jborger

Meeting with Dennis at Tyler Village tomorrow morning to scout it out as a potential new headquarters for the marketing/advertising company I work for. weepinwillow, is that you? :)

Middle of East 4th Street on the east side of the street between Pickwick and Erie Island Coffee. Last remaining vacant space. This will also be nice because they probably won't have an outdoor seating area so it won't contribute to that "cattle chute" feeling I sometimes feel all those railings on East 4th create.

I saw the owner of this new club moving things into the four story building next door last weekend. But, I thought the club was going to be in the two story space? Or he got both? Not sure what is happening to which building here...

During the artwalk this past Friday, I noticed that Istanbul Grill is now open on Professor near Starkweather. Looked like a cool place, but I didn't stop in. Also, Plain Dealer fashion editor Kim Crow is supposedly opening a boutique shop on the other end of Professor near West 10th in a space that's currently unoccupied.

I may have to make a slight correction here... While it's true that the owner of Room Service and the owner of Wrath Arcane are joining forces to open a retail shop on East 4th, it might not be called "Room Service". Evidently, the owner of Room Service will be selling Room Service on Detroit. If someone new buys it, they may or may not keep the Room Service name. The person behind Room Service is also the person behind Made in the 216, so expect that type of thing: clothing, gifts, crafts, etc... In any case, a good thing for East 4th and maybe not a horrible thing for Gordon Square, depending on what happens in that space.

It's Room Service. I have sources close to the situation that tell me Room Service (www.roomservicecleveland.com) is moving from Gordon Square to this new space on East 4th Street. Note that they're MOVING, not adding a second location. Also joining Room Service at this location will be Wrath Arcane (www.wratharcane.com) -- a men's clothing designer. I think it's going to be one entrance and then once you're inside, half will be Room Service and half will be Wrath Arcane. But this is just speculation on my part. Interesting note that the August 7 Room Service blog article (http://blog.roomservicecleveland.com/?p=2973) mentions Wrath Arcane and the fact that they'll be joining together to form a new blog called Dredgers Union. So how will this do on East 4th? Room Service is pretty upscale. It's not cheap. So maybe moving downtown, they're trying to reach people living and working downtown. And obviously they're hoping to take advantage of the popular restaurants/bars on the street. But unlike Gordon Square, it's tough for people to find free parking for East 4th Street. People probably won't be making trips JUST to go to Room Service... So 8ShadesofGray wins a cupie doll for being the first person on this forum to guess Room Service. :) I think it's a loss for Gordon Square/Detroit Shoreway but a gain for downtown.

So Rock Gaming will have majority ownership and Harrah's is a minority owner. Harrah's also owns Thistledown in North Randall, which I hope doesn't get slots as I think that will pull some people away from downtown. Some good quotes from http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/08/gilbert_reaches_preliminary_de.html: --- "After a thorough evaluation, our team is certain that Harrah's top-notch and innovative management team is completely aligned with our unwavering commitment to create and deliver projects that embrace and interact with the downtowns they serve," Gilbert said in a statement. "Our partnership will positively impact surrounding businesses while stimulating new growth in the urban cores of Cleveland and Cincinnati." Gary Loveman, Chairman, CEO and President of Harrah's Entertainment added, "Harrah's shares a common vision with Rock Gaming to develop and manage first-class urban-based casinos that will be a catalyst for economic expansion and job creation in both markets." --- At least they're SAYING the right things. And the Cincinnati designs seems to reflect that. Can't wait for Cleveland designs to start popping up. If they do a Phase 1 in the Higbee's building, the article says that would open in 2011. Final casino won't open until mid-2013.

Yes. Perhaps, if the women going like that sort of thing. No. Yes.

Uh... It's been Motion, a female strip club, since around 2007 or so. It was another female strip club by a different name before that.

It's about 2,000 sq. ft. on each floor. Two floors, so a total of about 4,000 sq ft.

Awesome! Besides being an iconic new building for University Circle, I must say on a side note that I'm impressed with the main image that shows a computer generated version of the building integrated with a photo of the area. That, and the computer generated video, are both pretty neato!

I work on the urban garden at West 10th St and the Superior Hill by the Veteran's Memorial Bridge. We've had little to no problems with plants being vandalized, despite the fact that many "interesting" people walk by there every day.

They're finally building out the last remaining vacant space in the middle of East 4th Street (east side of the street) for a new "retail tenant". They wouldn't tell me who, but said an announcement should be coming in a month. The space has a really cool, big staircase in the middle of it towards the back that goes down to the basement. I hope they can keep that intact.

So a $4.75 million parking garage. What was the last new parking garage built downtown? Would 668 count? That wasn't really "new"...

Most of the cities we envy from a "walkability" perspective that have parking at a premium came about that way organically -- land was so valuable that building on it brought a better ROI that putting a parking lot on it. I'm all for more buildings and surface parking. But having some sort of mandate that limits parking garages might be a bit extreme. They're taking a surface lot and building a parking garage (which, if the "$20,000 per space" number I hear all the time is true, would make it a $3.8 million parking garage). That's increasing density. That's good for downtown.

In the rendering it looks like thats what they did... Agreed. From the article, "Calabrese and his partners at CRM Real Estate Services will build a four-story, 190-car garage for Calfee on a surface lot just east of the building. The offices and the garage allow expansion room for the law firm..." Sounds like that "expansion room" means over the garage? That picture definitely shows an addition on back with offices above. I used to work in that building when it was Channel 3...

So.... Why are banks stricter with condo loans than home loans? Were condo prices hit harder in the recent economic downturn so there's more risk?

But there's different divisions in the way our tax dollars are spent. Like it or not, parks and rec gets a cut, the schools get a cut, the police get a cut, etc... So seeing some massive shift from parks and rec to the schools just isn't going to happen. There's a set budget for parks and they're going to spend what they're given.

I don't think it's necessarily a "blow". They're not tearing the building down, it's just changing owners. Spaces doesn't plan on vacating their space right away. And when they do, they'll go somewhere else. As the article said, the area has changed due to new construction (Stonebridge). And I think that new construction is for the better.

I think it's more like 35 percent.

That's why we need community safety patrols and better lighting. BTW, the guy who was shot was in the Plain Dealer today. He's 58-years-old. Two guys have to shoot the guy twice in the back as he's running away? What cowards... The article said he has nothing bad or negative to say about Tremont. Sounds like he's staying in the area. My friends' house in Ohio City got burglarized and my Twinsburg friend said, "So, you're going to move now, right?" Uh, no.

They tried with the Ameritrust building at East 9th and Euclid but financing didn't work out... But I hear that project may come back.

Where is this proposed to go? Any links/renderings with more info?

I was gonna stick my nose in here and snap some shots (since SOMEONE hasn't... cough, cough indeed. :) ) but people were working out and I didn't they'd appreciate some creep taking shots of them. Great looking space, though!

The Positively Cleveland website says, "We aggressively market and advertise to surrounding markets such as Detroit, Columbus and Pittsburgh and fly in markets such as Baltimore and Nashville, helping to drive nearly 14 million visitors to Cuyahoga County each year."