Crain's Cleveland Business, October 02, 2023

Akron retailers nd new ways to survive, thrive

City’s downtown businesses have suffered through construction, pandemic lockdowns

By Dan Shingler

ey might be bruised and battered in some cases, but the restaurants, clubs, bars and retail stores in downtown Akron have mostly held fast the past few years. In some cases, they’re even thriving, thanks to grit, tenacity and no small amount of innovation.

But it’s not easy, and while they await the completion of current projects they believe will bring better days, they don’t sugarcoat the challenges they’ve faced recently and still confront today.

“Outside today, for more than an hour there was no one walking down the street,” said Renee Woods-Baylor, better known

Concierge medicine eases access to care

The

membership-based

By Paige Bennett

For Dr. Alexa Fi ck, the traditional route for physicians interested in women’s health seemed too limited. She saw a gap between women’s reproductive care and the care they receive in other aspects of their lives.

model offers personalized attention — for a price

at’s why she decided to use the concierge model when she established her own practice last month.

“ e traditional route of going and having a job as a physician in one of these larger systems is basically that you’re an employee and you have to meet their numbers, meaning you have to

see 20-, 30-plus patients a day,” Fi ck said. “But when these patients are already falling through the cracks, getting seven minutes, 15 minutes, whatever that small amount of time is, is really limiting my ability to understand them and to help them.”

See MEDICINE on Page 15

downtown as the Tea Lady for the eponymous shop she runs in the Chemstress Building on Main Street.

On many days, you’ll nd Woods-Baylor outside her shop, with a small cart displaying some of her ne teas and other wares on the sidewalk, hoping to meet new customers. She said it’s been disheartening to do that and not have more people passing by.

“It’s heartbreaking to me as a business owner,” she said. “Part of my projections were based on people walking by and discovering us — and that’s happened, but there’s just not enough people every single day.”

See RETAILERS on Page 17

Bedrock’s riverfront plan moves forward

Mayor, landowner can sign deal for partnership on the proposed $3.5 billion redevelopment

By Michelle Jarboe

e city of Cleveland can forge ahead on a master development deal with Bedrock, the Detroit-based landowner that plans to remake roughly 35 acres along the Cuyahoga River.

Cleveland’s City Council signed o late Monday, Sept. 25, on legislation that advances an ambitious plan to awaken a barren stretch of downtown’s waterfront.

Now Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration and Bedrock, the real estate arm of Dan Gilbert’s

Rock family of companies, can ink an agreement that outlines the broad strokes of a complicated public-private partnership. at master development agreement doesn’t put any taxpayer money on the table. But it describes the city’s plan to lean heavily on tax-increment nancing, or TIF, to fund part of the public infrastructure improvements for Bedrock’s long-term project. In a new-to-Cleveland approach, the Bibb administration

See BEDROCK on Page 16

HOPE FOR HALLUCINOGENS

Survey nds growing agreement that psychedelics show promise in treating psychiatric disorders. PAGE 8

Dr. Alexa Fif ck with a

Renee Woods-Baylor

Another big name moving to 200 Public Square

By Stan Bullard

Add the Grant ornton LLP Cleveland o ce to the ranks of companies committing to remain downtown, though in a di erent skyscraper and a smaller o ce.

e accounting and advisory rm in an email said it plans to move its o ce from One Cleveland Center (1375 E. Ninth St) to the 10th oor of 200 Public Square on Monday, Oct. 2.

e outcome is mixed for the ofce market, however, as Grant ornton will move its 100 professionals to a space that’s only 8,979 square feet. at is a big cut from the 19,200 square feet the rm occupied at One Cleveland Center, the o ce tower locals call “ e Silver Chisel.”

An email attributed to John Barnes, the rm’s Cleveland market managing partner, stated, “Our new o ce design and footprint reect what the pandemic has taught us about the future of the workplace. at work should be adaptable, and o ce spaces should allow for meaningful collaboration.”

e o ce features several exible spaces and amenities, which were not described, that re ect a “work from where you are mindset.” It also incorporates what the rm has learned in other cities where Grant ornton has a presence, including Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina.

e email stated that the other o ces with similar designs “are well utilized, especially for the kinds of things that people cannot do when working remotely — no-

tably creating, collaborating and celebrating when it matters most.”

e rm said it wanted to be in a central location in the business district and close to walkable activities and amenities.

e lease continues 200 Public Square’s run in adding tenants from other parts of downtown the past few years. Among the shifts to 200 Public Square: the Vorys law rm, from North Point Tower on Lakeside Avenue, and, more recently, the Reminger law rm from Landmark O ce Towers on Prospect Avenue.

However, 200 Public Square lost the Benesch law rm, a rare case of a professional service rm taking bigger o ces in town. Benesch just moved nearby to Key Tower after outgrowing almost 138,000 square feet at 200 Public Square, according to CoStar Group, which puts 200 Public Square’s vacancy at 34%.

However, Grant ornton may get a new landlord, if CBRE Group nds and concludes a deal with a new owner. e current DRA Advisors-led ownership listed the building for sale in early September.

Bragging rights for the deal belong to the Colliers Cleveland ofce, which handles 200 Public Square o ce leasing. Agents Bill Saltzman of Cushman & Wakeeld Cresco in Independence and Dan Fisk of Cushman & Wake eld Chicago represented Grant ornton.

Brian Hurtuk, managing director at Colliers Cleveland, wrote in a text, “Grant ornton will be a great addition to our roster of quality tenants.”

EY Tower foreclosure auction postponed again

Move signals ongoing talks between Wolstein family and a lender

By Michelle Jarboe

e fate of the Ernst & Young Tower at the Flats East Bank project still hangs in limbo.

An auction to determine control of the 18-story o ce building has been delayed again, in a sign of ongoing talks between the Wolstein family and a lender on the property. Bidding is now scheduled for Oct. 20, said Brett Rosenberg, a New York-based senior managing director at JLL, the brokerage handling the sale. She declined to discuss the reason for the postponement.

e auction previously was set for ursday, Sept. 28.

In the wake of developer Scott Wolstein’s death, the high-pro le downtown Cleveland property is at risk of undergoing a Uniform Commercial Code foreclosure. Its plight stems from troubled debt. But the collateral headed for the auction block isn’t the real estate. Instead, it’s the ownership interests in the limited liability company that owns the tower.

e lender seeking to foreclose is Axonic Capital LLC, which has $25 million at stake. e auction originally was slated for early September on the steps of a New York City courthouse.

It has been adjourned twice, though, amid behind-the-scenes negotiations.

An attorney for New Yorkbased Axonic did not respond to an inquiry about the situation.

rough a lawyer, a representative for the Wolstein family o ce declined to comment.

Wolstein’s nonagenarian

mother, Iris, and her deputies at Heritage Development Co. in Moreland Hills are handling the resolution talks. And, it seems, they’re not willing to give up yet on a key anchor for the Flats East Bank, Wolstein’s un nished riverfront legacy project.

e tower, which opened in 2013, is struggling in a rocky ofce market. Marquee tenant Ernst & Young, or EY, is leaving for another downtown address.

e professional services rm’s 73,000-square-foot lease ends in November, according to public records.

Other tenants with looming lease expirations are weighing their options. And the lack of clarity about the building’s future is making it harder to land new occupants, according to court lings. Real estate brokerage CBRE is marketing more than 106,000 square feet for lease at the roughly 480,000-square-foot building, at 950 Main Ave.

A handful of downtown o ce buildings are in distress as higher interest rates, reluctant lenders and shrinking tenants make it harder to re nance or repay debt.

e situation at the EY Tower is di erent, though. Lenders on the building view Wolstein’s death as a triggering event, the spark for a cascade of default notices and calls for repayment.

He died in May 2022, at age 69, after a short battle with aggressive cancer. Wolstein, the former CEO of Developers Diversi ed Realty Corp. and Starwood Retail Partners, left behind a complicated estate and personal loan guarantees that he could no longer satisfy.

Axonic is a mezzanine, or secondary, lender on the tower. e building also carries a $75 mil-

lion rst mortgage. In a more typical foreclosure, initiated by a rst-mortgage lender, Axonic would not get repaid – or would get only part of what it’s owed, particularly in a market where ofce-building values have plunged.

Loan documents give Axonic the ability to protect itself by foreclosing on the ownership interests in the company that owns the building and stepping into the landlord’s shoes.

If the auction happens, Axonic could bid part or all of what it’s owed. e lender would then be responsible for stewarding the property and making payments on the rst mortgage. at’s what happened in January at the nearby Flats at East Bank apartments, a 240-unit residential-and-retail complex that Axonic now controls.

It’s also possible that another bidder will step up for the o ce tower. Or the sale could get canceled entirely if the lender and Iris Wolstein’s team can nd a resolution.

Court records show that Axonic also is pursuing full repayment of the $25 million from Iris Wolstein under a loan guarantee. She and her son both committed to taking responsibility for debt on the tower if the deal went bad. e lawsuit over the guarantee is pending in New York Supreme Court, a trial court. In early September, Axonic and Iris Wolstein’s attorneys agreed to delay brie ng on the lender’s motion for summary judgment. ey set a series of deadlines between Oct. 10 and Oct. 27.

“ ese dates are nal,” the judge noted in approving the schedule. “ ere will be no further extensions.”

Accounting and advisory rm Grant Thornton is among the blue-chip tenants to sign an of ce lease and move in downtown Cleveland. The rm will move to 200 Public Square. | COSTAR GROUP

The fate of the Ernst & Young Tower at the Flats East Bank project is still up in the air. A Uniform Commercial Code foreclosure auction involving the downtown Cleveland property has been delayed until Oct. 20. | COSTAR GROUP

Millennia Cos. cuts staff, plans to shed 33 apartment complexes

The Cleveland-based affordable housing giant pointed to a storm of causes, from the pandemic to surging crime, skyrocketing insurance premiums and labor shortages. The layoffs were the rst in its history.

e Millennia Cos., the Cleveland-based a ordable-housing giant, eliminated 30 jobs last week and plans to shed 33 properties.

e privately held business made the cuts to its housing management and development divisions on Tuesday, Sept. 26. Executives attributed the pullback to a storm of causes, from the lingering e ects of the pandemic to surging crime, skyrocketing insurance premiums and labor shortages that have made it di cult to sta , rehabilitate and maintain buildings.

e layo s were the rst in Millennia’s 28-year history. Founder and CEO Frank Sinito and Renee Weiss, general counsel for the housing division, con rmed the details in an interview with Crain’s.

“In my career, I’ve never experienced in ation like this,” Sinito said, citing construction-cost overruns, interest-rate hikes and soaring costs of operating apartment buildings.

e layo s equate to a roughly 25% reduction in payroll and impacted about 15% of the company’s corporate sta , including full-time and part-time employees and interns. Millennia found other jobs internally for two of the 30 people whose roles were eliminated.

“ is was an extraordinarily difcult decision but will best position the company for the future,” Millennia said in a written statement. “Most real estate companies and, more generally, all companies, have reduced the size of their workforce especially in recent years.”

Strategic plan

Sinito described the layo s as part of a larger strategic plan that calls for unloading far- ung, tricky buildings and returning Millennia’s focus to the Midwest. e company owns and manages about 280 apartment properties totaling 30,000 units.

e 33 complexes earmarked for sale span 4,000 units, or about 13% of that portfolio.

Sinito would not identify specific properties slated for disposition, beyond noting that they’re in the Southeast, Arkansas and Texas. Millennia has grown swiftly over the last decade by acquiring large a ordable-housing portfolios, including extremely dilapidated buildings.

Since then, the company has been grappling with tenant complaints, heightened media scrutiny and regulatory pressure. Now Millennia is throwing up its hands. e properties slated for sale should hit the market, individually and as a portfolio, in mid-October, Sinito said.

“It’s much more di cult today to make the numbers work on preservation deals,” he said, referring to cases where developers buy existing a ordable-housing properties, renovate them and put new subsidies in place to keep rents in reach for low-income tenants.

“I don’t see us taking on challenging projects in the future,” he added.

e portfolio pruning is a major shift for a company that had positioned itself as a long-term owner. Sinito stressed that Millennia is not getting out of the business of preservation. e company still has a pipeline of a ordable-housing redevelopment projects closer to home.

In a letter to employees, Sinito mentioned that the business is taking other steps to cut spending and improve processes. e company is in the middle of a hiring freeze that is slated to continue through the second quarter of 2024, if not longer.

“I want each person to know that I take responsibility for the decisions that have been made in the past and how we arrived at this position,” Sinito wrote to the housing division. “I know to is di cult for every person, myself included, and I am sorry for those a ected.”

e layo s did not impact Millennia Commercial Group, which oversees the Key Center complex in the heart of downtown Cleveland. And the cuts did not extend to Savour Hospitality, Millennia’s dining arm.

e company’s restaurants, including Marble Room and Il Venetian downtown, are doing well, Sinito said. Savour is poised to take over management in November of the Cleveland Marriott Downtown hotel, which Millennia owns.

Asked about Millennia’s overall nancial situation, Sinito described the company’s status as “good.” e downsizing in housing, the core of the business, is about exiting tough situations and better positioning the business to grow in the coming decades, he said.

Sinito’s three children have joined the company and were involved in coming up with the new strategic plan, he said. “It’s a generational business,” he said. Committed to Centennial

Millennia also remains committed to the Centennial, the longplanned redevelopment of the vast Union Trust Building at East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue downtown. But the makeup and timing of that project might shift, yet again.

Sinito recently decided to pitch the 1.3-million-square-foot building, which is empty, as a potential site for a consolidated Cuyahoga County courthouse. e county is soliciting proposals from property owners and developers who can accommodate the courts and ofces that are currently housed at the downtown Justice Center and other buildings.

Millennia plans to submit a proposal by the Oct. 26 deadline, while keeping a mixed-use redevelopment scheme as its backup plan. “We’re dual-tracking the project,” said Sinito, adding that he expects to re nance the debt on the Union Trust Building within the next two months.

The most recent plans for the Centennial showed a mix of market-rate apartments and lower-cost workforce housing, along with a Curio by Hilton hotel, offices and event spaces. The project has been on the drawing board since Millennia bought the mothballed building in 2018.

Michelle Jarboe

The Millennia Cos., based in Cleveland, owns and manages about 280 apartment properties totaling 30,000 units. The privately held business plans to sell 33 properties in the Southeast, Arkansas and Texas and return its focus to the Midwest. I MILLENNIA COS.

Cleveland’s property inventory maps will direct code enforcement, funding resources

By Kim Palmer

Cleveland’s recently updated property inventory maps will be used to prioritize enhanced building and housing code enforcement and direct funding to help create what planners refer to as a "15-minute city."

e color-coded, interactive maps are created with data pulled, in part, from the Western Reserve Land Conservancy’s second City of Cleveland Property Inventory survey. ey will help direct city departments on everything from sta ng increases to what building and infrastructure projects will be fast-tracked, Sally Martin O’Toole, the city’s building and housing director, told Cleveland City Council members on Tuesday, Sept. 26.

“ is data is currently being used by multiple departments within the city,” O’Toole said. “We are using it to inform our day-to-day in building and housing. What we are also doing is developing legislation that dovetails to be able to pivot to proactive code enforcement that we all want to see in the city.”

Cleveland’s 2023 property inventory maps were created from the second survey, after the initial 2015 survey, which provided a detailed look at the state of the city’s 163,000 individual parcels.

e data has been used to create a series of scalable maps, available to the public, that includes locations and pictures of every vacant and abandoned property; a description of the overall condition of the parcel’s building and sidewalks; and issues such as whether the parcel is owned by an out-of-state investor, if there are trees on the property and if it is near walkable amenities.

e information will be used by city o cials to prioritize code enforcement for properties poorly managed by absent or out-of-town landlords, O’Toole told members of council’s Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee.

New proposed code enforcement legislation, if passed, would create a citywide vacant property registry requiring owners of empty buildings to le with the city and mandating a pre-sale city inspection for one- to three-family homes. It also requires non-owner-occupants to identify a local agent in charge — an individual responsible for the condition of the property.

Having grades, from "A" to "F" for each property, means that very distressed buildings deemed uninhabitable can be demolished, while “C” properties can be targeted for rehabilitation, O’Toole said.

e maps tell a story that be-

gins with disinvestment and the foreclosure crisis but highlights what has happened since.

e number of vacant land parcels in Cleveland increased 21.5% from 2015 to 2023, a result of Cleveland’s aggressive demolition programs since the 2008 foreclosure crisis, said Isaac Robb, vice president of planning and urban projects at the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

Having two data points, years apart, on every parcel in a city is

unique for a city the size of Cleveland, Robb said. “ ere is a lot of interest nationally about what Cleveland is doing,” he added.

Using the citywide and ward-speci c color-coded "Hot Spots" maps,

which illustrate high concentrations of vacant lots in proximity to each other, can help direct where residential, commercial or green space development is needed, Robb said.

ere also are maps illustrating areas with a high score of walkability to amenities — called “walk sheds” — that are ripe for development as part of the city’s goal to make Cleveland a 15-minute city.

A 15-minute city, which is a pri-

ority for Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration, is de ned as a city where "human needs and desires" are accessible in a 15-minute walk, bike ride or transit trip. About 16% of the city’s vacant lots fall in a high-scoring walk shed.

Cleveland’s maps will score areas within the city and highlight places in the walk sheds where resources are needed to improve sidewalks and ADA accessibility, and identify where vegetative growth is impeding sidewalks.

“ is is just a fascinating tool and it is so important to have this data,” said Ward 3 City Councilman Kerry McCormack, who represents downtown and some of the West Side.

“This is just a fascinating tool and it is so important to have this data.”

Kerry McCormack, Ward 3 City Councilman

New bill seeks safe staf ng standards for Ohio nurses

By Paige Bennett

A new bipartisan bill aims to create legally enforceable minimum sta ng standards for nurses in Ohio’s hospitals, as well as establish an incentive program to encourage people to pursue nursing careers in the state.

e Nurse Workforce and Safe Patient Care Act, sponsored by Rep. Haraz Ghanbari, R-Perrysburg, and Rep. Elgin Rogers, D-Toledo, would establish safe sta ng standards in every Ohio hospital and preserve nurse sta ng committees within hospitals to ensure nurses have input in setting safe sta ng levels in their hospitals.

Temporary adjustments from these safe sta ng levels would only be permitted in extraordinary circumstances and the interest of patient care.

e bill also would create a $20 million loan-to-grant program to help pay for the education of nurses who commit to ve years of nursing services in Ohio. It would also form a reporting system that would provide whistleblower protections for anyone who les a complaint against a hospital for

inadequate sta ng.

“ e bill will create better conditions both for our patients, which will translate to our friends, our family, our neighbors and those we live with here in the great state of Ohio,” Ghanbari said during a press conference at the State House in Columbus on Wednesday, Sept. 27. “But also, it will be a better opportunity that will translate into a better work environment for nurses in Ohio’s hospitals.”

Seven out of every 10 direct care nurses in Ohio are considering leaving bedside nursing because of their working conditions, according to a statewide nursing survey released by the Ohio Nurses Association in support of the bill.

About 58% of nurses who have already left direct care nursing jobs cited patient care load as a factor in their decision to leave. Eighty-eight percent of direct care nurses said minimum sta ng standards in Ohio would increase the likelihood of them staying in a direct care role.

Ohio Nurses Association president Robert Weitzel told Crain’s that thousands of nurses have left the profession since the pandemic because of burnout, stress and dangerous patient loads.

Rogers added that the pandemic exacerbated sta ng problems in Ohio’s hospitals. is bill would provide the nursing workforce with the support it deserves, he said.

Ghanbari and Rogers urged their colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the bill.

Last spring, the Ohio Nurses Association launched a campaign to call attention to understa ng in the state’s hospitals. e CODE RED campaign focuses on ve strategic areas: staing levels, working conditions, pipeline, corporate trends and trust and age. Its goal is to promote safe sta ng ratios and persuade employers and lawmakers to implement sta ng ratios for the safety of nurses and patients.

Approximately 100,000 U.S. nurses left the workforce during the pandemic. According to a 2023 study from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing and the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers, about 800,000 nurses say they plan to leave the eld by 2027.

at equates to roughly onefth of the county’s nursing workforce, Weitzel said.

Health care systems have undervalued and underinvested in health care workers, he said, and

the strain placed on them by staing shortages is resulting in many nurses leaving the bedside. Some systems have tried to remedy the issue with mandatory overtime, on-call shifts or by hiring travel nurses, but these temporary resolutions ultimately lead to more burnout.

Weitzel said the workforce crisis could have serious consequences on the nation’s health care system if measures aren’t taken to remedy it. is bill would be a step in the right direction, he said, by helping ensure safety and care for both patients and nurses.

“At the end of the day, we’re trying to x the burnout (problem),” Weitzel said.

Facial recognition is shortening beer lines at Browns games

By Joe Scalzo

Since 1999, the fastest way to get a beer at Cleveland Browns Stadium was to sit in the front row during “Bottlegate.”

Express Beer could change that.

e new program allows

Browns fans to buy a select number of items — beer, canned cocktails, hard seltzer, bottled water and snacks — using the same facial authentication technology that powers Express Access, the program that shortens the time it takes for fans to enter the stadium.

Here’s how it works. Fans enroll online through Ticketmaster, upload a photo of their driver’s license (to verify they are 21) and a credit card, which will be charged each time they purchase a beer. Once enrolled, they walk up to an Express Beer location, grab their item(s), scan their face on an iPad and go back to their seat.

“It really is a fast, seamless process,” said Jessie Jacobson, the general manager for Aramark at Cleveland Browns Stadium. “It’s fun to watch people go through the line for the rst time, because it’s cool technology and it is so fast. ere is something about not having to reach for your phone or your wallet that’s appealing to fans.”

e Browns are believed to be the rst NFL team to try something like Express Beer, which is presented by Bud Light and launched in six sections for their Week 1 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

e response exceeded the team’s expectations, with the Browns seeing a 45% increase in transactions for their second home game. ey expect to soon surpass their full-season goal of 3,000 sign-ups.

Although Express Access has been in place for three years, the

Browns used a soft launch for Express Beer since the program combines technology and services from several companies (Aramark, Wicket, TAPit and Lava) and wasn’t ready until days before the season opener.

“We were like, ‘If we get a couple of dozen people to sign up, we’d be

happy,’” Covert said. “We got well above that. en, once we validated it, we went into Game 2 with some actual marketing behind it, and we’ve seen great results.”

In response to the program’s popularity, the Browns have already added an extra iPad to each Express Beer location and are

looking to shave o a step or two on the enrollment process.

e team knows it will never eliminate lines — not when more than 67,000 people are squeezing into a nite amount of space — but programs like Express Beer can speed them up.

“ e real goal with us is to use technology to reduce friction (lines) at our events for our fans,” Covert said. “ ere are always going to be some lines and there are always going to be points in the game, like halftime, when everyone gets up at once to grab their stu . ose are the points where we need to nd technology — or whatever it is — to shave seconds o each transaction, so we can serve more people in the limited amount of time we have.”

Of course, there are limits to that service. Express Beer doesn’t mean Unlimited Beer, and stadium employees will still be watching for signs of intoxication.

e Browns want to reduce friction, but not by over-lubricating their fans.

“We always operate responsibly,” Covert said. “We want our fans to have as much fun as possible, without crossing that line.”

The Browns recently unveiled Express Beer, a program designed to shorten lines and wait times for key items. | CLEVELAND BROWNS

Eighty-eight percent of direct care nurses said minimum staf ng standards in Ohio would increase the likelihood of them staying in a direct care role.

“There is something about not having to reach for your phone or your wallet that’s appealing to fans.”

Jessie Jacobson, general manager for Aramark at Cleveland Browns Stadium

‘Cash Flow King’ accused of cheating investors out of $11M

By Jeremy Nobile

A North Olmsted man who hosted the “Cash Flow King Podcast” is accused of defrauding at least 50 investors out of more than $11 million through an alleged Ponzi scheme that involved selling notes that were purportedly backed by residential real estate, according to a lawsuit led by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

For nearly four years, Matthew Motil, 42, promised investors “short-term, low-risk and high-return promissory notes supposedly fully collateralized by rst mortgages on residential real estate located throughout Ohio,” according to a complaint led Sept. 25.

However, Motil “falsely told investors that he would use their investments to renovate the properties and pay them back with pro ts from reselling the properties, renancing them, or renting them,” according to the lawsuit. “Nearly everything about his scheme was a lie. Many of the promissory notes he o ered and sold to investors were not ‘fully collateralized by rst mortgages’ because Motil purposely issued multiple promissory notes ‘secured’ by the same property to numerous investors.”

In one instance cited by the SEC, Motil allegedly obtained more than $1.3 million from at least 20 investors by issuing at least 20 notes purportedly secured by one single-family home that was purchased for $47,000 but never valued at more than $130,000, according to the complaint. Motil allegedly promised these investors that he would record their mortgages, but never did.

Instead, Motil is accused of using investor funds in the following ways: making over $3.7 million in Ponzi payments; spending more than $1.6 million on personal expenses; diverting more than $900,000 to other businesses unrelated to real estate, and giving “hundreds of thousands” of dollars to his wife, Amy Doubrava Motil. ese actions were allegedly never disclosed to investors.

According to the SEC, those personal expenses included: more than $1 million in credit card charges; more than $107,000 related to a seven-month rental of a lakeside mansion; more than $73,000 for courtside seats to Cleveland Cavaliers games; $45,000 for student-loan payments; $37,000 for merchandise from Best Buy; $23,000 to “Leeny’s Lean Body” of Westlake; more than $22,000 to iTunes; more than $14,000 to Starbucks; more than $13,900 to “numerous pizzerias”; and $58,000 in cash withdrawals.

Other related defendants in the case against Motil include North Shore Equity Sales LLC (dba the Marie Paul Co.), North Shore Equity Management LLC and Motil’s wife. Amy Doubrava Motil, 35, is listed as a 50% owner of North Shore Equity Sales and is accused of receiving at least $400,000 in investor money.

Attempts to reach Motil were unsuccessful, and no attorney was listed for the defendants in court documents. A phone number online for North Shore Equity Sales goes to a voicemail box that has not been set up. And a phone number online for North Shore Equity Management was not in service.

“Motil persuaded individuals, including a cancer researcher and an active-duty U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, to invest their retirement funds and life savings with him by advertising his ownnancial acumen and track record of success,” according to the lawsuit.

e SEC notes that Motil led for bankruptcy as his Ponzi scheme collapsed.

According to court records, Motil led for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy on March 7, 2022, reporting $277,500 in assets and $280,274 in liabilities at the time.

In his bankruptcy petition, though, Motil “failed to divulge that his debts were from his Ponzi scheme,” the SEC said. “Instead, Motil identi ed the victimized investors as his ‘creditors,’ claiming that his personal debts arose from ‘guarantees of debts of (Motil) LLCs.’ However, in response to the Amended Complaint led by the U.S. Trustee in its adversarial proceeding, Motil contended that the victim-creditors of his Ponzi scheme are creditors of corporations and LLCs that Motil owned.”

e SEC is asking the court to bar Motil and the related defendants from directly or indirectly issuing, purchasing o ering or selling any securities — “provided that such order would not prevent Defendants from buying and selling securities listed on a national securities exchange for their respective personal accounts.”

e commission is also calling for Motil to be barred from serving as an o cer or director for any public company, civil money penalties and disgorgement of any “ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest.”

Podcast

At least 100 episodes of Motil’s “Cash Flow King Podcast” were produced between April 2018 and February 2021, according to a listing on Audacy.

e podcast is described as a show where “we talk about leveraging rental real estate investments to help you get paid and live a lifestyle you actually love! Whether you are an aspiring real estate investor, a newbie, or seasoned vet in the game, this podcast gonna show you how to bust things wide open and be a serious, respected player in the real estate investing game. … is isn’t your average nerdy investor’s podcast. is is ‘ e Realest Real Estate Podcast.’”

Motil is accused of crafting a brand for himself as a self-made real estate entrepreneur through his podcast as well as various websites and social media accounts.

Motil would allegedly tell prospective investors that he bought homes, renovated them and either sold them for a pro t or re nanced and rented them. He o ered investment opportunities “ranging from $10,000 to $10 million,” according to court documents, and invited visitors to his website to “be a real estate investing badass!”

Investors, the lawsuit claims, were told they would play an entirely passive role when working with him because they were e ectively “acting as a bank” and that their funds would be secured by a rst position mortgage lien on a given property. ose investors, according to the alleged scheme, would then receive interest payments as well as their principal amount at the end of the term.

Motil “rarely” recorded those mortgages, according to the SEC. In many cases, a rst mortgage was not applicable whatsoever, or Motil had already issued mortgages on the same properties to multiple investors.

“Motil knew or recklessly failed to know that this was false,” according to the complaint. “Motil also told investors on numerous occasions (sometimes in writing and sometimes orally) that after he received their investment he would record the mortgage with the county clerk, knowing or recklessly failing to know that this was false.”

Motil also is accused in the lawsuit of hiring an assistant with a notary commission and then forging that notary “on at least 30 mortgages.” at assistant later led a police report after learning her name had been forged by Motil and that a counterfeit version of her notary seal was being used.

e lawsuit claims that Motil would sell notes to investors that were collateralized by the same property, including 13410 Waineet Ave. in Cleveland. He allegedly acquired that property for $35,000 in November 2017 and used that to “collateralize” notes worth at least $502,971.

“When Motil sold his last Waineet Property Note, he owed at least $393,000 to at least 12 investors, bringing the total outstanding principal to $433,000,” according to the complaint. “At the time, home valuation services CoreLogic, Quantarium, and Collateral Analytics valued the Wain eet Property at between $60,745 and $76,000.”

In another instance, Motil sold numerous notes tied to 13529 Leroy Ave. in Cleveland to at least 17 investors. He allegedly purchased that property in August 2017 for $51,000 and used that to “collateralize” notes worth at least $853,000.

“When Motil sold his last Note purportedly collateralized by the Leroy Property in April 2021, he owed over $610,000 to 12 investors, bringing the total outstanding principal to over $635,000,” according to the complaint.

“CoreLogic, Quantarium, and Collateral Analytics never valued the property at more than $118,600.”

Psychiatrists have hope for hallucinogens

American psychiatrists feel signi cantly more optimistic about the potential therapeutic uses for hallucinogens than they did seven years ago, according to a new survey by a Cleveland Clinic researcher.

A survey of randomly selected members of the American Psychiatric Association found that about 81% of respondents moderately or strongly agreed that hallucinogens show promise in treating psychiatric disorders and 61% agreed they show promise for

with only 22% of respondents agreeing with a statement that said the use of hallucinogens increases the risk for long-term cognitive impairment.

“ at was compared to 48% in 2016,” said Dr. Brian Barnett, a psychiatrist at Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital who led the survey.

Barnett conducted a similar survey in 2016, which he believes to be the only published national survey of American psychiatrists regarding their opinions about hallucinogens and hallucinogen-assisted therapy.

e 2023 survey was given to a select sample of 1,000 American psychiatrists from the American Psychiatric Association’s online member directory. ey were sent invitations between Aug. 30, 2022, and March 21, 2023.

“Probably the most striking thing is there were dramatic shifts on essentially every question that we asked,” Barnett said. “Often these were on the order of 20 to 30 percentage points. So huge changes in the eld’s perspective on psychedelics since 2016.”

e majority of respondents to the 2023 survey supported further research on the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelics. Roughly 85% agreed the federal government should fund clinical trials investigating the e cacy of hallucinogens for the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

About half expressed moderate or strong intent on incorporating hallucinogen-assisted therapy into their practices if regulatory approval is granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Fewer than 10% of respondents said they believe hallucinogens cannot be administered safely with medical supervision.

MDMA, more commonly known as ecstasy, for PTSD. Psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, can be provided to people with depression.

Last month, Nature Medicine published a study that showed MDMA may be e ective for treating moderate-to-severe PTSD. In a clinical trial, researchers found PTSD symptoms and functional impairment improved signicantly among patients receiving MDMA treatment. Forty- ve out of 52 participants achieved a “clinically meaningful bene t” over 18 weeks, and 37 out of 52 no longer met criteria for PTSD by the end of the study.

e study’s sponsor, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, intends to seek FDA approval.

Oregon became the rst state to legalize psilocybin, and Colorado decriminalized it in 2022.

“Unless there are any surprises at the FDA, we anticipate the FDA approving MDMA as a medication for PTSD within the next year,” he said. “So, this time next year, psychiatrists should be using that as a treatment.”

One thing that hasn’t changed is that opinions on the use of psychedelics vary by age demographic, with older psychiatrists continuing to be more skeptical. Older respondents were likely to show less optimism and have greater reservations about hallucinogens in therapeutic settings, Barnett said.

treating substance abuse disorders.

e survey results also show substantially less concern among psychiatrists about the risks of using hallucinogens for treatment,

Barnett said this year’s survey included much of the same wording as the previous one to allow researchers to make direct comparisons on how opinions have shifted over the past seven years.

e results come at a time when researchers are studying the effects of psychedelics on conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and generalized anxiety.

Over the summer, Australia became the rst country to legalize the use of psychedelics to treat certain mental health conditions. Physicians there can prescribe

Plumbing-parts maker Viega plans Portage County plant

Michelle Jarboe

A plumbing-parts maker plans to set up shop in Portage County, where a manufacturing plant is set to rise on 80 acres at the sprawling Turnpike Commerce Center business park.

Viega LLC, the U.S. arm of a German-born business, expects to initially create 68 jobs at its rst Ohio facility in Shalersville Township. On Monday, Sept. 25, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved nancial incentives for the deal based on anticipated hiring and payroll.

During its monthly meeting in Columbus, the authority also signed o on tax credits for a 70-job expansion at Ohio Ordnance Works, a rearms manufacturer in Chardon, and a sales-tax break for a $202 million data-center project in Perkins Township, south of Sandusky.

Viega is the rst con rmed occupant for Turnpike Commerce Center, a 470-acre business park being developed by the Geis Cos. of Streetsboro. But the company won’t be a tenant at the rst building, a 1 million-square-foot speculative warehouse that Geis and Stonemont Financial Group have erected along state Route 44, north of the Ohio Turnpike.

Instead, Viega is focused on another piece of the site, to the south.

In a text message, developer Greg Geis con rmed that “we are under

contract to sell 80 acres of land.” He declined to comment further, citing a con dentiality agreement.

A news release from Team NEO, a regional economic-development group, described the project as a “campus-like facility” that will focus on metal production. In a separate news release, Viega said the land deal and construction of the plant represent a roughly $200 million investment.

Viega, which started out designing beer taps in 1899, makes plumbing, heating and pipe-joining ttings and systems.

e company has a North American headquarters in Colorado and other U.S. operations in Georgia, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Ohio was vying against Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kansas for the new manufacturing facility, according to a deal summary from the Ohio Department of Development.

e Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a 1.325%, eight-year payroll tax credit for the company. e estimated value of that award is $315,000, though the ultimate amount will depend on how many people Viega hires and how much money those employees make.

e company expects to generate more than $3.68 million in payroll by the end of 2027. As part of the incentive deal, Viega must maintain operations in Shalersville

for at least 11 years.

“We are excited about the expansion of our production to the Shalersville community in Ohio,” Marki Huston, the company’s head of manufacturing, said in Team NEO’s news release. “We remain committed to the development of tomorrow’s workforce and continuing to create more highly skilled job opportunities in the U.S.”

Viega expects to start production in 2025 and to begin hiring as soon as next January.

“ is new facility in Ohio, along with recent investments in our existing Kansas facility, further supports our growing demand and is part of Viega’s plan to increase North American production,” Markus Brettschneider, the company’s president and CEO, said in Viega’s news release.

e Portage County Port Authority already has approved a capital-lease structure for the project, an arrangement that gives companies a sales-tax break on construction materials.

Other public approvals are pending.

To attract businesses to the Turnpike Commerce Center site, Shalersville and neighboring Streetsboro created a joint economic development district that o ers property-tax abatement on construction and provides for income-tax sharing between the com-

In 2018, the FDA called psilocybin a “breakthrough therapy,” a designation meant to speed along the development and review of drugs to help treat serious conditions.

Barnett said he believes the favorable outcomes of recent studies on the therapeutic usage of psychedelics have contributed to the change in opinion.

Psychiatrists used MDMA to treat PTSD in the 1970s and 1980s. It was around that time that MDMA also started being used recreationally. e U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration banned the substance in 1985. However, it has recently seen a resurgence in the eld of psychiatry as a possible treatment for severe mental illness.

A spokeswoman for the American Psychiatric Association said in an email that the organization’s stance on using psychedelics to treat psychiatric conditions is that more research needs to be done.

In 2022, the APA released a statement detailing its position on the issue, saying that promising preliminary research using psy-

munities. Each project in the park must be added to the district through a process involving multiple parties.

at process is under way but will require public input, Patrick O’Malia, economic development director for the district and the city of Streetsboro, wrote in an email. Shalersville Township’s trustees have tentatively agreed to provide 60% property-tax

abatement on the Viega site for a decade, he wrote.

Brad Ehrhart, president of the nonpro t Portage Development Board, said he’s thrilled to see manufacturing growth in the region. During a phone interview, he said Viega was drawn to the local workforce. In a news release, Team NEO CEO Bill Koehler echoed that.

“We have a great manufacturing

Paige Bennett

A new survey nds growing agreement that psychedelics show promise in treating disorders

“Probably the most striking thing is there were dramatic shifts on essentially every question that we asked.”

Dr. Brian Barnett, a psychiatrist at Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital

chedelics to treat depression and PTSD had generated interest in the subject, but that additional research must take place before it o ers an endorsement.

“ ere is currently inadequate scienti c evidence for endorsing the use of psychedelics to treat any psychiatric disorder except within the context of approved investigational studies,” the statement reads. “APA supports continued research and therapeutic discovery into psychedelic agents with the same scienti c integrity and regulatory standards applied to other promising therapies in medicine. Clinical treatments should be deter-

mined by scienti c evidence in accordance with applicable regulatory standards and not by ballot initiatives or popular opinion.”

Barnett said the approval of MDMA as a treatment for PTSD would have a major impact on the eld.

“I think it would be a paradigm shift for psychiatry,” he said. “Because right now, it’s looking like psychedelics, you get one or two doses in a clinical trial and that can lead to durable bene ts, potentially lasting months. In some cases, maybe even years.”

Barnett said patients with psychiatric conditions would

probably need to receive hallucinogen-assisted treatments repeatedly for them to be effective, but one benefit to using psychedelics is that patients would not experience some of the side effects associated with oral medication.

“ ey have to take (oral medications) every day,” he said. “ ey run into problems with adherence. ey might forget to take their medications. ere are problems with side e ects. Antidepressants, for example, cause a lot of sexual side e ects that can be very problematic for patients. Other medications can cause weight gain.”

employees and upwards of $5.5 million in annual payroll.

e Buckeye State was competing against Tennessee and Texas for the project, according to the Ohio Department of Development. To keep state incentives, Ohio Ordnance Works must maintain operations in Chardon for at least nine years.

Farther a eld, the tax-credit authority greenlit a 75%, 15-year sales-tax exemption for a planned data center in Erie County. at project falls outside of what most people typically think of as Northeast Ohio, but it could beget other corporate investments in the region.

e tax break, on sales and use taxes on equipment, is worth an estimated $10.2 million. e recipient is an a liate of Aligned Data Centers, a Texas-based company that could create 18 jobs and $1.6 million in payroll as part of the project.

“Aligned is considering expanding its operations into Ohio and developing a agship initial presence in the state’s market to strengthen the company’s position,” a state deal summary notes, adding that the project will help the company support data centers in more locations.

legacy, dedicated talent pool and future-oriented industry resources to support Viega’s new operations,” said Koehler, whose organization acts as the local arm of JobsOhio, the state’s private nonpro t economic development corporation.

e tax-credit authority also authorized a 1.226%, six-year payroll tax credit for Ohio Ordnance Works, which plans to move and

grow in Chardon. at credit is worth an estimated $227,000.

e company makes guns, parts and accessories for government and law-enforcement clients and other customers. e expansion will make room for another production line and will create 70 jobs and $3.9 million in new payroll, according to state records. Ohio Ordnance Works already has about 100

Ohio competed with Georgia, Utah and Washington to win the deal. Aligned expects to spend $52 million on land, $110 million on a building and $40 million on machinery and equipment, according to the Ohio Department of Development.

As part of the incentive agreement, the company will have to stay put for 15 years.

Psilocybin mushrooms sit ready for harvest.

Large diameter Viega ProPress ttings come off a manufacturing line at one of the company’s plants. | VIEGA

Cost hikes alter plans for Lakewood Hospital site redevelopment

By Stan Bullard

A $20 million cost hike for the proposed $100 million redevelopment of the old Lakewood Hospital site has sent Columbus-based development rm Casto and city ocials back to their computers fornancial modeling and designs.

A proposed plan to phase the mixed-use project for the site is the key strategy the parties hope to use to keep the project moving despite the doubling of interest rates and the post-pandemic spike in construction costs.

For example, plans for two three-story garden apartment buildings might go in rst on the southern part of the site, said Lakewood’s planning and development director, Shawn Leininger.

A ve-story apartment building with rst- oor retail on the site might go in later, along with other parts of the proposed project, such as a large parking garage and forsale townhouses. e taller apartment building gained a fth oor and a di erent design from the former o ce plan but will have a similar footprint to the original o ce building.

e plan would add 314 apartments to Lakewood courtesy of Casto, a developer with a track record that includes 6,200 multifamily units as well as o ce and retail projects dating back to 1926.

e phased plan was the upshot of an update that Leininger gave a Sept. 18 committee-of-the-whole meeting of Lakewood City Council.

“We think there is a way forward,” he said.

Brent Sobczak, president of Casto, said on a recording of the session, “ e big thing really is the debt and equity market. e lending pool is shrinking fast, particularly for projects costing more than $50 million, which includes this. We believe it will get worse before it gets better.”

e issue with phasing is “not spending good money after bad,” so that elements of the plan could be put in place and utilities and other infrastructure would not have to be demolished. One example would be putting a temporary surface parking lot on the townhouse project on the southern part of the project until the larger garage goes in later.

Sobczak said Casto just shelved a similar size project in Columbus. However, he said, steps can be taken to moderate the impact of increasing construction costs. He also noted that new apartment projects are continuing to lease up, which had been a Casto concern.

John Litten, president of Lakewood City Council, said the session was helpful in terms of understanding that the headwinds are national

and not just an issue with getting the deal done in Lakewood.

“I just hope nancing conditions change, before my daughter (a young teenager) goes to college,” Litten said. “If there’s a creative way to stage the project to get some development, it needs to be explored.”

Litten represents Lakewood’s Ward 3, where the redevelopment site is located. He said local interest in the project becomes “granular” about speci c issues such as landscaping when the topic comes up in conversations with his constituents.

No formal action has been taken on the project yet as Casto ofcials and Leininger say they expect to update the council in a few months.

In response to questions, Leininger said the city’s development agreement with Casto for the six-acre, city-owned site would cover the timing of proposed phases.

“From the city’s standpoint, we’ve been looking for ways to nd a path forward,” he said.

Casto and Lakewood have a lot of company among Northeast Ohio real estate developers hoping to keep moving on new projects. Construction material costs climbed 37% from 2019 to early 2023, and the Fed has hiked interest rates 11 times to ght in ation.

Jim Leonard, a managing director of the District Capital commercial loan brokerage in Independence, said in a phone call that the reduced lending ap-

petite by lenders is a common concern.

“We handicap it as three years ago, ve of 10 lenders would do multifamily lending. Now it’s three of 10, and two of them are lying,” Leonard said. “Lack of credit and higher interest rates mean you have higher equity requirements. A $100 million project needed $25 million in equity three years ago. Now that’s $35 million to $40 million. e more equity and lower leverage make it harder to keep the returns investors seek. It’s a vicious circle.”

e proposed Lakewood project was dealt a big setback earlier this year when Roundstone, a Lakewood insurance company that would have lled o ce space in the building, dropped out due to project delays. Construction of Roundstone’s new headquarters is underway at Lake Road and Linda Street in Rocky River.

Casto is the second developer, and Lakewood Mayor Meghan George’s administration is the second city administration, to tackle the redevelopment of the former hospital site. e century-old former city hospital was closed by the Cleveland Clinic in 2016. It was demolished in 2019.

The site of the former Lakewood Hospital at Detroit and Belle avenues in Lakewood. STAN BULLARD

“The lending pool is shrinking fast, particularly for projects costing more than $50 million, which includes this. We believe it will get worse before it gets better.”

Brent Sobczak, president of Casto

Akron company uses new of ce to lure back workers

By Dan Shingler

At Akron’s Pritt Entertainment Group, the entire sta is in every day, said Ryan Pritt, co-founder and president of the video and media production company.

What did he do to get them back?

Nothing, really. He pretty much just told them the o ce was reopened.

“ ere was no pushback whatsoever about people coming back,” Pritt said.

What’s his secret?

Well, for one thing, Pritt’s employees were coming back to brand new o ces that they’d been eager to start using. Pritt bought his building on Main Street in 2018 and after planning and designing his new o ces in 2019, he spent the next year building them out before opening the new o ce in June 2021.

“Everyone was so eager to come back it felt like I was forcing them not to come back,” Pritt said. “People were like, ‘My o ce (in the building) is pretty much done. I’m coming back in.’ I’d say, you can, but you don’t have to.”

But that’s probably not the big reason. While Pritt’s sta likes their new o ce, they don’t spend much time in the front room where the pool table and gaming equipment are. ey’re busy in the back rooms working and talking to one another.

e real reason Pritt might have all his people at work is that he has a young, highly engaged sta — and they aren’t just engaged with their jobs, but with the downtown community. at’s one reason many of them wanted to work with Pritt’s company, which has been somewhere downtown for the past 20 years, to begin with.

“We’ve always been committed to putting roots down downtown, so we wanted to buy (rather than rent the building),” Pritt said. “Downtown has just always been a big part of our culture.”

ve years, that work has been particularly important.

It’s been a challenge for Graham and many of the employers she works with, as mostly empty major o ce buildings in downtown Akron attest to ve days a week.

But when asked about a business that is an example of one that has come back and is engaged with downtown, Graham immediately mentioned Pritt.

It’s the kind of company that Suzie Graham wishes she could clone.

“ ey’re the perfect downtown o ce tenant,” said Graham, who is president of the Downtown Akron Partnership.

Her job, like others in similar roles in cities across the country, is supporting downtown businesses that have been challenged in recent years by the pandemic and the work-from-home trend that followed in its wake.

at includes, she said, working with downtown businesses to get their workers back at their desks, and back on the surrounding streets at lunch and after work.

In Akron, where the pandemic overlapped major construction projects that have shut down parts of Main Street over the last

His sta doesn’t just grab lunch at the Diamond Deli or Lockview Tavern, Pritt said. ey also get together after work, go to Rubber Ducks games together, and play in a volleyball league at R. Shea Brewing just down Main Street from their o ce.

“We recently went back and looked at all the stu we’ve done over the past 10 years. Ever since we moved downtown our sta has been active and volunteering,” Pritt said, rattling o a list of downtown clean-ups, renovations, and other projects his employees have helped with.

“We’ve always been active downtown and I think that helps people have a strong connection to it.”

Pritt also is a landlord to Akron’s ironically well-known retail store, UNKNWN, which specializes in carrying hard-to- nd editions of shoes, mostly from Nike.

He leased to them not only because he thought they’d be successful, but because he thought they’d also help downtown be successful and draw some more foot tra c to the area.

“We’re very deliberately picky with tenants,” Pritt said. “We wanted this to be an exemplary building for downtown – and they were the perfect t for it.”

at’s one reason Pritt said he hopes other o ce workers return, and also a reason he hopes that the city continues to develop apartments downtown. ere are about 2,200 residents downtown now, thanks to a spate of recent conversions of o ce buildings into apartments, Graham said. But she added the market can sustain another 1,200 residential units or more.

ere are still not enough people on the street, Pritt said, but that’s improving. He said events like the city’s gay pride parade and the annual punk-rock ea market help draw people in and that the city and Graham’s DAP have been good about organizing more events.

Pritt would also like to see more residential development. But that’s not just because he wants to help out UNKNWN and other downtown retailers.

It might shorten some of his employees’ commutes, he reasons.

“As we’ve had people join our team over the years one of the things we’ve heard a lot is that they would love to nd a place to live downtown if there are options available at the right price point,” Pritt said.

“Downtown has just always been a big part of our culture.”

Ryan Pritt, co-founder and president of Pritt Entertainment

Pritt Entertainment Group moved into new of ces at 201 S Main St. in Akron in 2021 after purchasing the building in 2018. PRITT ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

Mike Fratello won’t return as analyst on Cavs broadcasts

By Joe Scalzo

Former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Fratello won’t return as an analyst on Cavs broadcasts this season on Bally Sports Ohio, with Bally opting for a two-man rotation of Austin Carr and Brad Daugherty.

Bally Sports rotated the three analysts on games last year.

e rest of this year’s TV broadcast will remain the same, with John Michael returning to call play-byplay, Serena Winters back as sideline reporter and Cayleigh Gri n again co-hosting Cavaliers Live, the network’s pre- and postgame show.

Carr will join Gri n at the desk before and after games when Daugherty is doing color commentary. When Carr is calling a live game, Campy Russell will cohost the pre- and postgame show with Gri n.

Fratello con rmed the news in a text to Crain’s Cleveland, saying “I received a phone call from Bally’s TV channel and I was informed that they would not be using me for the Cavs’ games this season.

ey said they were going with Brad Daugherty, Austin Carr and Campy Russell.”

Bally Sports Ohio declined comment on the move, but a source familiar with the decision said Fratello remains “a friend of the team and the network” and could still contribute to broadcasts if the need arises.

Fratello, 76, said he will continue to serve as a part-time color commentator for Los Angeles Clippers road games this season on Fox Sports West.

Fratello was the Cavaliers’ head coach from 1993-99 and has also been a head coach for the Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies. He also has extensive NBA broadcasting experience, having served as an analyst for NBC, TNT, the YES Network and NBA TV. He is best known for his pairing with Marv Albert, who dubbed him the “Czar of the Telestrator.”

Carr, 75, has been the team’s main analyst since 2006-07, rst with Fred McLeod and now with John Michael. He has shared color duties in the past with the 57-yearold Daugherty, Matt Guokas, Mark Price and Scott Williams.

Bally will produce all non-nationally exclusive regular season games, and will also air all four Cavs preseason games, beginning Tuesday, October 10 at 7:30 p.m.

Live coverage of Cavs regular season games begins Wednesday, Oct. 25 in Brooklyn when the Cavs face the Nets. e Cavaliers Live pregame show will air at 7 p.m. with tipo at 7:30 p.m.

e Cavs play their rst regular season game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Friday, Oct. 27 vs. the Oklahoma City under at 7:30 p.m.

Cavs coverage can be streamed on www.ballysports.com and the Bally Sports app.

Music census aims to measure impact of Cleveland’s entertainment industry

Jeremy Nobile

Local groups that helped support independent entertainment venues throughout the ups and downs of COVID-19 — including netting $135 million in federal Shuttered Venue Operators Grants for Northeast Ohio — are launching a new e ort aimed at quantifying the economic impact of the live music and entertainment industries in the region.

But for the 2023 Greater Cleveland Music Census to be as successful and comprehensive as is hoped, that initiative requires support from a broad array of community engagement partners.

“ is will only work if we have really broad and deep participation,” said Sean Watterson, co-owner of Cleveland’s Happy Dog. “Every genre, every segment of the music industry, not just venues and performers but studios, music education programs, sound stage and lighting companies in town, even manufacturers, all of that is part of our music ecosystem.”

is music census project, which begins in October and carries an estimated cost of $25,000, is being launched through a partnership between Cleveland Rocks: Past, Present & Future and the Cleveland Independent Venue Association (formerly the Cleveland Music Club Coalition) with nancial support from the Cleveland Foundation.

e census will be administered by Sound Music Cities, an organization founded in 2017 in Austin, Texas, that says it special-

izes in providing the “most affordable, e ective and e cient music ecosystem assessment available in North America.”

“ is e ort is intended to identify and measure the live entertainment ecosystem in Northeast Ohio, focusing mostly on music but including comedy and specialty entertainment,” the census organizers said in a press release. “ is is the rst such effort in over a decade — since the Remix Cleveland study released in 2011 by Community Partnership for Arts and Culture and Cleveland State University’s College of Urban A airs — to quantify the impact that music and live entertainment have on the economic and cultural life of our region.”

Live Nation, for example, reported $16.7 billion in revenue in 2022, a 44% increase from pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, the company reported midyear revenue in 2023 of roughly $8.8 billion, up 40% over midyear 2022.

But with their already tight margins, indie venues aren’t exactly feeling the same boost of that rising tide.

“In Cleveland and across the country, small venues have been struggling,” said Watterson, who is also chair of the Ohio chapter of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and vice chair of the nonpro t’s state and local issues advocacy committee.

the census would play a role in shaping that.

“Cleveland and Northeast Ohio have a rich and storied music history, which is essential to the culture of our region,” Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne said in the organizers’ press release. “Arts and music provide immense opportunities for education, cultural expression, community engagement and inclusive communication. e Greater Cleveland Music Census will o er valuable information that will assist us in preserving, maintaining and continuing to grow cultural life in our communities.”

is music census could be thought of as the latest e ort to channel support for independent entertainment venues and the professional ecosystem that relies upon them.

Venues, performers and the myriad industries supporting them were greatly a ected during the COVID-19 pandemic amid shutdown orders and plummeting participation in in-person events.

Depending on where you look, the entertainment and live music sector seems to have rebounded in many ways.

“ ere was just a story in NPR about Detroit that talked about how the story of music this summer was Taylor Swift and Beyoncé and billions that was bringing in. But the story at smaller venues is very di erent.”

e expectation is that the results of the Greater Cleveland Music Census will provide a rened understanding of the size of the live music and entertainment industry. at, in turn, should help steer and inform conversations about how to use resources and to illustrate what kind of “opportunities and challenges” exist here and in other cities with this segment of the arts, Watterson said. He added that there’s been talk locally of establishing some kind of music commission and that

“ is census will provide important information about the music and comedy venues and creative workers that help make up the $9.1 billion creative regional economy,” Jeremy Johnson, president and CEO of Assembly for the Arts, said in the release. “ e data collected about the for-pro t music and live entertainment industry will be a powerful complement to the data Assembly recently collected as part of the Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 study from Americans for the Arts and will help to paint a fuller picture of the substantial economic impact of arts and culture in Cuyahoga County,” he said in the release.

For more information on the Greater Cleveland Music Census Project, visit its website.

Organizations interested in becoming a community engagement partner can learn more and sign up by emailing census@ clevelandrocksppf.org.

“In Cleveland and across the country, small venues have been struggling.”

Sean Watterson, co-owner of Cleveland’s Happy Dog

Caleb Kopta performs at the Happy Dog in Gordon Square as part of the rst National Independent Venue Association annual conference held in Cleveland in July 2022. | RUSTIN MCCANN

Region’s home sales slowdown isn’t hurting price growth

By Michelle Jarboe

e housing market cooldown continued in August, as consumers contended with higher mortgage rates, scarce listings and resurgent prices.

Across Northeast Ohio, sales were down 17.2% from August of last year, according to a Crain’s analysis of listing-service data.

at’s a di erence of about 900 transactions.

Sellers still are sitting on the sidelines, reluctant to list their properties when there’s little to buy. Shoppers are faced with limited options — and escalating costs.

At $260,883, the average sale price for a house in the region was up 3.8% in August from a year before, based on data from MLS Now, a listing service that tracks 18 counties. e typical sale price for a condo was $221,611, up 11.9% from late summer of 2022.

Meanwhile, mortgage rates keep climbing. e average interest rate on a 30-year, xed-rate home loan surpassed 7% in August, up from about 5.5% a year before.

e local sales slowdown mirrors what’s happening across the state and the nation.

On Sept. 21, the Ohio Realtors association reported that statewide sales of new and existing homes fell 17.2% in August, when compared with a year before. But prices are rising.

e numbers re ect “market dynamics of higher mortgage rates and lower inventory,” Ralph Mantica, the association’s president, said in a written statement.

Nationally, August purchases of previously owned homes were o 15.3%. at’s based on a Sept. 21 report from the National Association of Realtors. Sales were roughly at from July

“Home prices continue to march higher despite lower home sales,” noted Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist, in a news release. “Supply needs to essentially double to moderate price gains.”

In the Cleveland area, new listings are down 16.8% this year, according to MLS Now. at shakes out to a di erence of nearly 7,400 available properties over an eightmonth period.

e Red n brokerage says all of the listings in the Cleveland metropolitan area would sell out in 8.6 weeks, or a little over two months. at’s far from normal. Experts typically describe a balanced market as one o ering at least four to six months’ worth of supply.

Northeast Ohio homes sold for as little as $2,000 and as much as $2.25 million in August, according to MLS Now. e top sale was a ve-bedroom, ve-bathroom contemporary house in Hunting Valley. e property, purchased by a private-equity executive, once belonged to former Cleveland Clinic CEO Delos “Toby” Cosgrove, public records show. Sale prices are rising fastest in the Midwest and sagging in longhot Sun Belt markets.

On Tuesday, Sept. 26, Cleveland ranked near the top of the updated S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, which track prices over a three-month period.

e new data run through July.

Out of the 20 major markets in the index, only Chicago posted a sharper annual gain, at 4.4%. e Cleveland index rose by 4%, followed by New York at 3.8%.

“On a year-over-year basis, the Revenge of the Rust Belt continues,” Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement that accompanied the data.

This Hunting Valley house sold for $2.25 million in August, setting the regional high mark for the month. House prices continue to climb even as sales slump. | DAVID MALONE/

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Concierge medicine is a membership-based system where patients pay a fee for personalized and accessible health care. e concept originated in the 1990s as an alternative to the traditional care model. Speci c services vary by program, but they usually include same-day or next-day primary care appointments and 24/7 access to your physician.

“I get to spend 60 to 90 minutes with a patient every time I meet them for the rst time,” Fi ck said. “All of my follow-ups are no shorter than 30 minutes. (I) really get to spend time and understand these patients.”

Grand View Research, a market research and consulting company headquartered in California, estimates the concierge medicine market will increase by more than 10% every year through 2030.

Fi ck recently opened Concierge Medicine of Westlake. Patients who make Fi ck their primary care provider receive unlimited o ce visits, a guaranteed 24-to-48-hour turnaround for appointments and access to Fi ck’s direct cell number for after-hour emergencies.

Fi ck’s o ce is part of Ms. Medicine, a national network of concierge primary care providers with an emphasis on women’s health.

e network has three other Ohio practices, in Miamisburg, Mason

and Cincinnati.

In Lyndhurst, Dr. Tom Morledge operates Revati Wellness, a concierge primary care facility that he founded in 2011. He said he likes how the concierge model gives patients extensive access to their doctor. Primary care physicians at large health care systems have upward of 3,000 patients, he said, whereas Revati limits its doctors to around 250 patients.

e concierge model isn’t exclusive to private practice; it also has been adopted by major health care networks in Northeast Ohio. University Hospitals launched its own version of concierge medicine in 2016. e program, UH Select, consists of four doctors who have 400 to 450 patients each. It has grown steadily over the past seven years, said Andrew Moleski, director of business development and administration of UH Premier Services.

Dr. Jill Miller, a physician with the UH Select, said the program allows for more personalized care by giving doctors and patients time to establish a relationship. Patients enrolled in the program receive same-day or next-day appointments for primary care. In some cases, doctors may even make house calls.

MetroHealth has a personal primary care program known as Spry. Members receive same-day appointments, no wait times and can communicate 24/7 with their doctor.

At Cleveland Clinic Main Campus, the closest thing to concierge

medicine is the Executive Health program, a six- to eight-hour physical that combines medical, wellness and preventative services into one comprehensive exam. Cleveland Clinic Florida and Cleveland Clinic Canada o er concierge programs. How much does concierge medicine cost?

Anywhere from $1,500 to tens of thousands of dollars per year, depending on the size and scope of the practice. In Northeast Ohio, most programs fall in the $2,400 to $3,000 range.

Concierge Medicine of Westlake charges $3,000 per year for primary care.

“Typically, we prefer patients pay in annual or semi-annual options,” Fi ck said. “We really work to establish a wellness plan that’s individualized to each patient. So, the plan of having this model is that you and I can really take our time to g-

ure out what works and what doesn’t work for you. And we would make goals and aim our actions toward reaching those goals.”

e practice also o ers a women’s health-only model that costs $1,750 annually. Fi ck has expertise in menopause and other complex hormonal conditions. She can serve as a patient’s OB/GYN.

“In our facility, we opt out of using insurance for the fees for the physician visits and physician time, meaning phone calls, et cetera,” she said. “Insurances and institutions are billing for even the MyChart or electronic medical record messages back and forth to physicians. at cost is completely negated by this model.”

Fi ck said Ms. Medicine works with lab and imaging facilities to offer discounted cash pay prices.

Concierge Medicine of Westlake still recommends patients keep

their insurance for emergencies and hospital stays.

UH Select accepts commercial insurance, Medicare and HMO plans. Members must pay an annual fee of $2,400 that is not covered by insurance, and co-pays may be required for some o ce visits. Medical services included in the program are an annual physical exam, a onehour session with a personal trainer, a complete dietary assessment by a registered dietitian and more.

MetroHealth’s Spry Complete Membership costs $2,500 per patient and o ers unlimited access.

e Spry Choice Membership program gives patients the exibility to pay as they go for each visit. Costs for that plan range from $525 to $975, based on age. Spry is in-network with Aetna, Anthem, Medical Mutual, Medicare and United Healthcare. Patients still need an insurance plan to cover blood tests, X-rays, specialty care and hospitalization.

Doctors who use the concierge model say the highly personalized care is worth the cost for patients who want immediate access to their physician. Miller said the UH Select plan comes out to $200 per month, which is not an astronomical cost when a patient considers the level of care.

For patients, it’s a matter of deciding whether the pros — no wait times, quick-turn appointments and constant access to their physician — make sense for them and are worth the price tag.

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BEDROCK

plans to create an extensive TIF overlay district that will span much of downtown and parts of the near-West Side. at tool will capture new tax revenues from rising property values in the district and pledge them to a series of projects, including roads and public spaces on the riverfront and lakefront; additional center-city infrastructure; and improvements to neighborhood parks and recreation facilities.

Legislation for that overlay district hasn’t been introduced to the City Council yet. It’s still not clear what the geographic boundaries will be. But a draft of the master development agreement between Bedrock and the city describes the concept, along with building-specific tax-increment financing agreements that the developer expects to pursue.

e document is a framework, the foundation for a cascade of legislation and follow-up agreements that the council and the administration will consider. It replaces a much thinner master development agreement Bedrock entered in late 2021 with then-Mayor Frank Jackson’s team.

Bedrock owns a curving sweep of riverfront land behind Tower City, along with the ailing shopping mall at the heart of the historic transit-and-office complex off Public Square.

A master plan approved in May by the Cleveland City Planning Commission shows Bedrock’s vision for turning Tower City into a pedestrian corridor between the core of downtown and the river, with 3.5 million

square feet of mixed-use development that could rise from crumbling parking lots.

Deb Janik, Bedrock’s local senior vice president of business development, told members of the council’s finance committee on Sept. 25 that construction will start this fall on new riverfront bulkheads at the water’s edge. The bulkheads, which protect the federal shipping channel, are

part of roughly $400 million in complicated infrastructure work that the project requires.

Big public spaces

The Cleveland Clinic and Gilbert’s Cleveland Cavaliers announced recently that they’ve signed on as Bedrock’s first tenants. They’ve partnered on plans for a new practice facility and sports-medicine hub that will re -

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rental and for-sale properties. e developer’s plans also call for large public spaces, a riverfront boardwalk and other amenities, including a kayak inlet and an amphitheater. To prepare the site, Bedrock needs to shift and rebuild roads, tear up parking lots, move a pump station, replace bulkheads and sort through utilities. Construction will start at the eastern end of the site and move west.

The master development agreement describes a partnership between city officials, who will work to expedite public approvals and help Bedrock seek state and federal infrastructure funding, and the developer, which is committing to a series of community benefits from local hiring to investments in affordable housing.

‘I’m really, really excited’

e Bibb administration aims to bring legislation to the council for the TIF overlay district within the next two months. e nancing structure will hold the Cleveland Metropolitan School District harmless, ensuring that the schools still receive their slice of new property-tax revenues.

place the team’s Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence.

The downtown complex, which would rise near West Third Street and Eagle Avenue at the southeastern end of Bedrock’s site, would be part of the larger project’s first phase. Eventually, the balance of the property could hold offices, retail, hospitality, entertainment and more than 2,000 new homes — a mix of

During the nance committee meeting, council members asked plenty of questions about public nancing. ey were largely positive about Bedrock’s plans and pacing.

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“We’re talking about gnarledup, private land right now that the public has no access to along our riverfront,” said Councilman Kerry McCormack, who represents much of downtown and close-lying neighborhoods to the west. “I’ve said this from the day I started on council and will say it to anyone who listens, we have all this waterfront that our citizens, our bosses, our residents have no access to . . . and that is morally unacceptable. So I’m really, really excited to see this movement, both here on the river as well as on the lakefront to ensure that our people have access to the waterfront for once and for all.”

He stressed that tax-increment financing involves new property-tax revenues created by real estate appreciation and development – not taxes that Cuyahoga County is collecting today.

Forristall

The city plans to take advantage of language slipped into the most recent state budget bill, which was passed in June, to spread TIF proceeds across neighborhoods for the first time and extend the lifespan, and value, of some existing TIFs. Bibb administration officials have talked about using a portion of the downtown-area TIF revenues to execute on the city’s forthcoming parks and recreation master plan.

Shamis

Direct Recruiters, Inc. proudly announces the promotions of Rebecca Forristall and Ben Shamis to Partners. They’ve excelled in the Healthcare IT and Life Sciences teams. Rebecca joined in 2021 as Director of Biotechnology, with expertise in recruiting top talent. Ben, who began in 2021, leverages his experience in physician consulting, nance, and business development. Both have built strong client relationships and have been instrumental in our success. According to Mike Silverstein, Managing Partner of Healthcare IT and Life Sciences, “Rebecca and Ben epitomize our core values, and we anticipate their continued contributions to DRI and Star sh.” Congratulations Rebecca Forristall & Ben Shamis!

“We’re banking on the prosperity of this so, yeah, we have to invest in it to get more, right?”

Councilman Anthony Hairston, whose ward spans several East Side neighborhoods, said of the Bedrock project. “But a good portion of it will be used to go into neighborhoods. So that is one of the good things I’ve heard out of this project from the development team.”

A conceptual rendering shows part of Bedrock’s planned redevelopment of a roughly 35-acre stretch of the downtown riverfront behind Tower City. BEDROCK; ADJAYE ASSOCIATES

When she moved to her current location early this summer, Woods-Baylor was hoping she’d get more foot tra c than she did at her former location, a block down the street in an o ce building with no storefront on Main Street.

But that hasn’t happened, in part because she’s in a part of downtown that’s been heavily affected by o ce workers who now work from home. ey used to come downtown, in the thousands, to inhabit the Huntington Tower, Chase Bank’s building next door and FirstEnergy’s headquarters, all of which are on Main Street.

“Directly across the street, everybody is gone,” Woods-Baylor said. “ e populations have decreased signi cantly when you talk about Huntington, Chase, and now (FirstEnergy) is gone.”

On a recent visit to that part of downtown, a lonely security guard manning the reception desk at one building attested to the lack of workers when asked how many people came into his building on most workdays.

“Ten, maybe 12?” he said.

But Woods-Baylor knows that doing nothing other than hoping for change could be the death of her small business, so she’s taken active steps to bet sales through other channels — and they’ve paid o .

“We’re doing very well,” she said. “One thing about my industry — and I studied this — we do gifts from all over the country. So I do marketing all the time . . . and I would say 35% to 45% of our customers every month come from outside the Akron area.”

She’s not just talking about online sales. People come to visit her and buy from her shop from all over, thanks to her marketing e orts on social media and elsewhere.

“We have a family ying in from Oklahoma on Monday,” Woods-Baylor said in early September. “I’m a destination — and that’s what we’re working on.”

Down the street at the Lockview Tavern, a popular lunch spot and place to grab a beverage, owner Danny Basone also is feeling the pinch of too few downtown o ce workers during the day. Like Woods-Baylor, he said the two years of construction on Main Street in front of his place, and the COVID lockdowns and work-from-home trends that followed, have meant fewer walk-in customers.

ose are critical to a bar and restaurant, and business has been down in their absence, said Basone, who marked 22 years in operation this year.

“ is year has been pretty bad, I’ll be quite honest,” Basone said.

Like Woods-Baylor, Basone said of the string of hardships that began with the latest Main Street construction project in 2018 and has been extended recently with the city’s work on Lock 3 Park on the west side of Main Street in the middle of downtown. e city is working to

expand and improve the park to draw more visitors, but, for now, it’s only partially open and doesn’t have functions along Main Street.

ose big events at Lock 3 used to bring visitors to downtown retailers, but these days the crowds don’t come across the street, Woods-Baylor said. Basone, whose tavern is right across the street from Lock 3 and named after it, agrees.

“We’re across the street from Lock 3 Park, which usually hosted 5,000 people on Friday nights, but they moved it to the other side (of the construction work that abuts Main Street),” he said. “People can’t gure out how to get to Main Street. Our attendance this summer was way down on the weekends. We lost servers because they weren’t making the money.”

e work at Lock 3 is particularly painful for Basone, he said, because last summer he lost business for months because of the protests against the police shooting of Jayland Walker that drove people away from the city center.

“All the restaurants were struggling,” Basone said. “We were down $60,000 a month . . . and we didn’t start picking up again until fall.”

Basone has relied on the increased number of downtown residents to help him get by. ey both frequent the tavern and order food via DoorDash, he said.

But so far that has not been enough to make up for the lost lunch business from o ce workers and, like many downtown restaurants, the Lockview has reduced its hours and is closed on Sundays and Mondays.

“I would love to open seven days a week again. . . .Hopefully we will be,” Basone said. “But it’s really like starting over.”

It’s been the same story across downtown. Di erent businesses have been a ected to di erent degrees by speci c issues. Lock 3 a ects some businesses, especially near it along Main Street, more than others.

e Downtown Akron Partnership (DAP), which gets praise from most retailers for the work it does to support them, is aware of the hardships caused by Lock 3, said communications director Dominic Caruso.

“It de nitely presents a bit of an obstacle,” he said.

But DAP is working to address the issue, in partnership with the city, with new signage directing visitors to Main Street and alerting them that businesses there are still open, and with similar efforts online.

It’s also working to create better pedestrian paths to link the current event site with downtown until work on the park is completed next fall, Caruso said.

“Next summer, I think, things will get better. It might not get back to where things used to be, but I think they’ll be better,” he said.

But all downtown businesses are su ering from the loss of downtown o ce workers.

Marge Klein runs the Peanut Shoppe, also on Main Street, a

downtown xture that her family has owned for decades. Business is down, she said, but it’s not gone.

Her business is entrenched in the hearts of many Akronites, and she said she’s been fortunate that loyal customers who worked in downtown o ces still come to her store, even if they don’t come downtown to work.

“ e o ce people are trying to keep us going,” Klein said. “ ose are the ones driving in, nding parking and coming in.”

But she said that while she, too, feels the loss of business from Lock 3, she also has seen increased business from big events downtown, such as the Akron Marathon, the Punk Rock Flea Market and Akron’s PRIDE parade.

“ e city doing more events helps,” Klein said. “ e downtown PRIDE parade was very good for us. It was nonstop tra c coming through that door all day. We were very surprised. . . .I’ve never seen so many people in my life. I heard there were 40,000 people down here for that and I believe it. Everyone had a great time and everyone was happy.”

e Peanut Shoppe is not the only business with loyal customers keeping it busy.

At the Diamond Deli, for instance, there are still lines at lunch hour, even on a Friday when more people tend to work from home. On other days, “the line still goes out the door and down the street,” said co-owner Brett Magilavy.

Crave restaurant also is busy. In 2022 it moved from East Market Street downtown to the rst oor of the city’s new $40 million, mixed-use Bowery District.

Business has held up, said owner and chef Aaron Hervey, and the restaurant has continued to turn a pro t at its new spot, thanks largely to the new downtown residents who live in the Bowery and other nearby developments.

But business would be much better if downtown o ce workers returned, and right now they’re a rare sight.

town, which has some more inexpensive housing that caters to graduate students, also is often busier than the downtown core.

“It’s getting better, but it’s not where it should be yet,” Taylor said.

Like others, Taylor has found new ways to get business. He has a loyal following among lovers of his thick-crusted pies, and more than 2,500 Instagram followers. at, along with online delivery services, has kept him busy. Taylor said he just focuses on making pizzas the best way he knows how and that things will be OK.

“A lot of businesses have had to nd new ways to get their product out there,” Taylor said. “You just have to keep at it and stay true to what you’re doing.”

Like other downtown business owners, and their landlords, Taylor hopes more people move downtown, but what they’re all really hoping for is the return of the o ce workers.

“You walk out on the street in the middle of summer, and there’s no one on the street,” Hervey said, as the new sidewalks in front of his restaurant also attested.

But people are still buying pizza, right?

Right, said John Taylor, who in July 2021 opened Totally Baked Pizza on High Street, in the city’s arts district on the north side of downtown.

“Akron’s done a good job of keeping this part of downtown active,” Taylor said. He hasn’t had to deal with the construction or other issues a icting those to the south on Main Street.

And with students coming back to the University of Akron, which has recently stabilized its enrollment after years of decline, there is a bit more foot tra c than there was a few months ago, he said.

at’s a familiar refrain, by the way, and the south side of down-

at’s what downtown needs to get fully back on its feet they say, because while new residents help, there are not nearly as many of them as there are lost o ce workers.

“You’re talking hundreds of people, compared to thousands of people we lost,” said developer and downtown real estate investor Tony Troppe, who is Taylor’s landlord. But Troppe is con dent downtown will come back.

His new hotel, the BLU-tique, at the corner of Main and Market streets, has been doing very well, he said, with a mix of tourists and business visitors keeping it mostly full. “We’re averaging 75% occupancy,” Troppe said. “We make money at 65%, so I’m very happy.”

Happy enough, he said, that he’s now eying more investments in downtown residential development.

If he does that, he’ll no doubt garner appreciation from many downtown businesses that are his neighbors.

John Taylor opened Totally Baked Pizza in downtown Akron in July 2021. | DAN SHINGLER

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