gottaplan

agreed. For a building that was already in place and needed modifications, it's been a slow moving process. At least 2 years already by my count. I would also attribute some of the slowness to the client, City of Cleveland PD. I'm sure they are slow to make decisions, give approvals, etc.

TurnDev is the developer. I'm very familiar with them. I'm talking about Turner Construction company, who was doing the initial phase of demo/windows, site work, etc. They've apparently been replaced with Independence Construction. not sure if they were out bid on next GMP or what but seems odd in my opinion to switch gears in middle of a project like that

I've been following this project and the larger development of the area closely for awhile now. Turner was working on this project initially, now it seems they're off the job and Independence Construction has taken over. Not sure if this was a budget issue or what. I've already put some feelers out to see what the deal was but if anyone wants to share here, go ahead

From a pure financial standpoint, I'm curious where Digeronimo's stand with this overall development. They paid for all the demolition/abatement of the old VA facility upfront and all the site development, infrastructure, utilities, etc. It's a 100 acre site. You could do the the math and get a rough approximation of costs. The City did pay for some of the roads coming in as part of the TIFF agreement, and of course the new ramps and Miller Road rebuild. Digeronimos also had to pay an upfront development fee to the City to cover all the legal costs So adding up costs and income, the only income I can see thus far is the residential component which is fairly minor and the land deal which they acquired from the City, then flipped to SW. Impossible to know for sure, but it's hard to see this is playing out vs what it was planned as 6+ years ago. https://www.cleveland.com/brecksville/2018/11/redevelopment_of_former_brecks.html

if you talk to real estate/development teams, every one of them around town had a conversation with Brecksville mayor over the years and potentially had a deal worked out on the site but it was nixed at last min over a movie theater or Target or something like that. It's ironic, the zoning of the site allows pretty much anything under the sun, but at the same time still requires every use and design to go through planning commission....

I think it just stalled for a combination of factors. Office, especially new construction/high rents, is just a very hard sell. Brecksville has been adamant that no big box, no movie theater, no fast food in this development... Work from home has driven down the bulk of the surrounding employers, so the draw of this area for a restaurant or anything is just not there

which is what they wanted all along, and why the downtown locations were always a false negotiation effort to drive maximum incentives into the Brecksville deal

Only the top floor and half are Digeronimo space. The rest is open for lease. The lease rate is not public but its basically the highest around NE Ohio. Not many firms care to pay that much in rent. Big picture, this development is stalling. They are reworking the entire proforma behind the scenes. The slice of residential apartments & townhomes on the north was supposed to be a small piece of the development, with the rest being high end office, R&D, with some retail/restaturant and a nice hotel/conf center. Similar to Pinecrest but less focus on retail and more on office. Bottom line, the SW facility is over a year behind schedule and aside from the Digeronimo's they have no other tenants announced. The other building under construction is a parking deck. There was supposed to be a hotel/conf center announced over a year ago but that stalled. There was supposed to be a "mustard seed" grocer that never happened. Also a higher end Italian restaurant never materialized. I think it's a factor of lower demand and new construction costs are just too damn high. It's a shame too because they lobbied hard to get those ramps put in at 77 due to "all the new traffic that would be generated....." saved a whole 1.5 mins compared to getting on/off at the turnpike & 77 Final note, I did see that Digeronimos had partnered with Hoying who did much of the development in Dublin at Bridge Park https://www.digeronimocompanies.com/news/digeronimo-companies-crawford-hoying-and-shaner-hotel-group-announce-new-136-key-hotel-at-valor-acres-in-brecksville-oh#:~:text=The AC Hotel by Marriott will be developed by DiGeronimo,/Dublin and Dayton%2C Ohio.

that's actually not true, but ok

interesting numbers. If our tv market is so impressive, why are we subsidizing all these stadiums endlessly?

as much as I hate this relocation, if they can get this deal done without public subsidy, good for them, do it. Just look at the continued payouts for the Cavs/Indians facilities. Its an endless money pit. Was supposed to be paid for with sin tax revenues, that didn't cover it. Naming rights, special events, hotel bed taxes, etc. Always need more. City is floating a bond now for millions to cover maintanence costs required by the lease. The fact is, Cleveland is way too small of a market to have pro football/basketball/baseball. The only reason we do is because our local govt shills out $$$ to the owners. Nobody wants to be the one who let the Browns leave town, etc

This stadium move to Brookpark is happening. I hate to see it because it's just picking up a core piece of downtown and transporting it to the suburbs, but it's happening. My circle of contacts & friends in the construction/real estate biz are all moving ahead on deals related to this. Haslam, the Digeronimos and handful of other key powerbrokers are all in on this. They won't get all the subsidy they want,, but they will get some public money. But it's happening regardless. This deal is not coming back to the City for renegotiating. The only thing really left to discuss is what to do with the old stadium.

the new ramps off I-77 at Miller in Brecksville which were added to support(?) the Valor Acres development opened last week. Still need sidewalks, grading, traffic signals, etc. But it's open. So far the Valor Acres development hasn't added anything in terms of tenants except Digeronimos moving their headquarters there from Independence. Not exactly sure how many jobs that will be yet as the core construction operations will stay over at Schaff road. The residential apartments and townhomes are occupied, not sure what the leasing is. The apartment building had a percentage to be used for SW employees though, which is still a ways off yet. Possible other tenants I'm hearing about - some type of hotel/conf center, a boutique grocery (Trader Joes/Mustard seed possibly) and an upscale restaurant or two (hearing talk of some italian place coming soon). Otherwise, the former Cross Country Mortgage facility still sits vacant across the street. No other tenants have been announced. Pretty slow considering the hype of this development initially.

this deal cannot be viewed in a short window.... currently the deal is over valued because Trump created protectionist policies and Biden created increased demand for domestic steel here at home... those scenarios have driven up the short term value of US Steel. But play this out 3,4,5 years from now. Inevitably, those situations will change. Even a few short years of disinvesting in the US steel plants, allowing the workforce to drop 10-20% or more through attrition, encouraging early retirements, etc.... this is a business that cannot be ramped back up quickly. Steel is needed for tanks, planes, trucks, roads, bridges, buildings.... it's not a partisan issue or a union issue, it's a fundamental infrastructure/stability issue. Are we going to allow one of our most critical domestic supply chains be sold off in free market economics? Not sure what else compares besides maybe agriculture and energy production....

Lawmakers push to stop ‘fundamentally troubling’ sale of US Steel https://thehill.com/business/4367961-lawmakers-push-to-stop-fundamentally-troubling-sale-of-us-steel/ The United Steelworkers union said the proposed deal already constitutes a violation of the union’s agreement with management and that it’s relying on regulators to scrutinize it closely. “Neither U.S. Steel nor Nippon reached out to our union regarding the deal, which is in itself a violation of our partnership agreement that requires U.S. Steel to notify us of a change in control or business conditions,” union President David McCall said in a statement Monday.