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4/30/2010
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$1.50/MAY 3 - 9, 2010
Vol. 31, No. 18
“It’s important ... to get people out early. That’s when they make their choices.” – Cindy Cole, general manager, Bunker Hill Golf Course
Conventions quietly pile up at med mart To keep New York, Nashville foes at bay, developer mum on dozen-plus events in fold
MARC GOLUB
By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
COME TO PLAY, STAY To stem declines in revenues and rounds played, golf courses devise reward programs to keep customers coming back THE DOOR’S ALWAYS OPEN
By JOEL HAMMOND jmhammond@crain.com
I
f you need an extensive intervention with your golf swing — in the form of round after round on area courses — you’re in luck this spring. Reward cards and multi-round packages are the in thing, as general managers and golf pros have a two-pronged goal: Get golfers out early, and entice them to come back and keep coming back. “There is a high density of courses here, that’s no secret,” said Cindy Cole, general manager of Bunker Hill Golf Course in Medina. “It’s important, then, to get people out early; that’s when they make their choices, in the spring.” Ms. Cole has done that by pushing Bunker Hill’s See GOLF Page 26
A sampling of the rewards/frequent golf programs area courses are running this spring: ■ Hawthorne Valley Country Club, Solon: The formerly private club offers 25- and 50-round packages, the latter of which, for $3,100, costs about $2,400 less than the previous cost of membership ■ Briardale Greens Golf Course, Euclid: It offers a variety of incentives, including advantage cards, which priced at $59 and $169, offer $8 and $12 discounts, respectively, on each round ■ Shale Creek Golf Club, Medina/The Quarry, East Canton: For $49 (seniors) and $79 (others) at these Granite Golf Properties club, golfers get $15 off subsequent rounds
The private developer of Cleveland’s planned convention center and medical merchandise mart hasn’t made any announcements about landing tenants, as a competing project in Nashville, Tenn., did last week. But MMPI Inc. quietly has lined up more than a dozen medical or health care conventions for the convention center that’s expected to open in 2013. Asked about street talk that MMPI has tentative agreements to hold 14 conventions at the convention center to be built on Cleveland’s Mall, Cuyahoga County commissioner Tim Hagan said, “It’s more like 16 or 17.” Mr. Hagan said Chicago-based MMPI wasn’t talking up its success
— and does not want to disclose the names of the groups it has made deals with — because of competition from two rival medical mart projects. “If they announce, the others will go and try and beat their price,” Mr. Hagan said. Developers in Nashville and New York City also are marketing similar trade centers focused on medicine and health care, with the Nashville center targeted to open in 2013, too. MMPI spokesman Dave Johnson declined to comment last week on how many conventions it might have lined up for the Cleveland medical mart. Another MMPI executive, though, has talked about the company’s success with landing tenants for the permanent showrooms. The $425 million, Cleveland trade show See MART Page 8
INSIDE Bucking the retail real estate trend There figures to be plenty of action this summer at Plaza at SouthPark in Strongsville, where four new leases recently have been signed. The developer’s vice president of leasing, Mark Schroeder (pictured), says the site’s location — right off Interstate 71 — has helped. Read Stan Bullard’s story on Page 4.
Restoration plan for AmTrust Bank never got rolling, bankruptcy shows Institution fell well short of capital levels requested by federal regulator
In a once-confidential risk reduction plan made public in connection with a bankruptcy case, AmTrust Financial Corp. outlined its strategy to shrink its former AmTrust Bank by one-third and return the institution to profitability by the end of June 2010. However, by the time AmTrust
Bank failed last Dec. 4 and was taken over by New York Community Bank, it had declined well below capital levels described in its former parent’s plan. The federal Office of Thrift Supervision on Nov. 4, 2009, notified the bank’s board of directors via couriered letter that the bank
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By ARIELLE KASS akass@crain.com
was “significantly undercapitalized” and had until the end of the month to file a capital restoration plan. The regulators’ demands followed November 2008 cease-and-desist orders to both AmTrust Financial and AmTrust Bank that required them to create a new business plan for the bank. That plan was submitted
and accepted in January 2009, but the Office of Thrift Supervision said the goals were not sufficiently met at the time the Nov. 4, 2009, letter was sent. That letter, which called for “prompt corrective action,” noted that AmTrust Bank was experiencing a “rapidly deteriorating financial
condition, and asset quality deterioration,” and it required the bank to be adequately capitalized by Jan. 31, 2010. As of Oct. 30, 2009, the bank had a risk-based capital ratio of 5.29%; regulators had requested it be raised to 12%, and AmTrust Financial said in its January 2009 risk reduction plan that it would not drop below 8.08%. See AMTRUST Page 7
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Crain’s identifies some of Northeast Ohio’s top health care professionals, volunteers and groups ■ Pages H1-H9 ■
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