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Page 1
$2.00/MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
CUYAHOGA RIVER
Value runs deep
Nearly 45 years after its most infamous fire, waterway
serves as shipping channel, recreation hub and much more
By DAN SHINGLER
dshingler@crain.com
cost $360,000,” he added, shaking his head
with the disbelief of someone who had known
the neighborhood for a long time and could
recall its bad old days.
une 22 marks the 45th anniversary of the
Cuyahoga River’s most famous fire — its
The lower part of the river is the area most
13th, actually — which many credit with
people think of when they think of the Cuyasparking the U.S. environhoga, and it’s arguably the
mental movement and the
most important part. It’s not
nation’s Clean Water Act. It
“In my view, that 30
only the part that trendy
put Cleveland on the map, but
Tremonters and other West
acres
is
one
of
the
not in a good way, and the
Side residents pay to view, it’s
most
important
town was the butt of “burning
also the part of the river that
river” jokes for years afterlinchpins to further
serves as a shipping channel,
ward.
will run through new upscale
development
in
the
Today, however, the Cuyadevelopments in the Flats and
downtown
area,
and
hoga largely has cleaned up its
which, increasingly is used for
act. In doing so, it has retained
it’s near Ohio City,
recreation.
its role as a critical transportawhich
we
all
know
is
It needs some work, but it’s
tion route for industry and has
not in as bad of shape as some
booming.”
also become a recreational
might think, said Jim White,
hotspot that few could have
– Jim White
imagined in the 1960s.
director of sustainable director of sustainable infraPeople pay big bucks for a
infrastructure, structure at the Clevelanddaily view of the river from
Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Cuyahoga County Port AuPort Authority thority and his boss, Port
places like Tremont, while in
Authority president and CEO
the Flats others are preparing
William Friedman.
to occupy new homes and offices that count the
“As part of our strategic planning, the Port
river as a key amenity.
“That’s a house,” a cop on patrol said of a
Authority invested in an underwater digital asparticularly nice, ultra-modern house on a
sessment of the entire river channel,” White
bluff overlooking the river a little upstream
said.
from a spot called Irishtown Bend. “That thing
See VALUE Page 28
DAN SHINGLER
J
Indians taking new look at potential ad partners
21
Tobii Technology’s eye-tracking glasses
By KEVIN KLEPS
kkleps@crain.com
Eye-tracking study is believed to be first of its kind in MLB
Steven Shin was a senior at Northwestern University when he was asked a question during a
job interview that impacted his future and, on a
broader level, that of Progressive Field.
In April 2012, Ted Baugh, the Cleveland Indians’ senior director of corporate partnerships,
told Shin, the interviewee, how the Indians
were expanding the use of their analytics department from baseball to business.
“I said, ‘Hey, if we were to ask you how many
times somebody looks at the scoreboard, tell
me your process and how you would do that,’ ”
Baugh said.
Shin told Baugh he would do an eye-tracking
study that measured how fans at baseball
games look at various things throughout the
ballpark.
See INDIANS Page 13
0
NEWSPAPER
74470 83781
7
PHOTOGRAPHY
BATTLE LOOMS
Unmanned aerial photography is
getting noticed by business
competitors and FAA ■ Page 5
Entire contents © 2014
by Crain Communications Inc.
Vol. 35, No. 21
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20140526-NEWS--4-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
LEASED
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DAN SHINGLER
John, left, and Kurt Epprecht, members of the founding family of Great Lakes Cheese, are shown with Stacey Barbe, the
Hiram company’s manager of human resources.
Lots of dough from cheese
Hiram business is responsible for about
25% of U.S. sales of packaged product
By DAN SHINGLER
dshingler@crain.com
PRESENTED BY
NOMINATE
TODAY
Deadline: June 2
CrainsCleveland.com/40u40
One of Ohio’s largest companies
is privately held, not widely known,
yet makes something consumed by
nearly every resident of the state —
or nation, for that matter.
Great Lakes Cheese, in the small
town of Hiram, sold $2.4 billion
worth of cheddar, provolone, mozzarella and other cheeses last year.
It accounts for about 25% of all
packaged cheese sold in the United
States and about 35% of all cheese
sold in the eastern portion of the
country, said John Epprecht, the
company’s vice president and a
member of its founding family.
“If you go from Illinois south and
east, we’re dominant,” said Epprecht, who helps run the company
along with his brother Kurt, and
other family members. The Epprecht family collectively owns
about 80% of Great Lakes Cheese.
The company’s workers own the
rest through an employee stock
ownership program.
The company is in the midst of
opening a $100 million, 330,000square-foot plant in Manchester,
Tenn., that will open later this year
and employ about 100 people.
It will be the company’s fifth “super plant” — the name Great Lakes
gives to its largest operations that
also serve as major distribution
hubs — and its ninth plant overall.
The company employs about 2,400
people nationally, including about
600 at the Hiram plant and corporate headquarters, its largest single
facility.
The company only makes about
15% of the cheese that it ultimately
sells or processes. The rest it buys
from dairies and cheesemakers
around the country.
“You bought a billion pounds of
cheese last year,” John Epprecht
said to Kurt during a recent interview.
“We’re a packaging
company first.”
– Kurt Epprecht
member of the founding family
of Great Lakes Cheese
The company’s real strength is in
slicing, cubing, shredding and otherwise putting cheese into a form
that the customer wants — whether
they are making millions of pizzas
or topping just one cracker — and
then finding a way to get that
cheese into durable packaging that
both keeps it fresh and makes it
easy to use.
“We’re a packaging company
first,” Kurt said.
See CHEESE Page 8
MRI Software poised for more
AIR CHARTER SERVICE
AIRCRAFT MANAGEMENT
Solon company has
new CEO, who says
better infrastructure
is aiding profitability
By CHUCK SODER
csoder@crain.com
Northern Ohio's Largest
Air Charter Service
Serving the area with 4 Beechjets and 2 Hawkers
• In-flight Wi-Fi Now Available •
www.FlySkyQuest.com • 216-362-9904
The new CEO of MRI Software
says the company’s infrastructure
has been rebuilt; now the fastgrowing real estate software firm
can focus on creating much more
intuitive, flexible products.
The
Solonbased business,
the
secondlargest software
company
in
Northeast Ohio,
has promoted
Patrick Ghilani
to CEO, from Ghilani
president and
chief operating officer.
He replaces David Post, who already has a new job. Vista Equity
Partners, which bought MRI in
2010, recently tapped Post to serve
as president and chief operating officer at Omnitracs, a San Diego-
Volume 35, Number 21 Crain’s Cleveland Business (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly, except for combined issues on the fourth week of December and fifth week of December at 700 West
St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113-1230. Copyright © 2014 by Crain Communications
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based fleet tracking software company that Vista bought in November 2013.
MRI has been putting more resources into product development
lately, and that’s possible because
of the work done by Vista and Post
over the past four years, according
to Ghilani, who joined the company in 2006.
Today, MRI has a stronger infrastructure, and it is “where we need
to be from a revenue and profitability perspective,” which gives the
company more room to invest, Ghilani said.
See SOFTWARE Page 8
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20140526-NEWS--5-NAT-CCI-CL_--
5/23/2014
3:56 PM
Page 1
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
5
Aiming
higher
for angels
INSIGHT
Company investors
would need to be
much more wealthy
if new standards are
adopted by feds
By CHUCK SODER
csoder@crain.com
Clay Rankin might have to kick a
lot of investors out of the local North
Coast Angel Fund because they just
aren’t rich enough.
He’s not trying to be a snob: Some
national organizations are encouraging federal regulators to make it
significantly harder to become an
accredited investor — a title that lets
rich people invest as much as they
want in private companies and investment funds.
INSIDE: There are other ways to raise
capital. Page 6
CLEVELAND AERIAL MEDIA LLC
Cleveland Aerial Media LLC, a 6-month-old company, uses drones to capture impressive photos.
CONTROVERSY GETS WINGS
NE Ohio companies that use drones to perform aerial
photography are drawing ire of competing businesses
By STAN BULLARD
sbullard@crain.com
The nationwide air battle over commercial use
of unmanned aircraft — better known as drones
thanks to their military cousins — is entering
Northeast Ohio airspace.
The combatants are fledgling businesses using
drones for aerial photography versus established
businesses operated by licensed pilots and the
Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates
America’s air space.
The same drone technology that the United
States has used to wage war also has created a
technology for low-cost, unmanned aerial systems controlled by smart phones that may be
used for a variety of applications.
A highly visible flashpoint for the dispute is
Cleveland Aerial Media LLC, a 6-month-old company that three partners under the age of 26 —
Michael Hach, Matthew Vilevac and Anthony Serio — started after buying a beach ball-sized DJI
Phantom helicopter and recognizing its use for
aerial photography. Hach said the company cre-
SEE FOR YOURSELF
To take a look at some of the photos that have
gotten Cleveland Aerial Media LLC so much
recent attention, go to:
clevelandaerialmedia.com
ated a business plan focusing on real estate companies, property owners and golf courses as customers.
The first drone required commissioning a custom holder for the tiny GoPro camera, Vilevac
said, but the second drone came with an installed camera, as have its other two.
Although even local police departments are getting drones airborne, their licensing is separate.
See WINGS Page 29
Those groups say many people
who hold the title can’t spot a shaky
business plan or a shady entrepreneur, nor can they afford to lose a lot
of money. But Rankin fears that raising the bar could cripple young, hightech companies that need funding if
they’re ever to become major job creators. Investors, he said, should be allowed to make their own decisions.
“If people make stupid investments, they lose their money,” said
Rankin, managing member of North
Coast Angel Fund, a group of individual “angels” who invest in tech
startups throughout Ohio.
Federal regulators haven’t said
what changes are on the table. But
some people think they could more
than double the income and net
worth requirements, based numbers
that appeared in an early version of
the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill.
See ANGELS Page 6
CORRECTION
■ A May 19, page 4 story about
Talmer Bank and Trust reported an
incorrect location for the bank’s new
offices. They are in Beachwood.
OSHA violations have many ramifications locally
Republic Steel paid a steep price for citations, but some are resolved more amicably
RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY
rmcafferty@crain.com
Canton-based Republic Steel in
April reached a sizable settlement
with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and
Health Administration. The agreement helped the company settle
more than 100 alleged violations at
four of its plants and laid the
groundwork for a comprehensive
health and safety plan Republic
Steel will use for its plants going
forward.
The citations were “very significant,” said Jim Frederick, assistant
director of health, safety and environment at the United Steelworkers. But Republic Steel reached out
to the union from the start of the
inspections, and the two worked
together to create a plan that looks
at health and safety in a holistic
way across the company, he said.
While Republic Steel’s settlement may be a bit wider in scope
than most, lots of companies across
INSIDE: Advice from OSHA on how to
deal with violations, along with a look
at the most common citations. Page 7
Northeast Ohio are familiar with
the work that goes into resolving violation citations from OSHA and
moving their companies forward.
In OSHA’s Cleveland region,
there were 661 inspections in fiscal
year 2013, with an average of 3.2 citations per inspection. When a
company receives a citation, its
management can choose to either
contest the citations, pay the penalties or schedule an informal conference.
After the conference, companies
can still choose to contest the citations. An expedited formal settlement can also be offered to companies without serious, willful or
repeat violations, according to an
OSHA official.
Paying the price
At Republic Steel, the company
faced its own issues as an organization that had undergone significant
leadership changes in its time. Republic Steel’s alleged violations
spanned four plants, three of which
were in Ohio, and included failure
to provide fall protection or machine guarding for its employees.
The company agreed to abate all
the citations in an extensive settlement, which also included an
agreement to pay $2.4 million.
But the company’s troubles were
not over with the investigations in
2013. In February, an employee
was killed in a rail yard accident.
See OSHA Page 7
20140526-NEWS--6-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
Angels: Local entrepreneurs could suffer
continued from PAGE 5
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Those higher standards would
exclude 25% of the 12,000 angel investors who belong to the Angel
Capital Association, according to a
survey conducted in January by the
Kansas City-based group, which is
campaigning against raising the
standards.
Ohio would probably fare worse:
Outside of California, New York and
Massachusetts — where people
generally make more money —
about one-third of the group’s
members would lose their accredited status under the rule that was in
the Dodd-Frank bill, according to
the association.
That’s about how many members North Coast Angel Fund probably would lose, Rankin said.
Doubling income and net worth
requirements also would have a
huge impact on local entrepreneurs
who want to raise cash from individuals, said Todd Federman, the
fund’s executive director.
“I cannot think of another single
change that would do more harm to
startups,” he said.
Adjusted for inflation
WHAT
IGNITES
YOU?
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in Northeast Ohio and beyond.
n e o m e d . e d u
Today, if you make $200,000 a
year or have a net worth of $1 million (minus your home), congratulations, you’re immediately considered an accredited investor. Those
figures, however, haven’t changed
since 1982. An early version of the
Dodd-Frank financial reform bill
would have raised those figures to
$450,000 for income or $2.5 million
for net worth, but lawmakers removed those changes before passing the bill in 2010.
However, this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
is expected to take another look at
how it defines “accredited investor.”
Two national organizations told
Crain’s the SEC needs to set a standard that takes inflation into account. Neither would say whether
they would push for the specific
dollar figures that were removed
from the Dodd-Frank bill; however,
a representative from one of the
groups, the North American Securities Administrators Association,
emailed Crain’s a portion of a letter
the group sent to the SEC in 2013. It
noted that “$200,000 had the same
buying power in 1982 as $484,719
had in 2013.”
The association believes that letting the income and net worth standards rise with inflation would ensure that only those investors who
could endure big losses could make
big bets on private companies.
The association also wants the
SEC to take steps to ensure accredited investors actually know something about investing. For instance,
MONEY MATTERS: METHODS OF RAISING CASH
Don’t know any rich people? You might want to get to know some, if your
private company is trying to raise capital.
However, private companies can raise money from up to 35 people who are
considered non-accredited investors. That means they don’t make at least
$200,000 per year or have a net worth of at least $1 million, minus their home.
However, federal regulators plan to take a second look at that definition this
summer.
Even if you can raise money from people who have less of it, you may not
want to. For one, you have to give non-accredited investors “disclosure
documents that are generally the same as those used in registered offerings,”
according to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission’s website. And if you
take their money, you can’t publicly declare that you are raising capital.
Things could get easier: The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012
will give private companies the ability to raise money from everyday investors
via the web, but not until the SEC hammers out rules on how it should be done.
— Chuck Soder
the organization thinks the SEC
should factor in what sort of investments people already own before
giving them the ability to make big
investments in private companies,
according to Bob Weber, communications director at the North
American Securities Administrators
Association of Washington, D.C.
Fraud squad
The association’s worries stem
from the fact that its members —
people who regulate securities on
the state and provincial level — regularly talk to investors who have
been swindled by private companies. For instance, in 2012, state
regulators in the group “pursued
more than 200 investigations and
took 130 enforcement actions” related to companies raising money
through private offerings that often
involve accredited investors, according to an email from Weber.
The group says fraudulent offerings
are the top threat faced by investors
— even above pyramid schemes.
Many fraudulent offerings rarely
make the news because they often
involve small businesses and startups, according to Barbara Roper,
director of investor protection at
Americans for Financial Reform.
Raising the standards to become
accredited would be good for investors and the public, Roper said.
Individuals should have to clear a
“very, very, high” financial hurdle
to be considered an accredited investor, to make sure they can endure big losses, she said.
Why should the public care? Economic bubbles can form and pop
when too many people without
enough knowledge invest more
than they can afford in risky businesses, she said. And startups are
risky, given that most new businesses fail.
However, Roper agrees with the
idea that the SEC might be able to
create lower standards for investors
that can demonstrate their knowledge. Maybe they have a financial
degree or take a test, Roper said,
without endorsing a particular
measure. Even then, she said, they
should only be able to invest a percentage of their net worth.
A better alternative
Charles Stack says the SEC shouldn’t change the standard for becoming accredited. The local entrepreneur could be affected personally:
Last year he founded a business accelerator in downtown Cleveland
called FlashStarts. He’s in the
process of raising a fund that would
invest in startups that go through the
accelerator program, and some of his
investors are individuals.
Stack believes that most millionaires are fairly sophisticated when it
comes to financial matters. Instead
of focusing on them, the SEC
should make sure startups provide
them with the information they
need to make good decisions.
“Rather than telling millionaires
what they can and can’t do, they
should tell startups what they
should disclose,” Stack said.
Some other local investment
funds would be affected, too. Attorney Howard Bobrow said he knows
of several small venture capital
funds, private equity funds and
hedge funds that raise money from
individuals who wouldn’t make the
cutoff included in the Dodd-Frank
bill. Many of them are in Northeast
Ohio.
He’d be OK with letting the income
and net worth standards rise with inflation from where they are today.
But doubling them immediately
would “drastically limit the universe”
of people who could contribute to
those smaller funds, according to Bobrow, a partner in the venture capital
and private equity practice at Taft, a
law firm in Cleveland.
Giving investors other ways to
show that they know what they’re
doing would be a better alternative,
Bobrow said.
“There are other ways to apply
protections to investors while increasing participation in private
markets,” he said.
■
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20140526-NEWS--7-NAT-CCI-CL_--
5/23/2014
4:01 PM
Page 1
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
7
OSHA: A ‘give and take’ approach can help cited companies
continued from PAGE 5
On May 19, the company was issued a “serious” citation with a
$7,000 proposed penalty for conditions at the Lorain plant leading to
the fatality. The citation said the
tracks were covered with ice and
snow, which led to cars derailing
and the fatality. A digital copy of the
citation was provided to Crain’s by
OSHA. A call to the company was
not returned as of press time.
“It was beyond disappointing to
see an additional fatality at Republic during this time frame; it is another reminder of the safety problems that have been seen at
Republic over the years,” said Kim
Nelson, OSHA area director in Toledo. “It is our sincere hope that Republic’s willingness to institute an
effective comprehensive safety and
management system will result in a
significantly improved safety culture and the end unsafe work place
conditions.”
Republic Steel also declined to
comment on the $2.4 million settlement beyond a press release, but
Frederick said the union members’
reaction to the new health and safety program that was part of the
agreement has been one of “positive skepticism.”
The company has some real issues to deal with, Frederick said,
and members want to see it succeed. “It won’t be easy,” Frederick
said.
The new program will take on
challenges in a holistic way. Instead
of just fixing a piece of broken
equipment, it will call for the company to look at why the equipment
is failing and determine if there is a
problem upstream that needs to be
corrected, Frederick said.
The next two years will be critical,
ADVICE FROM OSHA
Howard Eberts, OSHA’s area director for Cleveland, said incidents in
which employees are injured are
preventable and he urged companies
to be proactive. Eberts suggested
companies take advantage of free
inspections, like those available
through the Ohio Bureau of Workers’
Compensation, to identify problems
to be solved. There are no repercussions with those outside inspections,
he said, but if OSHA finds a hazard,
they will issue a citation.
If a company is cited and has
questions, Eberts recommended its
leaders request an informal conference as soon as possible. The companies will then get a face-to-face
meeting with Eberts to discuss how
long the violations could take to
correct and whether the penalty
amounts could be adjusted.
For more information on OSHA
regulations, visit:
tinyurl.com/q6d6bu6
Frederick said, as the settlement
agreement with OSHA outlines
what needs to be done in that timeframe. But the health and safety
plan could have an even further
reach. While plenty of companies
with which the United Steelworkers
work have some sort of plan, this
comprehensive one serves as a
good example, he said.
“This raises the bar,” Frederick
said.
A learning process
Deciding the course of action to
take when a company receives a ci-
MOST COMMON
OSHA CITATIONS:
■ Fall protection (construction)
■ Hazard communication
standard (general industry)
■ Scaffolding (general
requirements, construction)
■ Respiratory protection (general
industry)
■ Electrical, wiring methods,
components and equipment
(general industry)
■ Powered industrial trucks
(general industry)
■ Ladders (construction)
■ Control of hazardous energy,
lockout/tagout (general industry)
■ Electrical systems design
(general requirements, general
industry)
■ Machinery and machine
guarding (general requirements)
Source: OHSA, for fiscal year 2013
tation isn’t as simple as assessing
the price tag on the penalty, lawyers
say.
Mike Hanna, a partner at Squire
Sanders’ Cleveland firm, recommends that companies take advantage of OSHA’s informal conference, because there’s a “give and
take” that he thinks is valuable.
“It doesn’t have to be confrontational,” he said.
It’s important for companies to
look at whether the abatement is
appropriate, Hanna said, because
employers often get sucked in by
low penalties, but the cost to abate
problems can be significant.
Vincent Norwillo, a partner at
Gonzalez, Saggio & Harlan LLP in
Cleveland, said he thinks OSHA has
been more “punitive” under the
current administration, but also
willing to offer compromises to resolve less serious violations at a
lesser penalty.
But penalties aren’t usually that
expensive to begin with, and it’s important for companies to keep a
“clean safety record,” he said.
OSHA logs can affect a company’s
ability to qualify for big projects,
Norwillo said. And previous violations could reflect poorly on a company if the company were to get another citation in the future.
Victor Geraci, a partner at Fisher
& Phillips LLP in Cleveland, said
while abatement is the costly part
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of citations, it’s necessary in terms
of employee relations and liability
control.
Even if a company wants to dispute the legality of the citation, it’s
important to fix the underlying issue as soon as possible, Geraci said.
The potential for liability issues for
failing to correct an identified problem are great.
New Wave Plastics LLC said it got
right to work when OSHA visited its
Cleveland plant last fall. OSHA cited the company for 13 safety violations in March.
But CEO T.R. Mitchell said he
thought the company was already
about 90% compliant — they just
didn’t have their paperwork up to
OSHA’s standards. The citations focused heavily on training and communication, including failing to
train employees on personal protective equipment, forklift safety or
use of chemicals in the plant. The
case is pending as New Wave Plastics waits on test results related to a
citation for combustibility with
dust.
But OSHA’s been very helpful as
the company works to update its
documentation, Mitchell said.
“You kind of learn as you go,”
Mitchell said of starting a plant. ■
20140526-NEWS--8-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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5/23/2014
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
Software: Company has 400 employees Cheese: Healthier diets
continued from PAGE 4
MRI’s growth had stagnated before 2010, when Vista bought the
company for $128 million from Intuit Inc., a California company best
known for accounting software
products such as TurboTax and
Quicken.
The San Francisco-based private
equity firm hired Post to retool the
business. MRI immediately started
hiring more people to join its local
accounting, human resources and
payroll teams, because those functions had previously been handled
by Intuit.
Since then, MRI has had a more
aggressive growth strategy. The company had acquired a few businesses,
and it continues to look for deals,
Ghilani said. Plus, the company
moved from Highland Hills to a
much larger office in Solon in 2012.
MRI had 335 employees in Northeast Ohio as of Jan. 1 — up from 191
on that date in 2010, according to
data from the Crain’s list of the region’s largest software developers.
Only Hyland Software in Westlake
employs more people in the region
(1,225, as of Jan. 1). MRI has about
400 employees worldwide.
The company will continue to
grow, and a large majority of that
growth will take place in Solon, Ghi-
lani said, echoing comments Post
previously made to Crain’s.
“Everything we do will point back
to Solon, Ohio,” Ghilani said.
Lately, MRI has been expanding
its customer support team, its sales
force —it’s “larger than it’s ever
been” — and its product development team, he said.
“What are we going to do
40 years from now, not
four years from now?”
– Patrick Ghilani
CEO, MRI Software
The developers are in the process
of upgrading the company’s webbased software tools so that they’re
more intuitive and can adapt to fit
any screen, be it on a desktop or a
smart phone, he said.
The new software also will show
how MRI’s culture is evolving: It will
include code that allows the company’s clients to develop their own
custom features. Or they could buy
a competing product and integrate
it with MRI’s software.
It wasn’t easy for MRI to open its
doors so much, but the company
did so because it “would rather provide a solution to a client,” even if it
means they end up tying someone
else’s product into MRI’s software,
Ghilani said.
Those improvements were in the
works before Ghilani was named
CEO. He isn’t looking to change the
company’s plans, he said, noting
that he helped make them.
Ghilani joined the company in
2006 as vice president of global professional services, leading the company’s consulting and implementation services team. He was named
COO in 2012 and was given the
president title in February, so he
could start taking over for Post.
A native of Greater Pittsburgh,
Ghilani describes himself as someone who thinks long term. Very
long term.
“What are we going to do 40 years
from now, not four years from
now?” he said.
Ghilani has more than 20 years of
experience working in the enterprise software space. He previously
held executive roles at supply chain
software firm SmartOps Corp. and
technology consulting firm UBICS
Inc., both of which are based in the
Pittsburgh area. Ghilani also helped
large companies implement enterprise resource planning systems
when he was a management consultant at Ernst & Young.
■
haven’t curtailed sales
about 23 pounds of cheese per year
— up from about just eight pounds
in 1970.
Even recent trends toward diets
(and people) with less fat have not
hurt sales, though Kurt Epprecht
readily jokes of cheese, “It ain’t
broccoli.”
Oh, and by the way, his favorite
restaurant? That would be Northeast Ohio’s Melt Bar & Grilled,
where gooey, drippy cheese on anything is the house specialty.
“We love that restaurant. Whenever anyone is visiting, we try to
take them to Melt,” Kurt said.
continued from PAGE 4
Many customers probably never
even realize they’re eating a Great
Lakes product. The company
processes and packages many store
brands, including the store brands
of Giant Eagle, Target and other supermarkets that carry their own private labels. It does the same for other big cheese companies, like
Sargento or Cabot, and it provides
the cheese that goes onto McDonalds and Wendy’s hamburgers,
dishes at Chili’s and Applebee’s and
for other restaurant chains.
“If you went into the grocery story
and looked at the deli, cheese aisle
and dairy case — we probably have
had a hand in one third of the
cheeses you see,” said John Epprecht. Forbes lists the company at
No. 213 in its list of the largest private
companies in the United States.
The company has had an amazing run of growth over the years.
It began when the Epprechts’ father, Hans, opened a one-man
cheese stand in Cleveland in 1958.
He moved the business to Newbury
in 1962 with three employees, and
quickly realized that his niche
should be not just in making
cheese, but in packaging it. By 1978,
his strategy had grown the company to 100 employees, and Great
Lakes was off and running.
Though Great Lakes has bought
up some other operations along the
way, most of its growth has been organic, as it has both taken market
share from others and benefitted
from a trend toward more cheese
consumption in the United States.
According to the Center for Science
in the Public Interest, which issued
a study on cheese consumption last
year, the average American eats
They are the champions
The size of the company has increased since the family hired an
outside person, Gary Vanic, to run it
as CEO in 1998. Sales have gone up
from about $1 billion to nearly $2.5
billion since he took over, the Epprechts said.
The business is fairly recessionproof, and it weathered the severe
downturn of recent years without a
major lapse in sales or an impact on
operations.
“We’ve never had a layoff,” said
Stacey Barbe, the company’s manager of human resources.
But none of this seems to be what
the Epprechts like to talk about the
most. Their favorite topic remains
the cheese itself — and Great Lakes
does far more than simply make
and process run-of-the-mill curds.
“That was the world champion,”
John Epprecht says, motioning toward a display of the company’s
Adams’ Reserve Cheddar.
The cheese won the 2014 World
Championship of Cheese in the
vaunted “Cheddar” category.
■
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20140526-NEWS--9-NAT-CCI-CL_--
5/22/2014
12:46 PM
Page 1
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
9
I2C helps companies keep an eye on their business
Technology firm, which produces video surveillance systems,
believes Utica shale region could be potential source of growth
By DAN SHINGLER
dshingler@crain.com
A North Canton entrepreneur
hopes to make his fortune from the
development of the Utica shale simply by watching it. And reporting any
shenanigans.
Jeff Doak founded I2C Technologies in 2005 after a stint as the chief
information officer for a Californiabased medical information services
company, Genesis Technology Partners.
Genesis used Internet protocols,
archive systems and networked
computer systems to help hospitals
and other health care providers to
store, manage and access information vital to patient care. Now, Doak
is using some of that same technology to provide security to a broad variety of clients.
I2C designs and sells real-time
video surveillance systems that rely
on modern video-recording equipment with cutting-edge information
technology that provides archival
services and web-based monitoring.
They’re used by local governments
and corporate clients, principally in
the Midwest but also around the
country.
“I liked it because I see a
lot of growth potential in
security systems.”
– Anthony Crisalli
individual investor
in I2C Technologies
I2C is a small, private company,
with only 10 employees, and it does
not disclose revenues. But I2C already has “thousands of cameras at
hundreds of sites” nationwide. Locally, its clients include Timken Co.,
regional electric utilities and the city
of Akron.
About one-third of the clients are
manufacturers that want to provide
security to their assets and, in some
cases, also monitor what goes on inside of their plants.
“It’s not just security, it’s also operational,” Doak said. He added that
the high-definition cameras provide
images so clear that they can check
in on individual pieces of equipment
to ensure that they are running
smoothly, or that gauges are reading
what they ought to under normal circumstances.
Energizing the business
In the last year or so, though, the
company has found a new market:
the U.S. energy sector.
So far, that has meant working
with power companies like FirstEnergy Corp., which confirms it is just
one of many utilities that has amped
up its security efforts in recent years.
For about $7,000, I2C will install a
camera and infrared sensors that
can monitor a midsize electrical substation, about 200 feet by 200 feet in
size. The substation’s operators can
monitor the system themselves, or
they can pay for a monitoring service
that will alert them to any problems
as soon as they occur.
But Doak now thinks he has found
an even bigger and better market —
shale drilling.
Drillers have many reasons to
want to monitor their operations,
Doak said. They want to keep their
sites secure, safe and vandal free, he
said. Given the backlash against
drilling by some who are opposed
to fracking, they might have good
reason to be concerned.
For Doak, there’s another bonus
as well. A typical drilling rig requires
up to seven cameras to cover, so the
rigs bring in more business than a
substation that might require just
one camera and one infrared
sensor.
When the rig completes one well
and moves on to the next, the cam-
eras go with it. But the completed
well still needs security, so another
camera is installed and left behind
to take care of that.
With as many as 2,000 wells per
year projected to be drilled in the
Utica alone, it’s not difficult to see
how the oil and gas sector might be
a major market for I2C.
That’s not only what Doak is
counting on, but it’s the hope of his
investors as well. Doak said he is
I2C’s largest shareholder, by far, but
the company also has the backing
of about 25 other investment
groups and individuals, including
the North Coast and Ohio Technology Angel funds, which invest in
early stage companies.
Anthony Crisalli, an individual
investor in Hudson, is one of
Doak’s backers. He said he put his
money behind the company because he thinks security is going to
continue to be a growing concern
in both business and society generally. He said he believes Doak has
the know-how and technology to
take advantage of both that trend
and increased oil and gas drilling.
“I liked it because I see a lot of
growth potential in security systems, especially smart systems that
integrate new and improving technologies,” Crisalli said.
■
women
of
ON ALERT
I2C Technologies’ website says
smart phones, tablets and laptops
can be used to see and control its
security cameras “from anywhere.”
For more information on the
company, go to:
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Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
PUBLISHER:
John Campanelli (jcampanelli@crain.com)
EDITOR:
Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)
MANAGING EDITOR:
Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)
OPINION
In it to win it
I
n many ways, the national conventions of the two
major political parties are shells of what they used to
be. Gone are the days of smoky back rooms, 2 a.m.
political theater, rogue delegates and almost anything
that’s not on a script (Clint Eastwood not included).
But something endures from these once-every-fouryears rituals: the impact for the host cities.
The 2012 GOP convention in Tampa, Fla., pumped
more than $404 million into the economy of the eightcounty Bay region. A much higher amount — impossible
to calculate — comes from the exposure, the attention
and all the ripples that follow when tens of thousands of
high-powered visitors — and millions of TV viewers —
spend almost a week with your city.
Of course everyone in town also gets to throw back a
high-octane shot of pride. Last Thursday, Cleveland,
Kansas City, Dallas and Denver got word they were finalists to host the 2016 Republican National Convention.
This isn’t like the 1995 World Series or 2007 NBA Finals
when many Clevelanders were just thrilled to be a part of
the championship round. We’ve been here before —
2012 finalist to host the Democratic convention — and
“in it to win it” is more than just a phrase.
The differences in our 2012 and 2016 bids are striking:
a new convention center, a couple thousand more hotel
rooms downtown and a growing list of dining and cultural attractions that make larger cities envious.
Best of all, after easily fulfilling all the basic convention
requirements — security, transportation, lodging, amenities and facilities — Cleveland offers two bonuses our
competitors can’t: We’re located in what might be the
political map’s most crucial swing state (no Republican
has ever won the White House without Ohio’s electoral
votes). And our status as a “small big city” offers a safe
bet, without Denver’s legal pot, Dallas’ 10-gallon persona
or other media distractions. Come to Cleveland and the
GOP knows the party and its candidate will be the stars.
Stay awhile
T
he 45,000-plus objects in the Cleveland Museum of
Art’s collection span 6,000 years. The museum
itself in 2016 will celebrate its centennial.
Longevity is a hallmark of the place.
That hasn’t been the case of late with the museum’s
directorship, which has been held by short-timers including David Franklin (at this point, the less said about
his October 2013 departure the better) and Timothy Rub,
who left in 2009 after only three years in the job to head
the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
It was encouraging, then, that the Cleveland museum
named as its new director William M. Griswold, who has
led the Morgan Library & Museum in New York for nearly
seven years and brings stellar academic and professional
credentials to the post. The Morgan, a museum of rare
books and manuscripts, is an important center of scholarly research. Griswold in has career has held posts at leading institutions including the Minneapolis Institute of
Arts, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, and he’s a board member of the American
Federation of Arts, among other organizations.
In short, the relative instability at the top did not diminish the Cleveland Museum of Art’s ability to attract a
first-rate leader, and for that the city should be thankful.
In his welcome video to Cleveland, Griswold sent just the
right message when he emphasized that he would be
“dedicated to community engagement” and was “eager
to spend time with the people of Northeast Ohio.”
We don’t expect Griswold to stick around for 6,000
years, but we look forward to a long, stable and innovative
tenure at one of the nation’s leading cultural institutions.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Even science can’t cure their thinking
These are discouraging
y eighth-grade sci- JOHN
times for those who trust in
ence teacher Mr.
Hyde (yes, that was CAMPANELLI science.
Federal spending on scienhis name) gave us a unique astific research — for defense,
signment during our biology
NASA, the NIH and more — is
unit. Each lab team was issued
on the decline.
a frozen chicken. The task:
Earlier this year, we learned
Take the bird home, boil it,
that the percentage of Ameribleach the bones and, using a
cans who believe in evolution
hot glue gun, rebuild the
has actually gone down since
chicken’s skeleton.
2009.
I don’t recall how our proMore than a quarter of
ject turned out, but I do reAmerican adults, and almost half of Remember that before bringing the chickpublicans, believe there is “no solid evien home, I shoved its giblets into an
dence” the Earth is warming. This, deErlenmeyer flask, jammed a rubber stopspite overwhelming scientific evidence
per into the top and stashed the flask in
that global heat content is on the rise.
a drawer.
(By the way, I completely blame Al
Months later, during lab cleanout, I
Gore on this one. The almost-president
discovered my forgotten experiment.
wrote a book, made a movie, won an OsThe flask’s putrefied contents were
car and even snagged a Nobel Peace
equally the most disgusting and fascinatPrize because of his work on climate
ing thing in the world.
change. Along the way, his involvement,
I was in love with science.
his activism and his haughtiness turned
In a world of uncertain economies,
a scientific issue into a political one. Why
shifting opinions and accelerating techcouldn’t they have gotten Tom Hanks to
nologies, science is the lamppost we can
narrate “An Inconvenient Truth”?)
all lean on to catch our balance. It is light
But what really makes me want to use
and truth — quantifiable, observable
my fist as the Newtonian object in moand measurable.
tion against a wall is the scientific bankExcept when people refuse to believe
ruptcy of the anti-vaxxers.
it.
M
This spring, outbreaks of mumps and
measles have popped up across the
country, perhaps most notably around
Ohio State’s campus, where more than
360 people have been diagnosed with
the mumps (Columbus typically sees
one case of mumps a year.)
The idea that vaccines are linked to
autism has been disproven with dozens
of studies and trials that have involved
more than 14 million children!
Yet websites and online forums still
peddle fear and junk science about vaccinations.
We are all business people. We know
the value of numbers. We rely on business plans, market research and analysis. It would be nuts to do the opposite of
what data told us to do.
Inoculations may be humanity’s
greatest health-care achievement ever,
so safe, so effective. Yet many blockheaded parents still hesitate to immunize their kids. A population with fewer
vaccinated people increases the chances
of an epidemic for everyone and puts us,
our workers, our businesses and our
economy in danger.
I’m not sure what’s going on in the
anti-vaxxers’ brains, but I bet it looks a
lot like the contents of that Erlenmeyer
flask.
■
TALK ON THE WEB
Re: NASA Glenn’s future
■ Losing Glenn will be the price of electing too many “big picture” politicians instead of people who actually follow what
happens in their district. (Not you, Marcy Kaptur.)
In the 1970s, when everything federal
was moving south and west, the Northeast-Midwest Coalition in Congress put
a halt to it, saving both Glenn and
Wright-Patterson in Dayton. We need
this group again.
— Robert Salmon
Re: Young professionals
in Cleveland
■ I think this is one of the most vital topics on our community’s table, particularly when it comes to public service and
Reader responses to stories
and blogs that appeared on:
www.crainscleveland.com
recruiting young professionals for public
office.
It’s way past time to hand the gauntlet
over to the next generation of leaders. It
isn’t happening, but it can — if we allow
the best and the brightest license to
think and act independently. They aren’t
going to be engaged if they are expected
to become sheep of the prior generation.
— Alan Glazen
■ We need the vitality and energy
that young professionals bring to the
area.
See WEB Page 11
POLL POSITIONS
Do you think Johnny Manziel will
start a regular-season game for
the Browns in 2014?
Yes
73.0%
No
27.0%
Vote in the poll each week at:
CrainsCleveland.com
20140526-NEWS--11-NAT-CCI-CL_--
5/22/2014
2:33 PM
Page 1
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
11
PERSONAL VIEW
Corporate bullies are bad, too
By STEVE ROSEN
I
n the Beachwood City School District, we have a mission: “To develop intellectual entrepreneurs with a
social conscience.”
I’ve been a Board of Education member for a few
years now, but in that short period of time, I’ve already
discovered those eight words are easier said than done.
Don’t get me wrong. Our students and faculty are terrific. They have their hearts and minds in the right places,
taking part in initiatives designed to carry out the school
district’s mission of entrepreneurship with a social conscience, such as the first-of-its-kind Medical Academy,
the Design and Engineering Program, Entrovation,
Helping Hands and the ASL choir.
No, the problem is not the kids or the faculty — it is
corporate American leaders who all too often teach
lessons that are anything but examples of socially responsible entrepreneurship. Sadly, even Ohio’s favorite
corporate son, Proctor & Gamble, the Cincinnati-based
producer of household goods ranging from detergents
to cat food, is currently embroiled in a legal dispute that
teaches all the wrong lessons. At issue is the market for,
oddly enough, teeth-whitening strips.
P&G is the king of the teeth-whitening strip market,
controlling more than 80% of the market with its popular
Crest 3D White line. But corporate profits come first, so
P&G wants to expand further by seeking to drive out a
small competitor, CLIO, which has manufactured generic whitening strips for Target, CVS and other retailers.
So why should a member of a suburban school board
care or even think about a David and Goliath battle over
who wins the teeth-whitening crown? Because I dislike
bullies in the corporate marketplace as much as I dislike
them in the schoolyard.
Instead of letting market forces prevail, P&G sued the
smaller company for allegedly copying its formula for
Rosen is an elected member of the Beachwood Board
of Education. He also is the owner of 800onhold9.com, a
Beachwood-based national company specializing in custom
music and message on hold programs. His opinions are his
own and do not reflect the views of the Beachwood Board
of Education or the administration.
whitening strips in a questionable patent-infringement
case — despite the fact that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office stands on the side of CLIO. The case has potentially negative impacts on consumer choice. P&G already forced Johnson & Johnson to stop making their
version of teeth whiteners.
For many young people and adults, a bright smile can
make all the difference when it comes to the self-confidence they need. But by P&G eliminating options, the
result will likely be higher prices, making this option out
of reach for many people.
That’s hardly a lesson in social responsibility.
CLIO has argued that there are serious flaws in P&G’s
claims. For example, CLIO notes that the patents at the
heart of this case are based on inventions or technologies that actually pre-existed the claims that P&G has
made to its patents.
Few outside the legal and corporate communities
have paid much attention to this legal dispute, but that
makes it all the more bothersome. Parents like me who
care about the lessons society teaches our children grow
concerned when bad behavior is not only tolerated but
ignored. After all, we seem to be suggesting, it’s just
business as usual. And doing anything to beat the other
guy in the quest for market share is OK.
I, for one, hope we really do not believe that. As a
school board member, as a parent and as a small-business entrepreneur, I object. I know it surely is not what
we should teach our kids.
■
Web: Online retailers have ‘free ride’
continued from PAGE 10
The idea that you have to work
for 20 years just to prove yourself is
dying as education levels that young
professionals bring are far superior
to what the city has seen in the past.
It is important to integrate both
generations.
— Wendy
Re: Online retailers
■ Online retailers are indeed a
“juicy target” for governments looking for tax revenue, and the situation cries for a consistent federal tax
policy for online merchants.
But the truth is that online merchants have had a free ride at the
expense of in-state retailers, who
are handicapped by being forced to
charge sales taxes.
The “juice” has been sucked out
of in-state retailers and their employees. It’s past time to change
that.
— Steven Wiesenberger
Re: New director at the
Cleveland Museum of Art
■ This is very exciting. In choosing
William Griswold, it looks like CMA
has selected someone who will definitely take a major leadership role in
keeping
the
museum as a
world-class institution.
It helps define
Cleveland as a
cultural center
for all.
As a long-time
Griswold
member actively
involved, we always take our out-of-town guests to
see this and all of University Circle,
which is also unique in North America and maybe the world.
Let’s celebrate this great move.
— Neil Dick
■ I always visit the Cleveland Museum when I am in town, though I live
in Philadelphia.
Our Philadelphia Museum of Art is
now directed by Timothy Rub, former director of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The addition to the Cleveland Museum is spectacular … the exhibits
always very interesting and the staff
and volunteers go that extra step to
inform.
I also enjoyed the Morgan Library,
William Griswold’s current employer, when I was in New York City.
I wanted to see the illuminated
manuscripts as well as the current
exhibits, and the cafe by the floating
elevator.
Griswold seems to have had an extensive and varied career in curatorial and museum development.
I am very excited for the museum.
I can’t wait for his tenure and will
plan another visit soon.
— Cheryl Snyder
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20140526-NEWS--12-NAT-CCI-CL_--
12
5/22/2014
12:47 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
TAX LIENS
The Internal Revenue Service filed tax
liens against the following businesses
in the Cuyahoga County Recorder’s
Office. The IRS files a tax lien to
protect the interests of the federal
government. The lien is a public
notice to creditors that the
government has a claim against a
company’s property. Liens reported
here are $5,000 and higher. Dates
listed are the dates the documents
were filed in the Recorder’s Office.
LIENS FILED
Capstone Construction Co.
11 Alpha Park, Highland Heights
ID: 27-5349111
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $21,995
1931 Hayden Ave. Inc. Reids
Asphalt
1931 Hayden Ave., Cleveland
ID: 31-1519279
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $21,343
Alai Group Inc. Rascal House
Pizza
21050 Euclid Ave., Euclid
ID: 45-4091543
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $19,943
Advanced Homecare
Professionals Inc.
540 E. 105 St., Suite 300, Cleveland
ID: 27-4239461
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $19,529
Able Grinding Co.
10015 Walford Ave., Cleveland
ID: 34-0859095
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $19,288
Pearl Academy Inc. CSR-V&C
Preparatory HS of Akron
4850 Pearl Road, Cleveland
ID: 27-4385582
Date filed: April 14, 2014
Type: Return of organization exempt
from income tax
Amount: $18,100
OpaCleveland Corp.
4205 Behrwald Ave., Cleveland
ID: 30-0262062
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding,
unemployment, failure to file
complete return
Amount: $17,878
Lakewood Pizza Inc.
16210 Detroit Ave., Lakewood
ID: 20-1130641
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $17,349
A K S S Inc.
13620 Euclid Ave., East Cleveland
ID: 34-1080579
Date filed: April 14, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding,
corporate income
Amount: $15,218
R & R Mechanical Inc.
3519 E. 75 St., Cleveland
ID: 34-1501058
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $13,458
Howard V Michler Co. LPA
43350 Prestwick Cross, Westlake
ID: 34-1477937
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding,
unemployment, failure to file
complete return
Amount: $13,339
MLC Inc.
19049 Fowles Road, Middleburg
Heights
ID: 34-1761275
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding, failure
to file complete return
Amount: $13,168
St. Clair Food & Beverage Inc.
Stop-N-Save Food Mart
15637 Saint Clair Ave., Cleveland
ID: 34-1816548
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $11,728
Ilead LLC
20376 Kelsey Lane, Strongsville
ID: 20-2222246
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $11,586
SMJ Growth Corp.
23800 Commerce Park Drive, Suite
A., Beachwood
ID: 34-1516826
Date filed: April 11, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding,
corporate income
Amount: $11,416
ID: 26-3021097
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding,
unemployment
Amount: $10,629
Cleveland
ID: 34-1612391
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Corporate income
Amount: $6,920
Brit Investments LLC
6760 Eastgate Drive, Mayfield
ID: 20-2825114
Date filed: April 17, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding,
unemployment, failure to file
complete return
Amount: $10,439
Blues to You Inc. Wilberts
812 Huron Road E, Cleveland
ID: 75-3102064
Date filed: April 10, 2014
Type: Corporate income
Amount: $6,825
JRM Marine Consulting LLC
904 SE Catawba Road, Port Clinton
ID: 27-0151654
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $10,359
Sheet Metal Masters
4200 Coral Gables Drive, Parma
ID: 26-4208327
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding,
unemployment
Amount: $6,654
EAKH LLC
3337 Central Ave., Cleveland
ID: 30-0601000
Date filed: April 10, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $6,451
Hot Dog LTD
559 Prospect St., Berea
ID: 01-0739743
Date filed: April 14, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $8,416
KP Auto Wrecking Inc.
3000 Rockefeller Ave., Cleveland
ID: 34-1893606
Date filed: April 21, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding, failure
to file complete return
Amount: $11,200
WHW II Inc. Shamrock Tavern
11922 Madison Ave., Lakewood
ID: 31-1533143
Date filed: April 21, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding, failure
to file complete return
Amount: $7,855
Chrome Industries Inc.
3041 Perkins Ave., Cleveland
ID: 34-1513189
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $11,139
ISG Employment LLC
5500 Ridge Road, Suite 211, Parma
ID: 45-3274785
Date filed: April 11, 2014
Type: Unemployment
Amount: $7,715
Posh Nails & Spa LLC
14189 Pearl Road, Strongsville
ID: 27-3471958
Date filed: April 21, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $10,962
Surocshaker Inc.
2101 Richmond Road 817, Beachwood
ID: 55-0881729
Date filed: April 4, 2014
Type: Unemployment
Amount: $7,112
Avon Pizza LLC Coleones Pizza
& Subs
1260 Smith Court, Rocky River
Collinwood Grape & Grape Juice
Inc.
25801 Lake Shore Blvd., Apt 30,
Point of Care Perfusion LLC
19691 Lake Shore Blvd., Euclid
ID: 20-8273749
Date filed: April 21, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding
Amount: $5,638
Helping Handz Inc.
24600 Center Ridge Road, Suite
120, Westlake
ID: 26-2945844
Date filed: April 14, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding,
unemployment
Amount: $5,628
Premium Technical Services Inc.
4760 Lander Road, Orange Village
ID: 34-1743417
Date filed: April 21, 2014
Type: Employer’s withholding,
unemployment, failure to file
complete return
Amount: $5,364
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20140526-NEWS--13-NAT-CCI-CL_--
5/22/2014
2:58 PM
Page 1
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
13
Indians: Fans in Tribe’s test group looked at scoreboard ‘a lot’
continued from PAGE 1
Shin got the job.
A year later, in June 2013, the Indians performed a study that is believed to be the
first of its kind in
Major
League
Baseball — and
one that doesn’t
seem the least bit
common in any
of the other major pro sports
leagues.
Shin
Eye-tracking
studies, in which participants’ eye
movements are measured and
recorded digitally, are common in
the automotive, medical, science
and retail industries.
In professional sports, eye-tracking has been used to determine
how fans watch a game on television. Baugh said Repucom, a New
York-based sponsorship research
company, “kind of has a monopoly
on that measurement.”
But the Indians were curious
about the value of advertising for
fans who attend games at Progressive Field, and they had a man for
the job.
First of its kind in MLB
The Indians and Cincinnatibased consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble developed a relationship a few years ago in which they
routinely share best practices.
During one of the Indians’ information-gathering trips, P&G em-
ployees discussed how they used
eye-tracking to improve shelving,
packaging layouts and other elements at stores.
Shin, who had brought up the
technology during his interview
with Baugh, then emailed Tobii
Technology, a Swedish company
that bills itself as “the global market
leader in eye-tracking.”
Tobii had never worked with a
sports team and was anxious to use
its technology for something new.
So new, in fact, that Baugh believes
the Indians are the first Major
League Baseball team to employ
eye-tracking to measure in-park
advertising. MLB spokesman Matt
Bourne confirmed Baugh’s findings, saying he isn’t aware of any
other such studies in the sport.
Shin led the Indians’ recruitment
of 47 fans who agreed to wear Tobii’s technology — essentially an
odd-looking pair of sunglasses attached to a pocket-sized recording
unit — over a three-day period last
June.
The “test group” was housed in a
suite along the third-base line, and
the Indians made sure they had a
representative mix of single-game
buyers and season-ticket holders,
along with different ages, races and
genders. The participants wore the
glasses for 30 minutes, once per
game, and were given a pair of tickets, free food and beverages for
their troubles.
“That allowed us to be more selective and make sure we had a
controlled sample,” Shin said of the
free perks.
To be certain the results weren’t
influenced by the point of the study
(in-park advertising), the participants were told the Indians were
simply trying to “better understand
the fan experience.”
Scoreboard is major draw
From start (the idea) to finish
(the tabulation of the results) was
about an 18-month process that
wasn’t concluded until March,
when Shin had thoroughly broken
down all of the data.
By then, the Indians had finished
the majority of the 2014 sales cycle
for their in-park advertising, which
means not all of the Tribe’s advertising partners have received the
eye-tracking results.
Because of that, Baugh won’t
give intimate details of what the Indians discovered.
But he will say that the 47 fans
had something very much in common — their focus on the scoreboard.
“The amount of times somebody
looks at our scoreboard during a
game exceeded my expectations,”
Baugh said. “It’s a lot.”
A section of the Indians’ website
dedicated to potential partners says
that 100% of the fans noticed the
scoreboard, and of the time spent
viewing ballpark signage, 78% of it
was spent on scoreboard ads.
Baugh said digital signs got more
attention than standard, or static,
signs.
“If there was
singing and
dancing
involved, the
eye caught it
more than a
static sign.”
– Ted Baugh
senior director of corporate
partnerships, Cleveland Indians,
on digital signs at Progressive Field
“If there was singing and dancing
involved, the eye caught it more
than a static sign,” he said. “That’s
not earth-shaking news, but it reaffirmed what we thought.”
All of the ads were noticed, however.
The Tribe’s website says that, on
average, all of the ads that were part
of the eye-tracking study were noticed at least once per eight minutes
The Indians will use the information in future pitches.
Companies looking for “a call to
action” will be steered toward digital signs, which are located on the
main scoreboard, the out-of-town
scoreboard on the left-field wall
and the LED boards located above
the lower-bowl seats along the firstand third-base lines, and in right
field. Prior to the 2014 season, the
Tribe installed more than 100 highdefinition TV monitors in the main
concourse that show the game, fan
information and advertising.
Businesses seeking a “bigger
brand presence” might be better
suited to purchase a static sign,
Baugh said.
“There are going to be people
that just want a big sign,” Baugh
said, “and that’s great.”
On a much larger level, the
study’s results will help to determine the future of Progressive
Field. The park is in its 21st season
and is expected to undergo $60 million to $70 million in infrastructure
improvements (one of which is a
new scoreboard) in the coming
years, in addition to investments
the Indians are privately financing
to improve fan experience (such as
the cellular and Wi-Fi networks
that were completed prior to the
2014 season).
“As we’re designing the future of
Progressive Field, do we want to go
with an all-digital outfield wall?”
Baugh said.
That’s one of the many questions
the Indians will ask, and is their
custom, each option will be meticulously measured.
Baugh said the Tribe could use
future eye-tracking studies to measure such in-park aspects as concessions, “traffic flow” in and out of
the gates and the team shop.
The more information, the better.
“We’ve taken Moneyball from
the field to the business side,”
Baugh said. “I think this is just the
tip of the iceberg. I really do.”
■
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5/22/2014
2:08 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
GOING PLACES
JOB CHANGES
CONSTRUCTION
RONYAK PAVING: David Ronyak
to CEO; Sean Petersen to
president.
ENGINEERING
Ronyak
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
INDUSTRIES INC.: Leann Freeman
to project specialist.
TES ENGINEERING: Robert M.
Ambrose to director of strategic
services; Hilmi Tannous, Nick
Gingerich and Erica Pilmer to
project managers.
Petersen
Gromek
Kocsis
management specialists; Julie
Duncan, Judy Skelley, Carla Lamb
and Kate Austin to patient
account managers; Angela Mumaw
to assistant manager, collections.
PEAK WEALTH SOLUTIONS LLC:
David P. Kocsis and Gregory M.
Gromek to founders.
SINGER, BERGER, PRESS & CO.
CPAS: Joel Axelrod to associate.
FINANCIAL SERVICE
FIRSTCREDIT
INC./REVCARE/PAYMED
SOLUTIONS: Allison Karasek to
administrative liaison; Megan
Jarowszyk and Stephanie
Rodriques to elibigility case
HEALTH CARE
METROHEALTH: Christine
Alexander, M.D., to chairperson,
Department of Family Medicine;
Thomas Tallman, M.D., to medical
director, Correctional Health Program.
UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS CASE
MEDICAL CENTER AND CASE
WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: James R.
Rowbottom, M.D., to chairman,
Department of Anesthesiology and
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BAR 25 LLC: Jeff Draeger to
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Rowbottom
Draeger
Canaday
Bartela
Brickman
Leonti
McClung
Alliance
LEGAL
BRICKER & ECKLER: Nicole
Donovsky and Rick Ross to
attorneys.
DWORKEN & BERNSTEIN CO.
LPA: Frank Bartela and Patrick
Brickman to associates.
MANUFACTURING
PARKER-HANNIFIN CORP.:
Joseph R. Leonti to associate
general counsel and assistant
secretary.
RPM INTERNATIONAL INC.: Brett
Malone to senior director, internal
audit; Bob Milligan to director,
compliance audit; Russ Williams
to senior director, finance.
MARKETING
CUNNINGHAM BARON
COMMUNICATIONS LLC: Michelle
White to art director; Christopher
Ronsky to PR coordinator.
GOLDFARB WEBER CREATIVE
MEDIA: Don McClung to senior
producer, director.
THINK MEDIA STUDIOS: Ian
Zainea to editor.
WRL ADVERTISING: Jeff LeBeau
to vice president, sales and
marketing.
MEDIA
HVACR BUSINESS: Bruce
Sprague to circulation manager;
Pete Grasso to editor; Tony
D’Avino to director, business
development.
NONPROFIT
CLEVELAND LEADERSHIP
CENTER: Folly Patterson to the
Nordson education fellow.
HATTIE LARLHAM: Tonnie
Alliance to corporate relations and
major gifts officer.
RECOVERY RESOURCES: Thomas
Lyzen to CFO.
Send information for Going Places
to dhillyer@crain.com.
Tarkett will move HQ
from Chagrin to Solon
By STAN BULLARD
sbullard@crain.com
The former Solon headquarters
of PVF Capital Corp., the parent of
the former Parkview Federal Savings Bank, will become the new
home of the North American unit of
Tarkett, a French multinational
flooring producer.
Tarkett North America currently
is based at 16910 Munn Road in
Chagrin Falls, but it has office personnel jobs spread throughout five
buildings in Chagrin Falls as it has
leased space as it has grown, said
Jeff Krejsa, the company’s senior
vice president-marketing.
“Whether it’s two miles or 200,
it’s not at all as productive as being
in a singular operation,” Krejsa said.
“We’ve been looking for a building
to acquire for some time.”
Through Tarkett USA Inc., the
producer of Johnsonite flooring on
May 15 paid $3 million for the fourstory office building, according to
Cuyahoga County land records. The
building is at 6001 Cochran Road.
The purchase included an additional lot with 2.5 acres adjoining the
structure.
Hermitage, Pa.-based F.N.B.
Corp., the parent of First National
Bank of Pennsylvania, last October
purchased PVF Capital Corp. First
ON THE WEB Story from:
www.crainscleveland.com
National has since established a regional headquarters at 55 Public
Square in downtown Cleveland.
Tarkett plans to move about 80
employees to Solon, Krejsa said.
The Tarkett jobs are in management, finance, marketing, design,
human resources and information
technology.
The company plans to establish a
showroom for its products at the
building in Solon. Krejsa said Tarkett currently conducts tours with
architects, designers and flooring
contractors at its Johnsonite factory
and distribution center in Middlefield. A factory in Chagrin Falls will
remain intact, he said.
However, Tarkett’s growth plans
don’t end with the move. The city of
Solon has agreed to give Tarkett a
10-year job creation incentive grant
if it expands to 140 jobs in Solon in
three years, according to Peggy Weil
Dorfman, the city’s economic development coordinator. The jobs
incentive grant allows the company
to receive a check from the city that
equals part of the additional municipal income tax that employees will
pay in the suburb.
■
20140526-NEWS--15-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
15
MEETINGS & EVENTS
Globe serves up
shot in the arm
Facility may help attract medical meetings to city
ABOVE, FILE PHOTO/
LEFT AND RIGHT, COURTESY
CLEVELAND CONVENTION CENTER
The Global Center for
Health Innovation was
built in conjunction with
the new Cleveland
Convention Center.
The two buildings are
connected.
ALSO INSIDE:
MEDICAL DEVICES
TOPIC OF RECENT
EVENT, PAGE 24
By JUDY STRINGER
clbfreelancer@crain.com
F
or years, it was called the “Medical
Mart.” More recently, locals have
dubbed it the “Globe.”
No matter its nickname, the city’s sparkly
new Global Center for Health Innovation is
serving up a healthy dose of medical meeting
interest and acting as a shot in the arm to the
fledgling Cleveland Convention Center.
Through 2019, the convention center has
233 bookings, which are expected to draw an
anticipated 400,000 attendees, according to
Dave Johnson, director of sales and marketing for both facilities. Sixty-eight — or 29% —
of those events involve the health care
industry.
In 2014 alone, one-third of the projected
convention-related traffic will be medical related, said John Paganini, who is managing
the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Innovation
Center, located on the top floor of the Global
Center.
Among this year’s conventions and trade
shows are the Cleveland Clinic Patient Experience Summit, Practice Greenhealth CleanMed, Case Management Society of America,
Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) and Ohio Optometric Association EastWest Eye Conference.
HIMSS’s signature North American Connectathon, during which IT vendors test their
products for compatibility across legacy
health care systems, will move in January
from its Chicago base to the Cleveland Convention Center.
“The Global Center has yet to be formally
announced to the world,” Paganini said,
adding that early excitement already has generated tons of interest as well as an impressive slate of health care meetings that will be
attended by tens of thousands of medical
professionals in the next 12 months.
Built in conjunction with the city’s new
convention center, which opened last year,
interior work to tenant spaces at the Global
Center still is being completed.
“Once they experience the center — the
only one of its kind in the world — they will
start spreading the word, and that is when it
will really take off,” he said.
‘Playing in the big league’
This is no chicken-and-egg scenario.
Cleveland’s strong biomedical presence
made it a logical home for something like the
Global Center, which will have four floors featuring the latest in health care products, services and technology.
Along with flagship health care organizations such as the Cleveland Clinic, University
Hospitals, MetroHealth Medical Center and
Case Western Reserve University School of
Medicine, concerted efforts to grow the
See MEDICAL Page 20
COMING SOON TO CLEVELAND
HEALTHCARE CONVENTION
& EXHIBITORS ASSOCIATION
INTEGRATING THE HEALTHCARE ENTERPRISE
NORTH AMERICAN CONNECTATHON
11TH ANNUAL CLEANMED CONFERENCE
DATES: June 19-24
ATTENDANCE (EXPECTED): About 550
PREVIOUS LOCATIONS: Las Vegas, Austin, Fort Lauderdale,
Philadelphia, New Orleans and Orlando, to name a few
DATES: Jan. 26-30, 2015
ATTENDANCE (EXPECTED): 100 organizations;
550 participants; 140 systems registered
PREVIOUS LOCATIONS: Chicago, since 1999
EVENT DATES: June 3-5
ATTENDANCE (EXPECTED): More than 1,000
PREVIOUS LOCATIONS: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago,
Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Seattle
20140526-NEWS--16-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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4:15 PM
Page 1
16 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
MEETINGS AND EVENTS
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
Ohio cities in mix for many of same events
By DANIEL J. McGRAW
clbfreelancer@crain.com
W
hen Cleveland, Columbus
and Cincinnati made it as finalists for the 2016 Republican Party national convention —
and Columbus and Cleveland ended
up on the short list for the 2016 Democratic Party convention — the
first thought was that Ohio was in
the mix because of its importance as
a political swing state.
(The RNC announced last Thursday, May 22, that Cleveland had made
yet another finalist cut, while Cincinnati did not.)
Of course, the fact that Ohio hasn’t voted for the loser in a presidential election since 1960 is no doubt a
factor in having the three cities in
play. Having a convention in Ohio
has the clear potential to help either
party push the state to their side.
But the fact that the three “Cs”
were in the mix for these high-profile
conventions also is very much rooted in changes in the meeting and
convention business.
So-called second-tier convention
cities — those just under places like
Chicago, Orlando, Las Vegas and New
York — are fast becoming first-choice
destinations by meeting planners for
trade groups and other organizations.
And the reasons are simple: Planners want newer convention facilities and nearby hotels; and most importantly, they are looking for
thriving urban neighborhoods near
the convention facilities that are not
just geared toward the tourism trade.
The three Ohio cities score well on
all those factors.
“What convention planners are
focusing on now more than ever is
walkability,” said De-de Mulligan,
Cleveland is competing for events with the Greater Columbus Convention Center, left, and Cincinnati’s Duke Energy Convention Center, right.
president of Mulligan Management
Group, an event-planning consulting firm in Hudson.
“Having people living in the downtown areas near the convention center facilities — like these cities now
have — bring more exciting and less
touristy clichéd nightlife and restaurants and entertainment options
close by,” she said. “And when there
are people living nearby, there are
more people around, and the convention attendees feel safer and more
comfortable.”
Heart of it all
The three major Buckeye State
cities are similar in many ways.
All three have fairly new or recently improved convention centers with
more than 200,000 square feet of
meeting and exhibit space. And all
three have vibrant entertainment districts close by: Columbus’ Short
North Arts and Arena districts;
Cincinnati’s Over-The-Rhine and
Fountain Square; and Cleveland’s
Warehouse and Theater districts and
East Fourth Neighborhood.
And all three have high-profile
museums and sports options that
are on par or better than the firsttier convention cities.
But the big change that all in the
event planning business agree is that
Cleveland’s new convention center
— along with the Global Center for
Health Innovation and the planned
Hilton hotel — has ratcheted up the
competition between the Ohio cities
in a positive way.
“Cleveland has had a bad rap in
the meeting and convention business, because quite frankly, you
can’t have a business if you don’t
have a venue,” said Gary Schirmacher, senior vice president for Experient, an event management subsidiary of Maritz Travel Company.
“But Cleveland now has a state-ofthe-art convention center, a down-
town area that is exciting for visitors
and a walkability factor that is
among the best in the country.”
“All three cities are doing that,”
Schirmacher said. “They have appealing venues and great restaurants and entertainment options
that are within walking distance.
What we are seeing is that the convention center folks in all three
cities are really promoting their
cities in the convention business
aggressively, and that spills over
into the overall tourism industry.”
David Gilbert, president and CEO
of Positively Cleveland, the regional convention and visitors bureau,
admits that competition for meeting and conventions can be aggressive at times between the three
cities, “but we don’t put Columbus
and Cincinnati down to build up
Cleveland.”
“And quite frankly, having top
cities like those competing for business is great because it helps focus
that what we have going on in Ohio
is positive and that brings attention
to all three cities,” he said.
Changing landscape
One factor that is in the three
Ohio cities’ favor is that smaller regional conferences are a growing
trend in the convention business.
These events are held on fewer
days and use a virtual connection
component, both of which make
Cleveland, Columbus and Cincin-
nati attractive options.
“That’s what we are focusing on
more and more,” Gilbert said. “Attendees at a three-day event in
Cleveland can experience so many
different things in our city, and we
want them to come back on vacation to experience more.”
Dan Lincoln, president and CEO
of Cincinnati USA Convention &
Visitors Bureau, said, “Ohio has a lot
of good destination cities, and that
has its good point and bad points.
The downside is we compete pretty
aggressively as we’ve seen with the
Republican and Democratic conventions.”
“But Cleveland is coming into the
mix bigger and better and that has
brought a different vibe and feel for
the state,” Lincoln said.
He noted that eight years ago a
survey revealed that meeting planners didn’t necessarily have negative feelings about Cincinnati, but
they didn’t really think of the city at
all. Instead, Lincoln said, there was
the misperception about Midwest
cities that there was no nightlife and
“it was all flat and boring.”
“But that has all changed very
quickly,” Lincoln said. “All three
cities have urban districts that are
walkable for conventions, and we
are all different in a historical and
cultural sense. Instead of them not
thinking about us at all, the meeting
planning industry is now thinking
about these cities in Ohio a lot.
That’s a positive for all of us.”
„
20140526-NEWS--17-NAT-CCI-CL_--
5/22/2014
12:49 PM
Page 1
Be one of the first to host an event at Stillwater Place.
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20140526-NEWS--18-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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3:14 PM
Page 1
MEETINGS AND EVENTS
18 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
Innovation
Center
HOST YOUR NEXT HEALTHCARE OR IT MEETING
AT THE HIMSS INNOVATION CENTER
The HIMSS Innovation Center at the Global Center for Health Innovation in downtown Cleveland offers
your organization a state-of-the-art venue to host events and meetings. Enhance your program with our
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Conference seating for 150 attendees
Advanced A/V included
Break-out areas for mini-sessions
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Views of Lake Erie
For more information:
email: innovationcenter@himss.org
www.himssinnovationcenter.org
Upcoming Editorial Feature
THE BENEFITS
OF VETERANS
Is it the fresh paint and
carpets? Or maybe the
army of food trucks parked
outside? It might be the
freshly cut grass on the
roof. (Yes. The roof.) So
take a deep breath. There’s
a new Cleveland in the air.
clevelandconventions.com
#ThisisCLE
Issue date:
June 30
Ad close:
June 19
Materials due:
June 24
Book your ad today.
Contact Nicole Mastrangelo at 216-771-5158 or nmastrangelo@crain.com.
IT’S GOT THAT
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Thursday, June 5, 2014
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20140526-NEWS--19-NAT-CCI-CL_--
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
5/22/2014
4:12 PM
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MEETINGS AND EVENTS
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 19
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20 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
MEETINGS AND EVENTS
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
Medical: Health care meetings are coveted in event world
continued from PAGE 15
region’s bioscience base from the
ground up have paid off in recent
years, said Aram Nerpouni, president and CEO of BioEnterprise, the
nonprofit charged with that task.
In 2000, Northeast Ohio was averaging three to four venture capital
deals a year — or about $30 million
in total investment — involving new
medical innovations. In each of the
last two years, early stage investors
have poured more than $200 million into 40 to 50 new medical ventures, he said. Regionally, the biomedical industry has grown from
300 companies in 2002 to more than
700 companies in 2014.
“We’ve worked our way up
through the minor league, and we
are now playing in the big league,”
Nerpouni said. “We’ve earned credibility nationally to have the Globe
located here.”
As such, industry watchers said,
the Global Center is poised to cement Cleveland’s place as a player
in the medical conference circuit.
It’s a good game to be in, according
to Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association executive director Jacqueline Beaulieu, who estimates
that
it
constitutes
one-quarter of the meeting and
convention industry.
While it may not be suited for
mammoth conferences such as the
annual meetings of the Radiological
Society of North America that draw
50,000 attendees and “take over
cities,” Beaulieu said, Cleveland is
well-positioned to compete with big
convention cities like Orlando, San
Diego and Boston for right-sized
medical events.
And, the Global Center may just
give Cleveland the edge.
“(The Global Center) is a very
unique approach to educating, and
combined with the convention center, the whole project is very different from what other cities are offering,”
said
Beaulieu,
whose
organization is based in Atlanta.
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Complementing the center’s offerings is proximity to some of the
country’s leading health care organizations, said Gary Cohen, president
and founder of Health Care Without
Harm, which will co-sponsor next
month’s CleanMed event.
CleanMed will make its first trip to
Cleveland, where attendees will hear
firsthand how the Cleveland Clinic
has helped sprout green businesses,
along with medical innovations, he
said.
The convention center’s Johnson is
quick to point out that the city is attracting more than medical meetings.
This year, the annual convention
for the National Model Railroad Association will make Cleveland its
stop as will the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics annual conference, Gay Games 9 and
Content Marketing World. Many of
the facility’s upcoming events reflect
the city’s industrial strength as well
JASON MILLER
Seen here during construction in 2013, the Global Center has four floors that
will be dedicated to showing off some of the latest in medical technologies.
as its medical prowess.
“I think it’s terrific that Cleveland
has a niche, that Cleveland has a
place in the convention industry,
that we can go toe to toe with any
city in North America for both medical and industrial conventions,”
Johnson said.
Still, medical meetings are coveted among convention center professionals.
Most medical gatherings include
continuing education opportunities, Beaulieu said. Since physicians
and nurses are always in need of
continuing education credits and
administrators and personnel are
constantly training on new software, medical meetings are virtually recession proof.
Not to mention, medical profes-
sionals also are highly educated and
well compensated, so it goes to reason they would be likely to eat at
nice restaurants, enjoy the city’s
cultural amenities and even come
early or stay late.
How much credit can be given to
the Global Center for the steady
stream of convention traffic expected in coming years is impossible to
sort out just yet, Johnson said. But,
the bottom line is more and more
conference decision-makers are
giving Cleveland a second look, and
that is good for everyone.
“The convention center is doing
its job,” Johnson said, “which is filling hotel rooms and bringing in
people from outside the sevencounty region, who are spending
money in our community.”
„
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22 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
4:14 PM
Page 1
MEETINGS AND EVENTS
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
PHOTOS BY STAN BULLARD
Clockwise at left, the new
Westin Cleveland Downtown
lobby and the entrance to
the restaurant Urban Farmer;
general manager Mark
Anderson standing next to
one of the 1,400 pieces of
local artwork incorporated at
the hotel; and a look at one of
the renovated guest rooms.
At right, a view of the
building under construction
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ON THE WEB: To see the full photo gallery from the Westin
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20140526-NEWS--23-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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Page 1
MEETINGS AND EVENTS
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
Convention center helped
bring new Westin to life
T
he newly unveiled 484-room
Westin Cleveland Downtown
— along with its adjacent Urban Farmer restaurant — may not
have come to fruition had it not
been for the new Cleveland Convention Center.
The $74 million renovation, led
by Denver-based Sage Hospitality
and partner Optima Management
Co. of Miami, replaced the former
Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre, 777 St. Clair Ave.
For his part, Chaim Schochet, the
Optima investment executive who
runs its Cleveland operations, refused after the project’s recent unveiling to single out new details because he considers it an “all-new
property. Some of the speakers
called it ‘Cleveland’s new living
room.’ It is, and we intend to keep it
that way.”
Although the steel and foundation may be the same, Schochet’s
description is not far off in terms of
the transformation of the 1970svintage hotel for a new generation.
Gone are the dark exterior bricks,
replaced with tan wall panels.
Ken Silliman, Mayor Frank Jackson’s chief of staff, meanwhile, recalled that when he worked for the
White administration, the city and
civic leaders pushed hard in about
1998 to land a Westin, but the effort
came to naught. That made landing
one in the Jackson administration
MEETING SPACE
The Westin’s 20,000 square feet
of space includes a 9,000-squarefoot ballroom and multiple meeting
rooms for up to 800 people.
sweeter.
The difference? “When we
pitched the Westin this time, the
new Cleveland Convention Center
was under construction,” Silliman
said.
Mark Anderson, Westin general
manager, said Sage and Westin
owner-franchisor Starwood Hotels
& Resorts decided Cleveland was
due for another luxury hotel to rival
the Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Tower City
Center.
“We see the next two years as a
chance to help the city attract conventions that never considered it
before,” Anderson said, to build on
the opportunity provided by the
new convention center.
That will help build a base of
business, he said, that the 600-room
Cuyahoga County Convention Center Hotel will use to attract larger
conventions that would not consider the city without a hotel directly
attached to the convention center.
“The reality is that the convention market here will not mature
until the city has a lot more hotel
rooms,” Anderson said. “We’re one
more step in that.” — Stan Bullard
MEETINGS
REDEFINED
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 23
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20140526-NEWS--24-NAT-CCI-CL_--
5/22/2014
2:33 PM
Page 1
MEETINGS AND EVENTS
24 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
Tube could come to
aid of injured soldiers
Akron researchers,
others present at
Cleveland medical
device conference
By BILL BREGAR
Plastics News
R
JANET CENTURY PHOTOS
FOR ANOTHER GREAT EVENT!
THANK YOU
Matthew Becker, a University of Akron professor, speaks about a hollow, extruded tube that could repair the legs of
soldiers injured by roadside bombs during a Plastics in Medical Devices event in Cleveland.
PRESENTED BY
SUPPORTED BY
More than 330 people attended Crain’s Health Care Heroes
event on May 15 at Executive Caterers at Landerhaven in
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esearchers in Akron are developing an extruded tube that
one day could help repair the
legs of soldiers injured by roadside
bombs, University of Akron professor Matthew Becker said recently at
the Plastics in Medical Devices conference, held at the Cleveland Convention Center.
Becker leads the biomaterials efforts of the Austen BioInnovation
Institute in Akron, which fosters innovation and collaboration at UA
and Akron-area hospitals.
He was one of three Austen
BioInnovation officials to talk during the conference about future biomaterials for medical use, such as
spinal disc replacements and artificial ligaments.
It is one of the more than 60 medical-related events planned at the
facility through 2019.
Becker said the hollow, degradable device, designed for healing a
femur bone, is made of amino acidbased poly (ester urea).
“It looks basically like a toilet paper roll,” he said.
The tube has been tested on the
broken femurs of sheep. Becker said
the military wants this technology
because too often, doctors are
forced to amputate soldiers badly
hurt by improvised explosive devices. The degradable scaffold tube
is extruded in about 18-inch sections. He said the University of
Akron is one of only three universities in the United States that have
an extruder to make it.
“It looks basically like a
toilet paper roll.”
– Matthew Becker
University of Akron professor,
on a tube being developed to help
soldiers injured in roadside bombs
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Bone eventually grows around
the tube.
IEDs can cause devastating injuries — burns and vascular damage, and often the wound is filled
with dirt. Becker said military doctors ideally want to do only a single
surgery, because often, there is not
much soft tissue left.
Polymers play a major role in biomedical products, Becker said. He
encouraged attendees to ignore the
naysayers and keep trying.
“The hardest part of doing something like this is getting over the fact
that one, it hasn’t been done before.
Two, a lot of people think you’re
crazy. The third thing is, it’s not
what the normal field would expect
you to do,” he said.
Stephen Fening, director of orthopedic devices at the Austen
BioInnovation Institute’s Medical
Device Development Center, said
it’s a challenge to develop biomaterials, which are intended to interface with a biological system, or replace or augment tissue. The body
James Petrie of PolyOne Corp.
also presented during the Plastics in
Medical Devices event, a conference
in Cleveland hosted by Plastics News.
tends to reject “foreign” objects.
And human tissues have the ability
to heal; biomaterials do not, he said.
Fening said three areas of
promise are replacement and repair products, devices for controlled-release delivery of medicine
and biosensing and automation
devices.
Fening also is director of research
and innovation at the Hoyt Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory at
Akron’s Summa Health System. Before, he directed the Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Sports Health
Research.
Rules and regulations
Rob Ngungu, director of regulatory affairs at Austen BioInnovation
Institute, gave a 101-style talk on
dealing with the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration. He advised
conference attendees to think about
FDA issues early in the development process, especially when selecting materials.
“It’s never too early,” Ngungu
said. “It’s always a good idea to start
exploring, what are the regulatory
implications of getting into any of
these spaces.”
Look at the clinical history and
regulatory issues of similar devices
and materials, Ngungu said. Try
and see if FDA has a comfort level
with that type of material, or has expressed concerns. “Novel, unproven materials” that may require
a unique development process —
and can raise potential questions
about safety and risk — make it
much harder to meet FDA approval,
he said.
Ngungu said companies should
take advantage of the FDA’s presubmission process and meet with
them. Think in advance about what
questions that the agency will have,
and bring along the full, appropriate data. Learn about how you will
store the materials and how to characterize the material.
■
Bregar is a senior reporter with
Plastics News, a sister publication of
Crain’s Cleveland Business.
20140526-NEWS--25-NAT-CCI-CL_--
5/23/2014
3:24 PM
Page 1
MEETINGS AND EVENTS
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 25
Food trucks add catering to their menus
Mobile eateries feed growing appetite for
unique, different food at meetings, events
By KATHY AMES CARR
clbfreelancer@crain.com
S
weet! The Mobile Cupcakery
launched in 2011 to join
Cleveland’s fledgling food
truck movement, which at the time
was evolving from a smattering of
vehicles circling the streets into organized assemblies of vendors serving gourmet food to hundreds of
customers.
The portable operation since
then has diversified its business.
In mid-May, for example, the
truck waited outside a church in
Tremont to greet wedding guests
with cupcakes.
“People got a cupcake after going
through the receiving line,” owner
Dave Southerington said. “It’s the
fourth wedding I’ve done this year,
and it’s only May.”
Food trucks, once thought by
some to be a fad, have become a
popular and economical option for
serving gourmet eats at both public
and private catering events.
In Cleveland alone, there are
nearly 60 mobile kitchens populating the streets at public events like
Walnut Wednesday and Food Truck
Fridays, at which thousands of
downtown residents and professionals descend. Now, more intimate occasions — from birthdays to
wedding showers or corporate
meetings — increasingly are dotting
their calendars.
“Food trucks are appealing because of their diversity,” said
Carvetta Jones, president of Event
Planners Association’s Cleveland
chapter. “Each one tends to specialize in a very specific type of cuisine,
so you can change it up a lot if
you’re a company and want to do
something different other than
grilling out hot dogs for a picnic.”
Southerington said it took awhile
to build a stable of private catering
events, as his focus was securing a
spot at the growing number of publicized city events. Food truck catering has climbed steadily and now
represents one-third of his business.
“Someone called me (in late
April) for an event they wanted to
host in June, and I told them that
they should’ve called me in February,” he said. “It’s getting to the
point where I’m going to have to
buy another truck because I’m
starting to turn down business.”
Ross Resnick, CEO of RoamingHunger.com, said the online site
that tracks in real time the location
of food trucks in cities all over the
United States, including Cleveland,
evolved in 2013 into a site that also
books food truck events because of
the rising number of user requests.
“People started writing in
through general email on the site
wondering how we could help them
book events,” he said.
RoamingHunger.com collects a
10% fee from the food truck for the
service. The site has booked 28 food
trucks for events in Cleveland
through April 2014, up from 10 dur-
DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND ALLIANCE
Food trucks like this are a popular sight during the summer months. Now, they are becoming more prevalent at events.
ing the like month one year ago.
“The food truck really becomes
an affordable option if you’re looking to serve more than 50 people
and are only looking to spend $500
to $600,” Resnick said. “You get really good made-to-order food for
$10 to $15 a person.”
Food trucks are fun
For parties with fewer than 50,
however, a food truck may not be
the most cost-effective option, if
price is a client’s main concern, he
added.
But certainly cost is not always
the primary determinant in a
client’s decision to opt for a food
truck over the predictable sandwich
and pastry trays.
“A food truck is fun,” Resnick
said. “If you’re having a meeting or
a conference, and want to get
everyone out of the office, booking
a food truck is a great way to go. You
get everyone outside and mingling.
The ambience changes the whole
dynamic.”
From a restaurant’s perspective,
the food truck also offers the opportunity to broaden its appeal.
Indeed, some chef-driven eateries with food trucks view them as an
opportunity to present creative
quick-serve interpretation of their
bricks-and-mortar cuisine, which
attracts new diners.
“Short Rib is a 21-foot marketing
mechanism,” said Fahrenheit chef
Rocco Whalen of his mobile
kitchen. “It’s an extension of our
business. It’s out there serving hundreds of guests who may think, ‘Oh
yeah, let’s go to the restaurant this
week for dinner.’”
Still, the use of food trucks at
events is still a trend in its infancy,
said Jones of Cleveland’s Event
Planners Association, noting that
event planning professionals still
aren’t familiar enough with the logistics of booking food trucks and
tend to recommend to clients traditional catering outfits.
“We’re trying to raise more
awareness and get the word out to
our members that food trucks are
another option and help customize
events,” Jones said.
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20140526-NEWS--26-NAT-CCI-CL_--
5/23/2014
3:25 PM
Page 1
26 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
MEETINGS AND EVENTS
Resorts sprucing up their spaces
Conference sites, guest rooms targeted in renovation projects
By KIMBERLY BONVISSUTO
clbfreelancer@crain.com
W
ith an improving economy,
companies are increasingly
in the business of annual
meetings and events. And a number
of the area’s resorts and lodges are
no doubt looking to cash in on the
upswing in meeting business — and
other events — by giving their facilities a facelift.
The Aurora Inn & Conference
Center, for example, recently
tapped New York-based designer
Genevieve Gorder from HGTV to restore its reputation, while providing the modern amenities of a luxury hotel.
Aurora Hotel Partners LLC, which
includes Aurora native Dan Bliss,
took over the property in April after
it had languished for several years.
“With Genevieve’s input and with
the help of a local architect, we’re going to make a difference,” said acting
general manager Frank Mancine.
Mancine, who also is regional
general manager for Medina-based
Riley Hotel Group, which will man-
Take Your Event to the Next Level.
Cleveland, OH
Need event space for 20 - 1,500? Done.
Contact: Vicky Poole - 216.861.4343
Minshall Stewart Properties
age the property, said the renovations
will begin in October and will include
$2 million in improvements to the
restaurant, bar, 67 guest rooms, swimming pool, courtyard, tennis courts
and outdoor event space.
The renovations, which should
take four to six months to complete,
will maintain the character of the
historic hotel, he said.
While the announcement of the
Aurora Inn project made a splash because of its HGTV star power, several other resort facilities in the area
also are among those in the process
of renovating and updating facilities.
Here’s a sampling of some of the
other work that’s being done or has
recently been completed:
■ The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District in October 2010
closed the 104-room Atwood Lake
Resort & Golf Club in Carroll County
after losing $1 million a year during
its last years of operation, but locals
rallied to save the lodge.
Carroll County took over and
hired Canton-based Radius Hospitality to manage the property, which
came back to life in October 2012.
Carroll County is using $2 million
from a signing bonus it received when
it sold the property’s mineral rights to
upgrade the lodge and surrounding
land. Property manager Gene
Rudolph said guest rooms were updated, lobbies spruced up, and the indoor and outdoor pools and lounge
areas cleaned up. A business center
and fitness rooms also were added.
Rudolph said a large effort also
was made to improve the landscaping in front of the resort, where most
pictures are taken.
Among other improvements, a concrete cart path for shuttles was
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
poured, leading from the lodge to the
updated golf chalet, which has a
sports bar-like atmosphere. A ninehole, par-three golf course also completely was redesigned and will open
this summer, while work is continuing on the 18-hole golf course.
Radius did not take over the 17
cabins on the property from the
Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, but there are plans to
build new cabins behind the golf
course. Rudolph said the cabin project will take about two to three
years and will offer dock access
from the 1,540-acre Atwood Lake.
The lodge, meanwhile, has nine
banquet rooms that can accommodate groups of 10 to 400 people. Director of sales Deborah Oberlin said
it hosts business meetings, including safety and corporate meetings
and retreats, as well as class reunions and weddings.
■ Farther north, the Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake is in the midst of
upgrading guest rooms as it celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
Ken Hlavek, director of sales and
marketing, said the lodge attracts corporate meetings and conferences by
major Northeast Ohio corporations,
as well as state association meetings,
religious conferences and weddings
to its 8,500 square feet of meeting
space.
“We provide more of a retreat atmosphere in a natural setting,”
Hlavek said. “Sitting here, we’re
about 75 yards from Lake Erie.
We’ve got the lake right outside,
Geneva State Park and hiking trails
our guests like to use.”
Hlavek said the lodge can host
meetings of 30 to 175 in its meeting
rooms or up to 300 in its ballroom.
It hosts about 75 weddings between
May and October, many of which
take advantage of the lodge’s 109
guest rooms. The facility can accommodate up to five different
weddings each weekend.
■ Ohio’s state parks also are claiming a piece of the meeting and event
business. Each park is unique and
offers different amenities, but Dianna Rom, regional director of sales
for Ohio State Park Lodges and
Conference Centers, said one of the
parks’ specialties is team-building
activities for corporate groups. The
parks partner with two team-building groups to offer both indoor and
outdoor options.
“A majority of corporate groups
have a team-building element within their meeting structure,” Rom
said, adding that those activities
might include golf events, fishing
charters, geocaching or a cocktail
reception. “About 80 percent of our
groups do some type of team-building activity.”
Most of the state parks are undergoing or on the verge of renovations. Maumee Bay Lodge and Conference Center in Oregon updated
its guest rooms, lobbies and ballroom last year. Punderson Manor
Lodge and Conference Center in
Newbury will be closing in January
and February for major renovations
of its cabins and outside structures,
and is renovating the waterfront in
front of its lodge to include walking
paths and a dock.
MORE ONLINE
To view a photo gallery of some of
the region’s resort spaces, go to:
www.crainscleveland.com/resorts
■ In Sandusky, Kalahari Resorts &
Conventions doubled the size of its
convention center in 2011 and 2012.
The $22 million renovation added
120,000 square feet, bringing the total
convention square footage to 215,000
square feet of meeting space that includes 39 rooms, two ballrooms, four
junior ballrooms and four Africanthemed octagon huts.
Kevin Shanley, corporate director
of sales, said Kalahari has seen great
growth and demand for its Ohio
and Wisconsin Dells properties because of its mix of amenities — a
convention facility, along with family-friendly water park, zoos and
outdoor adventure parks.
“We allow people to take an event
mom or dad used to have to go to
and turn it into an event where they
get to go to Kalahari,” said Shanley,
noting that Kalahari has seen
demand grow for its type of facility
across all markets, including associations and corporate.
Shanley said the Sandusky property hosts traditional meetings and
events, as well as trade shows, product rollouts, youth retreats and religious events. He said associations
that host events at Kalahari report
increasing attendance by 20% just
by moving the event from a traditional location.
Shanley said Kalahari is looking at
adding an outdoor water experience.
There are also plans to renovate
restaurants and meeting space.
“We’re always remodeling,” he
said. “Every year we have multiple
projects going on.”
■
20140526-NEWS--27-NAT-CCI-CL_--
5/23/2014
2:10 PM
Page 1
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
27
HOTELS
RANKED BY NUMBER OF GUEST ROOMS(1)
Name
Rank Address Phone/Website
Number
of guest
rooms
Number of
Meeting
Group
meeting
space
Corporate
room
rooms
(square feet) room rate ($) rate ($)
Full-time
employees
Hotel owner
General manager
1
Kalahari Resort & Convention Center
7000 Kalahari Drive, Sandusky 44870
(877) 642-6847/www.kalaharimeetings.com
884
45
215,000
95-195
94-594
1,000
Todd Nelson
Brian Shanle
2
Hotel Breakers
One Cedar Point Drive, Sandusky 44870
(419) 627-2106/www.cedarpoint.com
650
3
2,898
NA
97-279
6
Cedar Fair LP
Melissa McClure
3
Renaissance Cleveland Hotel
24 Public Square, Cleveland 44113
(216) 696-5600/www.renaissancecleveland.com
491
33
64,000
279
129-299
247
CTF Hotel Holdings Inc.
Theona Simbrat
4
The Westin Cleveland Downtown
777 Saint Clair Ave. NE, Cleveland 44114
(216) 771-7700/www.westincleveland.com
484
22
20,000
NA
NA
350
Optima Ventures LLC/
Sage Hospitality
Mark Anderson
5
DoubleTree by Hilton Cleveland East Beachwood
3663 Park East Drive, Beachwood 44122
(216) 464-5950/www.clevelandeastbeachwood.doubletree.com
404
17
20,000
129-229
99-169
169
Twin Tier Hospitality
LLC
Satish Duggal
George Iannacone
6
Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center
127 Public Square, Cleveland 44114
(216) 696-9200/www.clevelandmarriottdowntown.com
400
17
17,000
179-269
109-219
190
Columbia Property Trust Bob Megazinni
7
DoubleTree by Hilton Cleveland Downtown-Lakeside
1111 Lakeside Ave. E., Cleveland 44114
(216) 241-5100/www.doubletreecleveland.com
379
10
10,347
119-259
99-179
138
The Hotel Group
Leonard Clifton
8
Cleveland Airport Marriott
4277 W. 150 St., Cleveland 44135
(216) 252-5333/www.clevelandairportmarriott.com
372
16
15,500
NA
NA
150
Thomas Point Ventures
Greg Huber
greg.huber@marriott.com
9
Holiday Inn Cleveland South/Independence
6001 Rockside Road, Independence 44131
(216) 524-8050/www.hiindependence.com
364
18
20,000
129.00
89-109
80
Janus Hotels & Resorts
Inc.
Tom Moore
10
Breakers Express
One Cedar Point Drive, Sandusky 44870
(419) 627-2106/www.cedarpoint.com
350
0
0
NA
89-199
2
Cedar Fair LP
Tammy Macina
11
Holiday Inn Cleveland-Strongsville (Airport)
15471 Royalton Road, Strongsville 44136
(440) 238-8800/www.holidayinn.com/cle-strongsvil
303
10
12,500
139
79-129
50
Twin Tier Hospitality
Charlie Shirk
cshirk@histrongsville.com
12
InterContinental Hotel & Conference Center
9801 Carnegie Ave., Cleveland 44106
(216) 707-4100/www.intercontinentalcleveland.com
295
13
35,000
NA
NA
430
Cleveland Clinic
Campbell Black
12
Marriott Cleveland East
26300 Harvard Road, Warrensville Heights 44122
(216) 378-9191/www.clevelandmarriotteast.com
295
15
15,000
229
NA
120
Western and Southern
Insurance-Eagle Realty
Bryan Johnson
14
Hyatt Regency Cleveland at The Arcade
420 Superior Ave. East, Cleveland 44114
(216) 575-1234/www.cleveland.hyatt.com
293
9
7,100
259
99-249
111
Skyline Cleveland
Acquisitions Inc.
Tim Meyer
15
Embassy Suites Hotel Cleveland Rockside
5800 Rockside Woods Blvd., Independence 44131
(216) 986-9900/clevelandindpendence.embassysuites.com
271
13
17,500
159-209
129-169
125
AP/Aim Independence
Suites TRS LLC
Ed Sylcox
16
Holiday Inn Westlake(2)
1100 Crocker Road, Westlake 44145
(440) 871-6000/www.ichotelsgroup.com
269
11
11,000
89-119
79-119
50
Twin Tier Hospitality
Joyce Lyle-Freeman
jlyle-freeman@twintierhospitality.com
17
Sheraton Cleveland Airport Hotel
5300 Riverside Drive, Cleveland 44135
(216) 267-1500/www.sheratonclevelandairport.com
243
14
16,000
189
NA
150
Oakbrook Hotels
Marc Jacobs
marc.jacobs@sheratonclevelandairport.com
18
Hilton Garden Inn Cleveland Downtown
1100 Carnegie Ave., Cleveland 44115
(216) 658-6400/www.clevelanddowntown.stayhgi.com
240
14
12,000
169
99-169
110
CLOH Associates LLC
Robert Trammell
18
Sawmill Creek Resort & Conference Center
400 Sawmill Creek Drive, Huron 44839
(800) 729-6455/www.sawmillcreekresort.com
240
25
50,000
85-165
105-195
45
Gregory Hill
Gregory Hill
20
Crowne Plaza Cleveland Airport
7230 Engle Road, Middleburg Heights 44130
(440) 243-4040/www.crowneplaza.com/clevelandarpt
238
14
16,000
129-169
99-139
50
Toledo Inns Inc.
Mitzi Shaw
21
Castaway Bay
2001 Cleveland Road, Sandusky 44870
(419) 627-2106/www.castawaybay.com
237
8
7,691
99-259
99-259
6
Cedar Fair LP
Katie Fenner
22
Clarion Inn and Conference Center
6625 Dean Memorial Parkway, Hudson 44236
(330) 653-9191/www.clarioninnhudson.com
235
14
15,000
99
69-89
68
Sai Living Inc.
Tom Hibsman
23
Bertram Inn and Conference Center
600 N. Aurora Road, Aurora 44202
(330) 995-0200/www.thebertraminn.com
224
32
24,000
119
109-119
35
B and I Management
Frank Doctor
frankd@thebertraminn.com
24
Days Inn & Suites Richfield
4742 Brecksville Road, Richfield 44286
(330) 659-6151/www.daysinn.com
216
6
10,000
79
72
10
Sandip Thakkar
Sandip Thakkar
sthakkar68@hotmail.com
24
Embassy Suites Cleveland-Beachwood Hotel
3775 Park East Drive, Beachwood 44122
(216) 765-8066/www.embassybeachwood.com
216
7
5,878
159-249
109-229
90
NF II Beachwood OP CO Steven Mitchell
LLC DBA Embassy
steven.mitchell@interstatehotels.com
Suites Beachwood
26
Sheraton Suites Akron/Cuyahoga Falls
1989 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls 44221
(330) 929-3000/www.sheratonakron.com
209
14
23,000
259-299
129-159
80
Riverside Community
Urban Redevelopment
Corp.
Jeffrey Lynch
27
Ritz-Carlton, Cleveland
1515 W. Third St., Cleveland 44113
(216) 623-1300/www.ritzcarlton.com
205
13
24,466
259-319
169-259
150
Rock Ohio Caesars
Hotel LLC
Kelly A. Steward
kelly.steward@ritzcarlton.com
27
Wyndham Cleveland at PlayhouseSquare
1260 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44115
(216) 615-7500/www.wyndhamcleveland.com
205
9
13,079
139-205
89-169
105
PlayhouseSquare
Brian Moloney
29
Hilton Akron/Fairlawn
3180 W. Market St., Akron 44333
(330) 867-5000/www.akronhilton.com
203
16
17,000
149
119-209
85
RDA Hotel Management Tim Winter
Co.
timothy.winter@hilton.com
Rennick Andreoli
30
Doubletree Cleveland South
6200 Quarry Lane, Independence 44131
(216) 447-1300/www.clevelandsouth.doubletree.com
193
11
9,400
179
119
90
Twin Tier Hospitality
Source: Information is supplied by the companies unless footnoted. Crain's Cleveland Business does not independently verify the information and there is no guarantee these
listings are complete or accurate. We welcome all responses to our lists and will include omitted information or clarifications in coming issues. Individual lists and The Book of
Lists are available to purchase at www.crainscleveland.com. (1) All information as of June 1, 2014. (2) Converting to a Doubletree in October 2014.
Mike Kelly
mickael.kelly3@hilton.com
RESEARCHED BY Deborah W. Hillyer
20140526-NEWS--28-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
Value: Constant updates help river
continued from PAGE 1
That entailed using side-scanning sonar to take detailed images
of the lower river channel under water last summer, White said. By late
fall, the data had been compiled
and the images were assessed.
“Some of the sections that looked
kind of shabby above the water
were actually better beneath the
water,” White said, noting that the
water itself had protected bulkheads and other structures from the
ravages of brutal weather above the
river’s surface, as well as corrosive
chemicals that used to float on the
water surface years ago.
Many bulkhead repairs that were
found to be needed have now been
made, are under way or are at least
planned for, Friedman said. He said
a slew of companies — ranging
from restaurant supplier Cantonese
Classic Seafood to concrete and aggregate producer Lafarge — have
made or are in the process of making major improvements to their
bulkheads and facilities. Those repairs bolster both property values
and the banks of the river themselves and are critical to the upkeep
of the lower river, White said.
Dredging things up
DAN SHINGLER PHOTOS
From top, a view of Aggregate Yards from Tremont; members of the Shaker
Heights High School rowing team; the river after heavy rains in Valley View.
Not that there aren’t some lingering problems, Friedman and White
noted. There are small ones — like a
hole in the bulkheads caused by an
errant cargo ship, which has lead to
erosion and a sink hole in the parking lot off Huron Avenue owned by
Horseshoe Casino.
Then there are larger ones, like
Irishtown Bend, where the bulkheads are in particularly bad condition and an entire hillside is threatening to slide into the river. The Port
Authority is assessing that section’s
condition and what it will take to fix
it, but it can’t pay for the repairs,
which will be expensive and so far
are neither defined nor funded.
The hillside’s collapse would
cause real damage to the river and
its channel, and the site affects important projects, such as new trails
planned to run along the river, connecting the lake to other trails further inland.
“In my view, that 30 acres is one
of the most important linchpins to
further development in the downtown area, and it’s near Ohio City,
which we all know is booming,”
White said.
Another big challenge is dredging
the river further downstream, be-
tween the Port Authority on the lake
and the ArcelorMittal steel mill upstream. That section needs to be
deep to allow through the freighters
that carry ore from the lake to the
steel mill, along with other important goods brought in via the lake.
The dredging itself is not controversial; just about everyone agrees it
needs to be done regularly, usually
twice a year. The contention is over
what to do with the stuff pulled up
from the river bottom in the
process. While the river is cleaner
today, that sludge contains toxins
that built up in the 1800s and 1900s.
What’s to be done with it?
The Army Corps of Engineers,
which dredges the river, proposed
this year to dump the sludge in the
lake. That’s the cheapest way to
handle it, and the Corps is supposed to be cost-sensitive. But environmentalists worried that stirring
up the muck and dropping it
through the lake’s water column
would reintroduce contaminants to
the water.
“You’re reintroducing (to the
lake) a lot of the same toxic chemicals that made the Cuyahoga River
an area of concern to begin with,”
said Kristy Meyer, managing director of clean water programs for the
Ohio Environmental Council,
which fought the Corps over the issue.
Barging ahead
For now, the Corps has agreed to
put this year’s dredgings behind
dikes near Burke Lakefront Airport,
where it will be separate from the
lake and surrounding watershed.
Dredging will move ahead as
planned in June, Meyer said.
That’s probably a relief to
ArcelorMittal, which had run its
supply of iron ore low over the
course of a long and brutal winter
that brought shipping on the Great
Lakes to a standstill at times and decreased ore shipments by half for
the season.
“The Cuyahoga River Federal
Navigation Channel provides the vital means of delivering raw materials needed to operate ArcelorMittal
Cleveland, as well as other important industries (stone, concrete,
salt) that rely on the river for shipment of raw materials,” said Eric
Hauge, vice president and general
manager of the Cleveland mill in an
email correspondence.
“ArcelorMittal Cleveland transports more than 4.5 million tons of
raw materials via the Cuyahoga River Federal Navigation Channel each
year,” Hauge wrote. “The facility has
also used the river in the past to ship
steel slabs by barge.”
The parties involved now are talking about next year, and they hope to
avoid any delays in dredging then.
Hauge said ArcelorMittal is “very
pleased” that the issue has been resolved for now, and is working with
the Corps, the Ohio EPA and the Port
Authority to devise a long-term plan
for future dredging.
The company’s involvement and
concern is not unusual. Hauge estimates that ArcelorMittal and its predecessors at the Cleveland mill have
spent more than $1 billion on the
river’s infrastructure over the past 40
years. The Ohio Environmental
Council also is involved and hopes
for an amicable solution.
“We certainly are for keeping the
port open,” Meyer said.
Converts welcome
But, as with any river, the Cuyahoga’s challenges are never in just
one spot.
They just all come together at the
mouth of the river. Further upstream, though, improvements are
being made that impact the river’s
health. They range from taking down
damns that stop fish from moving to
reducing runoff from farms or sections of the banks that have too few
trees to properly prevent erosion,
said Jane Goodman, executive director of the Cuyahoga River Community Planning Organization in Cleveland.
Her group works with parks, cities,
governmental agencies, sewer districts and just about anyone else that
has a stake in the river. Much needs
to be done, but progress is being
made — in part because people are
beginning to value the river more.
But she needs more converts.
“You would be amazed at how
people still take it for granted — it’s
just something you have to get
across to get to the other side. But
there are also more users — more
paddlers, canoers and rowers,” she
said. “If you look at it from a recreational standpoint, heck yeah, it’s
better,” she added.
Kirk Lang knows exactly what
Goodman’s talking about.
He’s executive director of the
Cleveland Rowing Foundation,
which is across from the endangered
hillside near Irishtown Bend, where
it purchased land for $3.5 million in
2010.
Lang’s group also is the perfect example of how more people are using
the river for things other than shipping ore and concrete. The group
has increased its membership to
1,400 today from 750 when it moved
into its new boathouse in 2011.
Adults come to get a workout, and
more area high schools have formed
rowing teams. The group now is the
third-largest rowing organization in
the United States and the largest in
the Midwest, Lang said.
He’s aware of the challenges that
still face the river, but he’s more familiar with the progress that’s already been made. The water is
cleaner, it doesn’t smell like chemicals and petroleum, and there is less
floating debris for rowers to dodge
every year.
“It’s the cleanest it’s been in a long
time — I don’t think anyone is afraid
to go out on the river at all,” Lang
said.
■
20140526-NEWS--29-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
29
Wings: Google Earth can’t beat view
continued from PAGE 5
The FAA restricts commercial use
of unmanned aircraft to case-bycase licensing, even though it has allowed hobbyists to fly remote-controlled airplanes in controlled
situations since the 1930s.
Get to know them
However, getting in the air is paying off so far for Cleveland Aerial.
“We branded ourselves as Cleveland Aerial for attention,” Hach said,
which the company capitalized on
with pictures and videos of Key Tower and other local landmarks on its
website. The startup was covered by
Cleveland Magazine and two local
TV stations, and some footage —
such as when Big Met golf course recently flooded — has been incorporated in a few newscasts.
“Things took off after that,” Serio
said.
So far, all revenues have gone into
the business, although the three
partners plan to start drawing
salaries soon. They have shot videos
for real estate agents, residential developers, construction and commercial brokerages.
To help with assorted expenses,
they sell aerial pictures they’ve shot,
such as T-shirts with a close-up of Key
Tower and cell phone covers with
their pictures of local landmarks.
This is no stealthy effort. Cleveland
Aerial has a strong social media presence on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. The trio’s two-suite office in a
low-rent Fairview Park office building
features a green screen for polished
video efforts. Earlier this month,
Cleveland Aerial introduced a
YouTube video featuring “The CAM
Girls,” who pitch its aerial services,
that drew 600 views in two weeks. An
older product review of one of its
2-pound, 18-inch-wide copters got
10,000 views on YouTube.
Hach said the cyber marketing
comes naturally to these three members of the smart phone generation,
and it’s free.
Clashing approaches
However, potential problems
loom on the horizon.
Mark Sanderson, a principal of
South Euclid-based Focal Plane Photography LLC, said he has filed a
package of information notifying the
FAA about area businesses marketing aerial photos and videos using
unmanned aerial systems in the region, including Cleveland Aerial and
two others.
“They blatantly charge money,”
he said, for their flight work.
“Frankly
it’s
competition,”
Sanderson said. “It’s an inexpensive
operation to buy a copter and put a
GoPro camera on it. Our entry level
cost (for a shoot) is $400 using two
people, and thousands of dollars of
equipment.”
By contrast, this disruptive technology allows Cleveland Aerial Media — which charges based on photos, not flying — to charge as little as
$115 for 10 pictures and $215 for 30
pictures, a video and advertising on
its website.
Even though he has complained,
Sanderson said Focal Plane likely
will integrate unmanned aerial work
when the FAA clarifies the rules, noting the low-level flights “offer a perspective we cannot provide.” Unmanned aerial systems can produce
shots below 400 feet; Focal Plane’s
Cessna generally is precluded from
flying below 1,000 feet.
“We’re going to do things legally,”
said Sanderson, a licensed and now-
retired corporate pilot who flies
while his wife, Yvonne, a prize-winning photographer and the firm’s
president, shoots pictures.
The profusion of drone business
is clear to Les Dorr, a Washington,
D.C.-based FAA spokesman, who
fields more than five queries weekly from reporters about such ventures. Even so, he said, only one unmanned
aerial
commercial
operation is licensed. The requirements are operating an FAA certified-vehicle, operation by a licensed pilot and operating
approval from the FAA.
“If you have a real estate agent
operating a Phantom DJI (such as
Cleveland Aerial uses), that is not a
certified aircraft,” Dorr said. “Some
have tried to say you can operate
under guidelines for hobbyist’s remote-controlled aircraft. If you use
an unmanned aircraft as part of
your business, it’s hard to see how
that would qualify.
Look at it this way — and this
way
Both sides of the picture are clear
to Matt Mishak, a prosecutor for
the city of Elyria who is a partner in
a part-time venture called Dronewerx that makes and sells drone systems and believes manufacturing
them can bring jobs to the region.
“They are doing a lot of cool creative things,” Mishak said. “I appreciate their spirit and applaud them
for being entrepreneurs. However,
these guys and groups like them
need a broader perspective of the
dangers and the legal landscape.
There needs to be a system.”
Like other commercial drone advocates, Serio said Cleveland Aerial
argues a disputed FAA prosecution
means it can operate until new regulations clarify the situation. Cleveland Aerial’s operations are OK, Serio maintains, if they steer clear of
airports, fly low like remote-controlled aircraft operators and keep
watch for new rules.
However, the FAA has not prosecuted a commercial violation. The
federal agency has prosecuted only
two unmanned aerial cases, Dorr
said, both for alleged reckless operation.
In Cleveland Aerial’s case, its
professionalism impressed its customers. Jason Klar, president of
Mentor-based Platform Cement
Inc., hired Cleveland Aerial to photograph construction of a room
with 8-foot-wide concrete walls as
part of the proton therapy unit at
University Hospitals of Cleveland.
“You can’t always find a building
for a camera,” Klar said. “The pour
STAN BULLARD
From left, Cleveland Aerial Media LLC partners Matthew Vilevac, Anthony Serio
and Michael Hach.
was on a cold day, and they
toughed it out along with the crew.”
Better than Google Earth
Cleveland Aerial’s best customer
is Keller Williams Cleveland. Melissa “Missy” Mellon, an agent with
the EZ Sales Team in Westlake, said
it uses Cleveland Aerial videos for
online listings for homes costing
more than $300,000.
“This gives you a perspective that
Google Earth cannot. It’s current,”
Mellon said. She trusts the trio’s flying skill so much she hopes a client
soon wants them to fly and shoot
indoors.
For Cleveland Aerial’s part, its
operations are polished like its
videos. Hach said the firm requires
two people on every shoot — one
serving as the pilot, the other as the
photographer and spotter to keep
the copter in sight.
Donning a reflective safety vest
like those road workers wear, Hach
said, they wear them at work so
neighbors know a teen is not at
play. None is a pilot, but Hach said
their gameplan is to follow detailed
rules when they come out.
Although it’s now flying under
the FAA’s formal radar, Cleveland
Aerial is not basing all its business
on photography; Hach said it also
sells drone equipment.
Upcoming Editorial Feature
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20140526-NEWS--30-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
Clifton Steel, employee union at odds over clause in contract
By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY
rmccafferty@crain.com
The desire to free potential future buyers from a union pension
fund led to a strike of about 30 employees that started last month at
steel fabricator and processor
Clifton Steel Co. in Maple Heights.
The strike, which began on April
24, was sparked primarily by a disagreement over the so-called successorship clause in Clifton’s contract with the Teamsters Local 507.
Changing that clause could make
the company more attractive to future buyers, but the union worried
the change would threaten job security. The company has about 80
employees in total.
Clifton Steel wants to strip out language in the existing contract that requires future buyers to take on the
Contact:
Phone:
Fax:
E-mail:
union’s current benefits, including its
health, welfare and pension plans.
While the company has “no desire or
ability” to sell at this time, that requirement would be a restriction on
a future sale, said Seth Briskin, chair
of the labor and employment department at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg &
Lewis in Cleveland.
Briskin, who is serving as
Clifton’s labor counsel, said typical
successorship clauses state that the
union and its collective bargaining
agreement come with the purchase
of a company, leaving the new
owner to negotiate in good faith
with the union.
Clifton’s clause, with its precondition to purchase, is more extensive. Changing that clause wouldn’t
save the company or any future
buyers from dealing with large
withdrawal liabilities to leave the
Denise Donaldson
(216) 522-1383
(216) 694-4264
DDonaldson@crain.com
pension plan, but it would give
them the opportunity to negotiate
out of the plan itself. The change
wouldn’t affect employees at this
time, as Briskin said Clifton has
agreed to continue the pension and
health care plans for now.
“Those plans aren’t going away,”
he said.
Albert Mixon, secretary-treasurer
for Teamsters Local 507, said the
union’s pension and health plans —
the Cleveland Bakers & Teamsters
health, welfare and pension funds —
are not funded to the levels they need
to be. But the strike is “all based on
job security,” he said. Mixon said the
union offered to bend on the pension
point in counterproposals earlier in
May and had trouble getting a conclusive answer from the company.
Briskin said the counterproposals did concede a bit on the pension
component, but they put other,
previously settled items on the
table. The proposals will have to be
evaluated as a whole, he said. While
the strike and the counterproposals
continue, there are other deadlines
looming.
In April, the Teamsters filed a labor dispute case with the National
Labor Relations Board that is awaiting a hearing date. The company
also filed an unfair labor practice
charge against the Teamsters last
Thursday, May 22, alleging bad
faith bargaining, Briskin said.
Mixon was not aware of the charge
as of May 23, though it was listed on
the board’s website.
The union also filed for an unemployment hearing, which Mixon
said is scheduled to be held in June.
The contract expired in July 2013.
Briskin said the parties have a me-
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diation session scheduled for the
first week of June.
David Campbell, a partner at
Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease
LLP in Cleveland, said he thought it
was unusual to parcel out specific
components of a contract. In a typical asset sale, the buyer would recognize the union and negotiate a
new contract or simply accept a
full, existing contract, he said. If it
wasn’t economical for the company at this time, management instead would negotiate that directly.
But trying to free future buyers
from obligations isn’t unprecedented. For the past 15 or 20 years,
companies have been wary of anything that would put encumbrances on future activity, said
Wade Fricke, a shareholder in Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.’s Cleveland office.
■
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20140526-NEWS--31-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2014
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
31
THEINSIDER
THEWEEK
MAY 19 - 25
The big story: And then there were four. The
Republican National Committee selected Cleveland, along with Dallas, Denver and Kansas City, Mo., to
move on to the next round in
the competition to host the
2016 Republican National
Convention. David Gilbert,
president
of
Positively
Cleveland, said Cleveland
2016 Host Committee Inc.
has commitments for $25 Gilbert
million of the roughly $50
million to $55 million it will cost to put on the
four-day convention. The RNC’s convention site
committee will visit the finalist cities in coming
weeks. The full RNC is set to make the final hosting decision by early fall.
Welcome to town: William M. Griswold, who
has led the Morgan Library & Museum in New
York for nearly seven years, was named the new
director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Griswold, 53, will take over in early fall at an institution that seven months ago was rocked by the
abrupt resignation of director David Franklin.
Griswold will be the 10th director of the Cleveland
museum since its founding in 1916. He’ll take
over the museum as it pushes into the future following the completion of a $350 million expansion and renovation designed by Rafael Viñoly.
Creative financing:
The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority authorized a financing package that will pave the way for
American Greetings Corp.’s new headquarters
at Crocker Park in Westlake. The Port Authority
board voted unanimously to provide up to $110
million in taxable revenue bonds toward the
construction of the $171.5 million, 600,000square-foot building. The company is calling the
building its “creative studio” because it will be
home to 400 artists among nearly 1,400 executive and administrative employees.
On
the
REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK
BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS
Guess they know how
Johnny Manziel feels
■ It’s an achievement that The Riverside
Co.’s co-CEO likens to winning the Heisman
Trophy as a freshman.
The U.S. Small Business Administration
recently named the Cleveland private equity firm the Small Business Investment Company of the Year. It was the first year Riverside was eligible for the award.
“We get a number of awards (and) … a lot
of the awards work off of private information that we choose to tell,” said Stewart
Kohl. “This is an award granted by a body
that has perfect information. They know exactly how we performed — good, bad, ugly
— and they know exactly how every other
SBIC performed.”
Riverside’s first SBIC fund, Riverside Micro-Cap Fund II, launched in 2010. As an
SBIC fund, it enjoys access to low-interest
rate debt from the SBA, which it pairs with
investors’ commitments. It is required to invest in companies that fit the SBA’s definition of a small business and that are headquartered in the United States, Kohl said.
Criteria for the SBIC of the Year award include fund performance, a clean compliance record and job growth in portfolio
companies.
— Michelle Park Lazette
There’s no time like the
present for Right Skills Now
Money man moves on: Gene Finn, Kent
State University’s top fundraising official since
2007, is leaving for a similar post at Columbia
University in New York. Steve Sokany, now the
university’s senior associate vice president for
institutional advancement, will take over for
Finn on an interim basis. Finn’s last day will be
July 31. At Kent State, Finn led the completion of
a $250 million fundraising campaign, which
brought in more than $265 million to support
the university’s endowment, building projects,
scholarships and operations.
The die is cast: Automotive supplier Shiloh
Industries Inc. of Valley City agreed to acquire
Finnveden Metal Structures of Sweden in a deal
that adds a European foothold and expands
Shiloh’s customer base. The acquisition, valued
at about $56.6 million, is expected to close at the
end of June. Shiloh said the Swedish company
“represents nearly $180 million in annual sales
revenue” and has about 800 employees. Shiloh,
a supplier of lightweighting, noise and vibration
products for automotive, commercial vehicle
and other industrial markets, said the acquisition expands it capabilities with the addition of
stamping and magnesium die casting.
Gilmour teacher honored
for entrepreneurial efforts
■ Swagelok Co., a maker of components
that help move fluids, is expanding its efforts to get people interested in jobs in manufacturing.
The Right Skills Now initiative is an
A local school teacher is one of eight
teachers selected from a national pool for
the prestigious 2014 Leavey Awards, the
Freedoms Foundation has announced.
Deanne Nowak, dean of institutional and
curriculum research and science instructor
at Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, was
MILESTONE
BEST OF THE BLOGS
Excerpts from recent blog entries on
CrainsCleveland.com.
It’s taxing on online retailers
spot:
Cleveland Clinic and
HealthSpot, a Dublin, Ohio-based company,
signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture
that will allow more patients to receive care
through the company’s virtual walk-in kiosks.
The HealthSpot kiosks are private, 8-by-5-foot
enclosures outfitted with touch screens, medical
devices and videoconferencing capabilities.
With the kiosks, the Clinic’s medical providers
will be able to see patients in nontraditional
health care settings, including universities, employers and retail locations.
alliance between Solon-based Swagelok,
Cuyahoga Community College and the
Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network (Magnet) to put students in an accelerated training program. Students spend
eight or 14 weeks training at Tri-C and then
have the opportunity to earn an eight-week
paid internship — and eventual job — at
one of Swagelok’s plants.
This is far from Swagelok’s only training
program in the area. The company works
with some local career centers on programs
for high school students and offers plenty of
internal training, said Brent Blouch, director of human resources, operations.
Swagelok is looking to grow, Blouch said,
and it needs to have enough employees to
replace those who will be retiring.
But the Right Skills Now program, which
is aimed at recent high school graduates or
people looking to switch careers, gives the
company a chance to “create another talent
pipeline,” Blouch said. He said the company wanted to be part of a program where it
could get involved earlier in the process.
The training focuses on skills including
bench work, CNC turning and milling and
material composition. There have been
three sessions so far; the first began in
March.
— Rachel Abbey McCafferty
INSTITUTION: The Lodge
at Geneva-on-the-Lake
OCCASION: Its 10th anniversary
The lodge, which turned a decade old this
month, estimates it will greet its half-millionth
guest in June.
In that time, it has hosted nearly 800 conferences for businesses and other groups,
and has served nearly 500,000 meals to
guests at its Horizons Restaurant and The
Terrace Grille. More than 450 couples have
been married there, often at a gazebo that
looks out onto Lake Erie.
Eric Frantz, general manager at The Lodge
at Geneva-on-the-Lake, noted that the property has been named one of the “Top 10
Wine Country Inns in the U.S.” by Gayot.com
for three consecutive years — fitting, given
the lodge’s location in the heart of northern
Ohio’s wine-producing country.
“Guests immerse themselves in a unique
experience from vintners dinners and wine
tastings to area excursions to more than 20
neighboring wineries,” Frantz said.
In the past decade, the property has undergone a variety of upgrades, including the
addition of an outdoor swimming pool, children’s splash area and hot tub; updated lobby décor and guest rooms; and a renovation
in Horizons.
The inn’s lounge is next for an update,
which will include new tables and expanded
seating. It is expected to be completed by
the end of June.
■ Joe Albanese, chief financial officer at
Cleveland-based AmeriMark Holdings LLC,
which operates 10 catalogs and seven websites, was quoted in a Wall Street Journal
story about the “increasingly complex
patchwork of state rules” online retailers
face as “hope fades for an overarching solution from Washington this year.”
AmeriMark, a catalog retailer of everything from apparel to health care items,
“has ended relationships with affiliate marketers in 17 states that passed tax-collection
laws,” according to the story.
Online retailers “have become a juicy target for cash-strapped states looking to snare
a larger share of the $263 billion e-commerce
market,” the newspaper noted. More than 20
states “have passed so-called Amazon laws to
expand the definition of physical presence
and force more e-tailers to collect the taxes or
inform consumers how much they owe.”
Albanese told The Journal that legislation
pending in the Senate “would compel the
company to calculate each state’s rates, tax
holidays and exemptions.” And then, the
paper noted, “there is the cost of updating
software, integrating systems and hiring
staff to check dozens of additional tax returns,” which Albanese estimated would
cost the company $500,000 a year.
“I’m opening up to audits from 50 states,”
he said. “The states are looking for revenue.
If you’re going to start filing a return, they’re
going to want to come in and audit.”
The worst part, he said, would be the law’s
potential impact on sales. AmeriMark, which
has about $400 million in annual revenue,
“still gets about 35% of its orders through the
mail, typically from older customers,” the
story noted. Ensuring that a customer adds
the right amount of sales tax to a mail-in order would be difficult, Albanese said, and the
confusion likely would hurt business.
Deanne Nowak accepts her award.
honored for her creation of an “entrepreneurship ecosystem” at the school.
According to a release from Gilmour, a
Catholic, independent, coeducational, college-preparatory school, the ecosystem inspires students to learn about private enterprise and gives them a variety of
opportunities to develop confidence and
abilities in a supportive environment.
The Freedoms Foundation and the
Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation
since 1977 have honored teachers for bringing passion and creativity to their classrooms as they teach students about entrepreneurship and the free enterprise system.
Each award winner received a $7,500
prize.
Nowak’s efforts to create a culture infused
with lessons on free enterprise begin with
Gilmour’s youngest students, who do an entrepreneurship project in which they operate a family farm. There are other programs,
too, including the new E-Lab, which is designed to engage middle school students
through competition while teaching them
fundamental skills needed for private
enterprise.
— Michelle Park Lazette
A good time to sell
■ Forbes.com estimated that former Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner could get
$340 million by selling his Aston Villa soccer
team.
That would be a pretty
nice return. When Lerner purchased a 39% interest in the team in August 2006 from Doug
Ellis, the enterprise value
placed on the transaction was $106 million.
The bottom line:
Lerner
“There are lots of rich
people thanks to the run up in stock prices the
past four years and very few teams for sale,”
the website said. So even a bottom-dweller
like Aston Villa will draw plenty of interest.
Forget soda and chips
■ It sounds like we’re in a golden era of the
vending machine. CNNMoney.com reported that new breeds of vending machines
“spit out weed, shoes, keys and on-the-go
bike repair parts,” among other things.
The website’s summary of cool new vending machine concepts included one from a
Cleveland company, Vendors Exchange International, which teamed up with cosmetics giant L’Oreal to develop and test a custom makeup vending machine last year.
“A video camera in the machine takes
your photo — but doesn’t store it — as you
stand in front of it. Based on the color of
your outfit, it offers makeup to match,” according to the story.
CNNMoney.com reported that the machines was installed in a New York City subway station last October and stayed there for
five months. Stephanie Begley, product
marketing manager with Vendors Exchange
International, told CNNMoney.com that the
pilot test was successful and that the company plans to launch the vending machines
more broadly.
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