Several Cleveland-based funding organizations have gotten together and pooled their money to help small businesses that otherwise would not have access to the capital they need to grow.

Under the Economic Community Development Institute (EDCI), which officially announced the launch of its Cleveland office on July 17, the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Huntington Bank, U.S. Small Business Administration, Commission on Economic Inclusion, The Business of Good Foundation, and the Cleveland Foundation have committed $4.6 million in resources.
 
Micro-loans will account for $4 million of the fund while the remaining $600,000 will provide training and technical assistance for Cleveland small businesses. A 2011 study by Friedman Associates, a national firm specializing in microfinance, estimated a need of $38 million for loans under $50,000 in Cuyahoga County, with the greatest gap among minority-owned businesses.
 
“Neighborhood businesses who would not otherwise have access to capital will benefit from these loans,” says Daniel P. Walsh, Huntington northeast Ohio president. “These loans really stabilize neighborhoods with the capital to achieve the American dream. It will reinvigorate those neighborhoods that need reinvestment.”
 
The average loan is between $15,000 and $20,000. Eight area businesses have already benefited from loans through the program, totaling $163,000. ECDI started a similar program in Columbus in 2004 and has made $11.4 million in loans to 700 small businesses, creating or retaining 1,955 jobs.
 
The majority of businesses who will benefit from the loans are five employees or fewer, explains Bob Eckardt, executive vice president of the Cleveland Foundation. “There’s a pretty significant gap in this community and this will support a wide range of businesses,” he says. “We’re trying to do a big-picture thing. It’s important to support the entrepreneurs by getting them the funding they need to grow big or hire employees.”

 
Source: Daniel P. Walsh, Bob Eckardt
Writer: Karin Connelly

Twenty teams came to LaunchHouse on July 18 to pitch their business ideas for a chance to be accepted into the inaugural LaunchHouse Accelerator program and a $25,000 investment in their businesses at the Tech UnConference.
 
LaunchHouse received a $200,000 grant from the Ohio Third Frontier ONEFund to invest in startups. During the Tech UnConference companies will present three-minute pitches to a panel of Cleveland-area experts. Following the pitch session, companies then had the opportunity to demo their internet, technology or mobile app startup company.
 
The judges will select 10 companies for the accelerator. More than 50 companies applied for the chance to pitch. The chosen companies will then participate in a 12-week program, in which they will have experience-based lab sessions with one on one mentorship, and opportunities to network with successful entrepreneurs.
 
The program curriculum is very customer focused, says LaunchHouse CEO and founder Todd Goldstein. “The companies we select have to be very customer-centric,” he explains. “The entrepreneurs will develop their companies with their clients, so at the end of the 12 weeks they’ve identified who is going to pay for their product and accelerate their business.”
 
Goldstein describes the accelerator as a formalized approach to helping companies. “Up to this point, admission have been on a rolling basis and very informal,” he says. “This is a formalization of the years we’ve spent helping companies.”
 
The 12-week program will conclude with a showcase day, when the businesses will present to investors and venture capitalists. The 10 companies will be announced on Aug.8, with classes beginning Sept. 4.
 
Source: Todd Goldstein
Writer: Karin Connelly

Ohio City attracts over three million visitors per year and has several thriving anchor institutions. Its population grew from 2000 to 2010 and the neighborhood has added 35-plus new businesses and 300 jobs in recent years.

All of this sounds pretty good, yet popularity inevitably comes with a price. This near west side neighborhood is now suffering the growing pains of any successful urban neighborhood that must balance the needs of residents, workers and visitors. In short, it's got a parking problem.

To address this problem, Ohio City is adopting a Multimodal Transportation Plan that places an emphasis on traffic calming, bike lanes, pedestrian friendly streets and public transportation. In acknowledgement of the fact that most of the area's visitors still arrive by car, the plan also offers remedies for the parking crunch.

The plan includes an emphasis on Complete Streets (bike lanes and traffic calming for pedestrians); transit oriented development (potential mixed-use housing adjacent to the West 25th rapid station); a comprehensive wayfinding system; parking solutions that include valet parking for visitors and employees, plus consolidation and paid parking in the West Side Market lot; a future structured parking garage; residential permit parking; and additional parking meters.

West Side Market tenants have expressed concerns about the notion of charging for parking in the market lot, yet Ohio City Inc. leaders are pushing for it. Free parking would be available in 90 minute increments for market shoppers. Right now, some people park in the market lot even when they aren't shopping there.

"The goal of the Plan is to provide as many transportation options as possible so that the community is not too dependent on surface parking as the only option for visitors," the plan states. "Increasing access to safe bike and pedestrian infrastructure will increase the number of trips to Ohio City by foot or by bike."

Discussions are ongoing, and vendors are pushing for two hours of free parking (the city prefers 90 minutes). The city would like to see the new parking system in place by spring of next year, but the vendors have the power to block the deal.

"We believe the plan provides smart solutions to eliminating parking congestion and will lead to a more easily navigable and safer neighborhood for all of our visitors," says Eric Wobser, Executive Director of Ohio City Inc. He adds that he hopes that an agreement with vendors will be hammered out this month.



Source: Ohio City Inc.
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Give Camp launches its third year in Cleveland this weekend, helping 24 nonprofit organizations develop websites, web-based applications, mobile apps, databases and all that is technical in a three-day whirlwind event at Lean Dog Software and Burke Lakefront Airport.
 
During the weekend, technology professionals, developers, designers, database administrators, marketing professionals and others donate their time to help area nonprofit organizations with a wide range of projects.
 
Give Camp began in 2007 as an idea by a Miscosoft executive as a way to give back to local charities in Dallas. Cleveland Give Camp has grown each year.

“The fact that we’re popular is one of the challenges we’ve had this year,” says spokesperson Amy Wong. “It was so great the last two years, people really want to be involved with the event.”

Last year's camp was valued at $500,000 and year one was valued at $250,000 worth of work performed.
 
Wong expects more than 200 people to turn out this weekend. Part of the reason Give Camp has grown in popularity is the fact that it’s a great opportunity to network. “There are so many diverse people, which is why it’s a great networking event,” explains Wong. “Companies come down as a team, independent tech geeks come down because they want to be a part of something cool.”

Organizers look at need, budget, and scope of the project in selecting the organizations they help. This year, Give Camp Cleveland is one of the beneficiaries. “We’re project number 25,” Wong says. “We need a new website. We joke we’re the cobbler who doesn’t have his own shoes.”

 
Source: Amy Wong
Writer: Karin Connelly

The grassroots, pro-Cleveland music collective Cellar Door is launching a new performance space, Cleveland-only record store and office space in the Loftworks building at East 40th and Superior.

The creative space, which features antique wood floors, high ceilings and large windows, is intended to not only foster a "community among listeners" among local music fans, but also to reach people who are unaware of Cleveland's distinctive music scene.

"Local bands like Herzog are taking off nationally, but once you step outside of the in-the-know crowd, a lot of people have no idea," says founder Justin Markert, who has operated Cellar Door as a record label for years with his partner, Rick Fike. "We want to bring not-so-well-known artists to a bigger audience."

Markert says that Cellar Door will also be an eclectic, anything-goes art space featuring films, fiction readings, art shows and candid, behind-the-scenes conversations with emerging bands or artists. Cellar Door also manages a blog that curates the best of the local music scene.

A launch party featuring local bands is slated for Friday, July 27th at 7 p.m. at 1667 E. 40th Street, Suite 2G.


Source: Justin Markert
Writer: Lee Chilcote

What if we viewed Cleveland as a startup? "The ingredients for a successful startup and a successful city are remarkably similar," argues tech blogger Jon Bischke. You need to build stuff that people want. You need to attract talent. And you need capital to get your fledgling ideas to a point of sustainability.

On the heels of two successful biomedical job fairs, Global Cleveland, in partnership with NEOSA, will host a week-long online IT job fair August 20 to 24.
 
The demand for tech people is high. In a recent survey of area technology companies, 82 percent have current job openings and 73 percent expect to hire additional staff this year. The job fair is designed attract qualified technology professionals from not only Cleveland, but across the country.
 
“We are targeting 30 to 35 employers to each post a few jobs openings,” says Global Cleveland president Larry Miller. “It’s great visibility in a short period of time.”
 
Officials at Global Cleveland have found the online jobs fairs to be an effective way to recruit. The biomedical jobs fairs in March and June attracted more than 9,000 people to the site, with nearly 1,800 applications filed.
 
The event is free for job seekers. Employers have two options: For $275 they can post up to three jobs and have unlimited internship postings on the Cleveland Recruiting Company, a private LinkedIn group of 1,200. For $525 employers receive additional access to Global Cleveland’s job search databases.
 
“In the world of recruiting, it’s a very inexpensive way to get the word out,” says Miller. “Every employer we have talked to has told us about the need for talented employees. It’s difficult to find the IT talent they need.”
 
If the IT job fair is successful, Miller says they probably will hold another one in a couple of months.

 
Source: Larry Miller
Writer: Karin Connelly

Backers call it a win-win-win: through an innovative development arrangement with Midtown Cleveland Inc., the City of Cleveland is moving forward on a new Third District police station. Leaders say it will make the neighborhood safer, catalyze development and free up two prominent properties in University Circle and Midtown for potential future redevelopment.

The new $17.5 million facility is slated to be built on the former Ward Bakery site at Chester Ave. and East 45th Street. The first new police station to be built in the City of Cleveland in more than three decades, it would consolidate the existing Third District police station at Chester Ave. and East 107th Street and the administrative offices located at Payne Ave. and East 21st Street.

The new station in the heart of the Health-Tech Corridor would also make the neighborhood safer without negatively impacting response times to surrounding areas, leaders say. The long vacant site would be infused with new life that could catalyze development in the area. Finally, the first floor will feature a police memorial and a community room that can be rented for special events.

In a recent community meeting, Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson promised that the project would help to break down barriers between residents and police by emphasizing community policing and offering a welcoming environment.

Midtown Cleveland, which can access grant funding such as New Markets Tax Credits that the city is not eligible for, will develop the property and gradually transfer it to the city. The building will be a green structure that is LEED certified (Leadership in Energy, Efficiency and Design) and will save the city money.


Source: Midtown Cleveland Inc.
Writer: Lee Chilcote

After 14 years in business, Blue Star Design founder Julia Briggs can tackle just about every type of project that comes her way. Business is booming and now she’s challenged with managing the tremendous growth the firm is experiencing.
 
A graphic designer by training, Biggs started Blue Star out of her house. Blue Star has doubled in size since January, growing from three to six employees plus a part-time sales/business advisor, and they outsource to 25 companies in Cleveland. Blue Star recently garnered the 250 votes needed to go forward in the Chase and Living Social Mission: Small Business grant contest. The votes earned Briggs the right to apply for one of a dozen $250,000 grants.
 
The money would allow Briggs to hire some additional people. First she would make the sales/business advisor a full time position. Other positions would include a graphic designer, an additional operations manager, and an IT development person.
 
“It’s been crazy,” says Briggs. “Last year at this time there were three of us. Our goal is to hire local, or help our partners hire local. We’re not quite sure what person will be needed at what time, but we want to do it smartly.”
 
Briggs will find out in September if Blue Star won one of the grants. In the meantime she is also applying for the Goldman-Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative. She is hoping the 11-week program will offer some useful insight into managing business growth.
 
“It’s the opportunity I was hunting for,” she says of the program. “It typically tends to be an expensive venture when you hire an advisor like that.”

 
Source: Julia Briggs
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

Since its launch in February, eFuneral has steadily grown as a resource for families searching for the right funeral provider. Now founders Mike Belsito and Bryan Chaikin are taking the company, which came out of the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business' 10-Xelerator last summer, to another level.
 
eFuneral recently announced a partnership with Hospice of Dayton. "Ever since we launched, some of our biggest supporters have come from the hospice community," says Belsito. "When patients enter hospice and don't have a funeral home picked out, they rely on hospice professionals for advice, but hospice employees are not allowed to make recommendations."
 
While Belsito and Chaikin have primarily focused on tapping the Northeast Ohio market, eFuneral decided to approach Hospice of Dayton, which is the second largest hospice in Ohio and one of the largest in the country.
 
The company has thrived in the Cleveland area -- users can get seven to eight quotes from funeral homes within minutes -- and Belsito is confident they will have the same success down state. eFuneral has hired two additional employees this year, most recently a software engineer.

 
Source: Mike Belsito
Writer: Karin Connelly

The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA) celebrated the completion of the stainless steel cladding being installed on its new home with a signing-off ceremony this week. The date when the glittering, gem-like new building opens its doors to the public is only months away, and that's when the true celebration will begin.

On a recent media tour of the building, the beautifully plotted details of the new museum were evident in raw form. A few of the finer points include the first floor lounge with coffee and free wi-fi that will function as an "urban living room;" the 1,000-square-foot store that will become a destination for visitors and residents alike; and an architectural emphasis on transparency that makes the museum a place where visitors can view the process whereby installations are created. 

Other prominent details include the first floor lecture and performance space, windows offering great views of the Uptown District and a breathtaking fourth floor main gallery space with a vaulted ceiling and uninterrupted floor plan.



Source: MOCA
Writer: Lee Chilcote

With the aid of a $500,000 economic development loan from the city, a former cement company's headquarters in Cleveland Heights will soon be converted into a 120-person call center.

The Medusa Cement Company occupied the building on Monticello until the late 1990s. Founded 120 years ago, the company was originally called the Portland Sandusky Cement Company. It was later renamed after Medusa, the fearsome Greek gorgon whose gaze turned men to stone. Medusa thrived in the post-war building boom. It moved its headquarters to Houston in 1999 after a merger.

Medusa Holdings, LLC applied for a loan through the city's commercial revolving loan fund program. In exchange for receiving favorable, below market terms, the developer committed to creating 120 full-time jobs. At least 51 percent of those jobs must be made available to or held by low- to moderate-income individuals.

Two-thirds of the $500,000 loan will carry a 3.5% annual interest rate and a 10-year repayment term following a one-year deferral. Up to $200,000 of the loan may be forgiven at a rate of $50,000 per year for every year during which 100 full-time equivalent jobs are maintained at the call center prior to 2018.

"This is an exciting opportunity for the Medusa building to be rejuvenated into a call center," says Suzanna Niermann O'Neill, Acting City Manager for the City of Cleveland Heights. "The whole area between the community center and the Rockefeller building has been refreshed with new restaurants and new businesses."

Nierman-O'Neill noted that this kind of economic development will bring revenue to the city's coffers and that the call center will serve nonprofit organizations.


Source: Suzanna Nierman-O'Neill
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Joddy Eric Matthews originally moved from Cleveland to Los Angeles to pursue his animation and filmmaking work. But after nearly eight years working for the likes of Sony, Pixar and DreamWorks, Matthews returned to Cleveland and created MadWerkz Studios in 2000, an animation and visual effects design firm.
 
Matthews and minority partners Rique D. Winston and Peter Li Cheung were glad to once again call Cleveland home.

“All of us had spent a good portion of time in L.A. and New York, but after a while the extreme workloads associated with working in Hollywood takes its toll," Matthews says. “We were all feeling a bit burnt out. It was time to come home to the people who love you.”  
 
And Matthews has found the area is rich with design talent. “Now I get a chance to work on some pretty good films,” he says. “And there’s a wealth of talent here a lot of people don’t see. There are small teams of people here working on really big films.”
 
Matthews and his team of six full time creators have built a solid reputation through their work on commercials for Chrysler, General Motors and other companies as well as two films. They are currently working with a visual effects company in London. “We’re becoming more global and we didn’t have to be in L.A.,” he says.
 
While business is good at MadWerkz Studios -- from post production work to feature films -- Matthews hopes to continue to build on their services and keep promoting Cleveland as the go-to place for the film industry.

“It’s a lot of long hours and lots of hard work, but it’s pretty fun,” he says.

 
Source: Joddy Eric Matthews
Writer: Karin Connelly