dean of the polymer college, Ali Dhinojwala, agreed, saying he thinks that undergraduates will gain access to the polymer faculty, which now works almost exclusively with masters and doctoral students.

“The positive things of being part of a bigger engineering program are that we can leverage some of our research capabilities across more disciplines more effectively. We can participate in undergraduate programs … so there will be more opportunities for merging expertise in polymers with other disciplines,” Dhinojwala said.

Wiencek said he’s also not ignoring the financial benefit of UA’s reputation in polymer science, which includes attracting international students.

“They are paying the full freight, and that’s a good revenue source.

That’s something that often gets overlooked in terms of what polymer science and polymer engineering is doing” for the university, Wiencek said.

At least some of the polymer college’s backers accept that the school is feeling the impact of tough choices the university has to make.

Akron-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., a longtime supporter of the university and a company that recruits from the college, is watching the situation and supports the plans.

“The University of Akron’s engineering and polymer science programs are important to Goodyear’s ability to recruit outstanding local talent, and we are proud, longtime supporters of these and many other university programs,” Goodyear chief communications officer Laura Duda said in an email.

“These are unprecedented times, and we support UA leadership as they make the difficult choices needed to ensure the university’s continued success. We are confident that polymer science will continue to be a priority,” she added.

Randall, however, remains concerned. The polymer college already has lost some critical mass and seen its reputation diminished, she said.

“I don’t feel hopeful they’re even going to keep their current reputation, let alone rebuild it,” she said of the reorganization plans.

Dan Shingler: dshingler@crain.com, (216) 771-5290, @DanShingler ment is growth of academic programs. While there could be some program mergers, Wiencek said, there aren’t plans for large cuts.

Saliga isn’t sold on the idea that a reorganization was necessary for greater collaboration, but said she can see how consolidating some units under the same chair could lead to greater efficiencies in course offerings, making it easier to see where efforts are being duplicated.

As for whether changing a program from a standalone college to a school within a larger structure will hurt that program’s reputation, only time will tell. Saliga said how the university markets those programs going forward will make a big difference.

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

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hardt Jr., the CEO of CrossCountry Mortgage Inc., invested in an opportunity fund tied to his company’s intended headquarters site at the eastern edge of downtown Cleveland, in the Superior Arts District.

CrossCountry, based in Brecksville, is plotting a move into an empty industrial building at Superior Avenue and East 22nd Street. The project and nearby properties are candidates for competitive state tax credits for historic preservation scheduled to be awarded this summer.

At East 12th Street and St. Clair Avenue, developer Greg Geis used the federal program and state incentive to make the numbers work on a self-funded condominium project. In that case, construction is underway, though the uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic recently prompted Geis to drop his plans for for-sale housing in favor of apartments.

“The federal program combined with the Ohio program actually made this project viable,” said Joe Schapel, chief financial officer for the Streetsboro-based Geis Cos. Ray Fogg Corporate Properties sold a building in Michigan and invested the gains in two projects at Euclid’s Bluestone Business Park. Now, a 75,000-square-foot speculative industrial building is awaiting tenants, and Consolidated Precision Products Corp. is setting up shop in a new manufacturing facility that’s expected to support more than 100 jobs.

Without Opportunity Zones, it’s unlikely that Fogg would have tackled both projects at the same time, said Ray Fogg Jr., the company’s president. The federal program ensured that Fogg had enough up-front cash to proceed, and the state tax credits freed up additional funds.

“That’s true for our two projects, and it’s true for whatever my next project will be,” he said, “because I haven’t had to use the cash that is dear to us, that we need for the equity

Investors taking advantage of Ohio’s lvvdd Shaker Bprogram Opportunity Zone tax credit are putting money into apartments, mixed-use projects, industrial buildings and other developments in Northeast Ohio. This map shows real Kiinnswhose estate projects man R investors have d been approved for the credits, based on data from the Ohio Development Services Agency Ave reporting by Unionand Crain’s. It omits projects where investor applications are still under review.

in the capital stack. I haven’t had to use as much of that to pay taxes.”

If Opportunity Zones haven’t necessarily driven developers into new neighborhoods, the program has helped them to build bigger or more complex projects, or to add more amenities.

In Columbus, which appears to be garnering more interest from far-flung investors than Cleveland, Kaufman Development credits the tax savings with helping to line up backers for a forthcoming project that will include 180,000 square feet of speculative offices and 150 beds of co-living housing, where tenants rent private bedrooms and share kitchens and living rooms.

Absent Opportunity Zones, it’s unlikely that Kaufman would be incorporating either use into its project, the second phase of a development called Gravity west of downtown, said Frank Sasso, the company’s president. The tax savings from the federal and state programs also enabled Kaufman to spend more money on courtyards and public art, he added.

“We had several out-of-state investors who were considering opportunities in their home states and stacking those up against our project in Ohio,” Sasso said. “And there’s no question that the state tax credit was one factor that they weighed in their decision-making.”

Development experts in Cleveland said they would have liked to see more out-of-state, institutional money flowing into local deals. They said it’s too early to tell whether, and how, Opportunity Zone projects will spread beyond the city’s busier neighborhoods.

And it’s unclear how the pandemic, and the resulting recession, will impact investors’ appetite for the program. Local attorneys said some large projects have been sidelined by the crisis, which also slowed follow-up talks between tax credit applicants and the state. The IRS recently extended a key deadline for investors to roll over their capital

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In Cuyahoga County, most of the early projects are in downtown Cleveland, Ohio City, Tremont and University Circle — growing neighborhoods where development is humming. The investors are largely local, with little indication that coastal money is flowing into the region.

Many of the real estate deals have been on the drawing board for years.

The Opportunity Zone program, designed to spur growth in poor neighborhoods, has come under fire nationally for fueling investments in high-end housing and projects already in the pipeline.

In Northeast Ohio, the first crop of projects does include luxury apartments, but it also spans low-income rentals in Cleveland’s Campus District and a few developments that list lower-cost “workforce housing” as a component. The eligible areas for investment, distressed census tracts picked by state officials, include all of downtown Cleveland, swaths of Akron and pockets of neighborhoods and suburbia in between.

Developers and consultants say it’s not surprising that the initial projects are happening in places where investment already was underway. They point out that it can take years to put together a real estate deal. Plus, the federal program offered the greatest potential tax savings to investors in projects that were ready to go, since some of the benefits will end in 2026.

“There were already deals that were in some state of pendency that were able to take advantage of the program,” said Mike Sikora, a Cleveland lawyer who specializes in real estate. “But even so, some of those deals were able to move faster. Now, we will see deals near those early stage projects or … brand new deals that are being initiated in part because of those laws. And we are working on some of those.”

The federal program lets investors defer paying taxes on gains for up to seven years by putting their profits from selling assets like stock or buildings into opportunity funds. The funds then invest the money in real estate or businesses in Opportunity Zones. The greatest savings will go to long-term investors, who by keeping their cash in the funds for a decade or longer can avoid taxes on some of the original gains and eliminate taxes on new gains from the projects.

Last year, Ohio became one of the first states to establish a tax credit as an added lure for investors considering projects here. The individual income tax credit is equal to 10% of the investor’s contribution to a project.

Investors can claim the credits themselves or sell them to another taxpayer with liabilities to offset.

The state program is capped at $50 million in credits during the first twoyear cycle, with a limit of $1 million for any single taxpayer.

The Ohio Development Services Agency expects to approve $26.5 million worth of credits this year. The incentives are based on investments into funds that took place last year, but that doesn’t mean the actual projects all have moved forward.

For instance, local investors received $505,000 in credits for backing plans for a mixed-use makeover of the former Union Trust Building in downtown Cleveland. The Millennia Cos. has been trying to recast the property, at 925 Euclid Ave., as a project called The Centennial since 2018.

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gains, giving individuals and funds more time to make decisions.

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Trail in Tremont, more than 20 projects were publicly seeking Opportunity Zone investors on a matchmaking website of sorts. They ranged from startup companies to an 82-acre retirement “resort” in Euclid to shippingcontainer housing in Cleveland’s St. Clair-Superior neighborhood.

“We’re really hoping that regular people in the community can get projects developed,” said Vince Adamus, vice president of real estate and business growth services for the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which launched the OpportunityCLE website last year.

Based on state records, that’s not happening yet.

The list of funders and developers is populated by familiar players, ranging from tech executive Charlie Lougheed to Geis and Millennia.

That’s the case, as well, for a few investors still awaiting tax credit approval, such as real estate broker Terry Coyne, with a fund investing in an Amazon facility in Bedford Heights.

Even the smallest of the local projects has a notable name attached: Mitchell Schneider of First Interstate Properties Ltd. of Lyndhurst. His entry into Opportunity Zone development is a coffee shop: a Starbucks, with a drive-thru, set to occupy an outlet in front of Walmart at the Steelyard Commons shopping center in Cleveland’s industrial valley.

Schneider said there’s chatter about larger development deals that would never materialize without the federal program and the state’s assist.

But he wouldn’t drop any hints.

“I’ve heard some talk about potential projects that would really meet the policy objectives of the program,” he said. “It would certainly be good to see both the federal program and the state program drive more development to economically distressed areas. And I have some hope that it will happen.”

Michelle Jarboe: michelle.jarboe@ crain.com, (216) 771-5437, @mjarboe

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JUNE 15, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 25

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PPP

The PPP Flexibility Act signed by President Donald Trump on June 5 does, as its name suggests, provide additional leeway for borrowers in using the funds and having them forgiven as much as possible, addressing some of the concerns that have arisen.

ticular was needed for employers who haven’t been able to work in recent weeks, such as Luecke’s clients providing elective surgeries and dental work, which were only permitted to reopen May 1.

“This is giving people the ability to

June 30 is still the last day for a PPP loan to be approved.

There are also new exceptions From Page 1 built in to allow for loan forgiveness even if an employer doesn’t fully reSome of Luecke’s clients received store their workforce to pre-pandemfunding weeks ago, but have sat on it ic levels because of issues such as instead of spending it because of employees refusthose concerns, which is the oppoing to come back site of the PPP’s purpose.

“THIS IS GIVING PEOPLE THE ABILITY TO USE THE MONEY to work or chal“Each time (the SBA and Treasury) come out with something new, it crelenges with finding WHEN THEY NEED IT TO REOPEN THEIR BUSINESSES, qualified staffers. ates a bunch of new questions,” said RATHER THAN PAY PEOPLE TO SIT AT HOME. MANY There are still Luecke, whose department helps plenty of unansmall medical providers comply with PEOPLE WERE ABOUT TO HIT THE END OF THEIR EIGHTPPP requirements. “The joke is now swered questions WEEK PERIOD AND DIDN’T KNOW HOW THEY’D SPEND we have to wait to hear more guidfor which advisers ance from them to understand what like Luecke are THE MONEY. NOW, THEY HAVE THE TIME TO DO THAT.” they just rolled out.” awaiting guidance.

Of top importance SBA Great Lakes regional adminis- ——Fred Luecke, senior managing director for CBIZ is a revised loan trator Rob Scott has acknowledged that with the PPP, “We are building Among its key features is an option use the money when they need it to re- forgiveness application first released this airplane as we fly it,” and that’s to extend the original eight-week open their businesses, rather than pay May 15. There are also uncertainties timeframe for spending the money to people to sit at home,” he said, noting about how someone fills out that forbound to result in some issues.

But questions have been more prev- 24 weeks — or through Dec. 31 of this there are some employers who have a giveness application. alent than answers the last couple of year — a reduction of the mandate to philosophical issue with that. “Many As an example, Luecke described a spend 75% of the loan on payroll people were about to hit the end of scenario in which an employer meets months for lenders and borrowers.

“I give them credit for coming out costs to 60% and the ability to pay off their eight-week period and didn’t its level for restoring its number of with all this so quickly,” Luecke said, any unforgiven loan portions over know how they’d spend the money. full-time-equivalent employees in 15 Now, they have the time to do that. weeks instead of 24: Can they submit “but it would’ve been nice to know all the next five years instead of two.

The extension for spending in par- That eight-week period was too short.” a forgiveness application or do they the rules at the beginning of the game.” have to continue to monitor staff levels through the end of the year?

What if that employer ends up reAdvertising Section ducing staff levels again before Dec. 31? How might that affect their loan forgiveness? And of all those exceptions for employers unable to regrow staff to required levels, how To place your listing, visit www.crainscleveland.com/people-on-the-move or, for more will that be integrated into forgiveinformation, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com ness applications?

Those are just a few of Luecke’s concerns, some of which are expectHEALTH CARE INSURANCE NONPROFITS ed to be addressed via additional guidance in the coming days and weeks.

Oswald Companies Council for Economic OpporCleveland Cord Blood Center In Ohio, demand for PPP loans has tunities in Greater Cleveland We are pleased to Jonathan Kenyon, tapered off quite a bit, which is a sign Derek Cluse will serve demand has effectively been met, announce the Ph.D., has joined the as the Chief Financial said James Thurston, spokesman for appointment of Cleveland Cord Blood the Ohio Bankers League.

Officer and will Jennifer Varanese to Center to lead Through June 6, more than 4.5 miloversee the Finance Sales Leader of our research on the lion PPP loans were issued, repredepartment at Global Accounts application of senting a total of $511 billion. Nearly Kenyon CEOGC. His focus will Practice. Varanese brings more umbilical cord blood 17% ($86 billion) of that has been lent be on modernizing the financial than 20 years of business cells to address diabetic out in the SBA’s six-state Great Lakes systems and aligning the Finance development and executive retinopathy. Dr. Kenyon was a region, with about 3.5% of all money department with organizationleadership experience in the Postdoctoral Scholar and Fellow ($18.1 billion) disbursed in Ohio. wide strategies and goals. He insurance industry, specializing in at Case Western Reserve The PPPFA addresses a lot of the has more than 20 years of flexibility sought by lenders, many of operational growth and University. He received his Ph.D. experience in financial leadership whom are geared toward helping efficiency, talent acquisition and from the University’s Department their borrowers anyway. in the education field most retention, and innovation and of Pathology.

The extension of the period to recently at CMSD - and in both marketing strategies. Varanese Barbara Drobney, Director of qualify for forgiveness through the the public and private sectors. earned a Bachelor of Science Finance for LifeBanc, is named to end of the year means banks will He holds a B.A. from Southern degree in Finance from Franklin board of directors. hold those loans on their balance University and A & M College University.

Drobney will focus on sheets longer, an upside of which is and is a Certified Public the organization’s collecting a little more from the interAccountant. development of est rates, which are 5% for loans benext-generation cord LAW low $350,000, 3% for those between $350,000 and $2 million, and 1% for blood transplantation loans of $2 million and more.

Drobney and cell therapy.

Frantz Ward LLP Something bankers continue to Cleveland Cord push Congress for is a streamlined Alanna C. Guy joins Blood Center is a public cord loan forgiveness application for loans Frantz Ward as an blood bank for the collection, less than $350,000, something that associate in the processing, storage and would benefit lenders and borrowers Business Law Practice distribution of cord blood stem alike. The current application is 11 Group. She represents cell units for transplantation and pages and too onerous for small busiclients on a variety of research. nesses and their lenders. That poses business law matters. Alanna’s real challenges, Thurston said. experience includes representing “It’s very long, very time- and laclients in mergers and bor-intensive,” he said. “We just think acquisitions, private equity and that is kind of the opposite of what Preserve your career change they were going for with this. They venture financing transactions, for years to come. were looking to help these guys, not and corporate loan transactions. add to their burdens.”

She has advised clients on fund Thurston also said lenders have formation and dissolution Plaques • Crystal keepsakes been frustrated by not receiving fees alternatives. She earned her J.D., Frames • Other Promotional Items on those loans, which are supposed summa cum laude, from to be paid out by the SBA five days afCleveland-Marshall College of ter funding a loan.

Law and her B.A. from Centre Bankers themselves seem reticent Laura Picariello College. to complain about that publicly for Reprints Sales Manager fear of retaliation. lpicariello@crain.com Andrea Roebker, a regional (732) 723-0569 spokesperson for the SBA, said the agency is not aware of any delays in

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

C O N TA C T

NEW GIG?

What’s different about the PPP Flexibility Act Here are some of the changes made to the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act: ``Extends the PPP loan forgiveness period to include costs incurred over 24 weeks after a loan is issued or through Dec. 31, 2020, whichever comes first. Businesses that received a loan before the measure is enacted could keep the current eight-week period. ``Extends to Dec. 31 from June 30 a period during which loans can be forgiven if businesses restore staffing or salary levels that were previously reduced.

The provision would apply to worker and wage reductions made from Feb. 15 through 30 days after enactment of the CARES Act, which was signed into law on March 27. ``Maintains forgiveness amounts for companies that document their inability to rehire workers employed as of Feb. 15, and their inability to find similarly qualified workers by the end of the year. Under the modified measure, companies would be covered separately if they show that they could not resume commerce levels from before Feb. 15 because they were following federal requirements for sanitization or social distancing. ``Extends the deadline to apply for a PPP loan to Dec. 31 from June 30. ``Requires at least 60% of forgiven loan amounts to come from payroll expenses instead of 75%. ``Repeals a provision from the CARES Act that barred companies with forgiven PPP loans from deferring their payroll tax payments. ``Allows borrowers to defer principal and interest payments on PPP loans until the SBA compensates lenders for any forgiven amounts, instead of the current six-month deferral period. Borrowers that do not apply for forgiveness would be given at least 10 months after the program expires to start making payments. ``Establishes a minimum loan maturity period of five years following an application for loan forgiveness, instead of the current two-year deadline set by the SBA. That provision would apply to PPP loans issued after the measure is enacted, though borrowers and lenders could agree to extend current loans.

— Jeremy Nobile SOURCE: OHIO BANKERS LEAGUE

disbursement of fees.

However, Thurston asserted it’s a real issue among OBL members.

“We are talking more than a handful of banks here (not getting paid),” he said. “In fact, the converse is true. Only a handful of banks have actually received the fees in that five-day window so far.”

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

26 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | June 15, 2020

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND LOOK BACK | ARTS

The show must go on at Cuyahoga Arts & Culture Cleveland is home to many landmarks in the arts: Cleveland Play House, the longest-running professional theater in the U.S.; Karamu House, the oldest African American theater in the country; Cleveland Museum of Art, widely regarded as one of the nation’s top five art museums; the globally renowned Cleveland Orchestra; the list goes on.

For many years, the gaping hole in the landscape for a region with such a rich arts history was that there was no source of public arts funding to nurture and preserve its wonderfully diverse range of cultural offerings. That changed in 2006, with the founding of Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC), which now invests nearly $12 million annually in local arts groups. — Michael von Glahn

``THE HISTORY

``IN THEIR OWN WORDS

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a great deal of Cleveland’s corporate and civic money was being redirected to building new sports venues and lakefront attractions, leaving many local arts While home to organizations gasping long-standing for funding. Mergers institutions and acquisitions left such as the the city with fewer Cleveland corporate headquar- Museum of ters, meaning fewer Art, Cleveland sources of charitable had no public giving. Plus, federal arts funding money had been until Cuyahoga shrinking for a decade Arts & Culture under conservative was created culture hawks’ at- by taxpayers tempts to dismantle in 2006. | FILE the National Endow- PHOTO ment for the Arts by a death of a thousand budget cuts. Foundations alone could not support the entire arts community.

Enter Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, created by county residents in 2006 when they approved a 30-cent-apack tax on cigarettes to support arts and culture in the community.

CAC has become one of the largest local public funders for arts and culture in the U.S., allocating money to hundreds of organizations in Cuyahoga County every year and helping to connect millions of residents and visitors to cultural experiences. Since 2007, CAC has invested more than $193 million in more than 420 organizations, large and small, from a youth poetry slam to $1.2 millon in unrestricted general operating support for Playhouse Square to provide outreach opportunities to the community.

In November 2015, Cuyahoga County The Urgent voters overwhelm- Art Fund at ingly approved re- SPACES is one newal of the cigarette of many tax as CAC’s revenue recipients of source through Janu- CAC grants. ary 2027. | FILE PHOTO

“For a community which has all the things Cleveland has, what’s missing? And the lack of public funding stood out.”

——Steven Minter, then-executive director and president of the Cleveland Foundation, in a 1998 Cleveland Magazine article

“This was a really smart solution for a community that didn’t have any public investment in the arts at all.”

——Karen Gahl-Mills, then CAC’s executive director, to Crain’s in 2017

``WHY IT MATTERS TODAY In its 2019 Report to the Community, CAC reported that its grantees served more than 7 million patrons that year, just over half of them at no-cost events.

The irony in that is that as residents act more responsibly for their health, dropping smoking rates, the cigarette tax brings in fewer dollars to support the arts for them to enjoy.

The tax, which supplied $19.54 million in 2008, only brought in $13.2 million in 2019, a steady decline over the years.

That has even more impact now, as arts and cultural organizations across Northeast Ohio have been shuttered for months by state or-

ders that closed nonessential businesses and advised Ohioans to shelter at home. Even as other businesses begin to reopen, it’s uncertain how or when many arts groups may be able to open their doors to audiences again, how many patrons will return in the new era of face masks, and how large enough audiences can be accommodated to turn a profit while observing social distancing.

In mid-April, CAC’s board voted to accelerate payment of $5.1 million in operating support grants to 65 arts and culture organizations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, the state, cities, foundations, private donors’ investment portfolios and other funding sources for the arts have all taken a massive financial hit from the shutdown-induced recession, leaving future funding in doubt for at least the short term and possibly for years.

That leaves the CAC as one of the last sources standing amid the turmoil, watching as its sin tax source continues to shrink.

“The arts and culture are critical to our success here in Northeast Ohio. They’re attractions for both tourists and residents. It’s very important to figure out how to sustain them.”

——Armond Budish, Cuyahoga County executive, in a 2019 Plain Dealer article on CAC

“Arts and culture is critically important today, and we continue to invest nearly $12 million in more than 250 nonprofits this year. CAC funding is supporting millions of arts and cultural experiences each year — including amazing programs and virtual events during the current pandemic. We look forward to working with the community and our arts and cultural leaders to identify additional funding sources to sustain and grow our sector in the future.”

——Jill M. Paulsen, CAC executive director

THE WEEK ON THE GO: GOJO Industries, the Akron-based maker of Purell hand sanitizer and soaps, is stretching its footprint into Cuyahoga County as part of an expansion spurred by demand for hygiene products. The company expects to add more than 200 jobs over the next 18 months between a planned production facility in Maple Heights and a distribution center in Navarre, in Stark County.

GOJO also is revamping production lines at its Wooster manufacturing plant.

SCALING BACK: Signet Jewelers Ltd. of Akron will permanently close 380 stores by the end of its fiscal year. Signet temporarily shuttered its North American stores, which operate under brands such as Jared, Kay Jewelers and Zales, during

GOJO Industries, based in Akron, is expanding its footprint into Cuyahoga County with plans for a production facility in Maple Heights. The family-owned business has seen an “exponential increase” in demand for hand sanitizer and other products due to the pandemic. | GOJO INDUSTRIES

the height of the pandemic. It will not reopen at least 150 stores in North America and 80 in the United Kingdom. Signet will close at least an additional 150 stores by

the end of the fiscal year as it emphasizes online sales.

BACK TO BUSINESS: Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will resume construction of its

$700 million hot-briquetted iron (HBI) plant in Toledo and is “accelerating the restart” of its Tilden mine in Michigan. Construction of the HBI plant was temporarily shut down in March. Cliffs said it has “begun the process of remobilizing the workforce to complete the project,” which it expects to complete in the fourth quarter. Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said product demand “has recovered dramatically over the past month.”

NEW CHAPTER: Garfield Heights-based OverDrive Inc., the most prominent digital reading platform for libraries and schools, has a new owner. Giant private equity firm KKR completed the acquisition of OverDrive from the U.S. subsidiary of Rakuten Inc. Terms weren’t disclosed.

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