gottaplan

Damn those prices are steep! More than $2/sf in most cases. Blows my mind to consider paying $2,400 or more a month in rent for an 1100 - 1200 sf apartment.

So long overdue. Anyone know what the cost differential of rents are for apartments facing the water vs those facing the parking lot?

What's the latest commitment from Cleveland to replace & upgrade the rest of 73rd all the way up to Detroit? As this main interchange gets closer to completion, that section of 73rd will be desperately in need of upgrades to the roadway, sidewalks, curbs, streetlights & landscaping...

Worth a read, whether you're a fan of Fitz or not http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-county/index.ssf/2014/12/11_things_ed_fitzgerald_will_be_remembered_for_in_cuyahoga_county.html

so does anyone know what Ed Fitzgerald is up to these days? I feel like he had such a bright future as the first County Exec, he accomplished a lot in his first term, could have stayed in that position for at least another term before going for another position like US Rep or State Senate perhaps.

Jeezus, you need to get a grip. Choosing the City over the suburbs does not make a person a hero. And people in the suburbs can still be plenty involved in their community, via schools, local government, etc. Christ, quit trying to fit everyone in a box...

You can, but it's not easy. Core urban neighborhoods with large spacious yards = high taxes, high maintenance, high heating bills You can call suburbanites racist or scared or stupid but when you look at the costs, it's never even close to buy a $200k house in suburbs vs a $200k house in the city.

I think there's some things in this question you are asking, about why suburban sprawl-type neighborhoods keep getting built, that you will never understand until you have children. Just a guess that you don't, perhaps by your username "OHKID". I've lived in urban downtowns for the last decade and while it has it's advantages, so many things just get reprioritized when you have small children. 1. Urban townhomes are smaller, more vertical, more steps, less floor plan, than suburban townhomes. When you are trying to make dinner while junior is napping & your daughter is watching spongebob, you want to see all that. 2. Having all the bedrooms on the same floor is important. Very common in suburban homes, not in urban homes. 3. Having a basement to store junk, make a play room, etc is essential with young kids. Again, very common in the suburbs, not so much in the urban lifestyle. 4. People today are incredibly unable to fix things themselves. People don't even want to paint a bedroom, let alone remodel a bathroom or do a new kitchen. Hiring a contractor is very expensive. Much easier to just buy in the new subdivision where everything is done. Even better when you can pick your own cabinets, flooring, fixtures, etc. Edit: Adding #5. People with young kids don't really care about walkable neighborhoods. When you have young kids, you aren't going to see a live music show or eat out or do anything, even if it's next door. You have no free time to do this stuff so having it in close proximity is irrelevant.

It's everything, not just schools. Its also crime, housing and shopping options, commute proximity, having a yard, etc. certain things like this will just never be available in the city, in a dense urban environment.

This project is going to be a slam dunk. It's bold and really pushes the boundaries of gentrification on the edge of downtown. I think there is so much upside for this area as the City evolves, if they can make the numbers work with base rents now, it will be even better in the near future

so much of the shifty developer behavior that everyone seems to have stories of, can all be prevented with proper governance.... obviously having a strong building code and building inspection department is essential but so is approving a site plan, entering a contract with the developer with site plan as an exhibit, holding a performance bond that all items be completed by a certain date... if the developer skips out, you pull the bond & have it done by others. These are standard industry practices

Cutting corners is a separate issue, as one can assume it would also happen with any new denser developments. One could tighten up building codes and inspection requirements, but that has its own drawbacks. I have to assume there are developers who do things the "right way" or would prefer to. There are developers who do things the right way and sell quality, craftsman built homes. Of course in the Cleveland area, those start at $400k. Those builders exist in the City, some examples in Tremont, and out in the burbs alike. There are cheaply built homes in & outside the city too. I have friends in construction that told me of siding held on with a single nail that blew off in the first rainstorm, windows that leaked from day 1, basements that weren't built properly, etc etc. In short, you get what you pay for. To answer the whole question of this thread, why are they still building it? Because people are still buying it.

You missed/left out quite a few steps. Mainly the carrying costs of buying the land, financing it, clearing it, getting utilities/streets installed, marketing the property. It can take years and years before these unsophisticated developers ever see a dime back on their initial investment. If the market turns south during that course of years, or the land takes more to develop than anticipated, the small profit margin that was initially expected can be wiped out.

what contractor was awarded the work?

I'd rather they put a 1st place team on the field. Then they wouldn't have to worry about marketing gimmicks. They might just sell out multiple seasons at 81 games each.... Agreed x 10. It's too easy for owners of pro sports teams to make money (alot of money) while fielding a subpar team. They can do this from the merchandise, parking, concessions, tv deals & other revenue besides ticket sales. Pittsburgh Pirates have done it for years. And in a desperate midwest city like Cleveland, that ramrodded the sin tax through last fall, it's even easier to make money when the city pays for your stadium upgrades. Edit: It's no coincidence that Progressive Field, First Energy Stadium and Quicken Loans area all undergoing major improvements currently, less than 1 year after the sin tax was passed. They knew it would pass because the local officials pushed it through for them.

I don't know about that. Vast majority of BP owners never set foot in American Greetings gallery before buying. Plenty still don't know it exists even after purchasing. And conversely, the 'many thousands' who frequent the gallery very rarely venture back into BP. Even though a single block separates them, it's just inconvenient enough to drive back up 78th & back down 76th and there's no pedestrian pathway. Might as well stop at Luxe or go straight back to the Shoreway.

Your son is pretty advanced to be asking questions like that!!! The history of Battery Park is interesting - I'll do my best to surmise it briefly. - In a nutshell, a professor or researcher at CSU wrote a paper back in early 2000's I think that targeted that area, west of Cleveland along the lakeshore, as an area for redevelopment for upscale housing along the water. - At that same time, Everready Battery was looking to dispose of the property but couldn't due to all the contamination and large scale demo required to get a "no further action" letter. - A couple developers expressed interest to the City in partnering with Everready on the cleanup. After a number of proposals and negotiations, Vintage (subsidiary of Marous Bros Const) stepped forward to develop the property after it was cleaned up & signed off by the Ohio EPA. - The city also paid to install the streets & utilities and offer the residences a 15 yr tax abatement so at that point, Vintage had a clean building site with new infrastructure, ready to go. - At the same time as all this was happening, the Shoreway redevelopment plan was coming together. As most of you know, it's been discussed for over 10 yrs now and after a ton of budget cuts and scope changes, we are finally seeing it come together. The two main pieces affecting BP were the 76th pedestrian tunnel and the 73rd Shoreway connector. Of course, around the time the buildings were cleared, the streets & infrastructure were installed, and Vintage was getting around to building the first condo buildings and townhomes, the market crashed in 2008. There was a small boost of home sales in 2009 based on some incentives from the Stimulus, but the last year or two, things have really taken off. The powerhouse building with the "Battery Park" smoke stack is all that's left of the original Everready buildings. It has the pizza restaurant that used to be the wine bar. The other side is still waiting to be built out as a restaurant. The Shoreway Lofts building was just completed last summer on 76th/78th and is a great addition. Big picture, the development is pretty hot right now. Cost/sf is really climbing, both on the new construction and the resales.

I heard the same story over a year ago. All that's in there is garbage. Vintage is trying to get free money from the city to do the demolition

When are they going to demo those old warehouse buildings at the NE corner of 73rd where it starts under the tracks

I worked on the development & construction of Legacy Village. The hotel in question was always part of the plan. When we built the development back in '03/'04, the utilties (gas, water, sewer) were stubbed up in the NE corner off the Richmond entrance. Back then, the plan was for the hotel to start in a year or so.

I didn't think it was that great of an article. It points out that Minneapolis has a higher than average white majority of residents but doesn't point out what that actual average is for other major midwest cities. (I'm guessing around 50%). Instead it jumps to the opposite spectrum and uses Detroit as a basis of comparision. For actual comparison, there are plenty of policy and leadership decisions that Detroit did wrong (I lived there for many years & studied the history and urban planning) that led to it's failure as much as it's racial makeup. On the same note, there are plenty of things that Minneapolis has done in terms of urban planning and economic development that have led to it's success, as much as it's racial makeup. So while racial makeup affects the outcome, it's not the only thing affecting the outcome, as the article seems to indicate. Honestly, if Minneapolis has a 10-15% higher portion of whites than other midwest cities, all other things being equal, is that somehow enough to mean that city is more inclined to be prosperous?

JobsOhio could be a real issue, but it takes a lot of explaining and connecting the dots. It's almost more an inside baseball type of a thing. The PD interview could possibly be used against him to somehow show that he's a jerk. Not sure if most voters would care too much, though incidentally many Ohio voters would be seeing it for the first time. These are the things that I find fascinating about higher level politics. Obviously Kasich's team knows where their liability lies with various gaffes or questionable coverups... just curious where the team thinks they can find traction to pull ahead and what liabilities can be written off or dismissed without too much negative consequence.

anyone else catch John Kasich on the CNN show "State of the Union" this past Sunday? he was on there talking about the economy, national politics and ISIS. All topics above the average governor's pay grade but he was ready to fire on all of them. Certainly seems to be making a run for the White House. I have no idea how electable he is or how he'll fair in the primaries but it will be interesting to see him toss out stats on how he's done for Ohio in terms of job creation & budget cutting, etc. As soon as he's a presidential candidate, scores of fact checkers will be reviewing all of Ohio's progress (claims) with a fine toothed comb...

Empty factories do not create more work for basic services like snow clearing, for which someone was sacked last week for under performance of duties and not following procedure. I'm not so sure that someone was sacked last week for under performance of duties. If my memory serves me right, there was a news story that the person you say was sacked actually held two positions, and Mayor Jackson took one of the positions away from him, but he kept all of the salary that he was making. Good old politics. Can anyone on this forum help us out here with what really happened? Not sure but it seems like Darnell Brown is at the center of any Cleveland administration screwup. Not sure how this guy has hung on so long but he keeps getting passed from agency to agency... mayor's office to water dept to NEORSD...

next week doesn't look a whole lot better. Could easily be looking at snow on St. Patty's day here in NE Ohio