Oct. 1 rolled out its first use taxamnesty program for businesses thatneed to catch up on filing and payingthe use tax. Use tax is owed by Ohiocompanies when they do not pay salestax on a taxable product or service.
A vacant apartment building isabout to undergo a $3 million renovation to meet housing needs for the Detroit Shorewayneighborhood ■■ Page 5PLUS: ATHLETIC DIRECTORS ■■ CRUZE ■■ & MORE
NEW
SPAP
ER
Ford revs upfor more jobsin Brook Park
State’s use tax amnesty planaccommodates late filers
GREAT LAKES BUOYSTOWING BUSINESS
Operation charts progressive course in shipbuilding, vessel repair
On a walking tour of hiscompany’s six-acre — andgrowing — operation onthe old Cuyahoga River
channel, Ronald Rasmus, chairmanand CEO of Great Lakes Group, canshow off his company’s future andits 112-year-old skills with the
sweep of his arm.Its past is represented by one of
its red-and-green painted tugs, theOhio, tied up waiting for repairs. Indrydock next to the Ohio is a two-masted wooden sailing ship — thereconstruction of the U.S. Niagara,which helped defeat the BritishNavy in the Battle of Lake Erie duringthe War of 1812 — that is in for its
Carole Sanderson knows this fromrecent experience: Business ownerswho owe back use taxes, or suspectthey might, have reason to appreci-ate the amnesty now offered by thestate of Ohio.
In what Ms. Sanderson and otherscall a business-friendly move, theOhio Department of Taxation on
Plant set for new engine work; laid-off UAWmembers have shot at 200 additional positions By DAN [email protected]
For years, United AutoWorkers Local 1250 presi-dent Mike Gammella hassounded like a kid whohelped with the dishes on Thanksgiving and was eager to find out what thenext big holiday would bring.
“I want a new four-cylinder engine,” Mr. Gammella would say,over and over again, referring to thework he hoped to get at Ford’s BrookPark engine plant for his roughly
1,500 union members.Well, Christmas finally is
coming to Brook Park, Mr.Gammella now says.
“We’ve been awardedthe new four-cylinder engine,” an excited Mr.Gammella reported lastWednesday, Oct. 5, freshlyback from union bargaining
sessions in Detroit. “This is fantasticnews.”
Mr. Gammella has wanted to seesuch an engine made at the plantfor several reasons, not the least of
Gammella
“We were looking for a niche market. We repair our own fleet. Why wouldn’t we repair other people’s boats?”
– Ronald Rasmus (below), chairman and CEO, Great Lakes Group
AS SEEN ON TV
MAR
C G
OLU
B
See TOWING Page 7 See TAX Page 21
See FORD Page 17
Several local business owners are benefiting in different ways because of their exposure on
various reality TV shows. Read on in this week’s Small Business cover story on Page 13.
INSIDE: Which businesses are eligiblefor tax amnesty, and how do they proceed? Page 21
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WHAT GOES UP ...Workers are paying a lot more for their health insurance this year — but so areemployers. A new Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation study finds that employersare picking up most of the increase in the cost of health insurance in 2011.
Year Total Worker Employer Worker %
Average annual health insurance premiums and worker contributionfor family coverage, 2009-2011
2011 $15,073 $4,129 $10,944 27.4%
2010 13,770 3,997 9,773 29.0
2009 13,375 3,515 9,860 26.3
Crain’s for the fifth year will identifyand honor a group of the area’stop chief financial officers. For alist of this year’s finalists and coverage of past events, visitwww.CrainsCleveland.com/cfo.
The first time Todd Goldsteinand Dar Caldwell held an event toshowcase startups in their busi-ness incubator, 12 people showedup.
How things do change: Twoyears later, more than 700 peopleattended the grand opening oftheir new incubator, ShakerLaunchHouse. One of them wasU.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon.
Mr. Goldstein still is amazed athow fast interest in LaunchHousehas grown.
“I remember a Shaker Heightscop saying to us, ‘We’ve never hadthis many people in Shaker for anevent,’” he said.
And the place already is expanding. LaunchHouse, whichis based in a 23,000-square-footformer car dealership, is about tostart renovating 5,000 square feetin the dealership’s former servicebay to make room for several groupsof cubicles that could house up to10 more companies, each withfive employees.
They would join more than 60small companies and organizations
OCTOBER 10 - 16, 2011 WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 3
INSIGHT
THE WEEK IN QUOTES“Our success with theCruze shows that,when we have a goodproduct, we can be abig contender.”— Chris Perry, global marketingchief, Chevrolet. Page 8
“You have to try tofind different ways ofraising revenues. Asan athletic directorand an educator, I’mnot necessarilytrained to do it, butwe have to.”— Jeff Harrison, athletic director, Medina school district.Page 11
“People assume you’reon a reality show andyou’re getting paidand becoming a millionaire, but that’snot true.”— Valerie Mayen, owner ofCleveland-based design shopYellowcake and contestant onSeason 8 of “Project Runway.”Page 13
Condo marketshows signs ofimprovement
Business is well at Bravo WellnessAvon company growsas clients seek ways tosave on health care,promote better lifestyle
Jim Pshock never viewed himselfas an entrepreneur, especially con-sidering his business plan was rejectedby his former employer three times.But after some prodding by his pastor and a little self-examination,Mr. Pshock took the plunge andstarted his own venture.
That was more than three yearsago, and Bravo Wellness, Mr. Pshock’scompany in Avon, since has grownfrom a two-employee outfit to one
with about 70 employeesand 175 clients around thecountry.
Mr. Pshock said the com-pany, launched in 2008, hasseen 300% growth in rev-enue each year thanks tocash-conscious companieslooking for ways to curbtheir ballooning health carecosts. To help handle its growth,Bravo plans to construct a 32,000-square-foot building near its currentlocation in an office park nearChester Road off Interstate 90. Thebuilding is slated to open in fall2012.
“I never wanted to be an entre-preneur, but I felt a solution existedfor employers that they weren’t educated about,” said Mr. Pshock,Bravo’s owner and CEO.
Although he shies away from being dubbed a wellness cop, Mr.
Pshock said Bravo’s nicheis developing wellnesstoolkits, coordinating healthscreenings and helping companies reward workerswho make healthy lifestylechoices with lower insur-ance premiums.
“Sometimes we’re viewedas an enforcer because
that’s what we’re hired to do,” hesaid.
Convincing employees to partic-ipate in wellness programs tradi-tionally has been a struggle, Mr.Pshock said, but offering incentivesfor participants — such as cheaperhealth insurance premiums — givesthose efforts more muscle than, forexample, a free T-shirt or othertchotckes.
Bravo says it achieves about 97%employee participation in the
Pshock
See WELLNESS Page 22
See LAUNCH Page 20
FILE PHOTO/JESSE KRAMER
LaunchHouse’s Todd Goldstein and Dar Caldwell
Shaker incubator eyesmore room to launchFounders expanding to hold 10 new companies
Activity quickens at lower price points; higher-end projects move forward, too
FILE PHOTO/JASON MILLER
At Bluestone, a condo communityin Cleveland Heights developedby homebuilder Ken Lurie andapartment owner David Orlean,construction has started on a new$5 million phase. Six units in thatnew building already are spokenfor by buyers.
ndrew Belzinskas recently bought aone-bedroom, apartment-style condoon Kenmore Drive in Euclid for a cool$9,500. Cash.
Yet, he fears, “I overpaid for it,” said Mr. Belzin-skas of his purchase from the U.S. Department ofHousing and Urban Development, a seller of lastresort for foreclosed homes with some form offederal mortgage.
Mr. Belzinskas now believes he should havepaid about $6,000 for the condo because hefound its furnace must be replaced. He says
Chemical product makeron the move to Concord De Nora consolidation promotes collaboration
Mr. Fox, manager of sales and mar-keting for De Nora Tech’s oxygen and specialties group, which makes anodes and anode coatings.
The building, located at 7590 Discovery Lane, is designed to promotecommunication among employees,Mr. Fox said. It has multiple confer-ence rooms and gathering areas, andin general it has a more open feelthan the company’s existing North-east Ohio offices.
“We’re really going to have a muchmore collaborative office,” he said.
The company also figured it was agood time to buy real estate, giventhe economic downturn, Mr. Foxadded.
De Nora Tech bought the ConcordTownship building for $2.75 millionin January and in July sold it to Capannoni USA LLC, which is part ofthe De Nora family of companies.
The 55,000-square-foot structure,which was used by Swagelok Co. ofSolon until a few years ago, is a littlesmaller than the combined footprintof the buildings in Chardon andFairport Harbor, Mr. Fox said. However, while the De Nora familyof companies owns the R&D center,which is for sale, it leases its Chardonoffices.
In addition to anodes and anodecoatings, De Nora Tech makes prod-ucts for chlorine and alkali producersas well as makers of sodium andpotassium chlorate. The R&D centerdevelops technologies related tooxygen depolarized cathodes andprovides technical assistance to otherIndustrie De Nora companies, in addition to other responsibilities.
Employees in Chardon will moveout at the end of October, and employees at the R&D center willmove over the next few months, Mr.Fox said. In the meantime, the company is scanning all its paperfiles into computers so that the newlocation won’t need to have “roomsfull of file cabinets” like its existingfacilities do, Mr. Fox said.
“We have 50 years of history in paper,” he said. ■
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On Tuesday, Sept. 27, Jon Fox wasscheduled to make the 20-minutedrive from the headquarters of DeNora Tech Inc. in Chardon to the De Nora research-and-developmentcenter in Fairport Harbor.
It’s a common trip.“We do that all the time,” he said.Not for long: Employees in both
locations are scheduled to moveinto a building in Concord Town-
ship over the next few months.The headquarters and the R&D
center — both of which are piecesof electrochemical products makerIndustrie De Nora of Milan, Italy —employ about 80 people combined.De Nora Tech also has a manufac-turing operation in Chardon thatwill not move.
Moving into the Concord Townshipbuilding will promote collaborationamong employees who previouslymade frequent trips betweenChardon and Fairport Harbor, said
An abandoned, 24-suite apart-ment building called “The Sylvia”on Cleveland’s West Side is about toundergo a $3 million renovationand help meet surging apartmentdemand in the neighborhood servedby the Detroit Shoreway CommunityDevelopment Organization.
“We have people in our officeevery day looking for apartments,”said Jeff Ramsey, Detroit Shore-way’s executive director.
The nonprofit neighborhood grouphas 211 apartments in buildings it hasrenovated through the years. All itssuites are occupied, so proving demand exists for more low-incomerental apartments was simple. How-ever, lining up renovation funds forthe three-story brick building at6010 Franklin Blvd. was not.
A $100,000 line of credit from Village Capital, an affiliate of theNeighborhood Progress Inc. financingintermediary, helped the neighbor-hood group pay insurance and oper-ating costs on the property from2009 until the project was financedthis month. It also covered planningcosts for the project.
“We’d have had to scrape hard tocome up with that operating money,”Mr. Ramsey said.
Detroit Shoreway gained theproperty itself, which dates from1926, through a complicated process.After the Sylvia’s owner died in2009, most tenants moved out as taxand utility bills went unpaid. WhenCleveland Municipal Court placedthe property in receivership, DetroitShoreway became its receiver. Itbought the property for $32,506 at aCuyahoga County sheriff’s sale lastJune 26.
The key to getting the rehab going was a $2.35 million award offederal Neighborhood StabilizationFunds from the Cuyahoga CountyLand Reutilization Corp. It is moneythat the city of Cleveland and thecounty jointly received from theU.S. Department of Housing andUrban Development.
A bank provided the final piece offinancing, though not with a loan.Huntington Bank acquired a federalhistoric tax credit to provide equityfor the project. That yielded $650,000for the makeover, Mr. Ramsey said.
Plans call for Marous BrothersConstruction Co. of Willoughby toconvert three efficiency apartmentsin the Sylvia into two-bedroom apart-ments, a change that will reduce thenumber of units to 18 suites from 24.One efficiency unit is located in sucha place that it cannot be convertedto a larger unit, Mr. Ramsey said.
STAN BULLARD
Despite the travails at the property,wood floors and lead-glass cabinetsin dining rooms survive in the suites,which originally were designed forpeople who rode nearby trolleys towork.
“We’re out to restore its formerglory,” Mr. Ramsey said.
Construction started last Thurs-day, Oct. 6, and the suites will beavailable for occupancy next spring,with 16 suites reserved for low-income persons and two market-rate units renting for $450 to $495monthly.
Costs for the project show it is anintimidating process. The nonprofitwill put almost $167,000 into each
suite.Ralph McGreevy, executive vice
president of the Northeast OhioApartment Association, said a for-profit owner still might undertakesuch a project, but if it was to securebank financing it would not be ableto put that much money into thebuilding nor to create a neighbor-hood gem.
“Detroit Shoreway is a nonprofitand can make a statement,” Mr.McGreevy said. “Its project will helpuplift the neighborhood. Imaginethe positive impact that a projectlike this can have on the area. Therealso weren’t a lot of people lining upto do this type of project.” ■
Small businessemploymentindex declines
A barometer of hiringtrends among companieswith 300 or fewer
employees continues to sendout discouraging signals.
The Small Business Employ-ment Index presented by CBizPayroll Services, a unit of busi-ness services provider CBiz Inc.,decreased by 0.81% in Septem-ber, after posting a decrease of.36% in August.
“Consumer demand and theoverall economic malaise thatpermeates most of what Ameri-cans are seeing and hearing arethe primary contributing factorsaround the lack of employmentgrowth,” said Philip Noftsinger,business unit president for CBizPayroll Services. “Until confi-dence rises ... results like Sep-tember’s are likely to continueinto the foreseeable future.”
Of the companies that weresurveyed, the data show 26% reported a decrease in employeeheadcount while 26% increasedtheir staffing.
For the third month in a row,hiring in the small business sec-tor trended slightly downward,according to the survey.
“We thinkthat ...growthcan accel-erate dra-matically.” – John B.Veihmeyer, chairman and CEO,KPMG
66 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM OCTOBER 10 - 16, 2011
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KPMG’s NE Ohio growthto outpace other areasBy MICHELLE [email protected]
KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms, over the next yearwill grow its staff by a greater amounton a percentage basis in NortheastOhio than in any of its 20 other major markets, its top executive saidlast week.
With an eye on companies basedhere and the hundreds of millions ofdollars those companies spend onprofessional services, KPMG plans toadd about 20 experienced profes-sionals and at least 50 people total toits Cleveland office over the next 12months, chairman and CEO John B.Veihmeyer said.
The local office currently employs150, so the additions mean at least 33%job growth for KPMG in this region.
Even as many businesses havestruggled to grow in these economictimes, KPMG in Northeast Ohio sawits revenues rise 26% in the fiscalyear ended Sept. 30 over revenues infiscal 2010.
“We think that 26% growth can accelerate dramatically,” Mr. Veih-meyer said. KPMG does not discloserevenue figures for its offices.
Mr. Veihmeyer was one of about20 KPMG senior leaders who gathered last week for the annualmeeting of the firm’s board andmanagement committee, not in itsU.S. headquarters of New York City,
but in Cleveland. Their meeting hereis a reflection of KPMG’s commitmentto investing here, Mr. Veihmeyersaid.
Last Wednesday, Oct. 5, Mr. Veihmeyer and John S. MacIntosh, managing partner for Northeast Ohio,moderated a panel discussion onbusiness growth in and the attractionof business to Northeast Ohio at theMarriott in downtown Cleveland.
The invitation-only event attractedan audience of 80 and involved Lt.Gov. Mary Taylor, recently retiredKeyCorp CEO Henry L. Meyer III andother Northeast Ohio business leaders.Firm officials also met separatelywith a number of local companyleaders during their stay.
“The real reason for being here isthe chance to have that one-on-one,” Mr. Veihmeyer said.
In his conversations with localbusiness leaders, Mr. Veihmeyernoted, he’s heard many discussoverseas expansion. ■
annual inspection, cleaning andpainting. Great Lakes Group fornearly 20 years has maintained theship — a job that includes the enginesthe company outfitted on the touristattraction in 1992.
The future of the company thatformerly carried the name GreatLakes Towing Co., which now is asubsidiary, is represented by twomodern marvels.
First, there’s the R/V Kaho andR/V Muskie, a matching pair of 70-foot-long, all-aluminum researchvessels that Great Lakes Group hasbuilt for the U.S. Geological Survey.The high-speed, $4.1 million boatswill be part of a five-boat fleet gath-ering fishery and water quality infor-mation on the Great Lakes.
These are the company’s first all-aluminum vessels, which requiredan investment in new weldingequipment and training for its workforce. The company supports atraining program at Max Hayes HighSchool in Cleveland to ensure it willhave a steady flow of new workersand uses Cuyahoga Community Col-lege to train longtime employees onaluminum welding techniques.
The most important piece of thefuture, though, is on the dock a fewyards from the Geological Surveyboats. That would be the new, $8million, 770-ton mobile hoist thatwill allow the shipyard to build morethan one ship at a time.
The company is in the midst of along-term, $24 million investmentthat is transforming a formerly uglyspot on the old Cuyahoga Riverchannel into a shipbuilding and vesselmaintenance business with a nearlyworldwide scope. That’s a big bet for acompany with $20 million in annualrevenue. The investment, said chair-man and CEO Ronald Rasmus, “is amorphing of our business.”
Good questionMr. Rasmus said the towing busi-
ness on the Great Lakes — wheremore than 35 Great Lakes Towingtugs serve 30 major ports — hasn’tbeen growing. But the business forworkboat building and repair lookspromising because much of the U.S.fleet of tugboats is aging; as a result,many boats are in need of repair orare reaching the end of their 25- to30-year life cycles.
“We were looking for a niche mar-ket,” Mr. Rasmus said. “We repairour own fleet. Why wouldn’t we repair other people’s boats?”
So, Mr. Rasmus embarked on anexpansion effort that began in 2005with a new, $3.5 million companyheadquarters and a work building ona site across the old river channelfrom the Cargill salt mine. The com-pany secured $600,000 in low-inter-est loans from both the city of Cleve-land and Cuyahoga County to helpwith the financing of the expansion.It also landed a $6 million loan fromthe state of Ohio for the mobile hoist.
Mr. Rasmus said he expects employment at the company’sCleveland shipyard to grow to 100from the current 68. Including its tugworkers stationed around the GreatLakes and beyond, the company employs about 125 people.
David Krapf, editor-in-chief ofWorkBoat magazine and WorkBoat.com of New Orleans, which coversthe inland waterways, understandsthe company’s strategy.
“What they’re targeting I thinkmakes sense businesswise,” Mr.Krapf said. “There aren’t too many
OCTOBER 10 - 16, 2011 WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 7
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Towing: Investment underscores expansion goalscontinued from PAGE 1 shipyards like them.”
Pulling in contractsGreat Lakes Group always has
built its own tugs and now it hascreated a subsidiary, Tugz Interna-tional LLC, to design and build itsown line of commercial tugboats.
Last month, the company won a$23 million contract to build two50-ton tugs for Seacor HoldingsInc., which provides marine servicesto the oil and gas industries in theGulf of Mexico. The two tugs will beused for ship docking and escortoperations for the Hovensa Oil Refinery in the Virgin Islands.Those two custom-built tugs will bedelivered in 2013.
The shipyard also is building a
tug on spec and a $900,000, 60-footworkboat that the city of Milwaukeeplans to use for icebreaking and salvage and diving operations.
Still to come is a $9.6 million,67,000-square-foot undercover ship-yard on two acres at the west end ofthe Great Lakes Towing complex.This building, along with the mobilehoist, which has a sling to carry boatsfrom the slip to the building, will allow the company to build or repairas many as eight boats at one time.
The new building also will includea Rolls-Royce marine service center.Last June, Great Lakes Groupsigned a long-term agreement withthe maker of propulsions systems,including diesel and gas turbines,to operate its Great Lakes repair
and overhaul operation.
Efficiency expertsWilliam Friedman, president of
the Cleveland-Cuyahoga CountyPort Authority, who has watchedGreat Lakes Group since he workedon Indiana’s Lake Michigan portsfrom 2000 to 2004, believes thecompany has a winning formula.
“Ron (Rasmus) recognized thatthe towboat business alone couldn’tsustain growth, so they went in thedirection of this shipyard andbuilding and repairing vessels,” hesaid. “I don’t think anybody else onthe Great Lakes has combined theshipyard with the marine servicebusiness like they have.”
Mr. Friedman has been particular-
ly impressed with the company’sability to sell into the Gulf Coastmarkets where its union labor costscompete with low-cost, right-to-work shipyards in Southern coastalports.
“They’re winning these bids be-cause they must be efficient,” he said.
Mr. Rasmus delights in his com-pany’s past. A site tour includes astop in the board room, which isdominated by a table bought by JohnD. Rockefeller, one of the company’sincorporators in 1899.
But he is more excited about thefuture, where he foresees getting intobuilding carbon fiber boats some-day. He also would like to see GreatLakes Group play a role in the windturbine business, making barges tohaul the turbine pylons to offshoreand near-shore wind installations.
88 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM OCTOBER 10 - 16, 2011
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With Cruze, GM ‘better armed’Automaker’s successreflected in sales, decision to add shiftsat Lordstown plantBy MIKE COLIASAutomotive News
Before the launch of the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze a year ago,dealer Steve Hurley bought three rival compacts for his customers tocomparison shop — a Honda Civic,Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla.
“I had never been as confident toput a car up against direct competitorsas I was with the Cruze,” says Mr.Hurley, dealer principal of StingrayChevrolet outside Tampa, Fla.
It turned out to be a good bet. TheCruze has shot to the top of the compact market, putting GeneralMotors’ flagship brand in unfamiliarterritory. (It last led the segment withthe Chevy Cavalier in 1993.)
Critics accustomed to panning GM’ssmall cars have widely praised theCruze. Consumer Reports, for exam-ple, lauded it as “greatly improved”over its predecessor, the Cobalt. TheCruze’s success comes as the com-pact market grows in size and prof-itability, with buyers increasinglyspringing for higher trim levels.
The Cruze was the top-selling U.S.compact for five straight monthsthrough August, vaulting over theCivic and Corolla as they struggledwith earthquake-related parts pro-duction shortages. Data show someJapanese-brand buyers strayed to theCruze, which is now neck-and-neckwith the Corolla, the annual salesleader since 2003.
The stars have aligned for theCruze so far. But Toyota and Hondaproduction is roaring back. And aftera spotty launch with limited avail-ability, Ford Motor Co. is finallyboosting stocks of its redesignedFocus.
Can the Cruze stay on top andupend the established order in thecompact market?
“It’s going to be a fight,” says IHSAutomotive analyst Aaron Bragman.“But GM comes better armed thanit has maybe ever in its history.”
Right place, right timeThe Cruze has been a home run
for GM — sales through Augustwere up 88% over Cobalt sales inthe like period a year ago. But theCruze also has benefited from someright-place, right-time serendipity:
■ Production of the Corolla andCivic was roughly cut in half formonths after the March earthquake,resulting in scant selection andhigher prices.
■ The Cruze has been competinglargely against long-in-the-tooth rivals. The redesigned Focus andCivic weren’t launched until thespring. The Corolla is old: Its last redesign was in 2007.
■ Higher gasoline prices and awobbly economy have led buyers tosmaller cars. In August, three of thefive most-shopped cars against theCruze on TrueCar.com were mid-sized sedans: the Nissan Altima,Toyota Camry and Chevy Malibu.
Data hint that Cruze sales havebenefited from rivals’ inventoryproblems.
The percentage of Cruze buyerscoming out of Toyota vehicles rosefrom 7.5% in January and Februaryto 9.2% in March through June, according to research firm R.L. Polk& Co. The Cruze’s conquest ratefrom Honda rose from 5.8% to 7%.
Meanwhile, the Cruze is outsellingthe Focus and Hyundai Elantra, tworivals unaffected by quake-relatedshortages.
Cruze sales of 169,427 unitsthrough August top 133,536 for theElantra, which also was redesignedfor the 2011 model year. The Focuscame close to edging the Cruze inMay, but the Cruze has extended itslead on Ford’s compact in recentmonths.
George Pipas, Ford’s top sales analyst, said Focus inventory is improving after supplier shortageshampered production. Focus inven-tory rose to a 33-day supply as ofSept. 1 from 18 days on Aug. 1.
Makers of all the top-selling com-pacts have enjoyed sharply higherprices thanks to nicer interiors andadded features such as heated seatsand Bluetooth connectivity.
The Cruze’s average transactionprice of $20,465 in August was 27%higher than the Cobalt’s from twoyears earlier, TrueCar.com datashow. The Focus’ average price,$21,730, jumped 31% over the span.
Auto critics tout the Cruze’s sleekdesign, smooth ride, high mpg andvastly improved interior vs. theCobalt. But similar praise is heapedon the Focus, Elantra and other rivals.
Bob Lutz, GM’s former productchief whose team developed theCruze, thinks the car’s slightly bigger size is a key differentiator.“The Cruze was designed inside andout to look like it’s a half-class higherthan it actually is, and people see itthat way,” Mr. Lutz said in a recentinterview.
GM says Cruze sales are especiallyhot on the West Coast, historically aweak spot for Chevrolet: Cruze salesthrough August were up more thanfourfold in California from Cobaltsales a year earlier.
GM doesn’t expect to dominatethe compact market once rivals’ inventories return, spokeswomanAnnalisa Bluhm said. But “we stillexpect to be fighting it out for seg-ment leadership each month.”
Not everyone is convinced thatChevrolet has made a lasting dent inthe customer bases of its Japaneserivals.
R.L. Polk loyalty consultantDeepti Patel said: “They’ve capital-ized on the low inventories ... but Idon’t think this spike will last forCruze.”
Rivals hit backToyota and Honda plants are
nearing full throttle after sufferingsix months of parts shortages. Ana-lysts expect them to return armedwith big incentives to win back customers.
That will test the restraint of GMexecutives, who for months haveboasted that they finally have acompact car that commands ahigher price.
Another potential hurdle: GM’smanufacturing capacity. As of Sept.1, there was a thin 33-day supply ofthe Cruze. The Lordstown plant thatmakes the car is working three shiftsand added Saturday shifts thismonth and next.
Continued growth in demand forthe Cruze or a rebound in the overallmarket could send GM scramblingto increase Cruze production.
GM North America PresidentMark Reuss has said that if neededGM could shift overflow productionof the Cruze to the company’s Orion Township assembly plant insuburban Detroit, which will makethe upcoming Buick Verano on thesame platform.
For now, Chevy execs can bask inbeing on top.
Chris Perry, Chevrolet’s globalmarketing chief, said: “Our successwith the Cruze shows that, when wehave a good product, we can be abig contender.”
As for Florida dealer Mr. Hurley’sCruze Challenge, he ended thecomparison test drives last spring.
He said: “Everybody knows aboutthe Cruze now.” ■
GM’S NUMBERS GAMESome data on the popularity of
the Chevrolet Cruze:■ best-selling U.S. compact car
since April■ sales through August beat
predecessor, Chevy’s Cobalt, by 88%over 2010’s like period
■ 9.2% of Cruze buyers fromMarch through June formerly ownedToyotas, while 7% owned Hondas previously.
OCTOBER 10 - 16, 2011 WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 9
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Now companies of any size (including those with more than 100 employees) located in Summit, Portage, Medina, Cuyahoga, Stark, Wayne and Geauga counties can save on their
health insurance premiums by joining the Greater Akron Chamber for as little as $400. To learn more, contact your broker or visit www.GACsave.com.
Join. Save. It’s that easy.
CSA expands industriallabs in IndependenceNew digs will test alternatively powered vehicles By DAN [email protected]
Independence for the CSA!No, it isn’t a rebel battle cry. It’s a
description of a small victory for theCleveland suburb, which is seeingincreased investment on the part ofCSA International.
Known before it went interna-tional as the Canadian StandardsAssociation, CSA does all sorts oftesting on consumer goods and industrial products. Its trademark“SA” encircled by the letter “C” isfound on many products, similar tothe “UL” used by its competitor,Underwriters Laboratories.
CSA is spending about $500,000to build four new labs in its existing128,000-square-foot building, whereit already tests a host of electrical andgas-powered devices. For example,you can find a sturdy gas grill sittingin a wind tunnel at the facility,where it’s tested for its ability to be litand function even on the breeziestof Memorial Days.
The four new labs will test com-ponents used in hydrogen-poweredvehicles and the systems that fuelthem, said CSA vice president RichWeiser. In one, a machine couplesand decouples two fittings, subjectingthem to high pressure during each
connection to test their reliability. The new labs also can test systems
used in vehicles powered by naturalgas. Hydrogen and natural gas vehiclesrepresent efforts to replace gaso-line-powered vehicles as part of a national push toward renewableenergy sources. But hydrogen gas ishandled at pressures of 10,000 poundsper square inch, compared with onlyabout 3,500 psi for natural gas sys-tems. So, a lab that can test hydrogensystems also can work with naturalgas components, Mr. Weiser said.
The new labs won’t mean newjobs, at least at first, he said. Someof the facility’s approximately 150existing employees will be assignedto them, Mr. Weiser said.
But they do represent a furtherinvestment in Independence, whereCSA has had operations since 1969,and they’re welcome by the city,said Independence Mayor GregoryKurtz.
Mayor Kurtz said when he wasyoung, he and his friends alwayswondered what went on at the mys-terious CSA facility, which is set wellback in the trees from its entranceon East Pleasant Valley Road.
Now, he said he knows what they do— and recognizes its importance.
“They keep bringing employeeshere,” Mayor Kurtz said. ■
Last week, as I heard the news ofApple founder Steve Jobs’ death,I quickly forwarded the New YorkTimes news alert to our children,
because it seemed the right thing to do.Upon reflection, I find that decision
might be the simplest way to describe hisimpact on our society — namely, that Iwould even consider sending anews story about the death of abusiness executive to the kids.
Oldest daughter Meredith,working in Ohio politics, sent asimple message: “Wow, unbe-lievable, but expected at the sametime. I’m thankful for people likehim to show us greatness doesn’tonly lie in our past, but also inour present. Very sad.
“Also kind of incredible thatas I write this I am touching one Appleproduct and have two others in reach.”
Wow, indeed. I can’t even count howmany Apple products we own, when youconsider how many “hand-me-down”music players my wife, Janet, and I useonce the kids are on to the next coolest“i-product.” But that is the core of the
genius that was Steve Jobs. He knewconsumers would love products thatmarried technology with artistic design.
That evening also brought back a vividmemory of my earliest days, literally,with Crain’s Cleveland Business. I hadbeen hired as the newspaper’s editor,leaving Southern California and my six-
year career with the AssociatedPress behind. I had been on thejob no more than a couplemonths when I received a tele-phone call in my office.
On the other end of the linewas a public relations executivefor Apple, who had accompa-nied then-CEO John Sculley toCleveland, where he was deliv-ering a speech. Mr. Sculley hadbeen plucked in 1983 from
PepsiCo by Mr. Jobs as the experiencedmanager Apple needed.
“We’d like to give one of your reporterssome time with Mr. Sculley for an inter-view,” the PR person told me. When I answered that we weren’t interested,there was an uncomfortable pause in theconversation.
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate the factthat you thought about Crain’s,” I toldhim. “It’s just that we only have so manyreporters and only so much space, andour subscribers can read about Mr. Sculleyand Apple in many national businesspublications.”
That was the first time I uttered thisphrase, which I’ve used to describe oureditorial philosophy countless timessince that day. “In order for us to bestserve our audience,” I told him, “we aregoing to have to be fiercely parochial.”
Crain’s value proposition is tellingNortheast Ohioans about the companies,executives and business issues that dominate our local marketplace. We can’twaste precious resources on stories thatdon’t have a strong local connection.
Things changed. Mr. Sculley ended up being replaced by Mr. Jobs, who engineered, arguably, the greatest businessrevival in American history.
But as for Crain’s Cleveland Business, oureditorial philosophy remains unchanged;we remain committed to fierce paroch-ialism because that’s how we can bestserve you. ■
1100 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM OCTOBER 10 - 16, 2011
On and onC
leanup on aisle 5 ... and 8 ... and 17 ... and24. Yes, the process of mopping up the multiple messes left behind by the formerleaders of Cuyahoga County government
goes on and on — thankfully.We continue to be impressed with County Execu-
tive Ed FitzGerald and his team as they deal on a variety of fronts with bringing order and disciplineto the way the business of government is conductedin Cuyahoga County. Their methodical and pur-poseful approach contrasts sharply with the loosey-goosey and, as we now know, often unscrupulousmanner of running county government that was therule rather than the exception under predecessorsof Mr. FitzGerald & Co.
Among the biggest, and best, changes is theprocess for determining residential property valuesfor property tax purposes.
Frank Russo, the disgraced former county auditorwho was sentenced to a couple decades in prisonafter pleading guilty last year to various corruption-related offenses, relied largely on unqualified countyemployees to conduct residential real estate appraisals. By contrast, Mr. FitzGerald has contractedwith nearly three dozen professional appraisers in anattempt to restore confidence among homeownersin the fairness and accuracy of the appraisal process.
“We can’t change what happened in the past,”Mr. FitzGerald recently told The Plain Dealer. “Butwe’ve tried to set as high a standard as anywhere inOhio.”
Mr. FitzGerald and his team also can’t change thecounty’s past failure to comply with a state law thatforbids classified civil service employees from alsoholding elected office or serving in partisan politicalpositions, such as a precinct committee member.However, last week, the county took a big step to rightthat wrong. It informed nearly 50 employees that theyhad until the end of this week to choose betweenkeeping their county jobs or holding on to their par-tisan political posts and being fired by the county.
The above developments are in keeping with thetight ship Mr. FitzGerald has run since he becamethe county’s first solo executive nine months agounder the new county charter.
There was no guarantee that the new countyexecutive and the 11-member County Councilwould be any more effective in running the countythan the cast of characters under the old form ofgovernment, with its three-member board of com-missioners and its multiple elected departmentheads. We’re still not prepared to nominate any ofthe new leaders for sainthood. However, they seemin most of their dealings to be putting the interestsof the citizens of Cuyahoga County ahead of theirown. That’s something that wasn’t the case over thelast decade or so.
At Mr. FitzGerald’s inauguration last January, former congressman Louis Stokes — the man whoswore him in — said the new leader was “armedwith experience, integrity and the intellect to leadCuyahoga County to a new, exciting and successfulform of government.” Mr. FitzGerald and his co-laborers deserve credit for turning Mr. Stokes’words from prophesy to reality.
MAGGIE IRIZARRYLakewoodProbably not. Price matters.(Price) would be the determining factor, the deal-breaker.
➤➤➤➤ Watch more people weigh in by visiting the Multimedia section at www.CrainsCleveland.com.
THE BIG ISSUE
JEREMY FLACKClevelandAbsolutely. You’ve got to support the ’hood. It’s likewhen you’re in the fraternity,right? You’ve got to supportyour own. That’s easy.
KATHY AKEYPainesvilleYes, but it depends on how expensive it is compared withother (products or services.)It’s more about paying atten-tion to what I’m getting andhow much I’m paying for it.
JUDGE STUART A. FRIEDMANClevelandSure. I think it’s important tosupport local business,whether it’s local farmers, local stores. They’re the people who are keeping the local economy running.
Are you willing to buy locally even if it means not getting the cheapest price?
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As budgets tighten, high school ADs’ duties now broaderWith funds becoming more scarce, rolesshift to include development, marketingBy JOEL [email protected]
Creg Jantz spent a Monday after-noon last month deluged by rainand phone calls, and contendingwith fragile feelings.
Such is life for a high school athleticdirector, as the late-day rainstormforced the administrator at MidviewHigh School, located in EatonTownship in southeastern LorainCounty, to reschedule golf and tennismatches and soccer games — and the inevitable calls of football favoritism when other sports thatuse the football field are postponed.
Now, though, with school districtfunds hard to come by, the duties of athletic directors — not just at Midview, but from Medina to Lorain and Bay Village in between— have expanded from reschedulingrainouts to new roles that includemarketing manager and chief devel-opment director.
It isn’t that Mr. Jantz (pronounced“yonce”), a 1989 Midview graduatewho excelled in basketball and base-ball, can’t handle the shift. For the 11years prior to his return to Midviewfor the 2010-11 school year, he workedin the sports information office atCase Western Reserve Universityand also taught a sports manage-ment class at the university’sWeatherhead School of Management.
Nonetheless, that experience hasn’tlessened the challenges he faces.
“We’re the biggest school in (theWest Shore Conference), but it’s justme” overseeing all sports from sevenththrough 12th grades, he said. “We don’thave a middle school athletic direc-tor. So the struggle now is finding thetime to make these efforts happen.”
And the money, too.
Trolling for dollarsThe budget binds many school
districts find themselves in afterGov. John Kasich’s massive cuts toeducation in the state’s latest two-year budget have manifest them-selves in the form of higher fees forextracurricular activities, from clubson the low end to sports on the high.
Tim Stried, the Ohio High School
Athletic Association’s communica-tions officer, told Sports BusinessJournal last month that in the 2010-11 school year, 44% of the state’s1,604 public schools had pay-to-playrequirements, and that this schoolyear, the number likely would moveabove half.
The Medina school district mighthave some of the steepest rates in thestate: Athletic director Jeff Harrisonsaid the district charges $660 perathlete per sport, with no caps.
Those fees help offset some of theestimated $500,000 the district paysin supplemental coaching contractsand transportation costs each year,Mr. Harrison said. The rest is paid forby the school district, with the Medinabooster club raising about $100,000each year to cover the cost of uni-forms and other perks for athletes.
That leaves about $200,000 Mr.Harrison must cover for facility usage — think golf courses, for instance — officials and other items.Mr. Harrison said many peopledon’t realize referees cost his dis-trict about $50,000 per school yearfor his 23 programs from grades 7through 12. So, he “hits the streets,”in his words, looking for partner-ships with local businesses.
Mr. Harrison helps the school’sbooster club identify and pitchMedina businesses on supportingthe school’s athletic programs, anduses Medina’s annual wrestling invitational, which draws 40 schools— the bulk of which come frommore than 50 miles away — as apoint of emphasis when pitchingpotential sponsors about the expo-sure they can gain from their con-nection to the sports program.
“A school district’s athletic depart-ment is the front porch,” he said.“Eighty percent of our communityknows what’s going on in our schoolsthrough what happens on the field.I have to use that to make connec-tions with local companies.” His efforts this year yielded a $13,000donation from Frontier Communi-cations, a tech company with itsNortheast Ohio office in Medina.Frontier then provided its ticketingsoftware for all Medina athletic events;
MARC GOLUB
Creg Jantz, the athletic director at Midview High School in Lorain County, saidfundraising, marketing and development now are bigger parts of his job.
each ticket has a Frontier logo.“You have to try to find different
ways of raising revenues,” Mr. Har-rison said. “As an athletic directorand an educator, I’m not necessarilytrained to do it, but we have to.”
Cutting a deal with Marco’sThere are places to call for help.
Home Team Marketing, based inCleveland, counts 225 NortheastOhio high schools as clients. Thecompany signs up regional and na-tional companies as sponsors, thenestablishes their presence at highschool football and basketballgames and other events.
Home Team has grown to 29 employees locally and 50 nation-wide, with offices in eight U.S. cities.It splits advertising revenues evenlywith its partner high schools.
Midview has used the companyin the past and likely will again during basketball season, but Mr.
Jantz said he sees more do-it-your-self opportunities at the local levelfor raising revenue — and where anoutside company such as Home TeamMarketing doesn’t keep half of it.
So, Mr. Jantz, like Medina’s Mr.Harrison, dons a marketer’s hat forhours at a time these days.
Mr. Jantz said he does most of hispitching to area businesses duringthe summer, but he hopes to sneakin some pitches this year betweenfall and winter seasons — though hehopes that period is shortened bythe Middies’ football team makingthe Division II, Region 6 playoffs.
He appeals to businesses’ respon-sibility in the community, thoughhe also is armed with a rendering ofthe football stadium’s press boxadorned with a specific company’slogo. Midview’s elementary, middleand high schools are at one site, andhe touts the many sets of eyeballsthat would see that logo each day.
Mr. Jantz said he signed up his firstpartner, a local Marco’s Pizza fran-chise, over the summer. Marco’s receives signage and public-addressmentions at all Midview events.
“Traffic (at Marco’s) after our firsthome game there was intense,” hesaid. “People want to patronize com-panies who help the community.”
Besides, he said, “There’s a lot ofpeople in those stands, more so thana lot of small colleges.
“I look at advertisers and I thinkit’s a no-brainer for them to be in thesestadiums,” Mr. Jantz said.
In search of ROIIn the Lorain City School District,
which in 2010 combined its two largehigh schools, Admiral King andSouthview, into one, athletic directorBryan Koury said the district’s boosterclub now is paying more for necessitiesthan luxuries, such as warmups andother perks it has covered in the past.
An example: When the schoolscombined, the weight room at GeorgeDaniel Field, where the team playsits football games, lacked enoughspace for the now 120-player program.The booster club paid for an auxiliarystorage unit, as the district “wasn’t in aposition to do it,” Mr. Koury said.
He said the consolidation hashelped some businesses rejoin thesponsorship fold, as the acrimoniousdivide between King and Southviewmade some companies leery ofchoosing one side or the other. Butthere also is a shift in what the companies that do partner with thedistrict are looking for out of theirdeals, Mr. Koury said.
“In the past, these businesses havehad discretionary funds they woulduse to help the team and the kids,”he said. “Now, they’re looking moreat their return on investment, andit’s a harder sell.” ■
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GOING PLACESJOB CHANGES
EDUCATIONKENT STATE UNIVERSITY: Leo Planteto the Goodyear Executive Professor,College of Business Administration.
HEALTH CARECLEVELAND CLINIC: Dr. Donald E.Long to medical director, ChagrinFalls Family Health Center; Dr. DanielM. Sullivan to medical director, SolonFamily Health Center.METROHEALTH SYSTEM: Dr.Christopher Brandt to chair, Depart-ment of Surgery.
LEGALBENESCH: Tamar Gontovnik to associate.WALTER & HAVERFIELD LLP:Nathan A. Felker to partner.
MARKETINGBROWNFLYNN: Christopher Thomasto senior consultant; MargaretBalewski to senior administrative assis-tant; Marissa Beechuk to analyst.
NONPROFITINTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S AIRAND SPACE MUSEUM: Suzie Dillsto executive director.
PLAYHOUSESQUARE: Patricia Gaulto senior vice president, business andgeneral counsel; Gina Vernaci to senior vice president, theater operations;Tim Birch to vice president, retailsales, sponsorship and technology;Tom Einhouse to vice president, facilities and capital; Colleen Porterto vice president, community engage-ment and education; Autumn Kiserto vice president, ticket sales andmarketing; Michelle Meers to vicepresident, human resources; MichelleRyan Stewart to vice president, development. PRESIDENTS’ COUNCIL FOUNDA-TION: Nicole M. Bell to executive director.ROCKYNOL: Richard P. Miller toexecutive director.TEAM NORTHEAST OHIO: ChristineNelson to vice president, regionalbusiness development, JobsOhio Regional office; Camille Billups to director, business attraction and minority owned business specialist;Rick Seifritz to director, research;Mary Cierebeij to manager, businessattraction.
REAL ESTATEALBRECHT INC.: Joe Albrecht tovice president, retail properties.ALLEGRO REALTY ADVISORS:Adam M. Wolinetz to manager, corporate services.NORTHSTAR TITLE SERVICES:Shonda Azzano to escrow officer.SIGNET DEVELOPMENT: JerelKlue to principal.
RETAILEZ ENERGY USA INC.: Joe Schagto controller; Tiffany Konkol to payroll and treasury specialist;Michelle Weckstein to director, human resources.
SERVICEIMAGE GROUP: Bruce J. Felber todirector, marketing and sales support.
TECHNOLOGYOECONNECTION: Geo Money tomarketing manager.PARAGON CONSULTING INC.:Joshuwa Jenkins to senior developer;Kim Wright to developer; RobbiArmstrong to project manager; SueBene to human resources managementand benefits specialist.
BOARDSAKRON BAR ASSOCIATION:Michael L. Robinson to president;Jack Weisensell to president-elect;Darrin R. Toney to secretary; BlakeR. Gerney to treasurer.AMERICAN BOARD OF TRIAL ADVOCATES, OHIO CHAPTER:William Hawal (Spangenberg Shibley& Liber LLP) to president.NATIONAL COUNCIL ON AGING:Richard Browdie (Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging) to chairman.
AWARDSCATHOLIC LAWYERS GUILD OFTHE DIOCESE OF CLEVELAND: Geoffrey S. Mearns (Cleveland StateUniversity) received the 2011 St.Thomas More Award.KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, COLLEGEOF EDUCATION, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Donald Coffeereceived the 2011 Centennial AlumniAward; Gerald H. Read received the2011 Distinguished Service to EHHSAward (posthumous award)PHOTOSHOP WORLD: Jason Feiler(Kalman & Pabst Photo Group) receiveda Guru Award for Best of Show.
Reality TV shows bait us withaction, drama and sus-pense, and within a com-mercial’s notice, we’re
usually hooked. And there can be even another
layer of intrigue when local businessowners play starring or supportingroles on national network favorites,
such as HGTV’s “House Hunters,”DIY’s “House Crashers” or The FoodNetwork’s “Restaurant: Impossible.”
These Northeast Ohio proprietorsoften find themselves reeled intotheir own new realities — worlds inwhich they are benefiting because ofthe increased exposure afforded totheir businesses once filming com-mences and the TV shows air.
Businessesshop beyondNE Ohio forexpansionWith local markettapped out, firms castlarger net for growth By TIMOTHY [email protected]
With mounting pressuresfacing their homebases, a number ofbusinesses that have
called Northeast Ohio home fordecades are setting up shop outsidethe Buckeye State in an effort tocontinue to grow their companies.
Worry not; they aren’t closingtheir doors in Northeast Ohio. It’sjust that opportunities to take theircompanies to the next level arehard to come by in their own back-yards.
Business experts cite NortheastOhio’s stagnant population growthas the key factor in why some lookelsewhere to expand. In many cases,the market is saturated, offering little room for growth. The housingcrunch also has resulted in little migration within the confines of theregion, leading to fewer opportuni-ties for expansion close to home.
“In retail, that never bodes well,”said Tom Heinen, co-president ofHeinen’s Fine Foods, which isbased in Warrensville Heights. “Ifyou’re going to continue to grow, atsome point you have to look else-where.”
Those factors led Tom and hisbrother, Jeff, to look to the Village ofBarrington in suburban Chicago for
MOVING FORWARDThinking about expanding yoursmall business beyond Ohio’s bor-ders? Here are a few questions toconsider:
■ Is the new market significantly different than the current market inwhich you operate? Can you adjust?
■ Does the work force in the new market carry the necessary skills toconduct business?
■ Are the right suppliers available?
■ Are customer demographics different than the current market?
■ Who are your competitors, and isthere room for a new player?
■ What are the regulatory hurdles inthe new market?
■ Do you have enough cash to supportthe operation while it gets off theground?
SOURCE: LEROY BROOKS, PROFESSOR OF FINANCEAT JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY
See EXPAND Page 16
See REALITY Page 14
LAUREN RAFFERTY ILLUSTRATION
The following local business owners appear in the above illustration, clockwise from top left: ■ Jacquelyn Romanin, Chris Hodgson and Catie Hodgson on the Food Network’s “Great Food Truck Race” ■ Robert Irvine of The Food Network’s
“Restaurant: Impossible” with Mad Cactus owner Tom Krukemeyer ■ Hurst Remodeling team with DIY Network host Josh Temple■ Re/Max agent Katy Dix Brahler on HGTV’s “House Hunters” ■ Yellowcake designer Valerie Mayen, on Lifetime’s “Project Runway”
PHOTO CREDITS: FOOD NETWORK; BOB URBAN; HURST REMODELING; RE/MAX; BARBARA NITKE/LIFETIME TELEVISION
“Has my business increased?Yes, definitely,” said Katy DixBrahler of Rocky River-basedRe/Max, who has appeared as areal estate agent on HGTV’s“House Hunters.” “I get more callsfrom out-of-state buyers who sawme on TV and want me to repre-sent them or want to get on TV.”
Local business owners such asMs. Brahler acknowledge the long-term gains in new leads andheightened credibility that resultfrom being seen on TV but theyalso point to the potential nick ininterim business due to the associ-ated time investment.
“It was exciting, but it took up alot of my time,” said Valerie Mayen,owner of Cleveland-based designshop Yellowcake, about her expe-rience as a contestant on Season 8of Lifetime’s “Project Runway,” whichaired in 2010. “People assumeyou’re on a reality show andyou’re getting paid and becominga millionaire, but that’s not true.
“I was essentially sewing for sixmonths for free” and continuing tomanage client orders back home,Ms. Mayen said.
Agents of changeRe/Max’s Ms. Brahler said she
first was contacted by HGTV afterprogram producers stumbledupon her website during an onlinesearch for Cleveland-based realestate agent candidates for “HouseHunters.”
The phone interview and subse-quent video she was required tosend in wasn’t the most time-con-suming part of the experience;
rather, she and her clients had towait on the home-buying processbecause producers had a toughtime getting the clearance to filmin Cleveland.
“There was a lot of red tape,”she said. “Now, it’s a lot better.”After a little more than two monthsof waiting, Ms. Brahler filmed thesegment, which aired in 2009.
“It’s a full five days of filming,”she said, noting assistants helpedmanaged her day-to-day clientsduring that time.
Ms. Brahler’s second appear-ance on “House Hunters” airedthis past September and featuredher friend Gene Finn, who also isKent State University’s vice presi-dent for institutional advance-ment. Mr. Finn ultimately selecteda home in Pepper Pike.
“It was great exposure for KentState,” said Ms. Brahler, who nowmarkets herself online as “YourCleveland-area HGTV ‘HouseHunters’ Realtor.” “We also filmedone of my listings in Westlake(during the shoot with Mr. Finn). Itsold quickly afterward.”
The shows’ airings have provento be a boon to business, withprospective sellers and buyers —many of whom are out of townand looking to relocate — callingMs. Brahler for representation.
“A lot of Realtors have phonedme, too, and said, ‘What do I needto do to get on TV?’” she said. “Itell them, ‘You can’t be scared tobe in front of the cameras.’”
The cameras didn’t scare TomKrukemeyer, owner of Mad Cactusin Strongsville, who agreed to sub-ject his restaurant to the intense
criticism of the Food Network’s“Restaurant: Impossible” hostRobert Irvine.
“We didn’t get along,” Mr.Krukemeyer said.
Program producers for threedays in August filmed the segmentthat will air Nov. 2. During that time,Mr. Irvine worked with restaurantstaff to revamp the ailing Tex-Mexeatery into a more contemporaryconcept.
“Our sales have been up 20%since they left,” Mr. Krukemeyer said.“I think we’ll really see an influx ofbusiness once the show airs.”
Part of the revamp included thelaunch of a website that featuresthe restaurant’s ancillary products,such as T-shirts and dry rubs.
“I think we’re going to hit ahome run with the website oncepeople from all over the world seewhat we have to offer after theshow airs,” Mr. Krukemeyer said.
Getting with the programFahrenheit chef and owner
Rocco Whalen said he’s anticipatingthat Northeast Ohio as a whole willbenefit from more Food Networkcoverage when the “docu-series”he’s currently filming airs in February. Mr. Whalen is one of ahandful of chefs from around theMidwest and eastern seaboardchosen by the Food Network to illuminate viewers to their respec-tive regions’ assets.
“My segment is about culture,Cleveland and community,” said Mr.Whalen, who will be showcasingsuburbs and businesses through-out Northeast Ohio such as hisrestaurant’s Tremont neighbor,
continued from PAGE 13
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Banyan Tree, an upscale boutique.Meanwhile, chef Chris Hodgson
said it’s too soon to tell whether hisoperation will accelerate beyondthe speed of notoriety he alreadyhas gained locally since he rolledout his first food truck last year.
Mr. Hodgson, who made it to thefinals of the Food Network’s “GreatFood Truck Race,” however, saidhis focus wasn’t on promoting hisbusiness on TV, nor was it theshow’s $100,000 grand prize.Rather, the experience was allabout championing Cleveland.
“It was about the city we comefrom,” said Mr. Hodgson, whosetruck was edged out by The LimeTruck from California. He’s nowworking on opening his own bricks-and-mortar store.
Ms. Mayen has similar plans toopen her own storefront next yearbecause of the influx in orders shehas garnered since her “ProjectRunway” appearance.
“It’s been lucrative in terms ofmy notoriety and credibility,” Ms.Mayen said.
For Mr. Hodgson, Ms. Mayen andother business owners who becomeovernight TV celebrities, it’s impor-tant to market the experiences appropriately in order to extend theshort-term publicity jolt, said TedMandell, a faculty member whospecializes in pop culture and realityTV at the University of Notre Damein Indiana. “You have to strikewhile the iron’s hot,” he said. “You
can’t just expect the reality show totranslate into dollars. You have toparlay that” into a longer-termmarketing campaign.
Tools of the tradePat G. Hurst, vice president and
owner of Middleburg Heights-basedHurst Remodeling, said he believeshis firm will get “quite a bit ofmileage” out of marketing and pub-licity associated with filming a DIYNetwork program that airs Jan. 16.
Like Re/Max’s Ms. Brahler, Hurstwas discovered through its website.The remodeler’s capabilities intriguedDIY Network, which scouted thisyear Cleveland-area companiesthat could handle a three-day homerebuild in Tremont for a “HouseCrashers” segment, Mr. Hurst said.
“It’s interesting working with aproduction company,” he said.“Even on Day One, everyone’s readyto go, and it’s like, ‘Get your mikes on,’and the sound guy has to get ready.There’s this whole new layer to it.”
The firm, which hadn’t been onnational TV before, nailed thethree-day rebuild.
“At the end of Day Three, ourfirm’s production manager was inshock, almost in tears,” Mr. Hurstsaid. “Even the production companywas shocked.”
While it’s still too early to deter-mine how Hurst Remodeling will beimpacted long-term, an immediatepayoff transpired — camaraderie.
“We were united under one goal— to get this done in three days. Itwas a huge team-building exer-cise,” Mr. Hurst said, “Would I do itagain? Yeah, I think I would.” ■
IN BRIEF■ CHANGE OF SCENERY: Roop
& Co., a strategic integrated communication agency, has movedits offices to a 3,500-square-footspace in the Terminal Tower. “Wewere quite happy in the original Roop& Co. offices in the Huntington Build-ing for 15 years, but with theplanned move of some of the build-ing’s major tenants, and with a greatdeal of uncertainty regarding thebuilding’s future, we thought it bestto move,” said Jim Roop, president,Roop & Co. “We looked at several locations, but it was hard to beat the360-degree views of Cleveland fromthe 38th floor of Terminal Tower.”
■ ONLINE AWAKENING: TheReiki Awakening Academy, underthe direction of director Alice Lang-holt, is taking intuitive development,
Reiki training, energy healing, aro-matherapy and other alternative healing practices to a new realm. Ms.Langholt has started an online traininginstitute, with online classes meetingvia Wiziq.com, an online classroomwebsite. The Reiki Awakening Academymaintains a physical location in North-east Ohio, with local classes held atthe Insight Wellness and LearningCenter in Warrensville Heights.
■ SEEING THE LIGHT: KentCraig has opened FirstLight Home-Care Twinsburg at 9241 RavennaRoad, Suite C-10. FirstLight is aprovider of professional, nonmedical,in-home care for seniors and otherswho need assistance. Mr. Craig’s operation serves all of Summit Coun-ty. There also are FirstLight franchise locations in Westlake and Chardon.
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CARLGRASSI
TAX TIPS
Court case highlights ambiguity of LLC-related taxes
Despite the benefits of using a limited liabilitycompany to operate abusiness, advisers usually
will warn the business owner thatone significant drawback of operatinga business as an LLC is that taxableincome allocated to owners whoare active in the business is subjectto self-employment taxes.
This tax is imposed on all alloca-tions of income, not just on the income or cash actually distributed.While several strategies exist to mitigate the exposure to this tax, arecent U.S. Tax Court case has in-troduced additional uncertainty intothe utilization of these strategies, andit raises additional questions in an already uncertain area of taxation.
It is clear that self-employmentincome includes a person’s alloca-tion of income from a trade or busi-ness carried on by a partnership,including an LLC, of which suchperson is a partner or member.
There is an exception to this rulefor limited partners. Unfortunately,the rules addressing who can qualifyas a limited partner were developedbefore LLCs even were in existence,so there is little guidance on the issue of when an LLC member istreated as a limited partner for self-employment tax purposes.
In 1997, the IRS issued regula-tions providing that an individual,including an LLC member, wouldbe treated as a limited partner unlessany one of the following was true:
■ the individual has personal liability for the debts of or claimsagainst the partnership by reason ofbeing a partner;
■ the individual has authority tocontract on behalf of the partnershipunder applicable state law governingthe entity;
■ the individual participates in thepartnership’s business for more than500 hours during the partnership’stax year.
The 1997 regulations providedseveral exceptions to these rules thatgive rise to planning opportunitiesfor LLC members.
For instance, those who do notqualify as a limited partner under theabove tests, but who own more thanone class of interest in the partner-ship, can avoid self-employment taxon the portion of LLC income allocated to their separate “invest-ment class” of LLC interest, providedthat other members qualifying aslimited partners own at least 20% ofthe LLC interests with identical rightsand obligations.
This is a common sense approachthat bifurcates an active owner’s interest in an LLC between incomethat is a return on actual investmentand income that’s payment for services.
Complaints about these regula-tions prompted Congress to orderthe IRS not to finalize them. Therehas been no additional guidance somany practitioners rely on theseregulations even though they remain proposed and not final.
Although the exceptions containedin these regulations often are used, arecent U.S. Tax Court case indicatesthat taxpayers should use cautionwhen relying on these regulationsand the related exceptions.
In this case, a group of lawyersasserted that allocations of incomefrom their legal practice were notsubject to self-employment tax
because most of the income allo-cated to them was based on theirlimited partnership interests.
Each partner had a separate, nom-
inal general partnership interestthat allowed them to exercise management rights. The lawyerspaid self-employment tax only onthe income allocated to this relative-ly small general partnership interest.The court held against the lawyers.
It based its analysis mainly onthe plain meaning of the term“limited partner,” and focused onthe legislative history of the excep-tion from self-employment tax forlimited partners that predated theregulations discussed above.
In this case, the court found thatlimited partners essentially are
passive investors, in that they arenot able to exercise any manage-ment authority, and their partner-ship income essentially was a return on their investment.
Applying this to the lawyers, thetax court said they were not limitedpartners, so all their income allo-cation should be subject to self-employment tax. The 1997 regula-tions were not a part of the analysis.
The result in this case is not sur-prising because personal serviceincome (as in the case of the lawfirm) will always be self-employ-ment income. The fact that the tax
court took a more simplistic, historical approach to its analysisraises the question of whether re-liance on the proposed regulationsand the exceptions therein would berespected if challenged by the IRS.
As a consequence, self-employedbusiness owners face uncertainty onthis issue and will need to look atplanning strategies beyond the proposed regulations to clearly de-lineate what LLC income is subjectto self-employment taxes. ■
their next grocery store. The store,slated to open next summer, willbe the pair’s 18th store and firstoutside Ohio.
The Heinen brothers aren’talone, as several businesses —from retail shops to restaurants —have set their sights beyond Ohioin hopes of giving business aboost. Still, it’s not an easy sell, asit requires careful planning — anda bit of luck — to get it right, according to William Baker, chair-man of the University of Akron’sdepartment of marketing.
“The difficulty for companies isunderstanding the true opportuni-ties out there or whether they’rejust chasing a pipe dream,” Dr.Baker said.
Assessing the situationCleveland-based Danny Vegh’s
Home Entertainment, which hasserved Northeast Ohio’s billiardsneeds for the last 50 years, recentlyopened its first out-of-state loca-tion in Milwaukee — somethingCEO Kathy Vegh said was her “intention for many, many years.”
“I think right now because ofwhere the economy is and wherethe market is, we are very well represented in all areas of North-east Ohio,” Ms. Vegh said. “Over-saturating ourselves might be use-ful to the consumer but, frankly, isdetrimental to our business.”
As part of the decision to expandbeyond Ohio, Ms. Vegh said thecompany carefully analyzed Milwaukee as a potential market.For example, she said the demo-graphics are similar to those ofCleveland. The competitive land-scape there is quite weak andmany of the company’s vendorsare near Milwaukee.
LeRoy Brooks, a finance profes-sor at John Carroll University, saidit’s important to take note of thecompetition and thinking a busi-ness that works in Northeast Ohiowill take off elsewhere could bewishful thinking.
It’s often wise, he noted, to con-sult outside experts when lookingto expand.
“You can get pretty smug in yourown market after a while,” Dr.Brooks said. “You need to listenwhen you’re in a new market. To me, you have to have somecompetitive advantage or at leastbe able to take market share awayfrom others.”
Bob Armington thought hissnowboard and ski and business inAkron, Sun Valley Sports, couldhold some competitive advantagein Indianapolis since he saw hisonly potential competitor in thatarea, Dick’s Sporting Goods, aslacking in the ski arena.
Though Mr. Armington said theIndianapolis market isn’t as densewith skiers as Northeast Ohio, he
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PHONE AMBULANCE5969 Mayfield RoadMayfield Heights 44124www.phoneambulance.comOwned by Tom Jenkins, the PhoneAmbulance offers to customers repair ofall major models of cell phones. The repair clinic and mobile “phone ambu-lance” offers everything from cosmeticrepair, such as fixes for crackedscreens, to repair from water damage.For cases in which the Phone Ambu-lance cannot repair a cell phone, a datarecovery service is available. Addi-tionally, the mobile Phone Ambulancetours malls and campuses, offeringon-site consultations and [email protected]
TAQUERIA JUNCTION8154 Columbia RoadOlmsted Falls 44138www.taqueriajunction.comTaqueria Junction is a modern Mexicanrestaurant with a full bar, open startingat 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.“Reception has been unbelievable,”general manager Jim Vecchio saidof the restaurant’s opening in Olmsted Falls. “It’s been a warmingintroduction to the neighborhood.”Mr. Vecchio said the restaurant,which also serves some food that isnot of the Mexican variety, offers dailyspecials such as free children’smeals on Mondays and special TacoTuesdays.440-793-6700
JAKE’S WAYBACK BURGERS1090 Williams Reserve Blvd.,Suite HWadsworth 44281www.waybackburgers.com Christine Elerick is the owner of a newfranchise of Jake’s Wayback Burgersin Wadsworth. Jake’s, founded in 1991,is a fast-casual restaurant chain with areputation for burgers and thick, hand-dipped milkshakes. Jake’s WaybackBurgers has locations throughout themid-Atlantic and is continuously expandingfranchises nationally. The Wadsworthlocation is the first in Ohio. Jake’s Wayback Burgers also has menu itemssuch as marinated grilled chickensandwiches, veggie burgers, turkeyburgers, salads and house-madechips, as well as a burger and shakeof the month. Phone 330-334-5045Fax 330-334-5413 [email protected]
KIDDIE KARGO8068 Columbia RoadOlmsted Falls 44138www.kiddiekargo.comOwned by sisters Nicole Rutkowski andMary Hamric, Kiddie Kargo is a resellerof children’s clothes. The store, locatedin the Grand Pacific Junction shoppingdistrict, sells everything from highchairs to strollers to toys and books;it buys items direct from sellers, ratherthan on consignment. Store hours are10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday throughSaturday. The store is closed Sunday.440-235-2700
To submit a new business, send thefollowing by email to Amy AnnStoessel at [email protected]:business name; address; city and ZIP;website; brief description of business;business phone number; businessfax number; business email address;and date that business opened.
GRANDOPENINGS
continued from PAGE 13
Expand: Building brand in new market key part of strategy
believes there’s enough of a marketto support a single shop, whichopened last week.
“We can’t really get much more(in Northeast Ohio),” said Mr.Armington, the vice president ofSun Valley’s umbrella company,Buckeye Sports Center Inc. “If wewant to grow, the only way to dothat is to branch out.”
Meanwhile, Scott Burfordopened his first Metro Burger location in Akron about threeyears ago, and while business hasbeen going well, investors haven’tapproached him about openingup other restaurants locally.
However, he’s fielded inquiriesfrom elsewhere in the country andhas plans to open stores in NewJersey, Florida and other locales in
order to keep building MetroBurger. In addition to its Akronstore, the company operates a location in Lake Mary, Fla., whichopened within the last year.
“It’s tough to justify investing,”said Mr. Burford, Metro Burger’sCEO. “You have to be in some areawith some change or growth or acombination of the two. That justdoesn’t seem to be happeninghere.”
What’s in a name?One of the challenges for
any business looking to expandbeyond its comfort zone is trans-lating a well-established brandfrom one market to another, according to Dr. Baker. For example, the Danny Vegh’s andHeinen’s names might not carrythe same cachet in their new locales.
Dr. Baker said establishing somesort of communications effort is avital step in securing one’s place inan otherwise foreign territory. Hesuggested getting the word outthrough trade shows or an Internetpresence to spread brand aware-ness.
“They must be able to build up
the integrity of the brand and edu-cate the potential customer aboutwhat makes it better,” Dr. Bakersaid. “They’re going to have to addsome value by doing somethingbetter or a similar job at a lowerprice.”
Ms. Vegh admits that cementingthe Danny Vegh’s brand into themind of Milwaukeeans is a loftytask, but noted that the companyhas had its fair share of good presscoverage in the region and haspartnerships in the pipeline tospread awareness.
“I’m prepared for the fact it’lltake time to build our brand,” shesaid. “There’s nothing about aquality-oriented company thathappens overnight.”
Dr. Brooks noted that whilethere’s often a bit of hubris involved in a company’s decisionto open in new locations, taking a close look at the many issuesthat could arise is important inavoiding the potential doom ofany new venture.
“Even if you’re an establishedcompany, when you’re going intoa new place, it’s basically a startupwith a lot of uncertainties of anynew startup,” he said. ■
“You need to listen whenyou’re in a new market. To me, you have to havesome competitiveadvantage...”
which is that it means continuedwork for his members. The member-ship includes about 350 people whonow work on six-cylinder Duratecengines in Brook Park but are expected to see their work on thatengine cease next year unless its production run is extended.
Mr. Gammella said he expects all350 of the Duratec workers to shiftover to the new engine. He expectsthe new engine to blunt the effects ofjob losses at Ford elsewhere, such as inWalton Hills, where a plant closing announced last week is expected toresult in about 400 layoffs over thenext four years.
“Those people have opportunitieshere as well, and that’s important,”said Mr. Gammella, adding thatunion rules will give preferentialtreatment to laid-off UAW membersin hiring for the new engine’s pro-duction line. Mr. Gammella estimatedthat, on top of his 350 workers at theDuratec plant, another 200 would beneeded to staff the line making thenew four-cylinder engine.
Small is beautifulMr. Gammella has been lobbying
for a small engine since gas pricesshot up in 2008 and buyers beganlooking for more fuel-efficient vehicles.
He said he believes that trend isstill in place and will continue — andnotes that it’s been one reason thatFord’s EcoBoost engine, also madein Brook Park, has been a popularoption for buyers. That engine usesa turbo-charger to get V8-like powerfrom a V6 engine, without sacrificingoverall fuel economy.
The plant getting a new enginealso could help other local manufac-turers. Some of them say an engineis the best part of an automobile tomake, because of its many parts andthe complex nature of its manufac-turing process.
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Ford: National UAW first must ratify proposed contractDrabik Manufacturing, a ma-
chining and fabrication shop onCleveland’s West Side, not far fromFord’s Brook Park plant, often doeswork for new plants that need largegears, rollers or other pieces ofequipment made for their startup.It may or may not get work directlyfrom Ford, said owner James Dra-bik, but he likes knowing that Fordis ramping up yet more productionnearby.
“Hell yeah, it’s good news,” Mr.Drabik said. “Even if I don’t getwork directly from it, it will trickledown to us. We need more plants tostart expanding like this.”
Ford officials declined to commenton the matter, pending approval of
the automaker’s proposed newcontract with the UAW, and referred all questions to the union.
Mr. Gammella said the onlything standing between his plantand the new engine work at thispoint is the national UAW’s ratifica-tion of the new Ford contract,which includes bringing the engineto Brook Park. The union is to voteon that contract next Monday, Oct.17. National UAW leaders have said they expect the contract to beapproved by their members.
Quality firstMr. Gammella said the credit for
the new engine coming to Brook Parkgoes to his members, who success-
fully took on production of the Eco-Boost engine in 2009. He said he hasno doubt that Ford has been closelymonitoring the quality of that newengine and that its satisfaction withit played a part in the decision tobring more work to Brook Park.
“Quality is very important to Ford,”Mr. Gammella said. “If we werebuilding junk, they wouldn’t awardus anything; we’d be shut down.”
He also noted the investmentslated for Brook Park — more than$250 million — is the second-largest amount that Ford said it willinvest in any of its 10 engine-making plants around the country.Its willingness to spend that muchmoney is a good sign it intends to
keep Brook Park for the long haul,he said.
“That’s real commitment. I’ll justleave it there,” he said.
While market conditions ulti-mately will determine demand,Ford told the union it thinks it willproduce about 260,000 of the four-cylinder engines per year, which ismore than the 250,000 Duratec engines it now makes in BrookPark, Mr. Gammella said.
A date for the start of productionhas not been set, but Mr. Gammellaestimated it would take a year orslightly longer to tool up for thenew engine from scratch in thenow-vacant portions of its mainplant in Brook Park. ■
Ex-tennis pro netsBainbridge club
The Wembley Club, a pri-vate tennis and swim clubin Bainbridge, has been
sold to a former professionaltennis player.
Owner Marc Duvin said he hassold the club to Rob Janecek, whoplayed on the ATP Tour from1987 to 1992 and again from1995 to 1998. Mr. Janecek alsoserved as an assistant tenniscoach at Vanderbilt University.
Terms were not disclosed. Mr.Duvin said Mr. Janecek plans tobroaden the club’s programming,with a special emphasis, ofcourse, on tennis. For instance,he said Mr. Janecek has “ideasfor great programming” relatedto tennis instruction for juniors,“taking it to a level we haven’tseen in Cleveland.”
Mr. Duvin and a partner haveowned the club since 2001.
Mr. Duvin said his ownershipof the club “was more about apassion for the club than for a financial home run.” He said heand his partner “both have otheropportunities … that were goingto be difficult to do with the clubin our possession.”
26Corrigan Krause2055 Crocker Road, Suite 300, Westlake 44145(440) 471-0800/www.corrigankrause.com
19 19 0.0% 28 32 NA NA NA NA Thomas L. Harrisonmanaging director
26Four-Fifteen Group4100 Holiday St., Canton 44718(330) 492-0094/www.415group.com
19 21 -9.5% 40 42 10 20 7 5 Frank J. Monacomanaging partner
Source: Information is supplied by the companies unless footnoted. Crain's Cleveland Business does not independently verify the information and there is no guarantee theselistings are complete or accurate. (1) Local refers to our fifteen county business list coverage area in Northeast Ohio.
that’s typical of 1960-vintage proper-ties that can be had for so little.
With sales activity improving atthe low end of the market and realestate developers reviving projects atthe opposite end of the price spec-trum, condo and townhouse salesmay be emerging from the doldrumsafter the housing collapse that struckthe region in 2005, long before theGreat Recession of 2008 made housinga national problem.
However, as the long, slow economicrecovery and volatile stock marketshow, any revival may not be immuneto setbacks.
According to statistics from theNorthern Ohio Regional MultipleListing Service (NORMLS), condosales through August, the most recentperiod available, had tipped intopositive territory, edging up 1.9% to1,965 units from 1,929 units in last year’s like period. Sales through August last year were up 16% from1,663 in the like period in 2009, butthat was due to a first-time home-buyer tax credit goosing sales to newbuyers and allowing empty nestersto downsize after they finally couldshed their larger single-family homes.
By contrast, the larger single-family residential market continuedto slide; it was down 3.1% to 19,704sold listings through August this yearfrom 20,331 in 2010’s like period.
Supply, demand edge closerThe other side of the condo and
townhouse equation is that the inventory of those units finally is declining. Year-to-date new listingsin the NORMLS category now standat 5,204 through August, down 11% from 5,836 in the first eightmonths of 2010, which essentiallywas unchanged from 5,831 units inthe like period of 2009.
Condo inventory also is movingsomewhat closer to actual sales. For example, the Zillow realty data website last Friday, Oct. 7, listed 35condos for sale in Euclid comparedwith 18 sales over the last nine months.
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Condos: Inventory levels dropping sold for between $346,000 to $430,000.The developers are using a one-acresite at Bluestone originally designedfor another loft building with 22units; the land now will house 16townhouses instead.
The bulk of Bluestone’s buyers,Mr. Lee said, are doctors rangingfrom residents to new staff physi-cians at University Circle health careinstitutions who have moved toCleveland from other areas.
Quality is his focus, Mr. Lee said,and most of his buyers want to bethe first person to live in a propertywith colors and finishes of theirchoosing. When talk turns to pricecuts, Mr. Lee has a ready answer thatreflects the times: “If you want tosteal a house, go someplace else.”
In a similar vein, Developer AndrewBrickman is down to one $400,000unit available for sale in the upscale27 Coltman project in Cleveland’sLittle Italy neighborhood, where hehas sold 26 homes on Coltman Roadsince 2008. Over in Rocky River, he’spreparing to launch the next buildingin the Eleven River condo project.
Picking up the leftoversNot all stories are so pleasant, though.For instance, condo units at Avalon
Station in Shaker Heights are backon the market after price cuts and alaborious takeover by its lender.
In Rocky River, the remaining unsold units of the 11-unit BeachcliffRow Condominiums have beenbought by WXZ Development fromthe original developer. WXZ paid$1.2 million for the nine unsold unitsand a site that is approved for 16more suites. WXZ President JamesWymer said in an email that it hasnot decided whether to continuecondos at the project or shift toapartment rentals; WXZ does both. ■
In Rocky River, 75 condos are for salecompared with 45 sales in the lastnine months. However, in condo- andapartment-rich Lakewood, condolistings numbered 85 compared with25 sales over the last nine months.
Much of the activity is at the lowend of the price range as investorsand bargain hunters seek foreclosedcondos, townhouses and other unitsthat often trade for less than newcars. Consider a recent Twitter tweetby a Cleveland woman: “Housing inCleveland is so cheap that my friendis selling a condo for $20,000. Andit’s near the lake.”
However, there also is activity at higher price points, which isprompting developers to put newproducts on the market.
Not blue at BluestoneAt the Bluestone Community, a
development in Cleveland Heightsby homebuilder Ken Lurie andapartment owner David Orlean,construction is under way on a new,$5 million phase, and buyers havebought in advance the six suites inthe first building of this phase. Project manager Eric Lee said the developers already are laying foun-dations — before cold weather setsin — to prepare additional units forthe spring.
Bluestone’s latest offering differsfrom its prior, four-story loft buildingwith 21 units and its cluster homes inan arts-and-crafts style with attachedtwo-car garages. Dubbed “Chicagostyle” and designed by City Architec-ture of Cleveland, the new phaseconsists of smaller, semi-attachedtownhouses with three stories and asingle garage and an outdoor parkingspace.
“We are building what people wantto buy,” Mr. Lee said. “Most buyerswant maintenance-free living (in acondo) in a house version. Cleve-landers want their own garages anda little seclusion.”
The Chicago-style units cost $209,000to $289,000; by contrast, the 14 arts-and-crafts style units all have been
Andrew Brickman,the developer behind 27 Coltmanin Little Italy andEleven River inRocky River. Onlyone unit remains at27 Coltman condoproject, while atEleven River, Mr.Brickman is preparing to beginanother phase.FILE PHOTO/MARC GOLUB
So why all the interest in a fairlyyoung incubator that has yet to produce a company that employsmore than a handful of people?
Two years ago, Paul Allen didn’tsee why Messrs. Goldstein andCaldwell were so excited about theidea. He used to tell Mr. Goldsteinto just forget about it and start hisown business.
Now Mr. Allen, a serial entrepre-neur who lived in Silicon Valley foreight years, sees things differently.LaunchHouse, he said, has createda place where creative people withbig ideas can meet and learn fromone another. Silicon Valley, NewYork City and Boston don’t needsuch places because, in those cities,entrepreneurs are everywhere.
In places such as Cleveland,though, they need a home, said Mr.Allen, who spent six months as interim director of LaunchHouse.Hence the demand for the incubator,where most people rent desks inone big room filled with whiteboards.
A sustainable pathOthers are excited about Launch-
House’s prospects, too. Amongthem is Jim Cossler, “chief evange-list” for the Youngstown BusinessIncubator. His incubator for severalyears has been attracting attentionto Youngstown, partly because thesoftware companies it houses havegrown to fill multiple buildingsalong West Federal Street, and partlybecause of its highly collaborativeculture.
Though the two incubators aredifferent —Youngstown’s focusesjust on one industry, business-to-business software, and its compa-nies rent more traditional offices —Mr. Cossler expects LaunchHouseto do well, too. He cited the long list of mentors who work with com-panies in the incubator, many ofwhom are well-known names in theregion’s business community. Healso pointed to Messrs. Goldsteinand Caldwell themselves.
“I’m not sure that you can findtwo people more passionate thanDar and Todd,” Mr. Cossler said.“They just breathe it. Hopefully,they can sustain it.”
They founded the incubator as
Goldstein, Caldwell & AssociatesInc. The for-profit company in 2008began investing in startups, a fewthousands dollars at a time.
Some of the startups set up shop inthe Goldstein Caldwell headquarters,a massively cramped, 700-square-foot office above a pizza parlor inUniversity Heights. The companymoved twice over the next threeyears before settling in at the formerZalud Oldsmobile dealership at thecorner of Lee Road and ChagrinBoulevard.
With the move, Goldstein Cald-well became the for-profit invest-ment arm of Shaker LaunchHouse,a nonprofit. The city of ShakerHeights, which recruited Launch-House to the site to help createmore jobs in the largely residentialcity, has spent $500,000 to renovatethe city-owned building and gavethe incubator four years of free rentin exchange for equity in its invest-ments.
Though LaunchHouse still ishunting for donations, grants andother support, Mr. Goldstein expectsLaunchHouse by January to startbringing in enough revenue to cover its costs. LaunchHouse —which rents out desks for $100 permonth and offices for $500 per
2200 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM OCTOBER 10 - 16, 2011
continued from PAGE 3
Launch: Communication with other entrepreneurs can helpmonth — has seven paid employees,some of whom work part time.Messrs. Goldstein and Caldwell arenot among them. They aim to makemoney through LaunchHouse’s for-profit investments.
“We are a very, very lean opera-tion,” Mr. Goldstein said.
Peer reviewDave Crain, director of entrepre-
neurship at Magnet, a Cleveland incubator for manufacturing com-panies, said LaunchHouse might becreating a conflict of interest by investing in the companies in its incubator, given that investors andentrepreneurs don’t always havethe same goals.
Nonetheless, Mr. Crain praisedthe culture of collaboration Launch-House has built in Shaker Heights.Though Mr. Crain works to buildbridges among Magnet’s tenants,the young information technologycompanies that make up many ofLaunchHouse’s clients may havemore to gain from collaboration, hesaid. Crosspollination opportunitiesare harder to find in later-stagecompanies in other industries becausetheir needs are more specialized,Mr. Crain said.
“What’s ultimately going to makethem successful is not whether theytalk to someone else in my incubator,”he said.
Simply working alongside otherentrepreneurs is big benefit, espe-cially for the many young people atLaunchHouse, said Bob Sopko,
manager of strategic technologypartnerships at Case Western ReserveUniversity. At LaunchHouse, youngentrepreneurs constantly are exposedto peers who have gone through thesame challenges they face, said Mr.Sopko, a LaunchHouse mentor anda board member at solar technologyfirm Sunflower Solutions, which received one of LaunchHouse’s firstinvestments.
Plus, entrepreneurs just likehanging out with like-minded people,Mr. Sopko said. He knows firsthand:He used to visit LaunchHouse twicea week and usually would getsucked into a long conversation.
“I wanted to hang around,” hesaid.
Through LaunchHouse, Rick Pollack — who is among the incu-bator’s tenants that have at least afew gray hairs — has met too manycollaborators to list. He mentioneda 3-D graphics company, a manu-facturing engineer and a fluent Chinese speaker who might helphim import parts for his company,which makes 3-D printers designedto turn ideas for products into pro-totypes.
The company, Maker Gear LLC,has space at LaunchHouse but operates mainly out of Mr. Pollack’sShaker Heights home. He aims toadd manufacturing in LaunchHouse’sservice bay as the company expands.
In time, other LaunchHousecompanies will expand, too, he said.
“A lot of it just needs time to takeroot and grow,” he said. ■
“You’re going to save themoney. ... This is reallygoing to help.” – Carole Sanderson, partner andCFO, Herschman Architects Inc.
state will limit its look back on taxesowed to January 2009, shaving severalyears off the department’s typicalseven-year audit. That cutoff couldmean “drastic savings” for somebusinesses, said Keri Boergert, taxmanager for Skoda Minotti, a CPA,business and financial advisory firmbased in Mayfield Village.
The state also will waive penaltiesand interest on back use taxes forthose who are eligible (see accompa-nying box).
“Be thankful,” says Ms. Sanderson,partner and chief financial officer of Herschman Architects Inc. inWarrensville Heights, which cameunder a use tax audit in January2010. “You’re going to save the moneyfor all the research and exhuming allthe files. You’ll save attorneys’ fees.This is really going to help.”
Though her firm can participate inthe new program, the state’s leniencycomes after Ms. Sanderson spentnights and weekends at the copier,producing five, three-ring binders ofinvoices dating back to 2003.
Still, she noted, the amnesty pro-gram likely will save her firm money.Its use tax liability has not been determined, but she knows it owedthe state $835 in 2010.
Out of the darknessDifferent from the voluntary dis-
closure program publicized earlierthis year by the state, the amnestyprogram was driven by legislatorswho asked the tax department to makeits so-called crackdown friendlier, saidJoe Testa, Ohio’s tax commissioner.
Though the use tax has been lawsince 1936, the department foundbusinesses “seemed to be very muchin the dark about it,” Mr. Testa said.
Before the state initiated its auditof Herschman Architects, Ms.Sanderson said she had no idea sheneeded to file use tax returns. Otherbusiness owners she’s talked to alsoweren’t aware, she said.
Skoda Minotti is contacting most,if not all, of its clients to make surethey take advantage of the amnestyprogram where applicable, said AmyGibson, senior tax manager. A lot ofcompanies handle use and sales taxesthemselves, she noted.
“Most states don’t waive all penal-ties and all interest, and allow you togo under a payment plan, and limitthe look back to such a short period,”Ms. Gibson said. “We’ve seen a lot ofamnesty programs through the state,and as far as I’m concerned, this isthe best one we have seen.”
More often than not, the Depart-ment of Taxation will find a use taxliability, Ms. Boergert said.
“There are very few people thatthey go in and don’t find anythingthat they’re doing wrong,” she said.
Mario J. Fazio, a tax partner withlaw firm Meyers, Roman, Friedberg& Lewis in Woodmere, agreed thatthe amnesty program presents agreat opportunity for businesses.
“It’s a quick way to get these casesresolved, and it’s such a reduction inthe amount of liability,” said Mr.Fazio, who has assisted HerschmanArchitects through its audit and hasa couple other clients undergoingtax use audits.
“Our message is, ‘Now’s the timeto get back into compliance, get thehouse in order,’” Mr. Fazio said.
Chasing revenueNationwide, tax amnesty pro-
grams have become more common
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Tax: Programs gain traction as way to collect revenuescontinued from PAGE 1
in the past five years as additionalsources of revenue for governmentsbecause tax revenues have declined,said Marj Kruse, Ohio’s deputy taxcommissioner for audit and compli-ance. The programs accelerate thecollection of revenue and infuse itinto current budgets, she said.
Ohio also has a general taxamnesty program set to begin nextMay that pertains to both businessand personal taxes. The state last
offered such a general program in2006, and this program is nearlyidentical to that one, Mr. Testa said.
About 16,000 businesses are regis-tered currently to file use tax, andmost of them are larger businesses,Mr. Testa said. There’s no estimatefor how many businesses are notregistered but should be.
“It could end up being very small,”Mr. Testa said. “We just don’t haveany way of determining that. Weknow there are some because thereare those that have been found during audit procedures.”
State officials did not have an esti-mate for how much tax revenue thestate may collect through theamnesty program. ■
PAY IT FORWARD
Wondering whether your firmis eligible for use tax amnestyand how you should proceed?Here are the details:
■ Who: Both those who are unregis-tered and registered to file use taxare eligible for use tax amnesty.However, interest will be chargedand payment plans aren’t available tothose who have been registered. Apayment plan is available for previ-ously unregistered filers if the usetax liability tops $1,000.
Businesses that were under auditwhen the program began will be
afforded amnesty benefits, dependingon the circumstances. (Willful evasionof the law precludes participation.)
Also, taxpayers who have been assessed for unpaid use tax in thepast are not eligible for amnesty.■ How: To participate in theamnesty program or for more infor-mation, access tax.ohio.gov. Aspreadsheet on the website assiststaxpayers in determining their use taxliability. Then, to register and makepayments, visit business.ohio.gov.■ Deadline: The amnesty programruns through May 1, 2013.SOURCE: OHIO DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION
programs it offers with a return oninvestment of about $400 per employee, per year.
“Like it or not, this is working,”Mr. Pshock said.
In 2007, the U.S. Department ofLabor issued regulations that madeit possible for employers to differ-entiate employee health care con-tributions based on each employee’slifestyle choices — a practice thathad been illegal.
The new rule went relatively unnoticed, Mr. Pshock said, andgiven the financial crunch manycompanies were facing, he zeroedin on the opportunity.
“It was becoming quickly understandable that most healthcare spending went towardlifestyle-related problems thatwere largely preventable,” hesaid. “We put employers in thedriver’s seat.”
Southwest General Health System in Middleburg Heightshired Bravo to conduct its wellnessoperation because of the company’sability to design a program andmeasure the results. Bravo helpedSouthwest General establish its employee communications aroundthe program, deliver health screeningsand track the results of wellness initiatives, such as Weight Watchers
and discounted gym memberships.Judy Murphy, the health sys-
tem’s executive director of human resources, couldn’t provide a dollarfigure for how much money South-west General had saved throughthe program. However, she notedthat the employee health assess-ments revealed significant weightloss and improved blood pressureamong participants after the program
was instituted.“We’re very pleased with the
results that we’ve been able tokeep health premiums prettyflat,” Ms. Murphy said. “They’vebeen flat to the organization andflat to the majority of employees,
with the exception being those whoare not meeting our wellness hopes.”
Something newWith Bravo now in full swing, Mr.
Pshock is taking a step back fromthe day-to-day operations of thecompany and has hired David R.Campbell as its new president. Pre-viously, Mr. Campbell was chief operating officer and chief financial
officer of Independence based-LifeLine Screening, which providesmobile medical screening servicesnationally.
Mr. Pshock will focus more onIncentiSoft Solutions, a Bravo subsidiary formed in May. Incenti-Soft offers information technologyproducts on an à la carte basis forwellness companies, insurancecompanies, health systems andothers to handle the back end oftheir wellness programs so that results can be tracked.
“Although this is an impressivestory, we’re just scratching the sur-face,” Mr. Pshock said. “There’sproof of concept and scalability.” ■
“We’re just scratching the surface. There’s proof of concept and scalability.” – Jim Pshock, founder, Bravo Wellness
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A one-in-a-millionevent? Not hardly■Brent Luce, a portfolio manager at LakefrontPartners L.P. in Beachwood, made an inter-esting observation last week in his LakefrontDaily Blog about a rare occurrence with theStandard & Poor’s 500 stock index.
Under the header “Coincidence,” Mr.Luce noted that the S&P 500 closed at thesame exact level on Oct. 3, 2011, as it did onOct. 3, 2008.
“The odds of this occurring are very low,”Mr. Luce wrote. “I roughly estimated theodds at about 1 in 20,000 in my head.”
Well, there’s no precise way to determinethe chances that the index would finish threeyears apart to the day at 1,099.23. But it’s abit higher than Mr. Luce’s quick estimate.
With the aid of Dr. Linda Quinn, collegeassociate lecturer in the mathematics department at Cleveland State Universityand a specialist in statistics, we took a swingat figuring out the probability ofidentical S&P closes on thosetwo dates — though even ournumber drastically under-estimates how rare an eventit truly is.
If you limit the universe ofpossible closing levels on Oct.3, 2008, for the S&P 500 to arange of 1,153.82 — its high for thatday — and its low of 1,098.14, the probabilityof the index finishing at 1,099.23 that day wasone in 5,568 (the difference between the highand low adjusted for removing the decimalpoint.)
Using the same parameters for Oct. 3,
2011, the S&P ranged from a high of 1,138.99to a low of 1,098.92, so the probability of theindex finishing at 1,099.23 that day was onein 4,007.
So, to determine the chance that the index would close at the same level on bothdays, you’d need to multiply 1/5568 (thefirst probability) times 1/4007 (the secondprobability).
The answer is one in 22,310,976.Of course, the above methodology
excludes all the closing numbers that theS&P index could have been on those dateshad we considered that the index couldhave soared above or fallen below its highand low points on both days. And we won’teven go into how odd it is that the match occurred on the same date.
But Mr. Luce is right — the odds are very low. Very, very, very low. — Mark Dodosh
Interest aplenty in Frozen Diamond Faceoff
■ More than 5,000 people have registered to purchase tickets before the general public for the
Ohio State-Michigan hockeygame set for Sunday, Jan. 15, at
Progressive Field. The event will conclude the
Indians’ second annual “Snow Days”attraction at the ballpark. The Indians
formally announced the event — dubbed“The Frozen Diamond Faceoff” — on Aug.11, and offered fans the chance to register tobuy tickets before the general public. Thosepublic sales will begin Nov. 14, though Indians spokesman Curtis Danburg said the
team still was working out details on whenregistrants would have first crack.
Mr. Danburg said the team has been selling group ticket packages since the details became official, and was happy withthe response to the registration opportunity.All but a chunk of the bleacher section of the43,000-seat ballpark are up for grabs; thosebleacher seats will be occupied by a gianttubing slide extending from that sectiononto the field. — Joel Hammond
At Kent State, drinkup on your own dime■ First a hiring freeze, then a 3.5% tuitionhike and now no more free coffee. Times aretough in higher education, especially considering that the Monday morning chatby the water cooler at Kent State Universityjust got a bit more expensive.
Kent State controller Tammy Slusser sent an e-mail to university employees lastweek reminding them that “beverages pur-chased with University funds provided sole-ly for employee consumption is prohibited.”
According to the e-mail obtained byCrain’s, some of the university’s employeeswanted to keep using their department’scoffee vendors and water coolers, which Ms.Slusser obliged — provided departmentheads collect the cash from employees to reimburse Kent State for the expenses. Serving beverages to visitors on the univer-sity’s tab is still permitted.
Employees also are forbidden from buyingpaper plates and utensils for departmentparties, according to the university’s updatedhospitality policy. — Timothy Magaw
MILESTONES
THE COMPANY: mbi | k2mTHE OCCASION: Its 10th anniversary
Director and founder Scott C. Maloney, aLEED-accredited architect, describes mbi |k2m as “a high-growth, entrepreneurial firm”with specializations in architecture, interiordesign, sustainability and ADA assessments,among other skills.
Since its founding, the firm says it has expanded through “strategic acquisition andorganically growing markets across the easternUnited States.” It also has offices in Char-lotte, N.C.; Key West, Fla.; and Washington,D.C. The firm has a staff of 25 professionals.
For information, go to www.mbi-k2m.com.
REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOKBEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS
THEINSIDER
THEWEEK OCTOBER 3 – 9
The big story: One Cleveland-area companyagreed to buy another in a $486 million deal.Polymer producer PolyOne Corp. in Avon Lakeplans to acquire ColorMatrix Group Inc., a supplier of liquid colorants, additives and fluo-ropolymers that is based in Berea. ColorMatrixhad sales of nearly $197 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amorti-zation of $43.6 million in the 12 months thatended last June 30. “Our purchase price of $486million recognizes the earnings and growth potential of this specialty business,” said StephenNewlin, PolyOne chairman, president and CEO.
Time for a facelift: A joint venture of SageHospitality of Denver and Optima ManagementCo. of Miami plans a $64 million renovation of
the Crowne Plaza Cleve-land City Centre hotel toconvert it to a Westin hotelafter buying the property.Sage, which will managethe hotel at 777 E. St. ClairAve., will close the propertyin mid-November for themassive renovation and reopen it under the luxuryWestin flag in July 2013.That timetable means thehotel should reopen shortlybefore the scheduled
completion of the Cleveland Medical Mart andConvention Center across East Sixth Street fromthe hotel.
Clear vision: Invacare Corp.’s chairman andformer CEO, A. Malachi Mixon III, and his wife,Barbara, donated $3 million to the ClevelandClinic’s Cole Eye Institute to establish an endowed faculty position in recognition of the sight-saving treatment the entrepreneur received. Dr. Daniel Martin, chairman of ColeEye Institute, will be the first person to hold theposition endowed by Mr. Mixon, who served aschairman of the Clinic’s board of directors from2003 to 2010.
Safe Harbor: Harbor Group International, areal estate owner and operator in Norfolk, Va.,closed on its acquisition of the 10-story parkinggarage at 515 Euclid Ave. from the estate ofAmTrust Financial Corp. Harbor paid $8.15 million at an auction for the 525-space garage,which cost $20 million to construct in 2005. T.Richard Litton Jr., Harbor Group president, saidHarbor Group acquired the garage based on therevenue it will produce from parking vehiclesand by leasing vacant retail space on its first floor.
Class act: Cleveland Mayor Frank Jacksonannounced a collaborative effort among 15grant-making bodies, the state’s colleges anduniversities and other civic organizations thataims to boost college attainment in the city.Known as the Higher Education Compact ofGreater Cleveland, the effort will developroadmaps for each participating organization toprovide better support for students earning degrees. It also will work with students to ensurethey’re ready for college and increase communityawareness about why college is important.
This and that: The Cleveland Cavaliers namedJohn Michael as their new radio play-by-play announcer, replacing the legendary Joe Tait. Mr.Michael served as the Lake Erie Monsters’ play-by-play man from 2007-09 before being hired byFox Sports Ohio to host home postgame showsand to conduct rinkside reporting for ColumbusBlue Jackets games. … Nextant Aerospace, acompany at Cuyahoga County Airport that remanufactures aircraft, said it received FederalAviation Administration certification for itsNextant 400XT aircraft, which it describes as theworld’s first completely remanufactured busi-ness jet.
OCTOBER 10 - 16, 2011 WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 23
BEST OF THE BLOGSExcerpts from recent blog entries onCrainsCleveland.com.
In Cleveland, keep a stiff(and hairy) upper lip■ If you were told the American MustacheInstitute has compiled a list of America’s 10most mustache-friendly cities, how likelydo you suppose it is thatCleveland made the list?
“An absolute certainty,”you say? Right!
Cleveland is seventh on thelist. Chicago is first, followedby Houston, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City, Detroit andMilwaukee.
How’d the group compilethis list?
“AMI researchers inter-viewed 200 MustachedAmericans in each of 100high-performing U.S. municipalities to deter-mine what makes their municipal region aflavor saving destination based on five keyindicators: Employment, Transportation,Entertainment/Sport, Culinary, and Educa-tion,” according to the institute.
The CEO discount isapplied when they speak■ Peter Klein, a senior portfolio manager atFifth Third Asset Management in Cleve-land, gets candid in a Reuters story aboutU.S. CEOs’ view that the economy “deteri-orated sharply in the third quarter.”
The story said the Business Roundtable’sCEO Economic Outlook index “dropped ... to77.6, its lowest reading since the fourthquarter of 2009.”
The darkening collective view from the140 CEOs surveyed from Aug. 29 throughSept. 16 “is at odds with the rosier picture thatindividual executives present to investors,”
Reuters noted.Other CEOs “have urged people to tune
out the recession worries that have contributed to market volatility,” accordingto the news service. For instance, GeneralElectric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt in August told students at Dartmouth College, “My advice to you is that your lifewould be better if you didn’t watch TV or
read the paper.” Reuterssaid the line “has (since) become a regular feature ofhis public comments.”
Mr. Klein told Reuters themismatch is to be expectedfrom a group whose jobs include trying to drive uptheir companies’ stock prices.
“They have to be cheer-leaders; that’s part of theirjobs. And it’s part of our jobsto be professional skeptics,”Mr. Klein said. “There’s a lot
of denial that goes on until there’s no moredenial. ... As an investor you have to reallydiscount a lot of that stuff as you hear it.”
Sounds like this is amust-see for movie buffs■ “Take Shelter,” a movie shot mostly inNortheast Ohio and produced by local film-maker Tyler Davidson, has opened in LosAngeles and New York to great reviews.
The film stars Oscar nominee MichaelShannon as a man plagued by nightmaresof an apocalyptic storm. Bloomberg’s re-view called it “ingeniously frightening.” InThe Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgensternsaid it’s “a dazzling piece of filmmaking” bydirector Jeff Nichols and that Mr. Shannongives a “towering performance.” Salon.comcritic Andrew O’Hehir went big and said it’sthe best American film so far this year.
“Take Shelter” is set to open in Clevelandin late October.
mbi | 2km’s Cleveland headquarters
THE COMPANY: Mussun Sales Inc.,ClevelandTHE OCCASION: Its 60th anniversary
The company, a manufacturer’s represen-tative and distributor for the heating, ventilat-ing and air conditioning industry, was found-ed in 1951 by William G. Mussun Jr. with asales office for a half-dozen product lines inthe Hanna Building in downtown Cleveland.
In 1993 the company’s headquarters movedto its current location, a 50,000-square-footwarehouse on Carnegie Avenue. It also has awarehouse in Columbus.
For information, visit www.mussun.com.
Peter Kirsanow, a partner in thelabor and employment prac-tice group at Benesch, concurs.
