3231

I heard that the Mueller Lofts are dead. The developer folded and has closed up shop. (Tesco)

I keep hearing that a lot vacant storefronts between the Squares will lease up after the ECTP is complete. By that, I mean that there are signed contingent leases.

^but then it goes on to say that the Southworth could become residential or office in a future phase. So is the parking going to go on the interior?

Urban Meyer sure made some bone-head calls during the Arkansas game.

Supplying demand Leaders behind resurgence of near West Side’s Gordon Square confident in its viability as an arts, nightlife destination Jeffrey Ramsey (left), executive director of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, and Matthew Zone, Ward 17 councilman, are among those promoting the development of the Gordon Square Arts District. The effort includes the planned reopening of the Capitol Theatre (background). Photo credit: MARC GOLUB Related Links Near West Theatre Cleveland Public Theater Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization By JAY MILLER 6:00 am, December 4, 2006 The Gordon Square Arts District isn’t ready to rival Broadway in New York or Cleveland’s Playhouse Square as a center of the arts, but neighborhood planners believe they are in striking distance of making the intersection of West 65th Street and Detroit Avenue the focal point for the arts and nightlife on the city’s West Side. In the next 18 months, neighborhood planners and fundraisers anticipate the opening of at least four new eateries, a second art gallery, a new home for the Near West Theatre and a renovated Cleveland Public Theatre. All of it would be capped off by the reopening of the historic Capitol Theatre as a sort-of West Side version of the Cedar-Lee Theater, which shows independent and alt-Hollywood films. “There’s a lot of unmet demand on the West Side,” said Jeff Ramsey, executive director of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, a nonprofit that is spearheading the arts district effort. Detroit Shoreway owns the Gordon Square Arcade, which houses the Capitol Theatre. Restoration work is under way at the movie house as fundraising continues for the $12 million in renovations planned for the three theaters. Mr. Ramsey said 40% of that goal is in hand. The hope is that the arts district will be the anchor for the rebuilding going on in the broader Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, which emanates from the arts district. This larger effort is inspiring new housing and the restoration of retail storefronts, though Mr. Ramsey said the nonprofit also hopes renovated housing will remain affordable to avoid displacing longtime residents, as often happens when neighborhoods rebuild. The city of Cleveland is committed to streetscape improvements for the length of Detroit Avenue through the district. Neighborhood planners also anticipate increased investment in the area that will come when the planned, $50-million rebuilding of the West Shoreway begins, an effort that will remove some of the barriers between the neighborhood and the lakefront. That work is slated to begin in 2010. “When people see the Gordon Square Arts District, they’ll know where they are, like Greenwich Village in New York City or the Short North in Columbus,” said Ward 17 Councilman Matthew Zone. He made the comment at a ribbon-cutting ceremony last month for Gordon Square Homes, a $12 million redevelopment of four aging apartment buildings into 85 units of low-income housing. Gordon Square Homes includes one building of eight lofts that will be marketed to artists and will rent for $400 a month. Gordon Square Homes is the latest chunk of more than 1,200 new or renovated housing units that dramatically have changed the profile of the neighborhood’s housing stock. The project was developed by the Detroit Shoreway organization, which has been helping revitalize the neighborhood for 20 years. Night and day At the same time as it is managing the renovation of the theaters, the Detroit Shoreway group is turning to rebuilding the commercial properties to create a daytime retail center and an evening entertainment district. Unlike most other inner-city retail districts, the stretch of Detroit between West 54th and West 75th has remained mostly intact from the time it took shape between 1890 and 1920. Most of its storefronts and apartment buildings retain their historic look, and the neighborhood has few missing teeth. Workers from Marous Bros. Construction are peeling away years of neglect from the 85-year-old Capitol Theatre. Built in 1921 as a single-screen, 1,200-seat movie house, the Capitol is being carved into a three-screen theater, with the balcony being split into two, 100-seat screening rooms and the main floor being divided into a 500-seat auditorium and a coffeehouse-type concession stand. Mr. Ramsey said his group is shooting for the Capitol to open in June 2008. The next step will be building a new home for Near West Theatre attached to one of the buildings in the Gordon Square Homes project. The theater currently is on Bridge Avenue in Ohio City, but it already has moved its business office to Detroit Avenue as it works with Mr. Ramsey’s group on the arts district financing. “(Detroit Shoreway) has been a business magnet for us,” said Stephanie Morrison-Hrbek, the theater company’s executive director. In addition, plans are to refurbish Cleveland Public Theatre, which has been in the neighborhood for 20 years and whose founder, James Levin, helped breathe life into the dream of a neighborhood arts district. It all will be tied together with the city-financed streetscape revitalization that Mr. Zone said is scheduled for next summer. Hungry for more That kind of public and nonprofit effort is capturing the attention of the private sector. Niki Gillotta, who has built a wholesale baking business on Fulton Road on the West Side, is relocating that business, Ohio City Muffins, and is planning to open a retail bakery/cafe, Gypsy Beans & Baking Co., at the southeast corner of West 65th and Detroit in mid-December. In addition, Marlin Kaplan, owner of One Walnut restaurant in downtown Cleveland, is planning a new, as yet unnamed, casual restaurant on the same block, between Gypsy Beans and Cleveland Public Theater. That project, Mr. Kaplan said, couldn’t move ahead until a local option issue that would allow liquor sales was approved by voters in November. On a walking tour of the neighborhood, Mr. Ramsey could point to several other spots where, he said, announcements of new restaurants, an art gallery and a graphic design business were imminent. As for Ms. Gillota, she already is sold on the neighborhood. “When I started looking for locations, I loved that space and I love Cleveland Public Theatre and all the things that are happening with the Capitol Theatre and Near West (Theatre) and a couple of art galleries that are coming,” she said. “I can’t be on the street and leave the door unlocked without about eight people walking in and asking, ‘When are you going to open?’” Urban renewal Along the same strip as Gypsy Beans, architect Robert Maschke has opened 1point618 art gallery on the first floor of a building he bought 18 months ago for his business. As an architect, Mr. Maschke found himself helping clients with artwork and thought a gallery would help. He chose this stretch of Detroit Avenue because he likes the future he sees for the neighborhood. He is opening his sixth art show in December. “The first six or seven months our (architecture) clients were still buying the art, but we started getting two, three hundred to our receptions” and some of those attendees were buying art, Mr. Maschke said. “We’re not getting art buyers walking up and down the street,” he freely admitted. “But it will happen someday; I believe in the neighborhood in that regard.” Mr. Ramsey of the Detroit Shoreway group said he believes Gordon Square Arts District could be a national model for how the arts can be a catalyst for urban redevelopment. While following through on a plan as grand as the arts district would be a daunting task for most inner-city neighborhoods, the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood already has made remarkable progress. In 1990, Mr. Ramsey said, the average sale price of a home in Detroit Shoreway was $16,000. The organization became a landlord and has been continuously renovating apartments in the neighborhood for several years. Developers have joined in with new projects, notably the $110 million Battery Park, a 328-unit project of single-family homes. Townhouses and lofts are under way a few blocks north of Detroit. The median home price in Detroit Shoreway now tops $70,000. “For all intents and purposes, the (housing) market was dead,” Mr. Ramsey said. “Our job as a (development organization) was to stimulate the housing market.”

Condos in offing for Public Sq., Flats Park Bldg., former marina lined up for conversion By STAN BULLARD 6:00 am, December 4, 2006 The Park Building, a century-old office building with shuttered upper floors on Public Square in downtown Cleveland, and a one-time marina on Scranton Road in the Flats will be redone as condominiums under plans two different developers are pursuing. “We’re working on a real gem here,” said Matt Howells, a construction manager and managing partner of Howells & Howells LLC, in describing his plans to convert the nine-story Park Building into 26 for-sale condominiums and to add a 10th floor of penthouses to the structure at 140 Public Square. The building has beautifully preserved brass elevators, intricately crafted terrazzo floors and first-floor retail, all of which will be retained. Howells & Howells plans to have one-, two- and three-bedroom units costing upwards of $200,000. The plan calls for the adjoining Southworth Building to become two floors of attached indoor parking garage serving the Park Building. The Southworth’s upper floors will be developed later as more residences or offices, Mr. Howells said. Legislation is pending before Cleveland City Council to authorize the Jackson administration to enter into a project agreement for the Park Building and a separate agreement for Riverside Landing, a plan to redo the site of a marina at 2065 Scranton Road as housing. Among other things, the agreements would provide 15-year property tax abatements to condo buyers. Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose 13th ward includes downtown, said he supports both plans and expects City Council to adopt them. “Both are examples of Cleveland people slugging it out to get it done here and do projects in the middle of everything,” Mr. Cimperman said. Hip to the on the Square Mr. Howells said he is negotiating with lenders for his project, but added he wouldn’t seek financial commitments until after receiving approvals for his plans from the city. Mr. Howells said he hopes to begin the conversion in earnest early next year. However, using its own financial resources, Howells & Howells is starting work before landing the bank loan. Interior wall studs are visible on the Park Building’s second floor and painters who were stepping outside the building last Wednesday afternoon for smokes showed rehab work is under way. Mr. Howells said his company has pulled permits to create a model suite that he hopes to use soon to display the granite countertops and original maple floors the Public Square condos will offer. He will have Progressive Urban Real Estate market the suites. One suite already is taken inform-ally, Mr. Howells said, and another has two bidders vying for it through word-of-mouth marketing. While it is a stunning thought to consider housing on Public Square, it is a natural development in the Historic Gateway Neighborhood east of the square. The Grant Building, which sits on Euclid Avenue only a few hundred feet from the Park Building, was converted to rentals three years ago. It borders MRN Limited’s East Fourth Street neighborhood of rental apartments, restaurants and the House of Blues. Busy Public Square, the haven of hundreds of mass transit commuters during rush hours and typically the outpost of panhandlers, may not be everyone’s dream home site. But Mr. Howells isn’t concerned. While he worries that high-end buyers may have a hard time selling their homes before committing to move downtown, he does not doubt the value of the location. “The beauty of this thing is that it’s a rare opportunity for someone to own a piece of the center of Cleveland,” Mr. Howells said. “These are super-unique and have awesome detail.”

I cut out some of the Park building stuff from this article. Condos in offing for Public Sq., Flats Park Bldg., former marina lined up for conversion By STAN BULLARD 6:00 am, December 4, 2006 The Park Building, a century-old office building with shuttered upper floors on Public Square in downtown Cleveland, and a one-time marina on Scranton Road in the Flats will be redone as condominiums under plans two different developers are pursuing. “We’re working on a real gem here,” said Matt Howells, a construction manager and managing partner of Howells & Howells LLC, in describing his plans to convert the nine-story Park Building into 26 for-sale condominiums and to add a 10th floor of penthouses to the structure at 140 Public Square. The building has beautifully preserved brass elevators, intricately crafted terrazzo floors and first-floor retail, all of which will be retained. Howells & Howells plans to have one-, two- and three-bedroom units costing upwards of $200,000. More at crainscleveland.com http://www.crainscleveland.com

Michigan got screwed. Go Bucks!

^Lakewood has claimed that for a while. Considering that it has the densest population between NYC and Chicago and such a large amount of storefront fabric, I'd go with Lakewood. Have any evidence to prove otherwise? Internet search: Medford, Wisconsin has 5,000 people and 11 bars. Lakewood around 55,000 and around 150 bars.

^Lakewood has more bars per capita than any other city in the country. It helps that there are two avenues with 3 continuous miles of storefront with residential above. More neighborhood bars than you could imagine. I'd say that Cleveland has the gay bar scene (though its gay bar scene is close to lakewood's borders and in Ohio City).

I hear good things about Abita when I lived in Memphis.

does any else find it funny that the turbine is off today? I'm guessing it has to do with something along the lines of "too much wind"? ^kind of like how Mama Santa's closes during The Feast.

Busch Lite? Dasani has more flavor. Beer-wise, I never drink anything but Great Lakes. Honestly.

What highway? I-65 is just a block away. Does UL use that baseball stadium at all?

Cleveland Plain Dealer Wednesday, April 27, 2005 Thomas Suddes Plain Dealer Columnist From downtown Cleveland to deepest Appalachia, Ohio's public libraries are the envy of the United States. But on the apparent theory that there's no failure like success, the General Assembly, with Gov. Bob Taft's connivance, is poised to choke library funding. Ask anyone who moves out of Ohio, especially parents: One of the first things they miss, besides grandparents left behind, are the fantastic libraries - treasure-houses for children, people's universities for adults, workshops for the very brand of "by-the-bootstraps" self-improvement Ohio's Republicans say they want to promote. Thanks to a bipartisan General Assembly consensus reaching back to the 1930s, Ohio public libraries are so good that in the 1990s a big national newspaper reported that Pennsylvanians and West Virginians were flocking to such garden spots as Youngstown and Steubenville so their kids could find materials they needed to do homework. ... More at: http://www.cleveland.com I'm proud to say that Dennis was my uncle and a very close friend.

That is one day of the year. Smashed between a highway and an airport, that area is full of large things that get used only a couple of times per year. Is the baseball stadium still in service?

I wonder what they will call this team? With a team in Columbus, "Ohio" is out. I can't see them calling it the "Akron.." But, it would be more of an Akron team than a Cleveland team, so I can't see them putting 'cleveland' in the name. Nobody outside of this area knows what Western Reserve means. NEO United

Absolutely. Start putting together a few projects and the numbers climb pretty quickly: Park Lane Villa 96 units Franklin Lofts 18 etc

"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." I heard that these permit numbers do not include renovations. Cleveland would have a much higher number if loft conversions were included.

The MLS policy is to award expansion franchises to cities that will build 20-25k soccer-only stadiums.

^because the lifestyle center and big box portion is what will help them make a lot of cash. Also, how the hell would they ever assemble that much land in downtown cleveland or akron? I'm sure that they'd have to build parking garages, clean up contaminated land, etc.

Brilliant! :| Shit like this is exactly why I left Cleveland Hey, that's Summit County that wants this stadium. I would never want this city to subsidize a soccer team, but it would be great if Krenzler field could have been turned into something like this. Does it crack anyone up that this would have a retractable dome?

One thing that I really like about the Corner Alley is that you can watch people bowling as you walk down Euclid. How cool is that? That'll definitely add some energy to the street (only to have the Atrium building suck it all out).

Geez, how bad do you think we are? Crucify him, he supported downtown retail!!

While I think that KJP's suggestions would be a good thing for Cleveland, DCA has no duty to communicate what they do to the public. It is a group of private landowners that tax themselves to improve their area. I do agree that it would be in their best interests to be more open (but not always). Oh, and the website is an embarrassment. DCA is also taking the charge on trying to increase the greenery (more planters, trees,etc) on Euclid from Public Square to Playhouse Square. Its the eleventh hour, but they called a meeting yesterday to see what they can do to improve lower Euclid. The Cleveland Foundation is willing to help out a little. (and yes, there is more than one forumer on these committees) Actually, I don't know of anything newsworthy that has emerged from the sub-committees to this point.