jborger

Where on the lakefront could an aquarium break ground this year like the one in the Flats is going to?

Yes, it's Dylan's Barber Salon - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dylans-Barber-Salon/119572284771697

Looks kinda cool for a parking garage. Much better than the garages Cleveland Clinic built on Carnegie.

One guy putting a shovel in the ground could technically be "breaking ground". Major construction won't start until later this month.

Agreed. $33 million investment (with potential for another $40 million) in an area of "downtown" Cleveland (depending how you define downtown, but even if you consider the river the western boundary, it's close) that's not as strong as it could be. More people working in that area, visiting that area. Hopefully the aquarium and the Flats East Bank project will generate more interest from other developers in the Flats as a whole and the opportunities that are there. And it's another thing for visitors to do. It might not be as great of an aquarium as other cities, but I don't know if people go to those cities JUST to visit the aquarium. It will add another thing to advertise you can see in Cleveland and that's a good thing. My only concern is how it's going to affect the Powerhouse building itself. I love that old building. But crowds there are a fraction of what they were in the mid 1990s. Let's hope Phase 2 and other developments (Stonebridge) do something about those huge surface parking lots over the next few years.

Hey, Burnham_2011. Welcome to the board and to the city! I purchased a condo in the warehouse district in 2006 when Stark was still planning his massive development there. Unfortunately, there haven't been any major development projects in the warehouse district since the Bingham was completed 5-10 years ago. I rent out that condo now and have had three renters in three years. Speaking to them and other friends of mine looking at moving downtown, there does seem to be a strong demand for downtown Cleveland rental properties, especially single bedroom units. Those vacancy rates you mentioned for Bridgeview and Bingham align with what I've heard as well. The company that owns many of the surface lots in the Warehouse District (like where Stark was going to build) have stated they want to do a project when the time (and probably financing) is right. Stark had a deal with them to build but once it lapsed, they didn't resign. I'd like to think some new construction will happen on those surface lots within 10 years. But probably not before your Feb 1 move in date. :) And to answer your question about FEB... The first phrase does not include residential units, just hotel, office and restaurant. The next phase will have residential but there's no set dates. In fact, it may be a race between new residential in the FEB and mixed use on the warehouse district parking lots. I would think that if anything, phrase 1 of FEB will help the warehouse district because it basically straddles the border between the Flats and the warehouse district. People in the hotel at the north end of West 9th Street will want to go out for food and fun, office workers will be looking for lunch places, etc. All good things.

It's nice to see their PR guy David Johnson staying on top of everything the press is saying. From the comments section of the Business Week article: "Cleveland MMCC enjoys widespread support within the local community and the business model and concept has resonated strongly within the healthcare community based on the 47 letters of intent for showroom occupancy in the Medical Mart, and 21 LOIs from tradeshow and conference organizers. More importantly, Cleveland Medical Mart and Convention Center has become a unifying, visible and successful symbol of progress for a community and region that is poised for significant economic development and new construction during the next decade. Demolition and construction are scheduled to begin January 3, 2011 and the groundbreaking ceremony will be held January 14, 2011. The facility will open in September, 2013."

And that's greenspace that was private before and now will be public. So it's not 154 acres of new public parkland, but it is 69 acres and that's better than zero.

If you haven't already, take this short survey and let Ohio City Near West Development Corp know what you like and don't like about the OC/Market District and what directions they should focus on in the future: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ohiocitysurvey

All good stuff. While walking down Superior past East 3rd the other day, I thought about the idea of closing East 3rd to auto/bus traffic and really liked how that would pull The Mall into Superior. It's a good spot to do it, too, because the Hyatt is right there. And the library.

I really like the shot of the Uptown project looking down Euclid where you can see the construction on both sides of the street. I wish it was going to be taller than 4 stories, but I'll take what I can get.

I believe that building has been vacant for a while...

From the article: The strip of Franklin includes many gorgeously restored homes, in addition to the star-crossed Franklin Castle and several large old houses, like Lalich's, that have served for years as boarding houses. If one of them is allowed to circumvent the law, what will stop others from following? goes the logic of Cimperman and area residents, fearful that their recession-strafed houses will sink further in value. Uh... This isn't Bay Village. There's already enough sketchy properties in the area -- boarding houses, drug rehab centers, etc. The residents are worried that a halfway house will convert into... another halfway house?

How would Forest City benefit from their land which is currently a peninsula becoming an island?

BTW, why build a saltwater aquarium along a freshwater river/lake? I would think "Here's the type of fish you can (or used to be able to) see in Lake Erie/the Cuyahoga River would be a cool feature. Are freshwater aquariums not as "cool" because the sealife isn't as exotic?

I've lived downtown for 4 years and currently live on the East Bank of the Flats, overlooking the river. My windows face the Powerhouse and I agree it's a bad location for the Children's Museum to relocate to. TMH, I'm all for prepping up the city, but you'll going a little far in calling it a (currently) "thriving entertainment area". Yes, there are things like - the Improv Comedy Club, Shooters, Christie's, Larry Flynt's Hustler Club, Harbor Inn, Powerhouse Pub (male strippers on Thursday nights!) Flat Iron Cafe, etc. But none of these things scream "Bring your children here!" You seriously can't see why University Circle is a better place for a Children's Museum than the Flats? UC is a hub of museums. The Flats is a hub of adult entertainment. I'm not even saying "moving a museum downtown is a bad move". Get rid of the Coast Guard and put the Children's Museum next to the Rock Hall. But acting like different parts of downtown aren't better for certain projects than others is just ignorant.

I agree that it looks pretty cool. It's urban and modern yet doesn't seem like it will clash with Tower City across the street. I go running up Huron early in the morning and it can be so dark and dead feeling. I feel bad for the people getting on/off the MegaBus and having that impression of the city.

Plus, if you're a medical supply company and you say, "Gee, I'd really like to be a part of that medical mart project in Cleveland but I got shut out," well there's some parking lots just west down St. Clair I could sell you... Well, not me personally, but the land owners... My point is that the MedMart could be the center for "Class A" medical suppliers. However, if it's successful, I think there could be opportunities for Class B and Class C suppliers to find other places within the city. Sure, you might not have permanent showroom space IN the medical mart, but you could probably participate at shows in the convention center and have your permanent showroom somewhere else in the city. (District of Design?) Yes, the main selling point of the MedMart is everything under one roof, but if it works and buyers from around the world are coming to Cleveland to see this stuff, how hard is it to jump on the HealthLine to check out another company? Heck, it might even be BETTER for the city than if the med mart was 2-3 times as large. As long as it's big enough to make Cleveland a destination to begin with.

It may also make paid surface lots seem less appealing so perhaps the owners would be more open to developing them into buildings.

BTW, cleveland.com has an article on this that's free and you don't have to do crazy Google tricks to find: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/11/dan_gilberts_casino_company_pr.html "Some of the vessels that use the channel come within 30 feet of the bulkhead right now," said Alan Sisselman, who oversees Ohio permit applications for the Army Corps. "You can do the math. You take away 28 feet and you're down to two feet." So you're saying it'll fit!

That's what I was saying the route of the new river could be.

These are not going to be surface lots. It's going to be a multilevel parking garage underneath the casino. And as much as some people hate parking, if you're going to have a facility that draws millions of visitors a year, they need a place to park. I don't think downtown Cleveland has too much parking. I think it has too many parking SURFACE LOTS, but not too many parking spaces. It's a city - build up, not out. Hey, as long as we're altering the river, let's just dig through the Scranton Peninsula and fill the the area where the casino is going to go. We'll be expanded the boundaries of downtown! :) (yes, I'm joking)

That sounds awefully expensive. Property acquisition, bulkhead removal, exgavation, bulkhead installation (both sides of river). I would imagine they'll petition the Feds for some reduction in river width at that location and then work with whatever they're given. It's not like reducing the river width to begin with is going to be cheap. Yeah, I understand cutting into Scranton Peninsula would add even more cost, but this doesn't sound cheap from any angle...

It's like a big contributor to this forum recently got a job at OCNW. ;)

And then came cars and buses... I'd love to see a unified square, but as long as it's a major RTA hub, it's not worth it. A square roundabout would be great if traffic was continually flowing around it. But we have buses, including the HealthLine, constantly stopping around the Square, making a barrier around it. Unless RTA is moving, the amount of money that should be put into Public Square should be minimal. Focus on other areas that really have potential.