VOL. 38, NO. 8 FEBRUARY 20 - 26, 2017 Source Lunch Inside look The Edison is opening doors for hundreds of luxury rentals. Page 3 The List Westfield Bank CEO CLEVELAND BUSINESS Top patent recipients gauges industry. Page 19 in the region Page 19 SPORTS BUSINESS Sandusky builds on tourism might Huge Sports Force Parks project will give Cedar Point a boost, too By KEVIN KLEPS Money maers How the $23.5 million Sports Force [email protected] Parks project is being funded: @KevinKleps $17 million: Funds from Erie County It’s not as if Cedar Point was hurt- bed taxes ing for visitors. In November, Cedar Fair — the $3.5 million: Cedar Point’s purchase Sandusky company that owns and op- of the former Gring Sandusky erates 11 theme parks and four water- Airport site parks in the U.S. and Canada — re- $3 million: Investment by The Sports ported that attendance jumped 2% Force of Canton, Ga. and out-of-park revenues spiked 6% in the rst three quarters of 2016. An annual report by emed Entertain- have time to make it to Cedar Point.’ ” ment Association said Cedar Point’s at sparked Cedar Point’s $3.5 2015 attendance increased 8%, to 3.51 million purchase of the former Gri- million visitors, edging Kings Island as ing Sandusky Airport site, and led to the top amusement park in Ohio. a partnership with e Sports Force, But Cedar Fair ocials believe a a Canton, Ga.-based company that massive, $23.5 million project that designs, builds, operates and main- ocially opens for business next tains sports facilities. month ensures that its agship prop- e Sports Force contributed $3 erty has all of its bases covered. million, and another $17 million in “Today, kids are overprogrammed. Erie County bed taxes produced ey have so many things to do,” said Sports Force Parks at Cedar Point Jason McClure, Cedar Point’s vice Sports Center — a 57-acre home of president and general manager. “One future baseball, softball, soccer and of the biggest summertime commit- lacrosse tournaments that will dou- ments is sports. We just heard from ble as a playground and Cedar Point The Sports Force Parks at Cedar Point will host 39 tournaments in its first year and is expected to draw about our guests, ‘We’re spending time and recruiting spot. 111,000 annual visitors by 2020. (Contributed photo) money on tournaments. We don’t SEE SANDUSKY, PAGE 15 EDUCATION State is adding to teachers’ challenges By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY would be required to take part in Board, which is made of business and get engaged with schools, he said. written broadly on purpose, Burgess some kind of “externship” in order to leaders, government ocials and ed- One of the budget proposals that said, as the state wants to leave it up to [email protected] renew their educator licenses, super- ucational administrators. has attracted a good deal of negative the local districts to decide what this @ramccaerty intendents would have to name three Ryan Burgess, director of the Gov- attention recently is the teacher “ex- looks like in practice. Ultimately, if this business people to non-voting posi- ernor’s Oce of Workforce Transfor- ternship” proposal. As written in the provision is passed, the state Board of Gov. John Kasich’s proposed two- tions on their school boards, and the mation, said the skills needed for to- House bill for the budget, teachers Education would write the rules, and year budget aims to more closely in- state would put a stronger focus on day’s jobs are changing rapidly, and would have to take part in some sort of local professional development com- tertwine business and pre-K-12 edu- work-based experiences for students. the state wants to make sure Ohioans “on-site work experience” with a busi- mittees would determine the specic cation. e proposals rose out of recom- are being appropriately trained. To ness or chamber of commerce so they parameters. It could end up being as Under the proposal for the scal mendations made in December by make that happen, business leaders can renew their teaching licenses. simple as planning a eld trip, he said. year 2018-2019 budget, teachers the Governor’s Executive Workforce really need to “roll up their sleeves” e language in the budget was SEE TEACHERS, PAGE 18 Entire contents © 2017 by Crain Communications Inc. Akron news << Industrial leagues helped Larry Brown get his start in basketball. Page 16 Ohio Gratings gets the job done on the river. Page 17 PAGE 2 | FEBRUARY 20 - 26, 2017 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS Datatrak’s numbers are finally in the black By CHUCK SODER man Alex Tabatabai, who led the ac- Topsy-turvy times ran, former vice president of legal af- tivist investor group. Datatrak’s legal fairs. Both lawsuits accuse Datatrak “This is the [email protected] costs fell partly because, days before A look at Datatrak’s closing stock of breaching their employment con- corporate @ChuckSoder the new management team took prices since March 2015: tracts, among other oenses. over, the company settled a patent Ward said he isn’t worried. He headquarters of First, activist investors took control lawsuit it had led against a compet- March 2, 2015 $5.50 feels like the company is moving in of Datatrak International. en, the itor called Medidata. the right direction. Datatrak — software company started doing “None of that was the core busi- May 1, 2015 $7.35 He also says that morale is high things it hadn’t done in a very long ness — the things that mattered,” Ta- July 1, 2015 $7.75 among employees, many of whom forever. This is the time. batabai said. “ ... We’ve done a 180.” have been with the company since he Like making money. And hiring Now Datatrak is reinvesting in a lo- Sept. 1, 2015 $7.05 left in 2008. corporate new employees at its Mayeld cal oce that had been slowly “I was so happy to see smiling fac- Heights oce — which no longer has shrinking. e company has hired Nov. 2, 2015 $5.30 es that I know,” said Ward, who re- headquarters.” to compete for the title of “headquar- several new sales people over the Jan. 4, 2016 $3.52 ceives an annual salary of $220,000, ters” now that Datatrak has closed past year and now has about 50 em- according to his Oct. 1, 2016, employ- — James R. Ward, CEO, Datatrak, the downtown Chicago oce that it ployees, including 30 people in March 1, 2016 $4.80 ment agreement. Before that, he was on the company’s Mayfield Heights opened in 2015. Northeast Ohio. On Monday, Feb. 20, making $1 per month, though he did oce e local oce wasn’t allowed to the company is scheduled to take May 2, 2016 $4.50 receive $155,000 in Datatrak stock to hire new employees under the previ- down a wall so that it can add 2,200 compensate him for that work. designed to help clinical research or- July 1, 2016 $5.40 ous management team, which was square feet to its 4,400-square-foot Granted, there still are problems to ganizations manage multiple clinical led by a CEO who lived in Chicago. oce at Landerbrook Corporate Sept. 1, 2016 $8.10 solve at Datatrak: e company’s rev- trials — and the people, budgets and But that team is gone: ey were Center, Ward said. enue was down through the rst nine timelines associated with those tri- kicked out by activist investors after a Ward works from the company’s Nov. 1, 2016 $7.80 months of 2016. als. It’s meant to work with Datatrak’s nasty proxy battle that gave the activ- small oce in College Station, Texas, For instance, it generated $2.14 existing product, which helps cus- ists total control over the board of di- but he emphasized that its base of Jan. 3, 2017 $10.00 million in sales during the third tomers capture clinical trial data. rectors at Datatrak, which makes operations is now in Mayeld Feb. 15, 2017 $8.67 quarter, down from $2.64 million e sales team also will have an software that’s used to manage clini- Heights. during the third quarter of 2015. e easier time selling under the new cal trials. “is is the corporate headquar- Source: OTC Markets company’s backlog of purchase com- management team, DeMell added. e team that replaced them ap- ters of Datatrak — forever. is is the mitments is down as well. e company previously required pears poised to stop Datatrak’s long corporate headquarters,” he said. ough revenue fell, not one client clients to sign what he described as money-losing streak: e company Ward has a history with Datatrak: of more than $1 million during scal left Datatrak during the leadership overly burdensome contracts, and it turned a prot of $886,000 during the He previously served as CEO of Click- 2014 — a year when it generated transition, said Scott DeMell, a long- didn’t oer enough price exibility. rst three quarters of 2016. If it posts Find, a Texas company that Datatrak about $11 million in sales. At the time employee who was recently pro- “at was a massive barrier,” he decent fourth-quarter numbers, then acquired in 2006. He left in 2008. at time, a Datatrak representative told moted to vice president of sales. said. 2016 will have been a banner year, year, Datatrak sued Ward and other Crain’s that the two executives chose “Every client we had then, we have He isn’t the only longtime employ- given that Datatrak has lost money former ClickFind shareholders, say- to take some of that money in stock, today,” he said.