Lawyer Looks Back in Time
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
VOL. 37, NO. 48 NOVEMBER 28 - DECEMBER 4, 2016 Business of Life Source Lunch Paul Clark discusses banking, a revived city and more. Page 20 On your mark, get set, The List go-kart — the next big CLEVELAND BUSINESS Northeast Ohio’s biggest team builder. Page 19 banks. Page 23 FINANCE MANUFACTURING Private POLITICS Akron, lab equity Lawyer looks back in time pair up to fi rm puts By JAY MILLER bring new [email protected] diversity @millerjh polymers Emulating his great-grandfa- ther, James Robenalt has juggled By DAN SHINGLER at its core several careers, which has al- lowed him to learn about several [email protected] By JEREMY NOBILE presidents — as well as his @DanShingler great-grandfather. @JeremyNobile His great-grandfather, William e University of Akron has a huge [email protected] W. Durbin, was a small-town new partner with big plans for what it Ohio lawyer from Kenton in the views as the nation’s top school for ere’s another new private equity early 20th century and a behind- polymer science research and tech- rm taking root in Cleveland, but it’s the-scenes Democratic activist nology. the rm’s focus on diversity in its in- who played a role in the presiden- Together, the university and Sand- vestment strategy that seems to be tial elections of Woodrow Wilson ia National Labo- setting it apart in a crowded and and Franklin Roosevelt. He also ratories hope to growing industry. was a magician (a one-time presi- make large e Inkwell Group launched earli- dent of the International Brother- strides in apply- er this month with base o ces in hood of Magicians, no less) who ing new material Cleveland and Washington, D.C. occasionally performed for War- science to ad- Co-founders Marques Martin, 33, ren Harding, a future president vanced manufac- and Chijioke Asomugha, 36, will be from nearby Marion. turing, transfer- looking nationwide for deals, but fo- Robenalt also is a lawyer, a ring new cusing predominantly on lower mid- partner at ompson Hine LLP in technology to in- dle market manufacturing and ser- Cleveland. But he’s not a magi- dustry and nd- Amis vice companies with up to $10 cian. Instead, he’s a writer who, in ing new ways to million in annual EBITDA (earnings part because of his great-grandfa- make some of the smallest things before interest, taxes, depreciation ther, writes about presidents. So mankind has ever created. and amortization). far, he has written about two of Sandia, the university’s new part- Besides having strong ties to the them — Harding and Richard ner thanks to a September agree- Cleveland investment market — Aso- Nixon — and he’s working on a ment to coordinate on research and mugha was formerly an executive book about FDR. share in the bene ts, might not be a vice president who oversaw mergers He believes Harding is under- household name, but it is a big deal and acquisitions at Solon-based estimated in part because he was on the nation’s tech scene and one of manufacturer ERICO International unfairly tarnished by scandals the U.S. Department of Energy’s ma- Corp. and a principal investor at Cy- that roiled Washington after his jor facilities. prium Partners, while Martin’s ré- sudden death, two-and-a-half e lab’s work, largely funded by sumé includes overseeing KeyBank’s years into his term of o ce in the DOE, is broad-based. Sandia is a small business team and serving as a 1923. Nixon, though, who re- chief source of research and develop- principal at e Riverside Co. in its signed in 1973 to avoid impeach- ment for systems that control, man- micro-cap fund — a presence here ment, is getting a fair shake from age and monitor nuclear weapons. It underscores the opportunity they see history, Robenalt believes, be- also works on technology for large for nding deals in Northeast Ohio cause he obstructed justice with energy projects and does a lot of sci- and the greater Midwest. the Watergate coverup. ence and development in areas such e challenge, of course, will be And Robenalt should know, as microscopic 3-D printing. If you nding the best companies ying un- since he has listened to the fa- need a giant solar array, a supercom- der competitors’ radar, particularly mous Watergate tapes. puter or the world’s largest X-ray gen- as fundraising in the private equity SEE ROBENALT , PAGE 21 erator, you can nd them at Sandia. space has been so strong. Between the lab’s direct employ- at’s resulting in a buildup of dry James Robenalt’s book, “January ees and a few thousand contractors powder as more dollars chase fewer 1973,” details a tumultuous who work there, about 12,000 people deals, Martin acknowledges, creating month for Richard Nixon. work at Sandia, said Mike Valley, the the seller’s market that’s prevailing Photographs: National Archive; lab’s senior manager for materials today as business valuations grow. Jay Miller science research and development. SEE INKWELL , PAGE 4 SEE AKRON, PAGE 22 Entire contents © 2016 by Crain Communications Inc. Crain’s General & In-house Counsel Meet them on Pages 13-18 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | NOVEMBER 28 - DECEMBER 4, 2016 | PAGE 3 Forest City may not go far for new headquarters By STAN BULLARD Forest City’s Linton put its prefer- ence less precisely, saying it wants [email protected] “to stay in the Central Business Dis- @CrainRltywriter trict with easy access to Public Square as about a third of our em- e front door to Forest City Realty ployees use public transportation.” Trust Inc.’s new corporate headquar- ters may be across Public Square at The big picture the 57-story Key Tower. at’s just steps — about 170 of them — from its Forest City also suered through Terminal Tower home. lean and rich times for the city on As the Cleveland-based real es- Public Square as Terminal Tower be- tate titan hunts for a new location came its headquarters in 1994 and its for its headquarters after selling Ter- 1985 purchase of the building and minal Tower to Willoughby-based associated properties put the rising, K&D Group, downtown oce bro- suburban-based developer on the kers consider it an open secret that map locally. Forest City is bound for Key Tower. Now Public Square is the place to One source familiar with the situa- be in downtown Cleveland, if only for tion said the parties are in the nal a snack or fresh air downtown after a stages of negotiating a deal but no massive renovation. For Forest City’s pens have been put to paper. He part, it’s now a national realty devel- asked not to be identied because oper with holdings from coast to he’s not cleared to speak for the coast. In August, it sold Terminal companies. Tower to apartment and oce build- Je Linton, Forest City spokesman, ing owner K&D, which plans to add said in a Nov. 22 phone interview that 200 apartments to the building, Key Tower “is certainly one of the mostly in oce space that Forest City buildings we would give serious con- agreed to vacate by 2018. sideration to, but we don’t have any e Terminal sale is part of Forest announcement to make today.” City’s plan to shed properties that are Moreover, if Forest City cuts a deal not in key markets such as New York for as many as eight oors at 127 and Dallas as part of its quest to Public Square, it may help owner Co- strengthen its stock price. e rm lumbia Property Trust Inc., of Atlan- has already shed multiple lines of ta, Ga., and prospective owner Valley Forest City could be shifting its headquarters from the Terminal Tower to the 57-story Key Tower. (Stan Bullard) business and transformed itself into View-based Millennia Housing con- a real estate investment trust earlier summate the sale of Cleveland’s tall- Key to the deal as accounting and consulting rm ird Center, 600 Superior Avenue, this year in hopes of boosting its cur- est building by preening the trophy heavyweight Deloitte. vied for the Forest City tenancy. rency with Wall Street. tower’s performance for lenders. Millennia CEO Frank Sinito de- For Columbia Property’s part, However, Coleman said he felt it e only building Forest City still With Forest City saying it is in the clined comment Nov. 22 when asked spokesman Bud Perrone issued an did not make the short list because owns downtown is Post Oce Plaza, market for 160,000 square feet to if his rm is wooing Forest City as a email on Forest City’s potential ten- the realty company wants adjoining 1500 West ird Street, considered house its 400-person corporate sta, prospective tenant for Ohio’s tallest ancy saying, “Columbia Property oors on the same elevator bank. an early favorite to become the com- a deal would slash Key Tower’s vol- oce tower. However, Sinito has in Trust is under contract to sell the Key Fifth ird had proposed moving pany’s new headquarters. ume of available space by half. More- the past conrmed Millennia is in Center and anticipates closing on the tenants around to put together However, leasing space at Key over, Millennia plans to move its pursuit of the building and talked transaction soon. We have not been enough space to house the company, Tower means Forest City does not headquarters to Key if it closes the about plans to upgrade the building privy to any conversations that the but on dierent oors and dierent have to undertake costly updates deal.