Matt Strayer and his business partner, Aj Mihalic, had a vision: To be able to streamline all of their social network accounts into one place. The two were running a website and graphic design firm while in college, but they were burnt out and looking for something different.

During a bike ride through the Metroparks in 2012, that vision started to come into focus. “I said, ‘Why do I have to have to go to all these different sites to see my posts,’” he recalls. “Why can’t I just go to one site? And Aj said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
 
Thanks to that bike ride, the first concept of Widdle took shape. The first version, called Nest, was simply an app that amassed all social networking sites in one place. Two years later, and after going through the LaunchHouse accelerator program, Strayer and Mihalic are preparing to launch Widdle in March.
 
The current version not only groups sites like Facebook and Twitter into one place, the app also pares down user content to the most relevant posts. “You can 'widdle' down the posts that don’t matter without removing or unfriending your contacts,” explains Strayer. “It’s like the Pandora Radio of social networking.”
 
Strayer says most of the past year and a half has been spent assembling the right management team. In addition to himself and Mihalic, Widdle employs Stephen Hatch and Cory Breed in development and wordsmith Meghan Norcross.
 
“It’s been a long time in the making but we’re finally comfortable with it,” says Strayer. “It had to be able to adapt as you change.”
 
Widdle users can set the app to download all their social media feeds, turn off certain sites, or select what content to show. “If you feel posts you want are being widdled, or the app is making bad decisions, you can go back and re-train the algorithm,” explains Strayer. “We put that feature in there because five years ago, I wasn’t interested in business at all. Now, it’s 90 percent of what I do.”

Strayer and his team currently are taking reservations for the app on the Widdle site.

 
Source: Matt Strayer
Writer: Karin Connelly

Christian Ostenson says that he wants to do for Slavic Village what Sam McNulty did for Ohio City. He's emulating that successful entrepreneur by opening Thee Six5 Bistro, a 5,000-square-foot restaurant in a renovated, historic bank building in the Warszawa District on E. 65th. And while Slavic Village isn't Ohio City -- and isn't necessarily striving to be -- the new venue seems destined to add to the area's hidden charm.

Ostenson says Six5 will be an affordable, all-American bistro with frequent Polish and Slovenian specials in a nod to the area's rich ethnic heritage. It will have an open floor plan, large push-open windows and a rooftop deck and bar. Situated directly across from St. Stanislaus Church in the heart of the historic district, the building offers great views in an area with plenty of foot traffic.

"We want to make Slavic Village a destination, to bring people back to see what the area has to offer," says Ostenson, who steered clear of pricier real estate in Tremont or Ohio City because he wanted a spot where he could be a "pioneer."

Ostenson, a custom home builder who also runs Best of Both Worlds catering, purchased the building a few years ago with his wife Sarah for just $31,000, according to county auditor records. The second floor ceiling had caved in, and the roof dated back to the 1930s. "The building had seen better days," he notes.

But the builder has completely renovated the place from top to bottom, blowing through his $15,000 plumbing budget and spending more than four times that amount instead. But he's not complaining -- this is a project of passion as much as profit, he says. "I plan on being here awhile, so I don't need to make it all in a minute."

While he won't yet reveal the name of the chef on the project, he promises fresh, upscale cuisine at affordable prices. "We don't even have a freezer in the restaurant."

Ostenson will launch a Kickstarter campaign to help fund his pizza ovens before Thee Six5 Bistro opens in April. He promises that the rewards will be stellar.

This spring, the City of Cleveland will spend nearly $9 million rehabilitating nearby Fleet Avenue as one of the city's first complete-and-green streets.

Thee SixFive Bistro was financed by Key Bank, the City of Cleveland Storefront Renovation Program and the Economic and Community Development Institute.


Source: Christian Ostenson
Writer: Lee Chilcote

An innovative art installation that transformed empty homes in Columbus into day-long art galleries is coming to Slavic Village.

Rooms to Let: CLE will take place Saturday, May 17 on Forman Avenue. The event promises not only temporary art installations that transform vacant homes into interpretive displays, but also a block party and street tour featuring live music on porches and activities for the whole family.

Ben Campbell, Commercial Development Officer with Slavic Village Development, says he got inspired to bring Rooms to Let to Cleveland after seeing the impact it made in Columbus. He also loves the idea of hiring mostly local artists to help transform the houses. So he partnered with other SVD staff, Zygote Press and Rooms to Let: Columbus to bring the project to vacancy-pocked Slavic Village.

Rooms to Let isn't just an art show in an empty house; the project transforms the house itself into an art installation, transforming telltale signs of abandonment like broken drywall into symbols of fortitude, loss and renewal.

"Among the 11 installations created by 28 artists, visitors will find fabric pushing out of holes in walls, kitchen images painted on the walls of a demolished kitchen and a giant hole in a floor exposing a message on floor joists," Jim Weiker wrote last year in a Columbus Dispatch article. "Structural issues that would have been major flaws in a gallery have been seized upon as artistic opportunities."

Several curators -- Westleigh Harper and Michael Horton of MAKER design studio, Barbara Bachtell of Broadway School of Music & the Arts and artist Scott Pickering -- will select specific artists interested in transforming the abandoned and foreclosed homes. The houses are located in the area surrounding the Slavic Village Recovery project, and they're all slated for eventual rehabilitation.

"Given the larger context of Slavic Village’s unique history and the national attention received in the wake of the American foreclosure crisis, Rooms to Let: Cleveland creates an opportunity to see one of Cleveland’s most historic neighborhoods in new light," touts the project's Facebook page.

Rooms to Let: CLE is supported by a Cuyahoga Arts and Culture project grant.


Source: Ben Campbell
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Cleveland tech companies attracted venture and angel investments in 2013 amounting to pre-recession levels, according to JumpStart and a report released by the Venture Capital Advisory Task Force. One hundred and eighteen companies spanning IT, healthcare, clean tech, and business and consumer products received $259 million in equity investments last year, a 15-percent increase over the previous year.

“$259 million puts us up where we were pre-recession,” says JumpStart’s principal of communications Samantha Fryberger. “So that’s really good.”
 
IT companies led the way in investments. Sixty-six IT firms attracted $116 million, followed by 32 healthcare companies bringing in $98 million, and 15 clean technology businesses getting $44 million. Consumer products raised $1 million.
 
Furthermore, 27 of the investors were first-timers to the Northeast Ohio business community. “Year after year, there are investors finding we have great companies here,” says Fryberger. “More than 50 percent of the companies had angels involved in their deals, which means there are wealthy investors here who see good deals and want to put their dollars into these promising businesses.”
 
Seed companies fared well, securing 70 percent of the $259 million, according to the report, while companies in the early stages of growth followed the national trend and did not fare as well in Series A funding. Fryberger attributes the number of accelerators in the area fostering early business as one of the reasons seed funding was up. “We have more seed companies than ever before,” says Fryberger.
 
The news overall is good for growing companies in the area. “There’s certainly a great deal of entrepreneurial activity in Northeast Ohio,” notes Fryberger. “While a national shortage of Series A dollars could make fundraising more of a challenge for early stage businesses in the year ahead, it’s exciting to see new startups getting off the ground and some of the more mature companies attracting the capital they need to expand their market share.”


Source: Samantha Fryberger
Writer: Karin Connelly

OnShift, which provides online staff scheduling and labor solutions in healthcare, recently closed $7 million in Series C investment financing. The investors include HLM Venture Partners and five previous investors in OnShift.
 
OnShift CEO Mark Woodka said the money will be used to expand the company’s sales and marketing, product development and customer service departments. “We doubled our customer base last year, and we’re getting out of the gate this year pretty strong as well,” he says.
 
In response to its rapid growth, OnShift last year added 23 employees, 15 of which were new positions. Woodka predicts he will add another 20 to 30 new staffers in 2014. In fact, the company currently has 18 open positions.
 
OnShift’s staff scheduling software caters primarily to long-term care and senior living facilities, helping prevent overtime and scheduling gaps and increase efficiency. With the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, Woodka has seen a surge in business. He predicts that trend will continue as companies try to manage their costs and part-time employees.
 
OnShift is serving a virtually untapped market, with almost 85 percent of the senior living and long-term care industry lacking scheduling software. “They are mostly doing it on a piece of paper,” says Woodka. “The really advanced ones are doing it in Excel.”
 
Woodka continues to embrace Cleveland as the ideal home for OnShift. “Cleveland’s a great place,” he says. “We have access to great talent, with younger talent coming from Case and CSU, and the cost of doing business is one-third of what they are on the coasts. And we have the best view of downtown Cleveland.”

 
Source: Mark Woodka
Writer: Karin Connelly
 

2004 was a rough year for Deb Papes-Stanzak and her family. First her brother, Ron Papes, was on dialysis for renal failure. Her mother, Mary Papes, was undergoing blood transfusions for congestive heart failure. And her husband, Gary Stanzak, was getting chemotherapy treatments for a rare form of cancer. And Papes-Stanzak was taking care of all of them.
 
One day her brother complained that he was always cold during dialysis and asked his sister to bring some blankets. In fact, all of her family members going through treatment noted that they would get cold. With a 35-year career in retail fashion and textiles, Papes-Stanzak started thinking about how she could keep her loved ones warm.
 
“Everyone seemed to have the same problem,” she recalls. “I thought how can I make this better?”
 
She took a fleece shirt and sewed a zipper into the arm; the dialysis port was easily accessible and the shirt kept Ron warm. “You unzip it, connect and don’t have to worry about blankets,” she says of her original prototype. “The next day Ron said, ‘You’re going to be a millionaire. Everyone wants one of these. This solves the problem.’”
 
Papes-Stanzak’s first thought was, “I don’t have time for this; I’m taking care of everyone and I have a job.” But then Ron passed away in 2005. “The weekend he died he made me promise I would do something with the prototype I made,” she says.
 
Papes-Stanzak’s mom, husband and father-in-law also passed away within a year. After her husband died, she took out a shoebox with the materials from her original shirt, and RonWear Port-Able Clothing was born.
 
RonWear sells zippered jackets and pants to provide easy access to chemotherapy, dialysis and infusion ports. “I created zippers in every area there could be a port,” Papes-Stanzak says. “They are dual-pull zippers so you can zip it right up to the port.” She also sells non-zippered companion wear. The clothing, made from brushed French terrycloth, looks like a jogging suit and is stain-resistant and anti-microbial.
 
RonWear is sold in gift shops, healthcare institutions and on the RonWear website. Papes-Stanzak has sold more than 2,000 outfits worldwide. She works out of her home and her fulfillment center at US Brands in Beachwood. She employs five contract workers to help her with the operations.

 
Source: Deb Papes-Stanzak
Writer: Karin Connelly

Jonathon Sawyer, the award-winning chef behind Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat, is opening a new restaurant with his wife Amelia. The venue, to be called Trentina, will feature cuisine from the Trento region of northern Italy, where Amelia's family is from. It will open in the former Sergio's space in University Circle in the coming months.

Sawyer describes Trentina as a "passion project" that will allow him to pay tribute to his wife's heritage while introducing the cuisine of Northern Italy to a wider audience.

"I always had an affinity with 'the Boot,' as it were," he says. "When I started Bar Cento, it was really a Roman restaurant in the style of the street mongers of Rome. I didn’t want to repeat that, but I knew my wife’s family had tie-ins with Trento."
 
He traveled there and fell in love. "We subsequently returned -- more than 100 days in past four years, in fact. The thing I keep coming back to is how similar the growing seasons are in Trento and the Cuyahoga Valley. The indigenous people are very similar to the ethnic backgrounds of a lot of Clevelanders; there's Austrian, Swiss, Slovenian… so much more so than just straight-up Italian."

To help fund the restaurant and pay for some extras like a pasta extruder, wood-burning grill and double-sided hearth, Sawyer launched a Kickstarter campaign. The original goal was $21,999, but the project already has exceeded that amount by nearly $10,000 with 18 days still left to go.

So Sawyer set a new, loftier goal: "We want to be the most-funded hospitality Kickstarter campaign in Ohio, whatever that is," he jokes.

Sawyer certainly has earned his fan club, but the campaign rewards also don't hurt. For $100, you can take a cooking class that normally would cost $150. Three hundred bucks buys a cocktail named after you, while $600 gets you meals shipped to your home for six months. The list goes on and on, all the way up to dinner at your house for 20 of "your foodiest friends and family," cooked by the chef himself ($500).

Trentina will offer fine dining with showy tableside service like polenta seared over burning embers. Sawyer says, "For us, it will be the first time we'll be able to accurately portray cuisine with ingredients from just outside our back door."


Source: Jonathon Sawyer
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The historic Terminal Tower offices of the Van Sweringen brothers, the duo that built the iconic skyscraper and the streetcar suburb of Shaker Heights, will soon be occupied by a women-owned consulting firm that helps businesses and organizations embrace a more sustainable future.

BrownFlynn is relocating from Highland Heights to the tower's 36th floor. The firm, which provides sustainability consulting, communications and training, needs more space. The 7,000-square-foot office, boasting panoramic views of the city and located a few flights below the Observation Deck, will be completely renovated by the end of April.

"Clearly, we're committed to the city and want to be part of its vibrancy," says principal Margie Flynn. "We're committed to sustainability and want to make sure we're walking the talk in what we're doing. And the essence of sustainability is really historic preservation."

Flynn says her employees, many of whom live in the city, are very excited about being downtown. The office gives BrownFlynn room to grow, and the firm can welcome out-of-town guests via RTA's Red Line, which stops in Tower City.

"The space has a tremendous amount of natural light," Flynn comments. "We're going to adapt the space as a very open, collaborative work environment."

Vocon is helping to design the space, while Forest City, which owns the Terminal Tower and has been a major player in corporate sustainability nationwide, will facilitate renovations. Instead of reusing the massive corner offices as private suites, as the Vans once did, the principals plan to convert these spaces into open offices to encourage collaboration and stimulate creative thinking.

"The most important thing is to have a very open inviting environment for our team," says Flynn, adding that BrownFlynn could grow from 14 to 21 employees in the coming years to keep up with growing demand for its services.

BrownFlynn secured a job creation grant from the City of Cleveland to help facilitate the move.


Source: Margie Flynn
Writer: Lee Chilcote

In Cleveland, you might recognize the work of Think Media Studios from the Cavs intro videos that they produce. The award-winning Mayfield Heights company also has produced videos for Ohio State University sports teams and companies like Nestle, Progressive Insurance and Parker-Hannifin.
 
But Think Media owner Brian Glazen recently achieved his ultimate goal of establishing a reputation as a filmmaker. His film Fishing Without Nets, a feature about Somali pirates, examined from the perspective of the pirates, went to the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award. The movie was adapted from a 2012 short film version that also won a jury prize at Sundance.
 
Glazen, a Chagrin Falls native, worked in the film industry in Los Angeles for 10 years before returning to Cleveland in 2003. “When I moved back to Cleveland and started Think Media Studios, I wanted to get into original film work,” he explains. Glazen and his team spent 70 days in Kenya shooting the film using many first-time actors.
 
Glazen wants to continue to build up Cleveland’s reputation for turning out quality movies. “Cleveland’s not the first thing that comes to mind in the film industry,” he says. “But here we are playing Hollywood in our own backyard.”
 
While Think Media Studios continues to produce quality videos for sports teams and businesses, Glazen currently is in talks to shoot two movies and a television show. It’s all still top-secret, but the television project is slated to shoot in Cleveland this summer.
 
“My goal is to have a [film] production company with the work we do in Cleveland,” Glazen says. “We want to tap into original content that we could actually sell and still do the work we do for our clients.”

 
Source: Brian Glazen
Writer: Karin Connelly

The for-sale housing market remains tepid in many Cleveland neighborhoods, but it never really cooled down in Tremont. That's because this historic neighborhood remains popular, full of vitality and, frankly, small, which means there never is an abundance of houses on the market. When a properly priced Tremont house is listed, it usually sells.

And that's certainly true of the Cottages on Thurman, a new Tremont development. Developer (ARC) form of Tremont has pre-sold two detached, green-built townhomes off of plans. Principal and founder Jeffrey Eizember expects to break ground and go vertical within the next two months.

"It's a very efficient design," he says. "Our philosophy is that we want to help the buyer get a customized product that is not exorbitantly priced."

With starting prices at $379,900, the townhomes might become the first LEED-certified units in Tremont (the ratings are preliminary at this point) and the first to participate in the Department of Energy Home Challenge. Additionally, they have an unusual design feature: the bedrooms are located on the second level, while the living spaces are on the third level to best take advantage of the views.

"How often do you spend time in your bedroom other than going to sleep?" Eizember asks. "Why give all the good views to that area?" The benefits don't stop there. "This layout also puts the living level in closer proximity to the rooftop deck."

That rooftop deck will offer even better views of downtown Cleveland, the industrial Cuyahoga Valley and the church spires and steeples for which Tremont is well known.

The units, which are a little over 2,000 square feet, have attached two-car garages, two bedrooms, two and a half baths, 100-year-old reclaimed maple flooring, and tankless hot water heaters to maximize efficiency, among other features.

The developers also will harvest 60 percent of the rainwater accumulated on site. "It can be used for irrigation or to wash off your car," Eizember explains, adding that, "Ninety percent of the site is permeable."
 
(ARC) form is a design and construction firm that blends architectural services, contracting and interior design into one package. The firm specializes in "using conventional materials and techniques in unconventional means."

With just two lots available, the project already is sold out. "We didn't have a hard time selling them once they were listed," Eizember says. "They went pretty fast."


Source: Jeffrey Eizember
Writer: Lee Chilcote

When they’re not working their day jobs, Josh Womack and Cameron Amigo are stand-up comedians. While his talents can leave them rolling in the aisles during an open mic night, Amigo was finding that friends were coming to him for help writing those dreaded best man speeches. In demand was advice on how to give that perfect wedding speech that is at once humorous and light, but sentimental and genuine.

After attending eight weddings in three months in spring of 2012, and helping a few friends with their speeches, Womack and Amigo started Laugh Staff the following year. The company writes personalized best man, maid of honor and other speeches.
 
Laugh Staff offers four different speech packages, from "punching up" a customer’s pre-written speech to creating a custom speech from scratch. Womack sends a questionnaire to get all the details about the bride and groom. “We get all the background information before we start typing,” explains Womack. “Every couple has a different story. In 24 to 48 hours, we have a completed speech.”
 
Laugh Staff has a dozen comedians from around the country, and even the world, signed on to write speeches. Womack and Amigo hand pick the comedians based on speeches written as an application. “If people are going to pay money for it, it has to be funny,” Womack says. “If it makes you laugh out loud, if it makes the customer think, no way could I think of this on my own. That’s what we look for.”
 
Womack admits that he's written a majority of the 70 speeches Laugh Staff has sold.
 
Laugh Staff has been commissioned to write speeches for other occasions as well, such as retirement parties and farewell speeches. “A couple of people have reached out and asked us to write their online dating profiles,” says Womack. He’s taken the gig. “If you want someone to actually read it, the content has to be somewhat engaging.”
 
Womack would like to expand into corporate speeches, and even perhaps help a couple of politicians out. Laugh Staff is a win-win situation in Womack’s eyes. “I get a lot of joy in sitting down and writing a speech,” he says. “For the best man and maid of honor, the speech is just something they want to get off their to-do list. It gives them peace of mind that they have something.”

 
Source: Josh Womack
Writer: Karin Connelly

When Jeff Battershell and his wife lived in Ouray, Colorado, for six years, he fell in love with the numerous small town craft breweries in the area. A Cleveland native, Battershell moved back home a year and a half ago with the initial thought of starting a brewery.
 
“It was always kind of our plan to go out there and experience something different and move back,” Battershell explains. “But I felt like I was missing out on Cleveland’s renaissance.”
 
When he got back to Cleveland, Battershell’s environmental science and entrepreneurship education from BGSU kicked in. “Breweries seemed like a saturated market,” he says. “I was being honest with myself. I wasn’t good enough to compete with places like Great Lakes Brewery and Market Garden Brewery.”
 
Then Battershell got the idea to pair his environmental studies with his love for beer and start an apparel business that benefits water conservation groups while promoting breweries. He started Keepin’ it Fresh, a company that sells baseball caps and t-shirts with embroidered brewery logos. A portion of the proceeds will go to water conservation groups or projects; a percentage goes back to the brewery.
 
“I bounced the idea off of my friends in the industry and they really liked it because it was one more way to promote their business,” he says. “And beer depends on the quality of water they’re brewing with.”
 
Keepin’ it Fresh has four Southwest breweries signed on and is working with a number of well-known Cleveland breweries on agreements. Right now, Battershell is embroidering baseball caps on one machine out of his house. He plans to hire one part-time employee by 2015 and his five-year plan calls for five employees and additional embroidery machines.
 
Battershell’s site will be selling apparel by April. In the meantime he is working with organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Brewers for Clean Water Campaign and the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
 
Source: Jeff Battershell
Writer: Karin Connelly

Tonight, January 23, FlashStarts will be hosting Global Pitcher Night at the January TechPint event at Mahall’s 20 Lanes in Lakewood. Don't come expecting free pitchers of beer; the night is about providing budding entrepreneurs with the opportunity to get up and pitch their business ideas for a chance to take home $5,000.

“We call it a karaoke-for-entrepreneurs concept,” says FlashStarts co-founder Charles Stack. “It’s an irreverent approach to a business competition. Pitchers will get a few minutes at the microphone, then the crowd will hoot and holler.”
 
Six pitchers will be selected to present a three-minute pitch, followed by two minutes of Q&A from the audience. A team of judges from FlashStarts and sponsor Arsenal Venture Partners will decide how the $5,000 will be awarded, either winner-take-all or by dividing it up among multiple winners. The audience also will get to provide input.
 
“It really is as informal a process as you will see, but we’re taking it seriously,” says Stack. “We’re trying to brew up new ideas.”
 
Interested pitchers should email 100-word pitches to techpint@flashstarts.com up until 4 p.m. today. Stack says they’ve already received more than a dozen applications. Doors open at 4:30 p.m., and the pitches begin at 5 p.m. Those who show up before 5:30 p.m. get an extra drink ticket.
 
Stack and Doug Hardman, founder of SparkBase, will speak after the pitch presentation, followed by an after party. Tickets are $15 and include a free pint of beer and some food.

 
Source: Charles Stack
Writer: Karin Connelly

In college, Glenn Harbold followed family tradition and pursued a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering. While he was interested in the manufacturing process, Harbold quickly realized that he possessed an entrepreneurial spirit and wanted to be a part of bringing new products to market.
 
That curiosity and spirit led Harbold to buy into Zounds Hearing as a franchisee. He is opening his first of six stores in the area on February 10th, in Brooklyn.
 
“My career has been a bit of a winding road, but I’m really into entrepreneurship,” Harbold says. After a stint in engineering, Harbold went on to earn an MBA and moved to Cleveland to work with two local technology startups. “I enjoyed getting up every day knowing that the future was in the hands of a small group of people.”
 
Then last year, Harbold began looking for companies to acquire. He met Sam Thomasson, a fellow engineer and founder of Zounds Hearing. “Sam is an electrical engineer and I loved his passion,” says Harbold. “We really hit it off.”
 
Harbold was so impressed with the quality and affordability of Zounds hearing aids that he decided to buy into the company. “The price and quality of the technology are really special,” he says. “We’re going to make it a lot easier for some people who couldn’t previously afford high quality hearing aids.”
 
After the Brooklyn store, Harbold plans to open five more stores in the area. He will employ two people at the Brooklyn store, including an audiologist and a client care specialist. Long-term, he predicts he will employ 12 to 15 people in the six stores.

 
Source: Glenn Harbold
Writer: Karin Connelly

The developers behind University Place Townhomes, a 19-unit project on E. 118th Street in University Circle, have broken ground on their new project. With two sales in hand, they're laying the foundation and intend to start vertical construction in the spring.

"The demographic is pretty much what we thought it would be," says Russell Lamb, a principal with Allegro Realty and partner in the project, which includes several Allegro principals. "The buyers are either people who work in the Circle, particularly medical institutions, people who want to move back to an urban environment who are downsizing, or young professionals."

"We're the only for-sale project in University Circle," he adds. "We're pretty comfortable with where we are right now." The developers hope to obtain several additional sales in the spring so they can start construction on additional units.

While much of the action these days is in the rental market, the for-sale market also is showing signs of renewed life, says Lamb. He believes University Circle is a particularly strong, underserved market, in part because there's so little developable land. The parcel on E. 118th was a rare vacant property within the district's boundaries that could be developed.

The units range in size from 1,100 square feet to just under 2,100 square feet, with prices starting at $250,000 and climbing to $450,000. Lamb describe the prices as "expensive for Cleveland, but not expensive for University Circle," an area that commands a premium.

The project design features five separate buildings around a central, European-style courtyard utilizing modern building techniques including cementitious exteriors. Dimit Architects designed the units. The interiors, while not extravagant in terms of square footage, are "modern, open and airy; there's a good use of space," Lamb says.

Uptown has been a particular "center of gravity" for the project, he adds, providing much-needed amenities that will attract the home-buying set.

What's needed to complete the Circle? "More people," Lamb says. "If any place in Cleveland has got it all, it's gotta be University Circle."


Source: Russell Lamb
Writer: Lee Chilcote