While working from home has its benefits -- and is an increasing trend -- people often miss the social interaction that comes with working in an office. The Open Office is a co-working environment designed to provide temporary and permanent work environments for people who don't want their homes or local coffee shops to also serve as their main workspaces.

"Since 2005 there has been growth in just about every city," says founder Andrew Auten of the co-working concept. "People started working from home more, either through their companies or starting out on their own. People who work from home are not tethered to a building or a desk, but at the end of the day people get isolated."

The Open Office, scheduled to open this fall in the Coventry School building in Cleveland Heights, will offer workspace in a professional environment on a membership basis.

"Our target market is the solo entrepreneurs -- people who have struck out on their own," Auten explains. "My experience is a typical person has a boost of productivity working at home, because there are fewer distractions and they get a lot done, then it starts to dissipate."

Patrons can buy packages ranging from a day pass for a desk to resident offices. Members will have access to conference rooms, team rooms and a receptionist. "You can reserve these rooms for one-on-one meetings and client meetings," says Auten. "You'll have a clean, corporate space instead of a coffee shop or someplace else not always good to have meetings."

Auten is looking at additional space in Tyler Village on Superior and E. 36th.


Source: Andrew Auten
Writer: Karin Connelly

Joel Borwick has owned Seitz-Agin Hardware in Cleveland Heights for 38 of the store's 56 years. To loyal customers, he and his staff are well-known for dispensing home repair tips, doling out contractor referrals, and selling only what shoppers need.

The store has proudly survived the onslaught of big box stores. When Home Depot and Wal-Mart opened at nearby Severance, Seitz-Agin trundled on, propelled by a loyal fan base and friendly personal service. Years of customer appreciation awards and press clippings from local publications adorn the walls.

Now, after decades as a fixture on Lee Road, Seitz-Again will close its doors for good on June 18th. Borwick has inked a deal to sell the building to Heights merchant Bill Mitchell, who owns Mitchell's Fine Chocolates just down the block.

In the end, it wasn't the big box stores that did the shop in, explains Borwick. Ultimately, it was the economic downturn and change in consumer buying habits that bested Borwick. The store began losing money several years ago when its contractor business dropped off. When the housing market stalled, many contractors were out of work.

Today's homeowners also prefer to hire contractors rather than fix up homes themselves. And they look online first for products, Borwick says. This shift has made it tough for small hardware stores to keep their doors open.

Since news broke about Seitz-Agin's departure, a steady stream of customers have stopped by each day to purchase one last can of paint or tube of caulk, and to wish Borwick and his staff well and thank them for their years of service.

Mitchell says he hopes to find a new tenant for the Seitz-Agin storefront by Labor Day.


Source: Seitz-Agin
Writer: Lee Chilcote

A recent study by the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC) examines where artists are living in Northeast Ohio. Perhaps it's no surprise that artists tend to populate urban neighborhoods where they can find spacious, affordable housing (including space for studios), walkable streets, diversity and public spaces that foster social interaction.

The report shows that Cleveland Heights is Northeast Ohio's top community for artists -- collectively, the Cedar-Fairmount, Coventry, Severance, Forest Hills, Cedar-Lee and Shaker Square neighborhoods contain 19.4 percent of the region's artists. Other artist-rich neighborhoods include Little Italy/University Circle, Lakewood and Detroit Shoreway.

Yet CPAC's report, entitled "Putting Artists on the Map," also suggests that successful artist-based community development is about more than just counting galleries or lofts where artists congregate. Artist-based development builds relationships between artists and community members, fostering lasting ties that fuel the artist's creativity while aiding the neighborhood's redevelopment.

"Artist-based community development is more than opening an art gallery or having an artist move into a neighborhood," CPAC's report states. "This type of development involves the creation of a more organic relationship between artists and their neighbors."

"This can mean a neighborhood takes steps to identify its hidden arts and culture assets by finding its gathering places and influential figures. Artists can be engaged by making beautiful and interesting public spaces and help unite residents in the process."

The report suggests that neighborhoods like Cleveland Heights, University Circle and Detroit Shoreway should gear their community development programs and policies towards promoting artist-based community development. This spring, CPAC launched its own Artist Community Development Initiative.

To complete the analysis, CPAC mined the databases of large arts organizations such as the Ohio Arts Council to determine where artists live.


Source: CPAC
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Paula McLain was a critically acclaimed yet obscure writer eking out a living as an adjunct professor at John Carroll until she came up with the idea for "The Paris Wife," a novel told from the point of view of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife. After the novel was purchased by Ballantine Books for north of $500,000, it debuted at number nine on the New York Times best-seller list and has since remained in the top 20.

"Flour Girl" Bridget Cavanaugh Thiebault creates artfully decorated cakes, cookies and pastries that are as dreamy to gaze upon as they are to devour. In the past, however, her delectable confections were available only through custom orders or at special events. You practically had to get married to have a taste.

That will change later this month when Thiebault opens Luna Bakery and Café in the Cedar-Fairmount district of Cleveland Heights. Partnering with Stone Oven owners Tatyana Rehn and John Emerman, Thiebault has created an intimate, full-service café that will feature Flour Girl's made-from-scratch pastries, breakfast, lunch and dinner options, and for those who didn't get invited to the wedding, cake by the slice.

Thiebault lived and worked in New York City and Chicago as a pastry chef, food stylist and culinary consultant before returning to her hometown of Cleveland Heights to launch Flour Girl. Her business began as a creative side project while Thiebault was still living in the Big Apple, but quickly morphed into her main dish and has been going strong ever since.

Thiebault was looking for an opportunity to expand her business into a storefront when she broached the topic with Rehn and Emerman of the popular Stone Oven group of local cafes. The successful owners loved the idea and agreed to help. They promise that Luna will have its own distinctive identity, and won't try to duplicate Stone Oven's signature sandwiches, salads and soups.

Luna Bakery and Café will have indoor seating for about 15, with a sidewalk patio during the summer months. It will be open seven days a week and in the evenings.

Luna will be located at 2482 Fairmount Boulevard.


Source: Flour Girl
Writer: Lee Chilcote

While Northeast Ohio's retail vacancy rate remains stubbornly high at 12 percent, a Cleveland Heights nonprofit is defying this trend by expanding its art gallery into an empty storefront, adding performance space, classrooms and offices to serve the community.

Heights Arts, which operates a 900-square-foot gallery next to the Cedar Lee Theatre, decided last year to make the leap into an adjacent storefront that formerly housed a Japanese eatery. The group has so far raised more than $60,000 towards its $100,000 fundraising goal. Renovations are expected to be completed this year.

The new 2,400-square-foot storefront will serve as a multipurpose arts space. Heights Arts, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, plans to host more poetry readings, concerts and art openings. The group anticipates that some events will spill out into the adjacent mini-park, a gathering place for visitors in the bustling Cedar-Lee district, aiding the group's mission of bringing art into the community.

Cleveland-based Studio Techne Architects designed the expansion. The George Gund Foundation and the Cyrus Eaton Foundation have provided lead grants for the project.

Since being founded a decade ago, Heights Arts has completed a bevy of art projects, including the Coventry Peace Arch on Coventry, three large-scale murals, and Knitscape, a project to brighten Lee Road and Larchmere Boulevard with crocheted 'sweaters' on parking meters and trees. The group also manages the selection process for the Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate.


Source: Heights Arts
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Social media provides entrepreneurs with a great vehicle for communicating with current and potential clients. And like the companies they seek to promote, social media feeds often mimic the personality of their owners. But marketing experts warn that one size definitely does not fit all. What works for one type of business may come across as inappropriate for another.

Creative signs are making a comeback in Cleveland. Dramatic signage not only perks up a neighborhood visually, it makes them more competitive by helping indie retailers stand out from national chains. For proof, look at East Fourth Street.

When Cleveland Heights resident Michael Adams first got serious about making the switch from law to opening a restaurant, he looked at lots of forgettable locations -- "kind of cookie-cutter," he recalls. Then someone told him about a space on the second floor of the Rockefeller Building, at the corner of Mayfeild and Lee roads. For Adams, it was love at first sight.

"It's a gorgeous space," Adams says of the former bank, with its original, well-preserved stone floors, fireplace, plaster walls, oak rafters and soaring ceilings. "A space like that needs to be seen." And, thus, Rockefeller's was born.

The building, which now houses a Starbucks, sporting goods store and other retail on the first floor, was built in the 1930s by John D. Rockefeller Jr., as a commercial center for the family's residential development along the Cleveland Heights-East Cleveland border. Later, Ameritrust Bank occupied the second floor. After Ameritrust went out of business, a kitchen was added and for decades the site was rented out for parties and events.

A portion of the large space will be given over to a bar and lounge (with its own menu), while the rest will be reserved for more upscale dining. Adams, a first-time restaurateur, has hired Jill Vedaa as executive chef. Vedaa's resume includes stints at Lola, Flying Fig, Wine Bar in Rocky River, Mise and Saucy Bistro. Adams promises an American menu, with lots of local food and seasonal changes.

Rockefeller's is scheduled to open on January 11, 2011.


Source: Michael Adams
Writer: Frank W. Lewis

When Dobama Theatre was forced out of its longtime Coventry Road home in 2005, it marked the end of a nearly 40-year tradition of live theater in the Coventry Village neighborhood. But the recent drought will end next year when the Ensemble Theatre takes over a portion of the
old Coventry School building for classes and shows. Last week, Cleveland Heights Planning Commission approved their request for a zoning variance.

Ensemble, now in its 31st season, was founded in Cleveland Heights in 1979 and had performed at the old Civic until 2003. The company moved its performances to the Cleveland PlayHouse, at 8500 Euclid, but remained based in Cleveland Heights. Managing director Martin Cosentino said recently that the company is pleased to be returning home to its roots.

Coventry School, at 2843 Washington Blvd., has been vacant since 2007, aside from a short period when University Hospitals leased it for employee training. The city's approval of Ensemble's use allows performances for up to 150, plus classes and summer camps, from February through August. At press time, Ensemble's web site did not indicate any performances at Coventry for the three productions already announced for the 2010-2011 season, and Cosentino could not be reached.


Source: City of Cleveland Heights
Writer: Frank W. Lewis

When a Johnny Malloy's sports bar occupied the old Centrum Theatre on Coventry, management "honored" the once-grand movie house by installing an impressive array of video projectors and screens, to show multiple sporting events at once. Johnny Malloy's is now gone, and new occupant Fracas is taking a decidedly different approach.

Owner Phil Romano enlisted the aid of the Cleveland Heights Historical Society and Sherwin Williams to track down the colors the theater sported in the 1920s and '30s, which he describes as salmon pink and grayish green. "Somebody needed to do it right," says Romano, a first-time owner whose cooking resume includes Moxie, Greenbriar, Hyde Park and House of Blues.

Fracas is a gastropub, or as Roman explains, "a restaurant that just happens to have a bar." His menu, which he calls "a finer take on normal comfort and bar foods," will include a duck confit quesadilla, a grouper BLT, short ribs braised in Dogfish Head IPA, and "beer-a-misu," a porter-laced take on the popular Italian dessert.

The expansive bar from the Johnny Malloy's days remains, but all 16 taps now will dispense only local craft crews. Most of the 30 or so options in bottles will be crafts as well. By next spring, Romano plans to be brewing his own on-site.

Fracas will open in early December.


Source: Phil Romano
Writer: Frank W. Lewis

Bike-riding in the Cleveland area is up 50 percent since 2006, according to a recent survey by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA). Cleveland Heights is hoping to push the figure even higher in next year's survey with the addition of "sharrows" on city roads.

"Sharrow" is short for "share-the-road arrows," which are painted onto road surfaces. "You use them when you don't have enough room for a bike lane," explains Richard Wong, the city's director of planning and development. Sharrows are intended to remind bicyclists where they should ride -- with the flow of vehicular traffic, not against -- and to encourage drivers to share the road.

"They'll help reduce tension between bicyclists and motorists," says Nick Matthew of the Cleveland Heights Bicycle Coalition, which gathered more than 500 signatures on a petition urging the city to become one of the first in Northeast Ohio to adopt sharrows. Cleveland was the first, on Franklin Avenue.

Last week, just two months after the petition was presented to the city, sharrows were painted last week on Euclid Heights Boulevard, between Taylor and Coventry. (West of Coventry, where on-street parking is legal some hours, the city will install yellow "Share the Road" signs.) By next year, Wong says, the city plans to paint sharrows on Coventry, Lee and Fairmount.

Cleveland Heights ranks in the top 10 percent nationally for bicycle commuting by residents, according to data from the 2000 Census.



Source: Cleveland Heights Bicycle Coalition
Writer: Frank W. Lewis

The Civic Commons is a modern-day marriage of online technology, citizen journalism, and civic collaboration. The mission? To inform, engage and lead local residents to action on any number of weighty topics. Our guides: Dan Moulthrop and Noelle Celeste.

For almost two years, neighbors of the former Coventry School in Cleveland Heights looked forward to welcoming The Music Settlement to the community. The University Circle-based institution had planned to raze the Coventry building, which was closed in 2007, and build "a state-of-the-art early childhood learning center and training center."

That plan was abandoned in August, after Music Settlement concluded that it could not raise the $16 million to $19 million needed for the project. But the building — just off Coventry Road and adjacent to the popular Coventry Peace playground — won't necessary remain vacant forever. Nancy Peppler, president of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education, says that the school district and Music Settlement continue to discuss the latter's leasing space in the building.

Another possible tenant is Ensemble Theatre, which currently performs at Cleveland Play House. Managing Director Martin Cosentino says that Ensemble would like to use Coventry for shows and for classes, like the dramatic writing workshop that it now offers at Heights libraries.

The property is nearly surrounded by single-family homes, so zoning is an issue, Cosentino notes. Talks with the city and school board continue.

Ensemble is leaving the Playhouse next year, Cosentino says, adding, "We'd like to come back to the city. We're a Cleveland Heights company. It seems to me that [an arts center] is a use the neighbors could support. It's a win for us, a win for Music Settlement and a win for the neighborhood."



Source: Ensemble Theatre
Writer: Frank W. Lewis