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.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/japans-nippon-steel-plans-acquire-us-steel-7-bln-nikkei-2023-12-18/#:~:text=Dec 18 (Reuters) - Japan's,Nucor (NUE.N). Time to see if Biden actually backs up his claims about being pro-union. This deal requires approval by the Biden Administration and Treasury Dept. United States steel production is about our infrastructure. Our national security. Japan is an ally but why are they willing to make a cash offer for roughly double what the firm is worth??? Sen. Fetterman has already stood up for this. JD Vance made similar comments opposing the deal. I imagine Sen Sherrod Brown will come out in opposition as well. This will likely destroy the union way of life for steel workers. The steel workers union was not consulted on the deal prior to the announcement. US Steel is the #3 steel producer in the world. #1 is chinese. #2 is Arcelor Mittal which is Indian.

The City needs to step up and tax them at whatever "market rate" they think the property is actually worth.... they would sell fast if that was the case. As it is now, they are sitting on valuable land but the assessed tax amounts are way too low

I just googled "US Cities that lost population during covid" and this article came up.... https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-largest-cities-saw-the-sharpest-population-losses-during-the-pandemic-new-census-data-shows/ It shows the largest US Cities, those with population over 1 million, experienced negative growth or population loss, while smaller cities, between 1 million and 250k, saw significantly slowed growth or nearly flat - less than 0.5% NYC, LA, Boston, San Fran and San Jose all saw population losses. NYC has been losing population since 2016 according to the article. "This is consistent with broader trends associated with the mid-decade rise in the economy, which accelerated movement out of large metropolitan areas and into smaller places, as well as increased movement to the suburbs among “stuck in place” millennials and other city residents." "In a good number of these cities, the trajectory of slow growth or decline began well before the start of the pandemic. Yet several stuck out with sharp negative growth in 2019-20, including Boston, San Francisco, St. Paul, Minn., New Orleans, and Newark, N.J., as well as those with sharp growth slowdowns such as Columbus, Ohio, Kansas City, Mo., and Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C." THE SUBURBAN GROWTH ADVANTAGE CONTINUES The most recent year’s city growth declines gave further impetus to the suburban growth advantage that took root midway in the 2010s decade. Earlier in that decade, a unique phenomenon emerged: a growth advantage for cities over their surrounding suburbs. At the time, much attention was given to the “return to the city” movement for young adults and seniors, along with the attraction of immigrants to urban centers. However, this advantage was short lived, with much of it attributable to the impact of the 2007-09 Great Recession and down housing market, which “stranded” many young adult millennials in urban centers. As the 2010s wore on and the job and housing markets picked up, city-to-suburban shifts reemerged.

I agree with all that. The article is very unspecific. But to that point, what's happening in NYC is not what's happening in the Sunbelt or upper midwest or whatever. I think work from home trends are here to stay and it will absolutely have impact on people's choices of where to live. Commute matters less, home space, local amenities matter more. Having a 4th bedroom which can become office and your favorite coffee place a short walk away or maybe a great park for running nearby are optimal for home locations. Some of that steers more toward the urban lifestyle, some does not.

That's good but NYC is not the rest of the country. This article talks about a "sharp upswing in the number of home starts with 4 bedrooms".... this is directly in relation to work from home trend that people expect to last. https://www.realtytrac.com/blog/are-real-estate-prices-cooling/

Michigan's pass rush was legit, everyone knew it would be, but Stroud still had time. you only need 3 seconds to throw a 40 yard deep ball. He had that long. I think OSU is somewhat like Alabama these days in that we've become a victim of our own success.... our recruiting is so loaded with 5 star prospects, they are lookign to the NFL shortly after earning a starting spot their sophomore year. The defense this year was very young. Michigan by comparison has not had that problem as of late.

I think schools will be less of a factor if people of means are going to move back to the City and inner ring suburbs. Unfortunately I think Covid has slowed that. Families want more house, more yard, more space... because they are all home more, working from home, home schooling, etc.

I think everyone suspected Michigan would be able to pound the ball on the ground... but OSU's gameplan has been to score quickly and force teams to become one-dimensional. That never happened. OSU has relied on the big play all season to bail them out. They never got it against Michigan. I went back & rewatched and could only find TWO plays where Stroud threw the ball downfield 30 yards or more. When you have NFL level receivers and you get them in 1:1 coverage, which they frequently did, you gotta put the ball up and let your guy make a play. Doing so keeps the defense honest. Michigan was crowding the line bigtime. 8 or 9 guys within 8 yards of the line. Very little respect for the deep ball and we never punished them. The passes Stroud was making were all comeback or crossing routes underneath. Nothing deep up the middle or down the sideline. Very odd. Seemed like maybe he was just being too conservative. Have to mention the penalties too. 6 penalties on the offensive line I think for holding or false starts. another 4 for other things. Bottom line, Michigan came to play. They looked hungry. OSU did not.

I've fought traffic tickets before like that when I was younger and had a lot of tickets.... this didn't have an option to appear in court

The ticket said "Notice of Responsibility".... no ability to plead not guilty from what I could tell and nothing in there about court costs...