Crain's Cleveland Business, November 13, 2023

CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM I NOVEMBER 13, 2023

A fix for Cleveland’s housing woes

Rebuild Cleveland wants to use modular construction to bring new homes to dozens of lots across town

By Michelle Jarboe

I

n late July, workers lifted the halves of a bungalow off truck beds and set them on a new foundation on Colgate Avenue, on Cleveland’s West Side.

Within hours, the two-story

structure was enclosed and secure — though it would take a few more months to install countertops, finish the floors and build out the upstairs.

The house, now complete, is the maiden project for Rebuild Cleveland, a new company that sees modular construc-

tion as a potential solution to the city’s shortage of modern, high-quality homes.

Launched by a real estate agent, a general contractor and a mortgage-industry veteran, Rebuild Cleveland has its eye on dozens of lots on both sides of the Cuyahoga River. Its

founders have an even bigger vision: establishing a manufacturing plant in Cleveland to pump out homes. Such a factory could boost affordability, allow for more customization and put city residents to work.

See HOUSING on Page 17

From left to right, Chris Grimaldi, Seth Task and Ilya Palatnik of Rebuild Cleveland stand inside their unfinished first home in early October. The trio sees modular construction as a way to address the housing shortage and bring swift change to city neighborhoods. | GUS CHAN

It’ll still be a while before you can buy legal weed Ohio voters passed Issue 2. What happens next?

With the ratification of Issue 2 on Tuesday, Nov. 7, Ohio is the 24th state in the country — plus Washington, D.C. — to legalize recreational marijuana despite a lingering overhang of federal prohibition.

According to election results posted by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, “Yes” was hover-

ing around 56.3% while “No” was around 43.7% with around 3.5 million votes tabulated as of 11 p.m. the night of Nov. 7.

See ISSUE 2 on Page 16 ◗ Crain’s editorial: Lessons from a critical Election Day. PAGE 6 ◗ Abortion rights approved by voters, but opponents are eyeing next steps. PAGE 7

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CLOSING THE GAP

Schools are adapting to help students make up lost ground post-pandemic. PAGE 9 GETTY IMAGES/CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS ILLUSTRATION

By Jeremy Nobile

11/10/23 1:18 PM

Recession worries join labor as chief concern for contractors

By Stan Bullard

“That big sucking sound you hear is from the south,” observes Adrian Maldonado, who owns the Adrian Maldonado & Associates construction company in Olmsted Falls. “It’s the sound of labor leaving our region and heading to Columbus and projects like the Intel factory.”

Maldonado said seasoned construction site superintendents are getting lured downstate with offers of more than $147,000 while the best he could command here was $90,000. The same competition for well-trained construction executives is pushing up salaries among competing area firms, according to the new 2023 Construction Survey by the Marcum accounting and consulting firm’s Cleveland office.

In a switch from past years, area construction owners and managers are worrying about the lack of supervisory staff. “I spend more time on personnel issues than ever,” said Jason Jones, senior vice president for Turner Construction Co. in its Cleveland office. “With this large a generation reaching retirement age, we’re losing a lot of experience.

You have to provide training for newer people and shift people to optimize their skills. When we go to college career fairs, we’re finding fewer young engineers who want a construction career.”

The annual Marcum survey asks contractors to rank the biggest threats to their business. Securing skilled labor remains the top concern, cited by 46% of respondents, up from 31% a year ago. Likewise, 9% of respondents see labor costs

Overall, construction continues apace in Cleveland even as new concerns circulate among contractors. | SHERWIN-WILLIAMS CO.

as the biggest threat, while just 5% saw that as a worry a year ago.

However, different concerns are gaining traction following the recent rise in interest rates and escalating material costs that spiked in the past few years. Banking, or tightened credit by banks, was cited as a worry by 10% of the respondents. That’s up from 5% a year ago.

The current political climate remains a big concern, cited as the top threat by 13% of the respondents from 11% just a year ago.

However, that is still below the 2020 figure when it was 20%.

Although the labor worries show how good the building market is, Roger Gingerich, the Marcum partner who heads its Northeast Ohio construction practice, said he sees in the results signs the market is changing with different steps being taken by management to get ready for a potential recession and cope with inflation.

The statistic most on-point is that contractors are reporting a drop in their backlog, or contracts for jobs they have obtained but not yet started.

Marcum’s survey shows 20% of

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the building executives said their backlog was down more than 15% from last year. In the year-ago survey, a 15% drop was cited by 14% of the respondents.

By contrast, in 2019, prior to the pandemic, only 7% cited a 15% backlog drop from the prior year.

The number reporting increasing backlog, meanwhile, has declined. For example, 13% said their backlog was 15% higher than the prior year while last year 24% cited such a big boost in business.

“A year ago the construction market was firing on all its cylinders,” Gingerich said. “Now you’re seeing the impact of rising interest rates and inflation starting to kick in.”

“If it’s anything that’s in any way reliant on interest rates, it’s iffy,” said Don Taylor, CEO of Welty Building Co. of Fairlawn.

“However, the institutional and government market remains strong. There are more opportunities for builders with better reputations the same way that there’s a flight to quality in the office market.”

Jones said, “We’re seeing concerns grow about raising the capital for a project than we’ve seen for years. And more projects are being delayed. There will be a real shutdown on commercial projects such as multifamily developments.”

The Marcum survey asked where contractors see their business going over the next three years. The number of respondents seeing an increase in opportunities fell to 36% from 51% in 2022. The number seeing fewer opportunities climbed to 29% in this year’s survey 9% last year.

And those expecting the same opportunities? That fell to 35% this year from 40% in 2022.

Daniel Tonelli, who owns Engineered Construction of North Royalton, said he feels the residential construction market is slightly softer than last year and

counts himself lucky that his competitors see it softening more than he has.

“We have had a very good year,” Tonelli said of the company that provides poured concrete walls for basements and home foundations. “It seems like it’s slightly more than the typical fall slowdown.”

However, he worries about how long the market for new homes will stay strong because he believes people will stay put in homes because they locked in record-low interest rates the past few years.

His solution to the problem was to buy J.D. Johnson, a residential waterproofing company in Twinsburg because he feels people will spend money to stay in their homes longer. The move also will allow him to switch crews to waterproofing projects when the weather is bad or there is time. Keeping your team working is the best way to retain labor in changing times, he said.

The waterproofing business was available, Tonelli said, because it had trouble finding workers.

“There aren’t a lot of people who want to spend their day hauling five-gallon buckets of dirt and concrete out of basements,” Tonelli said, but his crew wants the work.

In a sign of the times, the Marcum survey asked contractors how inflation is impacting them and how they are coping with it.

Rising building costs are a real threat for contractors because they may have to eat them to finish a job. A majority, 58%, see challenges passing additional costs on to customers, and 55% have seen projects canceled.

“We’re seeing contractors delay purchasing equipment,” Gingerich said, “and trying to pull back on overhead.”

An indication of the market’s strength is that contractors told Marcum they are seeing fewer competing bidders on jobs.

“This shows the big projects such as the Sherwin Williams headquarters and the new Neurology building at the Cleveland Clinic are keeping the biggest contractors busy,” Gingerich said.

The old worry about dour prospects for Northeast Ohio putting builders out of business has been banished.

Indeed, most contractors are eagerly awaiting big projects that are in the planning stages. Many cite mega projects such as the new Cuyahoga County jail, the lakefront development and Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate’s plans to revitalize the riverfront behind Huron Road and the Terminal Tower as positive predictors of the market.

“Those are exciting mega projects to have out there if you are a small company like mine,” Maldonado said. “But after 15 years in business, I’ve learned it may be a long time before you can eat at that table. So you stay happy when the phone rings.

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11/10/23 7:46 AM

Frontier opening a new crew base in Cleveland Cleveland will be home to a new Frontier Airlines crew base, bringing more than 400 additional airport-related jobs to the city, the company announced last week.

The move highlights the Denver-based company’s recent growth at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE).

According to a statement from the airline, the new crew base “is expected to bring hundreds of flight attendant, pilot, airport and maintenance jobs to Cleveland Hopkins and have a multi-million-dollar wage impact on the area economy.”

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Cleveland Hopkins, airport director Bryant Francis and Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle made the announcement at a press conference held the morning of Nov. 8 at Cleveland Hopkins.

recent growth of service, which is up 50% from 2022 and accounts for 12% of all Cleveland Hopkins passengers.

“I think the big takeaway and the big headline I want to leave us with this morning is — momentum, momentum. There is a lot of momentum in Cleveland, a lot of momentum across this state and a lot of momentum at Hopkins,” Bibb said at the press conference. Cleveland Hopkins’ passenger traffic surpassed 7.3 million as of Sept.

2023 — up 12.4% from last year.

BLOOMBERG

By Kim Palmer

“There is a lot of momentum in Cleveland, a lot of momentum across this state and a lot of momentum at Hopkins.”

— Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb Biffle said that with the new base, the company would be hiring about 110 pilots, 250 flight attendants and 50 maintenance side personnel. The new Cleveland-based crew is expected to bring in $80 million in annual payroll.

A Cleveland Hopkins base also means that the airline will be able to offer more non-stop service for a lower price.

“You have more places that you can fly. It also enables us to lower our costs even more because we will be more efficient and that enables us to lower the fares,” said Biffle. “We will be more reliable because when you have weather or some kind of maintenance event (we will) have people here to help.”

In March, Frontier added seasonal nonstop flights connecting Cleveland Hopkins to San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Diego and Charlotte. The airline now conducts a total of 17 nonstop routes from Cleveland, the most of any airline operating from Hopkins.

Frontier also offers service out of Cleveland Hopkins to Orlando, Fort Myers, Tampa, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale, Denver, Atlanta, Dallas, Raleigh, Miami and Philadelphia as well as international service to the Dominican Republic and Mexico.

Bibb thanked Frontier for the

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By Joe Scalzo

Cleveland Charge general manager Liron Fanan has spent so much of her life around basketball, it’s a surprise her crib didn’t come with a Nerf hoop attached.

Her hoops resume doesn’t need a stapler, it needs a binder clip.

But for all the titles she’s had — GM, director of talent development, international relations coordinator for the NBA, intelligence liaison for the Israeli army — Fanan knows she’s still partly defined by the one she was born with: female.

“It’s funny you mention that, because when I started working in basketball in Europe, I was the first assistant GM (for Maccabi TelAviv), then first female agent around and I never looked at it like, ‘I’m the first’ or ‘I’m a female,’” she said. “I just did what I loved to do, what I was raised to do.”

But once she arrived in the NBA in 2018 as the Charge’s director of player development, she quickly saw that she needed to be more than an example for other women trying to break through in the sports world. She needed to be a mentor and an advocate, too.

“I try to push more women to put themselves out there and take those risks and apply for these jobs,” she said.

After spending the last three seasons as the Charge’s assistant GM, Fanan was promoted to GM in July, becoming the first woman in franchise history to hold that role and just the fourth in the NBA G League.

Although she helped the previous GM, Brendon Yu, with everything from roster construction to player development to G League scouting, she admitted the job changes quite a bit once “assistant” gets removed from your title.

“I just told him (Yu) that I thought I did a lot as an assistant GM,” she said. “And then you become the GM and you’re actually making all these decisions and try to make sure you made the right decision and that you’re communicating everything to your staff and doing things the right way.

“It’s been a great experience running the operation and being hands-on in every aspect of it. It keeps me very, very busy, but I’m enjoying it a lot.”

Fanan grew up around the game thanks to her father, who spent 30 years in management for Maccabi Tel Aviv, one of international basketball’s best teams. After her mandatory two-year conscription in Israel, she attended NYU, earning a bachelor’s degree in sports marketing and management in 2005.

She then spent three years as Maccabi Tel-Aviv’s assistant GM before co-founding and managing

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Fanan is the first woman in franchise history to be named general manager

her own agency, 2Talent Sports Management, in 2019. She eventually built a client list of 40, including NBA players such as Amar’e Stoudemire and Omri Casspi.

“It’s a totally different world, a totally different grind,” she said of being an agent. “It’s a 24-7, yearround job.”

Fanan learned how to manage egos, negotiate contracts, manage relationships between players and coaches (and players and GMs) and to help players deal with the uncertainty that comes with playing professional basketball, particularly overseas where contracts are smaller and contracts don’t always come with many guarantees.

By 2018, she was ready for a different challenge, one that would keep her around the game but allow her to occasionally sleep. She interviewed with several NBA teams but was drawn to the Cavs in large part because she already knew GM Koby Altman, who had come to Israel as a scout when her friend, former Maccabi Tel Aviv coach David Blatt, was coaching Cleveland. Fanan was also impressed by the Cavs’ culture, which included an open-door policy in the front office.

“You can talk to anyone and get advice from anyone,” she said. “For me coming here, someone who had never worked in an NBA organization, that was so important to me. I was able to ask any question and I was involved in a lot of things, from the draft to combines to trades. I was able to sit in the room and listen and see how things are done.

“I’m five years in (in the NBA) and after all my experiences, including 20 years in European basketball, I’m still learning. You never get too old to learn.”

Fanan’s basketball knowledge, work ethic and coachability quickly impressed the Cavs, who kept giving her more responsibility. The team likes to promote from within — current GM Mike Gansey spent five years with the Charge’s front office, including two as general manager — so when Cleveland elevated Yu to director of scouting for the Cavs in July, Fanan was a natural choice to replace him.

“It was just a matter of time,” Gansey said. “She has too many good qualities, from her personality to her work ethic to her knowledge of basketball to her relationships with players. Each year, she kept getting more and more on her plate and she was obviously ready

to take on more. She’s a real asset in our organization.”

As the Charge GM, Fanan’s main focus is on player development, particularly the players who have two-way contracts with the parent club.

While wins and losses don’t matter as much as they do at the NBA level, the Charge front office still wants to field successful teams, whether that’s in the G League (where the Charge made the playoffs last year) or the NBA Summer League (where the Cavs won this year’s 2K24 title in Las Vegas).

“There’s a really, really thin balance between development and winning,” Fanan said. “You want to develop the guys on the court as much as you can and have them play and learn from their mistakes. but we’re all very competitive. We all want to win games. And you want them to learn how to make winning plays and how to be a winning team.”

Ultimately, Fanan wants to handle those duties at the highest level, whether that’s as a GM or president of basketball operations “or whatever you want to give me,” she said, laughing. “I want to run an NBA team one day, yeah.”

In the meantime, Fanan has embraced being the Charge’s GM, a role Gansey called “the best thing for his career.” During his five seasons, he got to do everything from running a draft room to making trades to hiring coaches and interns.

“People call me all the time and I tell them — if they want you to be the GM of a G League team, hang up the phone, call them back and accept now,” he said. “If I didn’t have that experience with the Charge, I wouldn’t have been able to do this job. I’d have been in over my head.

“That G League experience, it’s invaluable.”

Will Fanan eventually make the same jump Gansey did? Time will tell. She knows it will take a team — and an owner — willing to buck convention.

The other thing she knows? She won’t be the one saying no.

“I feel like wherever you throw me in, I’m going to figure it out,” she said. “Every step I’ve made has made me more ready. My whole life, I’ve never been afraid of challenges or stepping into places where I might not be comfortable.

“I’m just going to keep asking questions and knocking on the right doors.”

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11/10/23 7:45 AM

Former FedEx unit HQ expected to sell for ‘pennies on the dollar’

By Dan Shingler

The big office building that housed FedEx Custom Critical in Green is up for auction, and the city says it’s hoping a buyer will consider turning it into a mixeduse development.

The building, approximately 260,000 square feet, is going up for auction Nov. 15. While that’s no guarantee it will sell, the investment broker managing the sale said he expects it will — but for a fraction of its appraised value.

“We have it going to auction (Nov. 15). I wouldn’t say it guarantees it will sell but we have an opening bid of $750,000,” said Steve Silverman, executive vice president with Friedman Real Estate Group in Detroit. “This deal is going to trade at pennies on the dollar.”

The appraised value of the building is about $19 million, Silverman said, noting that was the value put on it after FedEx vacated it when its 20-year lease expired earlier this year.

Silverman’s prediction that the building won’t fetch nearly that much reflects the weak market for office buildings, which are in less and less demand as companies allow their employees to work from home all or part of the time, decreasing office footprints to match new needs.

“Silverman is right. Who’s gonna buy an office building today?” said Jerry Fiume, founder and managing director at SVN/Summit Commercial Real Estate Advisors in Fairlawn. “Those transactions are few and far between.”

The low demand and the often-resulting desperation on the part of sellers is a chief reason that buildings such as the one that housed FedEx Custom Critical are increasingly being brought to market via auction, Fiume said.

In the case of FedEx Custom Critical, the company is both downsizing and moving. In September, FedEx said it was moving from Green to Richfield, where it would only need about 70,000 square feet in a building it’s leasing on Highlander Parkway.

Coincidentally, that building reportedly was also made available by the work-from-home trend after employees of OEConnection, its former tenant, moved to remote work.

For Green, the move marks the loss of one of the city’s largest employers, but it won’t be losing all of the tax revenue it got from the income taxes generated by the FedEx jobs — at least not right away.

That’s because an inter-governmental agreement means that Green and Richfield will split those revenues evenly for a year.

The former site of FedEx Custom Critical’s offices in Green sit empty with the company now moved out and located in Richfield. | DAN SHINGLER

Then Green will get its share of those tax revenues reduced by 10 percentage points each year over five years — and then nothing in subsequent years, said Valerie Wolford, the city’s communications manager.

Green might’ve lost out on most of its tax revenues anyway if FedEx’s reduced footprint is an indication of how many of its employees will work on-site, rather than working from home. Green would not be taxing FedEx employees that lived and worked outside of Green regardless of where the company was based.

“We don’t actually know,” Wolford said with regards to how that might have played out. The city was never told by FedEx how it was going to structure its remove-work policies, she said.

Now, Green needs to find a new

purpose for the building, which was billed as “one of the largest office buildings in Summit County”

by Green’s Warmus Builders, when the structure was finished in 2003 after three-phases of construction.

The building sits on a nearly 20acre site, with a four-story central section flanked by two three-story wings.

Green is hoping that it gets purchased by a developer who will repurpose it, Wolford said.

“The city’s really hoping a developer who chooses to purchase it would be interested in doing some sort of mixed-use development with that property,” Wolford said.

“We would welcome that and be open to that sort of opportunity.”

The land is currently zoned for commercial, light-industrial use, she said, but the city would be

amenable to zoning changes if a developer needed and requested them for retail or residential use.

With improvements to Massillon Road, which connects the site to I-77, the city has dramatically cut down transit times in the area, Wolford said.

“It’s just in a great spot. It’s close to the highway and in an area that has a lot of amenities as well,” Wolford said. “We have new infrastructure there too — we’re positioned for the next 25 years to handle traffic there.”

That might still be a heavy lift.

Silverman said he was aware of the city’s hopes for the site but said that doesn’t really make the project stand out from similar office buildings in similar situations.

“I would tell you that 90% of the municipalities around the country tell us the same thing,” Silverman said.

But, on the bright side, Green has done well with its commercial properties over the years. And even though it might not sell for its appraised value, Silverman said he thinks the building will sell.

“Based on the office world we’re in and the size of the Green market, I think it’s going to be priced accordingly,” Silverman said. “But we have a strong group of buyers registered. I think the seller (Arizona-based Orion Office REIT) will be pleasantly surprised.”

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EDITORIAL

Lessons from a critical Election Day That Issue 38 came so close to passage in the face of such strong institutional opposition speaks to dissatisfaction about the city’s budgeting process and how public money gets spent in their neighborhoods.

Council members and the administration should take heed. This isn’t the last we’ll hear of this push.

1. Let’s start, appropriately enough, with Issue 1, the amendment to the Ohio constitution that protects access to abortion until the fetus can live outside the womb, generally at about 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Its passage, with more than 56% support, effectively counteracts the state’s “heartbeat bill” that took effect immediately after the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wage but has been blocked temporarily by a state judge. That bill bans most abortions after around six weeks into pregnancy, with exceptions for the health of the pregnant woman and ectopic pregnancies — but not for rape and incest. We don’t typically weigh in on those types of issues, but it’s fair to characterize Ohio’s bill as extreme.

The premise of Dobbs was that questions about abortion and reproductive rights should be decided by states. That’s happening. And when abortion rights are on the ballot, they’re winning — in liberal California and Vermont, in a true swing state (Michigan), and in solidly red states including Kansas, Kentucky, Montana and, now, Ohio.

The question of when and how to protect unborn life is in the hands of the people, and they are making their preferences known. Other states will take notice of what happened in Ohio.

2. The leaders of the Ohio House and Senate immediately promised they’d try to unravel what voters just approved.

Shortly after the Issue 1 race was called on the night of Nov. 7, House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, said, “I remain steadfastly committed to protecting life, and that commitment is unwavering. The legislature has multiple paths that we will explore to continue to protect innocent life. This is not the end of the conversation.”

Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, meanwhile, offered this: “The national abortion industry funded by wealthy out-ofstate special interests spent millions to pass this radical language that goes far past abortion on demand. This isn’t the end. It is really just the beginning of a revolving door of ballot campaigns to repeal or replace Issue 1.”

They’re entitled to their opinions and to

BLOOMBERG

For a night, at least, Ohio felt like a swing state again.

The home of JD Vance, Jim Jordan, huge Republican majorities in the General Assembly and two big Donald Trump presidential victories just voted to establish a right to an abortion in the state constitution and to legalize recreational marijuana.

These weren’t surprising results if you looked at any polls leading up to Election Day. (Credit where it’s due: Pollsters were darn good this time around.) But as Ohio has tipped solidly Republican of late in presidential and most statewide races, they’re notable as a potential harbinger of change ahead.

Here are a few takeaways from an atypically eventful off-year election:

want to pursue policy alternatives that better suit their desires. But keep in mind that after 56% of voters expressed a clear preference, their immediate reaction is to seek to undermine it. We long for the days when the losing side in a campaign might take at least a little time for some reflection and maybe even some recalibration of their position. Stephens and Huffman lack even a modicum of respect for the state’s voters. (Not surprising, maybe, given that they exist in such a gerrymandered world that they rarely encounter much pushback.)

3. The passage of Issue 2, the measure legalizing recreational marijuana in Ohio, is a testament to building support over the long haul.

Backers of the measure, most prominently the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, have worked for years on the issue.

They took a big loss in 2015 with that year’s failed Issue 3. But they refined the approach to crafting the legalization effort, were methodical in explaining it, and were patient in waiting for public opinion to turn in their favor.

Since Issue 2 is an initiated statute, lawmakers can easily change it. And — surprise! — they’re already promising to do that.

Huffman, for instance, huffed that the statute “was written by the marijuana industry and should not be treated as a cash grab for their cash crop at the expense of a state trying to emerge from the opioid epidemic.” He noted, correctly, that the General Assembly “may consider amending the statute to clarify the questionable language regarding limits for THC and tax rates as well as other parts of the statute.”

The law calls for the creation of a Division of Cannabis Control that will be the primary regulator of the industry in Ohio.

Legislators should respect the voice of voters and avoid efforts to undermine a safe, efficient legal marijuana industry in the state.

Interim Editor: Ann Dwyer (adwyer@crain.com) Managing Editor: Marcus Gilmer (marcus.gilmer@crain.com) Contact Crain’s: 216-522-1383 Read Crain’s online: crainscleveland.com

4. Cuyahoga County voters know a good thing when they see it — in this case, Cuyahoga Community College.

More than 60% of voters approved Issue 5, a 2.1-mill renewal tax levy and a new, 0.4mill increase, for Tri-C. We backed the measure, which will raise residents’ property taxes by a little more than $14 per year for every $100,000 of their home’s assessed value. For that, they help keep on solid footing a school that offers a quality education at an affordable price, and one that plays a key role in filling jobs in hospitality management, manufacturing technology, nursing, public safety and other areas.

Higher education is a hot-button these days. Setting aside culture wars, there are legitimate questions about whether schools are providing the value implied by their big price tags. Tri-C, though, does what people are asking for: It offers practical programs that lead to students finding meaningful employment.

It’s easy to be cynical about politics, but it says good things about this community that voters consistently support Tri-C. 5. Cleveland’s Issue 38, the measure to introduce an element of participatory budgeting to the city, is a new poster child for the idea that every vote counts.

Preliminary results for the measure Nov. 8 showed it was defeated by the narrowest of margins: 51.06% (33,386 votes) “no” to 48.94% (31,999 votes) on the “yes” side. That’s fewer than 1,400 votes out of more than 65,000 votes cast. If you have “go vote” on your calendar during the early voting period or on Election Day, follow through on it. The fate of issues you care about is on the line.

We were skeptical about the benefits of the measure and the details of how it would have been implemented to allocate about 2% of the general fund (an estimated $14 million) to projects directed by community members.

In that, we were hardly alone, as Mayor Justin Bibb and every Cleveland City Council member opposed Issue 38, as did unions and many civic and nonprofit groups.

6. We no longer have to use the clunky phrase “presumptive Akron mayor” before Shammas Malik’s name.

The current member of Akron City Council is now officially mayor-elect after winning a race in which his only opponent was a write-in candidate. Malik essentially won the mayor’s race when he came out on top of a large field of contenders in the Democratic primary in May. (No Republican or independent candidate emerged.)

Come Jan. 1, he’ll just be Mayor Shammas Malik as he takes over from Mayor Dan Horrigan, who has led the city capably since 2015.

Malik has been active, talking to community members, city leaders and other stakeholders in what essentially is a seven-month transition to the job. It should help him get off to a fast start as the Malik administration tackles the big issues facing cities: safety, education, reviving downtown in a post-pandemic era, and more.

We’re rooting for him — not uncritically, but out of a desire to see elected leaders succeed. In an era of significant leadership transitions throughout Northeast Ohio, it’s notable that the region’s two biggest cities will be led by young mayors with big ambitions. The region will be much better off if, years down the line, history sees Bibb and Malik as successful mayors.

7. Does last week matter for 2024?

The easy answer, of course, is we don’t know. (And “we don’t know” is a more honest answer than a lot of what qualifies as political analysis these days.)

Both parties have seemed to agree that Ohio is off the map at the presidential level, and recent history suggests it is. But the country would be better off if more states actually were in play and presidential candidates were forced to engage more fully with voters everywhere. It wasn’t long ago that “Ohio, Ohio, Ohio” was the mantra on Election Night in a presidential year, and it’s not crazy to think it could happen again — but only if a Democratic Party that has largely given up on the state re-engages with it.

Sen. Sherrod Brown sure wants to see that. His campaign is critical to Democrats’ efforts to retain control of the Senate. He has what looks to be some formidable potential Republican competition. The success of Issue 1, in particular, will be part of Brown’s playbook in 2024. There will be plenty of important issues to discuss — the economy foremost among them — and abortion/reproductive rights will be central to the conversation.

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

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The vote to enshrine access in the state constitution drew national attention and interest, particularly heading into the 2024 election cycle strategist and senior vice president at Columbus-based ShuVoters in Ohio approved Issue maker Advisors, predicted early 1 last week, a constitutional Nov. 7.

“What I also expect to see is a amendment that will add reproductive and abortion rights as an lot of lawyers to work to undo or amendment to the state’s consti- weaken the language that will go into the constitution. We can extution.

As of late the night of Nov. 7, pect to see several bills in the roughly 55.6% of Ohioans had state legislature looking to find voted in favor of the amendment holes in the constitutional and 44.4% against, according to amendment,” he added.

On the night of Nov. 7, after the preliminary voting results from the Ohio Secretary of State web- vote had been called by the Assosite. By 11 p.m. that night, the of- ciated Press, Cleveland Mayor fice had tabulated over 3.5 mil- Justin Bibb issued a statement, saying, “We organized across the lion votes statewide.

Opponents of Issue 1 claimed state to protect our freedoms and the amendment would negative- we won — again. We refused to ly affect existing parental consent go backward. With abortion enlaws related to reproductive and shrined in our state constitution, other health care while support- people will officially have the ers argued there is nothing in the freedom to determine their own measure that supersedes those reproductive health care decisions. Our doctors will practice existing provisions.

Existing state abortion restric- without fear and in the best intertions, such as the requirements of est of their patients. And no lona 24-hour waiting period and ger will we put women needlessly documentation signed by the at risk.”

Lauren Blauvelt, co-chair of physician and patient on whether a fetal heartbeat was detected, the Ohioans United for Reproare expected to remain in place ductive Rights, the statewide coalition of organizations that proeven with the passage of Issue 1. posed the Issue 1 amendment, said her group planned on canvassing up to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7, when polls closed.

“We have been fighting the opposi— Derrick Clay, a Democratic strategist and senior vice tion for a decade,” president at Columbus-based Shumaker Advisors Blauvelt said. “Ohio voters do underSupporters of Issue 1 predicted stand that voting yes is the only their efforts would succeed as way to protect abortion access early voting surpassed the August and that is what we communicatearly voter turnout. Early voting ed during this entire campaign.”

Abortion opponents, she said, numbers published the morning of Nov. 7 reported there were have spent years chipping away 864,525 early votes statewide at abortion rights in the state, inwith more than half of those cast cluding the state’s “heartbeat” law — which, in most cases, bans in-person.

“Issue 1 will pass convincing- abortions as early as six weeks ly,” Derrick Clay, a Democratic into pregnancy and has no exBy Kim Palmer

“We can expect to see several bills in the state legislature looking to find holes in the constitutional amendment.”

ception for rape or incest — that was enacted for a few weeks before stayed by the Ohio Supreme Court.

State House Speaker Jason Stephens, a Republican, indicated as such in his statement after Issue 1 passed, saying, “As a 100% prolife conservative, I remain steadfastly committed to protecting life, and that commitment is unwavering. The legislature has multiple paths that we will explore to continue to protect innocent life. This is not the end of the conversation.”

“Passing Issue 1 is essential for stopping the state’s extreme abortion ban and for making it clear that Ohio voters expect to be able to make their own personal medical decisions,” Blauvelt said.

The passage of Issue 1 returns Ohio to the same standard that was in place before Roe vs. Wade was overturned. That standard allows for restrictions on abortion after the point of fetal survivability outside the womb, typically about 23 weeks or 24 weeks into the pregnancy.

Issue 1 followed on the heels of a previous special state election in August aimed at making it more difficult to pass a citizen-initiated referendum — like Issue 1 — by raising the threshold for passage of such a measure to 60% up from a simple 50% majority.

The state constitutional amendment was championed by reproductive rights groups after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned federal abortion rights afforded all states under Roe v. Wade.

The passage of the measure in Ohio is seen as a “bellwether” for similar efforts to ensconce abortion and reproductive rights in other states — particularly states that lack exceptions for rape or incest comparable to current Ohio laws.

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Vending machine company expanding, moving headquarters to Maple Heights

By Jeremy Nobile

VE Solutions, a remanufacturer and supplier of vending machines and related parts and equipment, including coolers, kiosks and software, is relocating its Cleveland headquarters to Maple Heights amid a company expansion.

The company also plans to add to its employee base of 204 people amid this growth spurt.

Founded in 1959 as Vendors Exchange International, the business rebranded as VE Solutions earlier this year alongside the debut of its V3 self-service kiosk.

new features on our control board to enable remote price updates,” said CEO Matt Shene.

The company said it has enjoyed several years of “double-digit growth,” though officials declined to share specific revenue figures or anticipated growth in 2023.

As the business looked around Northeast Ohio for another space to expand into, some competitive financial incentives helped draw it to Maple Heights.

With the relocation of its headquarters to the city via 16501 Rockside Road — an approximately 41,000-square-foot space that has been empty for about three years and that features corporate offices plus a large warehouse in the rear — VE will be awarded a job creation grant contingent on bringing 70 jobs to the area.

Those positions represent approximately $5.5 million in annual payroll, according to the city.

Joe Duffy, Maple Heights planning and development director, said the grant to VE will be provided through a rebate on its payroll tax reimbursements — a projected annual value for the business of $137,5000 — plus a 50% rebate on

“We are beyond excited about this expansion into the Maple Heights community.”

— Matt Shene, VE Solutions CEO The company was originally located on Payne Avenue but moved to its current headquarters on Brookpark Road in the early 2000s.

While the business is not getting rid of that space, it has nonetheless outgrown it.

“Our growth has been driven by our expansion in technology offerings, such as micro market/ self-service kiosks, screens and

net taxes paid to the city.

That arrangement, which could be extended, is in place for at least five years.

“We are really excited to welcome a new business to what is basically our core industrial district,” Duffy said.

“The arrival of new businesses like VE Solutions to our city promises increased opportunities for residents, youth engagement, economic resilience and continues the city’s progress toward consistently strong fiscal health,” added Maple Heights Mayor Annette Blackwell in a statement. “We are so pleased to welcome VE Solutions to our community here in Maple Heights and know they will be an asset to the broader public.”

VE said its Maple Heights space will feature an interactive showroom as well as a “fully equipped innovation lab,” which will be run by vice president of engineering Steve Frackowiak.

“The expansion to Rockside Road and innovation lab will equip engineering, software and product teams with the right tools needed for development when it comes to our kiosk and other technology solutions,” Shene said.

While a portion VE Solution’s manufacturing will be moved to

Two VE Solutions associates conduct quality testing on vending machine coils. | VE SOLUTIONS

Maple Heights with the corporate relocation, the bulk of its operations will continue to be housed at its existing Brookpark Road facility.

The move begins this month.

“We are beyond excited about this expansion into the Maple Heights community,” Shene said.

“While we recognize relocations may come with logistical con-

straints on our team members, we are fully committed to retaining all current positions and adding new jobs between both facilities.”

As far as those new jobs, Shene said the company is planning to grow total headcount by approximately 5% over the next year, which comes out to about 10 new positions.

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8 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | NOVEMBER 13, 2023

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K-12 LEARNING

CLOSING THE GAP GETTY IMAGES/CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS ILLUSTRATION

Schools are adapting to help students make up lost ground following the pandemic | By Rachel Abbey McCafferty

W

hen the COVID-19 pandemic started spreading across the U.S., schools closed their doors and sent students home to learn remotely.

Some school buildings remained shut for a full year.

And when students returned, many schools still had social distancing and masking protocols in place. It was, as many have come to say, an unprecedented time. While teachers and students kept working together, in person and over computer screens, it’s become clear that the pandemic — and the stress and sorrow that came with it — had an impact on student learning.

Now, Northeast Ohio’s schools and districts are working to close academic gaps, while also ensuring they’re meeting their students’ social and emotional needs, too.

The Akron Public Schools were remote for a year, with most returning to classrooms in March 2021. The district saw initial drops in state test scores, said director of school improvement Keith Liechty-Clifford, and there were “tremendous gaps in phonics” for the youngest learners. Many of those younger students, who had been learning to read when the pandemic started, are in fourth grade now, added Sherry Bennington, coordinator with the office of school improvement in the district. The district has had to be intentional, “scaffolding the learning” and filling any skill gaps students had, she said.

Identifying needs Liechty-Clifford said the district has been monitoring data to pinpoint skills gaps, and teachers have been meeting in professional learning communities weekly. They’re also focused on “high-dosage tutoring” in reading and math, he said, switching from a model that used small amounts of guided reading skill groups to one that uses a “very prescriptive phonics for reading model.”

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District also “definitely” saw learning losses because of See EDUCATION on Page 10

SPONSORS

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K-12 LEARNING

Standardized test results are down in recent years The National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) measures reading and math skills in 4th and 8th grades every other year, though there was a gap because of the pandemic between 2019 and 2022.

Ohio saw a 10-point drop from 2019 to 2022 in eighth-grade math and a five-point drop for that grade in reading. For fourth grade, scores dropped by about three points in both math and reading.

Context is important when looking at NAEP data after the widespread school closures due to the pandemic, said Grady Wilburn, statistician for the National Center for Education Statistics.

“Things weren’t great before COVID,” Wilburn said. “Things aren’t good now, but they weren’t great before COVID.”

The change in Ohio is on par with what the nation overall saw, Wilburn said.

For many states, 2013 was something of a “high-water point” for NAEP scores, with those scores stagnating or declining since then, Wilburn said. The segment of high-performing students tended to maintain or improve scores, he added, while the scores of lower-performing students declined.

This was the case in Ohio, he added, except in eighth-grade math, where scores for all students declined.

The National Center for Education Statistics doesn’t usually get into the “why” behind the data, Wilburn said, and he hasn’t heard a good explanation for this phenomenon.

— Rachel Abbey McCafferty

Proficiency levels for students in Ohio The percentage of students in Ohio testing below basic proficiency in math and reading increased in 2022 following pandemic disruptions.

Below basic

Basic

Proficient

Advanced

Grade 4 math proficiency levels 2013 14%

37%

2015 15%

41%

38%

10%

37%

8%

2017 19%

40%

33%

8%

2019 18%

41%

33%

8%

31%

9%

2022 24%

36%

Grade 4 reading proficiency levels 2013 29%

33%

28%

9%

2015 28%

35%

29%

8%

2017 29%

33%

29%

10%

2019 32%

32%

2022 35%

30%

28%

8%

25%

10%

Grade 8 math proficiency levels 2013 21%

39%

30%

2015 25%

40%

2017 26%

34%

2019 27%

36%

2022 36%

11%

27%

9%

28%

13%

26% 35%

11% 22%

7%

Grade 8 reading proficiency levels 2013 21%

40%

34%

5%

2015 24%

40%

2017 23%

38%

34%

5%

2019 25%

37%

33%

5%

2022 29%

32%

38%

29%

4%

4%

Grade 8 and grade 4 average scores 280

Grade 8 math

260

Grade 8 reading

240

Grade 4 math

220 2014

2016

2018

Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. | Source: NAEP

2020

Grade 8 reading 2022

N

EDUCATION From Page 9

the pandemic, said interim deputy chief of learning and teaching Elizabeth Nelson Creel, with early reading skills as a particular challenge.

The Cleveland schools were primarily remote for the 2020-21 school year, Nelson Creel said, with a little bit of hybrid education in the fourth quarter of that academic year. It’s difficult to hear sounds well or watch lip movements virtually or masked, she said, and there was confusion initially about whether manipulatives – hands-on tools young students use in learning – could be used safely. And those concerns don’t even cover the more basic challenges of that time: was there someone at home to help students get online, or could students get to a learning pod? Did families have adequate food? Did older students have to get jobs?

And once students were back in school, the disruptions continued. Outbreaks of COVID-19 again closed schools, Nelson Creel said.

“It was just a lot,” she said. “And that, in itself, interrupted learning.”

While the state did not require a minimum third grade reading score to move on to fourth grade in 2020, 2021 and 2022, as it had previously, it almost did in 2023, Nelson Creel said. And that would have made a huge impact in Cleveland. Prior to the pandemic, about 85% of Cleveland’s third graders were able to read well enough to be promoted to fourth grade. Had the state reinstated the third grade reading requirement in 2023, about half of the district’s third graders would have been retained, she said.

While students were allowed to be promoted to fourth grade, students who are not yet proficient in reading – a higher standard than just meeting the minimum score – are on a reading improvement plan. Teachers monitor progress and provide “targeted interventions” for students on those plans, Nelson Creel said. Those plans existed before the pandemic, but they stopped in the third grade.

Now, they’ve expanded. Students on the reading improvement plans get an additional 90 minutes a week of reading interventions.

One of those interventions the district is rolling out is an AI tool called Amira that helps assess students’ reading skills and identify “micro-interventions,” Nelson Creel said. All K-4 students in the district should be using the program this fall. If students are not on a reading improvement plan, Nelson Creel said the recommendation is that they still use the program for at least 30 minutes a week.

Nelson Creel said the district has started to see progress in students’ reading scores, with this year’s group of first to third graders showing a higher number of students on track in reading in this fall’s assessments, compared to the year prior.

The pandemic was a “catastrophic experience for kids, fam-

O

sch ous to s S hall had shu stat with in o a pr nex an t nou See F imp ing ach cato to m cou per brac ing pan hav nea O this yea tion

Children participate in Akron’s summer programming. The district offered almost 200 options from crocheting to cooking to music. Some of the programs were focused just on enrichment, while others wove in academics. | AKRON PUBLIC SCHOOLS PHOTOS

ilies and schools,” said Andrew McRae, chief academic officer for the Breakthrough Public Schools.

It was traumatic, it led to the loss of many lives, and it impacted everyone on the planet.

Breakthrough, a Cleveland-based network of charter schools, went remote early and stayed remote for about a year. Students came back to the schools in April of 2021.

common pre-pandemic. Breakthrough made it a point to address both the social-emotional challenges students were facing and the academic ones, McRae said.

On the academic side, Breakthrough saw particular challenges in “foundational literacy” skills, McRae said.

“It’s very difficult to teach a scholar letter sounds over Zoom.

It’s very difficult to teach blends over Zoom. It’s very difficult to teach phonetic awareness over Zoom,” he said.

It was tough to deliver appropriate group and individual modeling to kindergarteners, first graders and second graders virtually, McRae said, and when students returned, Breakthrough saw its third and fourth graders operating at the same levels as its first graders.

More surprisingly, he said, were the challenges the network noticed in a variety of math skills, like operations. The network had underestimated the importance of in-person practice of those skills, even when the technology was there as a support.

The pandemic was a “catastrophic experience for kids, families and schools.”

— Andrew McRae, chief academic officer for the Breakthrough Public Schools Keeping schools’ recovery “centered on kids and what they need, not on the philosophical or political whims of adults” is important, McRae said.

Learning loss Overall, Breakthrough saw what McRae said many schools have seen: that students, particularly the younger ones, were behind in their social-emotional skills. Students’ “academic grit” had decreased, he said, and there were behaviors and mental health challenges that weren’t

See EDUCATION on Page 12

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COMMENTARY | K-12 LEARNING

Now is the time to reassess, reinvent and reinvigorate education

O

stood at around 65% in English n the afternoon of March Language Arts (ELA) and 61% in 12, 2020, I sat with high mathematics. By the 2021-22 school administrators and school year, when most students school counselors discussing varireturned to in-person instruction, ous topics, from upcoming events proficiency levels hadn’t yet reto student academics. bounded. ELA proficiency was at Suddenly, a roar echoed down the 59.5%, and math at 50.5%. hallway. At that moment, students Delving deeper, greater disparihad learned of Ohio’s decision to ties emerge between pre-pandemshut down all K-12 schools. As the Corey ic and post-pandemic proficiency state, country and world grappled Hoynacke is for marginalized groups. Economiwith a medical event unprecedented director of cally disadvantaged students, for in our lifetimes, students celebrated curriculum a premature break. Naively, the very and instruction instance, went from 49.5% proficiency in ELA and 45% in math in next day, I asked the school custodi- for Summit 2019 to 43% in ELA and 32.6% in an to display a message on the an- Education nouncement board: “Stay Safe and Service Center. math by 2022. This data underscores the fact that students, alSee You Soon!”

Few could have predicted the profound ready grappling with inequity and limited impact the next years would have on learn- resources, faced exacerbated disparities ing and education. The pandemic-induced due to the pandemic.

But the story isn’t just in the academic achievement gaps were extensive, and educators continue to explore innovative ways numbers. Ohio has launched a campaign to to make up for lost time. There were, of address chronic absenteeism, an unforecourse, inspiring innovations during this seen consequence of the pandemic. Chronperiod. Some students even thrived, em- ic absenteeism pertains to students missing bracing newfound ownership of their learn- at least 10% of the school year, which ing from home. However, for many, the amounts to around 18 days. This encompandemic led to academic, social and be- passes all absences, whether excused or unhavioral setbacks we’re still addressing excused, or those resulting from suspensions. In 2018-19, Ohio’s chronic nearly four years later.

Ohio’s report cards paint a clear picture of absenteeism rate was 16.7%. By June 2022, this learning loss. In the 2018-19 academic this figure had soared to 30.2%. Various facyear, before the pandemic upended tradi- tors contributed to this rise, but I believe tional schooling, statewide proficiency there’s a direct link between this spike and

A student works on an assignment while participating in a remote learning class from home in 2020. Like those across the country, Ohio schools were primarily remote for the 2020-21 school year. | BLOOMBERG

well-intentioned, yet disruptive, pandemic procedures. After all, a student must be present to learn.

I share these insights not from a place of pessimism, but to emphasize the need to recognize our challenges to effectively address them. In my role, I engage with school leaders throughout Northeast Ohio and beyond. I’ve witnessed districts harness pandemic-era innovations, enhancing student learning and opportunities beyond prior expectations. Chronic absenteeism is finally declining, with organizations like the Cleveland Browns and Columbus Crew joining

forces with schools to tackle it. Math and ELA scores are steadily rising, and while we’ve not hit pre-pandemic benchmarks, progress is evident across all demographics.

With federal funding, Ohio is re-imagining how literacy is taught and, soon, a similar overhaul for math will follow. These represent a fraction of the many initiatives underway to support our students. The pandemic undoubtedly wreaked havoc on education, but it also presented us with an invaluable chance to reassess and redefine our teaching methodologies and the opportunities we offer students.

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K-12 LEARNING

EDUCATION From Page 10

Breakthrough made time in its day for students to process the pandemic with teachers and connected students with necessary mental health resources during the school day. The network also changed its approach to discipline and student experience, bringing in more of their voices to the decision-making process. Many of these approaches remain today, McRae said.

On the academic side, Breakthrough built daily “acceleration blocks” and “acceleration times” into each student’s schedule, McRae said. Those periods of time are differentiated for each student, combining web-based and in-person learning that’s targeted to their needs. The network also ensured that full class instruction was at a high level for everyone and transitioned to a standard, high-quality curriculum, instead of leaving that to the instructors.

The charter network had been moving to a more centralized academic leadership approach in recent years, as opposed to its earlier model of standalone schools with shared services. This shift began before the pandemic, but COVID-19 accelerated some components, like the standardized curriculum.

The learning loss created by the pandemic didn’t take place in a vacuum. There had been talk of teacher shortages current and impending for years, but it was nothing like has been seen post-pandemic.

Rick Wormeli speaks to teachers as part of a “Differentiation Boot Camp,” hosted by Summit Educational Service Center last month.

work’s data and academic teams.

The network also has been providing professional development for grade- and content-based cohorts, as well as regular school-based meetings.

After the pandemic, Breakthrough opted to slightly shorten its school day to make more time for that regular professional development, McRae said. That meant it also had to lengthen its school year to ensure students had enough time for their learning.

Professional development has been part of the Summit Educational Service Center’s approach to supporting the districts it works with. The center formally partners with 17 districts in Summit and Portage counties and works with others on a contract basis, offering services like professional develop-

ment, as well as special education programs and preschools.

To support the districts and schools it serves, the educational service center hired additional specialists with experience in English-language arts and math, to offer in-person, as-needed professional development for teachers, said Superintendent Joe Iacano.

Corey Hoynacke, curriculum director for the center, noted that the goal isn’t to tell districts what to do, but to show them how to use the data to identify gaps and let them know what resources are available that might help.

The educational service center serves all kinds of schools – urban, suburban and rural. The difference often comes down to resources, Iacano said. Those districts with higher rates of poverty and less revenue

Resources for teachers The shortage has grown to “unprecedented” levels, McRae said.

Having a standardized curriculum lets the network develop a teacher’s content knowledge with the curricula in-hand, instead of needing a content area expert who could create their own learning plan. Educators still need to be able to understand and teach the material thoughtfully, McRae said, but the curriculum was a “critical piece.”

Teachers at Breakthrough have access to student analytics, as well as to resources to help each student and the support of the net-

Professional development has been part of the Summit Educational Service Center’s approach to supporting the districts it works with. About 200 teachers attended a “Differentiation Boot Camp” last month. | PHOTOS BY GRACE MCCONNELL

may struggle to put supports in place. Large suburban districts with “reasonable wealth” probably have their own curriculum directors, he said, but that may be a “luxury” to a small rural district.

In terms of achievement, Hoynacke said he hasn’t seen a significant difference between rural, suburban and urban schools. But he has seen chronic absenteeism post-pandemic being a larger problem in rural and urban districts, which is a challenge.

“If you can’t get the kids in school, you can’t teach the kids very well,” he said.

In the wake of the pandemic, schools are making changes to support the whole student, adding on programs to help students meet all of their needs.

‘More than just academics’ One way has been by extending learning time and out-of-school programming. In the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, the district shifted schedules for some of its art and music teachers, Nelson Creel said, having some start earlier or stay later while working the same number of hours, so students could attend programs before or after school.

Akron also has been putting a focus on its extended learning programs post-pandemic. The goal, Liechty-Clifford said, is removing barriers and making sure every student can take part.

Expanding the learning day, particularly to address so-

cial-emotional needs, was a common approach for schools and districts coming out of the pandemic, said Tiffany Lundy, coordinator of expanded learning for the district.

It helps to build relationships between students and teachers, ideally improving attendance and behavior. Students need wraparound services to address non-academic needs if they’re going to be in a good place to learn.

“We’re here to support what’s actually going on during the academic day for our kids,” she said.

Prior to the pandemic, Akron didn’t always have after-school programming for its middle and high school students, focusing more on the elementary levels, but that really expanded after students returned to the schools, Lundy said. And the district is working to provide those kinds of programs free to families.

During the summer, Akron offered almost 200 different options, Lundy said, from crocheting to cooking to music. Some of the programs were just focused on enrichment, while others wove in academics. And there were athletic options, as well.

Summer programming was optional, Liechty-Clifford said, and teachers had to sign up to participate. They were compensated, of course, Bennington said, but they had to give their time.

“And that’s such a testament to the dedication of the staff, the educators across this district, that they’re so committed and willing to give that time and their energies and their expertise to be in front of our students for those extended learning opportunities,” Bennington said.

Education is about “more than just academics,” Lundy said. And students in urban schools don’t always get those out-of-school learning opportunities, as they can be expensive to provide or participate in. That’s why she took on the role of coordinator of expanded learning after about two decades of teaching in the district.

“It’s their experiences,” she said.

“What do they know, what have they done, what have they actually had the chance to have their hand in?”

Those experiences can “spark” something in students, she said.

“It’s extremely important,” Lundy said.

5 changes districts have made to boost performance School districts and learning programs have pursued a variety of strategies to help them shrink challenges and improve educational outcomes and student and teacher performance after the tumultuous years of the pandemic: ◗ Tutoring: The Akron school dis-

trict, for example, switched to a ‘high-dosage’ method of tutoring that brought in a more prescriptive model, which provided more intensive instruction in areas where students were struggling.

◗ Interventions:

For students who weren’t proficient in reading, Cleveland educators have created improvement plans that provide students an additional 90 minutes a week of reading assistance. An AI program helps assess the students’ abilities. If students need less intensive assistance, ‘micro-interventions’ help them focus for shorter lengths of time.

◗ Mental health support: Con-

necting students to resources that addressed their mental health needs included a change at Breakthrough charter network in how disciplinary matters were handled and how those decisions were determined and what measures were ultimately taken.

◗ Teacher support: Profession-

al development became a key component for places served by the Summit Educational Service Center, with the length of the school year changing in some places to allow for reduced teaching time each day and to provide daily opportunities to give teachers time to develop professional and classroom strategies.

◗ Wraparound

services: To help students with more than academics, Akron significantly expanded its after-school programs, especially for older students in middle and high school. That included summer options, and students could choose from a variety of activities, including music, art and athletics.

12 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | NOVEMBER 13, 2023

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

NOTABLE WOMEN IN LAW Nominate a woman in law who makes an impact in the types of cases handled, clients won and/or pro bono work.

NOMINATE BY DEC. 1 CrainsCleveland.com/NotableNoms

CRAIN'S LIST | NONPROFITS Ranked by 2022 expenses REVENUE (MILLIONS) 2022/ 2021

% EXPENSES % REVENUE 2022 NET FROM PRIVATE USED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS PROGRAMMING ASSETS (MILLIONS) PURPOSE OF ORGANIZATION 2022 2022

HEALTHCARE MINISTRIES INC., Barberton $723.4 1 CHRISTIAN 800-791-6225/chministries.org $673.0 CLEVELAND FOOD BANK, Cleveland $127.2 2 GREATER 216-738-2265/greaterclevelandfoodbank.org $106.2 CHARITIES CORP. (CATHOLIC CHARITIES, DIOCESE $112.9 3 CATHOLIC $105.4 OF CLEVELAND), Cleveland

$752.9 $684.5

99.7%

97.6%

$159.9

To glorify God by sharing each others' medical bills

J. Craig Brown II, president, CEO

$99.6 $158.5

79.8%

69.5%

$113.7

To ensure that everyone in our communities has the nutritious food they need every day

Kristin Warzocha, president, CEO

$131.1 $108.1

29.1%

85.7%

$96.6

To respond to the health and human service needs and social concerns for the people of the Diocese of Cleveland

Patrick Gareau, president, CEO

HEALTH INC. , Mentor 4 SIGNATURE 440-578-8200/signaturehealthinc.org CHN HOUSING PARTNERS, Cleveland 5 216-574-7100/chnhousingparters.org JEWISH FEDERATION OF CLEVELAND , Cleveland 6 216-593-2900/jewishcleveland.org , Berea 7 OHIOGUIDESTONE 440-260-8300/ohioguidestone.org

$106.2 $88.8

$106.2 —

—

—

—

To end health disparities in our community

Jonathan Lee, president, CEO

$100.3 $90.6

$100.9 $91.8

—

98%

$40.2

To leverage affordable housing to change lives and improve communities

Kevin Nowak, president, CEO

$92.0 $84.0

$102.6 $113.0

86.1%

85.9%

$92.0

To preserve and enhance Jewish life in Cleveland and throughout the world

Erika Rudin-Luria, president

$88.0 $88.1

$85.2 $88.8

5.6%

83.9%

$31.0

Community behavioral health providing community and office-based services to people across the lifespan

Brant Russell, president, CEO

$86.7 $81.9

$81.5 $72.3

12.5%

76.4%

$24.7

To provide health care on a residential and community service basis

Diane Liliestedt, president, COO

$79.2 $81.9

$79.5 $85.3

0%

91.3%

$10.3

To provide choices for people to live independently

E. Douglas Beach, CEO

$75.8 $71.1

$83.0 $83.8

—

—

$86.6

To provide hospice, palliative care, caregiver support and bereavement services

William Finn, president, CEO

RANK

EXPENSES (MILLIONS) 2022/ 2021

ORGANIZATION

216-334-2900/ccdocle.org

1

2

MENORAH PARK, Beachwood 8 216-831-6500/menorahpark.org RESERVE AREA AGENCY ON AGING, Cleveland 9 WESTERN 216-621-0303/areaagingsolutions.org OF THE WESTERN RESERVE INC., Cleveland 10 HOSPICE 216-383-2222/hospicewr.org

National expertise. Local talent.

Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors personally invested in the success of your business.

TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE(S)

maloneynovotny.com

HOUSE INC., Akron 11 ORIANA 330-535-8116/orianahouse.org CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, Cleveland 12 THE 216-421-7350/clevelandart.org SQUARE FOUNDATION, Cleveland 13 PLAYHOUSE 216-771-4444/playhousesquare.org PROFESSIONAL SERVICES (COLEMAN HEALTH 14 COLEMAN SERVICES), Kent

$68.7 $61.9

$68.0 $61.8

-4.7%

95%

($0.7)

Community corrections, substance use and mental health treatment, re-entry services

James Lawrence, president, CEO

$68.0 $62.4

$74.3 $90.0

50.9%

79.9%

$1,064.8 Creates transformative experiences through art, for the benefit of all the people

William Griswold, director

$65.5 $32.8 3

$68.0 $24.7

16.5%

86.9%

$186.9

To operate the performing arts center and develop the Playhouse Square district

Craig Hassall, president, CEO

$63.7 $59.2

$62.4 $61.1

—

90.3%

$22.3

Behavioral health, crisis, addiction recovery, employment and residential services across Ohio

Hattie Tracy, president, CEO

, Warrensville Heights 15 LIFEBANC 216-752-5433/lifebanc.org HATTIE LARLHAM, Mantua 16 330-274-2272/hattielarlham.org

$60.5 $51.3

$62.3 $55.7

98.6%

90.7%

$39.7

To save lives through organ, eye and tissue donation

Gordon Bowen, CEO

$59.5 $54.0

$62.7 $59.7

—

—

$53.9

To provide care for children and adults with developmental disabilities in Northeast and Central Ohio

Stephen Colecchi, CEO

HOME AKRON CANTON AREA AGENCY ON 17 DIRECTION AGING, Uniontown

$57.6 $58.0

$59.4 $62.2

—

—

$1.8

To provide older adults, people with disabilities and Gary Cook, president, CEO their caregivers long-term care choices and consumer protection

MUSICAL ARTS ASSOCIATION (THE CLEVELAND 18 THE ORCHESTRA), Cleveland

$57.0 $41.9 4

$62.1 $69.4

50.8%

80.1%

$257.0

To inspire and enrich lives through extraordinary musical experiences

André Gremillet, president, CEO

FORWARD, Cleveland 19 STEP 216-696-9077/stepforwardtoday.org JUDSON SENIOR LIVING, Cleveland 20 216-791-2004/judsonsmartliving.org AKRON-CANTON REGIONAL FOODBANK, Akron 21 330-535-6900/akroncantonfoodbank.org

$54.9 $41.5

$54.2 $42.5

0.4%

91.9%

$4.8

To help low-income children and families in Cuyahoga County

Jacklyn Chisholm, president, CEO

$54.3 $51.3

$51.3 $53.2

—

—

($0.4)

A not-for-profit senior living services organization serving northern Ohio

Kendra Urdzik, president, CEO

$49.0 $47.8

$51.2 $52.4

—

—

$37.7

To provide food and essential items to charitable Daniel Flowers, president, CEO agencies that feed people in need in our eight-county region

DEVELOPMENT & ECONOMIC NETWORK INC. 22 EMERALD (EDEN), Cleveland

$48.7 $38.8

$43.4 $37.5

13.7%

97.9%

$22.0

To provide housing solutions to people facing the challenges of housing insecurities and homelessness

Elaine Gimmel, executive director

NETWORK , Wooster 23 VILLAGE 800-638-3232/thevillagenetwork.org BELLEFAIRE JEWISH CHILDRENS BUREAU, Shaker Heights 24 216-932-2800/bellefairejcb.org

$47.2 $52.2

$49.8 $55.0

4.1%

83.8%

$27.7

To work in partnerships empowering youth and families to build brighter futures

Richard Graziano, president, CEO

$46.2 $48.8

$41.8 $51.8

4.5%

87.2%

$48.8

To provide care and advocacy to enhance the physical, emotional and intellectual well-being of children, young adults and their families

Jeffrey Lox, executive director

INDUSTRIES OF GREATER CLEVELAND AND EAST $45.4 25 GOODWILL $43.4 CENTRAL OHIO INC., Canton

$47.5 $48.2

12%

89.2%

$31.1

Vocational and educational training

Annemarie Richards, president, CEO

AUGUSTINE MANOR (ST. AUGUSTINE HEALTH 26 ST. MINISTRIES), Cleveland

$49.2 $40.0

5.8%

89%

$30.4

Post-acute care network

Rick Meserini, president, CEO

330-673-1347/colemanservices.org

800-421-7277/dhad.org

216-231-7300/clevelandorchestra.com

216-961-9690/edencle.org 2

800-942-3577/goodwillgoodskills.org

216-634-7400/staugministries.org

$43.7 $38.1

This list includes 501(c)3 nonprofits. Colleges, foundations and hospitals were excluded. Information is supplied by the organizations unless otherwise noted. Numbers that appear tied have been rounded. NOTES: 1. Financial information from annual report. 2. Financial information from Form 990. 3. Playhouse Square held no live events through most of fiscal year 2021, which ended in June 2021. 4. The Cleveland Orchestra held no performances at Severance Hall during fiscal year 2021, which ended in June 2021.

Get 89 nonprofits and +400 executives in Excel format. Become a Data Member: CrainsCleveland.com/data 14 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | NOVEMBER 13, 2023

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PLEASE JOIN ZASHIN & RICH IN WELCOMING FOUR NEW ATTORNEYS TO THE FIRM. Torrian Denise, founder of Dornee, shows off some of her luxury soaps. | DAN SHINGLER

Entrepreneur makes a splash with skin care Company began as a remedy for her mother

By Dan Shingler

In a small industrial space in Twinsburg, Torrian Denise regularly toils over a cauldron, stirring her secret ingredients and hoping to cast a spell on her next customer.

To be fair, though, Denise’s concoctions are created only for good and her “cauldron” is a foodgrade, stainless steel vessel that is probably cleaner than anything in most kitchens.

She’s the driving force behind Dornee, a soap and skin-care company she formed after finding that her homemade foot lotion, which she developed as a nail technician, was a hit with both her clients and their friends.

It’s not a big operation. Torrian formulates the products, perfects the scents, mixes, sells and ships Dornee’s products largely on her own, at least for her direct-to-consumer sales. She gets some help from her son, Brisk Rucker, who helps out between school and sports.

“I have a great son, I’m so thankful for that,” Denise said.

Amazon takes care of all the fulfillment for products sold on its site, she said.

Her company has found a niche, she said, along with shelf space at stores such as Whole Foods and a growing presence on Amazon.

Her “foot butter,” as she called it when she developed it, which is now called Heel Shield Foot Butter, was developed to help soften the feet of her nail clients. But when Denise’s mother became ill with cancer in 2005, “the chemo treatments were just hell on her skin,” Denise said.

Denise had been getting her mother lotions from the store to soothe her skin. Then, she tried something else.

“One day I couldn’t get to the store for her and I said ‘Mom, try my butter, it’s just natural stuff’ — and it really helped her,” Denise said.

After her mother passed away, Denise said “I asked myself — ‘Why did this work for her?’”

She started doing research, finding more and more natural ingredients she could use, along

with scents she could add, mixing and testing formulas in her home kitchen.

Eventually, she formed her company, which is a combination of her mother’s name, Renee’ and the word adore. She got a little help in the form of $35,000 in grants from Growth Opportunity Partners in Cleveland and Citizens Financial Group.

But, mostly, she said, “I bootstrapped it.”

Since then, she made a foray into retail with a store in Bedford Heights, which she later moved to Cleveland Heights. It was a success, she said, until Covid hit and she had to close it.

That was a setback, but it helped her refine her business, Denise said, and she moved from Cleveland Heights to Twinsburg, left retail store operations behind and hasn’t looked back.

Fortunately, she said, she had developed some retail relationships beyond her own stores.

“I’ve been in Whole Foods for 11 years,” she said.

She’s also in Akron’s Mustard Seed Market, Cleveland’s Lucky’s Market, and a few other retailers in Ohio, as well as on Amazon where she has a Dornee store and a list of products that seem to have all fivestar reviews.

It’s all gone better than she expected when she started, she said.

“I did not think I would be here, in major retailers like Whole Foods,” she said. “It’s still not a reality.”

She doesn’t disclose her sales but says she now ships a few hundred orders most months and her business is now profitable, but profits vary from month to month.

“I have months when I can pay my bills, your bills and someone else’s bills,” she joked.

Her next challenge might be scaling up. She gets help, including mentoring from Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator program. But it’s a lot of work — far more than 40 hours a week — and sometimes she still can’t keep up with demand.

She was out of stock of one of her most popular products, Body Silk Oil, when she spoke on Oct. 27. She’ll have to put in some extra hours to make enough for the holidays, she said.

“I’m out of stock because I just need to catch up,” Denise said.

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From Page 1

The law goes into effect in 30 days.

In a statement released after the vote was called, Matthew Schweich, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project said, “This is a great day for Ohio, which now joins the growing number of conservative-leaning states that have ended the injustice of cannabis prohibition.”

While Ohio’s medical marijuana program remains in place, the most marijuana that adults 21 and older may purchase or possess at one time under the new adult-use program is 2.5 ounces of flower and 15 grams of extracts, according to the statute approved by voters.

The law also allows adults 21 and older to grow cannabis at home with up to six plants per person or 12 plants total per household, regardless of the number of adults living there.

When will recreational marijuana be available?

While the law goes into effect a month after the vote, it’ll still be

several months more before of-age citizens can buy legal marijuana at an Ohio dispensary.

The law calls for the creation of a Division of Cannabis Control — something that lawmakers previously agreed to have in place by the end of this year regardless of the status of Issue 2 — which will serve as the industry’s primary regulator.

Among many things, that agency, housed within the Ohio Department of Commerce, will oversee rec-related licensing for cultivators, processors, dispensaries, testing labs and their affiliated employees.

Although existing medical marijuana companies in the state will have a leg up in acquiring adult-use licenses, they still need those in hand before serving the general public.

Establishing rules for issuing those licenses and actually awarding them is expected to take several months to work through.

What can opponents of Issue 2 do now?

Clouding the actual rollout of the adult-use program is the potential for some state politicians to edit or possibly even repeal the rec marijuana law. While some conserva-

might say, in a sense, let’s cut our losses. If the state wanted to tweak aspects of the law or regulate (the industry) to death, so to speak, it could have the means to do that. And that may seem less politically misguided than a complete repeal.”

Industry jolt

BLOOMBERG

ISSUE 2

tive lawmakers have indicated they might do one or the other, what plays out there is to be seen.

“The immediate optics (of repealing a law passed by voters) may be enough to keep people from wanting to push back that much,” Douglas Berman, executive director of Ohio State University’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, previously told Crain’s. “Some lawmakers thinking in longer terms

In loving memory of Robert D. Gries Husband of our Founder, Sally Gries

The advent of adult-use marijuana could, naturally, be a boon for the existing legal cannabis industry, particularly at a time when many operators are grappling with a down market.

Today, Ohio’s medical cannabis industry encompasses 37 cultivators, 44 processors/product manufacturers and 107 dispensaries.

But those operators have been underwhelmed with a customer base of about 185,000 active patients, or just 1.5% of the state’s population of approximately 12 million.

According to Statista, about 75% of Ohioans are age 20 or older. Therefore, nearly three-quarters of the state’s residents could be potential marijuana consumers with adult-use laws in place.

“We expect an adult-use market to double demand in its first year,” Andy Rayburn, CEO of Buckeye Relief, a vertically integrated marijuana company based in Eastlake, told Crain’s this fall. “We expect a significant part of that new demand to come from two areas: the Ohio illegal market and tens of thousands of Ohio residents who drive to Michigan to purchase products every month.”

“I expect a significant amount of traffic from Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia,” added Jared Maloof, CEO of Standard Wellness, a multistate operator (MSO) headquartered in Northeast Ohio. “I think we will see either medical patients or consumers in general coming from those border cities into Ohio to buy products. And that’s why I’m thinking that three times our current revenue will be a conservative estimate.”

Sales, taxes

Žď ǁĂƐ Ă ĨƌŝĞŶĚ ĂŶĚ ŝŶƐƉŝƌĂƚŝŽŶ ƚŽ ƵƐ Ăůů͘ ,ŝƐ ŝŶĨĞĐƚŝŽƵƐ ĞŶƚŚƵƐŝĂƐŵ ĂŶĚ ƉĂƐƐŝŽŶ ĨŽƌ ůŝĨĞ ǁŝůů ďĞ ŐƌĞĂƚůLJ ŵŝƐƐĞĚ͘ &ƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ƚĞĂŵ Ăƚ 'ƌŝĞƐ &ŝŶĂŶĐŝĂů WĂƌƚŶĞƌƐ

Rec products in Ohio will be charged sales tax plus a 10% excise tax. Medical products are subject only to sales tax, which creates a financial incentive for medical patients to continue to be registered with the state.

According to Ohio State University’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, taxes and fees related to the medical marijuana program have generated approximately $183.33 million for state and local government entities as of March 2023.

In year five of an adult-use program, DEPC estimates that Ohio could see approximately $276 million to $404 million in additional annual tax revenues.

Meanwhile, cannabis research firm New Frontier Data projects that rec sales in the state could total $2.86 billion by 2030. Those projections assume that 2025 will be the first full calendar year for rec sales.

To put that in context, since

medical sales commenced in January 2019, $1.53 billion in marijuana products have sold through Oct. 30, according to state data.

Sales were slowest in 2019 as the industry began to blossom.

There was just $54 million in medical marijuana sales that year. That means the state has averaged approximately $369 million in medical sales annually over a bit less than the last four years.

With the potentially significant boost that rec could bring existing cannabis companies, it’s of little surprise that industry stakeholders have provided about 52% of the $6 million in financial contributions that have been collected by the CRMLA, according to a Crain’s analysis of campaign contributions.

How we got here The state’s road to recreational marijuana has been a long one.

Ohioans previously voted on a proposed marijuana in 2015 via that year’s ill-fated Issue 3.

That measure stood to legalize both medical and recreational marijuana programs. However, it would’ve also written into the Ohio constitution provisions restricting cannabis cultivation to just 10 pre-selected companies.

Anti-Issue 3 campaigns locked onto that detail and framed the measure as creating a cannabis monopoly — though it would’ve actually been an oligopoly — which played a role in the measure’s sound defeat with just 35% of voter support.

Despite bombing at the polls, Issue 3 was a wake-up call for lawmakers who were now concerned that cannabis laws could be created without their control.

In this sense, Issue 3 opened the door for 2016’s House Bill 523, which created the legal infrastructure for the state’s medical marijuana program.

Then-Gov. John Kasich signed that bill in June 2016, and Ohio’s first medical marijuana dispensaries opened their doors in January 2019.

By the next year, organizers with the effort that eventually coalesced into the CRMLA were already exploring plans to bring a medical marijuana law before voters through an initiated statute.

Those initial efforts were stymied, however, by the rise of COVID-19 pandemic.

As vaccines became available and the worst of the health crisis began to subside, the CRMLA regrouped and began collecting signatures for its proposed law.

The measure was poised to come before voters in fall 2022, but Republican lawmakers raised technical questions about whether the CRMLA met filing deadlines for its initial voter petitions.

While the CRMLA said it was prepared to fight that legal challenge, a settlement was reached that allowed the campaign to carry forward its initial petitions to the beginning of 2023, which set everything in motion this year.

16 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | NOVEMBER 13, 2023

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HOUSING From Page 1

“We are 5.5 million units short of demand in this country,” said Seth Task, a company co-founder who also leads a team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Professional Realty. “And we can’t build fast enough. We can’t build in the price points that people need. Which is why we’re doing this.”

It’s too early to say whether modular construction can be a significant salve for the city’s housing woes. There are only a few projects on the drawing board — and a handful of completed houses. But public officials are interested in ways to make construction swifter and less costly.

“I think we have to look at new housing typologies like modular homes because they can be produced affordably,” said Sally Martin O’Toole, the city’s building and housing director. “And it’s very difficult to do new construction that’s affordable.”

Rebuild Cleveland isn’t the only player in the nascent space.

The Community Rebuilders, based in Willoughby, has erected five modular homes on Fenwick Avenue near West 44th Street. And Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity is looking at modular construction to deliver on its pledge to build 50 homes in five city wards over the next several years.

Developers say the homes, which are crafted in factories and assembled on-site, can be tough sells in urban environments. It’s not always easy to place them on narrow city lots, where builders must reckon with overhead power lines and underground surprises, like the remains of old basements. Modular projects also can meet with pushback from planners concerned about whether the home styles and materials fit with the surrounding neighborhood’s aesthetics.

Then there’s the confusion about what modular housing is — and isn’t.

“We have to get rid of the bad rap that modular has,” Task said.

“Because modular is not manu-

factured. Manufactured is a different classification. This is not a mobile home.”

Task’s partners in Rebuild Cleveland are contractor Chris Grimaldi, of Grimaldi Property Management, and Ilya Palatnik, a CrossCountry Mortgage executive vice president who runs a branch downtown.

Their first project, at 7500 Colgate Ave., is a tidy, white home with three bedrooms and twoand-a-half bathrooms. It has a basement, a detached garage and a layout that allows firstfloor living, something that can be hard to find in a city full of older residences.

At 1,653 square feet, the house is listed for sale at $339,900. That’s not much less than the price of new stick-built homes in nearby neighborhoods. Local builders said the cost savings on modular housing aren’t huge unless you’re putting up several homes at the same time. The major advantage is efficiency, the ability to deliver a project in three to four months — or less.

“It’s a little cheaper, but it’s a lot faster,” said Gene Mulligan, the project manager for the Community Rebuilders. That’s especially important in city neighborhoods, where vandalism and theft can be big challenges on construction sites, he said.

The Community Rebuilders sold its modular homes on Fenwick in 2021 and early 2022. The two-story bungalows commanded $230,000 to $295,000, public records show.

The company tabled its plans for a sixth home on the street because of soaring interest rates, which priced out prospective buyers. But Mulligan is pursuing other potential projects.

“On urban infills, conventional stick building is antiquated,” he said.

Rebuild Cleveland acquired its first batch of properties from the city’s land bank and the Cuyahoga Land Bank, or Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp. The company has identified potential sites for 64 additional homes in the Detroit Shoreway, Cudell and Collinwood neighborhoods.

This three-bedroom modular bungalow at 7500 Colgate Ave. in Cleveland is listed for $339,900. Workers were putting the finishing touches on it early last month. | GUS CHAN

There are 30,000 vacant lots in Cleveland. The city controls about 60% of them.

Councilman Mike Polensek, who represents the Collinwood area, said he has been pushing builders to consider modular construction for years. Most of his constituents can’t afford to pay $400,000 or $500,000 for a new house. Older homes are much cheaper but don’t always meet buyers’ needs.

“We need affordable housing for our folks,” he said. “If not, we’re just going to see more and more people going in to rent.

And I’m just concerned at the percentage of people now who are no longer homeowners.

We’ve got to create stakeholders.

We’ve got to create homesteads where people can live, where families can live and invest.”

Task believes that Rebuild Cleveland can drive down pricing by offering a variety of floor plans and, eventually, bringing production in-house. He and his partners also have been seeking incentives to offset costs. The trio missed out on gap financing from the city early this year. That subsidy would have kept the price of the Colgate Avenue bungalow at just under $300,000.

Rebuild Cleveland is sourcing homes from Skyline Champion Corp., a major player in the industry. The trio’s first house came from a factory in western Pennsylvania. Other models might come from a facility in Sugarcreek, Ohio, roughly 90 miles away.

Task is fine-tuning plans for colonials, townhouses and a 943-square-foot ranch, which will have two bedrooms, one bathroom and a first-floor laundry area.

“We want to be building dozens of houses a year, if not hundreds,” he said.

Habitat for Humanity, meanwhile, is proposing a 10-home development in Collinwood, on city-owned land at East 164th Street and Grovewood Avenue.

That project is part of a larger revitalization initiative that the city seeded with federal pandemic-recovery money.

Ideally, the Collinwood houses will be modular ranches, said John Litten, the nonprofit’s CEO. “I think within the next month we’ll know a lot more about our trajectory and the city’s openness to the idea,” he said, adding that talks with officials have been encouraging so far.

Joyce Pan Huang, the city’s planning director, said her department wants to see housing at a range of price points. She’s generally supportive of adding modular construction to the mix.

“The working theory is that the modular nature of it creates more affordability, and we know that construction costs and interest rates are still very high right now,” she said. “Overall, we’re on board with it. I think the key things are the zoning considerations and design review.”

Painesville-based builder Bo Knez is considering modular projects elsewhere in Ohio — in

Sandusky, Athens and near Hocking Hills State Park. But those houses will be short-term rentals designed for tourists and travelers, not-for-sale properties aimed at owner-occupants.

Knez, whose stick-built houses in Cleveland start in the mid$300,000s, said he would be concerned about site constraints and design hurdles in the city. He’s also skeptical about the costs.

For the right builder, under the right conditions, modular construction can save money, said Dennis Roberts, the Cuyahoga Land Bank’s director of real estate development. The quasi-governmental organization has put up a few modular homes in Maple Heights and Warrensville Heights.

The first two houses sold at a loss,

which wouldn’t be palatable for a private builder.

“The way I view it, it’s one tool that can be effective in a specific circumstance,” Roberts said. “It’s like a Phillips screwdriver. When you need a Phillips screwdriver, that’s the tool.”

After learning by doing with their first project, the Rebuild Cleveland team is committed to the model.

Task, a former president of the Ohio Realtors trade association and a director for the National Association of Realtors, points to the widespread housing crunch and the local scarcity of builders, skilled laborers and materials.

“It’s needed,” he said of accelerating reinvestment in city neighborhoods. “It’s necessary. And we can do it.”

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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

To place your listing, visit www.crainscleveland.com/people-on-the-move or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com BANKING

ENGINEERING / CONSULTING

LAW

Ohio Board of Advisors for ERIEBANK

Middough Inc.

Renner Otto

Middough welcomes Sam Barnes, PE, as President and Chief Executive Officer based in its headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. With over three decades in the power industry and a track record of impressive leadership positions, Sam brings a wealth of engineering, project management, and leadership experience to Middough and becomes only the third President and CEO in the company’s almost 75-year history. Ron Ledin, who was President and CEO for 45 years, will now serve as the Executive Chairman.

The Intellectual Property law firm of Renner Otto welcomes two new attorneys, David Resser & Adam Claussen. David Resser is a seasoned IP Resser Attorney focusing on patent preparation & prosecution, primarily in the mechanical & electro-mechanical arts. He counsels clients in matters of patentability & validity & renders opinions on potential infringement issues. David brings extensive technical expertise informed by Claussen his experience as a mechanical engineer.

Adam Claussen guides the patent strategies of clients, routinely drafting & filing utility & design patents for mechanical & chemical inventions. He holds a degree in chemistry & received his Intellectual Property Certificate while earning his J.D. from The University of Akron School of Law.

Shook Construction Matt Danis has been a driving force in Shook’s growth and market maturity in NE Ohio for 15+ years and was recently named VP, Great Lakes Regional Manager.

In this role, Matt will focus on strategy and relationships within Shook’s core markets: water resources, industrial, education & healthcare. With 80 local employees and continued growth opportunities, he is also charged with culture, recruitment & retention in service of the firm’s Mission “To Dramatically Improve the Communities We Serve.”

CONSTRUCTION

Shook Construction Shook recently promoted Matt Bennett and Brett Connolly to Directors of Operation in the Great Lakes Region.

Bennett They will oversee project execution, the development of staff and focus on standard operating procedures across the region. A longstanding Shook employee for 35 years, Bennett has spent the last 12 years overseeing water resource projects in NE Ohio. In his new role, he will be Connolly responsible for all water resource operations in the Great Lakes region.

Connolly has 14 years of experience in building construction, water resources, self-perform and collaborative delivery. In his new role, he will be responsible for all building operations in the Great Lakes region, including the education, healthcare and industrial markets.

HEALTH CARE

Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center welcomes D. Philip Stickney, M.D. to its practice.

Dr. Stickney specializes in orthopaedic surgery, focusing mainly on shoulder arthroscopy and hip and knee replacements.

He also has a special interest in sports medicine. Dr. Stickney is a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and has written and presented extensively on orthopaedic issues. He sees patients in Ashtabula, Independence, and Lyndhurst.

MANUFACTURING

Oatey Co. Oatey Co., a leading manufacturer in the plumbing industry, announced that Logan Weiland has joined the organization as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. Weiland comes to Oatey with more than a decade of experience in public accounting at Ernst & Young, where he most recently served as Assurance Senior Manager. As Chief Financial Officer at Oatey, Weiland is responsible for all accounting and finance; FP&A; treasury; risk management; and mergers and acquisition activities.

Will study glial cells’ role in nervous system diseases like Alzheimer’s

By Paige Bennett

Case Western Reserve University has established an institute devoted to a research subject that university experts see as the next crucial area of medical research.

The Institute for Glial Sciences will focus on the role that glial cells play in the health and diseases of the nervous system, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and autism spectrum disorders.

Housed in the School of Medicine’s Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, the new institute aims to develop new methods for studying glial cells and creating new medicine classes for targeting these cells.

It’s being led by Paul Tesar, the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman professor of innovative therapeutics.

Glial cells, or glia, are important to the health of the human nervous system. The term “glia” is derived from the Greek word for glue. Early researchers believed glial cells acted as the glue to the nervous system, Tesar said, but later discovered they are critical to many of the nervous system’s essential functions.

The institute will focus on the central, peripheral and enteric nervous systems. It will offer education and training opportunities to students and postdoctoral and clinical fellows with a desire to specialize in glial cell research and medicine.

Stan Gerson, dean and senior vice president for medical affairs

at the School of Medicine, said he sees glial sciences as the “next huge frontier” in medical research. Gerson said the initiative aims to look at how glia influence the body and develop new therapeutics.

The institute will serve as the infrastructure for research in areas such as brain health, genetics and cognitive defects, Gerson said. He expects work surrounding glial cells to grow and evolve over the next decade.

Tesar said there are few dedicated institutes in the world dedicated to glial cell research and the number of studies on neurons outweighs the number on glia.

Most therapeutics for conditions such as Alzheimer’s focus on neurons. Case Western’s new institute plans to develop therapeutics that target glial cells, which not only exacerbate neurological diseases but often show defects or dysfunction before these diseases develop, Tesar said.

He and a team of researchers have made critical discoveries in glial cell dysfunction and its influence on neurological diseases. They developed a remyelination therapy for multiple sclerosis, which CWRU licensed to Convelo Therapeutics, and an antisense oligonucleotide therapy for Pelizaeus Merzbacher disease, which was licensed to Ionis Pharmaceuticals and is expected to start clinical trials in early 2024.

Tesar said the institute has already started adding faculty and staff. He hopes for the therapeutics developed by the institute eventually to lead to spinoff companies that serve patients with neurological diseases.

LAW

Gallagher Sharp LLP Gallagher Sharp is pleased to announce the addition of Associate Christopher D. Glass to the firm’s General Litigation and Insurance Practice Groups.

Chris focuses his practice on the defense of personal injury, wrongful death, and property damage claims in a wide variety of civil litigation. He received his law degree from Case Western University School of Law and his undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University.

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CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY

CONSTRUCTION

C O N TA C T

Peter F. Smith, Chairperson of CNB Bank, announced the election of Reneé Richard to CNB Bank’s Board of Directors.

Ms. Richard is currently employed as the President & CEO of the Corporate College division at Cuyahoga Community College. In addition to her appointment, Ms. Richard has also been appointed to the Ohio Board of Advisors for ERIEBANK, a division of CNB Bank.

CWRU focusing on ‘next huge frontier’ of medical research

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