Week in Review: 7 key stories from April 4-8, 2022

Change at the top: Len Komoroski will step down from his role as CEO of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and the Rock Entertainment Group at the end of the Cavs’ season. But he’ll still remain affiliated with REG, where he’ll focus on its “growth and development, as well as special projects and initiatives,” the Cavs announced on Thursday, April 7. Asked if the Cavs would hire a replacement for Komoroski or would promote from within, a spokesman said, “We expect to make an announcement on that early (this) week.” Komoroski was hired as the Cavs’ president in 2003, and he became CEO in 2013.

Flying high: The Chagrin Highlands I and II office buildings in Beachwood were acquired Tuesday, April 5, by an Aventura, Florida, investment firm for $39 million, according to sources familiar with the transaction. The buildings were shed by Shelbourne, a Brooklyn, New York-based company that has a substantial portfolio of buildings in the Cleveland suburbs. Shelbourne also did well in the sale to GLF Ohio LLC, an affiliate of Kawa Capital Group, an independent real estate asset adviser and capital services provider with more than $1.8 billion in assets under management. County land records show that Shelbourne shelled out $14 million to acquire them in 2017 from an affiliate of Jacobs Real Estate Services of Westlake. The firm of the late Richard and David Jacobs developed them as multitenant properties in the Chagrin Highlands corporate center.

What’s in store: The owners of SouthPark Mall have added another key asset to their holdings — a vacant Sears store attached to the Strongsville shopping center. Real estate records show that an affiliate of Kize Capital LP, a New York investment firm, paid $5 million for the former department store. Sears closed its SouthPark outpost in late 2018 and had been marketing the property for sale at an undisclosed price. The acquisition gives Kize and its partner, Spinoso Real Estate Group, command of a critical gateway to the mall. A Kize affiliate bought SouthPark in late April 2020, in a $57.7 million deal that illustrated the battered state of the enclosed-mall business. That initial purchase spanned the core of the mall; the adjoining Dick’s Sporting Goods store and Cinemark theaters; and freestanding retail buildings to the north, including a Kohl’s store and several restaurant sites. The four attached department stores — the shuttered Sears and the occupied Dillard’s, JCPenney and Macy’s boxes — were independently owned.

Into the breach: Parker Hannifin Corp. on Tuesday, April 5, disclosed in a regulatory filing that a third party “gained unauthorized access to the company’s systems” on March 14 and obtained company data, and possibly personal information of Parker’s employees. The Mayfield Heights-based maker of motion and control technologies said in the filing that when the third party’s presence was detected, it “immediately activated incident response protocols, which included shutting down certain systems and commencing an investigation of the incident, which is ongoing.” Parker said it notified and is working with “relevant law enforcement authorities, and engaged legal counsel and other third-party incident response and cybersecurity professionals.” The company’s investigation into the breach is ongoing, but Parker said it “believes some data was accessed and taken and may include personal information of company team members.”

Feeling industrious: Add Treeview Real Estate Advisors LP of Philadelphia to the roster of owners of large industrial buildings in Northeast Ohio after a $40 million acquisition. Cuyahoga County land records show that Treeview Cleveland LLC acquired the industrial buildings. The portfolio includes a Solon building at 28600 Fountain Parkway and three in Strongsville, at 20784 Westwood Drive, 23221 Morgan Court and 21848 Commerce Parkway. Treeview Cleveland was formed by Teresa Tsai, a New York attorney who is listed as the CEO of Treeview Real Estate Advisors. Tsai has an international law practice, according to her LinkedIn profile. The seller was an affiliate of Falcon Real Estate Investment Management of Chicago, which has owned the properties since 2006, according to Cuyahoga County property records. Falcon represented a group of Swiss institutional investors in the purchase.

Market forces: The Kroger Co. paid $10.4 million for a suburban Cuyahoga County site where the grocer plans to build a robot-powered grocery-delivery hub. Public records show that a Kroger affiliate finalized the 28-acre land deal, in Oakwood, in late March. The seller was Premier Development Partners, a Cleveland real estate company that assembled the formerly residential site and had it rezoned for commercial uses. Kroger, which closed its last Cleveland-area stores in 1985, is returning to the region with a standalone delivery model. The Cincinnati-based grocer expects to serve customers in Northeast Ohio and Pennsylvania from its new facility, which will employ up to 400 people. The 270,000-square-foot delivery center will rise along Interstate 271, at the southwest corner of Alexander and Macedonia roads. Construction will take about 24 months.

Rubber hits the road: Dandelions are potentially big business for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. The Akron-based tiremaker on Thursday, April 7, announced it will work with the U.S. Department of Defense, the Air Force Research Lab, BioMADE and Cincinnati-based Farmed Materials in a “multi-year, multimillion-dollar program” to create rubber from a specific species of dandelion. Goodyear said the program “will build on research that analyzed more than 2,500 species of plants but found only a few with properties suitable for use in tires.” Taraxacum kok-saghyz, a dandelion species known as TK, “has proven to be a valuable alternative to natural rubber trees,” Goodyear said. Planting and harvesting of TK seeds will begin this spring in Ohio. The natural rubber produced will be used in the production of military aircraft tires that will be built and tested by Goodyear in cooperation with the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.