The development partnership behind the Music Box, a forthcoming supper club on the west bank of the Flats that will offer live music on two stages, will break ground this week. A demolition permit has been issued by the city, and the club will hold a soft opening in August and have a full concert lineup by September.

"The best part has been the breadth of support from around Cleveland," says Mike Miller, a boomerang who returned from Chicago with his wife, Colleen Miller, an experienced concert promoter. "People saw this as an important development for Cleveland, a new concept right on the river. While Cleveland has some great rock clubs spread out across the city, there isn't a downtown concert venue except for the House of Blues. If we’re going to have the Rock Hall and be the city that discovered rock, we should have another venue, and one that’s centrally located."

To pull off the project, Mike and Colleen Miller assembled a team of over 20 investors, including the Jacobs Group, owner of the former Club Coconuts space where the Music Box will be located. They also obtained financing from Key Bank and funding from the City of Cleveland's Vacant Property Initiative.

Krill Construction will handle the build-out. The architect is Dave Krebbs from AODK and the interior designer is Scott Richardson of the Richardson Group.

The basic architecture of the space, which has huge windows overlooking the Cuyahoga River, Flats East Bank and downtown, will remain the same. Construction will add new flooring and finishes, mechanicals, restrooms, two stages and an outdoor deck where guests can enjoy dinner and drinks overlooking the city.

Miller highlighted the support of the Jacobs Group and their vision for the west bank. Jacobs has already begun repositioning the Nautica complex as major event space to capitalize on the tourism wave that's hitting downtown Cleveland. Currently, the developer is working on a new master plan for the area.

The Music Box is located directly across from the new Flats East development, and plans are in the works to revive the water taxi service to better link the two areas.


Source: Mike Miller
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Detroit-based writer Matthew Lewis travels to Cleveland to check out the RTA HealthLine, one of the premier BRT systems in the nation. As his city debates its public transportation future, leaders can look to Cleveland as a beacon of hope, a place that has embraced transit and is now enjoying the benefits of its investments.

With the loss of the United Airlines hub in Cleveland, LeanDog Software owner Jon Stahl say's he's discovered a way perhaps to cut down on the size of his team while traveling to visit clients. It's a robot named Gilligan -- made by Double Robotics – that roams about the LeanDog boat, checking in with team members on a project.
 
The investment might be one solution to reduce air travel for businesses that go to customers or bring customers to their offices.
 
Stahl got Gilligan in January to cut down on the number of team members he needs when traveling to call on customers. “Instead of taking a large team to customer sites, we can send less people and then drive the robot around the boat and talk to anyone we need to,” Stahl explains. “I don’t need to have as many people travel with me just in case I need them in a meeting.”
 
Gilligan also helps Stahl stay in touch with his staff when he’s on the road for long stretches of time. “I can also use the robot to look at our visual management walls, attend our daily standup meetings, and just make an appearance,” he says. “We have been on the road for three weeks straight, and it’s nice to pop in when we can.”
 
Stahl finds the robot to be a more flexible alternative to video conferencing, which requires scheduling a time for the meeting. “With Gilligan, we can wake him up and drive him around the boat and talk to someone at any time,” he explains. “Soon, we can even drive it to the recharging docking bay. We tried to use Skype phones in the past and gave them to our customers – we bought 20 of them, but you need someone to answer the phone, so that solution didn’t work so well."
 
The only disadvantage to Gilligan is that he can’t climb stairs; he has wheels for legs.
 
LeanDog has a client in San Francisco who also is trying out the robot. Together, the two companies are experimenting with their robots to see if they might replace, or reduce, travel and improve communication.
 

Source: Jon Stahl
Writer: Karin Connelly

The 2014 Gay Games kick off August 9th with an expected 8,000 to 10,000 participants competing in some 40 sports. The comprehensive event will serve as the latest memo to the world that Cleveland is a sought-after host for large-scale events that add millions to the local economy.

Thanks to a partnership between the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), Sherwin-Williams, the Cleveland Foundation and Towards Employment, CMHA residents are getting hands-on training in commercial painting skills.

Sherwin-Williams instructors come in and teach participants about brush technique, taping and masking baseboards, cutting in and mixing paint. Students get one week of classroom instruction, followed by a week of hands-on training.
 
“We, as a housing authority, identify residents to participate and identify locations for painting,” explains CMHA manager of youth and adult services Robin Holmes. “We have plenty of housing and we always have plenty of areas for painting. It really benefits our residents in looking for opportunities to get training and get employment.”
 
About 60 percent of the program graduates have gone on to get jobs or start their own painting companies.
 
The program also provides classes in demolition and asbestos abatement. Participants can enroll in job readiness training and job placement assistance.
 
John Fitcheard is one such resident who took the class and went on to get a job thanks to it. While he has some interior painting experience, he figured he’d brush up on his skills. “I enrolled in the program because I was sitting at home and not doing anything else,” he says.
 
Fitcheard went on get a job with Precision Environmental doing asbestos abatement and continues to do painting jobs on the side.

 
Sources: Robin Holmes, John Fitcheard
Writer: Karin Connelly

It’s no secret that "destination" development is happening all across Cleveland. But thanks to the diligent work of community development corporations (CDCs), there also is a renewed focus on improving livability for the residents who call their neighborhoods home.

Thanks to a bevy of new accelerators and incubators -- all grooming startups to be the Next Big Thing -- the art of the pitch is more important now than ever. Whether it’s a casual elevator pitch or an intense 20-minute address to potential investors, there are some definite dos and don’ts to giving an effective pitch.

Whiskey aficionados sat up and took notice when Cleveland Whiskey hit the market last March. Founder Tom Lix’s “radically different” approach to making whiskey -- pressure aging the whiskey for a superior quality in a short period of time -- has been met with enthusiasm and praise.

“I think, if anything, we just had an incredible reception,” says Lix. “The support has been phenomenal, especially when we are doing things untraditionally.”
 
Cleveland Whiskey sold 50,000 bottles in 2012 and now employs 12 people. Today, Lix is producing 4,000 bottles a week. The company started selling in Illinois and Tennessee last year, has begun selling in Virginia, and is about to start distribution in Michigan.
 
“We want to make sure we can keep up with demand at our Cleveland home base,” says Lix. “We want slow growth, but our mission is to sell nationally and eventually overseas.”
 
During the holidays, Cleveland Whiskey released its Christmas Bourbon and is about to launch a new whiskey – 87 – a slightly lower proof version of the original. “It still has the same bold flavors but it's a little less strong,” explains Lix.
 
The Cleveland Whiskey group will contribute to a float in Cleveland’s St. Patrick’s Day parade that will feature Celtic band CRAIC. The team will host an after-parade party at McCarthy’s Downtown with another concert by CRAIC and, of course, some whiskey.

 
Source: Tom Lix
Writer: Karin Connelly
 

The City of Cleveland has installed 40 recycling bins downtown as part of its "ongoing efforts to increase recycling bins and materials diverted from landfills," according to a press release from the Office of Sustainability. The bins, which are being funded by Cleveland’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, are being rolled out as part of the Year of Zero Waste, which is part of Mayor Jackson's Sustainable Cleveland initiative.

“The presence of recycling bins downtown is a visible way for residents, employees and tourists to understand that Cleveland is committed to sustainability and to do their part by recycling,” said Jenita McGowan, Chief of Sustainability, in a release. “These bins not only provide opportunities for the public to recycle in high traffic areas downtown, but also increase the City’s recycling rates. We look forward to collecting metric information from these bins to inform future expansion of recycling in public spaces.”

The blue-lidded recycle bins have been placed next to existing waste receptacles. They are located between West 9th Street and East 12th Street from Lakeside Avenue to Prospect Avenue, and there are also some locations on Euclid Avenue near Playhouse Square and Cleveland State University.

For more information on the Year of Zero Waste, click here.


Source: Jenita McGowan
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Cleveland tech companies attracted venture and angel investments in 2013 amounting to pre-recession levels, according to JumpStart and a report released by the Venture Capital Advisory Task Force. One hundred and eighteen companies spanning IT, healthcare, clean tech, and business and consumer products received $259 million in equity investments last year, a 15-percent increase over the previous year.

“$259 million puts us up where we were pre-recession,” says JumpStart’s principal of communications Samantha Fryberger. “So that’s really good.”
 
IT companies led the way in investments. Sixty-six IT firms attracted $116 million, followed by 32 healthcare companies bringing in $98 million, and 15 clean technology businesses getting $44 million. Consumer products raised $1 million.
 
Furthermore, 27 of the investors were first-timers to the Northeast Ohio business community. “Year after year, there are investors finding we have great companies here,” says Fryberger. “More than 50 percent of the companies had angels involved in their deals, which means there are wealthy investors here who see good deals and want to put their dollars into these promising businesses.”
 
Seed companies fared well, securing 70 percent of the $259 million, according to the report, while companies in the early stages of growth followed the national trend and did not fare as well in Series A funding. Fryberger attributes the number of accelerators in the area fostering early business as one of the reasons seed funding was up. “We have more seed companies than ever before,” says Fryberger.
 
The news overall is good for growing companies in the area. “There’s certainly a great deal of entrepreneurial activity in Northeast Ohio,” notes Fryberger. “While a national shortage of Series A dollars could make fundraising more of a challenge for early stage businesses in the year ahead, it’s exciting to see new startups getting off the ground and some of the more mature companies attracting the capital they need to expand their market share.”


Source: Samantha Fryberger
Writer: Karin Connelly

OnShift, which provides online staff scheduling and labor solutions in healthcare, recently closed $7 million in Series C investment financing. The investors include HLM Venture Partners and five previous investors in OnShift.
 
OnShift CEO Mark Woodka said the money will be used to expand the company’s sales and marketing, product development and customer service departments. “We doubled our customer base last year, and we’re getting out of the gate this year pretty strong as well,” he says.
 
In response to its rapid growth, OnShift last year added 23 employees, 15 of which were new positions. Woodka predicts he will add another 20 to 30 new staffers in 2014. In fact, the company currently has 18 open positions.
 
OnShift’s staff scheduling software caters primarily to long-term care and senior living facilities, helping prevent overtime and scheduling gaps and increase efficiency. With the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, Woodka has seen a surge in business. He predicts that trend will continue as companies try to manage their costs and part-time employees.
 
OnShift is serving a virtually untapped market, with almost 85 percent of the senior living and long-term care industry lacking scheduling software. “They are mostly doing it on a piece of paper,” says Woodka. “The really advanced ones are doing it in Excel.”
 
Woodka continues to embrace Cleveland as the ideal home for OnShift. “Cleveland’s a great place,” he says. “We have access to great talent, with younger talent coming from Case and CSU, and the cost of doing business is one-third of what they are on the coasts. And we have the best view of downtown Cleveland.”

 
Source: Mark Woodka
Writer: Karin Connelly
 

Some storefronts sparkle with inviting merchandise, while others languish behind a layer of dust. For the latter, Cleveland's Storefront Renovation Program has been lending a helping hand to entrepreneurs for almost two decades with financial assistance for exterior improvements and signage.

Jonathon Sawyer, the award-winning chef behind Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat, is opening a new restaurant with his wife Amelia. The venue, to be called Trentina, will feature cuisine from the Trento region of northern Italy, where Amelia's family is from. It will open in the former Sergio's space in University Circle in the coming months.

Sawyer describes Trentina as a "passion project" that will allow him to pay tribute to his wife's heritage while introducing the cuisine of Northern Italy to a wider audience.

"I always had an affinity with 'the Boot,' as it were," he says. "When I started Bar Cento, it was really a Roman restaurant in the style of the street mongers of Rome. I didn’t want to repeat that, but I knew my wife’s family had tie-ins with Trento."
 
He traveled there and fell in love. "We subsequently returned -- more than 100 days in past four years, in fact. The thing I keep coming back to is how similar the growing seasons are in Trento and the Cuyahoga Valley. The indigenous people are very similar to the ethnic backgrounds of a lot of Clevelanders; there's Austrian, Swiss, Slovenian… so much more so than just straight-up Italian."

To help fund the restaurant and pay for some extras like a pasta extruder, wood-burning grill and double-sided hearth, Sawyer launched a Kickstarter campaign. The original goal was $21,999, but the project already has exceeded that amount by nearly $10,000 with 18 days still left to go.

So Sawyer set a new, loftier goal: "We want to be the most-funded hospitality Kickstarter campaign in Ohio, whatever that is," he jokes.

Sawyer certainly has earned his fan club, but the campaign rewards also don't hurt. For $100, you can take a cooking class that normally would cost $150. Three hundred bucks buys a cocktail named after you, while $600 gets you meals shipped to your home for six months. The list goes on and on, all the way up to dinner at your house for 20 of "your foodiest friends and family," cooked by the chef himself ($500).

Trentina will offer fine dining with showy tableside service like polenta seared over burning embers. Sawyer says, "For us, it will be the first time we'll be able to accurately portray cuisine with ingredients from just outside our back door."


Source: Jonathon Sawyer
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The historic Terminal Tower offices of the Van Sweringen brothers, the duo that built the iconic skyscraper and the streetcar suburb of Shaker Heights, will soon be occupied by a women-owned consulting firm that helps businesses and organizations embrace a more sustainable future.

BrownFlynn is relocating from Highland Heights to the tower's 36th floor. The firm, which provides sustainability consulting, communications and training, needs more space. The 7,000-square-foot office, boasting panoramic views of the city and located a few flights below the Observation Deck, will be completely renovated by the end of April.

"Clearly, we're committed to the city and want to be part of its vibrancy," says principal Margie Flynn. "We're committed to sustainability and want to make sure we're walking the talk in what we're doing. And the essence of sustainability is really historic preservation."

Flynn says her employees, many of whom live in the city, are very excited about being downtown. The office gives BrownFlynn room to grow, and the firm can welcome out-of-town guests via RTA's Red Line, which stops in Tower City.

"The space has a tremendous amount of natural light," Flynn comments. "We're going to adapt the space as a very open, collaborative work environment."

Vocon is helping to design the space, while Forest City, which owns the Terminal Tower and has been a major player in corporate sustainability nationwide, will facilitate renovations. Instead of reusing the massive corner offices as private suites, as the Vans once did, the principals plan to convert these spaces into open offices to encourage collaboration and stimulate creative thinking.

"The most important thing is to have a very open inviting environment for our team," says Flynn, adding that BrownFlynn could grow from 14 to 21 employees in the coming years to keep up with growing demand for its services.

BrownFlynn secured a job creation grant from the City of Cleveland to help facilitate the move.


Source: Margie Flynn
Writer: Lee Chilcote