In its third quarter manufacturing outlook survey, WIRE-Net, a non-profit economic development organization for the manufacturing industry in Northeast Ohio, found that Cleveland area manufacturers are having a good year and are optimistic that business will continue to be good.
 
Of the 89 WIRE-Net members who participated in the survey, half of the companies reported they anticipated increased profits in the upcoming year and 31 percent expected profits to equal last year. The majority of the companies were small manufacturers, with fewer than 50 employees and sales under $10 million annually.
 
In previous years, the top two concerns of WIRE-Net members were around attracting qualified workers and sales and new customers. This year, while respondents still reported that talent attraction was a top concern, other priorities shifted to costs.
 
“They are now talking materials, the Affordable Care Act and electricity costs,” explains Julie King, WIRE-Net’s vice president of resource development and communications. “Sales and customers must be flowing because it wasn’t a barrier. So that’s how we know companies are doing well.”
 
Tom Schullman, general manager of E.C. Kitzel and Sons, a tool manufacturer for the automotive, aerospace, small appliance and mining industries, participated in the survey and agrees with the results.
 
The 30-person company has started to see an increase in business this year. “Toward the end of the second quarter we saw kind of an uptick in business and it’s carried over into the third quarter,” he says.
 
Schullman describes sales as “brisk,” which bodes well for the overall manufacturing ecosystem. “We sell tooling and that’s considered a commodity -- our customers don’t purchase unless they have a need for it,” he explains. “We’ve added new customers in the last six months. The primary thing is our customers are getting busier and it’s causing them to increase orders to us.”
 
Among WIRE-Net members, manufacturing accounts for 21,000 jobs and $1 billion in wages in Northeast Ohio, which in turn is the engine behind 13,000 additional non-manufacturing jobs.
 

The Hudson-based Western Reserve School of Cooking (WRSOC) has been in existence for 42 years. It provides a variety of classes for professionals, amateurs and kids and features a small retail space stocked with kitchen gadgets. Now the institution is expanding to a storefront adjacent to Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen (CCLK), a pay-as-you-go commercial kitchen and food business incubator that is located at 2800 Euclid. The cooking school will open by the end of the year.

"It's a complementary relationship, and we're excited for the classes to start," says Carolyn Priemer, one of the founders of CCLK. "Previously, we had food, but we didn't have a space for entertainment and events."

Priemer also has hired Carl St. John, co-owner of WRSOC, to manage the CCLK kitchen. The new WRSOC will sell a limited range of kitchen gadgets and offer products created by CCLK's food-based businesses, which include Saucisson butchery, Cleveland Kraut and Red Lotus Foods. CCLK entrepreneurs also will help teach classes, workshops and demonstrations at the new school. 

St. John and his wife and partner Catherine are opening the cooking school to tap into a new market in Cleveland and join the city's food scene. They will offer single classes geared towards amateur cooks and use the space for corporate team-building events and other functions. The storefront can fit at least 30 to 40 people for cooking classes, and more for a demonstration. St. John says the event space also will be available for rentals. 

WRSOC offers classes in bread making, cake decorating, sushi rolling and more. There are Friday night date night classes and weeklong classes for professionals (these will remain in Hudson). Many are taught by Catherine, an experienced chef, but there are guest instructors as well. St. John says he hopes to partner with PlayhouseSquare and other institutions to offer an evening of entertainment where participants cook their own meal and then see a show.

St. John says the classes have grown in popularity. WRSOC is far more affordable than a fully-accredited cooking school, yet offers professionals a chance to break into the industry without the coveted degree. Over the years, the school has seen many of its graduates go on to work in the restaurant industry.

"The cooking school [in Hudson] is going great, but space is our biggest issue," says St. John. "We're turning down private events and corporate team-building events because we can only host 12 to 14 people. In our new space, we'll be able to have 30-40 people, and more for demos." 

Several Cleveland companies have new faces on their staffs. Here’s a rundown of who’s in new positions.
 
Ben Faller is the Home Repair Resource Center’s new executive director. Since 2009, Faller has served as a staff attorney and chief housing specialist for the Cleveland Housing Court, working to expand the court’s problem-solving programs and engaging in outreach and policy work on housing and property issues. He previously worked for the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland on housing issues and operated his own small business as a general contractor, specializing in residential remodeling. Ben is currently an adjunct professor of law at CWRU and serves as the board chairperson for Larchmere PorchFest.

2005 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Bill Nemeth has signed on to lead JumpStart's Burton D. Morgan Mentoring Program after exiting his own company, Mirifex Systems, which was named the fastest-growing IT consulting firm in the United States in the 2005 Inc. 500 list. In his role, Nemeth connects JumpStart’s network of experts with entrepreneurs who need advice and guidance.
 
Marilyn Mosinski is the new director of business recruitment and development for Slavic Village Development, where she will work with area businesses and recruit new commercial retail and industrial companies to the area. Mosinski joins Slavic Village Development from MidTown Cleveland, where she was manager of planning and development. She is a lifelong Slavic Village resident, and has been active in the neighborhood’s growth and success.
 
Have a new hire to share? Email Karin with the details and we’ll spread the word!
 

In the past five years, Cleveland has made significant progress towards becoming a “green city on a blue lake.” This year’s Sustainable Cleveland 2019 summit will focus on leveraging those successes. But how sustainable are we? A new report examines key indicators and highlights some of the newest, greenest projects across the city. 

In June, Cuyahoga Community College received a $650,000 grant from the Cleveland Foundation to help finance its One Door -- Many Options for Success initiative. The college-wide effort going into effect this year will expand Tri-C's service model, providing structured support services through student-centric college success teams and other programming.

Community college is a viable option for students seeking to save money while preparing to continue their studies at a four-year college. However, many undergraduates make costly and time-consuming mistakes before even getting to the transfer process. This potential nightmare can be avoided with careful planning done at the earliest stage of a student's academic career. Tri-C is not just streamlining this process to make transfer easier, it's promoting the importance of setting a direction the moment a student enters the institution.

Cuyahoga Community College's stated mission is to provide an affordable, high-quality learning experience for its diverse enrollment. Considering the amount of freshmen arriving on its doorstep each year, Tri-C has created an initiative to guide incoming students past the higher education threshold as painlessly as possible.
 
First Year Experience (FYE) is a multi-faceted, comprehensive introduction to Tri-C, says Dr. Michael Schoop, president of the school's Metropolitan Campus. The "campus support system" for new students folds the college's ordinary orientation procedures into a systematic, larger-scale effort meant to focus freshmen on long-term career and academic goals.
 
"Tri-C has long been interested in anything that can help more of our students become successful," says Schoop. "With so many of them new to the college experience, we needed a more structured approach."

Read the rest of the story here.
 

Fashion industry veteran Mary Peffer road-tripped across the U.S. to source vintage clothing for her new pop-up shop in the Gordon Square Arts District. The Cleveland native, who is a consultant in Los Angeles, sifted through estate sales in Boise, Idaho; rooted around at thrift stores in Portland, Oregon; and hunted in stores in North Carolina and Texas, to name a few. Now, Peffer's unique shop is set to open next week.

The NAVY PRoject, which is named after Peffer's communications consulting firm specializing in art, architecture, design, fashion and hospitality, will offer vintage, unisex, ready-to-wear clothing. Examples include vintage Levis, letterman jackets, vintage jackets, CPO jackets ("Chief Petty Officer") and deadstock army t-shirts. Peffer, who has worked for companies like Nanette Lepore and Saint Laurent, says that she was inspired by trends she saw on the runway. As a Cleveland native and lover of the city, she wanted to bring her ideas home.

"There's a lot of excitement about these fashion trends, but I think it's nonsense when I hear that everyone can't have access to it," says Peffer, whose store will open Friday, September 5th and remain open through October. "I thought, why not go to the source and give it to people for a different price?"

Peffer, who owns NAVY PR with her sister-in-law Melinda Peffer, says she's looking forward to being in Cleveland and spending time with family and friends. Her brother, Stephen Peffer, runs the Hausfrau record store in Gordon Square.

Peffer says the NAVY PRoject will launch a series of pop-up shops in emerging markets across the U.S. No details have been announced about future locations. Regarding her fashion road show, Peffer quips, "I thought, 'Well, if everyone just laughs in my face, I'll just keep everything and have this killer wardrobe.'"

The NAVY PRoject will be located at 6602 Detroit Avenue and will have regular hours from Wednesday through Sunday. Peffer says it will be a great place to hang out, with curated racks that are easy to browse and art from Brooklyn-based artist Savannah King of Third Eye and Cleveland illustrator Deanna First. The clothing will also be affordable, with everything priced under $100. 
 
 

Tampa Bay successfully hosted the Republicans in 2012, and Denver hosted the Democrats four years before that. Fresh Water decided to reach out to representatives from each city to see if our fair city could glean some best practices on how to pull off a successful -- and inclusive -- convention.

Tom Sarago, owner of Spruce, chose Borrow Rentals as the winning company to receive free marketing and PR services. Sarago, who started his full-service marketing communications firm earlier this summer, offered the services to one company as a way to promote Spruce and help a worthy company.

Spruce received about 20 applications for his services. Sarago chose a few finalists before naming Ann King, owner of Borrow Rentals as the winner. Borrow is an eclectic and vintage rental house for furniture and accessories to furnish any event. “I just found Ann intriguing,” says Sarago. “She’s clearly doing so much of a good thing, I can just step in and enhance.”
 
King, who read about the contest in Fresh Water, applied because she needed the services Spruce provides. “We are such a small boutique company – we don’t have a marketing department and we don’t know how to get in the press,” she says.
 
Professional photography firm Kalman and Pabst shot promotional photos of King as part of the package. Spruce will provide PR services. “"She needs some assistance in a couple of key areas and we're working to develop a plan on how to build new relationships," Sarago says of what he’ll provide. “She wants to find new audiences and engage her existing ones. We’re helping her with social media, starting a newsletter and we will issue regular press releases.”
 
Both Sarago and King see this as the start to an ongoing relationship. “He’s awesome,” says King. “He’s so great and I’m so excited to work together and try to promote our brands. Hopefully we can help each other out – mostly to promote Borrow.”
 
In addition to working with King, Sarago says he enjoyed meeting the other applicants. “It was wonderful to hear about all these companies doing some amazing things,” he says. “Companies I wouldn’t otherwise have met.”
 

It’s been a busy month for Ethan Holmes, founder of Holmes Mouthwatering Applesauce. The 20-year-old took home $500 from Entrovation earlier this summer before moving into the Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen (CCLK). He then launched an Indiegogo campaign in hopes of raising $1,500, but raised $2,274. He also received 100 pre-orders and produced 400 jars, or 5,000 ounces, of his original and cinnamon applesauce in two days during his first session at CCLK.

“Producing in the kitchen was challenging,” Holmes says. “I had never made such large quantities in such a short period of time.” But with the help of friends and family, Holmes filled his orders, then hand-delivered jars of applesauce in gift bags to all of the local contributors to the campaign.
 
Holmes plans to sell heavily at local farmers markets this fall and is in talks with area restaurants about some menu collaborations. He also is waiting to hear from some retailers about carrying the applesauce.
 
Holmes headed back to college last weekend feeling optimistic about the future of Holmes Mouthwatering Applesauce.
“It felt amazing to surpass my goal,” he says. “It was unbelievable to have so much support from family, friends and those interested in my product. I tried crowdfunding a year ago on Kickstarter and failed my goal, so having the strength to try again and actually being successful this time is such a great feeling to have.”

More than 16,000 people in the United States are on the waiting list for a liver transplant, yet 10,000 die before they get one. Cleveland Clinic transplant surgeon Koji Hashimoto has spent the last nine years researching the practice of splitting a donor liver between two recipients, thus reducing demand.

“There’s a big gap between supply and demand,” explains Hashimoto. “In many smaller recipients, the liver is too large. You can’t transplant a large liver into a small patient. So we can split the liver.”
 
Hashimoto performed split liver transplants in 25 patients in his study, which was published in the July American Journal of Transplantation. Some of Hashimoto’s patients received the left lobe of the liver, some received the right lobe. Two patients benefitted from one liver donated.
 
“The survival was the same as whole liver transplants,” says Hashimoto. “We’ve had an 80 percent survival rate after five years.”
 
Only a handful of hospitals are actively performing split liver transplants, with the Cleveland Clinic being one. “Many centers don’t do it because you have to have lots of people on the team and it’s very challenging,” Hashimoto explains. “With a split liver transplant you have two patients receiving livers at the same time. You have to divide the blood vessels too -- sometimes using microscopes in the transplant -- and one surgeon goes out to split the liver in the donor body.”
 
While the split liver allows surgeons to place an organ in smaller patients, such as children, larger patients benefit as well. “The liver is the only organ that can regenerate in the body,” says Hashimoto. “Eventually the liver will grow to the size to fit the patient.”

As a professional makeup artist, Lou McClung is well aware what goes into good (and bad) makeup. So he started making his own, ultimately opening up his own shop, Lusso Cosmetics, in Lakewood. “As a makeup artist, what I wanted to do was have my own products,” he says.
 
As one of the few independent cosmetics manufacturers in the country, McClung makes and sells his own lipstick, eye liner, lip gloss and powder. His products aren’t tested on animals and are fragrance-free. As much as possible, Lusso products are plant-based and made with beeswax.
 
McClung blends all of his own shades and he custom blends foundations and powders to match skin tones. He teaches his customers how to use his products with free consultations. “It’s really simple once I explain it,” he says. “No one ever took the time to show them. Most of my clients want to look natural and they’re surprised how little makeup they need – it’s about knowing where to put it. Having a quality product and finding what to do with the stuff is key.”
 
The satisfaction McClung gets comes in pleasing his clients. “I know when I’ve nailed it and have the right product or shade,” he says. “I love to see my clients enjoying it, and I know it enhances their lives.”
 
When McClung isn’t helping clients with their makeup needs, he’s restoring religious art. Four years ago he bought the entire closed St. Hedwig church parish and turned it into The Museum of Divine Statues -- a museum of religious artifacts. He’s purchased the artifacts from closed churches around Cleveland. He says the restoration process is pretty much the same as doing makeup, except he uses pigments and oil paints.

THe museum is open Sundays from noon to 4pm and private tours can be arranged for groups of 30 or more. McClung is hosting a fundraiser on Sept. 27 to keep the museum going.
 
McClung employs an assistant and lives in the priest’s house on the parish property.
 

More than 200 buses run between downtown Cleveland and Ohio City every day. At the same time, both areas have become increasingly popular places to work, live, shop, eat and play. So why not better market, brand and highlight the connections that exist between the two neighborhoods as part of a larger effort to encourage more people to use transit when traveling in and around downtown?

That's exactly what RTA has done with the introduction of the new Ohio City Connector, a branding, signage and marketing program that highlights how easy it is to get back and forth between Ohio City and downtown. With rebranded bus stops located at the corner of West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue and West 3rd Street and Superior Avenue, representatives say that the program will facilitate connections between the two neighborhoods and encourage new riders to hop on the bus.

"Connecting neighborhoods is the critical part," says Steve Bitto, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications with RTA. "We're also recognizing the opportunity that transit has with an emerging market like the Millennials. There are a lot of people who live downtown and in Ohio City that fall into that category. It's not all about getting into the car and driving. If it works, they’re going to take it."

Bitto says the service is akin to the popular trolley service that already exists downtown. The trolley service is free, yet RTA does not have funding to expand it. You have to pay bus fare to ride the Ohio City Connector, but officials tout the service as easy and convenient, a way to get from door to door in a few minutes.

Given the parking crunch that now exists in Ohio City and downtown, this service will no doubt prove popular, as drivers grow weary of fighting for a spot.

Case Western Reserve University has opened the new Tinkham Veale University Center just in time for the start of the school year. In the coming weeks, six new eateries will be unveiled. The addition of mouthwatering new venues like Melt University, the latest from Matt Fish of Melt Bar & Grilled fame; Naan, an Indian venue by James Beard Award nominee Chef Raghavan Iyer; and Cool Beanz, which will serve Zingerman's Coffee out of Ann Arbor, are enough to make us want to go back to school.

Fortunately, we won't have to. All of the venues are open to the public, and the soon-to-be-named restaurant (a student contest will determine its name) will serve a prix fixe menu when the orchestra plays in town. Cleveland Botanical Garden Executive Chef Tony Smoody will serve as chef of the restaurant.

Additional eateries include 8Twenty6, where customers can build their own salad from an eight-foot counter stocked with 20 seasonal ingredients and six housemade dressings, and Pinzas, which serves personal pizzas, pasta bowls and Italian sandwiches served on pagnotelle rolls. Melt University will serve items off the Melt Bar & Grilled menu as well as "exclusive CWRU-themed sandwiches only available at Melt U, the Case Western BBQ and The Spartan Burger," according to a press release from Bon Appetit Management, the food service company.

"This is an opportunity to showcase the beauty of regional Indian cooking," said Iyer during a recent visit to the university center. "What you typically see in the U.S. is just a sliver of Indian cooking, and what I bring is multi-regional cooking."

CWRU has a large population of foreign-born students, so the ethnic diversity of these options will no doubt prove popular. The university has not only transformed its physical environment in recent years, adding student amenities that create a more vibrant campus, but has also seen a dramatic increase in enrollment.

Previously, there was no full-service restaurant on the CWRU campus, and dining options were a bit limited. These six new eateries add to the increasing vibrancy that can be found on campus and throughout University Circle.

Alex Quintana grew up in Cleveland Heights, went to Heights High, and claims to have gone to college at the Tavern Company on Lee Road. (He was a bartender at that popular watering hole for five years.) Now, the Heights resident, who opened Quintana's Barber and Dream Spa with his wife Dawn 11 years ago, is expanding his footprint in the Cedar-Taylor area.

Quintana has purchased a building at 2190 South Taylor Road, immediately next door to the Colonial home where his business is located. They are now renovating the former beauty salon from top to bottom, inside and out. When the project is complete, the facade will be handsomely refreshed with new awnings, the interior will feature contemporary, brushed aluminum finishes and the entire place will be handicap-accessible.

"Nothing had been done to the interior since about 1984," says Quintana. "It had an interior like Mrs. Roper's beauty salon. We're making it more spa-like and modern."

Quintana's is unique, he says, because of the relationship between the two businesses, which are distinct yet complementary. The first-floor barbershop offers a "third place" for men outside of work and home, a kind of communal, comfortable man cave. The spa, which currently is housed on the upper floors, is a place where women can get massages, facials, manicures, pedicures and more. The renovation project will allow the spa to take over the former beauty salon, while the barbershop will gradually expand into the rest of the house.

Quintana says the Cedar-Taylor commercial district is becoming more vibrant. Not only are there fewer vacant storefronts than there were a few years ago, but the newly formed Cedar-Taylor Merchants Association is working on creating a new streetscape plan with public art and also forming a Special Improvement District.

All in all, Quintana is glad to be working in the Heights. "Cleveland Heights is a very unique community," he says. "Residents here are very passionate about where they choose to live. It's a pleasure to service this community."