Down_with_Ctown

Drove by this the other day and stopped to take a pic curbside, but couldn't find the right perspective, and I was in a hurry. Originaljbw's pic is perfect, though. Basically, it's just another shoebox on Cedar Road that "complements" the IBM and Cardiovascular Institute boxes just to the east. At least they're right up at street level, I guess. But I can kinda see why Fairfax neighborhood rep's have been giving the Clinic a hard time recently. And yes, this building is much smaller than I anticipated when the project was announced. For a "one of its kind" sort of thing, I thought it would be not only bigger but more distinct as well. Oh well...

No (new) news is good news. Great news, in fact, considering the mass uncertainty that's hit the commercial real estate market around the world in the last 6 months. "2020, man..." has become such a tagline that it's hard to remember that SW's HQ announcement actually came in February of this year. For the first time in half a century. Cleveland is well-positioned to come out of an economic (and in this case, social) crisis with its flag flying high. 1M s.f. HQ, and that number does NOT include parking. Wonderful news. No need to choose between height/density or skyline/street-level activity. We're getting both. Can't wait!

Great news for my Labor Day weekend. As much as I love the drawings and the action before the PC, the one piece of KJP's post that had me doing backflips was that One University Circle and Centric are 95 percent (!) occupied within two years of opening. Not gonna accuse you of burying the lede, KJP, because there's suddenly a lot to digest about this project but that's some of the best Cleveland news I've heard all year. As much as we worry about the details of financing (from minute yet crucial details like CPL's bond schedule to the economic impact of COVID on the private financing side of this project), all that stuff follows demand, and it appears that the demand is there and has still not been met. Great news for UC, but also for the entire east side of Cleveland. If OC, Tremont, and Gordon Square can see a boom in population without the presence of an economic behemoth like the Cleveland Clinic (and UH, and CWRU...) in their backyards, then I can't wait to see what University Circle looks like a decade from now. We're just starting to scratch the surface of UC as a residential neighborhood but everything else (employment, big institutions, world-class culture) is already in place. This neighborhood could literally be the rising tide that lifts the entire east side of the city, most especially Glenville, Hough, Fairfax, and Mid-Town.

None whatsoever, I'm afraid. Just going by what KJP wrote in his article.

I'm always rooting for something to get built, but a strict, 24-story-(ish) office tower with Benesch and Stark Enterprises as the primary tenants would be disappointing for this location, and not just because Stark has been overpromising hotels and major retail for over half a decade. This parcel is the gateway (pun kinda sorta intended) between East 4th and RMFH/Progressive Field. To see it taken up by "just another office tower" would be disheartening. That kind of project would fit just as easily in the 9th/12th financial district to the northeast. Hopefully, KJP's pitch for residential units amongst the initial office tower takes off because that would at least liven up the surrounding area a little. But it doesn't sound like that option has gone too far in Stark-world.

It's great to hear that the owners will be sinking some money into facade restoration of such a grand, old building like the Rockefeller. Frankly, it is never struck as a property that needed all that much TLC (compared to say, the May Company Building that KJP references in his article). It's already in pretty good shape considering its age. But if there's room for improvement, I can't wait to see the final product! Also, I'm happy to hear news of more planned micro-apartments potentially after learning that they're also likely to make up a big portion of City Club. That's when you know an urban residential market is hot--developers betting that people are willing to live in a shoebox in order to be close to the action of the urban core. "The city is your living room," and all that. Downtown CLE has a come a long way in a short period of time.

FWIW, the Richmond Heights Superintendent has fought this project tooth and nail since the beginning of the year despite the Mayor and City Council being gung ho for the project. I believe the School District formally opposed City Council's designation of the property as an "opportunity" district and they're still fighting the TIF. Complicating things further is that part of the mall property lies in the South Euclid-Lyndhurst School District. RH believes that the SEL portion (which is basically the entire mall south of the Sears building) will get more retail while the RH gets "stuck" with residential (which would theoretically increase school attendance without the benefit of enhanced retail taxes). Also of note is that RH passed a significant levy in 2017 to build a new high school, which had been scheduled to open in January (this was pre-COVID, however). The demolition of the Sears building for Phase One has been delayed several times. Until recently, DPM (the developer) was planning on starting demolition of Sears in September. However, the DPM has yet to buy the rest of the mall property from Kohan, the NY dead mall slumlord. The developer is now saying that all demolition work on the property will be delayed until a deal for the entire mall is reached. Right now, the developer only owns the northern portion of the mall site and they've said that they don't want to move in Class A residential tenants next to a construction site. In other words, the goal is now to raze the entire mall before beginning Phase One.

So many things to like about this project. Some of them, in no particular order: 1. Seeing a huge new residential construction project in the heart of downtown so soon after Beacon and Lumen leads one to believe that (a) those projects have leased well and (b) developers (and financers) believe there's still outstanding demand not met by those projects. 2. More out-of-state money rolling into Cleveland. Harbor Bay from Chicago planted its flag on West 25th and Detroit and now City Club (out of Michigan) commits as well. Hopefully, stuff like this is contagious and creates momentum. 3. Apparently, the project has obtained financing in a rugged financial market. Twelve years ago, this project would have been killed dead the second the Great Recession began. 4. Love the news that roughly half the units will be micro-apartments. This is apparently an underserved part of the downtown market, and if these take off, many more could follow. It also helps increase the head count of people living downtown for local restaurants and retailers. 5. Potential for expansion on Prospect south of the parking garage.

Just wait until Harbor Bay finishes Market Square at W. 25th & Lorain and (hopefully) the Irishtown Bend park gets built. Ohio City is already the hottest neighborhood in the city, and when that vitality starts leaking into the South Flats, the Cuyahoga will catch "fire" in much better sense. (P.S.: "Flats South" is fine as a moniker, but why not go with "South Bank" to mix in with the existing "East" and "West" Banks further upstream?)

If the county is indeed leaning mid-rise when it comes to the Court tower, then the Bedrock property near the River is probably the best site. It's has the most room for the expanded footprint that would be required and leaves the WHD open for future (and hopefully taller) development that will have greater impact upon the skyline long-term. I'm still not a huge fan of having a courthouse dominate a large portion of the riverfront, as I would prefer residential and some retail there above all other uses. A courthouse would likely take that area in an institutional and office building direction (particularly because the federal courthouse is not far away). But it's not like that residential and retail down there is anywhere close to fruition, so maybe the "whale" that is the courthouse project is the best way to kickstart development in an otherwise barren and disconnected area.

Aestehtically, you're 100 percent correct, but the underlying population, economic, and job density of a satellite version of Chargin Blvd. would be a godsend for the city of Cleveland in general and the Hough neighborhood in particular. Not to mention the potential spillover effects into nearby Midtown.

As a store, Meijer overlaps a lot with your average Wal Mart or Target. Their normal superstores (i.e., not the kind that's up for discussion on 105th Street) are a little bigger than your average Super Walmart and definitely bigger than your average Target. They are also full-service grocery stores first and foremost, although their general merchandise selection is on par with Wal Mart or Target. As far as cleanliness goes, they're miles ahead of Wal Mart and usually a little better than Target, especially considering their greater size. As a company, however, Meijer varies even more than WM/Target. First, they're a closely held, private family business. Without public shareholders, they're freer to operate as they see fit. Second, they're a regional company as opposed to a national one. As big as their stores are, they only operate in 6 midwestern states (MI, IL, OH, IL, WI, and KY). So they're able to focus on a select few markets where they can do what they do best. Developing "neighborhood" stores in cities like Detroit, Lansing, and (hopefully!) Cleveland may be a product of the company's flexibility. It's interesting that their superstores are thus far firmly in the exurbs (Avon, Mentor, Stow) while the neighborhood stores are in underserved urban neighborhoods. Such a hybrid strategy serving radically different ends of the market is probably not something you'd see out of a publicly traded company like WM or Target.

WOW. Not only would this be a transformative development for University Circle's budding residential neighborhood, it could also represent a big step forward for the Clinic's institutional philosophy. We've all complained on this Board about how the Clinic has failed to build anything other than institutional monoliths in its own backyard. The closest they've come to "spinoff development" has been hotels, and those obviously cater to out-of-towners. Bringing in a mini-grocery store would invite the actual surrounding neighborhood onto Clinic property. And if this takes off, who knows what kind of other establishments (restaurants, retail) could follow? Let's hope this all comes to fruition and that it's all part of a grander plan being phased in by Dr. Mihaljevic. With tens of thousands of workers on site 24/7 and the OC opening up at its front doorstep, the main Clinic campus could look very different 10 years from now. Fingers crossed!

I prefer "Company A Stadium" myself. Of course, Mr. Haslam has had his own experience with the feds so I'm guessing this place will keep the FES moniker for the foreseeable future.

Between this parking lot and the other one on Public Square that's going to S-W, it appears that the Jacobs family is "done" with Cleveland real estate. (As KJP's article indicates, Jeff Jacobs is concentrating on gaming interests in Colorado these days). I hate to say it, but...good riddance? For the last 40 years, "hometown" real estate entities like Jacobs and Forest City have shown remarkably little interest in developing anything in their backyard. Somehow they missed out on the downtown residential boom of the 2010's and the neighborhood renaissances in Ohio City, Tremont, and Detroit Shoreway as well. In their place, we've seen some local companies like Geis and K&D take advantage of these trends. We've also seen a lot of outside developers putting their money where their mouth is (the Columbus folks here, the Chicago developer at 25th and Lorain). It's always nice to see money pouring in from outside the region, as that puts Cleveland on the national development map. Onwards and upwards!

More progress! Fencing is up, and excavators on site. And a building on the north side of Euclid Heights Blvd. east of Cedar Hill has even been demo’ed.

Fencing, earth-moving equipment, and a construction trailer are all on site on Cedar Road between 97th and 100th Streets. This is the home of the future Clinic Biorepository Center, and the project I s underway!

This is all exciting news, especially if it means that the 800 pound gorilla that is the Cleveland Clinic is waking up to the neighborhood in its own backyard. Back in the 2000's, CCF went on a building spree on and around Euclid Avenue that culminated in the Miller Pavillion, and the "front" lawn across the street. It was a nice updating of facilities, but the remainder of the buildout was mostly parking garages stretching from Chester to Carneige. In the 2010's, the hospital seemed to focus most of its attention on faraway places like Dubai, Las Vegas, and London (the main exception, of course, being the $500M Lerner College of Medicine that went up on the heart of its campus). Now, for the 2020's, we have the 100K d.f. Cole Eye expansion and 400K s.f. new build of the Nuerologicial Institute on Euclid Ave to look forward to. This time around, it appears that the Clinic is looking beyond parking garages when it comes to spinoff projects. Perhaps in an effort to mimic Metro Health, which is pursuing housing options near its own $1B campus, CCF is finally looking at building/rebuilding the surrounding neighborhood. Maybe the Opportunity Corridor piqued their interest, too, because the 2004-06 building spree along Euclid happened to coincide with the construction of the Health Line. In any case, the attendant residential and commercial (!) development that the Clinic (and others in the Farifax ecosystem) are talking about have the potential to be transformative. There's long been talk about developers trying to bring office space to University Circle (e.g., the "tech ribbon" that was originally supposed to be part of Centric). I suspect the prohibitive cost of land (and lack of parking) in that area has quashed many such efforts. Nearby Fairfax presents none of those problems but has all the benefits of connectivity with a growing CCF campus and the rest of UC.

Can't overstate how much I hope this project succeeds, especially with PHS as the "developer." They've long had an innovative approach to funding themselves by owning so much of the surrounding neighborhood (e.g., the Ideastream offices on Euclid, etc.) It's already made them the premier theater district in the Midwest by almost any measure (and yes, that includes Chicago). Now add high-end residential as the icing on the cake? Brilliant, especially for their core business (filling theater seats 12 months out of the year). You thought it was tough to get tickets for the FIRST run of Hamilton two years ago? Wait till 34 floors of wealthy apartment dwellers move across the street...

Robert Higgs was on yesterday’s This Week in the CLE podcast and he said a lot of people downtown are worried about parking now that the PS/Weston surface lots are spoken for. He said that the GCP is starting work behind the scenes on a parking deck somewhere close to the CBD. That’s the first I’ve heard about new parking outside the development itself. County Councilwoman Sunny Simon has also raised concerns about parking in public hearings. Now, I know Sherwin Williams has its own plans for structured parking in the Weston Superblock. But I’m guessing that they’re only concerned with securing enough parking for their own employees, which is understandable. So this hypothetical new parking garage would be for the rest of us downtown. It will be interesting to see the size and scope of the project if/when it comes to fruition. The bigger it is, the more bullish leaders will be on the future of downtown Cleveland, I guess.

This tower is destined to stand out in the neighborhood not only because of its height but also its pure, um "glassiness," I guess. I know glass towers are all the rage in most urban setting these days, but UC's construction mix is a lot more old school with mostly brick and stone buildings built in the last century. Even the new buildings, like One University Circle and virtually everything the Clinic has built in the last 25 years (with the exception of the new med school and the cancer hospital on Carneige), don't have much glass facings. The overall design is nothing special but it will add some variety to the skyline, which is good.

Two interesting tidbits I found in MJ's cle.com article: 1. Developers don't fear residential over-saturation in UC. One principal was quoted as saying Centric (on Mayfield Road between Euclid Ave. and Little Italy) is 95 percent (!) occupied. That's the first I've heard anything "official" about Centric's occupancy rate in the 2-3 years it's been open, and that's great news (too bad the retail spaces are still mostly empty). 2. Steve Rubin is quoted as saying Midwest wants to take advantage of the nearby Rockefeller Park, which he calls Cleveland's version of Central Park. I've long been a proponent of Rockefeller Park. It's a premier public urban space, but people never think of it as part of University Circle, despite it being across the street from the VA hospital and little more than a block away from Wade Oval. If these new projects can bridge the gap between the northern edge of UC and RP, that's a quantum leap for the neighborhood, and maybe even the east side of Cleveland. (And what better way to bridge said gap than hundreds of brand new, class A residential units?)

The article's description of the tax deal was also confusing. In the first breath, it stated that Council passed a 30-year TIF. Then, a few paragraphs down, it stated that it was actually a 15-year tax abatement and then 15 more years of a $4M TIF. I know these things are complicated, but I have no idea how this thing is supposed to work after finishing the article.

The city is very much strongly behind this development, to the point where they've had folks from City Hall responding to the naysayers of cleveland.com for the past several months. Also, it's been reported that the developer (DealPoint Merrill) hired one of the city's economic development people a few years ago. I think, despite the protests of the Superintendent, the Mayor and Council will push this deal through--as well they should. What other inner ring suburb would look a $200M gift horse investment in the mouth?

Hopefully I'm in the right thread for this, but I'm wondering if S-W gobbling up the PS and Weston lots starts a mini-land rush downtown. There are only so many more parking lots left to build on in the CBD and we know the Justice Center steering committee is likely to announce the future of the JC sometime later this year. From what many have been saying, it sounds increasingly likely that the county will opt to build a new Court tower while maintaining current operations at Lakeside & Ontario during construction. Best case scenario is that by this time next year, S-W starts construction on PS/Weston, the county buys the remaining lots between St. Clair, W. 3rd, and W.6th Streets for the new Courthouse tower, and a bidding war heats up between buyers for the existing JC site next to the Hilton. At that point, the only real "empty" part of DT is the parking lot between East 4th and RMFH (Nucleus) and the old Hippodrome on Euclid Ave. (City Club apartments). With everything filled, maybe the air rights for that triangular parcel in the TT complex at the W. 6th/Superior/W. Superior finally comes into play as well? EDIT: I went back and looked at the internal SW maps as well as KJP's blog posts, and realized that the HQ will take up much more of the surface area between St. Clair, Superior, W. 3rd, and W. 6th than I imagined. For some reason, I thought SW's footprint wouldn't extend all the way to St. Clair. I don't think the hypothetical new Justice Center courthouse tower would even fit in the Warehouse District post-SW. All the more reason for a land rush downtown, I guess :).