“You can’t turn on the TV without hearing that the convention is in Cleveland,” said Jon Pinney weeks before the Republican National Convention. The managing partner of Kohrman, Jackson & Krantz was anticipating an event that would capture a global audience.
There were an estimated 15,000 credentialed media in town. (The Super Bowl draws about 5,000 reporters.) KJK negotiated about $50 million in contracts for the build-out, hotels, production, venues and transportation. There were 16,500 contracts for hotels alone, Pinney says. “We had to actually build a database to manage it.”
People across the country who never gave Cleveland a second thought tuned in and watched this region act as a vibrant backdrop for a particularly dynamic affair. It took a decade of preparation and a 356-page bid to win the event. It took a committed coalition with KJK at the center with community stakeholders.
KJK’s tagline for the RNC is “Bring us the impossible.” And that’s essentially what happened in Cleveland this summer, with the region hosting an event of this caliber. “At one point, we had 10 lawyers working on the project and some were sleeping overnight in their offices,” Pinney says of the tireless efforts to prepare. “We are hoping the positive impact of all this is that we continue to drive the region forward.”
Because of the downtown renaissance and infrastructural improvements, “We are now over-prepared to host any other convention you can imagine,” says Laura Englehart, a KJK associate dedicated to the team. She spearheaded the bid for the Democratic National Convention — because the city went after both conventions, and KJK was the “aggregator and writer” of all information pouring in from entities including Downtown Cleveland Alliance, Cleveland Cavaliers, Geis Cos. and NOACA.
Jennifer Hart, a KJK associate, wrote the RNC bid and worked closely securing hotels and venues contracts. “Charlotte experienced a huge jump in convention activity following hosting the 2012 DNC,” she says, considering the possibilities for Northeast Ohio. “They have been booked since.”
Measuring the Impact
So what will happen in Cleveland after the last of the guests depart for home, The Q returns to entertainment-as-usual, and businesses go back to a regular hum?
Certainly, it’s not a matter of pulling out a plug, “convention over.”
With a buildup of this magnitude, followed by extensive reporting and analytical responsibilities, the work is hardly done.
The official closeout will take up to two and a half years, says Pinney, who is the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee Inc.’s treasurer, secretary, general counsel and one of three directors. “We are a heavily regulated entity,” he notes of required disclosures to the Federal Election Commission, which will conduct a post-convention audit, as required by federal law. As a 501(c)(3), the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee must comply with requirements under the Internal Review Code.
The impact of the RNC, the firm and community hope, will be lasting. Before the event, economic impact reports estimated a $200 million direct and $500 million indirect boost because of the convention. “There will be quite a bit of testing done to see how this impact’s Cleveland’s image perceptions of the city and region,” Pinney says.
As for job creation, preliminary data suggests a real upswing. A CSU Population Dynamics study reported 23,300 new jobs in 2015 compared with nearly a flat year in 2014, Pinney relates.
This is the type of positive infusion Cleveland deserves, if you ask Pinney, who got involved early on in his career in civic and political initiatives. “I was, I don’t know, one of the pioneers who lived in one of the first converted buildings downtown. I immediately fell in love with the city,” he says.
Pinney was asked to act as special counsel to the City Council while Mayor Frank Jackson was serving as its president. If you ask Pinney, “Did you ever think Cleveland would be in a position to host a national convention,” his answer is a blunt: “Yes.”
“I just had a sense that we needed to keep working on it,” he says.
Convincing Clevelanders that the city deserved to be in the spotlight might have been one of the larger obstacles. “It’s disturbing how many people who live here are so negative about Cleveland, and they probably haven’t taken the time to see and appreciate some of the new assets and the old assets we have.”
Hart, who moved here from Columbus, says, “I hope more than anything that hosting this convention gives us a sense of pride so when people hear others talking about conventions or where they are traveling next, they say, ‘Why don’t you come here?’ ”
Building on the Momentum
Indeed, to appreciate the true win of being a host city, it’s helpful to understand the journey to get there. It began for KJK and Pinney back in 2008 when the city asked the firm to support the bidding process of securing a national convention. Minneapolis won the bid for the RNC that year, but efforts continued to position Cleveland for another run for both parties’ conventions.
“No one ever cared about the politics — it’s not about that,” Pinney says of the firm’s commitment as a key player. “It has always been about the possibility of showcasing Cleveland to the world.”
Since day one, KJK has been at the core of an enormous undertaking. During a decade’s time, the firm built a database and gathered information from community stakeholders to support a comprehensive bid for both parties’ national conventions.
Pinney wrote the budget for the RNC. “We will be within 1 or 2 percent of it,” he says, speaking to the scrupulous preparation. He is proud of the firm, which “has a strong history of being involved in civic affairs,” he says.
“We handled every complicated manner, and, despite being a mid-sized firm, we have been able to manage every element of the transaction and process,” Pinney says.
“It has been a great run for the city, as well as for the firm,” he adds.
Aside from the RNC, KJK recently salvaged the Victory Center at Midtown, a historical renovation that was vacant after one of the firm’s clients attempted to remediate it, restore it and then lease it.
“The project was in desperate state, and as a result of our relationships and reputation, the principal retained us to help salvage the project,” Pinney relates.
June marked the groundbreaking, and improvements include a 650-space parking garage and securing a world headquarters for Dealer Tire — keeping more than 400 jobs in Cleveland. “That project will serve as a catalyst for future growth in Midtown,” Pinney says.
The convention experience allowed KJK to leverage its civic and business connections, Englehart adds. “KJK’s work on the convention has allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the entire economic landscape of the region,” she says. “And we can provide more unique and tailored services to our business clients with regard to economic incentives.”
While the security and traffic will lighten up after the event, the hope is that Cleveland and the region will not actually “unwind” as it builds on the foundation created. Pinney says, “This could actually catapult the city into a whole new level of economic development.”