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CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM I December 21, 2020

SPORTS BUSINESS CRAIN’S CLEVELAND SPECIAL REPORT

BEYOND 2020

Indians’ name change a result of long activism Trademark rights will be especially complex BBY KEVIN KLEPS

At 105 years and counting, it’s easily the longest-running name of Cleveland’s major professional sports teams.

For many Native American groups, however, the Cleveland Indians’ name and the Chief Wahoo logo the organization phased out after the 2018 season have been synonymous with inaccurate and harmful portrayals of a group of people with poverty, unemployment and suicide rates that are well above the national averages.

“We are not cartoon characters.

We are not a legend. We are your neighbors, your co-workers, your students, your teachers, your friends, your health care workers,” the Lake Erie Native American Council (LENAC) said in a Facebook post after the Indians announced on Dec. 14 that they will change a name the organization has had since 1915.

Cynthia Connolly, an executive board member of LENAC, called the announcement “one of the most significant moments for our community here in Cleveland” — the result, she said, of a “six-decade fight” to convince the Indians to change their name and no longer use the Chief Wahoo logo.

The change, though, won’t be immediate.

Cleveland’s baseball team will continue using the Indians moniker for at least the 2021 season, as the organization embarks on what it termed a “multi-phase process” of selecting a new name and logo, developing a new brand and uniforms, and securing the necessary trademarks.

We asked business leaders to reflect on this tumultuous year and look ahead to the next.

PAGES 6-7

See NAME CHANGE on Page 18

REAL ESTATE

Employers delay January return-to-office plans, opt for remote work NEWSPAPER

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BBY MICHELLE JARBOE

The turn of the year won’t herald a change for white-collar workers in Greater Cleveland, where a coronavirus surge has employers putting January return-to-office plans on hold.

When the pandemic prompted office shutdowns across the country in March, workers braced for a short break from their normal routines.

Fast-forward nine months, and

they’re still holed up in home offices, basements, dining rooms and dens, celebrating the holidays on Zoom with co-workers they haven’t seen for most of a year.

Now, with statewide coronavirus cases up tenfold from their spring peak and government stay-home advisories in place, local companies that had set early or mid-January reopening dates are rethinking those plans — and postponing to the end of

the first quarter and beyond.

“There were a lot of employers we were talking to that were looking at a Jan. 1 date that, in light of the restrictions that are currently in place and the rising numbers, are planning to delay that again,” said Michael Deemer, executive vice president of business development for the nonprofit Downtown Cleveland Alliance.

See RETURN on Page 18

12/18/2020 3:08:10 PM

MARKETING

JobsOhio uses DeWine’s COVID-19 response to sell state Organization intends to capitalize on ‘generational opportunity’ to attract executives from coasts

“THINK OF ALL THE REASONS PEOPLE HAD FOR NEVER CONSIDERING A MOVE TO CLEVELAND. REASONS LIKE IT IS TOO QUIET AND NOT MUCH HAPPENS, AND IT IS COMFORTABLE. THOSE ARE ALL THE REASONS THAT YOU WANT TO MOVE TO CLEVELAND NOW.”

BY KIM PALMER

JobsOhio this fall decided to leverage the positive attention Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine received nationally for his decisive leadership during the beginning of the pandemic.

Calling it a “generational opportunity” emerging from a “positive global awareness” of Ohio generated by DeWine’s response to the health crisis, the state’s private, nonprofit economic development organization launched a marketing plan aimed at selling the state to business executives and leaders looking to flee bigger cities.

J.P. Nauseff, president and CEO of JobsOhio, said at the group’s December board of director’s meeting, “We estimate that there was about $25 million in earned value associated with all the media generated by this response from the governor — media that we plan to take advantage of by selling Ohio as a great place to live your American Dream.”

With the right message, Nauseff contends, Ohio is in a position to convince more businesses and business leaders to relocate permanently to Ohio.

In late September, JobsOhio rolled out its Ohio is for Leaders marketing campaign to convey to people in larger markets “looking to flee be-

— Mike Ozan, CEO and chief creative officer of TWIST Creative Inc.

JobsOhio’s campaign to attract business executives looking to flee huge markets is targeted at C-suite audiences in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and New York City. | CONTRIBUTED

cause of the high cost, looking for more livable communities and livable states, looking for a lower basis to operate their business and a highskilled workforce, what Ohio has to offer,” Nauseff said.

The campaign is targeted at C-suite audiences in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and New York City, according to Renae Scott, JobsOhio marketing and communications managing director.

“We want to drive an awareness of

Ohio and improve the perceptions of our workforce,” Scott told JobsOhio board members. “For the long term, we are hoping to generate buzz and be part of the conversation about where businesses should be placed.”

Using what Scott calls a “data-driven” approach, JobsOhio is employing simple messaging to tout the state’s low corporate income rate, housing and affordable cost of living. The marketing messages on the OhioisforLeaders.com website are simple

and include the following slogans: “In Ohio, everyone gets more bang for their buck.” “Ohio has a 0% state tax on corporate income, R&D investments, and goods & products sold out of state.” “We put the ‘quality’ back in ‘quality of life.’ ” Since the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent rise in remote working, there have been mounting indications that there could be an exodus from big cities on both coasts and that midsize cities like Cleveland could benefit from the coming migration.

A New York Times survey from August found 86% of remote employees were satisfied with working from home and that one in three of those respondents would move to a new city or state if remote work continued indefinitely. Google trend data for August revealed that searches on moving and relocation had ticked up over the

summer months. Search interest in terms including “moving furniture across country” in addition to “moving to another state checklist” and “long distance moving company quotes” all were trending upward.

Ohio could benefit from the bigcity wanderlust for all the reasons people might have stayed away in the past, said Mike Ozan, CEO and chief creative officer of TWIST Creative Inc., a brand and design agency located in Tremont.

“Think of all the reasons people had for never considering a move to Cleveland,” Ozan said. “Reasons like it is too quiet and not much happens, and it is comfortable. Those are all the reasons that you want to move to Cleveland now. It is just enough of everything without being too much.”

See JOBSOHIO on Page 5

ONLINE MBA THE PRINCETON REVIEW, 2021

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REAL ESTATE

Westlake approves 60-year TIF deal for portions of Crocker Park Extension pushes the end of tax increment financing for third phase from 2043 to 2073 “WE DON’T KNOW WHERE THE PROJECT WILL BE IN 30 YEARS, BUT WE JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THERE’S THE REVENUE TO SUPPORT IT.

BY MICHELLE JARBOE

The city of Westlake recently doubled the lifespan of a tax incentive for Crocker Park, one of only a handful of large developments to seize a shortlived opportunity created by the state legislature.

In early December, Westlake City Council voted to tack 30 years onto an existing tax increment financing agreement tied to the third phase of the expansive, mixed-use project.

That agreement reallocates a portion of new property tax revenues generated by the project to paying off debt related to public infrastructure, such as new roads and parking garages.

The extension pushes the end of the TIF from 2043 to 2073.

Cleveland City Council approved similar legislation Dec. 9 for the Flats East Bank project, after an hourslong, last-minute hearing that laid bare some lawmakers’ distaste for the idea.

Westlake’s process, by comparison, was a nonevent. Council unanimously approved the TIF legislation Dec. 3, a month after it was introduced.

Finance director Prashant Shah said Westlake decided to pursue the extension on its own, independent of Crocker Park developer Stark Enterprises. The city saw an opportunity to ensure that revenues from the agreement — those redirected tax dollars

— Prashant Shah, Westlake finance director

The city of Westlake recently added 30 years to a tax increment financing agreement tied to infrastructure improvements at the third phase of Crocker Park. That wave of development included the American Greetings Corp. headquarters, a Hyatt Place hotel and additional stores, restaurants, apartments and parking garages. | COSTAR

— will be available to pay for infrastructure improvements for decades to come.

“We don’t know where the project will be in 30 years, but we just want to make sure that there’s the revenue

to support it,” Shah said.

The TIF agreement applies to only part of the 120-plus-acre site at Crocker and Detroit roads. Phase three of the project included the American Greetings Corp. headquar-

ters and new apartments, retail, restaurants and parking garages at the southern end of the property, along with a Hyatt Place hotel and other nearby buildings to the north, next to Nordstrom Rack.

TIF agreements allow property owners to make payments in lieu of taxes, with the money going to a special fund. Local governments use that money to repay debt incurred for street improvements, utilities, site cleanup, land acquisition and other expenses.

In Ohio, the standard TIF runs for 30 years. But a provision slipped into the last two-year state budget bill made it possible for communities to double that term for certain projects.

The wording of the statute established a limited window — through Dec. 31 — for sizable developments like Crocker Park and the Flats East Bank to qualify. Columbus City Council signed off on similar TIF extensions last month for two sprawling, retail-heavy projects.

See CROCKER on Page 4

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EDUCATION

Higher education leaders look to lessons of fall to navigate spring Pandemic still causing high amount of uncertainty on college campuses

BY AMY MORONA

In 2020, Youngstown State University president Jim Tressel leaned on a lesson from decades ago.

He has mentioned the Stockdale Paradox in conversations with his university community this year. It’s about Admiral James Stockdale, a prisoner of war for more than seven years in Vietnam. The story has been highlighted in a popular professional development book.

In Tressel’s retelling, when the admiral was asked years later about how he survived the brutal circumstances, he said optimists in the same situation perhaps didn’t fare as well because they set unrealistic expectations.

Stockdale, then, decided to focus on an approach grounded in making daily good decisions while still confronting reality, though always keeping the faith he’d eventually prevail.

The takeaway there can be applicable now, Tressel said.

“Like any lessons you learn, any difficult classes, any difficult life situations, you’ll learn a lot from them,” he said. “I think we’ll learn a lot from this once it’s behind us. But the reality is we don’t know when it’s behind us.”

As the fall semester winds down, a few other leaders at institutions across Northeast Ohio echoed a similar sentiment, outlining their plans to use knowledge gleaned from the fall to help navigate a spring semester that’s still uncertain amid the coronavirus pandemic.

One of next semester’s big changes at Youngstown State includes a shift

away from a traditional spring break.

“What we heard was there is a need for breaks mentally, but yet we didn’t want to encourage long travel,” Tressel said.

Instead, the campus’s calendar includes a scattering of “wellness days” throughout the semester. Tressel said the move wasn’t a unanimous decision by all of the campus’s stakeholders, but he called it the most responsible one to help slow the virus’s spread.

Keeping tabs on students’ mental well-being has been top of mind at Lorain County Community College, too, according to Tracy Green, vice president of strategic and institutional development. Roughly 89% of students took classes in some type of online format, an amount officials expect to stay about the same next semester.

“They are facing a lot of challenges, juggling lots of roles and responsibilities, and they need help,” Green said.

“They need help through emergency

“WHAT WE HEARD WAS THERE IS A NEED FOR BREAKS MENTALLY, BUT YET WE DIDN’T WANT TO ENCOURAGE LONG TRAVEL.” — Jim Tressel, Youngstown State University president

CROCKER

The TIF agreement for the third phase of Crocker Park generates about $4.5 million to $5 million in annual revenue. There isn’t an immediate plan to make use of a deal that was extended by 30 years. | COSTAR

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The General Assembly required any extensions to make local schools whole. That means that the Westlake City School District, which agreed to forgo partial tax payments from Crocker Park’s third phase until 2043, will receive its full share during the subsequent three decades.

There are notable differences between the situations at Crocker Park and in the Flats.

The 23-acre Flats project, near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, is behind on payments to public and civic lenders. The extended TIF will allow developer Scott Wolstein to refinance by replacing bonds issued in 2010 and 2014 with new debt, carrying a longer term and much lower interest rates. Refinancing will allow him to clear up the delinquencies, including payments on a city loan guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

At Crocker Park, where the TIF generates roughly $4.5 million to $5 million in annual revenue, there’s no immediate plan for making use of the much-lengthened agreement.

Westlake City Council recently approved legislation that will allow the

aid, to help with utility bills. You know, education may come second, third or fourth on the priority list depending on what those needs are.”

Now having a handle on what some of those needs look like, officials are upping the wraparound support offered to students in the spring, adding additional mental health counselors and moving to extend evening hours for financial aid and related services.

“This hasn’t been a sprint. It hasn’t been over quickly, and it’s lingering on,” Green said. “We know that all of those burdens, all of those challenges, are really weighing on the shoulders of all of us. But particularly our students who had challenges before the pandemic.”

Some of the campus’s students include those working on a variety of health and wellness programs, ranging from aspiring paramedics to phlebotomists. Green said the college has connected with the county’s health department to potentially offer enlisting those students to help distribute a COVID vaccine, along with the use of the campus itself as a possible distribution spot.

But administering a vaccine could

city to issue new bonds that, eventually, would replace existing debt on the project. But Shah said officials don’t have firm plans to act. They just wanted to be prepared if there’s a chance to save on interest.

The two pieces of legislation weren’t dependent on each other, he added.

“I think at this point we see it as a complete win,” Shah said of extending the TIF. “The city will continue to get the TIF revenues. This infrastructure is not only for the developer, but it helps the city as well.”

Brian Midlik, chief investment officer at Stark Enterprises, said the

Cleveland-based real estate company was aware of the extension but wasn’t heavily involved in the city’s process. He said the longer TIF could create opportunities to refinance or support additional infrastructure investments down the road.

But in the midst of a pandemic, there’s nothing on the table.

“We’re just continuing kind of as is,” Midlik said. “I don’t think there’s any major development planned at the moment. I think 2020’s slowed everything.”

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

4 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 21, 2020

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Reducing Real Property Tax Assessments Throughout Ohio And Across The United States

The College of Wooster plans to test each student for COVID-19 every week during the spring semester. | MATT DILYARD/THE COLLEGE OF WOOSTER

be weeks or months ahead, and it remains unknown where schools’ staff or students will fall in the priority line of receiving it.

In the interim, some schools are looking to change their coronavirus testing strategy. The practice varied widely from place-to-place in the fall.

Researchers from Harvard and Yale recommended on-campus college students to be tested every two days, but an October NPR analysis of campuses offering in-person classes nationwide found that most didn’t aggressively test students.

The College of Wooster, which pivoted to online courses in October after an uptick in COVID cases, is one that’s altering course for its 2,000 students. In the fall, the college tested students upon arrival to campus and then continued to test a student sampling each week.

Administrators’ starting point this spring will be to test every student, every week, though that could shift depending on the amount of local outbreaks in the area. The plan isn’t cheap. It’s estimated to cost between $1 million to $2 million for the se-

JOBSOHIO

From Page 2

Ozan is optimistic about JobsOhio’s efforts to woo more people to the state, though he said he would target people who are about 10 years into their careers and younger members of the creative class — those willing to be “pioneers” rather than those who can afford to live anywhere.

With the right message and the right amount of money, Ozan thinks a marketing campaign coupled with the state’s resources could attract entrepreneurial, coastal talent to the Cleveland area.

JobsOhio, which is primarily funded by the state liquor profits tax, did not release the cost of the Ohio is for Leaders campaign, which will ramp up again in January after a bit of a holiday break.

Susan Paley Zak, executive vice president of the search practice at Dise & Co., an executive recruiting firm in Cleveland that has been bringing in high-level leadership and nonprofit executives to the area for about 30 years, said she believes Cleveland in most cases is an easy sell, provided it can continue to increase job opportunities.

“From the outside, it’s very impressive. I find once people are here,

mester, according to Wooster president Sarah Bolton.

“I think our experience in the fall made it clear, as well as the experiences of a number of other institutions, that frequent testing is a really good investment and that it does really make a difference,” she said.

Bolton said another change included the introduction of the “Wooster Plus” program, an offering designed to give students who have completed eight semesters at the college a chance to complete up to two more semesters at the college tuition-free. It’s designed for students who may have experienced disruptions this year, she said, adding the effort is focused on being equitable and offering flexibility.

“One of the things we learned, that we anticipated but learned for sure, was that for this kind of situation with COVID, you don’t need a plan — you need plans A to Z,” she said. “Many different layers of plans for many different contingencies.”

Amy Morona: amy.morona@crain. com, (216) 771-5229, @AmyMorona they do not leave,” Zak said.

Her concerns are not for the high-level leaders she brings in, but for their “trailing spouses” who need to find challenging positions.

Zak “We can get the people, we can recruit the people. That is not a problem,” she said. “We can tell stories about Cleveland and opportunities, but we still need more jobs.”

The initial Ohio is for Leaders campaign was meant to test the waters and determine a return on investment, and Scott was pleased with the initial response.

“We generated over 30 million impressions in that three-week period, and we had about 5.5 million views of our TV commercials and other video views. We also had over 39,000 new site visitors,” she said.

In the short timeframe, 62% of the people who saw the Ohio is for Leaders ad had “greater positivity about Ohio,” and 50% of ad viewers felt that “they were more likely to seek information about Ohio,” Scott said.

When you hire Sleggs, Danzinger & Gill, you work directly with Sleggs, Danzinger and Gill.

Each client is directly represented at all levels by a Partner of the firm with a combined 90 years of experience. No pyramid, no associates, no on-the-job training.

Our clients deserve the very best representation, so we structured our firm to allow each client, throughout the entire process, to work directly with Todd Sleggs, Robert Danzinger and Steve Gill. Our philosophy is to work cooperatively with school district and county officials to ensure that our clients pay the lowest possible real property tax obligations. If a fair resolution requires litigation, Sleggs, Danzinger & Gill have the depth of trial and appellate experience to handle the most complex valuation issues.

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Most importantly, Sleggs, Danzinger & Gill wishes everyone continued health as we navigate through the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Robert K. Danzinger, Esq rdanzinger@sdglegal.net

Steven R. Gill, Esq sgill@sdglegal.net

(216) 771-8990 www.sdglegal.net

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Kim Palmer: kpalmer@crain.com, (216) 771-5384, @kimfouroffive DECEMBER 21, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 5

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Surviving an extraordinary year requires

SPECIAL REPORT | BEYOND 2020

What are some lessons you learned in 2020?

“In 2020, WRA pushed through crisis with three fundamentals in mind: innovation, staying others-focused and leaning into joy. Sometimes these things felt incredibly challenging, but we worked to appreciate the deep satisfaction that comes with facing obstacles head-on. We re-engineered our teaching, launched a community and charitable meal service from our dining hall, and produced cardboard cutouts of our students for display in our regular chapel meeting space. Our teachers and students felt joy, our community was nourished and our creativity flourished. Our lesson was to see silver linings wherever we could and to employ Midwestern grit to gut it out.”

—— Suzanne Walker Buck, head of school at Western Reserve Academy “2020 forced me to think outside of my comfort zone and exercise muscles that I had not typically used and depended on. In order to be successful, I had to be more innovative, more creative and courageous.”

——Kevin Clayton, vice president of diversity, inclusion and community engagement at the Cleveland Cavaliers “The primary lesson I learned in 2020 is that even in a large organization such as Kent State, individuals make a difference. In a university with nearly 40,000 students and 5,000 employees, individuals stepped up and created the programs, plans, safety protocols, academic policy changes and the like that produced our successful and safe response to COVID-19.”

——Todd Diacon, president of Kent State University “The pandemic demonstrated the importance of our system approach to health care. One of the first steps in the response to a pandemic is to rally and coordinate community resources.

That was a way of life for us at the Cleveland Clinic even before COVID. The full integration with all the community hospitals in our system saved us precious time and energy, and gave us a head start in our response to the pandemic.

The pandemic has also energized our spirit of innovation. We have always been an innovative organization, and the response to the pandemic took us to a whole new level. We saw innovative ideas come from many of our locations throughout the region and the world. From a multidisciplinary team of caregivers coming together to establish standard and safe ways to put on and remove PPE, to physicians devising intubation boxes to protect themselves and other caregivers from exposure, to nurses developing ways to elevate and protect IV lines and put IV pumps and dialysis machines outside of patient rooms, to our respiratory therapy leadership devising a system to allow one ventilator to be used for more than one patient if needed.”

——Dr. Raed Dweik, chair of the Cleveland Clinic’s Respiratory Institute “The best-laid plans can change at a moment’s notice and without your approval, and there may not be anything that you can do about it.

Have a strategic contingency plan and don’t wait to pivot your business to take advantage of market opportunities. Be flexible. A diversity of perspectives may create sustainability if your primary business is suddenly impacted by unplanned and untimely long-term market shifts, such as a global pandemic. Also, apply prudence in running your business in the good times so when the bad times come, and they will, you can more readily weather the storm.”

——Larry Fulton, president and CEO of LEFCO Worthington

“Change has been a long time coming for many of Cleveland’s residents, and the pandemic did not stop the momentum. In fact, it illuminated the need for more public, social and physical infrastructure to continue building resiliency in our neighborhoods, and many residents (once they figured out Zoom) stepped in the gap to advocate for their neighborhoods in our urban planning processes. And while work has continued at a strong pace, I’ve also learned to receive grace for myself as a professional and as a parent of a young child.”

——Joyce Pan Huang, vice president of community development of MidTown Cleveland Inc.

This doesn’t feel like a year for predictions.

No, 2020 turned our world on its head, and it’s tough to act like anyone truly knows what’s coming next.

But there’s room for hope.

In that spirit, we asked business leaders to reflect on this tumultuous year and look ahead to the next.

Responses have been edited for space.

“By nimbly responding to the market, taking risks and making investments in technology and people, American manufacturers can compete with lower-cost foreign competition. After COVID-19 brought many factories to a halt — either because of government shutdowns or plummeting demand for their products — we saw a cohort of manufacturers quickly refitting their plants to produce personal protective equipment. By the summer, they had produced millions of masks, face shields, gowns and other equipment desperately needed by front-line health care workers. At first, with overseas supply chains shuttered, they had a captive market.

But even after Chinese production resumed, many of the Ohio PPE manufacturers were able to hold their own. Their stories are inspiring — not only because those business leaders rose to the occasion in a public health crisis, but also because they showed the path to bringing manufacturing back to the American heartland.”

——Ethan Karp, president and CEO of MAGNET “Always be looking to the future, never rest on your laurels; you’ll find yourself vulnerable. The industry needs to continue to innovate and bring exciting new products to market in order to compete with many nontraditional beer companies looking to impact our retail space and share of mind with the consumer.”

——Mark King, CEO of Great Lakes Brewing Co. “In March of this year, if you listened carefully, you could actually hear the sound of hundreds of ‘strategic plans’ being torn apart and shoved into the same trash can where we would later toss vacations and family gatherings. This year, I’ve watched colleagues from across sectors pivot from those carefully identified goals to where our community needed us to be. It is a reminder that even if we work in different industries impacted in different ways, we are always better and stronger when we share supporting and caring for our community as our North Star. It has, and will continue, to take all of us to navigate the days ahead.”

——Nicole Mullet, executive director of ArtsNow “As new board chair with the Beck Center for the Arts, I have gained a much deeper understanding of what it means to be audacious. I’ve witnessed firsthand the passion and commitment of our staff and faculty to providing music, art and theater experiences for our students, clients and patrons in the face of both a shutdown and months of limited use of our Lakewood campus. I have also been energized and inspired by the dedication of our board members who, in addition to staying keenly focused on our financial stability and future sustainability, have rolled up their sleeves on a variety of critical initiatives. Working diligently on all these fronts while in the midst of our first

AURIS VIA ISTOCK

capital campaign and a major renovation of our education wing — well I call that bold, daring and, yes, pretty audacious!”

——Patricia Oliver, chair of financial services practice at Tucker Ellis “I appreciate now how much even your small daily interactions contribute to life. You recognize that when they go away.”

——Zach Schiller, research director at Policy Matters Ohio “2020 has been one of the most challenging years, yet simultaneously one I hope never to forget. We have come together both in the medical field and as a country in ways I didn’t know were possible. It was filled with an impressive amount of accomplishment, but also with tragedies and loss in a way we have never seen before. Things we took for granted a mere 12 months ago now seem so much more precious. As we embark on 2021, personally, I eagerly await the chance to see family and friends in person again. To embrace them. To create memories again. In the medical field, I look forward to taking the collaborations and advancements we have made in 2020, and

using our momentum to push for further innovations and improvements in 2021 to continue to take excellent care of all those who need it.”

——Dr. Sarah Tehranisa, assistant medical director of the Center for Emergency Medicine at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center “The year 2020, in my opinion, has become an unexpectedly perfect environment for learning. All of us, from our youngest humans to our most seasoned seniors, who have lived through and seen many highs, lows and history-making firsts, have been challenged to approach each day and situation with a learner’s mind. To be open, to be willing to try, to fail, to think differently and adapt. I have relearned that technology is a blessing for those who have access to it and a curse for those who don’t. I have learned that the values and financial investments of our government, businesses and institutions cannot be incongruent if we want to have an inclusive, sustainable and thriving society. I have learned that self care, particularly as a Black woman, is mandatory. I

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SPECIAL REPORT | BEYOND 2020

LABEL

“When we are writing the next chapter of our history in 2021, I hope we take the opportunity to meet this moment and bring a new sense of urgency to the challenges we face as a city and a country. With COVID-19 amplifying inequalities that we already knew existed, we need to find new ways to address our oldest problems. In 2021, I hope we don’t go back to normal and leave the old ways of doing things behind.”

——Justin Bibb, chief strategy officer of Urbanova

“I am hopeful that kids can do everything they want to do, families can reunite without fear for their health, and all of us can do the things that maybe at times we took for granted in the past. I am also hopeful to see fans unite at Progressive Field to watch our Tribe.

Having our fans back in 2021 will be incredible for us all. Finally, I will always hope for a World Series!”

——Tim Salcer, vice president of sales and service at the Cleveland Indians

“Vaccine distribution will be crucial to getting our industry back on its feet, while providing hope that our economy will emerge from this recession.”

——Renato “Ren” Camacho, president and CEO of the Akron-Canton Airport

“My hope is that we return to a place of stability, both medically and economically speaking.

I think everyone is accepting that things will not return to the way they were, but if we had some stability and predictability, I think it would be a comfort to all.”

——Alyson Scott, president of Fredon Corp.

“For 2021, my primary hope is for a return to health for our nation, but also the restoration of the vibrant intellectual community that is unique to college campuses. In addition, my hope is that we take the best lessons from remote learning, remote working and the intersection between the liberal arts and technology, and apply them to higher education‘s future.”

——Carlos Campo, president of Ashland University “My hopes for 2021 are for people to believe in facts as opposed to hyperbole, and that as country and a region we start to believe in each other again. And to roughly quote Teddy Roosevelt, that we as a nation will forever rise or fall together.”

——Dan Horrigan, mayor of Akron “It is my hope for 2021 to finish out the academic year strong with the measures we employed at the beginning of the school year to respond to the pandemic. We have the opportunity to usher in the benefits of this critical response with a renewed focus on institutional growth, while appreciating how the previous hardships have fostered new knowledge, inspired creativity and created opportunities for future collaboration.”

——Jennifer Kinnaird, dean of the School of Business at Lake Erie College have learned that it is never too late to learn what you may have missed the first time around. I have learned that it is OK to seek and express joy, even in the midst of chaos. There are so many lessons that I have learned from 2020, and one of the greatest has been that there is no limit to human resiliency, ingenuity and the capacity to bring about change.”

——Teleangé Thomas, chief advancement and relationships officer at JumpStart Inc. “I learned that you never know what can occur and to be prepared for anything. As an entrepreneur, I’m always optimistic and try to keep things moving forward. But sometimes, even when all is going great and you don’t think anything can slow, or, in this case, stop your momentum, the best strategy can blow sky high due to something completely beyond your control. However, I also learned that even in the face of a global pandemic, racial tensions and one of the most tumultuous elections we’ve ever had, a better model can become clear for the benefit of all.”

——Doug Weintraub, CEO of Bounce Innovation Hub

What are your hopes for 2021?

“I have so many hopes for 2021! Of course, I need the pandemic to end, but until that happens, the Cleveland community continues to be generous and support the (Greater Cleveland COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund) and other nonprofits because the impacts of the pandemic are far from over. I also hope that our local philanthropic sector can continue to work together with nonphilanthropic partners to address some of complex issues exacerbated by the pandemic. These issues include improving our public health infrastructure and creating better policies for supporting low-wage workers. Additionally, I hope we (residents, organizations, philanthropy) commit to a learning journey and policy changes around racial equity and racial justice. I understand that real change takes time and much effort, so I ask partners to commit to the long haul.”

——Dale Anglin, program director of Youth, Health and Human Services at the Cleveland Foundation

“My hope going into 2021 is to use and apply technologies like artificial intelligence to help address the issue of health disparities in our country and in Cleveland. In spite of boasting of one of the amazing medical ecosystems in the world, Cleveland has one of the worst records when it comes to health disparity. AI could potentially be a force for good here and could help ameliorate the discrepancy in health care access and outcomes across minority communities and communities of color.”

——Anant Madabhushi, director of the Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics at Case Western Reserve University “In 2021, I hope that the commitments that our financial partners made to neighborhood revitalization and addressing systemic racism are translated into on-the-ground neighborhood investments and lending to Cleveland residents and small businesses that were most harshly affected by the pandemic.”

——Tania Menesse, president and CEO of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress

“There now can be an honest dialogue. I have said things that I have never said before to people with money and wealth. I tell them, ‘You can change things faster than I can.’ So that’s the good part. The silver lining to this horrible racial discord that this country has seen since Memorial Day is that we can now be honest about what we think are some of the real longterm solutions.”

——Cheryl Stephens, Cuyahoga County Council member “Let’s hope we can recognize that our similarities are far greater than our differences, and we will work together to restore our country to be one of consideration, collaboration and respect.”

——Grace Wakulchik, president and CEO of Akron Children’s Hospital “Our elected officials find ways to collaborate on behalf of constituents who need them and that many of the strategies that were put in place during the pandemic continue in the future. The lessons learned from the murder of George Floyd won’t be forgotten, and that we continue to make forward progress in our collective work around equity. We move closer to a world where everyone has the nutritious food they need, every day.”

——Kristin Warzocha, president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank “I hope I am/we are able to take each disruption as an opportunity to deepen our understanding and appreciation for each other. I crave a more equitable and just society that allows us to see, hear, respect and care for people as their full selves. As for sports, I have hope we will get back to experiencing the joys and growth that come with athletics competition. The loss of consistent collegiate sports has magnified their significance outside of an entertainment outlet. Sports are academic in nature, and our playing fields offer lessons in discipline, resilience, camaraderie and patience.”

——Natalie Winkelfoos, director of athletics and physical education at Oberlin College

This report was compiled by Crain’s Cleveland Business reporters Lydia Coutré, Michelle Jarboe, Kevin Kleps, Rachel Abbey McCafferty, Amy Morona, Jeremy Nobile, Kim Palmer and Dan Shingler from an idea by McCafferty.

December 21, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 7

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

RICH WILLIAMS FOR CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

An optimistic view for the new year

EDITORIAL

A new hope T

his strange and mostly terrible year ends, ironically enough, with a measure of hope in the form of vaccines that, if all goes as planned, will help us return to something approaching normal life in 2021.

We don’t usually find inspiration in the movement of FedEx and UPS trucks, but watching footage of vehicles taking the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines to hospitals across the country was immensely satisfying. And then seeing health care workers, who have borne so much of the trauma of 2020, start to receive the vaccine ... well, that offered the kind of uplift that has been in short supply.

The federal government on Wednesday, Dec. 16, said about 5.9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine — enough to inoculate more than 2.9 million people, since the process takes two doses — had been set aside mainly for states to start protecting medical workers and nursing home residents against the coronavirus. (Ohio is getting about 100,000 doses in this initial batch.) Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was expected to get approval for emergency use from a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Thursday afternoon, OBVIOUSLY, THERE’S Dec. 17, stepping up the reA LONG WAY TO GO IN A sponse to the pandemic. there’s a long COUNTRY OF MORE THAN wayObviously, to go in a country of 330 MILLION PEOPLE. more than 330 million peoThe New York Times THIS WILL TAKE PATIENCE ple. noted that the vaccination AND VIGILANCE. campaign “is the most ambitious in American history, and producing enough doses, sending them to the right places and convincing enough people to take them promises to be a long and complicated mobilization.” This will take patience and vigilance. As Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, a nonprofit that represents public health officials, told the Times, “I feel like the first wave is going to be the easy one — sending it to hospitals. It’s just going to get harder” to reach the entire country.

The task at hand is great. But the goal and potential outcome is even greater. The outgoing Trump administration deserves

credit for the speed with which it facilitated the development and distribution of vaccines. Now it’s up to all of us to do our part. There’s skepticism in some quarters about vaccines in general, and these (because of the fast nature of their development) in particular, but when it’s your time to get vaccinated, do it. Before that, don’t let up on your COVID-19 prevention practices. Wash your hands, maintain social distance, wear masks. You’ve heard those things hundreds, or thousands of times, from Gov. Mike DeWine, public health officials and others, but it’s especially important to keep safe in these months leading up to widespread distribution of vaccines.

There’s much at stake.

As COVID cases have gotten dramatically worse in recent weeks, leading to more business closings or restrictions on their operations, the economy has begun showing signs of weakness again. U.S. jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 12 rose by 23,000 to 885,000, the highest figure in three months.

Total retail sales decreased 1.1% in November from the prior month, following a 0.1% October decline. Those were the first drops since March and April, when the pandemic started taking its initial toll on the economy. There’s renewed hope for a stimulus bill from Washington, but this still promises to be a tough winter on the health and economic front.

Better times are coming. Be smart this holiday season so 2021 can meet all of our expectations.

Take action T

he pandemic dominated 2020, but this year also was notable for a renewed focus on our country’s lack of economic equity.

There’s no vaccine for those troubling problems in American life. But it’s encouraging that 37 companies and organizations, including Cleveland Clinic, have formed a coalition called OneTen, which pledges to “upskill, hire and promote one million Black Americans over the next 10 years into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement.” They raised more than $100 million in seed funding to meet the goals — a welcome sign that corporate America is ready to do more than talk about these issues. We look forward to more of this in 2021.

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

For most of us, 2020 has been a year we are excited to put in the rearview. We witnessed many unpleasantries — a global pandemic, racial and social unrest, and a fractured election — to name just a few.

Looking at 2020 through a Northeast Ohio lens, the number of small businesses open in Cleveland as of Nov. 25 Mike decreased by 31.6% compared with January 2020, while health care work- SCHOENBRUN ers and other essential employees made great sacrifices to keep our community safe and with access to critical supplies.

Despite all of these hardships, I am bullish on what lies ahead in 2021. The U.S. economy has entered into recession 13 times since the Great Depression. Through fortitude and innovation, we have always found ways to build back, and I believe that kind of resilience is alive and well here in Cleveland. Since the start of the pandemic, for example, $10 million in grants has been awarded to local human service nonprofits by the The Greater Cleveland COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund. To meet the sudden technology needs of area students, local business leaders pulled together to donate more than 10,000 computers through PCs for People.

While we are not out of the woods yet, there are some promising indicators: COVID-19 vaccine: On Dec. 14, the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Ohio, with Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth on the list of hospitals to receive a delivery.

While the rollout will take time, this marks a critical step toward getting our businesses and schools back to pre-pandemic life.

Consumer spending: David Mericle, chief U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs, issued this encouraging outlook: “The economy is likely to re-accelerate next spring as mass immunization fully reopens the high-contact consumer services that account for most of the remaining output gap.” He adds, “This should fuel a mid-year consumption boom as restored opportunities to spend allow households to substantially lower their saving rates and spend accumulated excess savings.”

Strong real estate market: Derek Thompson writes in The Atlantic: “In almost every recession since the 1970s, national wealth has taken a beating and the housing market has stumbled — or collapsed, as it did in 2007 and 2008. But today, home prices are setting records across the country while households have lots of money to spend.” Here in Cleveland, we have seen a 10% increase in housing sale prices.

Any way you look at it, the combination of a strong housing market and an increase in consumer spending is just about the most ideal starting point for a recovery you can hope for. Of course, this is not true for every household and business, but the positive signs for long-term growth are clearly there.

I would like to hear from you on what you and your organization are planning to do to get ahead in 2021. Feel free to email me at mike.schoenbrun@crain.com.

From all of us at Crain’s Cleveland Business, we hope you and your loved ones have a safe and healthy holiday season — we will see you in 2021!

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.

DESPITE ALL OF 2020’S HARDSHIPS, I AM BULLISH ON WHAT LIES AHEAD IN 2021.

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

8 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | December 21, 2020

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OPINION

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Building college enrollment to better the community

BY ALEX JOHNSON

Fall 2020 enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows COVID-19’s impact on community colleges. Across the nation, the total student population at community colleges dropped by 9.4%.

Nearly one out of 10 students at two-year schools such as Cuyahoga Community College disappeared from campus.

This decline was even more pronounced among low-income, African American and Hispanic students. As a whole, these demographic groups have lower levels of educational attainment and — not coincidentally — higher unemployment rates. The pandemic has widened this equity gap.

There has been a great deal of discussion about the impact of these enrollment declines on higher education, but very little about the long-term impact on businesses, communities and society.

This isn’t just a higher education problem. These aren’t just our students. They are the future of Northeast Ohio and our nation.

Today’s students are tomorrow’s nurses, welders, IT technicians and first responders. They are the next generation of skilled workers, a group vital to employers and the overall effort to grow and strengthen the regional economy.

The drop in fall 2020 enrollment comes as the need for education in our workforce has never been greater. By 2025, it’s estimated that nearly two out of three Ohio workers will need a degree or certification to meet on-the-job demands.

In Greater Cleveland, we’re far short of that bar: Only 34% of the region’s population has earned an associate or bachelor’s degree, according to the 2020 “Aligning Opportunities in Northeast Ohio” report from Team NEO. This skills gap has driven workforce readiness planning for years. Progress has been made, but not at the pace required to fill expected job openings in critical fields such as health care, information technology and manufacturing.

Community colleges like Tri-C serve as a key entry point to higher education for many looking to gain the skills needed for better careers. That’s what makes the fall 2020 enrollment drop especially concerning — for all of us.

Here’s what we’re doing: Tri-C has redoubled its recruiting efforts, as well as out-

reach to current and lapsed students to provide them with the academic and financial support they need to continue their studies. We launched a Full Tuition Assistance program, provided laptops and other technology needs, and distributed more than $5 million in emergency funds to keep students on track. We’ve communicated our extensive investments in Johnson has safety protocols and online learning been president to overcome fear and uncertainty. of Cuyahoga Our recently launched Tri-C Access Community Centers continue to expand. Through College since collaborations with community part2013. ners, our Access Centers bring education and job training programs into Cleveland neighborhoods gripped by high unemployment and poverty. Three centers currently welcome those lookGrimm Winter mix 2x4.33.indd ing for a better future. A fourth is in the works.  When COVID-19 prevented in-person programming at the Access Centers, the college pivoted to offer free online workforce success courses to help participants earn college credit and boost employable skills. In the coming year, the Access Centers will be joined by two interrelated programs under the college’s new Institute for Community Engagement and Development. The institute was formed to provide pathways out of poverty for underserved populations by connecting them to education, training and jobs through community and business partnerships. By design, it will reduce barriers by bringing college resources into the community.

In addition to the Access Centers, the institute will oversee the following:  Community Partners: Alliances that bring educational and workforce programming into community-based settings; and Community Training and Jobs: Partnerships with local businesses to train their current workforce and connect community members to jobs in their neighborhoods.

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PERSONAL VIEW

Cleveland must innovate for better, not worse

BY RICHEY PIIPARINEN

On March 6, 2020, JobsOhio — the state’s economic development agency — announced a partnership with the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center that would bring $100 million of investment in the creation of the “Cincinnati Innovation District,” designed “to serve as a ‘blueprint’ for the state and ensure Cincinnati becomes a magnet for talent that attracts Fortune 500, mid-size and developing startup companies,” notes the JobsOhio announcement.

Now, it’s Cleveland’s turn. A local consortium recently announced a developer, Baltimore-based Wexford Science and Technology, was chosen to build Cleveland’s innovation district, which is set to run down the Health-Tech Corridor in Cleveland’s Midtown neighborhood. No doubt, the capital investment at play here is an opportunity. Cleveland has to get it right. Getting it right entails explaining what is meant by “innovation” when it comes to economic development, coupled with an articulation of how innovation can be conscientiously spurred, a la a “district.”

Arguably the toughest issue, however, is figuring out what Cleveland should be innovating in, on or about.

The fruits of innovation must have an economic and societal effect, as opposed to what technological advances too often induce: a distending divide between the haves and have nots.

The concept of “innovation economics” was introduced by economist Joseph Schumpeter in his 1942 book “Capi-

talism, Socialism, and Democracy,” where he contended that institutions, entrepreneurs and technological change were at the heart of economic growth. His hunch has been proved out. A 2005 Cleveland Fed report titled “Altered States: A Perspective on 75 Years of State Income Growth” showed that a state’s per capita income growth was driven by three facPiiparinen is tors: educational attainment, levels of director of the R&D and patenting, and a higher-tech center of industry mix. Put another way, edupopulation cated people, the knowledge producdynamics and tion activities done by those people, director of and the industries transformed from urban theory and analytics at those knowledge production activities — these factors all comprise the Cleveland State process of innovation.

University’s Enter the idea of “innovation disMaxine Goodman Levin tricts,” which are physically deCollege of Urban signed places meant to foster efficacy in the process of innovation itself.

Affairs.

The definition of innovation districts has been clarified over time by Brookings as “areas where leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with startups, business incubators and accelerators.”

See PIIPARINEN on Page 16 DECEMBER 21, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 9

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OPINION

FROM THE PEN OF CRAIN’S CARTOONIST RICH WILLIAMS

In a painfully unfunny year, a dozen reasons to smile Jan. 20

March 9

May

Feb. 10

March 23

June

March 2

March 30

July

10 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | December 21, 2020

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OPINION

e May 4

Aug. 3

June 8

Oct. 19

July 27

Nov. 16

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TAX TIPS Carl Grassi: Planning to use your estate and gift tax exemption? Consider the SLAT PAGE 14

FINANCE

DISTANCED FROM THE PERSONAL TOUCH

During a recent Zoom meeting with directors, Cortland Bank’s typically vocal board kept uncommonly quiet.

Bank president and CEO James Gasior reached out to members individually afterward to get feedback on some issues he was surprised they didn’t comment on. Some were simply uncomfortable talking in the video chat and clammed up.

“It’s just different today with virtual meetings, not being in front of somebody,” Gasior said. “There’s something about being in a conference room or board room, sitting across the table where you can read the body language.”

It’s a microcosm of the current dynamic many bankers are adapting to — surely some more successfully than others. BY JEREMY NOBILE |

IMAGEDEPOTPRO VIA ISTOCK

Banks face challenges to workforce culture, productivity amid restraints of the pandemic “UNLESS BANKS CAN DO SOMETHING TO ADDRESS IT, I THINK YOU’RE GOING TO SEE A CULTURAL PROBLEM. I THINK THIS IS PROBABLY THE GREATEST THREAT (FOR BANKS) NEXT YEAR BESIDES MARGIN COMPRESSION.” — Brian Rhonemus, bank consultant and CEO of Rhonemus Group

Outside the boardroom, the concern is client-facing salespeople and relationship managers grappling with the same virtual interactions when managing clients or

trying to attract new ones. The same applies to companies when interfacing with staff.

It’s an undoubtedly challenging situation today, and one that may impact the bottom line, especially if productivity suffers with employees working away from the office.

“Unless banks can do something to address it, I think you’re going to see a cultural problem,” said Brian Rhonemus, a bank consultant and CEO of Rhonemus Group, a talent management and recruitment firm for the financial services industry. “I think this is probably the greatest threat (for banks) next year besides margin compression.”

With COVID-19 necessitating distancing, and with many professionals continuing working remotely, there are some concerns about the impact these current dynamics might have on culture, productivity and, ultimately, company performance.

See CULTURE on Page 16

12 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 21, 2020

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FOCUS | FINANCE

Splash Financial making deep impact on student loan debt

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Steven Muszynski is founder and CEO of Splash Financial. The student refinance company has seen some big growth recently.

Monthly revenue jumped 2,150% over the past 18 months. | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Cleveland company surpasses $6 billion in refinancing requests

BY DOUGLAS J. GUTH

About 45 million higher education grads in the U.S. owe $1.7 trillion in student loans, sinking that population in an ocean of debt that ranks higher than liability on cars or credit cards.

Steven Muszynski, founder and CEO of student refinance company Splash Financial, has friends who graduated from medical school $250,000 in the bucket. Cleveland-based Splash is dedicated to relieving some of that pain via a refi marketplace boasting its own lender network of banks and credit unions.

Muszynski, 32, launched Splash in 2016 as it rebranded from a previous iteration called GradSchoolLoans.

Splash has enjoyed sizable growth in recent years, surpassing 100,000 unique customer accounts and $6 billion in refinancing requests.

Monthly revenue jumped 2,150% over the past 18 months alone, with the company expecting to double its 85-person staff within the next year.

Muszynski attributed this growth to increased conversions leading to more marketing spend, resulting in a flywheel effect of business momentum.

“At the end of the day, people care most about saving money and doing it quickly,” Muszynski said. “They want to know they’re getting a really good offer.”

Here’s the way it works: Splash gives borrowers quotes from partner lenders, with loans available in all 50 states. Refinancing is offered for undergraduate and graduate loans as well as loans for MBAs, law, dental and medical school.

The firm targets individuals with strong post-grad employment prospects to ensure debt can be paid. An online application hub promises a quote in less than two minutes, thanks to an integrated suite of lending partners presenting possible rates.

Customers generally seek to lower their interest rates to 4% or under, Muszynski said. The lending marketplace keeps those rates down for people paying out a $30,000 under-

grad degree or $70,000 advanced degree, depending on the institution.

“There have been scenarios where people have refinanced at $800,000 in Das debt, or have interest rates well over 10%,” he said.

“The average person wants to save a few hundred bucks a month, and it’s easy and fast to refinance with us.”

Enduring level of growth Federal loan payments are halted until January 2021, a response to the U.S. coronavirus pandemic. While President-elect Joe Biden has promised additional student loan forgiveness upon taking office, former students still are dealing with a financially damaging virus fallout.

Muszynski pointed to job loss and furloughs among his clientele, though some borrowers are taking advantage of the governmental payment hiatus alongside availability of zero-percent interest rates.

“We’ve had some people come to us and our lenders asking to pause payments,” Muszynski said. “Some of our partners have been offering disaster forbearance policies for the last three to six months. For the most part, people refinancing with us continue to make their payments. It hasn’t been that different (compared to pre-pandemic times) other than people wanting to reduce what they pay on loans.”

Experts attribute the country’s increase in student loan debt, in part, to the late aughts recession when state governments pulled funding from public university systems, resulting in higher tuition and more learners having to borrow money.

For Splash, the customer uptick helped the company close a $12.3 million Series A round in May. The financing round was co-led by CMFG Ventures LLC, the venture capital en-

tity of CUNA Mutual Group, and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Northwestern Mutual. This year’s venture fundraise follows a $4.3 million round invested by the firms in 2019.

Sam Das, managing director at CMFG, said Splash’s broad lender network presents an ideal opportunity for CUNA Mutual Group, which provides insurance and other financial services to credit unions and their members.

“We look at investments as ways to leverage our fleet of insurance products, or help our credit union partners bolster their business and meet the needs of members,” Das said.

“Splash has been working with credit unions — their focus and business model is a natural fit for what we aim to do.”

Considering that Splash attracts consumers nationwide, Das expects the company’s growth to endure post-pandemic.

“A lot of folks are looking to refi into lower rates to reduce their monthly cash flow as much as possible,” Das said. “There’s still uncertainty that’s not going away, so we’re going to see those trends continue.”

The new venture funding is being used to expand Splash’s national brand and onboard supplementary lending partners. Next year, the firm will further enhance its marketing and engineering teams, while also bringing in a general counsel and compliance officer on the executive side. Muszynski thinks Splash can be a national consumer brand, assisting even more people digging out from crushing student loan debt.

“It’s been a challenging year, because you just don’t fully plan for a global pandemic,” Muszynski said.

“Helping people, obviously, is the mission, just like it was when we started. How can we keep innovating on behalf of the client base? If we don’t do that, we’ll get passed by.”

Contact Douglas J. Guth: clbfreelancer@crain.com

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FOCUS | FINANCE | TAX TIPS

Consider a SLAT as an estate planning option High estate tax exemption amount prompts popularity in spousal lifetime access trusts

BY CARL GRASSI

A popular estate planning tool right now is the use of spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs).

This is because the current estate tax exemption amount (i.e., the amount which individuals can gift to others free of gift or estate tax) is currently the highest it has ever been. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 increased the federal estate and gift exemption from an inflation-adjusted $5 million per person to $10 million per person. For 2020, each person can gift $11.58 million ($23.16 million per couple) during life or at death without being subject to gift or estate tax, but this provision is scheduled to expire by the end of 2025 with the exemption reverting to $5 million per person, adjusted for inflation. It may be reduced sooner by Congress.

The IRS has stated that any exemption used under the increased exemption amounts will not be “clawed back.” So, if taxpayers use the higher exemption amount now, they will not be penalized at a later date. If they fail to use the exemption, they could lose it going forward when exemption amounts go down.

It is important to note that, depending on where the exemption ends up after reduction, individuals will not

start to use up the higher exemption amount until they have first made gifts totaling $3.5 million or even up to $6 million dollars.

In light of the Grassi is a pending reducmember of tion in the exMcDonald emption, many Hopkins LLC. individuals with federally taxable estates are seriously considering reducing their taxable estates by making lifetime gifts before the exemption amount is reduced. An effective estate-planning strategy for accomplishing this involves setting up an irrevocable trust. For a trust to be irrevocable, the grantor will give up all ownership of the trust’s assets. This presents the age-old dilemma for many individuals who want to use the exemption before it goes away but want to retain access to the assets for their family or other beneficiaries if they need the assets in the future.

This is where the SLAT is useful. A SLAT is a gift from one spouse (the donor spouse) to an irrevocable trust for the benefit of the other spouse (the beneficiary spouse) and possibly their children or grandchil-

dren. The beneficiary spouse may receive trust distributions, but ideally the trust assets would be assets of last resort. A SLAT allows married couples to utilize the federal lifetime gift and estate tax exclusion of the donor spouse while providing access to the beneficiary spouse.

Although each spouse may fund a SLAT for the other spouse, it is very important that the trusts are substantially different from each other.

Similar trusts may be deemed “reciprocal trusts” by the IRS and able to be included in each donor spouse’s estate, where they would

SLATs are generally “grantor trusts,” which means that income generated by the trust is taxable to the donor spouse instead of the trust. This allows the donor spouse to make nontaxable “gifts” to the trust by paying the income tax owed.

A SLAT can also be a non-grantor trust, so that all income is taxed to the trust itself. But this is very difficult to accomplish during the beneficiary spouse’s life. If a SLAT is a non-grantor trust, this may enable the trust to avoid state income taxes if located in a state where income tax does not apply to trusts.

maintenance or support). If the donor spouse wants more flexibility in the trust for distributions to the beneficiary spouse, an independent trustee may be able to provide flexibility.

Another important requirement is to fund the trust with the donor spouse’s separate property. If the donor spouse uses marital or community property, there is a risk that the trust assets will be included in the other spouse’s estate. Also, if there is any chance that the donor spouse is under threat of litigation or bankruptcy, the donor spouse should be careful when transferring assets to the trust to avoid the appearance of fraudulent transfers.

If a couple divorces, the beneficiary spouse may continue to benefit from the arrangement. These and other risks should be discussed with an attorney before creating and funding a SLAT. SLATS are not always the right tool for using exemption before the expected reduction. But with careful planning for gift, estate and income taxes, they can be a great solution for many.

ALTHOUGH EACH SPOUSE MAY FUND A SLAT FOR THE OTHER SPOUSE, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE TRUSTS ARE SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER. SIMILAR TRUSTS MAY BE DEEMED “RECIPROCAL TRUSTS” BY THE IRS AND ABLE TO BE INCLUDED IN EACH DONOR SPOUSE’S ESTATE, WHERE THEY WOULD BE SUBJECT TO ESTATE TAX. be subject to estate tax.

Because a SLAT is funded with a gift made during the spouse’s lifetime, future appreciation of trust assets will be shielded from transfer taxes and the assets will receive limited protection from claims by the beneficiaries’ creditors.

To ensure the trust assets do not become part of the donor spouse’s taxable estate, the donor spouse cannot act as trustee. The beneficiary spouse may serve as trustee, but only if distributions are limited to an ascertainable standard (e.g., beneficiary spouse’s health, education,

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14 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 21, 2020

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12/17/2020 4:06:04 PM

FOCUS | FINANCE

Rebrand at C2P Enterprises intensifies insurance offering Westlake company also brings on new CEO to help raise IMO’s visibility

BY JUDY STRINGER

In a move to strengthen its position in comprehensive wealth management, Westlake-based C2P Enterprises recruited California insurance veteran Brian Mann earlier this year and concurrently rebranded its insurance business.

C2P Advisory Group, one of a handful of C2P holdings, is now Clarity Insurance Marketing under the leadership of president and CEO Mann.

The addition of Mann and his Huntington Beach, Calif.-based team, coupled with the rebrand, is a strategy designed to raise the visibility of C2P’s insurance marketing organization (IMO) as part of what’s often called a “holistic” approach to financial planning, according to C2P founder and CEO Jason Smith.

The executives are also leaning into some pretty fun word play.

“We want to provide ‘clarity’ on how insurance products fit into a holistic plan,” Mann said.

Along with the newly named Clarity Insurance Marketing, which assists independent financial advisers in meeting their clients’ insurance needs, C2P owns Prosperity Capital Advisors, a registered investment adviser (RIA) that assists advisers with their clients’ investment needs.

Then there’s Clarity 2 Prosperity, a

Mann

Smith

business that trains advisers on how to adopt a holistic practice — that is, financial advisory services that look at all aspects of a client’s personal and financial life before creating a plan.

Taken together, the three companies create “a connected ecosystem” of services to advisers, Mann said.

“They provide guidance, peer recommendations, expertise, product and process, regulatory compliance and more,” he said. “So, they all add value from a holistic standpoint as it pertains to helping an adviser create solutions that are in the best interest of their clients” — as opposed to hawking specific investment portfolios or insurance products.

And operating across business lines with a shared “best interest” vision is a significant asset for C2P, Smith said.

He thinks there is “a good chance” the U.S. Department of Labor’s Obamaera fiduciary rule — which demands that advisers, including brokers and

insurance agents, provide retirement plan advice in the best interests of their clients — could be reinstated in a Biden administration. The rule was vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2018.

Meanwhile, a separate Securities and Exchange Commission best interest rule has been effective since June. That one requires brokers to put the interests of their customers before their own and provide certain disclosures, including how they are paid. States also are coming up with best interest standards of their own.

“Long story short, there is a big push for transparency that gives clients clarity and ultimately confidence that investment advisers are acting in their best interest,” he said, “and that was a another big reason for the rebranding.”

Wordsmith While Smith has operated his own boutique financial planning business, JL Smith Group in Avon, for going on 25 years now, Clarity 2 Prosperity became the first company in the C2P empire when it was launched in 2011.

At the time, Smith said, he saw an opportunity to multiply the impact of his holistic financial planning model by teaching other independent advisers the process.

“It’s about tying together the financial, the tax, the insurance, the legal, even things like decisions on health care, Social Security optimization and Medicare,” Smith said. “It all gets very overwhelming and complex and confusing for most people, and we wanted to simplify it, and we wanted to teach other advisers how to show their clients how it can be simplified.”

The RIA, Prosperity Capital Advisors, formed soon after so the business could manage money for its growing

“LONG STORY SHORT, THERE IS A BIG PUSH FOR TRANSPARENCY THAT GIVES CLIENTS CLARITY AND ULTIMATELY CONFIDENCE THAT INVESTMENT ADVISERS ARE ACTING IN THEIR BEST INTEREST.” — C2P founder and CEO Jason Smith

network of affiliated advisers. Then came the IMO, C2P Advisory Group, to provide insurance back-office support.

Today, more than 600 advisers across the country access some aspect of C2P’s services. Many are sole practitioners who may have one assistant, Smith said, but C2P also have client practices with six or seven ad-

visers and support staff.

Some clients “just pay a fee” to license C2P’s intellectual property and utilize its products and processes, because they have “their own RIA and own back-office insurance solution,” he said.

Most, however, do use its IMO. “Financial intuitions typically will allow advisers to work with different insurance back-office providers, and that is what Clarity Insurance Marketing is,” Smith said.

Smith expects C2P Enterprises, which includes a fourth company called Valor Capital Management, to hit roughly $20 million in revenue this year, up from about $5 million just four years ago. It employs 50 people, many of whom work out of the Westlake headquarters.

Smith also penned a book about his money management strategy, “The Bucket Plan,” which was released in 2017 and is another important part of his mission “to simply financial planning for a billion people worldwide,” he said.

“We set out to flip the traditional financial services model by putting the end-client first,” Smith said. “And that is still why we are doing what we are doing today.”

Contact Judy Stringer: clbfreelancer@crain.com

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

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12/17/2020 4:05:13 PM

CULTURE

From Page 12

In many ways, remote work has gone pretty well. Deals are still getting done and productive meetings can still be had, despite the dog barking or a child crashing the Zoom that might be an annoying distraction to some and endearing to others.

But the longer the pandemic draws on, the more some companies will fret about what that means for the business. Not dealing face-to-face with clients and colleagues is bound to have some influence on behaviors.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon lamented back in September to analysts that work output was being particularly affected on Mondays and Fridays, as reported by Bloomberg.

Productivity has reportedly been slipping in general among all employees — but particularly on Mondays and Fridays — and it’s a driving reason the company began encouraging more staff to return to their offices.

Striking a balance between safety protocols, employee comfortability and fiduciary responsibilities is something all firms must manage more than ever today amid the workfrom-home phenomenon.

“I would be naïve to think it doesn’t (impact the company),” said Raj Syal, chief human resources officer for Huntington Bank. “Has there or could there be an impact on culture and productivity? Yes.” But, he said, the bank has ways to address that.

Stressing the high priority of employee safety, Syal said that a bit less than two-thirds of the company’s more than 15,000 employees are regularly working from home. And it’s commonly accepted in the industry that roughly 20% of staff might be working remote at any given time.

How working remotely or in an office is handled in the future will be determined in line with staff feedback as

PIIPARINEN

From Page 9

That anchor institutions are a focus is no coincidence, as universities and research hospitals directly affect the aforementioned factors of innovation, particularly levels of human capital via college graduates, and knowledge production activities via R&D and patents. Market actors, then, either get “spun out” of this knowledge production in the form of startups or the knowledge gets absorbed by established firms, evolving those firms’ competitiveness and market share.

Now, about those societal effects.

Innovation has evolved to be synonymous with efficiency gains or technology’s capacity to do more with less. And while that’s great for economic growth, there are issues. Explains Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum: “As automation substitutes for labor across the entire economy, the net displacement of workers by machines might exacerbate the gap between returns to capital and returns to labor.”

This has happened. A look at Silicon Valley is revealing. It is arguably the nation’s most innovative economy, a notion intimated by the popular moniker “becoming the next Silicon Valley.” Cities everywhere want massive gross domestic product (GDP) growth across a range of hightech fields. What’s less alluring is that Silicon Valley’s growth is splitting from employment — a phenomena called the “great decoupling.”

Regular and thoughtful communication, townhalls and additional training for managers are the norm for KeyBank, said chief human resources officer Brian Fishel. And all of those things are helping as many employees work remotely. | ROGER MASTROIANNI FOR KEYBANK

coronavirus cases come down and vaccines become available, he said.

Regardless, Syal suspects remote work will be a more common part of the workforce dynamic of the future.

Providing regular guidance and communication with employees is a simple yet integral way of keeping remote staff engaged, Syal said. Internal surveys, reviewed by top execu-

tives directly, help shape policies and let staff feel they have a voice in decisions — that Syal suggests half of the workforce might regularly do their jobs remotely Fishel post-health crisis is a reflection of that. Random acts of kindness for staff are encouraged.

KeyBank is taking a comparable approach, as chief human resources officer Brian Fishel explained. Regular and thoughtful communication, townhalls and additional training for managers are the norm. These are some of the industry’s best practices.

“It’s challenging, no doubt about

it,” Fishel said. “The good news is it wasn’t foreign to allow people to work remotely. It’s just the scale at which we’re doing it is different.”

Syal said that company engagement has actually increased during the pandemic as people work and communicate in different ways.

That could very well translate into positive impacts on the bottom line.

But consultants like Rhonemus think the converse is more likely to play out.

“I think it equates to lost revenue for sure,” he said.

In terms of headhunting, after a lull through spring and most of summer, Rhonemus has seen a spike in work in recent months as firms get busy filling positions. For every executive who may still want to work from home, there’s probably two eager to

As noted in a recent report “The Future of Growth”, Silicon Valley’s GDP growth from its IT sector grew by a factor of five since 2001. Meanwhile, employment in the sector remained relatively flat. That is, lots of tech-driven output, but less people sharing the wealth. The socioeconomic result? Income inequality. A recent study noted that nine out of 10 Silicon Valley workers earned less in 2017 than they did in 1997, with the only wage gains going to the top 10%. Part of the reason is that the high-tech economy is “winner-take-all,” where there are those who automate work and those whose work is automated — and only one of those groups gets paid well.

The effects hit communities of color particularly hard. One recent report noted that Black workers are 10% more at risk for job disruption due to automation, with that number rising to nearly 30% for Black men without a college degree. The societal effects of these trends are already apparent. According to the 2018 Census figures, there’s a strong positive correlation between a region’s per capita income and its income disparities by race. More exactly, the most prosperous regions in the U.S. — i.e., Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; Boston; Silicon Valley — are also the most disparate when it comes to gaps between Black and white earners.

These trends beg the questions: “Innovation for who? Innovation for what?”

Cleveland’s economy is not immune to innovation’s dividing effects.

Take health care. The region is one of

the most impactful places globally when it comes to advances in health care services. This is evidenced by the concentration of health care talent locally. Cleveland is second to Pittsburgh in the concentration of skilled health care workers out of the nation’s largest 40 labor markets. Cuyahoga County has the seventh-most hospital employees in the nation, behind only Los Angeles, Chicago, Manhattan, Boston and Philadelphia. Yet our local health outcomes are poor, with Cuyahoga County ranking 75th out of 88 counties in Ohio, according to the latest Population Health Institute figures.

Why is Cleveland’s health innovation landscape not showing up as a day-to-day impact? The issue is less about innovation and automation than innovation and globalization.

Cleveland’s a great health care export economy. It treats the world. What’s less developed are innovative ways to harness local population health, particularly where it’s needed most: our urban communities. This brings to mind a book by Richard Nelson called “The Moon and the Ghetto.” In it, he asks why innovation has led to such demanding feats as landing a man on the moon, yet the problems of living continue to be met with technologically unsavvy approaches.

Investing in urban population health would have a massive impact on the local economy. A recent study called “Health and economic growth: Evidence from dynamic panel data of 143 years,” showed a nation’s per capita income and GDP per capita growth

rate were more causally affected by life expectancy than other key variables, including schooling. Put simply, better health leads to higher productivity of the worker. And more working years for the worker meant more savings and wealth, which has a generational effect. “Policy implication that follows … is that per capita income can be boosted through focused policy attention on population health,” the author concludes.

This is not to say such an effort would be easy. While a person’s health is viscerally tangible, the tentacles impacting one’s health can seem far out of reach, be they factors related to neighborhoods, housing, jobs, etc.

Population health, then, is a “wicked problem,” described as problems that are complex, systemic, interconnected and urgent. Wicked problems need to be met with what economist Mariana Mazzucato calls “mission-oriented innovation policies,” described as “systemic public policies that draw on frontier knowledge to attain specific goals, or ‘big science deployed to meet big problems.’ ” When it comes to the purposing of the Cleveland Innovation District, it strains the imagination to think of a better mission for Cleveland to tackle: public health in the midst of public health crisis, and urban health in a city replete with poor population health. After all, new economic development approaches are needed.

The nation can’t keep economically innovating just to make society worse off. It’s not a sustainable path forward. In fact, it’s making us sick.

Syal

Gasior

work in-person with colleagues.

“There is just no substitute for getting people together face-to-face,” he said.

That implies doing so safely. As the pandemic rages on this winter, there will be some increased risks. It’s why Gov. Mike DeWine has encouraged Ohioans to continue working from home as much as possible for now, echoing guidance from physicians.

Rhonemus said he feels that between masking and maintaining clean environments, most health concerns for being in the office should be mitigated.

For community banks, having lobbies closed and bank staff distant impacts some of their value propositions. Community banks tend to pride themselves on their smaller scales, marketing their accessibility and personal touch. Older customers also tend to visit lobbies more often, even if just to make the social visit.

Amid COVID-19, some of that has gone away.

Developing young talent doesn’t get any easier, either.

“When it comes to training someone, sending them to programs, it’s all more challenging now to develop younger staff members to move up,” Gasior said. “It makes it harder to consider internships for candidates for full-time positions, because we have limitations on visitations to the bank.”

Workers will increasingly return to offices as the pandemic comes under control and vaccines become available in 2021, even if the work dynamic is forever changed with remote jobs becoming more commonplace.

Some companies are being more patient than others.

But all would like to see some return to a previous normalcy.

“From a cultural standpoint,” Gasior said, “I would love to see this pandemic behind us very soon, because I would love to see us getting back to more personal interactions.”

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

JOHNSON

From Page 9

Northeast Ohio needs the college to be at its best and most accessible right now. This is a responsibility we gladly accept, and our work is paying off. Enrollment for the Spring 2021 semester shows signs of rebounding, but we need your help.

Here’s what you can do: ``Get involved with our Institute for Community Engagement and Development to create partner programs that open career pathways. ``Work with us to create paid internships that provide students with the financial support they need while gaining valuable experience and increasing their marketability. ``Support the Cuyahoga Community College Foundation in its mission to provide scholarships and other resources to help students learn, thrive and succeed.

Visit tri-c.edu/give to get involved.

More than 85% of Tri-C’s graduates live and work in Northeast Ohio. They serve as a foundation for progress, adding strength and stability to the better tomorrow that we are building day by day.

Help us connect more individuals to the academic and career resources they need to achieve prosperity for themselves, their families and Northeast Ohio.

16 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | December 21, 2020

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12/18/2020 1:52:44 PM

AKRON

Developer: Bowery has yet to sign a commercial lease — thankfully Delay means would-be restaurants, bars avoided COVID downturn

The next decision you make could be

life altering.

BBY DAN SHINGLER

Downtown Akron’s Bowery District has had little trouble leasing its residential space, but so far it has not signed a single lease with any restaurants, bars or retailers for its 40,000 square feet of commercial space.

And that’s just fine with Don Taylor, CEO of the Welty Building Co. and the man leading the $42 million development.

Taylor said Main Street’s big road construction project prevented potential tenants from signing leases before COVID-19 struck. The road work went on in front of the Bowery for two years, halting much of downtown’s traffic, before wrapping up there in October.

If it weren’t for that construction, Taylor said, the Bowery would have signed leases with retailers and restaurants before the pandemic, and that would have been a big problem.

“If we’d have signed leases with all those tenants, how many would be able to pay their rents?” Taylor asked.

“Sometimes, the good Lord protects us from ourselves.”

It’s not the lost lease payments, Taylor explained. If tenants had moved in, the Bowery would have spent money preparing their spaces it could not recoup — a lot of it.

The build-out costs for “restaurants are between $50 and $100 per square foot, and there are some highend restaurants that could be $200 per square foot,” Taylor said.

That means a 5,000-square-foot restaurant would cost between $250,000 and $1 million to build out.

That’s money Taylor said the Bowery is willing to invest in new tenants, but only if it’s confident a tenant will be able to pay its lease long enough to recoup the investment. Taylor said the Bowery would go over prospective business plans before committing to such tenant improvements.

“It’s really important we invest in people who can pay us back for the investment we put into their business,” Taylor said.

But there’s no due diligence that would not have protected the Bowery when otherwise good operations were put out of business by COVID-19, he said. The Bowery would have then had to try to find new tenants willing to take spaces that were designed for someone else or, perhaps worse, make new investments to redo the interiors.

Taylor said the Main Street construction probably saved the Bowery from facing a situation like the one that struck the once-bustling Pinecrest mixed-use development in Orange Village. Pinecrest, which like Bowery was designed to be a gathering place, was turned over to its lenders after COVID stuck and drove away business.

“They had a lot of hype and success in getting tenants in there and then they couldn’t pay their rents and the banks had to take it over,” Taylor said of Pinecrest.

At Pinecrest, Square Mile Capital Management, a Manhattan-based private equity investor and lender, in October became the property’s owner through affiliate Square Mile Orange

Akron’s downtown Bowery District is almost complete and has a brand new Main Street running outside its main entrance. | JOSH TROCHE FOR CRAIN’S

Village when a deed in lieu of foreclosure was filed, according to a previous Crain’s report.

Square Mile had funded the project with a $170 million loan it made to Taylor Pinecrest’s developer, Pinecrest Capital Partners.

Taylor admits he’s often “accused of being an optimist,” but others agree the Bowery dodged a bullet.

“He’d be dead by now. He’d be subsidizing them (bar and restaurant tenants) and then he’d be dead,” said Tony Troppe, an experienced residential and mixed-use developer in downtown Akron.

“It was fortunate that the combination of Main Street improvements and the onset of the pandemic were such that people could do nothing but evaluate the situation. … Had anyone rushed to get a lease done, they’d be lamenting it today,” Troppe said.

Jerry Fiume, founder and managing director of Akron’s SVN Summit Commercial Real Estate Group, also agreed the Bowery is better off today for not signing leases before the pandemic.

“I totally agree with that. Absolutely, he’s right. Sometimes the perfect deal is the one you don’t do,” Fiume said.

Tenant improvements always represent a risk in commercial real estate, even in good times, Fiume said, let alone when something unpredictable like a pandemic upends things.

“He’s lucky he didn’t put himself in a bad spot,” Fiume said. “You do a tenant improvement for a restaurant, it’s a couple of hundred-thousand bucks. You do a couple of those and they don’t pay rent, and you have a problem.”

Now, Taylor says he’s in a waiting mode. Restaurants and retailers are not signing leases until they see an end to the pandemic in sight, he said. He understands and thinks any other approach would be highly questionable.

“If you’re a restaurant or bar and you’re building now, I’m not sure that’s the kind of business partner we want anyway,” Taylor said.

But, proving his optimism, Taylor said the future for the Bowery remains bright. Its primary lender, Huntington Bank, reached out to the Bowery early in the pandemic to work out more flexible terms for its loan, so it’s able to wait for the right time to sign leases, Taylor said.

He thinks that once the pandemic lifts, those leases will come.

Here for you. Here for life.

“Now that the vaccine has been www.ncafinancial.com approved and will start to be distributed, I think we’ll see more interest 6095 Parkland Blvd., Suite 210 about this,” Taylor said.

Mayfield Hts., Ohio 44124 (440) 473-1115 Taylor said he has some potential commercial tenants watching the projSecurities offered through Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. (RAA), Member FINRA/SIPC. RAA is ect. He thinks that when the COVID C R Aseparately I N ’ S C Lowned E V E Land A Nother D B entities U S I N Eand/or S S marketing | S E P Tnames, E M B Eproducts R 3 - 9or , 2services 018 referenced | PA G E 17 dust settles, there will be ample opporhere are independent of RAA. RAA does not provide tax or legal advice. Investment advisory services off ered through NCA Financial Planners. F: 440-473-0186 tunities to sign up new bars and restaurants that come online — driven in part by market share left open by eateries that didn’t survive the pandemic.

“We’re keeping our eye out for people who have a new concept and Advertising Section are looking for a clean slate that we’d like to invest in,” Taylor said.

Until then, Taylor said he’s focusing on finishing construction — only a few small components and the new music venue next to the Akron Civic Theater remain — and continuing to rent out the Bowery’s 92 apartments.

To place your listing in Crain’s Cleveland Classifieds, Taylor said the Bowery currently has 66 of its units leased. That number contact Suzanne Janik at 313-446-0455 had been higher prior to the expected departure of some corporate tenants or email sjanik@crain.com who had been renting apartments while on temporary assignments. But showings picked up in December after a lull in the fall, he said.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY “We’re very optimistic in the first half of 2021 we’ll get to or near 100% leased,” Taylor said of the apartments.

Selling Your Business?

Others are optimistic about resiFree Market Analysis dential rentals as well. Troppe, for No Upfront Fees example, said he’s had little trouble 25 Years of Experience finding interest in five loft-style units www.empirebusinesses.com he’s building in the Everett Building 440-461-2202 downtown, which he said should see tenants arrive in the first quarter of next year. That will fill the Everett’s BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY initial 15 units, but Troppe said he’s following up with the addition of five 50 Year more apartments in 2021 and then Laminating Business will build an attached building with Automotive customers 2019 another 36 units.

Others share Taylor’s continued Sales $1.5 million eastside enthusiasm for downtown and the Contact Lance at 216-225-3457 Bowery project, including Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan.

“We are confident that the Bowery development will play a dynamic role in the long-term economic rebirth of downtown Akron,” Horrigan said via email. “The impressive retail space is ready to welcome tenants when the economic conditions are right — hopefully spurred by strong federal leadership and robust support for small business as we navigate the remaining months of this pandemic.”

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December 21, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 17

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12/18/2020 3:21:08 PM

NAME CHANGE

From Page 1

For some, the switch, which the Indians first acknowledged was a possibility in July, should have already happened, and further delays only add to the distrust.

“What I’ve heard in the past is we understand Wahoo is offensive and causes harm, but we’re still going to use it,” said Sundance, the executive director of the Cleveland American Indian Movement who goes by one name. “At some point, that was phased out. Now what I’m hearing is we understand the use of Indians as a team name causes harm, but we’re still going to use it. To me, that is not making progress. That is a circling pattern, and I prefer to make progress.”

Connolly, a Policy Matters development director who is a citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, does see progress.

LENAC is part of the Cleveland Indigenous Coalition, which with the National Congress of American Indians was part of what the Indians have described as a “listening-and-learning process” that also included conversations with corporate partners, researchers, fans, civic leaders and team employees.

Connolly said the Indians “genuinely” listened to each of the four organizations that are part of the Cleveland Indigenous Coalition, and what the baseball club is doing “should serve as the blueprint for other professional and collegiate teams and the nearly 200 schools in Ohio that still have Native American mascots.”

The work, she stressed, is far from done.

RETURN

From Page 1

There aren’t firm, real-time numbers on how many people are coming into work.

Leading up to Thanksgiving, about 25% to 30% of downtown office workers seemed to be present on any given day, Deemer said. That figure has dropped, but it’s unclear by how much.

Jose Ramirez and the Cleveland Indians will continue playing with the club’s moniker in 2021, but the Tribe is undergoing a comprehensive search for a new name.

JASON MILLER/ GETTY IMAGES

“We don’t plan on sitting on our rears,” Connolly said. “This is very important work that needs to happen, and we’re very committed to seeing it through.”

The Indians have said they will “help support and raise awareness about the Native American community and other underrepresented populations,” as well as donate profits from the sales of Chief Wahoo merchandise to Native American organizations and causes.

The Indians’ initial statement on a possible change, when the club said it would “determine the best path forward with regard to our team name,” was on July 3.

Taking five-plus months to determine a change was necessary falls in line with the “organization’s corporate

culture, which is careful, slow, patient, methodical,” said Thom Fladung, managing partner of Hennes Communications, a Cleveland firm that specializes in crisis communiDolan cations.

Indians owner Paul Dolan told The Associated Press that the club didn’t “want to be the Cleveland Baseball Team or some other interim name.”

Instead, the Tribe is “going to take the time we need to do it right,” Dolan said.

The Indians’ deliberate approach has provided a window for applicants to attempt to secure trademarks for names that have been mentioned as possible replacements.

Within two weeks of the Tribe’s July announcement that it was pon-

Small to midsize employers with local owners or management generally have been swifter to reopen offices, Deemer said. For some employees, the risk-reward balancing act also appears to be simpler at single-tenant buildings, or in workspaces with private offices instead of open floor plans.

Larger companies, particularly those that report to a global headquarters elsewhere, have been more circumspect. That mirrors what’s go-

ing on nationally, where tech giants and Fortune 100 employers have made headlines for pushing off in-person work until June, or later.

The New York Times recently reported that Google, for example, won’t bring workers back until September.

At Cleveland-based KeyCorp, nearly 9,000 employees have been working remotely since mid-March. The bank has postponed return-to-office dates, but nearly all of Key’s branches are

‘Squatters’ are ‘a nuisance’

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dering a name change, other parties, according to searches on the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s website, applied for trademarks to the Spiders, Guardians and Buckeyes. There were also July filings for the Cleveland Baseball Team and Cleveland Baseball Club.

“Squatters,” as they’re called, could be sitting on website domains or trademarks for any name the Indians are considering as a replacement.

But they’re more of an annoyance than a serious impediment to change, said Marsha Gentner, senior counsel in the Intellectual Property Group at Dykema, a Detroit-based law firm with 13 offices in the U.S. “People can be clever, but at the end of the day, it’s probably just a nuisance,” Gentner said.

The reason is trademark applicants “have to have actual bona fide use in commerce before a registration will issue,” Gentner said.

The Indians, should they want to pursue a name that has an existing trademark application, could “negotiate with the applicant for an assignment of all rights” or file an opposition with the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, said Mark Avsec, a partner and vice chair of the Innovations, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Group at Benesch of Cleveland.

Names that have been mentioned as replacements could have so many trademark applications, Gentner said, that a sports team could determine that it’s easier to “pay my lawyer rather than pay off all these people.”

Arlen Love of Vancouver, Wash., filed an application for a Cleveland Spiders trademark on July 7. The

huge Cleveland sports fan said he has sold merchandise in the past and decided to jump at the chance to trademark the Spiders.

Love has a small selection of Spiders merchandise on Teespring, an e-commerce platform on which people can create and sell custom apparel.

He says he’s not a trademark squatter — “just a diehard fan of Cleveland sports that thought that it’s time for the Spiders to creep back into our lives, either as a sports team name or just a lowly jersey maker.”

The Indians could alleviate potential headaches by going a different route and choosing a name that hasn’t been part of the public’s speculation.

“Instead of going for all of these things that people have talked about before in the press, your option is to go in a completely different direction. Get something that hasn’t received any press, clear everything, get it filed and then the day you file make your announcement,” Gentner said. “Then you’ve done it right and it’s easier to do.”

Even if the Indians, as Avsec of Benesch expects, keep serious name candidates “close to the vest,” that’s just one element of a complex process for which there isn’t a set timeline.

The lack of immediacy frustrates some, but LENAC’s Connolly said the Indians changing their name marks the high point of a battle that’s more than twice as old as many of the team’s players.

It’s the culmination, she said, “of generations of grassroots advocacy and activism by indigenous leadership.”

open, with occupancy limits and other safety measures in place.

“Most teammates currently working remotely will continue to do so at least until the first quarter of 2021,” Matthew Pitts, a Key spokesman, wrote in an email.

He said a small number of employees have returned to the bank’s downtown offices, at Key Tower and the nearby Higbee Building, and to its suburban campus in Brooklyn.

“Given the continuing uncertainty surrounding this situation, we are remaining flexible to help our teammates balance their work and family needs,” Pitts said.

Akron-based Signet Jewelers Ltd., with more than 22,000 employees globally, is eyeing a phased return for office workers in April, May and June.

But that schedule might change, Mary Liz Finn, the company’s chief people officer, wrote in an emailed statement.

“We’re committed to keeping our employees as safe as possible, and our return-to-work plans hinge on current pandemic-related information from government and health service organizations, such as case numbers and vaccine availability,” she said.

Several of the region’s largest employers didn’t respond to requests for comment about their return-to-office plans and how the recent wave of coronavirus cases and deaths is shaping their strategy.

Before that November onslaught, roughly 60% of tenants in the K&D Group’s office buildings in downtown Cleveland had turned their lights back on. And most of the remaining companies were talking about January returns to the central business district, said Doug Price, K&D’s CEO. “With this spike that’s occurred … they’re not going to make a move until things calm down,” said Price, who controls 2 million square feet of downtown office space.

Falls, a marketing firm that’s expanding its offices at K&D’s Terminal Tower, aimed to bring employees back Jan. 4. In early December, though, the company pushed that timeline back to at least March 1.

In the Playhouse Square district, the Greater Cleveland Partnership had set Jan. 19 as the date to shift from voluntary in-person work to a more formal return. Now the regional chamber of commerce has backed away from that plan.

Joe Roman, the chamber’s president and CEO, said he’s still working downtown daily. But the number of colleagues he sees, mask-to-mask, has dwindled from more than a dozen to only a few each day.

The downtown alliance reopened its Euclid Avenue offices in May and asked employees to come in once a week. Since June, the organization has observed a rotating schedule, so that the space is never more than 50% full.

Deemer said he and his coworkers are striving to help small businesses, including hard-hit eateries and stores, hang on until more workers — and tourists, business travelers and eventgoers — come back. With the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine deployed, he’s optimistic that traffic will pick up downtown in the spring and gradually continue to improve.

“By the middle part of next year, there ought to be signs of normalcy,” Deemer said.

“It’s hard to predict the future right now,” he added, “because I think that if you told any of us in March that in December we would still have masses of people working remotely, we never would have believed it.”

Kevin Kleps: kkleps@crain.com, (216) 771-5256, @KevinKleps

Crain’s managing editor Scott Suttell contributed to this article.

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

18 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | December 21, 2020

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND LOOK BACK | DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT IN THE JACOBS ERA

Jacobs brothers gave downtown a shot in the arm One October evening in 1987, about 3,000 local corporate, cultural and civic leaders, as well as retail executives from across the country, gathered for the opening of the Galleria at Erieview, the first retail development in downtown Cleveland to open in decades. The Galleria event also introduced Richard and David Jacobs, longtime developers of suburban shopping centers who had purchased Erieview Tower in 1985, as leaders of downtown’s redevelopment. Their role in transforming downtown began a few months earlier that year, when they bought the Cleveland Indians baseball team. The Jacobs brothers did not rejuvenate downtown alone, but they played a major role. — Jay Miller

``THE HISTORY David and Richard Jacobs came home to their native Akron after World War II service and jumped into the business of real estate development and brokerage. Within a few years, they joined with another young real estate developer, Dominic Visconsi, to form Jacobs, Visconsi & Jacobs Co. (JVJ), where they would begin building shopping centers in Northeast Ohio and across the country.

By the 1980s, the company had grown to own and manage 41 regional centers in 16 states, including the mall (now an open-air shopping center) at Westgate in Fairview Park and Midway Mall in Elyria, as well as suburban office buildings and hotels.

In 1985, the firm bought Erieview Tower, the 40-floor office tower that sat behind a wind-swept plaza on East Ninth Street. They planned to replace the desolate plaza with a $35 million shopping center, the Galleria. The brothers had been wooed downtown after Gary Conley, then Cleveland economic development director, promoted the sagging district to JVJ execs at a shopping center convention in Las Vegas in the early 1980s.

Following the Erieview purchase, the Jacobs brothers would acquire or build a clutch of downtown buildings, including what now is called Key Tower, the first new construction on Public Square in decades.

But first, the brothers, not JVJ, in December 1986 bought the Cleveland Indians for $40 million from the estate of the late Francis J. “Steve” O’Neill.

At the time the Jacobs brothers bought the team, the franchise was losing games and money, and its future in Cleveland was in peril. The brothers believed the team had to move from aging Cleveland Municipal Stadium to a more intimate, baseball-only venue. Over the next several years, they convinced the city and Cuyahoga County to come up with a financing plan for what would be the $425 million Gateway complex.

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Stan Bullard, senior reporter, Real estate/ construction. (216) 771-5228 or sbullard@crain.com Lydia Coutré, Health care/nonprofits.

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The Indians under Richard Jacobs thrived in the 1990s. | CLEVELAND INDIANS

``IN THEIR OWN WORDS “The Jacobses were a huge stick of dynamite because of their rapid acquisitions and the taking of Cleveland by night.”

——Robert Redmond, director of office leasing for OstendorfMorris Co., in Crain’s in 1990

Jacobs, Visconsi & Jacobs Co. purchased the Erieview Tower and built a shopping center, the Galleria, on East Ninth Street. | DAVID KORDALSKI

``WHY IT MATTERS TODAY When the Jacobs brothers started to invest in downtown Cleveland, the city’s national reputation focused on the fire that year that ignited the Cuyahoga River in 1969. The opening of the Galleria was followed by the Indians beginning to compete, making two trips to the World Series in a three-year span.

Then in 1995, Bruce Springsteen and Chuck Berry kicked off the opening of the $84 million Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, whose building replaced the burning river

as the city’s most publicized image.

And at what was named Jacobs Field, the baseball team went from an also-ran to a regular pennant contender.

When the Detroit News sent a reporter to Cleveland in the summer of 1997 to check out the hype, the story described “undeniable successes” — “the stadium, the new image, the downtown retail stores, the jobs.”

In part because of those successes, downtown no longer empties out at 5 p.m. Its population increased from 6,484 in 1990 to 9,893 in 2010 and has recently hit 20,000.

“Until Galleria, Cleveland was struggling to show there was developer interest in Cleveland.

They solidified downtown Cleveland as the business center in the state of Ohio.”

——Richard Shatten, executive director of Cleveland Tomorrow from 1982 to 1994

“Despite the fact that they were from this area, they effectively represented the entry of a major new player in Cleveland development. They came in with both feet in a big way.”

——Gary Conley, one-time economic development director of the city of Cleveland

THE WEEK TIME FOR A CHANGE: The Cleveland Indians are changing the name the organization has held since the 1915 season. It did not, however, specify when the name will be changed, and the club will continue playing as the Indians until a new moniker is selected. The team said it decided to make the change after “an extensive process to learn how our team name affected different constituencies and whether it aligned with our organizational values.” It called the decision “phase one of a multi-phase process” that will include choosing a new name and brand development.

Cleveland’s baseball team, which has gone by Indians since the 1915 season, is expected to change its team name by 2022. | JASON MILLER/GETTY IMAGES

OUT OF THE BOX: BoxCast, a Cleveland company that delivers high-definition streaming services, raised $20 million in Series A funding. The

round follows a 2019 acquisition of Sunday Streams, a Florida company with a clientele that allowed BoxCast to strengthen its position in a key cat-

demic has increased the need for live-streaming services. The company has 56 employees and expects to double its headcount in the next year.

egory — churches. BoxCast, though, has a wide array of customers, from sports teams and organizations to local government groups, and the pan-

BRINGING IT HOME: The LeBron James Family Foundation bought Akron’s Tangier, the city landmark and gathering place, and will transform the site to help assist Akronites. The foundation started by Akron native and NBA superstar LeBron James will renovate the entire facility as a center for foundation and I Promise programming. The new center will be called House Three Thirty and will complement the foundation’s nearby I Promise School and I Promise Village with a facility that will be open to the public. Plans call for the new venue to be up and running in 2022.

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December 21, 2020 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 19

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