Good morning Cincinnati and happy Tuesday. Here are the five most important business stories from the last 24 hours.
Cincinnati gaining a public company
One of Cincinnati's largest private companies, Hillman Group, is going public. The company is merging with Houston-based Landcadia Holdings III Inc. and will emerge on the Nasdaq under the ticker "HLMN." The deal is supposed to close by the end of the second quarter of 2021.
Pure Romance moving HQ
Pure Romance, Cincinnati's largest woman-owned company, is moving its downtown headquarters. Wait, wait, don't worry, it's not far. The intimacy enhancer company is moving from its current locale to a cluster of buildings at the intersection of Third and Main streets.
Newport Pavilion sold
One of the region's most recognizable shopping centers, the Newport Pavilion just across the river off of I-471, has been sold to new owners. A purchase price was not disclosed. Two different portions of Newport Pavilion were last sold for nearly $67 million in 2014.
Health system wraps expansion
Mercy Health-West just completed a $586,000 overhaul of its busy Green Township hospital, expanding its emergency department by more than 70%. The emergency department cares for 45,000 patients annually and could get overwhelmed by patients during peak hours and flu season.
Tech firm wraps multi-million office renovation
Fidelity National Information Services, the successor to Worldpay, just wrapped up the renovation of its Symmes Township office ahead of bringing its 1,500 workers back. It includes open areas for employees to collaborate and a Customer Engagement Center for employees to host client meetings and demonstrate products.
This day in history
1633: Galileo Galilei was forced to recant his views that the Earth orbits the sun.
Quote of the day
"Wine is sunlight, held together by water." – Galileo Galilei, allegedly
What I'm playing
"Disco Elysium" on Google Stadia
What I'm reading
"How Lucky" by Will Leitch
What I'm watching
"Lupin" on Netflix
What I'm listening to
"Islomania" by Islands
The pain of falling
I’m sorry if the title is misleading. If you came to this space hoping for the tale of a metaphorical fall, some personal or professional failing that caused me to introspect and learn a lesson about life or business, this ain’t that.
I fell down some stairs.
My wife Hannah and I had just gotten home from dinner out at Khora (I highly recommend the Gemelli “Cincy Style”), an excuse now that Covid restrictions have lifted to get dressed up and go out to eat. But after changing out of our stuffy clothes and letting the dogs out of their crates, we wanted to reward their patience, having had to sit alone in our dark bedroom while we went out to eat some delicious food, with treats of their own.
I was carrying Fizzgig, our stout little Havanese, down the stairs, probably taking them a little faster than advisable. Hardwood stairs plus wool socks are a terrible combination.
Toward the bottom I felt my feet fly out from under me. I had a split-second decision to make: I could toss the pup and use my hands to break my fall, or I could cradle Fizzgig to me and take the hit myself.
When I was 5 there was a hole in the back yard of our house in College Hill. I went digging in said hole only to realize far too late that it was a hornets’ nest when a swarm of them flew out to sting me.
When I was 11, there was a giant concrete slab with a rebar handle sticking out of it covering a manhole behind my friend’s house. We had stuck a stick underneath that handle and took turns using it to fling other smaller sticks into the air like a manic see-saw. One of those hit me square in the forehead causing a long gash that required a trip to the ER and stitches.
This hurt worse.
So now for the past three weeks I’ve been nursing bruised, possibly broken (the doc told me an X-ray would confirm, I wasn’t paying a few hundred dollars for the privilege to know whether I’d need a few bonus weeks of healing time) ribs, careful not to move suddenly, or at all when possible.
And the worst part of it is, not even a “thank you” from Fizzgig.
