Emerging Neighborhoods : Innovation + Job News

Elisabeth Sapell admits that she has a sweet tooth. But she also grew up in her family’s grocery store, Sapell’s Bi-Rite in Lakewood. So she paired her love for candy with her knowledge of the grocery store industry and will soon open the supermarket of candy stores, Candytropolis on Richmond Road across from Richmond Mall.

“It’s a large candy superstore,” Sapell explains. “It’s 6,000 square feet of pretty much every candy you can think of. You name it, it will be there. It’s a city with the streets lined with colorful candy fun.”
 
Sapell wanted to start her own business for a while before she came up with the idea for Candytropolis and joined Bad Girl Ventures' spring 2013 class. While she acknowledges the candy market is saturated, Sapell’s vision of a superstore that carries variety, specialty items and gift baskets, paired with a prominent online presence, will set her apart from the rest.
 
And Sapell has candy. “Candy makes everyone happy,” she gushes, pointing out that different candies conjure up nostalgic memories to any age. “It’s recession proof. Everyone wants a treat when times are tough.”
 
But Sapell also has a solid business plan in place. In fact, she was a finalist in the BGV business plan competition, and the experience helped solidify her vision.

“It was the opportunity to go to the classes, meet a lot of people and make connections,” she says. “And I wanted to be around like-minded people who wanted to do something on their own terms. It gets lonely when you’re trying to plan.” She also received an SBA loan after learning about the option through the BGV program.
 
Sapell recently hired an assistant manager and has candidates lined up for stock people, cashiers, a team leader and a social media specialist. Candytropolis is scheduled to open in September.

 
Source: Elisabeth Sapell
Writer: Karin Connelly

Jewels Johnson dabbled in a few different career paths before she found her true calling: baked goods. She grew up in Shaker Heights, went off to London, Charlotte, Las Vegas and Chicago before returning to Shaker in 2006 to work as a teacher at Shaker Heights High School.
 
Then, in 2011, armed with her grandmother’s recipe box, Johnson opened Sugar Plum Cake Company. “I’m a self-taught baker; my grandmother taught my mom and my mom taught me,” she says. “My inheritance was a 1937 KitchenAid mixer, the oldest known certified one that still works.”
 
Sugar Plum specializes in custom made cakes, cupcakes and other goodies. Everything is custom made to order. Johnson’s baked goods are so popular she quit her teaching job this year to concentrate on Sugar Plum full-time.
 
“For me, baking was really something to do during the summer,” Johnson says. “But it allowed me to quit my job two years later.” The business has taken off, and customers usually have to order at least a week in advance. Sugar Plum has 600 clients, with more than 400 being repeat customers. Johnson reports that sales have increased by at least 50 percent per quarter.
 
Earlier this month, Sugar Plum Cake Company was named the grand prize winner of the Spring 2013 Bad Girl Ventures Business Plan Competition. Johnson received a $25,000 loan to grow her business.
 
Johnson recently teamed up with Fresh Fork Market to develop a line of baking mixes using locally sourced flour and natural sweeteners, called Devour! Gourmet Baking Mixes. The line features a variety of cake, brownie, pancake and bread mixes. The line is available through Fresh Fork Market and Sugar Plum. Johnson is working with some additional retail sites to carry the Devour! line.
 
Johnson in the in the process of looking for a permanent location, where she intends to offer pop-up space for local artists while selling her cakes. She employs seasonal workers during peak times to help with deliveries and plans to hire three permanent employees this year to help with the Devour! production.

 
Source: Jewels Johnson
Writer: Karin Connelly

When Jack Bialosky founded Bialosky and Partners back in 1951, he was just 27 years old and fresh out of serving in World War II. His vision and determination as an architect prompted him to follow his entrepreneurial urges and break away from his employer to pursue the clients he wanted to serve.

“He was working for architect Charles Kohlman at the time,” says Jack Bialosky, Jr. “As more work started coming in, Kohlman wasn’t interested in taking it on. So, Dad went out on his own.”
 
The move paid off. The senior Bialosky began with single family residential homes, including some of the first modern homes in Shaker Heights. The homes were known as “Bialosky-Designed Homes” at the time.
 
The practice has expanded over the years to include some of Cleveland’s most notable structures. It began with designing the May Company building in University Heights -- the largest retail project in the country when built in 1951. “That was the beginning of a big commercial practice for us,” says Bialosky, Jr.
 
More recent retail structures include Eton Chagrin Boulevard and Crocker Park. The firm has designed buildings at Ursuline College and Tri-C’s hospitality management program as well as RTA’s headquarters. Bialosky and Partners also has a reputation for its religious buildings, like Cedar Road Synagogue.
 
“We’ve been in business long enough that a lot of our buildings have come down, but a lot of them also have become landmarks,” says Bialosky, Jr.
 
Today, Bialosky and Partners is a family-run business. Jack Jr. joined the firm in 1986 and brother William Bialosky heads up the New York offices. The firm has grown over time to 40 employees in Cleveland and six in New York. The firm has made the Weatherhead 100 three times, and the average tenure of employees is eight to 10 years -- a long time in the industry.
 
Bialosky Jr. credits their success with being a diverse architectural firm. “We were advised that if we wanted to grow we had to specialize or become boutique,” he says. “That didn’t sound like fun, so we bucked that advice, and it’s a good thing we did.”

 
Source: Jack Bialosky, Jr.
Writer: Karin Connelly

Motorcycle enthusiasts who want to take to the open road for an afternoon will be able to rent a BMW motorcycle through Eagle Rider Cleveland BMW, starting April 1. The company, a spinoff of Sill’s Motor Sales on Brookpark Road, will rent out six BMW motorcycles in four models, including the new BMW scooter and BMW’s top-of-the-line model with all the bells and whistles.
 
Customers can rent the bikes for a day or longer, or even do a one-way rental and drop the motorcycle off at one of nearly 60 Eagle Rider locations across the country. Pamela Dengler, president of Sill’s and partner of the rental venture, decided to offer the rentals after seeing Cleveland visitors longing for a ride.
 
“My staff and I for the past four or five years noticed customers come in with a ‘motorcycle fix,’” Dengler explains. “They are here, usually visiting the Cleveland Clinic, and they have time on their hands and they’re motorcycle people. They come in because they want to see what we have and then ask, Can I rent one?"
 
Locals who are curious about the BMW brand also can experience the bikes for a lengthy test drive. “In our demo program, you can’t take it for an extended ride,” Dengler says. “Now they can take it for a weekend, a week, or a month to try it out. We see it as an enhancement to our sales.” Riders who no longer have their own bikes can get their fix in, too.
 
The only requirement is renters must have a motorcycle license. Rentals go for $119 to $230 a day, with discounts available for longer term rentals. Sill’s Motor Sales has 11 people on staff to help with the rental venture. Dengler says if all goes well, she will be hiring additional staff. 

 
Source: Pamela Dengler
Writer: Karin Connelly

Expedient and Fast Switch are bringing their Tech Strategy event to Northeast Ohio. Started in 2007 in Columbus by Fast Switch, the Tech Strategy events are relaxed invitation-only networking events between senior level IT executives and promising technology startup companies.

Expedient got on board as a co-sponsor soon after the group’s inception, and now the two companies brought the concept to 70 attendees at  Lockkeepers in Independence on Tuesday, Feb. 26 for its inaugural Tech Strategy NEO. “I think it’s a great, unique concept for this area,” says Michael DeAloia, Expedient’s regional vice president. “It’s invitation-only to senior IT executives so they can meet with their peers while at the same time meeting with a select group of startups.”
 
The goal is to help the startups generate local customers, find advisory board candidates, access capital, gather employee referrals and receive business plan and strategy critiques. While the structure is casual, startup founders are given a short time to give their elevator pitches to the executives.

Eight startups pitched their companies, including Widdle, DragonID and J-Lynn Entertainment. Additionally, Fast Switch New Ventures and North Coast Angel Fund pitched to the group. “When was the last time a venture group pitched a room full of entrepreneurs,” asked DeAloia.
 
“It was a fascinating mix of people, creeds and generations in the room and I am always jazzed to be in the company of entrepreneurs and the energy and enthusiasm they possess,” says DeAloia. “I dig hanging out with the experienced executive and enjoy the opportunity to explore their experiences.”

No selling is a firm rule at these meetings, which will occur every two months, although DeAloia admits that occasionally the meetings have led to client relationships. The objective is to provide a casual yet controlled forum for executives to learn about technology start-ups in the region and explore ways to help them succeed. 
 
For information about future Tech Strategy events, contact DeAloia.
 
Source: Michael DeAloia
Writer: Karin Connelly


 
 

The city of Beachwood already is home to 2,500 businesses, and the city has long taken pride in providing services and amenities that make the city an attractive place to locate. Now Beachwood is launching a grant program to further entice new businesses and encourage existing businesses to expand.
 
The Job Creation Incentive Grant Program offers annual grant payments to companies. The payments are based on a percentage of payroll withholding taxes generated by new jobs. Businesses that relocate to Beachwood must create a minimum of 30 full-time jobs or a minimum annual payroll of $1 million within three years. An existing Beachwood company that expands within the city also qualifies for the grant under the same rules. Retail and food service businesses are not eligible.
 
Mayor Merle S. Gorden and city council must approve each grant application.
 
“We know that expansion of business is very important to the wellbeing of the community,” says Beachwood economic development director Jim Doutt. “Payroll is subject to income tax. A company would be able to get back some of that tax if it locates here.”
 
The program is just the first step in a larger economic development plan recommended after Gorden commissioned a study last October to position Beachwood for future business growth. City council approved the program on Feb. 4.
 
“This is just one element of a larger incentive framework we’ll be putting in place,” Doutt says. He has no estimates on how many jobs the incentive program may create in the city. “It’s anyone’s guess; we just hope it spurs job growth.”

 
Source: Jim Doutt
Writer: Karin Connelly

Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies (GLNT), which creates biomedical technologies, received Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approval to market its Kinesia technology in Australia. The technology is used to assess and find treatments for Parkinson’s disease.
 
“The Kinesia system is used for quantitative assessment of Parkinson’s motor systems, which include tremors, bradykinesia, or slow motor movements, and rigidity,” explains Joe Giuffrida, president and principal investigator at GLNT. Furthermore, Parkinson’s medications can cause side effects, including involuntary movements.
 
Kinesia hooks patients up to motion sensors that are in turn hooked into a computer. It has applications for both the doctor’s office and at home. Doctors can then monitor symptoms of the disease and patients’ responses to different medications and doses. The technology has multiple uses. “For patient care, doctors can assess the symptoms,” says Giuffrida. “Pharmaceutical companies developing new drugs can measure efficacy. And it can be used for deep brain stimulation.”
 
GLNT received FDA clearance to market in 2006, and permission to market in Europe a couple of years ago, says Giuffrida. “This continues our international growth,” he says. One in 350 Australians has Parkinson’s. Kinesia features a system for home users, which will help patients in the country’s remote locations. “Australia is an important place for us to come next.”
 
GLNT grew from 15 to 23 employees last year, and is hiring three additional people now.

 
Source: Joe Giuffrida
Writer: Karin Connelly

When Deej Lincoln bought Interior Products Company two years ago, he thought he would build upon the commercial millwork company’s reputation for creating beautiful libraries. While the company continues to do library work, a new business built on sustainability, recycling and a bit of nostalgia has evolved.

Reclaimed Cleveland harvests wood from Cleveland properties slated for demolition and turns what they find into functional works of art. “We wanted to build the business in a new direction, and we got into wood reclamation,” explains Lincoln. “The idea resonated with our Interior Products Company customers.”
 
From benches and console tables to bottle openers and iPhone skins, every Reclaimed Cleveland product is stamped with the address of the property from which it came. Much of the focus is on old homes, which have a lot of old-growth wood, and churches.
 
“Obviously, there’s a sustainability component to it,” says Lincoln. “But there’s an aesthetic component that comes from a talented designer.”
 
The inspiration to create products from reclaimed wood came almost out of necessity. “About a year ago, we were sitting on all this wood and we had no furniture designed or built,” says Lincoln. “I said we have to have some holiday gift items at a low price point.”
 
From there, Reclaimed Cleveland made a bottle opener and marketed it through flash sales. “We immediately sold out of them,” says Lincoln. “We were impressed and pleased with the fact it took off as well as it did. I regret as a company, we didn’t do it sooner.” The products have even found a following outside of Cleveland.
 
Aaron Gogolin, who co-founded A Piece of Cleveland (APOC), joined the company in 2011 He helped produce the original products for Reclaimed Cleveland and helps maintain assembly and design standards. David Meyers joined in 2011 and is key in new product designs and branding of Reclaimed Cleveland. The company employs a total of 12 people.

 
Source: Deej Lincoln
Writer: Karin Connelly

Cleveland native Marcellus Nealy was "window shopping" for a camera on the Internet when he came across information about Canon’s Project Imaginat10n contest. The contest involves director Ron Howard selecting 91 photos in 10 categories to be made into films by celebrity directors. Nealy decided to enter, and his photo “Sharing a Smoke” was named a winner in the “relationship” category.
 
"While I was window shopping I stumbled on a site that mentioned last year's contest,” recalls Nealy. “That site made me want to know more about this year's contest. I Googled it, saw that they were still taking submissions, and sent in some photos. I never actually expected to be a winner.”
 
Nealy grew up on Scoville Avenue and the Lee Harvard neighborhoods of Cleveland and attended John Carroll. He now spends most of his time in Tokyo, or with his sister in Willoughby Hills.
 
Nealy’s photo is one of the 91 that celebrity directors -- Eva Longoria, Jamie Foxx, designer and co-founder of Marchesa Georgina Chapman and James Murphy -- will pick from to use for their short films.
 
Nealy shot the photo while on a shoot for a Tokyo-based band. Two of the band members were sharing a cigarette when the inspiration hit Nealy. “Suddenly, I had a vision of them exchanging souls or some cosmic energy or the spirit of creativity or Anima, or whatever you want to call it,” he says. “I thought the smoke would be the best way to express this vision in a tangible way.”
 
The first five films are scheduled to go into production later this year and early 2013, with five more celebrity directors to be named at a later date.

 
Source: Marcellus Nealy
Writer: Karin Connelly

The Cleveland Museum of Art Womens Council will host a panel discussion on Wednesday, October 31 entitled Growing the City: Urban Garden and Neighborhood based Cooperatives. The talk will focus on the urban farming trend that is growing in Cleveland and the benefits gained from it.
 
As part of the discussion, the panel will talk about the more than 3,000 acres of vacant green space in the city -- about 11 percent of the city's total area -- and how planners hope to translate that space into 20,000 sustainable jobs in Northeast Ohio. “That’s just an estimate of what potentially could be done with the land,” says Jesus Sanchez, Green Corps youth manager for the Cleveland Botanical Garden and panel member. “A lot of groups, organizations and individuals that are taking urban gardening on are still looking for ways to contribute to the local economy. We’re still in the early stages, but it takes a collaborative effort.”
 
Jobs created from urban farming include everything from the actual tending of the crops and distribution to supply chain to the culinary industry, explains Natalie Ronayne, panelist executive director of the Cleveland Botanical Garden. She cites Green Corps as just one program that is preparing a workforce for urban farming.
 
“We’re trying to educate students for jobs for life,” she says of the program. “We’re trying to create a workforce ready for those jobs. That means understanding nature, biology, plants, community stewardship. And sustainability is woven throughout those things.”
 
There are more than 200 community gardens in the city and three dozen for-profit farms providing affordable produce. Other current projects include Green City Growers’ construction of a hydroponic greenhouse on E. 55th Street and Kinsman Avenue that will grow lettuce and herbs, and Rid-All Green Partnership’s farm on the Forgotten Triangle in the Kinsman neighborhood. “These are jobs you can live off of and feed a family,” says Ronayne.
 
In addition to Sanchez and Ronayne, other panelists include Cleveland city council member Joe Cimperman, and Joel Ratner, president and chief executive officer of Neighborhood Progress Inc. Plain Dealer columnist Mike McIntyre will moderate.
 
The event is presented by Circle Neighbors and will be held at 11 a.m. in the Cleveland Museum of Art recital hall. Go to the Womens Council website to RSVP.

 
Sources: Jesus Sanchez, Natalie Ronayne
Writer: Karin Connelly

Munchit co-founders Tim Holmes and Jon Dinardo were living worlds apart -- Holmes in London and Dinardo in Los Angeles -- but they had one thing in common: the desire to find a better way to snack.
 
“I was based in London and lived inside the city and ended up eating a lot of junk,” says Holmes, a native Brit. Meanwhile, Dinardo was living a fast-paced lifestyle on the west coast. The two, along with Holmes’ wife (and Dinardo’s sister) Nicole, were craving something better.
 
So the three moved back to Dinardo's Ohio hometown to start Munchit, an all-natural snack company. Munchit sells snack boxes, either on a weekly or monthly subscription basis, in which the buyer chooses from 25 wholesome snacks. Snacks feature things like dark chocolate espresso beans, nuts, cranberries, rolled dates and seed mixes. Each box features four different snacks.
 
“You log in and go through all our snacks,” explains Dinardo. “If you love 18 out of the 25 items we mix it up each time.”
 
Holmes and Dinardo source their products from small, local companies as well as national family-owned suppliers. “All of our food is 100-percent natural, with no preservatives or artificial colors,” says Dinardo. “The snacks are portion sized and are 180 calories.” They focus on environmental issues, keeping packaging to a minimum.
 
They decided to start the company in Cleveland to not only be close to family, but also for economical reasons. “Cleveland is a good area logistically because it’s very close to the hub of business,” says Holmes. “The cost of suppliers is right.”
 
Munchit currently is trying to raise $50,000 by Oct. 25 on Kickstarter. “Our goal right now is to launch and stay afloat in the short term,” says Holmes. “We want to make it past the first year. After that, the opportunities in the market are open to us to grow and expand.”
 
While right now it is a family affair, Holmes and Dinardo predict they will hire people to help with packaging and fulfillment as they grow. Eventually they plan to hire people to help with finance and bookkeeping.

 
Source: Jon Dinardo and Tim Holmes
Writer: Karin Connelly

The Blackstone LaunchPad program opened its doors on the Baldwin-Wallace College and Lorain County Community College campuses on Sept. 6 and 7 and will open at Kent State University later this month and CWRU in January.
 
The Burton D. Morgan Foundation in Hudson and the Blackstone Charitable Foundation announced last November that they had committed $3.2 million to open LaunchPad locations in Northeast Ohio to train area student entrepreneurs.
 
The LaunchPad is a venture coach program developed at the University of Miami, Florida in 2008. The program provides participants with advice and mentorship to take business ideas to fruition. Students are matched up with venture coaches to guide them through the development process.
 
“The real goal here is around education,” says Deborah D. Hoover, president  and CEO of the Burton D. Morgan Foundation. “We’re providing a strong education, it’s experiential. Our key approach to the program is about networking – obviously in Northeast Ohio and venture coaches, but also in the larger community and through the national network of LaunchPad locations.”
 
Hoover reports that the potential is there for 150 new sustainable companies in the next five years, which could generate as many as 3,000 jobs.
 
Amy Stursberg, executive director of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, says Northeast Ohio is an idea fit for LaunchPad. “We try to choose locations where we feel there is a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem and culture,” she says. “We’re leveraging those assets to jumpstart the region where it already exists.”
 
Kent State, which had a soft launch of LaunchPad this summer, already has 70 to 80 students involved in the program.
 

Sources: Deborah H. Hoover, Amy Stursberg
Writer: Karin Connelly

When Sonali Morris first enrolled her children (ages five and three) in swim classes while living in a Detroit suburb, it was a miserable experience.

"They were crying because they could see me sitting right on the pool deck and the water was very uncomfortable,” says Morris. “I had to go out and hide in the locker room area of the country club. I hated I couldn't see them taking lessons and had no idea what was happening.”
 
But then Morris discovered Goldfish Swim School, a swimming facility designed for kids four months to 12 years old.
 
“This was a place that really spoke to them, took the fear out of the water,” Morris says. The water is always 90 degrees, a four-to-one student teacher ratio and classes deigned to teach children to enjoy swimming. Private or semi-private lessons are offered. There’s also a snack bar, air-conditioned viewing room for parents and a pro shop.

Now, Morris and her husband Michael, along with Robert and Vicki Pietrick, are opening a Goldfish Swim School in Warrensville Heights. Construction has begun on a 8,900-square-foot facility and is expected to open in mid-November.

“We have a proprietary curriculum,” says Morris. “Swim school concepts aren’t new. We took the best practices and standardized it.”
 
Not only will the Goldfish Swim School teach children how to swim, the new facility will employ about 40 people year round. Morris is the general manager.

“We have a lot of part-time positions,” says Morris. “We need instructors, lifeguards, front desk workers and deck supervisors.”

 
Source: Sonali Morris
Writer: Karin Connelly

TOA Technologies, the provider of mobile workforce management solutions, has hired Brian Cook as the company’s CFO. Since its founding in 2003, TOA has steadily grown from a small startup company to the global company with 350 employees around the world and more than 40 in Cleveland.
 
Cook, whose background is in global technology, telecommunications and media companies, will help guide TOA through its projected future growth.

“Brian is a good match for TOA because he’s lived through our future and he’s also not far removed from our past,” says John Opdycke, vice president of worldwide marketing. “We need someone in a financial role who is familiar with a company that is small and nimble and growing quickly.”
 
Aside from Cook’s international business and telecommunications expertise, Opdycke says Cook is a good personality fit with TOA. “The cultural fit was there,” he says. “Personality fit is important because we are still a small company.”
 
TOA recently entered markets in Latin American, Australia and New Zealand and is expanding locally as well. “We have seven of the top U.S. pay-tv providers as customers,” says Opdycke. “As things are happening, you really need more people. We’re bringing on people almost every other week.”

 
Source: John Opdycke
Writer: Karin Connelly

The Cuyahoga Land Bank and Career Development and Placement Strategies, Inc. (CDPSI) have teamed up to create a pilot program to get formerly incarcerated fathers to work renovating houses. The pilot program, which began in November, puts participants through an intensive six-week program to teach them basic workmanship and professional skills. The participants then go into a six-month internship program with a supervisor in the field.
 
"The internships program is designed to assist men who are fathers trying to make a better way in their lives," explains Maurice Stevens, president of CDPSI. "They have displayed some interest in carpentry but have some barriers in transitioning to employments due to incarceration."
 
During the course of their internship the participants will earn $9 an hour and receive comprehensive training on the various aspects of home renovation. The interns will also receive entrepreneurship training focused on providing the basics necessary to start and run a renovation business as a sole proprietor. This training will introduce the interns to contract development, budgeting, mechanic’s liens, invoicing, insurance and bonding.
 
Once the interns have successfully completed the 560-hour training program, they will receive a Certificate of Completion, a recommendation from the general contractor that has been acting as their supervisor and will receive priority consideration from the Cuyahoga Land Bank for selected future renovation work.
 
“Our mission is to provide workforce and personal development training opportunities to our target population,” says Stevens. “Clearly, this partnership will create economic and job development for the Greater Cleveland area.”
 
Since November the program has hired four interns, two full-time supervisors and a general contractor. The goal is to renovate six houses and hire four interns a year through the program. One house on W. 157th Street has already been renovated and sold through the program, and two more are near completion.
 
Source: Maurice Stevens
Writer: Karin Connelly