Stories
"Algal oils produce more oil per acre than any other crop," says Jeff Bargiel, Phycal's business development specialist. "Our facility here in Cleveland has expanded multiple times. We've raised a lot of money and we're going forward very quickly."
In addition to seed money and follow-on funding from JumpStart, Phycal has also received funding from the Air Force Research Lab and the Ohio Aerospace Institute, National Science Foundation, Department of Agriculture, and private investors. Most recently, the company received a $50 million grant from the Department of Energy.
Cleveland was a natural fit for Phycal's headquarters because the right people to develop the technology are already here. "We look at the talent pool in Cleveland and we needed talented chemical engineers," says Bargiel. "There's a good base here, the talent pool is very concentrated."
That concentrated talent pool will come in handy as Phycal continues to expand. The company is currently hiring seven people in technical fields to further develop the technology.
Plans are underway to build another pilot plant in Hawaii. Bargiel's hope is to begin manufacturing on a commercial scale by 2018, eventually including jet fuel for private airlines in Phycal's offerings.
Source: Jeff Bargiel
Writer: Karin Connelly
Photo: Bob Perkoski
What started out as a small printing company run out of a little office in Euclid by two guys with a background in graphic design and printing T-shirts, has blossomed into a booming print business, Jakprints, which has sprouted three sister merchandising companies: IndieMerch, IndieMerchandising and IndieMerchstore.
Founded in 1999 by Dameon Guess and Jacob Edwards, Jakprints has leveraged the partners' artistic talents, knowledge of the music industry, and instinct for what customers need into a thriving enterprise. The four companies are now spread across 146,000 square feet in two Midtown buildings, employing 130 full-time staffers.
"I never would have had a clue we would grow to this size," says Dameon Guess, co-owner and vice president of operations. "It's the kind of thing where you put your best intentions into it and just get rewarded each day and you get to come back and do it again."
Jakprints specializes in custom full-color offset printing, apparel printing, embroidery and sticker production. IndieMerch, IndieMerchandising and IndieMerchstore serve as outlets to develop merchandise and distribute unique creations on the likes of T-shirts, coffee cups and other goods. "We never got the feeling of 'abandon ship,'" Guess says. "We just kept going."
Jakprints continues to grow. Guess says they plan on hiring five to 10 more people over the next year for everything from production and sales to administrative positions.
Additionally, the team plans to launch an on-site creative incubator, where individual offices will offer artists of all types reasonable rent, shared receptionist, internet access and space to exhibit work. Guess would also like to add a coffee shop to the mix.
"It will be a culture that will support future endeavors," says Guess. "It will be a space to network, meet other artists and be downtown."
Source: Dameon Guess
Writer: Karin Connelly
The Cuyahoga Land Bank, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to reduce urban blight and improve property values by acquiring foreclosed properties and either returning them to productive use or tearing them down, is getting some help from two new partners. Bank of America and Wells Fargo began donating vacant and foreclosed properties to the Land Bank along with a $3,500 to $7,500 contribution towards demolition in July.
Wells Fargo and Bank of America are not the only partners to contribute to this program; others include Fannie Mae, HUD and J.P. Morgan Chase.
"Each partnership we establish provides us with more resources to tackle the issues of blight created by foreclosure and abandonment in our communities," Gus Frangos, President of the Land Bank, stated in a release.
Such collaborative approaches can also lead to solutions on a national scale, stated Russ Cross, Midwest Regional Servicing Director for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Recently, Wells Fargo announced an alliance with the National Conference of Mayors on addressing similar issues in cities across the country. Cross plans to share the Cuyahoga Land Bank model with mayors in other cities.
Many of these same lenders have also stepped up efforts to keep delinquent or at-risk homeowners in their homes. Bank of America recently launched a homeownership retention and foreclosure prevention initiative in Cleveland, including a recent mortgage modification outreach event where customers met with homeowner retention specialists over a three-day period to receive face-to-face counseling and underwriting of mortgage modification requests.
Source: Cuyahoga Land Bank
Writer: Lee Chilcote
When Nora Egger returned to Shaker Heights after a decade in Europe, she was looking for her next career move. "I was completely lost," she recalls. Then she started to think about the flavor profiles of cocktails in Europe, compared to what she saw in the states.
"Everything's pomegranate or mango or berries," Egger says of American drinks. "So I said, 'Why don't I do something with flowers?'"
Egger started fooling around in her mother's kitchen and developed her Lounging Gourmet Elixir Collection. The elixirs feature floral essences that can be blended with alcohol to create a unique cocktail, or added to sparkling water for a light, low-calorie soda.
The line features four flavors: Damascan rose, English lavender, Andean fire orchid, and Antillean hibiscus. "They are a strong concentrate made with pure cane sugar," says Egger.
Egger began selling her elixirs out of her car last year, while still making them in her mom's kitchen. Then, in July, she began working with distributors, relocated to a bottling facility, and began to market her product on a wider level. She still mixes every batch by hand -- standing on a ladder to reach -- and individually labels and packages each bottle.
The elixirs are carried in local stores such as Heinen's, Zagara's and Minotti's, as well as through distributorships in California, Oregon, Washington, Las Vegas and New York City. They are also available through Egger's website. She regularly holds tastings around town to familiarize people with her products.
Egger uses all local distributors and operates out of her home office in Little Italy. Although it's still a small operation, she hopes to grow and hire some people.
Source: Nora Egger
Writer: Karin Connelly
A team of researchers has developed an artificial lung that uses regular air, not pure oxygen, and is portable, marking a huge step forward for people with acute and chronic lung disease. The research is a result of collaboration between CWRU and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center.
"The most significant finding is that we have demonstrated a small scale, prototype artificial lung," says Joseph A. Potkay, research assistant professor in CWRU's department of electrical engineering and computer science. "It represents a major leap forward toward a self-contained, portable or implantable device that would use ambient air, rather than oxygen cylinders, and would thus give patients full mobility."
Current artificial lung systems require heavy tanks of oxygen, limiting patients' portability -- and they can be used only on patients at rest. Also, the lifetime of the system is measured in days. This new prototype is much smaller in size -- equivalent to a natural lung.
"These results prove that constructing a device with features similar in size to those found in the natural lung can result in large improvements in efficiency over current alternatives, thereby enabling portable devices," says Potkay. "This technology will be used in portable heart lung machines and portable systems for the treatment of acute and chronic lung disease or as a bridge to transplant."
Potkay and his team began developing the lung in early 2008 and will begin animal testing in two years. Human trials should begin in 10 years. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Lung disease affects over 200 million people worldwide.
Source: Joseph A. Potkay
Writer: Karin Connelly
The $1.6 million first phase of the project, which was completed last fall, removed sunken areas that were considered unsightly and unsafe because they provided places for individuals to hide. Funding for this phase came from the City of Cleveland, Downtown Cleveland Alliance, businesses and foundations.
The $1.3 million second phase that is now underway includes new seating, trees, plants, art and a trellis along E. 12th Street. Construction for this phase stems from the $20 million sale of the Convention Center to Cuyahoga County.
The Perk Park project was originally designed in 2003 during Mayor Campbell's administration, but was not constructed at that time due to lack of funding. The nonprofit organization ParkWorks led the redesign process. Landscape architects Thomas Balsley of New York and James McKnight of Cleveland designed it.
The new park adds to the number of redeveloped green/public spaces that exist in downtown Cleveland. There are nearly 3,000 residents living within a three-minute walk of the park, according to Downtown Cleveland Alliance. The Erieview District, as it's called, has the second largest concentration of downtown residents (the Warehouse District is first). The location is also a major hub for office jobs.
Source: Downtown Cleveland Alliance/ParkWorks
Writer: Lee Chilcote
From University Circle to Slavic Village to Buckeye and beyond, art abounds in and around Cleveland. In this pictorial essay, Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski trains his lens on the stunning, stirring and thought-provoking works that can be found inside Cleveland's finest repositories of art to some of Cleveland's most overlooked urban enclaves. Art, both classical and modern, architecture and design fill this city with beauty, imbue its citizens with hope, and brighten up the places we live, work and play.
To be held Saturday, August 27, the Crawl will utilize public transportation to ferry attendees from urban location to urban location, with stops Ohio City, University Circle, Little Italy, Larchmere/Shaker Square and E.4th Street. The day-long event steps off at 1 p.m. and winds down in Ohio City at 8 p.m.
"The purpose of the RTA Bar Crawl is to show Clevelanders and our suburbanite friends that our public transit system is a safe mode of transportation to get around the city," Baur explains. "It's also my hope that people will come away from the crawl envisioning life living in Cleveland proper. Walking, riding a bike or taking public transit to work, being part of the ongoing revitalization and knowing your fellow Clevelanders instead of going from boxed house to box car to office, back home to fall asleep and repeat."
Baur says the inspiration for the event came to him after listening to the "Mike Trivisonno Show," when the host said he would never step foot on the RTA, adding that downtown is filled with people who can't afford to live in the suburbs.
"Meanwhile, I'm laughing to myself," he adds, "because I fought like hell to get out of the suburbs!"
The event will also benefit the charity We Run This City.
For more info, click here.
In recent years, the aggressive species has established such a dominant presence here that it has crowded out many other plants. The result has been a less diverse ecosystem in the marsh, including fewer species of birds and other animals.
Now, thanks for a $78,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nature Center is in the midst of a two-year project to remove the cattails from the marsh and return it to greater ecological health. This spring, Nature Center staff and volunteers planted some 3,000 grasses and wildflowers, 200 shrubs and 20 large trees, all of which are native to Northeast Ohio.
To kill the hardy, fast-spreading cattail plants, a variety of treatments were used, including cutting, hand-pulling and spraying with a low-percentage herbicide.
More than 25,000 people visit the Nature Center annually. Staff here are using the marsh restoration as an opportunity to highlight the problem of invasive species in Ohio, the importance of preservation and what ordinary citizens can do.
The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes was founded in 1966 as the result of a grassroots community effort to preserve the Shaker Heights park lands from becoming the route for a new freeway connecting the east side to downtown. Today, it is recognized as a model urban environmental resource center.
Source: The Nature Center
Writer: Lee Chilcote
Now, after being closed since 2010 when CSU opened the nearby Euclid Commons residential development, the Campus District eyesore is set to be demolished. CSU has applied for a $2 million "Clean Ohio Fund" grant to help pay for asbestos removal and demolition, and university officials have stated their intention to bring the building down as soon as possible. Grant awards from the Ohio Department of Development will be announced in November.
CSU aims to turn the site into a $50 million commercial, retail and residential development. Currently, the university is preparing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to obtain ideas from developers for potential uses of the property.
The demolition of Viking Hall and preparation of the site for future development is part of a larger effort by the university to transform its campus into a more welcoming, more residential campus. Promoting student life and building a walkable campus environment and retail amenities will encourage students to apply to CSU while helping to improve the neighborhood, say university officials. CSU also received a boost from the completion of the Euclid Corridor project, which has improved infrastructure and spurred new development in the area.
CSU officials plan to use the project to better link Euclid with Wolstein Center to the south. A public walkway or green space are possibilities. The university would like to find a developer for the site by sometime next year, and begin construction by 2013. CSU plans to remain involved in the development project to ensure that its outcome aligns with the goals of the campus Master Plan.
Adding to a slew of recently completed development projects, the university also has announced plans to partner with Polaris Real Estate Equities to develop Campus Village, a $45 million, 308-unit project being built on Chester at E. 22nd that aims to attract faculty, staff, graduate students, professors and young professionals to live on campus.
Source: Cleveland State University
Writer: Lee Chilcote
NorTech is helping to harness the alternative energy business and translate it into big business in Northeast Ohio. The Advanced Energy B2B Conference and Expo at the John S. Knight Center in Akron on September 14 and 15 will bring together the major energy players to network, educate and discuss the future of advanced energy.
"We will take a look at where we're heading and how we can beat the rest of the country," says Dave Krapinski, NorTech vice president. "The whole driving force is to provide a rich forum to come together and form collaborations."
The event will cover the major sectors of advanced energy including, biomass/waste-to-energy, energy storage, fuel cells, nuclear, smart grid, solar photovoltaic, transportation electrification and wind energy. The conference is 80 percent filled, with 75 companies signed up to exhibit. Half of the conference time will be dedicated to talks on a variety of energy-related topics, while the other half will focus on building relationships.
The bottom line is advanced energy can lead to jobs in a wide range of sectors. "The exciting part about advanced energy is certainly jobs for scientists, but also jobs in traditional manufacturing, sales, construction jobs -- just a broad range of jobs beyond white coats," says Krapinski.
The point of the conference is to pull together and learn from each other's successes. "Advanced energy is a hot topic everywhere," says Krapinski. "We can accomplish more if we work together. A lot of people don't realize what's going on. We want to generate a lot of excitement."
Source: Dave Krapinski
Writer: Karin Connelly
The near-west side neighborhood has been hard hit by the economic downturn and is littered with boarded-up, vacant properties. Yet Dupuis insists that it's worth salvaging -- and it can happen if residents are organized, she adds.
"Our agenda is to bring some attention to a long-neglected neighborhood that has the viability to be saved," says Dupuis, a stained glass artist who chairs the neighborhood's volunteer-led Housing Committee. "Our housing stock is wonderful and extremely affordable, and we have committed, solid residents. But the neighborhood's at a tipping point -- we need to address our urban blight."
Towards that end, Dupuis and other residents have organized a project to fix up an historic, vacant gas station at W. 44th and Storer Ave. in the heart of the neighborhood this Saturday. A team of volunteers will cover the long-neglected building with plywood, repaint it, install a pathway of concrete pavers, and add landscaping that transforms the empty property into a park-like setting.
The project is part of a larger effort by the Housing Committee to involve residents in improvement projects while pressing the city for additional resources. "We have properties in our community that have been vacant for years, and along with that comes the attendant crime," says Dupuis. "We're pushing the city to remedy the worst of the worst by tearing down these houses."
Dupuis stresses that the Housing Committee is also helping to preserve the neighborhood's building stock. This Saturday's effort is one such project. The event is co-sponsored by Cleveland Housing Court and the Stockyard, Clark-Fulton and Brooklyn Centre Community Development Corporation.
Although Dupuis says there isn't much new investment taking place on Storer Ave, she notices subtle, positive changes in the neighborhood. "We're giving people in the community hope because we're taking action and doing things."
Source: Kate Dupuis
Writer: Lee Chilcote
In this lengthy essay in The New York Times, written by Michael Tortorello, another use of vacant land is discussed: ecological research.
"As it happens," reads the piece, "a team of local scientists has designated this accidental landscape an Urban Long-Term Research Area -- that is, Ultra. And having won a $272,000 exploratory award from the National Science Foundation, the researchers call their project Ultra-Ex. There's enough turf here for everybody: Ultra-Ex scientists are studying bird and insect populations, watershed systems, soil nematodes and urban farms.
Their mission? To document the ecological benefits that vacant lots might provide and to redefine the land, from neighborhood blight to community asset.
Read the compelling piece here.
Beginning August 29, 92.3 FM will switch formats from alternative rock to Cleveland's first and only FM sports talk radio station. Owned by CBS Radio, Sports Radio 92.3 The Fan (WKRK-FM) will feature locally produced programs hosted by familiar Cleveland voices, along with headline updates every 20 minutes and a full lineup of NFL and college football play-by-play coverage.
"CBS has done this across the country with terrific results," says market manager Tom Herschel. "We saw the opportunity in Cleveland and we're taking it."
On-air personalities will be made up of local and national names. Nationally-known talent Kevin Kiley will team up with Cleveland's own Chuck Booms weekday mornings for the area's only local morning drive sports-talk show. Adam "The Bull," formerly of WFAN in New York, will fill the afternoon drive time slot. Andy Roth has been named as program director and joins the station from Buffalo's WGR. He also has experience at stations in New York and WIP in Philadelphia.
The remainder of The Fan lineup will be announced at a later date. The new station will produce openings in a variety of areas, from on-air positions to back office jobs. "We're filling the other day parts with great talent and many people with local Cleveland sports ties," Herschel says. "The new station will result in a significant amount of hiring. The numbers will develop as we go along, but it will definitely be a jobs boost for the area."
Source: Tom Herschel
Writer: Karin Connelly
The five companies represent the diversity of enterprises in Northeast Ohio -- from retail and publications to business products and services to social media. The companies are: All Points Connect, Mindset Digital, iGuiders, Bonitas International and Your Teen magazine.
"Build it Big identifies companies that already have successes and want to achieve that next milestone," explains Katie Gage, manager of programming for Springboard. "It's a chance to plug them in to the entrepreneurial community."
Twelve companies applied to participate in the Build it Big: Cleveland program. After a 10-minute presentation and 15 minutes of Q & A, the five companies were chosen. "They are now meeting with Springboard partners in advisory sessions to address strategies for growth," says Gage.
The Springboard partners include KeyCorp, Meaden & Moore, and Thompson Hine. Since January, 2000, Springboard has helped over 400 women-led companies raise more than $5 billion in equity financing, including 8 IPOs, and legions of high value M&As. Eighty percent of Springboard companies are still in business, generating $4 billion in revenues and creating tens of thousands of newjobs.
Source: Katie Gage
Writer: Karin Connelly
The home tour will take place on Saturday, September 17th from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. The event will highlight the neighborhood's varied housing stock, showcasing single-family and two-family homes, luxury condominiums and apartments.
To attract tour-goers to "live, work and play" within the neighborhoods around Shaker Square, event organizers are touting not only the unique homes within the area, but also the art, antique, restaurant and entertainment establishments in the Shaker Square and Larchmere commercial districts.
In a press release, organizers also cite amenities such as a grocery store and cinema in walking distance; mouth-watering restaurants and farmer's market; proximity to the Shaker Square RTA station; and financial incentives towards purchasing a home through the Greater Circle Living Program.
The weekend kicks off Friday, September 16th with "Rooftop Revelry Over the Square," a fundraiser that will take place on two Shaker Square condominium rooftops that feature spectacular city and skyline views.
Organizers say they intend to use the funds raised from both events to make an as-yet-to-be-named "legacy gift" to the Larchmere Boulevard enhancement project. This $700,000 improvement project will redevelop the Larchmere streetscape with new lighting, street trees, decorative crosswalks, sidewalks and other amenities.
Tickets to the Neighborhoods of Shaker Square Home Tour cost $15 if purchased online beforehand or $20 on the day of the event. The tour begins at Sergio's Sarava on Shaker Square. Tickets to "Rooftop Revelry" cost $75 and include home tour admission.
Source: Katharyne Starinsky
Writer: Lee Chilcote