Cleveland Development News

[MABCLE]

Post news on any new or existing project in the Greater Cleveland area.
Moderators I'd appreciate it if you could please sticky this thread.


Here's a few to start off with.


Stonebridge Condominiums
Large new condo project being built in phases on the west bank of the Flats in downtown Cleveland.
Stonebridge Plaza is the building inder construction.
http://img330.imageshack.us/img330/5173/awf8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/9278/bbd6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img330.imageshack.us/img330/1393/cxk9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img450.imageshack.us/img450/7793/dfu7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The Avenue district
A new neighborhood of luxury condominiums, townhomes and lofts adjacent to Cleveland's financial district, Cleveland State University and The Playhouse square theatre district.

Site overview is the blocks highlighted in yellow and numbered 1-3. 1-3 and undergoing site prep right now.
http://img330.imageshack.us/img330/6863/eekx3.png (http://imageshack.us)

A rendering of what site 1 will look like.
http://img330.imageshack.us/img330/774/exb7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Battery park
A new 330 unit project that will ultimately cost more than 100 million. Located just south of the Shoreway on the city's west side, residents will be able to capitalize on Edgewater park and Beach and will be better connected with the lake once ODOT transforms the shoreway into a boulevard suitable for a neighborhood.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/618/fnz7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

515 Euclid

A new 20-30 story condo tower that has been proposed. The tower will be constructed on top of an existing parking garage that was built as the base of this future tower. Greyish building in photo.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/9056/gzj1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The existing parking garage, which has retail spots on the ground level.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/6733/hrt0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The Euclid Corridor project
A new transit project bringing Bus-Rapid Transit to Cleveland. Dubbed the "Silver line", the line will run from Public square in downtown to an existing rapid transit station in East Cleveland, and inner ring suburb. The buses will arrive at stops every 5 minutes, have their own designated lanes, with right of way at intersections, have closed circuit television and have stops located in the median of Euclid Avenue that will have real time bus arrival information. The blocks surrounding Euclid have a new zoning overlay that requres new construction to be built at the sidewalk and feature retail on the ground floor with office or residential use above. Obviously this project is the reason why Euclid is in its current condition.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/9428/ivx5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Pictures of Euclid as of today
http://img450.imageshack.us/img450/8602/kxa2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img450.imageshack.us/img450/7813/lqy3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The buses to be used
http://img450.imageshack.us/img450/4301/jye0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
East 4th street

A development in the works for a few years now and is adding one entertainment venue and restaurant after another such as The House of Blues Cleveland, Lola Bistro and Pickwick and Frolic. Adjacent to the Gateway sports district and Euclid Avenue. There are plans for three new restaurants to open by summer. The space above is being converted into condos.
The just opened Corner Alley Bowling alley, Martini bar and restaraunt (4th street bar and grille).
http://img446.imageshack.us/img446/5333/ovm1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Down East 4th street
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/2803/ooohx1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Down Euclid
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/2628/oojq3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
4th street
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9730/zzzzzzif1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


New condo complex on the East side of the city on Shaker Boulevard Between East 116th and Shaker Square. Located directly on one of the city's rail lines.
http://img446.imageshack.us/img446/2359/pqg2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Micellaneous new housing
Beacon place/Woodhaven
An expanding development abutting The Cleveland Clinic in University circle. Features townhomes and detached single family dwellings.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1152/ppyd9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

St Luke's Pointe
A new development that currently features new single family homes and will eventually feature condos at the site of a closed Hospital located at Martin luther King Jr Drive and East 116th steet.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/4236/pppxt1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img446.imageshack.us/img446/6260/qvv7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Scattered infill sites.
Some developers are filling in vacant lots with new homes close to downtown the block pictured used to be almost completely vacant now it houses these new homes. Most of these scattered sites are located in the Hough, Fairfax and Central neighborhoods between East 30th street and east 93rd from Hough Avenue in the North, south to Woodland Avenue.
Typical street, though some feature oddly placed Mcmansions.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5822/qqmz2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Valley View Homes

This is the redevelopment of former public housing projects into market rate single family and duplex homes as well as townhomes.
Site overview
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/5732/rrvt5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Renderings of homes
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6749/rxn8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Some progress
http://img446.imageshack.us/img446/3503/qqqjb4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

East side transit Center
A new facility near Cleveland State University that will feature a layover facility for RTA, buses as well as a new hotel tower with retail in a large atrium.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/7793/ssbz2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Flats East Bank Project
A huge 225 million renovation of the Flats-East entertainment district. The project will level most buildings north of the Man Avenue Bridge, realign the street grid and build a new neighborhood of office space, condos, retail, entertainment venues and parkland all with rail access.
Preliminary project rendering
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5601/ttk0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Distance shot of new existing neighborhood. Buildings to the far left will be razed.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7766/ttan5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Close up of Buildings to be demolished.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5993/tttrm9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Warehouse district super project
Developer Robert Stark has proposed a huge new develomentin the Warehouse district adjacent to public square and the Main Avenue bridge.
The first phase will feature exclusive to the region retail, new condos and office space. Later Phases include making Ohio 2 at grade and extending the city street grid North to Lake Erie and include more shops and residential spaces. It requres the Port of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to relocate to a spot across the Cuyahoga river.

Current neighborhood featuring lofts, entertainment venues and surface parking lots on some of the most expensive real estate between New York and Chicago.
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/1484/uuxr7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/2851/uoa5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Preliminary rendering for Phase 1
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/2752/vjp6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Overall Lakefront plan before and after
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/5374/zzzzcm1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Steelyard Commons
A new 1 million sp. ft. plus retail plaza on the site of a forme steelmill. The complex will serve the innercity market that otherwise would have to venture into the suburbs to get whats in some of these stores. This is a suburban style development but its built on a brown field on a site that wouldn't be appealing to new residential or office space. The complex sill also feature an extention of the Tow path trail, a museum on Cleveland steelmills and a stop and extension of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.
Site overview
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3576/ypr0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Progress
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/861/xxxmt3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Cleveland Clinic expansion
Expansion of the nations 3rd best hospital.
Overview
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/3486/wli3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/2633/wwwbs3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The new Heart center under construction
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/3863/wwml8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Cleveland Museum of Art renovation and expansion
Renovation of existing buildings and addition of more gallery space.
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/426/xxpr2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Cleveland State University Student Center
One of many new projects planned for the campus, which is trying to openi itself up to the street and lesses the effect of its 60's brutalist architecture.
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4932/zrb8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Lighthouse landing
Once an independent project launched out of defiance is now actually part of the Flats east bank project. IT will feature two condo towers, one of 18 stories and the other of 22 stories.
Proposed site plan
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/131/zzov0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

More to come...

[MABCLE]

Developers, Case sign memo for 'college town'
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Tom Breckenridge
Plain Dealer Reporter
Two developers making their mark in Cleveland's core are ready to tackle the much-anticipated "college town" development in University Circle.

Developers Nathan Zaremba and MRN Ltd., in a joint venture, have signed a letter of intent with Case Western Reserve University to pursue the $120 million mix of arts, retail and dwellings.

It's planned for about eight acres north and south of Euclid Avenue, east of the Ford Drive-Mayfield Road intersection.

"We're ready to go," said John Wheeler, Case's vice president for Cleveland and regional affairs. "This is the first step in a long process, but we're optimistic."

Case has spent millions acquiring the land and envisions what students, workers and residents in the stodgy, institutional district have long yearned for - a dynamic, walkable mix of arts, dining, entertainment and retail.

MRN earned kudos for its chic treatment of East Fourth Street. Zaremba has built scores of dwellings in the city and recently broke ground on the Avenue District, a $250 million retail-residential development downtown.

On Wednesday night, an executive committee of Case's trustees approved a memorandum of understanding with Zaremba and MRN.

The developers will plumb the prospects for retail tenants, financing and community support before striking a final development pact, Case officials said. They want the deal done by spring.

The unfolding project will be closely watched by community leaders and activists, particularly along Hessler Road.

The neighborhood lies just north of the development area. Residents fear multistory development could detract from their historic street.

Case's proposal for the project calls for more than 100,000 square feet of retail, including a Barnes & Noble bookstore catering to college students, and several hundred apartments and condos.

The Museum of Contemporary Art will be a keystone. MOCA is raising millions for a new home at the high-profile corner of Euclid and Mayfield.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

tbreckenridge@plaind.com, 216-999-4695

http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/isedu/1165924555110800.xml&coll=2

[MABCLE]

Beyond the boardroom
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Q: The Flats project is not a DDR project. It's a Scott Wolstein project. Your critics say that's because the risk is too great for a publicly [fni: no hyphen pls: ]-NT%>traded company. Is that true?

A: It's a Scott and Iris Wolstein project. My mom won't forgive me if I don't tell you that. It was my dad and I, and she's taken over my father's interest.

It's not a DDR project because when we went public, we owned this property in the Flats. It was just land that we owned. You don't get any value putting land into a REIT in an IPO. It's almost impossible to bring it into the REIT later because as soon as you try, you're creating a related-party transaction between management and the company. Investors always look askance at that.

We did a project that's almost identical to the Flats in Long Beach, Calif. So the idea that it wouldn't be doable in DDR is just not true.

Q: Where does the project stand and is it on schedule?

A: We expect to start demoli tion of buildings by the end of the year. We have enough land to build a significant part of the project before we acquire the property in eminent domain. We can literally build two office buildings, 200 to 300 units of residential, movie theater, grocery store, bookstore, fitness center.

I expect that we will be under construction early next year. I don't think we're much behind schedule. If anything, the project scope has expanded dramatically. I never envisioned the office component evolving, and that's a very exciting development because it gives us daytime traffic. It gives us daytime parking, which makes the whole project work much better.

The DFAS thing was something we put in the plan to try to encourage DFAS to stay in Cleveland. Now that DFAS is going to stay and expand, we think we have a good chance of developing a building for them -- a 500,000 square foot building. That's a very significant project and very additive with over 2,000 employees working there, eating in restaurants, parking in parking lots.

Q: Would DFAS take up all that office space or do you have other prospective tenants?

A: We do, but we probably will do them in a separate building. There are also a lot of other users we're in negotiations with.

Beyond the boardroom
Page 2 of 2
Q: If it's true that Baker and Hostetler law firm wants a new building, are they a likely tenant?

A: That's one of the tenants we're in negotiations with.

Q: We understand you plan special trips to commemorate your children's birthdays. Can you describe some of those?

A: This has really been my wife's idea and it's been fabulous. Instead of giving the kids things -- they've got lots of material possessions -- we try to give them memories they'll never forget. We try to come up with something that will feed their passions and it's always a surprise.

My 11-year-old son is really into theater and singing. For his birthday, we took him to Nashville to a professional recording studio and he recorded his own CD and his own music video. The mixing was done by somebody who did the mixing for the Dixie Chicks and the background singers were background singers for Faith Hill. He'll never forget it. We have a CD with his picture on the cover, very professionally produced.

One of my sons, when he was very young, had a passion for dinosaurs, so we took him to this dinosaur museum in Colorado where they do an actual dinosaur experience for a few days. We literally went out and hiked and found dinosaur bones in the rocks. Then we worked in a laboratory and we dusted off the bones and did the actual work with the paleontologist. That was very cool.

My daughter is a rabid fan of "OC," so last year we took her to the set of "OC" and we met Mischa Barton and one of the other actors and took a tour of the studio where they film it.

This year, my oldest son, who is 16, is going to Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. He'll be working with Dickie Betts from the Allman Brothers, Mickey Hart from the Grateful Dead, Spencer Davis from the Spencer Davis Group. It culminates in a performance in a nightclub where they all jam together with the stars. He's an avid guitar player and very talented, so this is a lifelong dream for him to meet his idols.

Q: We know a little bit about what it's like growing up as one of Scott Wolstein's children. What was it like for you growing up as Bert Wolstein's son?

A: When I was a child, we were of very modest means. My father didn't become successful until I was almost out of high school. I lived in a small house in Beachwood. In many ways, it's a childhood that my kids envy because I lived in a neighborhood where you'd walk outside and there were all kinds of kids to play with. My father worked very hard and I think I developed a work ethic watching him. He was building houses in Twinsburg in those days. A lot of our family weekends were going in the car with him, where he would stop and see all of his projects. My dad and I had a great relationship. He worked very hard, but he was always there for me.

Q: In your father's book about his career, he described tension between the two of you when you replaced him as CEO. If you could go back, is there anything you would change?

A: I wish we would have com municated better so we both understood what each was saying. I thought we did, but that obviously wasn't the case, and probably one of the saddest parts of my life was the fact that when the company took off and it was really exciting, he wasn't getting as much enjoyment and excitement out of it as I was. That was very hard. But we never let it impact our love for each other. I know he was very proud of everything I accomplished and he was very proud of the company.

Q: Do you hope your chil dren follow you in the real estate business?

A: I hope my kids do what ever they're passionate about, and whether that leads one of them into our business is really not that important to me. The important thing is that my father and I have been fortunate enough to create enough resources that my kids can really pursue a passion. There are a lot of great things they might be able to do in their life that maybe aren't economically motivated. That's fine with me.

http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/business/1165743495319330.xml&coll=2&thispage=2

[NaptownBoy]

Actually I would like to see a Cleveland Development News. There's a lot of stuff going on over there that I don't know about.

[MilwaukeeMark]

That Warehouse District Super Project sounds sick. Out of curiosity though, what's with the green filter you're using on your photos? I use green filters myself but they're only for black and white film...

[NaptownBoy]

Cleveland has articulated buses?

[NorthernIL Mike]

Good to see Cleveland using its waterfront finally to its advantage. Cool to see a city not seen around these parts much.

[AtlantaGA]

Good to see Cleveland using its waterfront finally to its advantage. Cool to see a city not seen around these parts much.

I agree. We don't see enough about Cleveland. Looks like some great projects there.

[The Urban Politician]

Wow, midwestern cities are really blowing off their tops. I wonder if a boom like this has occurred before in the postwar era. I'd love to have the time and money to travel the midwest and do a photographic "midwestern urban rebirth" tour

[JivecitySTL]

This is so encouraging. I'm so glad our beleaguered cities are rising up and surprising everyone.

[Paule]

Bravo! It's about time! Now get some trafic in here and lets sticky this thread.

[MABCLE]

Cleveland schools renovation/rebuilding project

In May of 2001, city of Cleveland residents passed a 1.2 Billion dollar levy to renovate and rebuild the school buildings that needed repairs.
The newly built John Adams High School
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/483/aur9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The Historically renovated 77 year old John Hay High School

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/5520/bao9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Miles Park Elementary School under construction

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4687/czf9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

New owner eyes condos for former HoJo hotel

By STAN BULLARD



6:00 am, October 23, 2006




A new owner with a new plan, this time for condominiums, is in control of a long-empty, 12-story hotel overlooking the lakefront near downtown Cleveland.

The new owner, Bapaz Real Estate Ltd. of Wickliffe, received a sheriff’s deed Sept. 14 for the one-time Howard Johnson Motor Inn and Restaurant, which now has a weed-covered parking lot and a weed of tree-like proportions rising from its roof at 5700 S. Marginal Road.

“We’re planning to do condos,” said Moshe Bohbot, owner of Bapaz. But, he added, “As of now, I don’t want to talk about it.”

Bapaz paid $633,334 for the foreclosed-upon property in a sheriff’s sale, according to Cuyahoga County land records. Bapaz also coughed up more than $300,000 in cash to pay delinquent property taxes to secure title to the hotel from the sheriff’s office.

Though not ready to talk, even about his real estate development background, Mr. Bohbot is taking steps toward redeveloping the graffiti-pocked eyesore.

Bapaz has applied for a variance from the city of Cleveland that is on the agenda for the Oct. 30 Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. The variance would allow the planned residential project to proceed despite the property’s industrial zoning.

Councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott, whose Ward 8 includes the structure, has met with Mr. Bohbot and plans to support the variance. The variance would apply only to the hotel and would have no bearing on the surrounding area, she said.

However, given the unfulfilled projects previously proposed for the building, Ms. Scott said, “As optimistic as I’d like to be, we’re holding our breath and keeping our fingers crossed about the project.” She estimates Bapaz is the eighth group to approach her about the building during her five years in office.

Jamie Blackson Baker, executive director of the St. Clair Superior Development Corp., said the neighborhood group plans to support the variance because it suits the one-time hotel, the views from which she described as “spectacular.”

“Having someone do a quality job there would be catalytic in the neighborhood,” said Ms. Blackson Baker, who has not met Mr. Bohbot. “It’s such a highly visible site. It’s big news. We’ve tried to talk several other developers into considering it.”

The prior owner was Leisure Time Hospitality Inc., a gaming concern in Avon, which paid $1 million for the vacant property seven years ago.

Alan Johnson, president of Leisure Time, at the time planned to renovate the hotel and use it as an exhibition parlor for video pull-tab machines benefiting charities, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in 1999. However, that transformation never happened. Mr. Johnson’s Avon phone number is unlisted.

Cleveland architect Paul Volpe said his City Architecture firm evaluated the building and prepared preliminary drawings for Leisure Time to install a Radisson Hotel at the site.

Despite its forlorn appearance, Mr. Volpe said the building was sound structurally in the late 1990s and that the work that most needed to be done — such as replacing inexpensive glass and walls typical of the building’s 1960s vintage — would need to be replaced anyway.

“The outside looks terrible, but it has great, great views that make it worth considering,” Mr. Volpe said.

City Architecture in 2002 sued Leisure Time for more than $25,000 in unpaid fees in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. The case is still pending.

Prior to Leisure Time’s ownership, the property twice had undergone foreclosure proceedings. At least three other groups have lofted plans for the building since the hotel was closed in the early 1990s.

The hotel today

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7153/dtg2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

Case Western Reserve University is working with local developers MRN and Zaremba to rebuild the area known as "The Triangle", an underused retail district near the campus. The Triangle is set to be rebuilt as the centerpiece of a new University Arts and Retail District, intended to give Case more of a college town feel. Anchored by the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), which will be moving to the area as part of the project, the university envisions restaurants, bars, entertainment spots, fashion and specialty clothing stores, as well as general retail, in addition to student housing, in a $120 million development. The current apartment towers of the Triangle development will remain. It will also be home to the university's bookstore which will sell student and general merchandise in addition to books.

The Triangle today.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5618/dscn1665dc9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

A few scattered condo projects

Larchmere courts

Larchmere Court Townhomes is the latest addition to the Larchmere Boulevard scene. These stylish modern townhomes feature 2-3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, high end finishes and roof decks with skyline views.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6190/eti6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Another project, I forgot the name though.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6439/fuk3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

City view center. This is a typical run of the mill suburban shopping center that has recently opened just outside the city limits of Cleveland, but the thing that makes this place unique is its view and the fact that its built on a landfill. The facility has lots of methane gas detectors and has had to close a few times due to methane scares.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7638/gqt2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/5950/hih1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The view from City view center

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/996/ijw9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

That Warehouse District Super Project sounds sick. Out of curiosity though, what's with the green filter you're using on your photos? I use green filters myself but they're only for black and white film...

The filter was a tint setting on my camera I forgot to turn off, I didn't want those pictures to come out Green.


Naptown
Cleveland will have those buses in 2008 when the project is complete, those were there for a "media day" of sorts showing off the new buses. When added they'll add to the light rail and metro lines of Cleveland.

I don't think there has been an intown-urban boom like this since the city's golden years. Most of the "boom" has been in the 'burbs for so long. The whole midwest is coming back and I can't wait 'til all the cities are officially "back.

[MABCLE]

State awards Cleveland Clinic $60 million for cardio center



1:25 p.m.
Updated 3:32 p.m.

Ohio's Third Frontier Commission today awarded $113 million in state grants to jump-start several Northeast Ohio-based technology projects, topped by $60 million for the Cleveland Clinic to establish a Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center.

The Clinic will receive its money though the Third Frontier's Wright Mega-centers of Innovation program.

The commission also approved:

-- $23.8 million for the Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering, led by Cleveland State University.

-- $8 million for UA's Commercialization of Functional Polyimide Films and Nanocomposites project.

-- $5.5 million for Swagelok's Commercialization of Low Temperature Carburization project.

-- $7.9 million for GrafTech's Next Generation of Electronic Devices project.

-- $8 million for the Flexible Displays for Electronic Devices project led by Kent Displays Inc. of Kent.

The commission met in Columbus to decide how to parcel out money under various Third Frontier programs -- the Wright Mega-centers of Innovation, the Wright Centers of Innovation in Engineering and Physical Sciences, and the Research Commercialization Grant program.

The National Research Council of The National Academies ranked the projects according to how well they answered the criteria set forth in the commission's request for proposals.

The Cleveland Clinic will collaborate with University Hospitals Case Medical Center, three Ohio universities and numerous medical technology companies to establish the cardio center.

It will focus on developing devices and therapies for heart failure and spin off new companies. Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp. also is part of the effort.

In approving the Cleveland State-led sensor project, commission members noted that it appears to overlap with another sensor center being established by a group including the University of Dayton. The commission awarded $28 million for that proposal.

After some discussion, the commission decided that the Dayton center would develop new sensors and that the Cleveland center would develop applications for sensors in industry.

"There needs to be one proposal," said commission member Richard Fearon of Eaton Corp. "Separating these, I'm, concerned we're setting ourselves up for less than robust success."

Taft's sceince and technology adviser, Frank Samuel, said the flow of grant money will be conditioned on cooperation between the Cleveland and Dayton centers.

The University of Akron's polyimide project, in partnership with the University of Dayton, is an extension of a currently funded 2005 Wright Center led by Ohio State University establishing the Center for Multifunctional Nanocomposites, the Ohio Department of Development said.

"Polyimides are a high-performance polymer with a wide range of properties. Polyimides can be easily adapted to enable manufacture of functional devices that can withstand extreme thermal, electrical and mechanical environments while maintaining their desired performance," the department said in a written statement.

The $8 million grant will enable the "scale up, prototyping, manufacture and commercialization of current and next-generation polyimide products.

Also collaborating on the project are the University of Dayton, Kent State University, Akron Polymer Systems, Centallus Microsystems, GrafTech International, Kent Displays, Lockheed Martin and Maverick Corp.

Swagelok, which makes industrial valves and fittings, has a patented process of carburizing steel a a low temperature.

Carburization is the process by which the carbon content of steel is increased by introducing carbon to a steel surface at elevated temperatures, the development department said. Carburization increases surface hardness of steel by a factor of four to five. Corrosion, wear and fatigue resistance of steel also are improved.

The $5.5 million grant will provide for the research, infrastructure development, manufacturing capacity and market presence necessary to convert the patented technology into a commercially viable metals treatment business based in Ohio, the department said.

Swagelok will collaborate with Case Western Reserve University on the project.

GrafTech's project is aimed at strengthening Ohio's presence in the lightweight, high-performance and cost-effective electronic device market, the development department said, adding:

"The challenge of the market is managing the heat generated by the devices. The challenge increases as the size of the devices gets smaller. The award gives GrafTech the ability to synthesize nanocomposite technologies with graphite-based materials for improved thermal and electrical conductivity."

GraphTech will collaborate with Case Western Reserve University, the University of Akron, the Air Force Research Laboratory, Applied Sciences Inc., Maverick Corp., the National Composite Center and the Ohio Aerospace Institute.

Kent Displays, in partnership with the Flexible Liquid Crystal Film Manufacturing Alliance, will develop specialized flexible liquid crystal displays and liquid crystal eyewear, the development department said.

By Mary Vanac, mvanac@plaind.com

[MABCLE]

Cleveland, Akron projects win millions in state money


4:58 p.m.

A technology center proposed for downtown Cleveland and an office park planned for Akron are among 18 projects that Gov. Bob Taft has recommended to split more than $50 million in site-improvement grants.

Matrix Realty Group of New York would receive $2.5 million toward its $29 million rehabilitation of an old lighting factory at 1425 Rockwell Ave.

The city of Akron is expected to receive $1.7 million for the White Pond Office Park, which according to the city's application is a $69.3 million project.

Both Matrix and Akron had asked for the maximum $5 million grant.

In a September news story, The Plain Dealer reported:
From the outside, it's about what you'd expect from an old warehouse that once housed a lighting factory.

Lots of brick, not a lot of personality.

But it's what's inside and underground that makes these three blocks of industrial real estate an intriguing investment for New York developer Glen Nelson.

The former Frankelite campus, a downtown Cleveland fixture on Rockwell Avenue, has enjoyed a second life as a tech park. A fiber-optic network running below has made it attractive to telecommunications companies looking for extra space to stash data centers.

Nelson, whose Matrix Realty Group bought the four-building complex about a year ago, has big plans for the site. Matrix wants to demolish the property's lone vacant building and construct in its place a new building at what's known as the Cleveland Technology Center.

Supporters say the $29 million project could bring or retain 300 to 500 jobs downtown.

"It's going to cost me a significant amount of money," said Nelson, whose firm plans to put up about $23 million, according to a grant application to the Ohio Department of Development.

The tech center is among five Cuyahoga County projects requesting assistance in the first funding round of the state's new $150 million Job Ready Sites program.

The money, part of a $2 billion economic development bond package passed last year, will be allocated over seven years.

In November, the state plans to award $60 million for the 2006-07 period, spokesman Merle Madrid said. Matrix has applied for the maximum $5 million grant.

"This is our single best shot at retaining data centers and tech centers downtown," said Kenny Coven, a senior associate at the Cleveland office of CB Richard Ellis. The commercial real estate services firm is the leasing agent for the Rockwell building.

"The only way this will happen is with public and private investment," Coven said.

Cuyahoga County has pledged a $1 million loan for the redevelopment, and the city of Cleveland is prepared to offer its own $250,000 loan. If the state awards Matrix the full $5 million, public-sector financial help would represent about 21 percent of the project's cost.

Click here to see a full list of projects being funded across the state.

- Henry Gomez, hgomez@plaind.com

[MABCLE]

More From The Plain Dealer | Subscribe To The Plain Dealer
State aids projects in Akron, Cleveland
Site-improvement grants target tech center, offices
Friday, December 15, 2006
Henry J. Gomez
Plain Dealer Reporter
A technology center proposed for downtown Cleveland and an office park planned for Akron are among 18 projects expected to split more than $50 million in state site-improvement grants.

Matrix Realty Group of New York would receive $2.5 million toward its $29 million renovation of an old lighting factory at 1425 Rockwell Ave. Akron is expected to receive $1.7 million for White Pond Office Park, a $69.3 million project.

"The projects that have been recommended for funding will enable Ohio to compete for large-scale investments that are likely to have an immediate impact in communities across the state," outgoing Gov. Bob Taft said in a written statement released Thursday.

The State Controlling Board must approve Taft's recommendations, but its blessing is likely to be a formality. Regional steering committees and state officials already have vetted the projects.

The grants are part of the state's $150 million Job Ready Sites Program, established to help improve properties and prepare them for use by large employers. The money is from a $2 billion economic development package approved by voters in 2005 and will be allocated over seven years.

Both Matrix and Akron had asked for maximum $5 million grants.

"But this is still good news," said Kenny Coven, a senior associate at the Cleveland office of CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate services firm working on the Matrix project. "Even if it's not the full $5 million, the amount helps keep us competitive with suburbs" for tenants.

Matrix, led by developer Glen Nelson, bought the property last year for $12.5 million. Nelson initially wanted to build condos on a vacant, grungy-looking piece of the land but ultimately decided on a three-story parking deck topped by at least three floors of office space.

Supporters say the project could bring or retain 300 to 500 jobs downtown.

Nelson is targeting high-tech tenants for the new building. In an earlier interview, Nelson said Matrix had planned to put up about $23 million of the project's costs.

One tenant interested in the new building is CGI Group, a huge information-technology firm based in Montreal that has about 250 local employees at the Tower at Erieview.

CGI would sign a 15-year lease at $25 a square foot and rent 150 parking spaces at $150 a month, according to Matrix's grant application. Coven said competitive lease rates depend on how much financial help comes from the public sector. Cuyahoga County has pledged a $1 million loan, and Cleveland could step in with a $250,000 loan.

In Summit County, the White Pond project includes the construction of more than 100,000 square feet of office space on 76 acres near Frank Boulevard and Interstate 77. Akron's application had pegged the project's cost at more than $69 million.

Statewide, 56 applicants sought more than $250 million in this funding round. Steering committees in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Summit counties submitted 14 projects. Recipients outside the region include projects in Cincinnati, Columbus and Wooster.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

hgomez@plaind.com, 216-999-5405

[NaptownBoy]

Cleveland schools renovation/rebuilding project

In May of 2001, city of Cleveland residents passed a 1.2 Billion dollar levy to renovate and rebuild the school buildings that needed repairs.
The newly built John Adams High School
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/483/aur9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The Historically renovated 77 year old John Hay High School

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/5520/bao9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Miles Park Elementary School under construction

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4687/czf9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The architecture on those schools is great!

[mohammed wong]

I for one am glad that someone is representing cleveland here,
it is midwestern RIGHT?????

[Absolut355]

Sticky sticky sticky...

Sticky hydrogen or jman?? Yea or nay??

Btw Mabcle, thank you SO much for this...I love Cleveland developments!!

[MABCLE]

Sunday, December 17, 2006
Tom Breckenridge
Plain Dealer Reporter
Developer Scott Wolstein hopes to start razing buildings next month in pursuit of his $230 million project on the Flats east bank.

The Cleveland Planning Commission on Friday approved demolition of eight buildings. But the move is likely to face legal challenges from nearby property owners who have refused to sell to the developer and are targets of an eminent domain action.

The Wolstein Group owns the eight buildings, mostly south of Old River Road. They include Joe's Crab Shack, Fado's, the Beach Club, Dick's Last Resort and Amsterdam, formerly known as Kindler's, records showed.
The city more than a year ago approved a Wolstein plan to revitalize the once-popular entertainment district.

Wolstein has lined up private and public financing for a project that would bring 300 dwellings, retail, entertainment, a park and a boardwalk.

But a number of property owners have rejected Wolstein's asking price, so the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority has filed lawsuits in county Probate Court to take the land by eminent domain.

Lawyers for the hold-out property owners and their business tenants asked the commission to table the vote.

If the eminent domain action fails, the city could be left with vacant lots and no development plans in hand, said lawyer Gerald Phillips.

Phillips also said his clients need to study the eight buildings to challenge the city's declaration that they are blighted.

Representatives of several businesses, including the Beachcomber bar and a nearby strip club, said the demolition would impede traffic and parking for their customers.

A Wolstein representative said the eight buildings would be available for Phillips and others to study.

The commission approved the demolition, with conditions that Wolstein ensure safety of the site and that traffic and on-street parking won't be blocked.

Phillips said he would probably appeal the Planning Commission decision and seek a protective court order to delay demolition.

A spokeswoman for Wolstein said the demolition request was not a tactic to pressure property owners who won't sell.

"We need to continue making progress," said Nancy Lesic. "This is the next step."

http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1166348507101340.xml&coll=2

[Ian604]

It's good to start hearing about what's happening in Cleveland on this forum.

Ohio is seriously underrepresented here.

[MasonsInquiries]

It's good to start hearing about what's happening in Cleveland on this forum.

Ohio is seriously underrepresented here.
yeah, truly. cleveland is definitely a gem. i'm glad this thread finally came into fruition.

[exit_320]

wow great pics and development! can't wait to see more.. hope this thread gets stickied

[MABCLE]

Nov. 30, 2006
Brooklyn Sun Journal
Living on the Square
Condos eyed for two buildings
By Ken Prendergast
Staff Writer

If city approvals are given, housing could be offered on Public Square for the first time since the 1800s.
Developer Matthew Howells will present plans this week to the Cleveland Planning Commission for converting two historic office buildings at the corner of Ontario Street and Public Square into more than two dozen condominiums. Plans include adding a penthouse to the nine-story, 103-year-old Park Building which fronts Public Square.
Behind the Park is the Southworth Building, built in 1882. Howells, through his Howells & Howells Enterprises Limited Liability Corp., purchased both buildings and an adjacent parcel last winter for $1.7 million, according to the Cuyahoga County Auditors office.
"I'm just really excited about this development," said Ward 13 Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose ward includes downtown. "It has just a historical and psychological draw for residents. You couldn't get more downtown than living on Public Square."
The Park and Southworth feature working fireplaces in some suites. The office buildings are mostly vacant, but have occupied storefronts, including Jake's deli at the corner of Public Square and Ontario. Howells recently added exterior lighting to the Park facing upward from the second floor.
Howells did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story. Potential sale prices for the condominiums were not available.
"He (Howells) has a lot of experience with developing projects around the country," said Cimperman, who also is council's representative to the planning commission and chair's council's Planning Committee. "He wanted to do something here and is moving heaven and earth to get this done. That building had to be developed by him. He sees the value in it."
Cimperman said plans for the project will also have to go before the Landmarks Commission, likely in December, given the age of the two buildings and their location. Despite their historic status, he said he supports Howell's plan to add the penthouse level because he was certain the penthouse would sell.
In related news, CRM Development Research Inc. reported this week that Cleveland issued the most for-sale residential building permits in the first nine months of 2006 in Cuyahoga County. Cleveland issued 183 permits, with Westlake and North Royalton tying for a distant second at 79. In the seven counties of Northeast Ohio, only North Ridgeville and Avon issued more permits, 283 and 201 respectively, than Cleveland.

[MABCLE]

I thought it was time to give Northeast Ohio some light here and let everyone know Cleveland is taking part in this midwest "boom" to. Thanks for all the responses so far.

[MABCLE]

Collinwood High school got a new roof, new windows, interior renovations as well as a track and field as part of the Cleveland Schools project.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/1201/dscn1683ww2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

Kings terrace luxury condominiums on the West side of the city. These feature 2400 square feet and an ok view of the lake.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4524/dscn1684mx2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4712/dscn1686bw4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

Picture of part of the condo component of the Battery Park development mentioned before.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2015/dscn1687jn4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

West Tech Lofts is what happens when a developer devides to convert a closed High School (West Tech Highschool) into lofts for sale. The inside features lofts, but still has lockers from when the building was a school. The lofts in the building aren't selling well. The athletic fields that were voncerted, however are selling good and are a mix single family homes and attached condos.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2827/dscn1688fg9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3893/dscn1690ud7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The athletic fields

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4530/dscn1689yv3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

Construction of a new 5 million dollar rapid station (Metro rail) on West 117th street.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/70/dscn1691yj5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1355/dscn1692mi5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

An example of the many former warehouses being converted into lofts in downtown Cleveland.

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6674/dscn1694gw1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

Here are a few projects in Cleveland Heights. This site was once one of the region's first suburban shopping malls. After its decline developers turned it into a power center. Some of the outparcels are being developed into new condos.

This was once a Kaiser outpatient center, now its condos.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/9229/dscn1695io9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1971/dscn1696am4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

There was an office building on this site, it was demolished and these were built.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/5981/dscn1697gy7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4826/dscn1698fq4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

UHHS Commits More Than $1 Billion for Wide-Reaching Vision 2010 Plan
Five-year Plan Calls for Major Expansion Throughout Northeast Ohio
January 18, 2006


CLEVELAND - The Board of Directors of University Hospitals Health System (UHHS) has unanimously approved core elements of its strategic plan, called Vision 2010. The plan, calling for investments of more than $1 billion over five years, includes significant commitment to the University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) campus, new facilities and considerable expansion of services at several System hospitals, additional suburban ambulatory centers and more than $100 million in technological enhancements, including system-wide electronic health records.

"Our Vision 2010 plan represents a milestone for University Hospitals Health System," said Thomas F. Zenty III, President and CEO of UHHS. "Vision 2010 will be the single largest endeavor that UHHS has undertaken in its history and, as we celebrate 140 years of service to patients, will leave a lasting impression on our community and our health system for decades to come. The new construction, expansion of current services and the introduction of a new electronic health records system exemplify our commitment to our patients, physicians and employees. By approving this plan, our board of directors recognizes that we have returned to solid financial performance and need to plan for our future."

The first phase of the plan includes the construction of a 200-bed, freestanding cancer hospital on the University Hospitals of Cleveland campus, major renovation and expansion of the Pediatric and Adult Emergency Department at UHC, and a new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the internationally recognized Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. Plans also call for the construction of Ambulatory Medical Centers in Twinsburg and Aurora. Further, the cardiovascular facilities at UHHS Geauga Regional Hospital, UHHS Richmond Heights Hospital and UHHS Bedford Medical Center will be expanded, along with orthopaedic facilities and services at UHHS Geauga Regional Hospital.

"An extensive amount of planning went into this vision, as we considered the changing needs of our patients, our communities, our physicians and our employees," said Christopher M. Connor, Chairman of the UHHS Board of Directors. "This strategic plan truly is a watershed moment in the rich history of University Hospitals Health System, and board members were excited to take a leadership role in developing it."

Vision 2010 considered patient needs, population demographics, and the responsibility to continue developing leading services and facilities - all with an eye toward promoting an environment that provides patients the high level of care that they have come to expect from UHHS.

The 200-bed, 320,000-square-foot cancer hospital will provide access to all of University Hospitals of Cleveland’s nationally renowned inpatient and outpatient oncology services in a single, state-of-the-art, patient-centered facility. The new multi-story hospital will be home to the Ireland Cancer Center and will include radiation therapy, mammography, chemotherapy, surgical oncology, diagnostic services, wellness spaces and counseling, and physicians’ offices. The building will feature specialized clinical areas for specific patient needs while promoting an environment for optimal patient care, cancer research and education. Plans call for construction to be completed by October 2009.

"The building of this cancer hospital helps to further establish our position as one of the premier cancer programs in the nation, where the latest research and therapies are available to all patients," says Stanton Gerson, MD, Director of the Ireland Cancer Center. "Patients travel from all over the country to receive treatment here, and this building will both reflect and promote the level of care they seek."

In an effort to continue to serve Cleveland and patients in need of emergency treatment, UHC will renovate and more than double the square footage of the emergency departments at UHC and Rainbow. The combined emergency departments, which together are the second busiest in Cleveland, have an annual patient volume of 73,000 adult and pediatric patients.

The 23,000-square-foot emergency department will be expanded to 54,000-square-feet, and the number of available beds will increase from 41 to 70. The emergency department also will have improved patient access and state-of-the art diagnostic and laboratory capabilities to expedite and improve patient care. Construction is expected to begin in July 2006 and will take approximately two years to complete. The UHC Emergency Department project comes amid significant emergency department enhancements at UHHS Geauga Regional Hospital, UHHS Memorial Hospital of Geneva and UHHS Richmond Heights Hospital - all of which were made possible by the considerable financial support of the UHHS donor community.

The new 38-bed NICU at Rainbow, the premier children’s hospital in the Midwest, will unite advanced technology, research and clinical services in a home-like environment with private space for parents to sleep at their child’s bedside. Adjacent to the Level III NICU will be a 44-bed Neonatal Transitional Care Unit that allows babies to graduate from the intensive care setting and transition into a home-like setting where parents learn to handle their medical needs before leaving the hospital. Combined, the units form the largest and most advanced NICU in Ohio. The new NICU will feature a surgical suite and imaging capabilities that enhance the ability to diagnose, treat and, if necessary operate on the tiniest patients near their rooms. World-famous neonatologists at Rainbow are leaders not only in patient outcomes but in groundbreaking research. This project will enable them to continue providing the highest level of care for newborns. The project will start in March 2006 and is expected to be finished in Fall 2007.

"Our 140th year of serving the city of Cleveland promises to be an historic one, and the impact of these projects will reverberate throughout the region and our System for decades to come," said Fred C. Rothstein, MD, President and CEO of UHC. "We are investing in our nationally recognized programs, such as cancer and pediatrics, while responding to the needs of Cleveland by expanding our emergency department."

The Vision 2010 plan includes targeted expansion of services throughout the region. A 40,000-square-foot outpatient medical center will be constructed just off State Route 82, near Interstate 480, to meet the needs of our Twinsburg-area patients and to accommodate a growing UHHS physician presence. Offerings by this innovative primary care facility will include an urgent care center and pediatric, OB/GYN, family and pain management practices. In addition, it will feature advanced radiology and laboratory services and an expanded corporate health department. A second outpatient center will be located on State Route 43 in Aurora. This facility, still in the planning stages, will provide a significant UHHS presence to serve this growing region.

UHHS Geauga Regional Hospital is embarking on two major initiatives to enhance service capabilities for treating orthopaedic conditions and cardiovascular disease. A new joint and spine surgery unit, slated to open in May 2006, will feature advanced technology for patients undergoing knee or hip replacement surgery, or reconstructive spine procedures. Patients will benefit from computerized navigation guidance systems and special clinical protocols to improve their outcomes in a dedicated 18-bed inpatient center. Outpatient services will include specialized programs in sports health and injury prevention. A new cardiac intensive care unit and renovated cardiac inpatient facilities will strengthen Geauga Regional Hospital’s ability to provide comprehensive care for patients with heart disease. And later this year, UHHS Richmond Heights Hospital and UHHS Bedford Medical Center will open new cardiovascular centers, following extensive projects to enhance and expand services at those hospitals.

Another key component of Vision 2010 is the installation of an electronic health record system that uses new technology to develop and maintain electronic records of patient health information. The system will enhance the quality and safety of patient care by creating a centralized record of relevant medical information, including patient demographics, medication usage, progress notes, past medical history and laboratory data. The system will offer clinical features that prevent duplication of medications and testing and check for allergies and drug interactions.

Vision 2010 was completed following significant, System-wide operational changes that resulted in UHHS’ bond ratings being upgraded by both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. The projects will be financed through a combination of operational funds, government funding, long-term debt, and support from UHHS’ donor community.

"Over the past two years, we have introduced an organizational and financial discipline that has helped create a foundation for our future," said Mr. Zenty. "The realization of Vision 2010 is a credit to the commitment of our board members, physicians and employees in their desire to continue to provide the best care to our patients and support the Greater Cleveland community."

http://www.uhhs.com/Article_Detail.aspx?ID=263&MID=152

[MABCLE]

Case enters into exclusive negotiations with Forest City as developer for the west quad


August 26, 2005 | For more information: George Stamatis 216-368-3635

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Forest City Enterprises have signed an exclusive, 90-day conditional designation agreement to develop program and financial terms for the development of Case’s new West Quad campus. Forest City was chosen by Case from a pool of six national developers. In addition to Forest City, developers responding to the School of Medicine’s request for qualifications included Higgins Development Partners, Hines, Slough Estates USA, Spaulding & Slye in partnership with Colliers International and Townsend Capital.

With this agreement, the School of Medicine will exclusively negotiate with Forest City the business and legal terms of this project. If these negotiations are successful, at the end of this 90-day period the parties will execute a formal Memorandum of Understanding, clearly outlining the terms of the final development agreement.

Ralph I. Horwitz, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine, said, “We were highly impressed with the ideas proposed by Forest City and the company’s depth of experience in the development of university-affiliated biomedical research parks.”

Gayle Farris, President of Forest City’s Science & Technology Group said, “We are very grateful to Case for this opportunity to work with them towards developing a vision for the West Quad Campus that will build upon the strengths of Case’s academic prowess and its partnership with Cleveland’s leading medical institutions to establish a cluster for life science research and development.”

The West Quad, site of the former Mt. Sinai Medical Center and already home to the Cleveland Center for Structural Biology, is a 14-acre parcel owned by Case. The university seeks to develop the West Quad into a mixed-use campus and research park with up to 2 million square feet of laboratory and office space dedicated to transformative research in individualized genomic medicine and the quantitative biosciences. The West Quad will also be home to joint research projects and education programs with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, University Hospitals of Cleveland, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and MetroHealth Medical Center.

The West Quad will make Cleveland a national leader in a new wave of medical care and research focused on developing individualized medical treatment based on the patient’s genes, proteins and disease susceptibility.

Further, the research and programs planned for the West Quad will be a source and driver for significant economic development in this region.

Forest City Enterprises, Inc. is a $7.4 billion NYSE-listed national real estate company. The company is principally engaged in the ownership, development, acquisition and management of mixed-use projects, retail centers, apartment communities, office buildings and land development projects throughout the United States.

http://www.case.edu/news/2005/8-05/forest.htm



FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: What is the West Quad?
A: The West Quad is a 14-acre campus owned by Case Western Reserve University, one of the nation’s leading research universities. The university plans to work with a developer to develop this campus into an innovative research park focusing on “individualized” genomic medicine.

Q: Where is the West Quad?
A: The West Quad is on Cleveland’s east side, in University Circle. It is on the former site of the Mt. Sinai Medical Center, bounded by Mt. Sinai Drive, Ansel Road, Silver Park, and East 105 th Street.

Q: How will the West Quad help Cleveland?
A: The West Quad will make Cleveland a leader in a new wave of medical care focused on developing medical treatment based on the person’s genes, proteins, and disease susceptibility. Cleveland’s leading health care institutions – the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, University Hospitals of Cleveland, the Louis Stoke Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and MetroHealth Medical Center – are working together to advance medicine, research, and clinical care. In addition, the West Quad holds the promise of serving as a source and driver for economic development in the University Circle, as well as across Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.

Q: How will the West Quad advance medicine?
A: The overarching objective of the West Quad development will be to unlock the potential of “individualized” genomic medicine, or personalized care that is based on – and tailored to – an individual’s genome, the proteins the genome manufactures, and the disease susceptibility created by the interactions between these biological factors and the external environment. Presently, many therapeutic strategies are approved and endorsed because they offer benefits based on statistical evidence for improvements in groups of patients. Currently, however, when a particular therapy is shown to be effective for a percentage of a sample population, no methods exist to determine which individuals within that population are responsive to that therapy and which are not.

Q: Has the city of Cleveland been supportive?
A: The West Quad has received enthusiastic support from the mayor, the council people representing the neighborhood wards – Council members Britt, Lewis, Scott, and Conwell – the Department of City Planning, and others.

Q: Will the project create jobs?
A: The West Quad will create significant economic opportunities for Clevelanders. At the build-out of the entire campus, it is anticipated that the project will create between 4,500 to 6,000 new jobs at a variety of skill levels and ancillary growth in the University Circle area.

http://westquad.case.edu/faqs/

[MABCLE]

SUMMIT SOCCER STADIUM PLAN UNVEILED
Public dollars part of financing
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer

Mike Cardew/Akron Beacon Journal
Macedonia Mayor Don Kuchta looks at an artist rendering of the proposed soccer complex during a press conference in the Macedonia City Center Community room Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006.
More photos
About the complex
Outdoor retailer could be key to development
Map: Location of the complex
MACEDONIA: - I t is the perfect site: the crossroads of Northeast Ohio.

That's what drew Paul Garofolo and Scott Wolstein to northern Summit County as the proposed site for a 20,000-seat soccer stadium with a retractable dome and grass surface.

On Thursday, Wolstein Sports & Entertainment Group of Moreland Hills unveiled a project estimated at $327 million that would have the stadium -- to be home for an expansion Major League Soccer team and other events -- two retail developments, a medical complex, at least one hotel and up to 15 restaurants.

The 450-acre site is on the east side of state Route 8 between I-271 and the Ohio Turnpike in the city of Macedonia and Northfield Center Township.

The project hinges on construction of the stadium, they said, and the stadium will require public tax dollars to make it work.

The financing plans call for the stadium to be owned by the Summit County Port Authority, adoption of a cigarette tax of 30 cents a pack for Summit County smokers, and $14 million in state grants.

Summit County Executive James B. McCarthy said he was ``100 percent behind the project,'' including the cigarette tax. ``It would be great for our community and great for our region,'' he said.

Dan Colantone of the Greater Akron Chamber called the plan ``an incredible project.''

An `uphill battle'

Macedonia Mayor Don Kuchta said he supports the project but fears it faces an ``uphill battle'' to win support for the needed financing.

The Wolstein company unveiled a Web site -- www.neoprosoccer.com -- to get people in Northeast Ohio to help win support from the Ohio Legislature on two key money issues: $14 million in state construction money and permission to levy a cigarette tax.

A proposed cigarette tax of about 30 cents a pack in Summit County would raise about $7 million a year for 30 years.

McCarthy said $6 million a year -- or $180 million over 30 years -- would go toward the stadium and $1 million a year would go to arts and culture projects.

Those funds are ``extremely important'' for the financing of the soccer stadium, Garofolo said.

The Ohio Legislature will be asked to approve the cigarette tax. It could then be adopted by Summit County Council, bypassing voters.

If, however, the revenue is raised by a sales tax, voter approval would be required.

Garolofo's company had looked at seeking state approval to impose a new fee on real estate transfers in Summit County, but that plan drew strong opposition from real estate agents and was dropped for the cigarette tax, he said.

The $14 million in state aid would be requested from the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission, the state agency that has funded stadiums in Akron, Cleveland, Toledo, Eastlake, Columbus and Cincinnati.

The initial request for $3 million must be approved by Ohio legislators and the governor.

Jobs to be created

The stadium and surrounding development would create 1,600 construction jobs and 1,825 jobs when the complex opens, said Garofolo, who is president and chief executive of the Wolstein group.

The plan calls for the Wolstein group to lease the stadium from the county port authority, said Christopher Burnham, president and director of the authority.

His agency will only go forward on the project once it is confident that the Wolstein cash flow will be sufficient to pay for the bonds that would be issued by the port authority, he said.

The Wolstein group would be putting up $15 million of its own money. Private developers have pledged an additional $157.5 million.

There would be a $2 surcharge on every ticket sold. That would raise $2.2 million a year or $66 million over 30 years to help fund the stadium.

The Wolstein group has worked out a tax-increment financing agreement with Nordonia Hills schools. That would provide an $8.5 million payment to the school system and $7 million a year toward paying off the stadium bonds.

The stadium, designed by architect Gino Rossetti, would have 20,000 seats, expandable to 30,000. It could accommodate another 2,000 persons in suites and 3,000 in standing room.

The roof would retract and the natural grass field could also be moved out of the stadium so that other events could take place inside.

It would have administrative offices, restaurants, television production center, retail shops and meeting rooms.

The Wolstein Sports and Entertainment Group is confident that if the stadium is built, it will receive the right to an expansion professional soccer team in 2009, Garofolo said. ``There have been high-level negotiations, but nothing is official,'' he said.

Proponents said they hope to use the facility 90 to 100 days a year by hosting national and international events and by adding women's soccer and lacrosse.

Other facilities under consideration are 25 lighted soccer fields, two ice skating rinks and a fieldhouse with an indoor soccer field.

Retail development

Retail development would include a 425,000-square foot shopping complex on 45 acres. It would be similar to Crocker Park in Westlake and Legacy Village in Lyndhurst.

The second retail development would cover 250,000 square feet on 30 acres. It would house a major retailer new to Ohio, believed to be Cabela's Inc., a chain, based in Nebraska, selling hunting, fishing and outdoor gear.

The medical complex would have a 24-hour urgent care center, a medical office building, a sports rehabilitation facility and a wellness center.

Garofolo said the commitments of the retail and medical projects are firm, assuming the stadium can be built.

Cleveland was not interested in being home to the soccer stadium and Akron is too close to Columbus, home of the Columbus Crew team, Garofolo said.

His company needed approval from the Columbus team to locate in Macedonia because the league prohibits teams from being within 75 miles of each other.

Garofolo, quoting the late developer Edward DeBartolo, said the Macedonia site was the perfect location and its development will strengthen ties between Akron and Cleveland.

He said the state Route 8 corridor from Macedonia to Stow is ripe for economic development.

``It's ready to explode,'' he said.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/16138870.htm

[MABCLE]

Suburbs talk of sharing income taxes
Mayors group OKs cities splitting revenue when company relocates
Friday, October 27, 2006
Thomas Ott
Plain Dealer Reporter
Turf-minded Cleveland suburbs are poised to do what seemed impossible: Share income taxes when a company pulls up stakes in one community and sets them down in another.

The Cuyahoga County Mayors and City Managers Association overwhelmingly agreed Thursday to have winning and losing communities split the taxes of transplanted workers for up to five years.

With few corporations moving into Northeast Ohio, cities and villages have scrapped over those that shuffle within the region. Supporters say sharing taxes will let the cities and villages work together on economic development.


The vote was 24-2, with three abstentions. The group has 57 members, but in such a politically divided county, the result was cause for advocates to celebrate.

"The status quo is not working," Shaker Heights Mayor Judy Rawson, one of the plan's authors, told the group. "If we don't move to a new regional model, we're going to fail, and we're going to fail together."

The plan applies to companies with payrolls of at least $500,000 a year. The mayors and city managers also intend to negotiate caps on property-tax breaks given to companies and abolish rebates on income taxes.

Supporters declared the action historic, but sizable hurdles remain. Thursday's vote is not binding.

City and village councils will consider the plan and could reject it.

Even if the councils approve the plan, cities where employers move would not have to share taxes unless they also participated in other regional agreements. For example, cities may have to agree to share their taxes to get money from a proposed multimillion-dollar redevelopment fund.

The agreement approved Thursday is not the same as the deals Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has negotiated with suburbs served by the city's Water Department. In those agreements, the Water Department would take over waterlines in suburbs that promise not to poach employers from Cleveland

Page 2 of 2
Jackson, a leading proponent of regional cooperation, voted yes on the tax-sharing plan Thursday, as did representatives of the largest suburbs: Parma, Lakewood, Cleveland Heights and Euclid. Perhaps fittingly, the group met in Cleveland City Council chambers.

Solon and Oakwood opposed the plan, while Bedford Heights, Brook Park and Westlake abstained. Representatives of the five communities expressed support but said they wanted to move more cautiously.

Solon Mayor Kevin Patton voted no, while his brother, Brooklyn Mayor Kenneth Patton, said yes.

Kevin Patton said restricting tax breaks would leave Solon vulnerable to raids from three neighboring counties: Summit, Geauga and Portage. Westlake Mayor Dennis Clough said he faced the same threat from Lorain County.

The regional business group Team NEO will try to expand tax sharing throughout Northeast Ohio, said Chief Executive Officer Thomas Waltermire. He said elimination of infighting will make Northeast Ohio more alluring to business.

Edward "Ned" Hill, an urban studies professor at Cleveland State University, has long advocated tax sharing, which he said would end no-win competition.

Until Thursday, he had given up hope of seeing the idea become reality.

"The mayors here are a bunch of adults," Hill said. "Let's stand up and applaud them."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

tott@plaind.com, 216-999-5739


http://www.cleveland.com/economy/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1161938791225110.xml&coll=2&thispage=2

[MABCLE]

Stark Enterprises to Develop Master Plan for Warrensville-Van Aken


(May 31, 2006) On May 30, Bob Stark of Stark Enterprises presented to Shaker Heights City Council his preliminary vision for the redevelopment of the Warrensville–Van Aken area into a vibrant heart of the City and a catalytic crossroads for the region.
At the end of the meeting, Council authorized Stark to begin development of a Master Plan for the 60 acres surrounding the intersection. Stark, in partnership with members of the Weiss and Ratner families, has a dynamic vision for the area. Click to read the proposal. Key components are:

A train station/piazza at the end of the Rapid’s blue line, surrounded by a mix of retail, offices, recreation, outdoor cafes, housing lofts and cultural/educational amenities.
Fixing the traffic pattern of the intersection, commonly regarded as hugely problematic. “Let’s face it, it stinks,” said Stark in his presentation.
A commercial area with structured parking and design quality to match Shaker’s famed residential areas, to which businesses will happily move from sterile commerce parks.
A hub for the entire east side, to fight urban sprawl and to rival Stark’s Crocker Park development in Westlake.
Phase One, of 5-10 years duration, costing approximately $200 million. Phase One in Crocker Park cost approximately $150-200 million including garages and roads.
Stark believes that higher density is critical to increase the City’s tax base and to achieve the vibrancy found in busy, urbane places. For additional information, contact Patrick Campbell, 491-1334. Click to read the City’s May 11 Press Release regarding the RFQ process.

[MABCLE]

With our powers combined ...

UA considers joining forces to form Northeast Ohio 'super university'

by Aaron Stark
Buchtelite News Reporter
Staff
news@buchtelite.com
Print Story E-mail Author Discuss






What happens when you combine all four of Northeast Ohio's four-year universities into one hybrid super university?

No, it probably won't generate an institution poised to rival Harvard academically and Ohio State athletically. However, some are hoping it will generate better cost management and increased efficiency.

Efforts are being made to create collaboration among Northeast Ohio's major universities: Kent State University, Youngstown State University, the University of Akron and Cleveland State University.

Each school would maintain its separate identity, but would work together to find ways to create better opportunities for students and lower tuition.

"We're in a lame-duck session right now, so it will either have to be passed during this session, or we will have to start all over with the new session," said Dick Pogue, a member of the University of Akron's board of trustees.

The collaboration may or may not include the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and community colleges, Pogue said.

The proposal to create a committee to look into creating a "super university" has yet to be addressed by Ohio's General Assembly, but supporters are hoping the legislation will be passed and funded by Ohio Legislature. The committee would be made up of representatives of each university and legislators.

Pogue said the proposal would demonstrate that Ohio universities are not oblivious to how they are perceived.

"The proposal would show legislators that schools recognize issues raised by them for years; that schools are ineffective and duplicative," he said.

In a Nov. 1 article of the Youngstown Vindicator, David Sweet, president of Youngstown State University, spoke out against the idea of collaboration among Northeast Ohio universities.

"He may have been mis-quoted," Pogue said. "If you read the article for the Vindicator on Nov 18., he said that none of the (Youngstown State board of trustees) members were against it. He sounds more supportive of the idea in that article."

Pogue said there was likely a lot of misunderstanding about the collaboration after the initial news conference.

"About a week or so ago, legislators in Mahoning Valley opposed the legislation before they really knew what it was all about," Pogue said. "But I'm sure if you were to ask them now, they might have a different attitude."

Pogue said that the Ohio Board of Regents is behind the commission.

"Northeast Ohio could be a pilot," Pogue said. "If we do it successfully, other regions could follow."

Pogue said that although nothing can be certain, he believes that collaboration would provide an economic boost for Northeast Ohio universities.

"I'm biased, but I think that maybe if we work together, we can save money."

http://www.buchtelite.com/2006/1121/news_02.shtml

[MABCLE]

Ford sells Lorain Assembly Plant
Linked articles
» Duo makes pitch for Ford plant




By STAN BULLARD

5:02 pm, December 18, 2006



Lorain’s post-Ford future drove into town today.

Ford Motor Co. announced today that it has sold the massive Lorain Assembly Plant. The buyer is a joint venture formed by Industrial Realty Group of Los Angeles and Chris Semarjian, a local investor.

Neither Ford nor the buyer disclosed terms of the sale.

The two are likely to recycle the plant to an industrial complex housing multiple companies. The plant has 4 million square feet of factory and office space. It sits on 264 acres at 5401 Baumhart Road.

Jay Gardner, vice president for development and strategy at Ford Land, said in a Ford news release that the automaker is pleased Industrial Realty Group is the buyer because the firm has a track record for redevelopment projects and “will bring tax revenue and jobs to the surrounding community.”


Stuart Lichter, Industrial Realty’s president, said in the prepared statement that the site is one of the few options in the industrial Midwest for large industrial tenants. “We’ll be hopeful we’ll be able to announce the arrival of new companies and jobs to the city of Lorain in the near future,” he said.

The duo has nearly a one-year start on recycling the plant to new use. Soon after Ford idled the plant and transferred van production to its newer Avon Lake plant, Mr. Semarjian began showing prospective tenants through it, Crain’s reported March 16.

Records at the Lorain County recorder’s office indicated a deed was transferred for the property, but sales documents with sales information did not show the sale by 4:57 p.m.

Lorain Mayor Craig Foltin said in the statement that Ford has shown a willingness to work with the community in the sale.

Industrial Realty Group is a nationally known specialist in adapting real estate, from former factories to military bases, to new use.

Mr. Lichter is a familiar figure in Ohio. He belonged to the partnership that bought the former B.F. Goodrich Co. factory and headquarters in 1988 in Akron and converted it into an award-winning, multitenant industrial and office complex. His company also converted the former Caterpillar plant, which is more than 1 million square feet in size, to multitenant use in Mentor.

During the past decade, Mr. Semarjian, a senior vice president at the NAI Daus brokerage, and Mr. Lichter have worked together on a plethora of projects. Those projects include converting a one-time former Spiegel warehouse in Columbus, which is 4 million square feet in size, to multitenant use, and putting Royal Appliance Manufacturing Co. into the onetime Kmart Supercenter in Euclid.

http://www.crainscleveland.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061218/FREE/61218011/1004

[MABCLE]

Pertaining to the Warehouse district super project
Cleveland’s Warehouse District Gets A Lift
Stark Enterprises pitches development plan that will take Cleveland’s Warehouse District to the next level.

Susan H. Fishman

Cleveland’s historic Warehouse District has been a work in progress for about 10 to 15 years. It began with the conversion of historic warehouse buildings into loft living and working spaces on the upper floors and has grown to include cafes, restaurants, coffeehouses and clubs along its streetscape. But the Warehouse District is missing two key components to be a sustainable and ultimately successful urban neighborhood, says Bob Stark of Stark Enterprises, who is spearheading an initiative to take the Warehouse District to the next level.

“It needs much more density,” he says. “There have to be a lot more people on the streets, which is what attracts people to an urban neighborhood and keeps them there. It’s what urbanity is about, and not just in terms of numbers of people, but because there are too many wide open spaces in the form of surface parking lots, those properties need to be developed in order to eliminate these big gaps; it’s like teeth missing in a smile.”

The other missing component in the Warehouse District is mixed-use, says Stark. “The great urban neighborhoods that we all have been to, whether it’s SoHo or Tribeca or Georgetown, have a very interesting and interactive retail format that characterizes and defines the street, and we don’t have much, if any, of that in the Warehouse District,” he notes. “So if we could fill those gaps with significant density and put many more thousands of people on the streets, and if we can provide a character by the right kind of retail and development of the streetscape aesthetically, then I believe we will have a great urban neighborhood.”
Stark Enterprises has acquired some of the most prime real estate in Northeast Ohio and developed commercial properties from small community-based shopping centers like Brooklor Plaza in North Olmsted, Ohio, to major suburban shopping districts like the Montrose area of West Akron where Rosemont Commons, The Shops of Fairlawn, OfficeMax Plaza, West Market Plaza and Lowe’s Plaza comprise 1 million square feet. Over the years, the company has established a new vision of establishing identities for communities by employing mixed-use density and commanding architectural design to create distinctive, pedestrian-friendly commercial districts. An example is Crocker Park, a $480 million mixed-use development in Westlake, Ohio, that vertically integrates retail with residential, office, dining and entertainment venues, all executed around an inviting streetscape. The project encompasses 12 city blocks with great design in public spaces, streetscapes, parks and alleyways and features a mix of locally owned shops, cutting-edge office buildings, street-interactive restaurants, loft-style apartments and city homes and work/live townhouses. It also includes one of Ohio’s first boutique hotels, a community college, a regional medical hub, regional transit services, civic space and a community arts theater center.

With its community-based philosophy, Stark Enterprises is perfectly positioned to head up the current development plan for the Warehouse District — a massive undertaking that’s impact is so transformative, it requires the collaboration of all of the key civic-interested organizations in town, from foundations to groups like the Greater Cleveland Partnership. The first phase of the project alone, which is scheduled to open in 2010, is estimated at $1 billion. With the development potential of all of the land that will be north of the Warehouse District, it could ultimately be close to $20 billion, says Stark.
“There are all kinds of developers who are supportive of the plan, and I’ve made multiple presentations to the Downtown Cleveland Partnership, which consists of the key developers in Downtown. They seem to be nearly unanimously in favor of what we’re proposing.”

The Plan

Still in its infancy, the current Warehouse District development plan begins with a site that consists of all surface parking lots that, with one small exception, do not require tear down of any existing buildings, historic or otherwise.

“This is simply realizing the plan of the Warehouse District, which is to build mixed-use buildings on those lots that once had such buildings and not to exceed certain height limitations,” Stark notes.

Stark Enterprises has designed a prospective tenant mix for the streetscape, which will feature 1 million square feet of retail and, above that, approximately 3 million to 4 million square feet of mixed-use space, including office, residential and hotel tenants.

At the same time, Stark Enterprises is advocating the expansion of the Warehouse District. The Cleveland Port Authority is in the process of moving its operations and extending the urban grid of the Warehouse District north to the water’s edge of Lake Erie and west to the Cuyahoga River. The proposal includes bringing the Lakeshore Freeway down to grade between West Ninth and West Third, so there is no longer a separation between everything south of the freeway and everything north of the freeway.

“That freeway is nothing but a shortcut through the middle of the city that was built with little regard for how the water should be connected to the center of the city,” Stark notes.

Today, the Warehouse District is a self-contained urban community that is home to a residential population of 2,800. The current average income of the Warehouse District resident is $75,000 annually with a median income of $54,500. There is a daytime business population of 167,000. In total, the entire market serving the Warehouse District from Rocky River to the West, Parma to the South and Bratenahl to the East approaches a population of 800,000.

With both the further renovation of existing buildings in the Warehouse District and the new construction by Stark Enterprises, the Warehouse District population is expected to increase to approximately 12,500. The daytime populations (business and tourist) will more than triple to 566,000 office workers and visitors daily over the next 5 years. These numbers could be even greater with the proposed construction of new gaming facilities and a new convention center.

There are also numerous major residential developments underway in the immediate vicinity that will increase the new residential population by an additional 13,000. Those projects include The Flats East Bank Neighborhood, by Scott Wolstein of Developers Diversified (331 housing units that include apartments and townhouses slated for 2007), The Avenue District Development on 12th Street, by Zaremba, Inc. (400 condominiums that include lofts, penthouses and townhouses slated for 2007), The Euclid Corridor Project, by The City of Cleveland (4,000 residential units along the corridor slated for 2008), Lighthouse Landing, by Walnut Grove Ventures Development Corporation (228 condominium units in two towers of 18 and 22 stories slated for 2008), East 4th Street Corner Alley, by MRN Ltd. (163 rentable housing units slated for 206/2007) and 515 Euclid Avenue, by Golberg (28-story condominium tower).

The greatest appeal of the Warehouse District lifestyle is to young professionals and empty nesters — by far the largest segment of American society. This segment is creating the demand for dense, mixed-use living that the Ohio suburbs, with its 30-year-old housing stock and office supply, cannot provide. By 2010, the Warehouse District will meet the need in the Ohio market for a more dynamic, urban lifestyle.

http://www.shoppingcenterbusiness.com/articles/SEP06/story16.shtml

[MABCLE]

500 jobs for Lorain

By DAVID BENNETT

1:51 pm, December 20, 2006



Few locations outside Wall Street and Las Vegas are witness to large losses followed by large gains.

However, the reuse of the shuttered Lorain Assembly Plant at 5401 Baumhart Road will bring at least 500 jobs to Lorain next year with the promise of more to come, said Christopher Semarjian, a partner in the redevelopment project along with Stuart Lichter, president and CEO of Industrial Realty Group LLC of Los Angeles.

Mr. Semarjian, senior vice president at the NAI Daus brokerage in Beachwood, said at a news conference this morning in Lorain that Industrial Realty Group has agreements with two manufacturers to occupy portions of the 4.1 million-square-foot plant. He declined to identify the companies. He said a 300-person manufacturer has designs to occupy space on the northern end of the plant, and a Lorain-based company plans to set up a 200-person manufacturing operation in another part of the building.

Though much of the space is still untapped, Mr. Lichter estimated that the building, when totally renovated, will accommodate a total of six to eight industrial and distribution tenants. He estimated the two manufacturing outfits that will occupy the building first will begin operations in fall 2007.

Demolition work on part of the plant, which sits on 279 acres, is scheduled for January or February, Mr. Lichter said.


Lorain Mayor Craig Foltin said the deal gives a real spark to the community of 68,000, which has been hit hard by the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs during the last decade.

“This shows that Lorain has turned the corner and is on the road to recovery,” the mayor said.

More than 700 jobs were lost when the automaker closed the plant at the end of 2005. The factory employed 1,600 when it was producing Ford’s Econoline van line.

Industrial Realty Group has spearheaded 75 development projects in 22 states and has a track record of transforming large industrial buildings into business spaces, including the redevelopment of the former B.F. Goodrich Co. plant in Akron into multitenant industrial and office complex Canal Park.

Upon hearing plans that Ford was closing the plant and shifting production of Econoline vans to Avon Lake, Mayor Foltin and city officials worked out a plan with Ford to close the plant in December 2005, getting an earlier jump on efforts to find a buyer.

“Very often we find that local governments are an impediment, but here we worked step in step (with Lorain),” Mr. Lichter said.

Mr. Lichter said the reuse project has moved along at a fast pace in part due to his company’s willingness to take on any environmental liability found on the property. He said environmental testing will begin soon, but he wouldn’t estimate the cost associated with cleaning up the hulking structure.

Mayor Foltin said the sale price of the plant site was $2.4 million — about one-tenth of its appraised value by Lorain County. Mr. Lichter said such industrial structures typically are over-appraised.

Several identifiable Ford and Mercury models were assembled in the plant, which opened in 1958. Those models included the Ford Falcon, the Mercury Comet, Ford Fairlane, Mercury Cougar and the Ford Thunderbird.

[the pope]

the reason you don't see much action on SSC for Cleveland (or any of the other Ohio cities) is because we all hang out at UrbanOhio, where people are actually "in the know" instead of posting a bunch of Plain Dealer Articles (no offense directly to you mabcle)

[MABCLE]

^None taken, its true, plus I'm tryin to get this thread stickied.

[the pope]

well i'll probably only post to make fun of cleveland.

[MABCLE]

Well if it bumps the thread up that's ok.:lol:

[i_am_hydrogen]

For smaller cities, I like to wait and gauge their level of activity before stickying them. But for a major city like Cleveland, I'll just go ahead and stick it.

[exit_320]

:applause: :drunk: Welcome!

[wheelingman]

I really had no idea that much development was going on in the city. Amazing!

[MABCLE]

More From The Plain Dealer | Subscribe To The Plain Dealer
New, redone theaters to anchor Gordon Square Arts District
Friday, December 29, 2006
Joe Guillen
Plain Dealer Reporter
From the outside, the old Capitol Theatre on West 65th Street is practically invisible.

The theater's anonymous set of green doors, boarded-up ticket booth and archway lined with empty light bulb fixtures easily are hidden among the surrounding storefronts in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.

But beyond its nondescript exterior, the Capitol Theatre is a cornerstone of an ambitious plan to revive the once-struggling neighborhood with a new arts and commercial project, called the Gordon Square Arts District.

It will become the Capitol Movie Theatre and screen independent and art films. Renovations are to be finished in early 2008.

Labeled the West Side's version of the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights, the Capitol is among a trio of theaters that will anchor the venture, which is on a half-mile stretch of Detroit Avenue, from West 58th Street to West 73rd Street.

The Gordon Square Arts District can become as identifiable as New York's Greenwich Village or Washington's Dupont Circle, boasts the leadership team behind the project.

Cleveland Councilman Matthew Zone, whose ward includes the district, said it is the neighborhood's "single most important economic development project" in nearly 90 years, since the Gordon Square Arcade was built.

"I don't believe there is a more catalytic project going on than the arts district," he said.

A variety of shops, restaurants and art galleries will complement the core of theaters. With the district's proximity to downtown and decades-old buildings, Zone compared it to an authentic version of Westlake's Crocker Park.

The community's face lift is already under way, with an art gallery in place and a coffee shop and an Irish pub set to open.

Page 2 of 4
"We have a real identity; it's not a place that's created," Zone said.

Plans for the Gordon Square Arts District also call for the Cleveland Public Theatre to be renovated, construction of a new building for the Near West Theatre and a new Detroit Avenue streetscape.

Cleveland Public Theatre founding Director James Levin said he envisioned such an intersection of culture and commerce when he chose the site of the theater on Detroit Avenue more than 20 years ago.

"Now it feels, after all these years, the Gordon Square Arts District is really going to happen," said Levin, who also is co-founder and executive director of Ingenuity, Cleveland's festival of art and technology.

The plan gained momentum, Levin said, when the Near West Theatre decided to relocate to the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. The new location for the theater will be on West 67th Street, within walking distance of the two other theaters.

The Near West Theatre - now in a cramped space at St. Patrick's Club Building in Ohio City - uses theater to build awareness and self-esteem in young people, Executive Director Stephanie Morrison-Hrbek said.

Construction of the new Near West Theatre hasn't started, but the goal is to open the 300-seat facility in 2010.

The entire Gordon Square Arts District project carries a price tag of around $20 million. Three organizations - Cleveland Public Theatre, Near West Theatre and the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization - are uniting to drive a fund-raising campaign.

"Competition in Cleveland for philanthropic dollars is tough," said Joy Roller, director of the Gordon Square Arts District committee.

Some of the money for the project is on the cusp of being secured, or is already in the bank.

Page 3 of 4
Restoration of the Capitol Movie Theatre, owned by the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, will cost $6 million. A "prominent" Cleveland bank is in negotiations to provide most of the money in exchange for tax benefits, said Jeffrey Ramsey, executive director of the organization.

The new Detroit Avenue streetscape will cost about $3 million, which is in the coffer. Improvements include a narrower street, wider sidewalks and buried utility wires. Construction will begin next summer.

Exact costs to restore Cleveland Public Theatre and build a new Near West Theatre aren't yet nailed down.

Zone, Ramsey and other stakeholders said the Gordon Square Arts District is a can't-miss venture, pointing out the public and private investment in the neighborhood. Examples include:

Battery Park is a $100 million housing development under construction at the former Eveready Battery Plant site. The development will include more than 300 housing units with prices starting at about $170,000.

City and state officials are drawing up final designs for a $50 million to $70 million project that will convert the West Shoreway (Ohio 2) into a 35-mph boulevard by 2011, providing residents better access to Lake Erie and sparking interest from residential and commercial developers.

The city is also chipping in $500,000 toward the Detroit Avenue streetscape improvements, Zone said.

Despite what appears to be a widespread, concerted effort to reinvigorate the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, a reputation for drugs and crime that developed decades ago lingers.

In August, a string of five homicides in a week's time shook the neighborhood. Among the victims were two artists shot by a neighbor in their condominium building at the corner of Detroit Avenue and West 75th Street.

Community leaders said the violence is not typical of the neighborhood, nor did it ding the confidence of investors. "That was something very freaky," Ramsey said.

Page 4 of 4
Zone recalled how the community banded together during the turmoil. More than 300 people gathered for a peace vigil to remember the victims.

While striving to erase any indications the area is unsafe, community leaders are adamant about maintaining other aspects of the neighborhood.

A priority of the Gordon Square Arts District steering committee is to maintain the neighborhood's economic and racial diversity and preserve its affordable housing options.

The Gordon Square Homes project is one of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization's affordable housing programs. It will provide 85 housing units, some of which already are rented by artists in a building adjacent to the site for the Near West Theatre.

"What we believe we're doing here is the new American neighborhood," Ramsey said.

Buzz about the project is beginning to spread.

Nate Coffman, executive director of the Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland, has lived in the neighborhood for about seven years. He said the new Capitol Movie Theatre is "going to be immense."

"I think it's one of the hottest neighborhoods for new development and rehabilitation in the city," he said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jguillen@plaind.com, 216-999-4675




http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1167385350132270.xml&coll=2

[MABCLE]

Thanks for the comments and thanx for stickying this thread hydrogen!

[MABCLE]

Park Lane Villas Project

Park Lane villas were once a residential Hotel. The building is now being renovated to include 96 rental units priced from 1000-2200 a month. In addition to the apartments a restaurant is to be placed in what was the former Ball room of the Hotel. This 29 million dollar project will be completed in mid 2007.

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/866/dscn1745ki5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/1581/dscn1746tk6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/949/parklaneucitj8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

AUDIO: Cleveland office space in short supply



11:43 a.m.

Downtown Cleveland's office market has become so tight that little is available for companies that want the best space, according to a review by Grubb & Ellis. Hear the real estate company's roundup of local markets in the latest Weekend Diary audio report.

To listen to the report and find an archive of previous Weekend Diary entries, click here. http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/business/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_business/archives/2007_01.html#224599

[MABCLE]

Developers: Abatement drives downtown projects
Thursday, January 11, 2007
By Ken Prendergast
West Side Sun News

Just as one construction project on the Flats' West Bank concludes this spring, another will start.

But, developers involved in both projects cautioned the pace of construction may stop if the city does not continue giving tax abatements.

An 11-story, 109-unit Stonebridge Plaza condominium tower could be ready for occupancy as early as late March. Next to it is Stonebridge Square, in the former Cantina del Rio restaurant, which will add 30,000 square feet of retail and offices this summer. The former restaurant was built as a machine shop in 1870.

Stonebridge's co-developer Bob Corna said leasing is "95 percent complete" for Stonebridge Square. The ground floor of the sky-lit plaza will feature a coffee shop, delicatessen, family-style restaurant and a mini market. Corna's partner in the project is Doug Price of K&D Corp.

Another 35,000 square feet of office space in a new four-story building is being built between the former Cantina and the historic Superior Viaduct. The stone viaduct is the source of the name for the Stonebridge complex.

"I love working with these old buildings," Corna said. "That's what I like about building downtown. Cleveland has a tremendous amount of unique, old buildings. There's a market for that and you can't get that anywhere else."

More offices will be coming to Stonebridge, following the developers' purchase of the recently vacated Tenk Machine & Tool Co., 2111 Center Street. The Tenk Building will be renamed Stonebridge Commons, to be renovated and expanded with 285,000 square feet of office space inside and retail along the sidewalks.

"The market for offices is hot right now," Corna said."

Plans show the commons would be connected via an enclosed walkway above Washington Avenue to Stonebridge Place, a planned, 68-unit loft condominium building. Corna said he and Price hope to start construction on this next phase this spring.

"We'd like to have it coincide with the opening of our new building (Stonebridge Plaza)," Corna said.

The current and upcoming phases of construction will double the amount of housing and quintuple the amount of office and retail space. Long-range plans are even more ambitious another 1,200 housing units are sought along Center Street toward the old river channel.

On Dec. 10, City Council granted Stonebridge a 15-year, 100 percent property tax abatement for 200 housing units in its next phase. Corna said if City Council curtails its use of tax abatement for new projects, the next phase of Stonebridge may be its last.

"We would not have built Stonebridge without it," Corna said. "I doubt we would be interested in building in Cleveland anymore. Tax abatement is a major, major factor."

He explained that tax abatement allows a homebuyer to save up to $100,000 over the life of the abatement, thereby allowing someone to buy a home they otherwise might not be able to afford.

"There's great interest in seeing them (Corna and Price) succeed," said Ward 13 Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose ward includes Stonebridge. "These guys are drivers. You've got to support your economic engines."

Developers: Abatement drives downtown projects
Thursday, January 11, 2007
By Ken Prendergast
West Side Sun News

Just as one construction project on the Flats' West Bank concludes this spring, another will start.

But, developers involved in both projects cautioned the pace of construction may stop if the city does not continue giving tax abatements.

An 11-story, 109-unit Stonebridge Plaza condominium tower could be ready for occupancy as early as late March. Next to it is Stonebridge Square, in the former Cantina del Rio restaurant, which will add 30,000 square feet of retail and offices this summer. The former restaurant was built as a machine shop in 1870.

Stonebridge's co-developer Bob Corna said leasing is "95 percent complete" for Stonebridge Square. The ground floor of the sky-lit plaza will feature a coffee shop, delicatessen, family-style restaurant and a mini market. Corna's partner in the project is Doug Price of K&D Corp.

Another 35,000 square feet of office space in a new four-story building is being built between the former Cantina and the historic Superior Viaduct. The stone viaduct is the source of the name for the Stonebridge complex.

"I love working with these old buildings," Corna said. "That's what I like about building downtown. Cleveland has a tremendous amount of unique, old buildings. There's a market for that and you can't get that anywhere else."

More offices will be coming to Stonebridge, following the developers' purchase of the recently vacated Tenk Machine & Tool Co., 2111 Center Street. The Tenk Building will be renamed Stonebridge Commons, to be renovated and expanded with 285,000 square feet of office space inside and retail along the sidewalks.

"The market for offices is hot right now," Corna said."

Plans show the commons would be connected via an enclosed walkway above Washington Avenue to Stonebridge Place, a planned, 68-unit loft condominium building. Corna said he and Price hope to start construction on this next phase this spring.

"We'd like to have it coincide with the opening of our new building (Stonebridge Plaza)," Corna said.

The current and upcoming phases of construction will double the amount of housing and quintuple the amount of office and retail space. Long-range plans are even more ambitious another 1,200 housing units are sought along Center Street toward the old river channel.

On Dec. 10, City Council granted Stonebridge a 15-year, 100 percent property tax abatement for 200 housing units in its next phase. Corna said if City Council curtails its use of tax abatement for new projects, the next phase of Stonebridge may be its last.

"We would not have built Stonebridge without it," Corna said. "I doubt we would be interested in building in Cleveland anymore. Tax abatement is a major, major factor."

He explained that tax abatement allows a homebuyer to save up to $100,000 over the life of the abatement, thereby allowing someone to buy a home they otherwise might not be able to afford.

"There's great interest in seeing them (Corna and Price) succeed," said Ward 13 Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose ward includes Stonebridge. "These guys are drivers. You've got to support your economic engines."

http://www.cleveland.com/sun/westsidesunnews/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1168537995195200.xml&coll=3

[MasonsInquiries]

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/949/parklaneucitj8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
nice conversion!!!!^^

[MABCLE]

The Ohio Hub

The Ohio Hub is a plan to build an 860 mile network of rail line that would provide High-Speed passenger train travel to residents of Ohio, SE Michigan, Western Pennsylvania, Western New York and Toronta in Canada.

Proposed routes

Cleveland=>Columbus=>Dayton=>Cincinnati

Cleveland=>Pittsburgh

Cleveland=>Toledo=>Detroit

Cleveland=>Buffalo=>Niagra Falls=> Hamilton, Ontario=>Toronto.

Map of project:
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/8895/ar1168747085492973my.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

You can find more info on this project at this link: http://www.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/Ohio%20Hub/Website/ordc/index.html

[BuffCity]

I love this idea...would be a great way to increase business in almost all of these cities too.

[MABCLE]

You're right. The trains would be able to quickly and efficiently get suits back and forth between cities and could lead to greater collabo between the cities that are connected. Also I think its terrible that if you want to take the train to get to Cincinnati from Cleveland and vice versa you have to connect in Chicago or Washington D.C. to do so. This (project)is a ways off though.

[NaptownBoy]

I have a question: Does the City of Cleveland currently have a rail system enabled?

[MABCLE]

Do you mean rapid transit or Amtrak?

Cleveland gets Amtrak service by the Lakeshore limited route

and has 3 (and a half) rail lines for intra city travel as well as that bus rapid transit line u/c.

[NaptownBoy]

^^Oh cool. I'm going to have to get up there sometime and visit!

[MABCLE]

Just curious Naptown, did you not know Cleveland has Amtrak service, intracity rail service or both?

[MABCLE]

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson unveils a plan to rebuild the city neighborhood by neighborhood.


Jackson presents wish list, to-do list
Mayor outlines wide range of plans to improve Cleveland, one neighborhood at a time Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Susan Vinella
Plain Dealer Reporter
Mayor Frank Jackson on Monday offered two visions for Cleveland, one grand and expensive, the other practical and within the city's means.

On his wish list, Jackson includes a first-class convention center and a corporate business park for Burke Lakefront Air- port.

On his reality list, Jackson proposes bicycle lanes through neighborhoods, more-aggressive demolition of rundown buildings and a pedestrian bridge over North Coast Harbor.


"A great city connects its citi- zens to great choices in housing, education, employment, services, shopping and culture," states the overview to Jackson's long-term vision.

At the unveiling at a City Hall news conference, Jackson spoke of creating safe and family-oriented neighborhoods and a Mecca for arts and culture.

The mayor proposes to spend $1.5 billion over five years on projects that include the pedestrian bridge connecting Voinovich Park and Dock 32 downtown near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

He also proposes to spend $5 million to make changes at the traffic circle at East 105th Street near University Circle to improve safety.

In addition, the mayor said he wants to spend at least $3 million annually to demolish vacant houses, a citywide problem that lowers property values and fosters crime.

Council President Martin J. Sweeney said council will ask Jackson to increase that amount to $6 million annually, and he expects the mayor to agree.

About two-thirds of the spending - $1 billion - will come from the city's income tax and elsewhere in the city's budget, said Jackson's chief of staff, Ken Silliman. The city will seek the rest from state and federal sources.


The capital plan should help the city secure more state and federal dollars because it shows where Cleveland intends to spend its money, Silliman said. A commitment of money from a local government often brings matching taxpayer dollars from Columbus or Washington.

Jackson wants to put more than $12 million toward building roadside bike routes and off-road bike trails that connect the city's neighborhoods to each other and to the Towpath Trail, which will soon stretch into downtown.

He also promises about $4 million for the cleanup of the former International Steel Group site.

His grander vision, covering the next 13 years, focuses on developing all 36 of the city's neighborhoods.

"I'm not going to pit downtown against neighborhoods," Jackson said. "We're going to rebuild this entire city."

The report assesses the strengths and weaknesses of each city neighborhood. Kamm's Corners and Old Brooklyn on the West Side are listed as stable, for example, and Kinsman and South Collinwood on the East Side are described as fragile and distressed.

The mayor also proposes that he take control of the parks and recreation capital spending, which traditionally has been in control of individual council members. Ken Johnson, chairman of council's Parks and Recreation Committee, said he opposes that idea.

The full capital spending and city development plans can be found on the city's Web site: www.city.cleveland.oh.us.

Plain Dealer Reporter Olivera Perkins contributed to this report.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

svinella@plaind.com, 216-999-5010

http://www.cleveland.com/mayor/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1169546380103940.xml&coll=2

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/892/jackson01233cv.gif (http://imageshack.us)

See more detail at this link:
http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/pdf/CIPDraft-20070122.pdf

[NaptownBoy]

Just curious Naptown, did you not know Cleveland has Amtrak service, intracity rail service or both?
I knew that Cleveland had Amtrak but I was referring to the local rail/light rail.

[Mudhen419]

Cleveland has an awesome rapid transit system... I take the RTA trains almost everytime i go to Cleveland. just park somewhere like w 150th n puritas park n ride and go where you need to be. Saves gas and if your going to a game the 3 dollar ride all day is a lot better than paying for parking.

[twok2lcdcnc]

Hey guys... new to the forums here. I found you on google, while doing my research before putting a deposit down on one of the stonebridge condominiums (first picture in this thread).

I just so happen to be a railroad conductor, as well.

Most of the time I'm working in the yard in cleveland, but I also spend quite a bit of time running from cleveland to buffalo (and back) on that corridor that the map illustrates (the one that runs along lake erie, of course).

I am told the line we run on (goes all the way from chicago to new york city) is the fastest, most efficient in the entire industry right now. I've heard it reffered to as the "cheetah lane" and such. It's double tracked the entire way, and signaled in both directions. I can vouch for at least that part of the railroad as a possibility for the "ohio hub" because I see amtrak blow through there almost every day at 80mph.

thanks for the good info guys

[twok2lcdcnc]

oh, also... on a side note... have you guys priced amtrak tickets lately? before any of this can happen, they need to find a way to do it inexpensively. a lot more inexpensively.

I get 50% discounts for amtrak tickets, and it still isn't economical for me to travel that way.

[MABCLE]

^Welcome its good to have another Ohioan on here. I haven't been on the Amtrak in a while. I probably would be if there were a line directly between Cleveland and Cincinnati since I am in school now at OSU and transferreed from UC in Cincinnati, but am from C-town.

Congrats on your new buy. I like those condos to. What made you decide on one of those.

Also if you haven't already check out Ubanohio.com and go to the forums section. That site is obviously alot more ohio centric and has news, insight and opinion on just about everything going on in Cleveland and Ohio.

[twok2lcdcnc]

MABCLE,

thanks, I checked out UO and posted some on there. I don't have a whole lot of input with stuff like this, but I've done a hell of a lot of reading. good info on these websites.

I chose stonebridge because I think they're nice, the salespeople were very polite and low pressure, and I honestly believe that in another 5-10 years the flats will be a desireable place to live/be. plus the view from the 11th floor corner unit is freakin' sweet. :) Who can argue that?

[MABCLE]

You're right you'll have an excellent view of Cleveland being reborn. Did they give you a projected move in date?

[MABCLE]

From Crains Cleveland business

________________________


Outward bound
Clinic teams with Fairfax group to rejuvenate surrounding area


By SHANNON MORTLAND

6:00 am, January 29, 2007


Much of the neighborhood surrounding the Cleveland Clinic is badly in need of surgery to repair its boarded-up buildings and crumbling housing — and the hospital system is ready to take an active hand in mending it.

The Clinic is pairing up with the nonprofit Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp. and government entities in an effort to restore the old Fairfax neighborhood in order to make it more attractive to businesses, potential residents and visitors. The outreach initiative is being undertaken by the Clinic’s government and community relations office, which now is headed by noted attorney Oliver “Pudge” Henkel Jr.

“We wanted to bring heightened attention to the community in which we live and work,” said Mr. Henkel, who was a partner at Cleveland law firm Thompson Hine LLP before joining the Clinic last August. “We want to change the complexion from being seen as an institution that looks inward to one that instinctively looks outward.”

To accomplish that goal, Clinic CEO Dr. Delos “Toby” Cosgrove has identified three main functions for the government and community relations office — to work with local and state politicians to create health care policy, to raise money for outreach initiatives and the Clinic’s own projects in areas such as research, and to be more involved in the nearby community.

In its efforts to fulfill that latter role, the Clinic is taking tips from the playbook of Johns Hopkins Medical Center, which has put in place a $1 billion plan to rebuild its campus and to revitalize the dilapidated East Baltimore neighborhood surrounding it.


Mr. Henkel said the Clinic is working on plans with Fairfax Renaissance to improve the Fairfax neighborhood by refurbishing existing housing, building new residential units and recreating a once-vibrant retail strip along Cedar Avenue from East 79th Street to East 105th Street.

The redevelopment initiative will be launched by the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center, a planned, 60,000-square-foot research building that will be used to develop ways to prevent, diagnose and treat heart disease. The Clinic recently received a $60 million state Third Frontier grant to build the center, which will be the state’s first Wright Mega-Center of Innovation. The Fairfax development group will develop, own and manage the building.

The center will be the cornerstone of the Fairfax revitalization, much like Johns Hopkins is building a science and technology park to kick off its own efforts, Mr. Henkel said.



Block by block

Vickie Johnson, executive director of the Fairfax Renaissance group, said the cardiovascular center will be located on Cedar Avenue between East 100th and East 101st streets. Ms. Johnson said her group and the Clinic have identified those two streets as “model blocks,” where home improvement projects, landscaping, safety and security initiatives, wellness and construction will be a priority.

The idea is to rebuild the community slowly.

“At the end of the day, you can transform blocks and eventually a community,” Ms. Johnson said.

Dr. Cosgrove said he hopes the neighborhood revitalization will entice new businesses to the area.

“Look at Harvard. People would put their businesses right up next to it if they could. Nobody has done that here,” he said. “We think (the transformation) will enhance our appeal and enhance the community.”

Dr. Cosgrove said the Clinic is dedicated to the project but would not disclose how much money the hospital system would contribute. Ms. Johnson said the Clinic’s contribution likely will depend on how much money comes from public and private entities, such as the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, a representative from which will visit Cleveland in mid-February to discuss the projects.

The Clinic and Fairfax Renaissance are in talks with city officials and the Cleveland Foundation regarding their possible participation in the overall revitalization effort, Ms. Johnson said. Mayor Frank Jackson recently announced that one of his goals is to rebuild Cleveland’s neighborhoods.

Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle Inc., said he’s glad to see what seems like a second attempt at public and private partnerships to rebuild Cleveland. The first such wave came in the 1980s, when various entities collaborated to revitalize parts of downtown.

“It’s very important that this next wave is kind of neighborhood-based,” said Mr. Ronayne, whose nonprofit group promotes University Circle, the arts, education and health care district east of downtown Cleveland.

Over the years, the neighborhoods surrounding University Circle declined, but the hospitals, cultural institutions and colleges couldn’t just pick up and leave, Mr. Ronayne said. Such situations occurred across the country, but there now are nationwide efforts to restore inner-city areas, he said.



Going in circles

The level of construction envisioned by the Clinic is likely to lead to more traffic, which is why the Clinic already is trying to address that concern by working with the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority to create traffic circles at the Euclid Avenue intersections of East 89th and East 100th streets.

The traffic circles will eliminate the need for left-hand turns in front of the Clinic and will slow down traffic, which is what the Clinic wanted, said Mike Schipper, deputy general manager for engineering and projects at RTA. The plans are being incorporated into the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project, a $200 million attempt to improve Euclid Avenue between Public Square and University Circle by constructing a rapid transit line.

The traffic circles will have one lane of car traffic and bicycle lanes going each way on Euclid Avenue, with a bus lane traveling through the middle, Mr. Schipper said.

“We’re in agreement on the concept,” Mr. Schipper said. “We’ve come up with a concept that meets RTA’s needs and fulfills requirements with federal transit.”

The hospital system last year proposed detouring all car traffic off Euclid Avenue in front of the Clinic, but RTA shot down that idea, as well as an idea to put a traffic circle on Euclid Avenue at East 105th Street, Mr. Schipper said. The Clinic also at one time wanted left-turn lanes at all intersections along Euclid Avenue in front of the hospital campus, but new construction changed those plans, he said.

“They came to the conclusion that they needed the campus to be more pedestrian-friendly and more campus-like,” Mr. Schipper said.

The Clinic is footing the bill for the redesign of that portion of the Euclid Corridor project, but Mr. Schipper said he is unsure how much the change will cost because plans are still on the drawing board. If the design inflates the cost of the project, the Clinic will pay for that, too, he said.



Policy matters matter

Though cooperation seems ready to bloom in Cleveland, don’t expect it to happen within the federal government anytime soon, Mr. Henkel said. Last November’s election, which gave Democrats control of Congress, has caused the Clinic to shift most of its government relations resources to local and state health care policies because the Clinic believes issues such as covering the uninsured will be solved faster at the state level.

“Health care reform at the federal level, as we saw in the Clinton administration, is very difficult because you’re dealing with difficult issues and it will take a long time for the government to do,” Mr. Henkel said.

“We could probably make more headway with policy initiatives with the state of Ohio because the Legislature, although Republican, is going to want to work in a bipartisan way with the new governor,” Mr. Henkel added.

Mr. Henkel said Gov. Ted Strickland will be turning to places such as the Clinic — which he described as “the 800-pound gorilla” — for help with issues such as covering the uninsured, health care disparity among ethnic groups and the bulging Medicaid budget.

Though the Clinic always has been involved in policy making, Dr. Cosgrove said it’s time to do more, especially because nearly half the revenues related to the delivery of health care come from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement.

“We should have a seat at the table and can contribute” on policy issues, Dr. Cosgrove said. “We need to make (legislators) understand the issues from a physician, clinical and research standpoint.”

[SJK1]

Developer Nathan Zaremba’s $250 million Avenue District project, which calls for more than 400 for-sale condos and townhomes along downtown Cleveland’s northeastern edge, could be larger than originally planned. (Link: Avenue District site)

Zaremba Inc. has obtained an option on 1.4 acres of land at the southwest corner of St. Clair Avenue and East 12th Street and is considering adding another building with 100 units.

The vacant property is east of One Cleveland Center and in between two sites already secured for the Avenue District. Projects coordinator Joe Del Re said the developer has a two-year option on the land, which is owned by various entities under a tenancy-in-common structure. Zaremba is dealing with property manager Meridian Realty Investments of Louisville, Ky.

“We’re really encouraged by the market,” Del Re said. “This would enhance the whole experience of a great urban walkable neighborhood with residential at three of four corners.”

Pre-sales have been strong for the Avenue District, the first of several large for-sale housing projects to break ground. Construction is underway on Phase One at 1211 St. Clair Ave. and Phase Three along Rockwell Avenue, between St. Clair and Superior avenues.

Last month, The Plain Dealer reported:Nationwide, developers worried about the volatility of residential real estate are shying away from for-sale housing projects.

But not in downtown Cleveland. There, realty firms can't buy and dig up land fast enough.

In 2006, Nathan Zaremba began construction on his $250 million Avenue District neighborhood on downtown's eastern edge. On Public Square, Matthew Howells undertook the restoration of the Park Building, which will reopen with 27 condominiums.

"If you look at what's happening in other cities of similar size -- St. Louis, Milwaukee, Kansas City -- the downtown for-sale housing markets have been very aggressive," said Zaremba, whose three-phase project includes more than 400 condos and townhomes.

This year promises more activity locally. The Wolstein Group is about to begin demolition on the east bank of the Flats, where a $230 million mixed-use community is planned.

Meanwhile, Doug Price and Bob Corna plan to add more than 1,000 condos and apartments to the Stonebridge neighborhood they have started on the west bank. Closer to Tremont, the Ferchill Group wants to build 88 condos on the Cuyahoga River's Scranton Peninsula.

And 2007 should bring more details about Bob Stark's vision for the Warehouse District, where the Crocker Park developer hopes to replicate his suburban-lifestyle center concept.

These projects and others planned could add at least 1,500 to 2,000 for-sale units to the market and help the city climb toward its goal of 25,000 downtown dwellers. The city's latest estimates peg downtown's population at 10,000 to 12,000.

"It's like the perfect storm coming together in a good way," said Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose ward includes downtown and its adjacent neighborhoods. (Link: Map of downtown housing)-- Henry J. Gomez, hgomez@plaind.com

[MABCLE]

Welcome to the forum SJK1! ! !

[MABCLE]

Updated rendering for the proposed Lighthouse landing residential towers:

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/2264/lighthouseperspective2svo8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[twok2lcdcnc]

You're right you'll have an excellent view of Cleveland being reborn. Did they give you a projected move in date?

July 31st. It sounds like they are planning on finishing them from the bottom, up. No big suprise, if you look at the condition of the building right now.

[MABCLE]

Next big thing?
Key Tower. 200 Public Square. Could the oversized needs of Eaton Corp. and law firm Baker Hostetler spawn another downtown Cleveland skyscraper?

By STAN BULLARD
6:00 am, February 12, 2007
Chances just got better for a new office building to climb skyward in downtown Cleveland, although it’s way too soon to count on seeing the city’s skyline change.

Another huge, marquee tenant unlikely to find many alternatives besides staying put or going into a new skyscraper has entered the fray. Eaton Corp., the big diversified manufacturer based at the namesake Eaton Center office building, 1111 Superior Ave., needs about 300,000 square feet of office space and is circulating a request for proposals among developers that are pondering downtown projects.

A tenant Eaton’s size is large enough to justify construction of a new tower, particularly if the same developer also bags the Baker Hostetler law firm as a 200,000-square-foot tenant. Insiders in realty circles say Baker was ready to sign a lease to take empty space at the 200 Public Square office building, but it recently has extended its search.

Eaton spokeswoman Kelly Jasko said the company doesn’t comment on rumors. Baker also will not comment on the status of its talks. However, Pat Lott, senior vice president of office leasing at Forest City Enterprises Inc., said he has discussed Eaton’s space requirements with Robert Roe, president of Staubach Co.’s Cleveland office, who is handling the Eaton listing.

Mr. Lott said he does not believe companies in Cleveland will pay rents high enough to justify construction of a new office building. However, he refused to say if Forest City would respond to the request for proposals from Eaton.
The normally talkative Mr. Roe wouldn’t discuss the Eaton matter. George Elliott, a principal at Staubach’s Cleveland office who has fielded Eaton engagements for years, also declined comment.

Jeff Cristal, a senior vice president and director of Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Cleveland office unit, recently has been predicting a developer by late 2008 would break ground on an office building in downtown Cleveland. “For any tenant over 100,000 square feet, a new building has to be considered, whether it’s Eaton Corp. or ABC Company,” Mr. Cristal said. That’s because such large volumes of empty floors in the same area can be found in only one building, 200 Public Square, the former BP Tower.

Moreover, if Baker does commit to 200 Public Square, it means there is no other newer building to house Eaton. Eaton’s only shot would be to consider new construction or a massive upgrade at a Class B building — generally defined as a structure over 50 years of age. However, the latter scenario is unlikely, because it would be a step back from the 1980s-vintage tower Eaton currently enjoys.

Just when Eaton’s lease expires at Eaton Center is unknown. Ms. Jasko said the company does not disclose such terms. However, the lead time for a typical downtown office building is a year to design it and two years to build it.

It’s also possible that Eaton’s request for proposals from developers is a way for a tenant representative broker such as Staubach to create a stalking horse to drive a sharper deal at Eaton Center. Securing a tenant such as Eaton would help a developer obtain construction loans from lenders, which typically require a tenant for 50% of a building’s available space, although terms vary depending on the market and the financial strength of the developer.

Developers with plans for downtown office towers in Cleveland include Richard E. Jacobs Group, which has a plan for a tower on Public Square; Robert L. Stark Enterprises Inc. of Woodmere Village, which has discussed a mixed-use project between Public Square and the Warehouse District; and Wolstein Group, which plans a $250 million, mixed-use project in the Flats. Retail and housing plans Wolstein Group and Stark Enterprises have laid out would get a big boost from the 500-plus people Eaton would bring to an office tower at their locations.

Stark Enterprises and a spokeswoman for Wolstein Group declined comment. Richard E. Jacobs Group did not return two calls. Even with a modestly improving downtown office market, only the bold would undertake such a project. Grubb & Ellis reports Class A vacancy at year-end 2006 was 11% downtown, although total downtown office vacancy is still high, exceeding 20%. To construct a new downtown building likely would require a rent in excess of $25 a square foot; the average rent downtown is just below $21 a square foot.

Article from Crainsclevelandbusiness.com

[donbuy]

Population drain continues in region
Thursday, March 22, 2007
By Gary Rotstein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Allegheny County and most of the metropolitan region show continued trends of modest population loss, according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The bureau reported yesterday that the county's population was estimated at 1,223,411 as of July 1, 2006, a drop of 9,625 from the year before and 58,255 from the last formal census head count in 2000.
Allegheny remained the 30th largest county in the nation. Wayne County in Michigan and Cook County in Illinois showed bigger population losses in the past year than Allegheny, according to the estimates, but only Wayne had a more severe percentage loss of residents.
Within the seven-county metropolitan region, only Butler County showed any significant population increase between 2005 and 2006, a net gain of 1,375, to 182,901. Washington gained an estimated 14 residents, to 206,432.
Other counties losing population were Armstrong, down 431 to 70.096; Beaver, down 1,089 to 175,736; Fayette, down 446 to 145,760; and Westmoreland, down 693 to 366,440.
The Pittsburgh metro area's population was estimated at 2,370,776, down 10,895 from 2005 and 60,309 from the year 2000, with Allegheny's net loss representing most of the decline in both cases.
All of the counties except Butler have more deaths than births occurring on an annual basis, and only Washington has been able to make that up with more people moving in than moving out.

Cuyahoga's exodus rivals that of Katrina counties
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Robert L. Smith
Plain Dealer Reporter

A new census report exposes more of the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, showing sharp population declines in waterfront counties of Louisiana and Mississippi. But it may also leave some observers wondering what natural disaster struck Northeast Ohio.
Cuyahoga County saw the sixth-largest drop in population among American counties, losing about 16,000 people between July 2005 and July 2006.
Four of the five counties with steeper losses lay in the path of a hurricane in August 2005. Absent their calamity, Ohio's largest county would likely rank second nationally in population decline, behind only Detroit's Wayne County.

The census bureau's recent survey of the 3,141 counties with populations greater than 10,000 - released today - presents a regional problem in Northeast Ohio.
The seven-county metro area also lost population last year, despite continued growth in Medina and Lorain counties.
Planners see the perseverance of a trend that began in 1973, when the regional population peaked, and a challenge that the civic leadership has been slow to address.
"Clearly the trend is not at all favorable or positive," said Paul Oyaski, director of the Cuyahoga County Department of Development.
"But given the number of vacant homes in the city and the county, the numbers are not surprising."
He said ideas like a proposed new interchange off Interstate 90 in Avon will only encourage sprawl and speed people out of Cleveland and its older suburbs. What's needed, Oyaski said, are regionwide strategies for reviving old neighborhoods and attracting new people, business and industry.
Northeast Ohio's population loss, while statistically small, bucks a national trend. Almost all other major metro areas either held steady or grew in recent years, said William Frey, a demographer for the BrPart of the answer may be immigration," Frey said. "As these [immigrant] waves continue to move outward from the coasts, they'll find places like Cleveland, which holds some promise with its cheaper housing."

Cuyahoga County has lost about 80,000 residents, or 6 percent of its people, since the 2000 Census, and the seven-county region lost about 28,000 people in the same span, according to the census bureau.
Many likely moved somewhere warm. Seven of America's 10 fastest growing counties between 2000 and 2006 were in the South or Southwest, and Maricopa County, surrounding Phoenix, Ariz., grew faster than anywhere else, the census bureau reported.
Closer to home, Medina remains the fastest-growing county in Northeast Ohio.
It added 2,300 people last year. Columbus' Franklin County led Ohio, as it grew by 6,200 people.


Getting a fix on Buffalo area population drain

There’s little doubt that Erie County is still losing population. How fast it’s losing residents might be up for debate. Erie County’s population has declined by 28,875 since 2000, a 3 percent drop, or an average loss of 4,800 people a year, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
No other county in New York State lost more people than Erie County since the start of the decade. Niagara County lost about 3,700 people since 2000, a 1.7 percent decrease, estimates show.
In fact, there were losses in seven of the eight counties of Western New York over the same period.
But while Erie County has grown accustomed to the losses year after year, a drop of nearly 29,000 people in six years might raise some eyebrows.
That’s more than the combined 19,000 lost by Erie and Niagara counties during the entire decade of the 1990s.
“Keep in mind they’re estimates,” said Kathryn A. Foster, director of the Regional Institute at the University at Buffalo. “They’ve been wrong before.”
Prior to the 2000 census, Foster said, the Census Bureau underestimated Erie County’s population by more than 24,000.
“A little mistake at the beginning of the decade becomes more and more magnified as the decade goes on,” she said. “The correction comes with the census at the end of the decade.”
Other counties across New York, in fact, have questioned the methodology the Census Bureau uses and have successfully challenged estimates in recent years, according to Warren A. Brown, a senior research associate at Cornell University, which contracts with the state to review census data.
Erie County hasn’t been one of them.
A 3 percent drop in population since 2000 doesn’t seem out of line, considering other evidence across the county, such as vacant housing units, said Andrew M. Eszak, Erie County’s commissioner of environment and planning.
“Three percent doesn’t surprise me,” said Eszak, whose department keeps tabs on the local numbers. “The economy, women of childbearing age, out-migration: Those are all factors that come into play.”
Unlike the decennial head count, the Census Bureau updates county figures each year using birth and death records and migration data from tax returns, which can be tricky in areas with concentrations of military personnel, college students or recent immigrants, Brown explained.
Brown has worked with county and city planners — armed with local housing data to support their case — to successfully challenge census estimates in Bronx, Jefferson, Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, Rockland and Westchester counties.
While he doesn’t doubt that Erie County is still losing population, Brown defers to local planners to question whether the county is losing people as fast as the Census Bureau says it is.
“If Erie County [officials] complained to the Census Bureau, they would refer them to me,” Brown said. “If they’re not complaining, then I and the Census Bureau probably think the numbers are right.”
Counties challenging the estimates often fear losing federal funding based on census figures, but the 28,000 residents the census estimates Erie County has lost isn’t large enough to affect county aid, Eszak said.
Counties also worry about what the figures do for their image, Brown said.
“Image is just very important to economic development, recruitment and so forth,” Brown said.
The Census Bureau today is releasing 2006 population estimates for 3,141 counties nationwide.
While New York State’s population loss was about 9,500 from 2005 to 2006, there actually has been overall growth in the state’s population — 1.7 percent — since 2000, according to the data.
Losses since 2000 dropped Erie County’s population to 921,300 and Niagara County’s to 216,130, according to estimates.
Since 2000, the population dropped by 3.1 percent in Chautauqua County, 2.9 percent in Cattaraugus County, 2.6 percent in Genesee County, 2.2 percent in Orleans County and 1.9 percent in Wyoming County, estimates show. During the same period, according to the data, Allegany County’s population increased by less than 1 percent.


Rochester Region's population slips

Census data show people still leaving Monroe, most surrounding counties


Bennett J. Loudon
Staff writer

(March 22, 2007) — As high-paying jobs dwindle in the Rochester region, so does the population.

U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today show that the population of the six-county region dropped by 4,595 from 2000 to 2006.
"People follow jobs, and we know that we've been losing jobs in this region," said Ellen Rosen, vice president of marketing, communications and membership for the Rochester Business Alliance.
While thousands of workers have been laid off at major employers such as Eastman Kodak Co. and Xerox Corp. during the past decade, many high-skill manufacturing jobs offering good salaries are being created in upstate New York, said Warren A. Brown, a senior research associate at Cornell University's Institute for Social and Economic Research.
"But they're not enough jobs to offset all the jobs that have been lost from the old economy," Brown said.

The new census data show:
• Monroe County's population dropped 1,250 from July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006.
• Ontario County is the only county in the region that gained population between mid-2005 and mid-2006. The county added 135 residents during that single-year period and 3,940 from 2000 to 2006.
• Statewide, the population dropped 9,538 from 2005 to 2006 and increased 306,048 from 2000 to 2006.
• From 2000 to 2006, Monroe County had a net loss of more than 27,077 residents who moved to other locations in the United States and a net gain of 12,424 residents from outside the United States.
The shrinking population of the region affects state and federal funding that is often allocated on a per capita basis.

The Census Bureau's estimates are based on records of births, deaths and federal tax returns to track domestic migration.
Cool on Rochester

Michael Cipolla isn't surprised that a steady stream of people are leaving Monroe County. The 41-year-old registered nurse moved from Rochester to Orlando, Fla., in April 2004.
"I actually like Rochester overall. If the weather was more consistently warm, I wouldn't hesitate to move back there," said Cipolla, who moved to Fort Myers, Fla., in September.
Jim Crider, 33, moved from Rochester to Florida in 1996, then to Atlanta in 2000. He moved back in 2001 and now owns a home in Gates.

But he expects that his career as a customer service supervisor for Verizon Wireless will require that he move back to Florida or Georgia within a few years.
Monroe County experienced a larger drop in population than the five adjoining counties, but Genesee County lost a higher percentage of its population.
Genesee County's population dropped by 1,509 or 2.5 percent from 2000 to 2006.

With about 35 percent of Genesee County's work force commuting to jobs in Rochester and Buffalo, a fragile job market in either city has a significant impact on Genesee County, said County Manager Jay A. Gsell.
While many former Monroe County residents have settled out of state, a fair portion moved just over the county line to Ontario County. From 2002 to 2003, about 1,467 Monroe County residents moved to Ontario County.
Ontario County Administrator Geoffrey Astles said his county's population is rising in contrast to its neighbors because of its successful marketing of the county's natural assets, such as the Finger Lakes.
"It attracts tourists. Some of them stay, but it attracts people who want to live here because of the variety of lifestyles," he said, noting that the county offers a choice of rural, suburban and small city communities.
New residents

While Monroe County's population loss is notable, it would be even higher if not for the 12,000 international residents the Census Bureau estimates moved to the county since 2000.
The Catholic Family Center sponsors about 400 refugees who move here annually. Monroe County offers plentiful entry-level jobs and inexpensive housing, said Colleen Knauf, director of Saint's Place, a joint ministry of St. Louis Church in Pittsford and the Catholic Family Center.
"It's all about helping people get started all over again," Knauf said.

One of those people starting over is Hawa Msanda, who left war-torn Somalia in 2004.
With help from Catholic Family Center's refugee resettlement programs, Msanda settled here with her five children and is attending classes at the Family Learning Center on Hart Street.
Msanda, who is still learning English, said she came to Rochester so her children could have a better life than they would in Somalia.

On weekdays, Msanda practices her new language and computer skills in third-floor classrooms at the learning center while her two young sons, Ibrahim Osman, 3 and Ali Osman, 5, attend the Saint's Place child care on the center's first floor.
"I like it here," she said. "It is a good place."

Osman Abdulkadir, 27, came to Rochester from Somalia in 1997.

"In my country, there is war and people killing each other and no jobs," he said. "That's why I came to America."

[NaptownBoy]

80,000? That seems a bit high.

[MABCLE]

^nap its probably right as the suburbanization of Northeast Ohio continues. These people may not neccesarily be leaving the region, but are leaving Cuyahoga to Lake, Summit, Portage, Lorain, Ashtabula and especialy Medina counties.

[MABCLE]

High-tech jobs go begging in Northeast Ohio
Posted by Mary Vanac March 29, 2007 19:38PM
Categories: Business
It was bound to happen.

Northeast Ohio and the state have invested some $800 million in the last five years to develop the region's high-technology sectors.

Now, some of the region's employers have developed shortages of high-tech workers.

An analysis of help-wanted postings in Northeast Ohio by development organizations BioEnterprise and NorTech points to about 5,000 health care and information technology jobs that are unfilled.

Not a bad problem for a region to have.

But continued growth of high technology in Northeast Ohio will be "constrained" unless solutions are found, said Baiju Shah, president of BioEnterprise, the health care business developer in Cleveland.

"From the numbers we've seen, finding talent may be our growth-limiting step," said Dorothy Baunach, president and chief executive of NorTech, the technology development organization.

The Fund for Our Economic Future is expected to propose some short- and long-term solutions Friday in Akron as it unveils an economic action plan for Northeast Ohio. The fund is a collaboration of philanthropic organizations formed three years ago to frame economic development priorities for the region.

Originally intended to disband after those priorities were identified, the fund now plans another three-year phase to monitor and report on the region's economic development progress, said Chris Thompson, marketing, communications and civic outreach director for the fund.

One of the fund's workforce preparation and educational excellence initiatives planned for this year is a high-tech jobs portal, which BioEnterprise and NorTech are developing.

The portal -- a Web site that eventually would offer a broad array of resources -- initially will focus on posting health care and information technology jobs that are available in the region.

The portal is expected to open by April 15, said Baunach, whose organization initially will host the site at www.nortech.org.

EmployOn LLC, the Beachwood company that creates real-time search and match technologies for human resources clients, is supplying the information and the technology for the portal.

EmployOn uses a "Google-esque" Web crawler that aggregates job openings from major job posting sites, such as www.monster.com and www.careerboard.com, Shah said.

In its initial foray in the Northeast Ohio high-tech jobs market, EmployOn found 8,105 job openings, 3,689 of which -- nearly half -- could be viewed as high-tech jobs, he said. These open job totals don't yet include the ones from individual company Web sites. When those jobs are included, the total could reach 5,000.

University Hospitals Health System, which is building a cancer hospital and a suburban hospital, is always in recruitment mode, said Tom Snowberger, senior vice president of human resources for the regional system.

"Yes, it's challenging finding the employees we need," Snowberger said.

Fewer people are choosing health care careers, he said. And local hospitals compete fiercely for workers who have the right skills, he said.

Nurses, radiation technologists, pharmacists and physical therapists top the list of unfilled jobs at the health system that employs 21,000 people in the region, Snowberger said.

The Cleveland Clinic has developed unique ways to attract nurses, who use a lot of high-tech medical devices and equipment to do their jobs, said Claire Young, the Clinic's chief nursing officer.

For instance, the Clinic has a program for nurses who return after being out of the industry. The nurses ease their way back in, doing two- to six-hour shifts that can be scheduled around child care. "It's working fabulously," Young said.

The region's information technology sector also is challenged to find the right workers, having bounced back from the dot-com bust early in the decade. Often, skills of job seekers don't match with those sought by employers, Shah said.

"It was hard, five years ago, as a database programmer to find a job in Cleveland," said Brad Nellis, executive director of NEOSA, the IT association that is part of the Council of Smaller Enterprises in Cleveland. "It's completely at the opposite end of the spectrum right now."

Demand for IT workers, specifically mid-range and highly skilled computer programmers, is strong among small and large businesses in Northeast Ohio, Nellis said. Lack of skilled workers "is the Number One brake on growth in the high-tech sector right now," he said.

That's true for Brulant Inc., the interactive marketing and Web design company in Beachwood. Brulant has opened offices in Boston and Chicago in the last year just so it could recruit the workers it needs to grow, said Len Pagon Jr., the company's president and chief executive.

"Recruiting talent -- the right talent for the right job at the right time -- is a critical factor in the growth of our portfolio companies," said Thom Ruhe, chief marketing officer for JumpStart Inc., the region's venture development organization, whose portfolio companies range from software to medical device developers.

Valtronic USA Inc., the Solon maker of miniature electronics for medical, communications and industrial devices, has recruited workers to run its high-tech machines from outside Ohio, said Jim Ohneck, the company's director of sales and marketing.

Shah hopes the high-tech jobs portal can help local employers quickly find some of the workers they need.

"Step two is coming up with strategies for many people in the community to direct traffic to the Web site," he said. Those people include educators and managers of ethnic networks and trade associations.

Eventually, the portal could recruit high-tech workers for Northeast Ohio, said Shah, who hopes the state gets involved in supporting long-term worker recruitment.

The portal might even become a marketing tool for the region. "We've done a terrible job of marketing ourselves as a booming tech region," Shah said.


http://blog.cleveland.com/earlyedition/2007/03/hightech_jobs_go_begging_in_no.html

[arenn]

The worker shortage one is interesting. A lot of these Midwest cities believe that they are suffering a brain drain because of a lack of jobs, but I've argued it is more likely the reverse. That is, the problem is attracting people, not jobs. If the highly educated wanted to live in these cities, the jobs would follow.

[MABCLE]

I also think its a lack of marketing that these cities are suffering from. Every article about Cleveland always has to mention "this rustbelt city" or "this former rust belt city." people think there are no jobs for educated people when Cleveland is a large law, banking, insurance and somewhat medical center. If more people knew about these "hidden" job opportunites maybe they would flock here instead of the proverbial job markets.




That said.......

[MABCLE]

Cleveland Clinic buys former MBNA property
Posted by Henry J. GomezMary Vanac March 30, 2007 19:25PM
Categories: Business
The Cleveland Clinic, running short on space at its main campus, has found a solution in the suburbs, acquiring 53 acres in Beachwood once occupied by the former MBNA Corp.

The deal includes five buildings and about 707,000 square feet of office space. The Clinic will lease more than half of that back to Bank of America Corp., which bought credit card giant MBNA last year.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but two sources with knowledge of the deal said the price was $115 million.

In a prepared statement, the Clinic said as many as 700 Northeast Ohio employees -- mostly in administrative positions -- could relocate to the two buildings the Clinic will occupy. That number includes 250 from the main campus on Euclid Avenue.

"Cleveland Clinic's main campus is undergoing tremendous physical expansion accompanied by unprecedented growth in services, patients, physicians and other employees," Chief Operating Officer Michael O'Boyle said in the statement.

At last count, about 2,000 Bank of America employees worked on the campus, located on Science Park Drive and along Interstate 271. Those workers were consolidated into two buildings after Bank of America bought MBNA.

A spokesman for Jones Lang LaSalle, the real estate services firm that represented Bank of America in the deal, said the company will continue to occupy about 400,000 square feet there.

The fifth building on the site houses a day-care center.

Beachwood Mayor Merle Gorden said he was pleased to learn that the deal, rumored for months, had closed. He said the city would work cooperatively with the Clinic, but "they have not approached the city for anything special. I think it's still early."

The Clinic routinely applies for exemption from paying property taxes on buildings and areas of buildings that it uses for nonprofit work -- that is, for patient care and related services -- spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said. So it is expected that the Clinic will apply for a property tax exemption on the Beachwood buildings.

That tax exemption would not affect payroll taxes, Sheil said.

The Clinic is "growing like crazy," she said. "We're running out of space on the main campus for non-patient work."

The Clinic is building a $495 million Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Pavilion, which includes a heart and vascular institute. It's spending $107 million to build Glickman Tower, $60 million for a global cardiovascular center and $190 million for a service center and 4,000-car parking garage, all on the main campus.

In its recent annual report, the Clinic said an increased patient load was straining its space, forcing the main campus to divert people to other hospitals in its system. Because of that, the Clinic also is building a $25 million emergency department and critical care bed tower at Marymount Hospital in Garfield Heights and plans a $163 million expansion at Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Heights.

Moving some workers to the suburbs should create more space on the main campus for patient care. On average, the Clinic gets about 700 new employees each year, Sheil said.

The workers who will relocate to Beachwood do "many of our business support functions," the Clinic said in its written statement. Sheil declined to be specific about the functions because affected employees have not been notified about their imminent move.

Putting employees who work in the same business lines under one roof is likely to result in "better integration of administrative services and enhanced patient care support, research and education," the Clinic's statement said .

"We're excited to be growing in Cleveland and excited to be growing in Beachwood," Sheil said.




http://blog.cleveland.com/earlyedition/2007/03/cleveland_clinic_buys_former_m.html

[MABCLE]

A preliminary overview for the plan that will be the core for Case Western's arts and retail district at the Intersection of Mayfield road, Euclid Avenue and Ford road. The area as previously mentioned will have retail stores including the new University book store, entertainment venues, The new Museum of Contemporary Art, condos and apartments.

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/4494/thetrianglebz0.png (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

Cleveland+
Akron + Canton + Youngstown


Cleveland+ equals marketing tag for 16-county region
4/26/2007, 7:48 p.m. ET
The Associated Press



CLEVELAND (AP) — Adding a plus sign to Cleveland equals a new marketing campaign for a 16-county area in northeast Ohio.

Cleveland+ is the regional slogan selected by the Greater Cleveland Marketing Alliance after months of research and focus group comments.

It will soon appear on everything from out-of-state newspaper, magazine and radio advertisements to area billboards and public service announcements.

The alliance decided to use Cleveland as an anchor for the brand because most people already recognize Cleveland and its attractions, such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Clinic hospital.

The plus sign is meant to convey geography (as in Cleveland+Akron+Canton+Youngtown) and a positive attitude.

"Akron really isn't going to be successful unless Cleveland is successful," Dave Lieberth, Akron's deputy mayor, said Thursday. "Cleveland has a major league status that gives it a better known name around the world.

"While none of us think this is perfect, it's the best that we've seen in regional branding."

Canton Mayor Janet Weir Creighton said the slogan was an acknowledgment "that we are a region." She also said the campaign could be localized, for instance, to advertise Canton+Alliance+Massillon+Louisville.

"There's strength in numbers," she said.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership, the state's largest chamber of commerce, suggested the idea of forming a marketing alliance in 2005. Tourism and development officials from the region joined the partnership and began developing the campaign concept about a year and a half ago.

They're targeting everyone from tourists and meeting planners to businesses looking to relocate.

The group raised $3.5 million for the campaign this year from its three main partners, area corporations and the Ohio Business Development Coalition. Another $5 million has been pledged for the next two years.

Pooling resources should lead to bigger results, visitors bureau President Dennis Roche said.

The bureau will introduce the brand in its summer tourism campaign with newspaper, radio and magazine ads running in Detroit, Pittsburgh and Columbus, beginning next month.

Giving potential visitors options beyond Cleveland — from the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, to a Broadway show in Akron or a museum in Youngstown — could encourage longer visits to the region, said Tamera Brown, bureau vice president of marketing.

Cutting through the clutter of pitches with a simple, solid message makes sense, said Joe Roman, president of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. "The whole region needs to grow."

Campaigns incorporating the plus theme include "Just add you" for tourism efforts and "It all adds up" for business advertisements.

A similar campaign in Kansas City, called OneKC, covers an 18-county area in Missouri and Kansas.

The decision to launch OneKC about three years ago solidified a commitment to regionalism, said Bob Marcusse, president and CEO of the Kansas City Area Development Council.

"Our clients across the country and around the world see us as a region," Marcusse said. "They don't know where the state line is and they really don't care."

Using a $4.6 million annual budget, the campaign targets major employers to relocate or build in the region.

Last year, the region attracted 16 major new employers with an annual payroll of $103 million. The average payroll increase was $64 million a year in the five years before the campaign, Marcusse said.

To measure the Cleveland+ campaign's success, the alliance will keep track of development, inquiries from meeting planners and business owners, hotel nights booked and national media attention.

___

On the Net:

http://www.clevelandplus.com


http://www.cleveland.com/ap/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-31/1177597498277420.xml&storylist=topstories

[MABCLE]

Stark moving to Warehouse District
Friday, May 11, 2007Henry J. GomezPlain Dealer Reporter
Developer Bob Stark, who for a year has been pushing his vision of a revitalized Warehouse District, is preparing to uproot his own firm's suburban headquarters and move to the downtown Cleveland neighborhood.

According to the Cuyahoga County auditor, a Stark entity has paid $1.3 million for a five-story building at 1350 West Third St. The property, previously home to a failed restaurant, is flanked by parking lots that Stark wants to transform into homes, retail and office space.

Darryl Whitehead, a spokesman for Stark Enterprises Inc. of Woodmere, said a "major announcement" is planned for next week with city officials. Andrea Taylor, press secretary for Mayor Frank Jackson, said she is "aware that they are moving their head quarters down here."

Stark Enterprises, which is now based at the firm's Eton Chagrin Boulevard retail and office devel opment, has more than 50 employees, White head said. Stark's port folio also includes the Crocker Park retail cen ter in Westlake and The Strip, a Canton retail complex.

Known mostly for such large suburban projects, Stark commanded attention last spring when he announced a $1 billion makeover for the Warehouse District. He wants to replicate in an urban environment the elements that have made Crocker Park and Eton successful.

He is working to sign up well-known stores and, with leasing on his mind, will travel to Las Vegas this month for the annual International Council of Shopping Centers' spring convention.

Stark is known around Northeast Ohio as an animated personality of big ideas and bluster. At a March event, for example, he called out rival developers such as Dick Jacobs and Al Ratner as being part of the "old guard" and suggested it was "time for them to move on."

Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose ward includes the Warehouse District, joked that Stark's moving downtown was a mixed blessing. "Now I have to deal with him as a constituent."

But, more seriously, Cimperman added, "People always look for signals like this. Bob Stark is putting his money where his mouth is. His move to downtown will prove he's committed."

Joe Marinucci, president of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, said Stark's commitment "communicates a good message to the retailers and others he wants to attract."

Marinucci's not-for-profit booster group has closely followed the developer's proposal, which could better connect the Warehouse District with Public Square and the lakefront.

Initial plans call for 1 million square feet of street-level retail and a 6-million-square-foot mix of residential and office space. Stark has not announced specifics on how much the housing will cost and has yet to announce a signed tenant. Whitehead said Stark has had conversations with retailers and "it's just a matter of collecting letters of intent right now."

As for Stark's new headquarters, fliers posted on the building announce a public auction of restaurant and bar fixtures scheduled for May 22. Ground-level space there had been used for the Titanic restaurant, which opened and quickly closed in 2004.

A later attempt to revive the well-known Captain Frank's eatery at the site also was unsuccessful.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

hgomez@plaind.com, 216-999-5405

http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business-2/117887296512050.xml&coll=2

[30 Floors Up]

From Crains Cleveland business

In its efforts to fulfill that latter role, the Clinic is taking tips from the playbook of Johns Hopkins Medical Center, which has put in place a $1 billion plan to rebuild its campus and to revitalize the dilapidated East Baltimore neighborhood surrounding it.

Crains is just a little off! The Cardio and Childrens hospitals alone at Johns Hopkins costs $1.3 Billion. They are UC.

The Bio-Park costs $700 Million. It to is UC.

The housing portion of the neighborhood costs $800 Million.

And other campus facilities UC cost more than $500 Million

For a grand total of: $3 Billion, 300 Million. ;)

Photos here if anyone is interested: http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/10%20Fells%20Point%20And%20East/Photo%20Album.html

[MABCLE]

Previously announced project, the only renderings I've seen. Looks like construction will start soon.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/5710/memorialdayweekend20070qz8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Jim856796]

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/892/jackson01233cv.gif (http://imageshack.us)

See more detail at this link:
http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/pdf/CIPDraft-20070122.pdf

So, will this plan cause Cleveland's population to rise again? You know Cleveland's population has shrunk since 1950 (the population was 914,808 at that year).

[MABCLE]

^^Who knows for sure? I'd say its a decent map towards getting Cleveland back to where it was once though.

[SJK1]

So, will this plan cause Cleveland's population to rise again? You know Cleveland's population has shrunk since 1950 (the population was 914,808 at that year).

Has Cleveland’s population really decreased by half in the last 50 years when you include the flight to the suburbs? I don’t have the figures but I would guess not as that would mean the metro population would have been over 6 million people and I don’t think this region has ever been so high in terms of population.

Cleveland's population with the inner ring suburbs is over 1 million people and Cleveland is like 50 square miles. A city like Columbus that is technically larger than cleveland in terms of population is like 200 square miles.

In my view a much better indicator of a cities size is its metro region. This is certainly the case with cities like Cleveland.

All that being said, the only thing that will bring more people to this region are jobs. The state and region really need to get their act together to get competitive in terms of taxes and incentives to bring new business and industries to the region. That means deals that can’t be refused because they are so good for the businesses.

P.S. Cleveland's metro population is in the range of 3 million people.

[the pope]

the 50% reduction in population applies only to the city proper.

Much in the same way that our other midwest cousins (Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, etc.) suffered large drops in city proper population.

[MABCLE]

Been a while since this has been updated. I'll post a few new projects announced. Its getting to be that there are too many projects to keep up with.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------



Downtown Cleveland to get new hotel
Posted by Henry J. Gomez June 15, 2007 14:20PM


After a decade of scrapped plans and false starts, a hotel finally could open in an abandoned downtown Cleveland office building.

Staybridge Suites, part of the InterContinental Hotels Group, plans to refashion historic property along Rockwell Avenue, between East Sixth and East Ninth Streets, into 126 suites. Developers have been eyeballing the land for condos or a hotel since the late 1990s.

Dan Henretty, InterContinental's regional director of franchise sales, said construction should start by year's end with a 2009 opening in mind. Staybridge, with more than 100 locations in the Americas, caters to extended-stay business travelers. Each suite will have a full kitchen.

"We like Cleveland because of how many companies are in that downtown area, and the amount of corporate training goes hand in hand," Henretty said.

The building, which sits on the northeast corner of East Sixth and Rockwell, once housed WKYC-TV, Channel 3. Built in 1916, it originally was home to East Ohio Gas Co.

John Ferchill, president of the Ferchill Group real estate development firm in Cleveland, long ago had talked about bringing a high-end hotel to the property. Another developer, Lewis E. Wallner III, later came forward with a plan for about 50 condos.

The Cuyahoga County Auditor's office assigns the property -- still controlled by yet a third developer, Richard Osborne -- a $5.4 million value for tax purposes. A Staybridge spokeswoman would not identify the franchsior who will build the hotel there. Osborne could not be reached.

Samantha Fryberger, spokeswoman for the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland, said there are 15 hotels and about 3,900 rooms downtown.


_________________________________________________________________


University Circle initiatives detailed

By SHANNON MORTLAND

2:54 pm, July 11, 2007

University Circle Inc. this year is launching seven new initiatives, one of which is a $7 million effort to restore the vitality of Euclid Avenue and University Circle.

The Euclid Gateway Vision Project will focus on creating new pedestrian lighting, signage, prominent gateways and a visitor center along Euclid Avenue, said Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle Inc., which is a nonprofit group that represents the institutions within University Circle. Mr. Ronayne spoke today at the City Club of Cleveland about development efforts in and around University Circle.

“Euclid Avenue is where it’s at,” he said. “It’s our best bet for the future.”

Mr. Ronayne said he sees Euclid Avenue tying six districts — Public Square, Playhouse Square, Cleveland State University, the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals — together stretching from downtown to University Circle.

Housing also will play an important role in and around University Circle as the area is redeveloped.

Mr. Ronayne said University Circle Inc. is working with local developers to create 1,000 new homes over the next five years within the arts, education and health care district. Some of that housing would include projects already announced, such as the 250 housing units that are part of the Uptown housing and retail district slated for the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Mayfield Road.

Though there’s room and demand for upscale housing in and around the circle, Mr. Ronayne said it wouldn’t be built at the expense of the poor already living in the area.

“We need to continue to provide that step-up housing,” Mr. Ronayne said.

Though local foundations have committed a lot of money for projects in University Circle, he said large developments can’t be done without state and private funds.

“It’s not all going to be found at the city of Cleveland bank, because the city of Cleveland bank is dry,” Mr. Ronayne said.
___________________________________________________________

E. Side lures Fla. developer
Finch Group’s success at Park Lane Villa leads to proposed mixed-use project in upper Chester area

By JAY MILLER

4:30 am, July 9, 2007


A joint venture that involves local interests and a Florida real estate developer is preparing to unveil a mixed-use development proposal for the upper Chester Avenue area of Cleveland’s East Side, north of the Cleveland Clinic.

Under the plan by Finch Group of Boca Raton, Fla., and Heartland/HKS Consultants, new housing and retail development would be integrated among existing homes and commercial buildings in the area bounded by East 89th and East 101st streets and Chester and Hough avenues.

Heartland/HKS Consultants is a partnership between Heartland Developers LLC and HKS Consultants. Heartland Developers, led by developer Gordon Priemer, has built residential projects in Cleveland and the inner suburbs. HKS Consultants is headed by former Cleveland City Council member Helen K. Smith.

Ms. Smith said architect Paul Volpe of City Architecture Inc. in Cleveland is within weeks of finishing a master plan for the area, but she was reluctant to go into detail “because nothing is finalized.” Ms. Smith could not say how much acreage was involved, in part because the developers do not anticipate acquiring all the property in the target area.

Once the master plan is in place and the developers commit to moving forward, the first phase would be on the block of Chester between East 93rd and East 97th streets.

Cleveland City Council last month authorized the rezoning of a stretch of upper Chester from residential to retail. At the same time, City Council approved the sale to Finch Group of seven properties that had been abandoned and retained by the city within the rezoned area and beyond.

Wesley Finch, chairman of Finch Group, said the plan is to have retail along Chester with housing running along the side streets.

Mr. Finch cautioned that the project is “in the planning stage and nothing is set in stone.” But, he added, “I would expect that the first phase, because of the requirement for critical mass, to be in excess of 100 dwelling units.”

Signs of support

The area of upper Chester came to the attention of Finch Group because of the company’s redevelopment beginning last year of the Park Lane Villa apartment building on East 101st Street. Mr. Finch said the first tenants already are moving into Park Lane and that units are renting faster than he had anticipated.

Mr. Finch said he believes the large number of well-paid workers at the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland are a good base for residential development.

Daryl Rush, Cleveland’s director of community development, said the initiative would be consistent with the city’s goal of redeveloping housing in that neighborhood. He said it would be an important element of the city’s 2020 Citywide Plan, the city’s master plan for development.

The city’s five-year capital budget includes $2.5 million for infrastructure development for the upper Chester area. Mr. Rush described that number as “a placeholder,” but said the city is committed to improving the neighborhood’s infrastructure as new development unfolds.

Councilwoman Fannie Lewis, whose ward includes the upper Chester area, supports the project.

Many of the properties in the target area are vacant and owned by the Cleveland Clinic, the city of Cleveland or the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ms. Smith said other properties are in the hands of private owners whose properties would not be acquired.

“An awful lot of the real estate is in really good shape,” she said.

In a statement e-mailed last week to Crain’s, the Clinic said it “supports the efforts of the Upper Chester redevelopment initiatives and continues to keep its options open relative to the property it owns in the Upper Chester neighborhood.” Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove last year told The Plain Dealer that the medical center’s plans would dovetail with whatever is planned for the area north of Chester.

[MABCLE]

High-rise office buildings on the horizon in Cleveland

Several major companies are exploring new construction to meet needs as leases expire Friday, August 31, 2007Henry J. GomezPlain Dealer Reporter
For the first time in almost two decades, one or more new office buildings could rise above downtown Cleveland.

At least five big companies with leases soon to expire, including accounting giant Ernst & Young and global manufacturer Eaton Corp., are shopping for new digs.

With the central business district's highest-quality buildings short on space, these major employers are exploring the possibility of new construction with real estate developers.


Others in the market include Huntington National Bank, which has a 200-employee regional base here, and the large law firms Baker & Hostetler and Squire Sanders & Dempsey.

Competition among developers to land one or more of these marquee tenants is fierce. Scott Wolstein and Bob Stark each covets a big name for his mixed-use project -- Wolstein's on the east bank of the Flats, Stark's in the Warehouse District. Also in the mix are John Ferchill, Forest City Enterprises Inc. and Richard E. Jacobs Group, all major players during Cleveland's last construction boom.

Decisions from some tenants are expected within six months. According to some estimates, it could take two to four years to have a new office complex ready for occupancy.

Though the prospect of new construction has been the hottest topic in commercial realty circles this summer, the notion would have seemed absurd a year or two ago.

"I didn't really foresee this 12 months ago," said David Browning, managing director in the Cleveland office of CB Richard Ellis Inc. Among other contracts, his commercial realty staff handles leasing at Eaton Center, home of Eaton Corp., and represents Ernst & Young in its office search.

Browning said the tenants in the market are looking not only for more space to grow, but also for more modern space to attract the talent needed to grow.

Cleveland is short on both. Today, downtown's top-dollar office space - referred to as Class A - is about 11 percent vacant, according to data used by two local brokerages. That's down sharply from the 16 percent CB Richard Ellis recorded for last year's second quarter.

Browning and others noted that the only downtown building with enough space for a large new tenant is the 200 Public Square complex, the former BP America Tower. But Browning said it would be difficult for a tenant to lease consecutive floors there.

As for the most modern space, the newest complex is Key Tower, a Jacobs Group project that broke ground in the 1980s. By the time it opened in 1991 (under the name Society Center), a string of other new buildings had Class A vacancy rates well over 20 percent. Meanwhile, the region was suffering the effects of a nationwide recession.

The sharp downturn left several developers holding plans for office buildings that never came to fruition. Jacobs, for example, planned the 60-story Ameritrust Center on a parcel west of Public Square. It would have become the highest of downtown's high-rises.


Today, it is a parking lot. Jacobs Group still hopes to build an office building there.

Bill Fullington, spokesman for the Jacobs Group, declined to comment about any development possibilities.

Fullington also would not discuss his company's lease, set to expire in 2012, to Squire Sanders & Dempsey, which is one of Key Tower's original tenants.

As for Ferchill and Forest City, both are pitching property in familiar areas.

Ferchill said he is considering a 240,000-square-foot building in front of North Point Tower, an office project he helped develop at East Ninth Street and Lakeside Avenue.

"We are not prepared to discuss who we've been talking to," Ferchill said.

Pat Lott, Forest City's senior vice president of office development and leasing, said his company is offering two sites near Tower City Center. One includes parcels on the south side of Huron Road, near the federal courthouse, on land set aside for a possible convention center. The other is a triangular piece of land that Lott said is near the Renaissance Hotel's ballroom.

Wolstein and Stark are creating the most buzz.

Wolstein's $400 million Flats project calls for 475 residential units to be mixed with retail and office space. In an interview late last year, he acknowledged talks with Baker & Hostetler. In an e-mail last week, his spokeswoman acknowledged negotiations with other large companies.

"A long-term lease with one of these tenants can certainly anchor a new office building," Nancy Lesic wrote.


Stark is proposing a much-anticipated makeover of the Warehouse District. The huge, $1 billion project calls for a mix of retail, housing and at least 1 million square feet of office space.

Darryl Whitehead, a spokesman for Stark Enterprises, confirmed that Stark is trying to secure large office tenants, including Ernst & Young, to anchor a building.

Ernst & Young, with a downtown payroll of 1,400, has set a six-month timetable to make a decision. The company's lease at the Huntington Building on Euclid Avenue expires in 2011.

"We are not going to drag our feet," said Donald Misheff, the Northeast Ohio managing partner for Ernst & Young, which needs about 200,000 square feet of space.

Browning, of CB Richard Ellis Inc., stopped short of identifying which developer is the front-runner in the quest for a big tenant, but added that Stark "certainly has captured a lot of people's imagination with the boldness of his plan."

"I wouldn't count that project out," he said. "When you look at the number of tenants out there, it's more than likely that Bob Stark will be able to land one and get something out of the ground." Browning and Rob Roe, president of Staubach Co.'s Cleveland office, both said they believe more than one new office building is possible. Staubach, which specializes in tenant representation, lists Eaton and Squire Sanders & Dempsey among its local clients.

Roe's prediction: "At least two new buildings will be announced in the next six months."

But Browning also said office developers should tread cautiously and remember what happened in the late 1980s and early '90s, when the new buildings cannibalized the old.

"The problem there was we brought five new projects on at once," Browning said.

"In a market this size, that's crazy."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

hgomez@plaind.com, 216-999-5405

http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business-3/118855050175300.xml&coll=2&thispage=3

[MasonsInquiries]

ravens-20, browns-13. would you agree, MABCLE? :okay:

[MABCLE]

^Didn't see that before, but um, NO!!!:)

Update on The Avenue District:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/9760/avenuepic07110818292700kn6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

Pix from July at The Battery Park neighborhood In the West 60s on the west side of town:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6830/junejuly2007207yt8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/299/junejuly2007208ei8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

Part of Euclid Corridor is barrel-free today
Posted by Donna J. Miller November 26, 2007 07:22AM
Categories: Traffic

No more orange barrels on Euclid Avenue this morning from East 17th Street to East 55th Street.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is opening that stretch of road a year ahead of schedule, spokesman Chad Self said in a news release.

"Initially, it may be a bit different to some people, but once folks get the hang of it, traveling the corridor will be second nature," general manager Joe Calabrese said.

The RTA expects to open the stretch between East 55th and East 82nd streets early next year.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/11/part_of_the_euclid_corridor_is.html

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5274/euclidave1126rz8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/2204/junejuly2007491jq5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/8941/junejuly2007490rj2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MABCLE]

Older article, forgot to post here.

Flats east bank project expands as interest grows
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Tom Breckenridge
Plain Dealer Reporter

A developer of the $400 million Flats east bank project says plans for quality office space are expanding because of high interest.

Adam Fishman of Fairmount Properties LLC says the project calls for two office buildings totaling 800,000 square feet of space, up from the 500,000 square feet originally envisioned.

"There's been a remarkable amount of interest," Fishman said. He declined to identify possible tenants.


Fishman gave a brief update on the mixed-use project Tuesday to the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority board. The authority is helping with property acquisition and financing.

Fishman is teaming with developer Scott Wolstein and his mother, Iris, on the project, which will rise on 24 acres north of the Main Avenue bridge.

Evolving plans call for 500 to 600 dwellings, up from the 475 announced in late August.

The riverfront neighborhood is to include a marina, park, 150-room hotel, cinema and 280,000 square feet of retail, including a grocery.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

tbreckenridge@plaind.com, 216-999-4695

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1192610208273970.xml&coll=2

[cityfan]

I really like the Silver Line. It's a great cost-effective option for certain urban corridors that may not be dense enough to warrant significant spending on rail rapid transit. I sure wish Indy had something like it.

[araman0]

Even better, it may help lay the groundwork for more easily turning that corridor into a light rail line in the future.

This is a great idea, and should be implemented elsewhere.

[MABCLE]

Planners originally wanted a subway line running under Euclid as long as 27 years ago, but bickering and redtape along with a 200MM grant fron the Government gives us this corridor. Lots of investment is already going on along this corridor due in part to the silver line. There is also talk about putting in other BRT lines in other, denser parts of the city. Overall this should benefit RTA riders, bring in more new investment and be an alternative to the rail and bus services already offered in the city.

I like it, but to many its a waste of money. Guess time will tell.

[MABCLE]

Cuyahoga County set to build $160 million juvenile justice center on Cleveland's East Side

Friday, March 21, 2008
Joe Guillen
Plain Dealer Reporter

Cuyahoga County awarded $40 million in contracts Thursday to build a juvenile justice complex on the East Side of Cleveland - a project 20 years in the making.

Construction of the $160 million juvenile justice center, including a new detention center and a court complex, is scheduled to begin in May. The new complex is expected to open in 2010.

The county will issue bonds to pay for the project. More contracts will be awarded this spring.

Advertisement
The county's current juvenile facilities are cramped and outdated. An East 22nd Street detention center, built to house about 80 children, had 193 inmates Thursday morning, Juvenile Court Administrator Ken Lusnia said.

Planning for new facilities began in the late 1980s. Commissioners and Juvenile Court judges considered more than 30 locations before deciding in 2000 to buy 13 acres at East 93rd Street and Quincy Avenue for $2.7 million.

Construction plans stalled after the purchase because judges didn't want to move from their downtown court. However, an agreement was reached in August 2006.

All six contracts awarded at Thursday's county commissioners meeting went to either the lowest or only bidder and met requirements to subcontract with small businesses.

Here's a breakdown:

$14.3 million to Smith & Oby Co. of Walton Hills for heating, vent and air conditioning work.

$11.9 million to Lake Erie Electric of Westlake for electrical work.
$8.9 million to West Third Street Construction of Cleveland for masonry.

$4.6 million to Phoenix Cement of Berea for concrete.

$672,000 to Commercial Appliance Contracts of Grove City, Pa., for kitchen equipment.



$133,000 to Perk Co. of Cleveland for sidewalks.

Four of the six contractors are required to award 30 percent of the work to qualified small businesses. The masonry contractor must award 10 percent of the work to small businesses. The county waived the small-business requirement for the kitchen contractor.

The county imposed the hiring requirements to give minority- and women-owned businesses a share of the work. Deputy County Administrator Lee Trotter said the county went "much further than we've traditionally gone" to promote diversity.

Trotter said the county will monitor construction to make sure hiring goals are met.

Commissioner Tim Hagan stressed favoritism played no role in awarding the contracts. "None of us are going to jail on our effort to make this work," he said.

[MABCLE]

Medical Mart company to build convention complex with Cuyahoga County loan

Friday, March 21, 2008
Sarah Hollander
Plain Dealer Reporter

The Chicago-based company that plans to run Cleveland's new convention center and Medical Mart will also build the complex using a county loan and will own it for at least the first 20 years.

Cuyahoga County commissioners unanimously approved an agreement Thursday with Merchandise Mart Properties Inc.

The county plans to issue about $400 million in bonds and lend the proceeds to MMPI, which will be in charge of design and construction. MMPI will then pay down the debt using lease payments from the county - $40 million a year for 20 years.


MMPI would be responsible for any cost overruns.

The county avoided competitive bidding requirements by structuring the deal in this way.

State law allows counties to make loans for economic development projects that private companies will build and own, said David Lambert, civil division chief of the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office.

If the new center isn't public, though, it may be subject to substantial property taxes. Lambert said the county is researching that issue.

At the end of the 20 years, the county would assume ownership, unless both parties decided to extend the partnership.

The agreement calls for two optional 20-year extensions.

The agreement also includes the following:

The $40 million a year will come from a sales tax increase that the county started collecting in October. If the bond payments are less than $40 million, MMPI must apply the money to the project in other ways.

The county will pay MMPI at least $103 million over the 20-year agreement to operate the center - $6 million for each of the first three years and $5 million for each of the remaining 17.

The county will try to sell naming rights for the center and would keep all proceeds.


MMPI will contribute $20 million, which will be used to market the project and attract tenants, through lease incentives, construction of showrooms or other means.

MMPI will collect all revenue from the complex but will also pay for all maintenance and repair.

Commissioners said they insisted on delegating capital responsibilities to MMPI, noting lessons learned from the Gateway project. The original leases between the Indians and the Cavaliers, particularly for what is now Quicken Loans Arena, left city and county taxpayers responsible for much of the cost of needed repairs.

The county also pushed for an escape clause. If MMPI can't sign at least 10 mart tenants and five medical trade shows or conferences during a one-year development phase, either side can pull out. The minimum requirements are a fraction of the business both sides expect the complex to attract once fully operational.

Commissioners must now draft operation, development and lease contracts and decide on a location.

Two sites are front-runners - renovating or expanding at the current Lakeside Avenue convention center on and under the Malls, or building along the Cuyahoga River behind Tower City, with a connection to a Medical Mart in the old Higbee Building.

Commissioners now plan at least one public forum and will consider suggestions from MMPI and a site selection committee appointed by the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the region's largest chamber of commerce.

The Cleveland City Council should be drawn into the discussions sooner rather than later, Councilman Mike Polensek said. The city owns the current convention center as well as the International Exposition Center and would be affected no matter what site is chosen, he said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

shollander@plaind.com, 216-999-4816

[UrbanTom]

This should be real interesting to follow and find out which site is chosen. I've been following some of the news for a year or two from out of town and am real curious about which site will be best for Cleveland. I'd be interested in hearing local views on which site you think is best for Cleveland. The site along the river looks like a little bit of a squeeze and wouldn't seem to allow much opportunity for potential future expansions - but it might be best for tying into the retail and entertainment opportunities that are more in that area (I believe?). What are the pluses for the mall site? Potential room for expansions? Is it closer to the Cleveland Browns stadium? (btw, whatever happened to that idea about building a retractable roof on the Browns stadium? If that happened, it could add 100,000 sq. feet or so to the convention space in that area - although if my memory serves me correctly, I don't think the stadium is really very close to the mall area). Where are most of the downtown hotels? That is key to having a successful convention center. Ideally, for a 400,000 sq. foot convention center, you would want to have 4,000 - 5,000 hotel rooms within five or six blocks of the center (or closer) to make it as attractive as possible.

[nickw311]

Just saw this news story today - its not real new news but I don't think anyone else posted on it.

"Ernst & Young LLP won naming rights to a 21-story office tower that will be known as Ernst & Young Tower as it committed to keeping its offices in downtown Cleveland as part of the Flats East Bank Neighborhood."


http://crainscleveland.com/article/20080508/FREE/430421822

[Chadoh25]

Cleveland leads big cities in population loss, census figures show

Posted by Robert L. Smith July 10, 2008 05:38AM

John Kuntz/The Plain Dealer

As civic leaders try to spark a Cleveland renaissance by attracting businesses and residents downtown, they face a challenge convincing the hometown folks of the city's prospects.
More people left Cleveland last year than any other major city in America, the U.S. Census Bureau will report today. Since 2000, only hurricane-ravaged New Orleans weathered a sharper rate of population loss.

Cleveland's descent slowed last year and the numerical loss -- about 5,000 people between July 2006 and July 2007 -- compares favorably to the 1970s, when the city at times hemorrhaged 15,000 people a year.

But the rate of decline remains alarming for America's 40th-largest city, which has dipped to an estimated 438,042 people, and the neighbors are not faring so well, either.


Database: City and Village Populations, 2007

Graphic: Biggest gains and losses, 2000 to 2007

Graphic: Percent change in population, 2000 to 2007

Graphic: Moving away

In March, the Census Bureau reported that Cuyahoga County suffered the greatest population loss of America's large counties between 2000 and 2007, while the population in the seven-county region also fell.

Today's report, which offers population estimates for all municipalities, indicates much of that loss is occurring in Northeast Ohio's cities and older suburbs.

Since 2000, Cleveland has bled 8 percent of its population, or about 40,000 people. In that same time, 22 suburbs lost an even greater share of their residents, according to a Plain Dealer analysis of census data. The shrinking bedroom communities include Bay Village, Lakewood, Euclid, Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights, Mayfield, Chagrin Falls and Garfield Heights.

Meanwhile, population loss accelerated in Akron last year. No suburban community is rising fast enough to make up the difference. And so the whole region tilts downhill.

"It's an obvious fact. It's been an ongoing trend," said Mark Salling, director of the Northern Ohio Data and Information Service at Cleveland State University. "There's no longer surprise. I think even our angst has been diminished."

Salling is unsure of the population impact of the foreclosure crisis, which has hollowed out many urban neighborhoods.

Where do people who lose a home through foreclosure go?" he asked. "Do they move to the suburbs?"

Maybe not, he speculated. But boarded-up houses probably spur better-off neighbors to move.

While the census report offers sobering statistics for Ohio's largest metropolitan area, it also contains some hopeful news.

Cleveland's rate of decline slowed in 2007, a year when several major cities -- including Baltimore and St. Louis -- saw rates of decline accelerate. And the numerical loss was the lowest in five years.

On the national scene, New Orleans staged the most dramatic comeback. The Big Easy was America's fastest-growing large city last year, swelling by nearly 14 percent after experiencing the nation's greatest rate of loss the previous six years.

Some see Cleveland poised for a new day.

Pointing to massive investment in University Circle hospitals and in downtown housing, Ken Silliman, chief of staff for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, said the city will soon look more attractive to new and current residents alike.

"We are very optimistic about where we are heading," Silliman said.

Edward "Ned" Hill, acting dean of CSU's Levin College of Urban Affairs, said a revived downtown could lift the entire region.

"Take a breath. We didn't get here overnight," Hill said. "It's going to take a good 15 years to get out of it. But we need to do this through growth, through creating opportunity."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

rsmith@plaind.com, 216-999-4024

[nickw311]

Congrats Cleveland!

From the RedEye - a free Chicago Newspaper:

http://redeye.chicagotribune.com/red-express-busjul11,0,5994624.story

By Jon Hilkevitch
Chicago Tribune reporter
Published July 10 2008, 11:37 PM CDT

Chicago set to test its own express lanes, which are cheaper than rail projects

CLEVELAND -- Don't dare dismiss the new $200 million transit service starting up here as just another bus line.

Officials certainly aren't at the Chicago Transit Authority, which is studying Cleveland's experiment before launching its own "bus rapid transit" here in about a year.

Extra-long, hybrid diesel buses featuring stylized touches that resemble sleek high-speed trains pull up to platforms at shiny steel-and-glass stations in the median of a major Cleveland thoroughfare.

The street has undergone a remake, including bus-only lanes and new traffic-signal technology that will give buses the green light for almost 10 miles from downtown to the city's east side.

The transit corridor, called the Health Line, is geared toward attracting professionals, many of them doctors and other health-care workers who commute to a medical district anchored by the renowned Cleveland Clinic. Medical companies are paying the city's transit authority $12 million for the naming rights.

The challenge facing Cleveland—and ultimately Chicago—is how to set the new service apart from the stereotype of bus travel as slow, outdated and used mostly by society's have-nots.

"In Cleveland, suits don't ride buses. We are out to change that," Joseph Calabrese, chief executive officer and general manager of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transportation Authority, said last week as he rode on one of the buses with a Tribune reporter.

The bus-only lanes are still under construction along Cleveland's Euclid Avenue but are scheduled to be completed along a 9.4-mile stretch of the road by late October. The 4-mile section already in operation has drawn commuters from cars by providing a first-class travel experience that trims trip times and eliminates gas and parking expenses, officials said.

The buses pass cars in adjacent lanes where the speed limit is lower and traffic is thicker. The cost to ride the Health Line: $1.75, the same as the regular transit fare.

"I can't wait for the full service to get here," said DeAnna Poindexter, 32, who works in management technology. "The car drivers are so inconsiderate talking on their cell phones while they block the buses."

At the CTA, whose buses average a snail-like 9 m.p.h., bus rapid transit has been earmarked as the No. 1 near-term priority. Armed with a $153 million federal grant, the CTA plans to test bus-only lanes on four Chicago routes—portions of Chicago Avenue, Halsted Street, 79th Street and Jeffery Boulevard—starting mid-year 2009. The project would start with about 10 miles of bus-only lanes and eventually expand to more than 100 miles.

As in Cleveland, CTA riders will see upgraded vehicles, specialized stations and corporate sponsorships.

CTA buses will also be equipped with transponders so buses can breeze through intersections on green lights. And much like Cleveland, bus stops will be spaced farther apart—about a quarter-mile—to help cut travel times.

The key difference from Cleveland, though, will be the CTA bus-only lanes will operate only during the rush hours—one lane inbound in the morning and one lane outbound in the evening on each of the four routes. Off-peak, the lanes will be open to all traffic.

On most of Cleveland's Health Line corridor, one lane in each direction is dedicated to only buses 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

That makes more sense in Cleveland because its congestion isn't as bad as in Chicago, which ranks No. 2 in the nation for traffic gridlock. It also helps that two major streets that parallel Euclid Avenue can handle additional car traffic, officials said.

When a Cleveland rapid transit vehicle stops at a median station, a large door opens on its left side and passengers stream aboard without having to climb any stairs, making it wheelchair accessible.

When construction is completed, riders will pre-pay their fares at the stations to avoid delays, a strategy that the CTA plans as well.

The wider bus interior gives it an airy feel, and the seats are deluxe by transit standards.

Traffic signals at intersections will be automatically programmed to extend the green light so buses can travel at a consistent 35 m.p.h. in the bus-only congestion-free lanes. The 25 m.p.h. speed limit for cars in adjacent lanes is designed to encourage drivers to use alternate streets.

When the construction is completed, travel times are projected to decline by more than 25 percent over existing bus service, Cleveland officials said.

In Chicago, CTA officials are even more hopeful, projecting that travel times on the bus-only lanes could be cut in half when bus rapid transit reaches full speed by 2010.

In addition to its transportation benefits, the Health Line is extending an economic lifeline to neighborhoods on the route that have been in need of resuscitation for many years. The city has lost almost half of its population of 1 million-plus when it was a bustling manufacturing center during the first half of the 20th Century.

Young professionals and empty-nesters are slowly returning to the city center and to a blighted warehouse district, where restaurants, neighborhood bars, boutiques and other businesses are sprouting.

"This is the next wave. There is housing and entertainment and a new demand for downtown living and economic integration," said Michael Taylor, president of the National City Community Development Corp., a bank that is supporting investment along the Health Line corridor.

A plan had been on the books for years in Cleveland to build a downtown subway, but efforts languished due to the project's estimated $1 billion cost.

In the Chicago area, big-ticket rail projects—ranging from the CTA's proposed Circle Line stretching around the city to Metra's suburb-to-suburb STAR Line—would cost billions of dollars to build. Currently, no funding has been identified.

If Chicago's upcoming experiment pays off, it's possible that bus rapid transit networks, costing as little as one-fifth the price of heavy rail projects, would make a more viable alternative.

jhilkevitch@tribune.com

[Chadoh25]

Proposed new Cleveland port takes on a different look
Posted by Peter Krouse August 05, 2008 16:02PM
Categories: Breaking News, Economic development, Impact
Meet the new port -- not the same as the old port.

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/08/port.jpg

A conceptual draft for a proposed new Port of Cleveland, to be located at East 55th Street, was revealed today. Gone are the finger docks that characterize the current port at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River.

The new port would be shaped more like a rectangle, with berthing locations on three sides.

Containers and general cargo such as steel would be handled along the eastern third of the port, served by rail-mounted gantry cranes. Bulk cargo such as limestone and fertilizer would be unloaded onto the middle section. The western portion would include warehouses and handle more general cargo.

The rectangular design is more befitting a modern port, said Steve Pfeiffer, vice president of maritime services with the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority. The finger docks, or piers, at the current port were built when much more of the unloading was done by hand.

The port's administration buildings would be located south of the secure area, making it easier for the public to come and go. Land would be set aside for port-related businesses.

Pfeiffer showed the draft to the port's maritime committee this morning. He also gave an update on the timing of the project. The port anticipates reaching an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by August 2009 on building a new dike, with construction to begin in 2012. Work on the port, which would be built atop the dike, would not begin until 2020.

What wasn't discussed today is the role freight railroads CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. would play. The Port Authority would like both railroads to serve the new port. But the only main line running past the site is owned by CSX, and it may not want to share.

"It is a CSX line and a busy one," CSX spokesman Garrick Francis said, "and it would be difficult to accommodate two railroads."

But Pfeiffer believes that's little more than posturing on the part of CSX, which already cooperates with Norfolk Southern when it comes to serving the current port. He ultimately sees a deal being worked out between the port and the two railroads.

"I think it's called negotiations," he said.

One of the major benefits of a new port would be the economic development it could attract. The St. Clair Superior Development Corp. is analyzing an area bounded on the west by East 18th Street, on the east by Martin Luther King Boulevard, on the south by St. Clair Avenue and on the north by the lake for the creation of an international trade district.

The area being studied has about 12 million square feet of rentable space, said Jamie Baker, executive director or the St. Clair Superior Development Corp., with about 5 to 12 percent currently vacant. As for the physical condition of buildings in the area, 16.9 percent are rated poor or worse, she said, with 8.2 percent considered good or better.

One property owner already hoping to cash in is Mitchell Schneider, president of First Interstate Properties. He bought the former White Motor complex at East 79th Street and St. Clair Avenue several years ago with designs on converting it into a retail mall similar to his Steelyard Commons south of downtown Cleveland.

But Schneider said he couldn't get enough interest from major anchor tenants. Now he wants to tear down some buildings and develop property for industrial use. He said he has applied to the Ohio Department of Development for a $5 million grant that would pay to demolish buildings, remove environmental hazards and lay a rail spur to the property.

[Chadoh25]

Double post

[Chadoh25]

This is so sad!

Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood suffers 'growing pains'
Arsons a reminder diverse neighborhood in flux

Wednesday, August 06, 2008
James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer Reporter
Joe Cimperman sifted through the rubble of his firebombed home in Tremont Tuesday and wondered aloud if there was anywhere else where he could have found such an outpouring of gallantry and affection.

But the attack on the Cleveland city councilman has rattled some of those good people who make up one of the city's oldest and proudest neighborhoods.

"I never knew there were so many mean people around here," said retiree Fay Wagner, Cimperman's neighbor, who sat on her front porch Tuesday morning and stroked her pet Chihuahua. "I want to get out and move into a nursing home.

Perched atop a West Side bluff overlooking downtown, Tremont is an area in transition. It's an eclectic mix of Bohemians and Appalachians, young professionals and immigrant retirees, blacks, whites and Latinos. Rows of Victorian homes line streets shaded by sycamores and maples, with Porsches parked behind rusted pickups.

Stately avenues attract urban pioneers in search of real estate bargains close to downtown and within walking distance of hip bars and gourmet restaurants. Yet, at its front doorstep is Lincoln Park, where homeless men sleep on benches and empty bottles litter the lawn.

"They're having growing pains there that make it a little tougher to police than established neighborhoods," said 2nd District police Cmdr. Keith Sulzer.

Those growing pains included two other arsons in the summer of 2007, targeting homes in the 2800 block of West 12th Street, two blocks from Cimperman's home. Both victims were black families. Cimperman, who is white, organized a rally in support of the families, which sparked a new wave of racially charged diatribes against him.

Those crimes remain unsolved, and both families have since moved away.

From 2002 through 2007, the census tract that includes the portion of Tremont where Cimperman lives had 106 burglaries, 37 robberies, 25 assaults, 12 rapes, five arsons and one homicide, according to police statistics.

"Any place that is that culturally and racially diverse has to meld and mix together, and when they do, it's better for us," Sulzer said. "People have been living there for years and now they have yuppies coming into the neighborhood. Some of them don't like the changes, and vice versa."

The big-hearted community that Cimperman witnessed coming to his aid in the past week contrasts with the series of ugly verbal and written attacks that preceded the firebombing and the vandalism Friday of his wife's car.

Across the brick street from Cimperman's century home, Stan and Mildred Polansky relaxed on their front porch and reflected on the 38 years they have lived there.

"It's just like anyplace else in the city of Cleveland," said Stan Polansky, 71. "It used to be a whole lot safer."

A few doors down, Carmen Cintron said she trusts her neighbors to watch over her home and her daughters, Kimberly, 14, and Gloria, 18, while she is at work at a janitorial service in Strongsville.

"Everybody here respects everyone else," she said. "It's quiet most of the time."

On the far corner, a half-dozen buddies from Lincoln-West High School pulled up on their bicycles after a morning spent toiling in the community garden where they grow produce for local restaurants and soup kitchens.

The teens were in good spirits, still basking in media attention they received for helping rescue the Cimpermans and four women who rent the first level of the home. On the night of the fire, Luis Santiago, 17, was talking on a cell phone with his girlfriend on the front porch at 2 a.m. when he saw the initial burst of flames.

"I feel like a billion bucks," said Christian Santiago, 15, who joined his brother and their father, Ismael, in rousting the Cimpermans from their sleep.

Some elderly residents have grumbled about the local youths' occasional late-night revelry, but Cimperman wasn't one of them.

"We're the luckiest people in the world to be alive because we had these people looking out for us," Cimperman said. "My neighbors are my heroes."

Plain Dealer reporter Gabriel Baird and computer-assisted reporting editor Rich Exner contributed to this story.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jmccarty@plaind.com, 216-999-4153

[Chadoh25]

Financing reconsidered for convention center, medical mart
Site selections exceed $400 million

Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Sarah Hollander
Plain Dealer Reporter

Business leaders appear to be cobbling together alternative financing to help make a new riverfront convention center and medical mart possible.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership, the region's largest chamber of commerce, expects to recommend a location to Cuyahoga County commissioners Thursday.

Commissioner Tim Hagan said he heard that the partnership's site selection committee favors a riverfront center behind Tower City. This option appears to be much cheaper than the other top contender -- a renovation and expansion at the current Lakeside Avenue location.

Attorney Fred Nance, the committee's chairman, wouldn't comment.

He did, however, confirm that the 12-member committee voted unanimously for a favorite.

At last count, estimates for both locations exceeded $400 million, the amount supported by a countywide sales tax increase. Since then, plans for both sites have been revised to cut costs.

Nance wouldn't release the latest estimates, saying they wouldn't become public record until submitted to the county.

However, sources familiar with the project say the Tower City site might come in at $60 million to $100 million over budget. And the mall site could cost up to $600 million, mainly because of anticipated water problems. Drillings on downtown's grassy malls indicate unstable soil, which would add to the cost of foundation work.

The report to commissioners is likely to include various financing options for the top choice.

"We wouldn't make a recommendation to build something without making a recommendation about how to pay for it," Nance said. He wouldn't elaborate.

Cleveland owns the current convention center. But to expand nearby, the county is likely to need to buy private property - including an office building and parking garage.

Forest City Enterprises owns the riverfront land and would sell its property to the county. The company wouldn't comment on a possible asking price, but has agreed to lease 200,000 square feet in the old Higbee Building for a connected medical mart for $1 year, not including renovation costs.

Sam Miller, Forest City co-chairman, said he wants to strike a deal that's good for both the community and the company.

Dennis Roche, a member of the partnership's site selection committee and president of Positively Cleveland, the region's convention and visitors bureau, wouldn't comment on his favorite site. He did, however, say that a successful convention center needs to be downtown, close to attractions and connected to a hotel.

Other members of the 12-person site selection committee declined to comment or didn't return phone calls.

Hagan said he understands the partnership will present alternative financing ideas for covering any gap between the estimated cost and the county's tax money. And he said he's open to hearing the ideas, but insists that the county should not exceed its cap.

"We've got to be realistic," he said.

[Chadoh25]

Angry riders pack RTA hearing on proposed cuts

Residents, public officials say service cuts would hurt poor, elderly

Wednesday, August 06, 2008
James Ewinger
Plain Dealer Reporter

Pack a small village onto dozens of buses and you'll have the scope and horsepower of public ire over RTA's proposed service cuts.

Nearly 1,500 people have jammed Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority hearings since Monday.

No other issue has so animated RTA ridership in nearly a decade. Even the fare increase two years ago - the agency's first significant one in 13 years - did not draw as many protesters.

Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek of Collinwood set the tone at Tuesday's midday hearing when he told RTA officials, "The cuts you are proposing are falling on the backs of working men and women, the elderly and the poor."

He said elimination of some circulator routes would harm riders and the businesses that serve them, and he noted that RTA would stand for "Return to Automobiles."

Speaking at a packed gathering of about 500 people in Cleveland Public Library's Main Library auditorium downtown, Polensek blamed RTA's budget problems on what he termed "million-dollar articulated buses," the $200 million Euclid Corridor project and the underused Waterfront Line extension of the RTA rapid system.

At issue is RTA's proposal to cut or reduce service on half its bus routes and eliminate community circulators. Fare increases also are possible.

The authority says it faces a $20 million deficit and has to find more money or cut service. Rising fuel prices and declining tax revenue are the culprits.

Pat Harrett lives in Cleveland but has family in Garfield Heights. He said he knows people in that suburb who rely on public transportation to get to their life-sustaining kidney dialysis treatments.

Another speaker suggested that riders boycott RTA trains and buses. "If everyone stops riding, how much money would you lose then?" asked the woman.

Page 2 of 2
Similar sentiments of anger were voiced at Tuesday night's hearing at Cleveland City Hall, where more than half of the 450 people in attendance signed up to speak.

Many riders spoke in defense of maintaining circulator service as an irreplaceable means of getting to work, school, doctor's visits, shopping and connections to other RTA services.

June Crawford lives in Cleveland's Archwood-Denison neighborhood and said in the afternoon hearing that the Denison circulator is the only way she can connect to other farther-reaching RTA services.

When RTA's PowerPoint presentation listed all the affected routes, the audience at the public library let out a horrified gasp of choral intensity.

One woman drew resounding applause when she suggested a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the riders.

Before the public commentary, RTA Chief Executive Officer Joe Calabrese and his staff spent at least 30 minutes Tuesday afternoon laying out the transit authority's budget crisis and their arguments for increasing fares or cutting service.

At times, Calabrese reminded the outspoken, angry crowd that the law requires that he make his case before the public, and that if he could not do that, then he would end the meeting.

Dominic Libertore, a former member of RTA's citizen advisory board, said state subsidies for Ohio's 60 public-transit systems have dropped by 63 percent since 2001 - from about $42 million then to $16 million last year. He urged people at the hearing to contact their state legislators to restore the money.

State Rep. Eugene Miller urged those at Tuesday night's hearing to flood Columbus with letters if they are upset by the proposed changes.

Cleveland Councilman Kevin Conwell read a letter from a woman who said children and seniors would be hardest hit by the reduction in services.

"We are prepared to fight," Conwell said. He told the crowd he was willing to "go as far as Washington, D.C.," with their concerns.

Plain Dealer reporter Sarena McRae contributed to this story.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jewinger@plaind.com, 216-999-3905

[bjkeys321]

hmm..

http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/americas-fastest-dying-cities.html

[Chadoh25]

Jewish Federation of Cleveland weighs move from downtown to Beachwood

by John Horton
Thursday August 07, 2008, 11:25 PM

WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS -- Stay downtown or go?
Officially, the plan called for tabletop dialogues held within Northeast Ohio's Jewish community the past two nights to avoid directly asking that question.

In reality, however, the topic dominated the conversations. It's why more than 250 people gathered to talk, after all.

The issue behind the meeting is this: The Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland is weighing whether to uproot from its cramped Euclid Avenue headquarters and move to Beachwood. The federation's board of trustees expects to make a decision Sept. 11.

Supporters say a move would sensibly place the federation closer to the area's Jewish community, which is concentrated in Beachwood and other eastern suburbs.

Detractors fear that a relocation signals, at least symbolically, an abandonment of downtown. A shift east out of Cleveland would leave the city without a major, full-time Jewish institution for the first time in more than a century.

The debate started last year. It shows no sign of waning.

So the forums held at the City Club of Cleveland on Wednesday and at Corporate College in Warrensville Heights on Thursday took a different approach. The goal here, according to a federation flier promoting the event, was to set priorities for a "future Jewish presence downtown."

The headquarters issue, federation marketing director Annie Becker said, "isn't the point of this. It's not really pertinent."

That didn't make sense to some in attendance.

"I don't know why else we're here then," Pauline Leber, 82, of Beachwood, said before Thursday night's dialogue. "It really is about where we are physically."

So the here-or-there headquarters question flowed throughout the table talk. The topic served as a launching point when discussing how a Jewish presence downtown impacts Cleveland's economy, community and culture.

At Table 2 on Wednesday, the eight-person group kept coming back to the importance of a federation headquartered in the urban center. If anything, those ringing the table wanted more activity out of the office, with downtown-based programs encouraging community partnerships and interaction.

They also spoke of Cleveland's woes and the Hebrew concept of tikkun olam, the Jewish duty to repair the world.

"We need to be in the community to be involved with the community," said Jonathan Leebow, 32, of Beachwood. "We need a foothold here. We need to show a commitment."

Out of more than two dozen people interviewed over the two nights, only one spoke for leaving for the suburbs: "People don't go downtown anymore," said Marlene Goldstein, 58, of Cleveland Heights, as she shared her thoughts Thursday.

Others sitting at Table 3 with Goldstein countered quickly.

"That's part of the problem," said Ann Garson, 45, of Shaker Heights. "We want to be part of the solution."

The question, then, is can that be done from Beachwood?

The chairman of the federation's board of trustees said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon that it's possible. Harley Gross said a downtown presence can be maintained no matter where the headquarters lands.

"It doesn't matter where the federation is," Gross said. "It can do things well from either location."

[Chadoh25]

Tower City site recommended for Medical Mart

Posted by Joe Guillen August 07, 2008 14:55PM

CLEVELAND - A riverfront site at Tower City is the proposed location for Cleveland's new convention center and medical mart -- the project billed as the region's best shot at economic revival.
The estimated $536 million cost is already $26 million over budget, and groundbreaking is a long way off.

But in return for the public investment, backers say the development would create thousands of jobs and entrench the region as a top health-care hub.



The preferred downtown location also would dovetail with other economic undertakings, such as the rejuvenation of the east bank of the Flats.

Before the deal is set, though, hurdles remain, not the least of which is bridging the gap between projected income and costs. Cuyahoga County commissioners and their partner in the deal -- Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. -- must agree to the numbers and the site. MMPI has committed $19 million to the project. It is unknown if the company will dig any deeper.

Commissioners raised the county sales tax a quarter percent last summer to provide the bulk of the money needed to build the mart and center.

They also gave MMPI a loan of $40 million a year for 20 years that will be used to pay down the debt. And the county will pay the company at least $103 million over the 20 years to operate the center.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership Site Selection Committee made its choice public for the mart's location on Thursday, shortly after briefing commissioners.

Most surprising of the information provided, said Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, was the committee's forecast that the sales-tax hike will generate $490 million over its 20-year life, rather than the $400 million county officials estimated.

"I'm hopeful that figure stands up," Jones said.

One option being mulled by commissioners to find more money for the project is a 2 percent increase in the county's hotel tax.

"I have no objection to the location at all," Commissioner Tim Hagan said. "We're going to get this done." He said, however, they will not pick a site objectionable to MMPI.

Construction could begin late next year.

Hagan said MMPI will take a hard look at the costs because it is responsible for overruns.

MMPI is slated to meet with site selection committee members next week.

The committee recommended that the medical mart be placed in the Higbee Building on Public Square - space the county will lease from Forest City Enterprises for $1 a year. The convention center would face Huron Road, overlooking the Cuyahoga River.

The county would buy space for the center from Forest City for up to $40 million, said Fred Nance, the selection committee chairman. The property must be appraised before a price is negotiated.

The Tower City site beat out the other location under consideration - Cleveland's current convention center on Lakeside Avenue - because it was estimated to be $47 million cheaper and has better access to downtown's assets.

To illustrate the Tower City site's luster, Nance described a conventioneer landing at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in the dead of winter and hopping onto public transportation directly to the new facilities without exposure to the elements.

A Team NEO study included with the recommendation said building could create more than 1,500 jobs during each three years of construction. The work is expected to spur $334 million in spending on goods and services, and $297.3 million in total payroll.

Once the convention center and medical mart are running, the study expects the complex to generate $205 million each year in spending and tax revenue.

[Chadoh25]

http://www.cleveland.com/medical/wide/index.ssf?/medical/wide/080908_medmart.html

Medical mart's cost jumps $136 million, tax revenue estimate rises $90 million

Posted by Joe Guillen August 08, 2008 22:44PM

Cleveland's new medical mart and convention center will cost $136 million more than advertised, and last year's sales tax increase to pay for the project will generate -- all of a sudden -- $90 million more than expected.

Confused?

The figures released on Thursday varied wildly from original estimates because, officials now say, construction costs were not fully studied. Also lacking was a detailed review of how much the quarter-cent sales tax increase would yield.

"It's fair to say that all the numbers used were guesstimates," Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan said on Friday. Hagan said the county's figures were provided by the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the region's chamber of commerce.

A site selection committee on Thursday estimated the project will cost $536 million. Since spring, commissioners have said the cost would be $400 million and could not go higher. Their estimates were solely based on how much they thought they could raise through sales tax collection, a number that turned out be underestimated.

The only reference for construction costs used by commissioners was a 2005 study that showed a convention center could be built in Cleveland for $368 million, said Steve Friedman, head of the construction group at the law firm Squire Sanders & Dempsey.

"That $400 million was on their misimpression that the quarter percent rise in sales tax would only support a $400 million bond issue," Friedman said.

It turns out the tax increase can supply money for a $490 million project, according to the selection committee.

Wachovia Securities Managing Director Timothy Offtermatt, who prepared an analysis of the tax for the committee, said on Friday that the county did not account for what will be a smaller construction loan. Less money has to be borrowed because Cuyahoga will have collected about $60 million in tax money before bonds are sold.

Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones said the $400 million figure came from county staff. "We didn't draw that number out of a hat," he said.

He said the amount was never questioned by Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., the county's Chicago-based partner in the deal, and local business leaders, who have backed the project.

The selection committee has recommended a riverfront site at Tower City for the medical mart and convention center. The complex is touted as a economic boon to the region with the promise of jobs and out-of-town visitors.

Commissioners and MMPI still must agree on the location and the cost estimates. MMPI will supply $19 million for the project and pay cost overruns. Based on the numbers provided Thursday, the project is short $26 million.

Confusion over the numbers risks adding to the public's apprehension about county building projects. A federal corruption investigation, exposed by raids on the homes and offices of Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and Auditor Frank Russo on July 28, may go on for months.

"Under the current climate, I think everything has to be looked at extremely carefully," said Deborah Sutherland, who is running for commissioner in November against Jones.

But Hagan said commissioners won't approve construction contracts in the medical mart/convention center deal. MMPI will award that work privately, based on an agreement reached with the county in March.

Hagan criticized skeptics who associate the project with the ongoing investigation. Nobody has been proven guilty, he said.

Construction would take about four years and could begin by the end of 2009.

The price of the medical mart/convention center includes $461 million for construction, $35 million for design and engineering and $40 million to buy Tower City property from Forest City Enterprises.

[Chadoh25]

I tried to get the video that came with the article to upload but its being difficult for some reason. Here is the link. Sorry.

http://videos.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/2008/08/cuyahoga_valley_scenic_railroa.html

Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad bike program helps park go green

Posted by Michael Scott August 08, 2008 18:37PM

Jeff Peters of Garrettsville rode his bike Friday afternoon right up to cutting edge of a growing trend in America's national parks: Keep the cars out.

"Hey, the roads don't go where the nature is -- but I can if I bike there," said Peters who had just bicycled about 10 miles Friday morning on the Towpath Trail from Peninsula to Independence.

He returned in the afternoon by loading his bike on a baggage car and hopping a passenger train on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.

Peters and other the bicyclists represent what park officials say is a renewed environmental hope-- that auto-dependent Americans can help make their national parks more climate-friendly.

That's right -- the national parks are going green.


"Sounds logical, doesn't it?" said Mary Pat Doorley, a spokeswoman for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. "This is part of an overall effort to have visitors to national parks -- including the Cuyahoga Valley National Park -- think about using alternative transportation when they can."

Railroad officials started the "Bike Aboard" program last summer, which allows cyclists to bike the Towpath Trail in one direction and ride the train in the other for $2. The fare is a drastic reduction from the usual $15 boarding fee ($10 for kids) for traveling anywhere along the length the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

It has tripled bike-and-train use this summer.

The National Park Service began funding alternative transportation programs in 1998, but is increasing its emphasis as public awareness increases about the connection between the burning of fossil fuels and global warming.

The Park Service is now expected to spend $78 million a year through 2020 to develop ways to reduce automobile traffic in the nation's parks.

In other parks around the country, that emphasis has meant adding natural-gas fired buses or other mass-transit vehicles to bring visitors in and out of areas like Zion National Park in Utah or Acadia National Park in Maine.

But Cuyahoga Valley National Park -- which covers 33,000 acres from Akron to Cleveland -- is trying to better take advantage of the railroad and Towpath that literally run right down its middle.

Overall, ridership on the Scenic Railroad is up 20 percent this year from 2007, when more than 150,000 people rode the train either on daily excursions or on special events, said Railroad President Steven Wait.
Wait said the railroad also added a more flexible schedule this summer at the advice of an expert the park hired last summer as part of a grant program with The Ford Foundation. Researchers work on improving and promoting alternative ways of getting around the national park.

"If you think about it, the national parks are a perfect place to start changing the public mind-set about driving and pollution because they're iconic," said Robin Clancy of Brecksville, a University of Akron graduate student, who is one of two hires this summer.

"Not only that, but the parks directly feel the effects of auto pollution as well."

But what seems like a logical course is actually a significant turnaround.

National Parks officials say that since the 1920's, they've built their transportation systems "primarily for the private auto."

Today, nearly 300 million people visit America's national parks each year. More than 4.4 million people visited Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona alone in 2007.

That iconic site also had what most regard as the worst example of a car-crazy public descending on nature: On Memorial Day 2002, a line of cars more than a mile and half long waited to enter the park.

There are now more than 8,055 miles of roads and parkways in the National Park Service's 400 American parks, according to federal records.

But federal officials said there are also now 110 visitor transit systems in 98 parks that vary in size, ranging from single vehicle and bus fleets to water transit -- 12 of those exclude cars entirely.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park -- ranked in the top 10 nationwide with nearly 2.5 million visitors a year -- will never be completely car-free, of course, Doorley said.

"But look around, there are hundreds of people who see that there are other ways to get around this park, too," said train passenger Craig Alderman, who came to the park with his wife and two children. "Biking and taking mass transit are probably just healthier and that's good for the nation as a whole".

[Chadoh25]

I just thought this was a cool article. There are photos but since I don't have permission to use them, I'll add the link.

http://www.cleveland.com/living/photos/gallery.ssf?cgi-bin/view_gallery.cgi/cleve/view_gallery.ata?g_id=9697

Moreland Courts' posh living spaces are timeless

by Evelyn Theiss

Sunday August 10, 2008, 12:00 AM

ELEGANT CLEVELAND / This ongoing series looks back at the finest elements of Cleveland's stylish history, as shown in architecture, fashion and other cultural touchstones.

If you lived at Moreland Courts in the 1930s, '40s or '50s, you didn't have to mix it up with the hoi polloi at a gas station: A valet would fill your tank from the Sohio pump in the basement garage. You'd never run into your live-in servants on the passenger elevators, because they'd take the service elevators. You wouldn't even have to go outdoors to dine at the Shaker Tavern at the Square -- a long hallway and a special key would get you in.

That's the signature experience Moreland Courts, which arose in the late 1920s, offered. By design, the luxurious apartment complex emanated a mystique. If you were welcome to live at Moreland Courts in the 1930s, you'd know about it. Otherwise, there wasn't so much as an exterior sign naming the edifice you were gazing upon.

The block-size complex at Shaker Boulevard and Coventry Road evokes big-city living at its finest, as you would experience on Manhattan's Upper East Side. It was -- and continues to be -- home to people with the means to afford enormous houses but who instead choose to live in a spacious abode that is part of a community of 15 buildings.

The very creation of Moreland Courts, at the edge of Shaker Heights, occurred because that city's exclusive zoning code did not allow for apartments at the time. So, the complex was built just over the border in Cleveland, as an integral part of the development of Shaker Square's retail complex.

All the individual units here were at least 1,500 square feet and ranged up to 4,000. Most were single-story, but there were two-story apartments with leaded-glass windows to match. One thing you wouldn't find back then: a small studio or one-bedroom apartment, because when the complex was constructed, it was feared smaller units would draw bachelors, wayward husbands or, heaven forbid, their mistresses.

Privacy reigned. Inside most buildings, there weren't common gathering areas; even the elevators were shared by only two or four units on a floor. You'd be more likely to see your neighbors at the private clubs to which you belonged or in Palm Beach, Fla., in the winter.

Moreland Courts' unofficial slogan in the days when Cleveland bustled as America's fifth-largest city was "Where the wealth of the world resides."

For many families, though, this architectural wonder has meant the warmth of home for many decades. William Bruner, for example, is the third generation of his family to live here. His father, Clark, and mother, Polly, moved in in 1937; his grandfather lived with the family until his death at 94.

When Bruner was a teen, his friends loved to visit his family's apartment before they all headed to Shaker Square to Marshall's Drug Store for a malt or John Wade's record shop to listen to 45s.

John Greene, then president of Ohio Bell, lived just below the Bruners, and Polly Bruner liked to warn her son that if he and his friends were too noisy, "Mr. Greene will have our phones disconnected."

Still elegant but not exclusive

Then and now, Moreland Courts is an anomaly in Northeast Ohio. The level of urban elegance it offers is said to be unparalleled between New York and Chicago -- both when the complex opened and today.

In Northeast Ohio, where people live in apartments and condos on their way to buying a house, the Courts always have been anachronistic: People aspire to them, and when they get in, they tend to stay. On many occasions, residents' children have taken the space upon their parents' deaths.

In recent years, Moreland Courts has become a far more diverse and democratic place. Where once it housed only captains of industry and families found in the social register, it now attracts people with the finest cultural pedigrees as well: Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Most, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland director Jill Snyder, former Western Reserve Historical Society director Ted Sande.

But also making their homes at Moreland Courts are Cleveland's building and housing director, Ed Rybka; Cleveland State University urban-policy professor Norm Krumholz; and environmental activist David Beach.

Where once there was homogeneity, there is ethnic, racial and religious diversity -- adding a draw is the fact that the complex is in Cleveland, making it attractive to people who must live in the city for professional reasons, but it's part of the Shaker Heights school district.

And, in a nice bit of circularity in these environmentally minded times, Moreland Courts residents like to talk about how they can be without a car for days or weeks at a time. Besides the restaurants and shops at Shaker Square and in the nearby Larchmere District, residents easily can take the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's rapid downtown, to University Circle and even the airport.

How a classic takes shape

This one-time bastion of bluebloods got its financial footing from Josiah Kirby, a colorful fellow who was flagrantly successful at making money, at least for a time.

At the start of the 1920s, Kirby had the $30 million that was the estimated cost for what was to be a massive project of apartments and retail in and around Shaker Square, then referred to as Moreland Circle.

And then his money was gone, and he went to prison for mail fraud and jury fixing. As Sande puts it, "He was a shady character who hired a brilliant

The architect was Alfred W. Harris, and he had conceived of a complex that would in effect be a narrative of English architecture. Harris had served as an aviator during World War I and found himself enchanted by the medieval towns he saw in England. It shaped his architectural creations when he returned home.

He designed several houses in Shaker Heights, a community with street names that paid tribute to English life, and Moreland Courts was to be a masterwork that would reflect all the best elements of distinct eras of English architecture: Elizabethan, neo-Gothic, Tudor, Jacobean and Georgian.

But then Kirby's empire collapsed, and the Van Sweringen brothers picked up the project. Soon they had their own architecture firm: Small and Rowley, which designed the Van Sweringens' Daisy Hill estate in Hunting Valley.

The visionary Van Sweringens were business-minded. Beauty was well and good, but only to a point. So their architects adopted a more streamlined approach to Moreland Courts.

Exterior embellishments were kept to a minimum. So were those inside. The walls were still several feet thick, to be sure, but the suites did not have the millwork or plasterwork detailing seen in the Harris-designed suites at the Point Building, the first and still most lavishly appointed portion of the Courts.

Filling the apartments was not a problem, not even during the Depression or World War II.

Back then, most of the residents still had live-in servants, who had their bedrooms on the far side of the kitchen. Each apartment had two phones: one for the family, one for the servants.

In the 1940s, there were uniformed doormen and a 24-hour switchboard. A number of fine shops lined the long hallways known as the Gallery -- a women's boutique, a men's shop, a tobacco shop and the linen shop called Isabel Barry's.

These were days of extreme privilege and wealth. One woman who lived at Moreland Courts in the '40s, Katherine Holden-Thayer (the Holden family owned The Plain Dealer), had six cars at the Courts and seven more at her estate in Gates Mills. In an interview conducted for the Cleveland Restoration Society in 2007, Lou Hubach, who worked as doorman and switchboard operator in the 1940s, said with a chuckle, "She liked cars."

Then there was Mildred, a switchboard operator who, as everyone who remembers her agrees, couldn't help but listen and learn secrets.

Graham Grund, a well-known arts patron, lived in Moreland Courts as a young woman in the 1940s. Like many families of the time, her parents also had a home in the "country," in Gates Mills, where they spent the summer.

She moved back to the Courts seven years ago after the death of her husband, having lived in Gates Mills for many years.

"I don't think there's anyone alive here but me who would remember the shops we had here," she says. "I wasn't old enough to buy the things they offered, but Mother did."

Her parents moved into Moreland Courts in 1940 or 1941, she says. "Life was lovely. It was home. But everything changes -- and everything really changed after the Korean War."

Except, she allows, "this is still one of the most beautiful sets of buildings anywhere. Nothing has ever matched it."

Residents old and new soak up the atmosphere

James Irving, an interior designer who has lived in the Courts since the late 1960s, couldn't agree more. He lives in the Point Building, though he didn't always. He moved from one of the Tudor buildings after several years when one of the sought-after suites opened up.

His suite combines his professional artistry, personal taste and the best of Moreland Courts' interior construction -- so much so that it became a must-see for actresses and writers who came to the Shaker Square Bookshop.

Joan Fontaine stopped by when she was in town to talk about her autobiography, "No Bed of Roses." So did the fashion writer Eugenia Sheppard and Stephen Birmingham, author of an acclaimed book on Manhattan's Dakota Building.

Moreland Courts, Birmingham told Irving, compared most favorably to that storied building.

Rayleen Nanni is one of Moreland Courts' newest residents. She owns the Metropolitan Galleries at Shaker Square, a furniture and art gallery. She lived in Manhattan's Gramercy Park neighborhood for 15 years before moving to Northeast Ohio several years ago.

She lived for a time in Ohio City. "But I always dreamed of coming to the square and living here," she says.

It has the urban feel of Manhattan to her, if on a smaller scale. On Sundays, she and her husband buy the paper, walk to Shaker Square for coffee, perhaps have brunch at one of the restaurants.

"You can walk, and you see people," she says. "I like looking outside my apartment and seeing the rapid trains. It's just a very urban feel."

Irving, too, can't imagine being at home anywhere else. Anyone who loves history and hearing people's stories -- especially the anecdotes of well-traveled residents -- couldn't live in a richer place, and Irving was a friend to many of the grande dames who lived at the Courts.

People remember their names: Mrs. Ziesing. Mrs. Eells. Oh yes, Mrs. Eells, whose luggage would be stacked shoulder-high at the entrance of the Point Building as her driver and car approached. Her staff would line up and stand at attention as she left the building to winter in Palm Beach.

That time -- that extravagant lifestyle -- largely has vanished, at Moreland Courts and elsewhere. As Irving points out, "Who can afford live-in help, even if you could find help that would be willing to live in?"

Life with servants has passed into history. But the stories of Moreland Courts? For now, there are still a few people who can tell them.

Or keep the secrets.

[nickw311]

CLEVELAND — Emmett Fryer maneuvers the futuristic rapid transit vehicle around a corner of Cleveland’s Public Square.

The sleek 63-foot machine appears part bus and part train. It elegantly bends in the middle, its backside returning in line as it completes the turn with a pack of sidewalk onlookers watching. It moves swiftly toward Euclid Avenue, the city’s main downtown thoroughfare.

The $860,000 hybrid vehicle, and 20 others like it, serve as the centerpiece of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s new bus rapid transit project, a nearly $170 million undertaking expected to generate a hefty $4.3 billion worth of downtown economic development and demonstrate the city’s commitment to public transportation.

More At:

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080812/NEWS16/78160778

[Brisbaner21]

Euclid is looking great!

[Mudhen419]

anyone know where i can get some photos of cleveland prior to the "Q" and jacobs field? Id like to see that area before they did all the work.... I was youtubing videos yesterday and found one where buildings were being tore down for the key bank (society) building..... And also does anyone know when Terminal Tower started renovating the top of the building?? Seems like they have been working on it for a few years now.... Im hoping they will re open the observation deck sometime soon... If anyone has anything id definatly apprieciate it

[bjkeys321]

This is hilarious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY&feature=related

[Mudhen419]

Im not even from Cleveland and it pisses me off.....

[GarfieldPark]

Not nice for someone from milwaukee to post that on the Cleveland web site.

[Mudhen419]

I hope the kid that made this video gets brutally beatin by one of those poor people ridin the bus...... The only people who use the word douche bag are douche bags themselves.

[Brisbaner21]

Thats ok, I would live in Cleveland over Milwaukee anyday. Cleveland is much more widely known here in Australia and New Zealand than Milwaukee is. ;)

[Zolohoj]

Me too! I lived near Cleveland, in Aurora, for only three months but I like it there. I was in Cleveland every week. I would go there again. Greetings form Slovakia guys. :)

[perilouspete]

Thats ok, I would live in Cleveland over Milwaukee anyday. Cleveland is much more widely known here in Australia and New Zealand than Milwaukee is. ;)

That must be because Cleveland has 7 whole pages of development news on this site dating back to '06. There really is a lot of exciting stuff happening in Clevelandtown! Also probably because it is such an exciting city, as evidenced by TripAdvisor. http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/10446

[Uncle Buck]

That must be because Cleveland has 7 whole pages of development news on this site dating back to '06. There really is a lot of exciting stuff happening in Clevelandtown! Also probably because it is such an exciting city, as evidenced by TripAdvisor. http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/10446

There actually is a lot of exciting things happening in Cleveland, however, ew are underrepresented on this forum. Take for instance the development of the medical mart by the merchendise mart company, and the convention center, the Avenue district and the lsit goes on. Hopefully I will get time to post some of this exciting stuff.

[perilouspete]

There actually is a lot of exciting things happening in Cleveland, however, ew are underrepresented on this forum. Take for instance the development of the medical mart by the merchendise mart company, and the convention center, the Avenue district and the lsit goes on. Hopefully I will get time to post some of this exciting stuff.

I would love to see that stuff, I was just being a dick. I'm sure there's plenty more going on in Cleveland than what's on here, and yeah whenever you get the time definitely post that stuff up. Avenue district sounds cool.

[Ethan0918]

Hey, I'm new here. I'm planning on living in Cleveland in the future and I'd love to here about the progress of some of these plans so far.

How is the Flats East project going? and how about the Avenue District and 515 Euclid?

It would be nice to see some pics of construction if possible. thanks!