VOL. 38, NO. 2 JANUARY 9 - 15, 2017 Source Lunch Akron City hopes Trump keeps infrastructure campaign promises. Page 16 Nurete Brenner, director The List of business programs at CLEVELAND BUSINESS Northeast Ohio’s top Ursuline College Page 15 SBA lenders Page 19 REAL ESTATE Survey: Rent rates are on rise downtown By STAN BULLARD [email protected] @CrainRltywriter Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the downtown Cleveland oce market is undergoing one of its biggest chang- es in more than two decade: Rents are inching up. Taking a new spin on the tradition- al year-end oce market survey, An- OUTLOOK drew Batson, director of research in the Great Lakes Region of the JLL re- alty brokerage, reported average ask- Will Trump’s ing rents in the city center climbed 2.5% this past year and promise to keep climbing through 2020 if no policies help new oce buildings go up. Look for Class A asking rents downtown, which currently average manufacturing $24.69 per square foot, to rise $1 per square foot by 2020 if rents appreci- gears turn? ate as expected for the next few years. Crain’s photo illustration by David Kordalski, iStock Older, less well-located oce buildings downtown, known as Class B, could benet from rents rising to By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY Manufacturers are waiting to see policy, he wants to reduce signi- Schulman Inc. in Fairlawn. ere’s op- $18.81 a square foot by 2020 from what impact President-elect Donald cantly the tax rate on businesses, tax timism surrounding the year, especial- $18.07 now. [email protected] Trump will have on their businesses. repatriation and eliminate “needless ly regarding the changes that could “Landlords are going to have some @ramccaerty Particular factors to watch include job-killing regulations.” come to the tax system for corpora- additional leverage going into this the implementation — or not — of But what companies are expecting tions and individuals, he said, but he year,” Batson said in an interview. One of the most signicant players new tax policies and federal regula- and what’s actually occurring haven’t hasn’t seen it lead to a surge in orders. Scott Pick, JLL Cleveland manag- in manufacturing this year isn’t actu- tions. It’s tough to say just what matched up yet, said Joseph M. Gingo, “e optimism has not turned into ing director, said, “e fact we’re ally in the industry: He’ll be in the Trump will aim to enact, but accord- chairman, president and CEO of plas- results,” Gingo said. speaking about rents increasing White House. ing to a fact sheet on his economic tic compounds and resins supplier A. SEE OUTLOOK, PAGE 17 speaks to the overall tightening of the market. We’re already seeing oce tenants start looking earlier for new DEVELOPMENT oces than in the past.” A few years ago, oce tenants tended to look for oces a year in Campus District is getting at-home feel advance, but he estimates they now begin looking 18 to 24 months ahead By JAY MILLER It’s gotten to the point where com- ing to improve working conditions by of their lease expiration. at’s the munity development planners have demanding things such as a 50-hour result of little construction in the of- [email protected] set in motion a plan to create a busi- work week. ce market generally during and af- @millerjh ness improvement district to turn an Now, the demand for downtown ter the Great Recession, which area once home mostly to machine living is spurring the activity. Devel- means tenants did not have new It’s been a while coming for Karen shops, electrical supply rms and the opers see the Campus District as an places to consider like they did in the Perkowski, but it’s looking like big like into a real residential neighbor- opportunity to meet some of that de- 1980s and 1990s. A new group of things will be happening in the Cam- hood. mand at a lower rent level than downtown oce owners from pus District, the area east of down- “We’re very excited to see the downtown. At the same time, the SEE SURVEY, PAGE 18 town Cleveland. changes,” said Perkowski, who with successful conversion of older oce her husband Doug and their rm buildings downtown to apartments Entire contents © 2017 by Crain Communications Inc. Tower Press Development, devel- and condominiums has created a oped the Tower Press building at class of oce tenants expelled from 1900 Superior Ave. 15 years ago and those downtown buildings who want have added several additional build- aordable oce space. ings along Superior to their portfolio Campus District Inc., the nonprof- more recently. it community development corpora- e building, like others along Eu- tion, has tallied a list of in progress clid, was a part of a turn-of-the-20th- development that totals $249.8 mil- century garment district. In 1911, lion, with additional properties ei- more than 2,000 members of the In- Global X purchased the building at ther currently on the market or with ternational Ladies’ Garment Work- 2101 Superior from Day Dan’s development potential. ers’ Union staged a strike here, seek- owner Daniel Gray. (David Kordalski) SEE DISTRICT, PAGE 9 PAGE 2 | JANUARY 9 - 15, 2017 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS Fusion will put best foot forward in 2017 By KEVIN KLEPS e players’ fees take some of the burden o trips the Fusion take to [email protected] such cities as Boston, Columbus, @KevinKleps Pittsburgh and Detroit. e players also help with fundraising, partici- When T.J. Monachino, the new pating in such events as guest bar- owner of the Cleveland Fusion, want- tending and selling squares for big ed to get the “best times” he could for sporting events. Riley and her team- three recent tryouts the women’s mates also appear at schools and professional football team held, he boys and girls clubs to raise some wound up with a trio of 9 p.m. slots at much-needed awareness. MultiPlex, an indoor facility in War- e WFA plays an April-to-June rensville Heights. schedule, and the Fusion sells tickets Welcome to the not-so-glamorous that cost $5 for students and seniors, world of the Women’s Football Alli- and $15 for adults. ance, a 65-team, full-contact league “If we ll the stands (at Maple in which the players pay to partici- Heights High School, where the Fu- pate, their health care isn’t covered sion play), the upside is huge. Eight and games are usually hosted at local thousand at 15 bucks a ticket — you high schools. do the math,” Monachino said. “But Monachino, a 28-year-old who the chance of that happening imme- also owns the rapidly growing Speedy diately in three months is pretty low. Oce Supply in Warrensville In anything I do, making money isn’t Heights, hopes to change some of The Cleveland Fusion were 4-4 in the 2016 regular season and lost to Boston in the first round of the my highest reason for doing it.” that — though he admits his pro Women’s Football Alliance playos. (Contributed photo) But he guarantees he won’t lose sports experience is a bit lacking. money on the Fusion, whose players “I have zero background in any of son, you don’t have a product to sell,’ ” Ohio in 2014, estimates that almost He’s served as Speedy Oce Sup- have told him the 15-year-old fran- this and I’m younger than most of Riley said. half of the Fusion’s players have chil- ply’s president since February 2012, chise would draw 2,500 fans a game the players,” said Monachino, who e owner agreed to let the team dren, and some even have grandkids. and he’s said the company has grown during really productive seasons. purchased the Fusion in October. keep the name and logo, and the play- “It’s denitely a challenge,” she “like crazy” in the last two years. In a 2015 story by e Nation, the “e rst team meeting was de- ers formed a nonprot to run the fran- said of a weekly in-season schedule Speedy has made ve acquisitions in WFA estimated the annual per-player nitely an event. ey were probably chise during a season in which the Fu- in which players often have “some the last 18 months, and its owner said cost at $2,200 to $2,500, which ac- thinking, ‘Who is this kid standing in sion nished 4-4 before losing to sort of team commitment” on ve of the company’s revenue has increased counted for such expenses as eld front of us?’ ” Boston in the rst round of the playos. the seven days. by “hundreds of percent” in the last rentals, equipment, uniforms, mar- Valerie Riley, a tight end and four- “We were spread pretty thin,” Riley Riley insists, however, that the three years. keting and travel. Riley said the Fu- year Women’s Football Alliance vet- said. “To get the word out, get sales, players don’t expect to be compen- His simple formula for the Fusion: sion will have “a minimum” of 35 to eran, said she was just happy that the get it out to the media — we were all sated, but it would be nice if at some Invest in the sta and organization, 40 players, and the ideal range is 45 organization seems to have an owner kind of going at it for the rst time.” point the team generated enough and promote the team as much as to 60.