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I know Benesch is the prime target-tenant Stark is negotiating with but, not to put the cart before the horse by presuming any Stark-Benesch is dead because all we have is hearsay at this point, I'm just wondering whether there could/should be other law firms of Benesch's size and prestige that could step into a deal should Benesch feel trapped in limbo viz Stark's financing negotiation/design disagreement. As we know, Cleveland has been/is home to a variety of law firms including Jones Day, and Squires, which are 2 of the largest and most prestigious in the country -- among many others.

So everything re Centric/formerly Intesa is 'locked', including final design approval from CPC, and that we're looking at shovels going into the ground soon (Jan or Feb)?

Shaker Square isn't so black 'n white (no pun intended) ... over the years it has had a hit-and-miss approach to revitalization ever since Coral bought the Square around 2000. First they tried to go high-end, with a Wild Oats market (where Dave's now is), Fire food and drink, Joseph-Beth's Booksellers (where CVS now is), and Sergio's (where Zanzibar now is). Grotto was a later-coming wine bar that lasted barely a year...the very-inspiring Edwin's (that generally successfully gives second chances to ex-offenders -- starting with the owner) grabbed the space. Only Fire remains. Clearly Coral shot too high--they were trying to Crocker-ize a city-urban area (albeit one bordering Shaker Heights) an extremely diverse area demographically. Nowadays it seems to have found its niche but it obviously still has some retail problems, like that significant almost totally vacant, eyesore stretch of buildings along Van Aken bending south from the Van Aken-Shaker junction to Drexmore. The Square is a very bustling place today, but with a less glitzier, more workable neighborhood focus. But as we've seen with the creeping decay -- and increased crime -- immediately to the south where whole druggie apt buildings have been leveled along Drexmore (again!) and several handsome, well-crafted old Tudors along S. Moreland stand vacant and dilapidated, there's a major challenge to the Square area to infuse vitality and security in order to keep it relevant. Edwin's is a major boost -- not only the restaurant on the square, but its small but effective residential 'campus' at Buckeye and S. Moreland that's slowly revitalizing an eyesore neighborhood that needs and deserves to comeback. Edwin's is taking the approach I wish more of the private, and public, sectors would take: it's investing in people and not just pretty buildings. It is giving hope to the hopeless in ways, if done on a larger scale, would help both the locals and the local neighborhood in and around Shaker Square and, to me, would be much more fulfilling than the usual gentrification of moving professional whites in while shipping working-poor minorities out.

I got you weren't being serious. My arrow was misleading, as I wasn't really responding to you.

^I hope the Chicago name doesn't put too many people off, although I understand some consternation about it. It sounds like a nice place on a kinda dead strip. It's the work of a hard-working Chicago couple who really believe in downtown Cleveland and are taking a risk/chance in investing here, so I hope folks can get over the name and give the place a chance... At least the food looks good in the photo.

Great win over Golden State. Cavs beat them, featuring the great Kevin Durant while we were without JR, an important component... Looks like the Cavs may be in their heads.

First look: Chicago's Home of Chicken & Waffles opens in Cleveland (photos) By John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer Email the author | Follow on Twitter on December 23, 2016 at 11:11 AM, updated December 23, 2016 at 12:24 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- "It's like yin and yang," says Tonya Johnson, as she surveys her just-opened Chicago's Home of Chicken & Waffles. She isn't trying to be philosophical about her new restaurant-bar, which brings Southern comfort food to downtown Cleveland. She's talking about the plate, of course. "See, you have the sweet -- the pancakes -- paired with the salty, the chicken," she says, pointing at the plate. "It might seem like an odd combo to some, but if you try it you will love it." That's the bet. http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/12/first_look_chicagos_home_of_ch.html

I thought I read somewhere that, over the last 3 years, Encarnacion is second in total HR's only to Chris Davis ... and that even this was pretty close.

Great news, but does this spell bye-bye Mike Napoli for certain?

Centric is moving finally forward after financing has been nailed down. This, about one week after another, smaller yet substantial apartment building before the CPC set to move forward on the other side of the Little Italy-UC Rapid station -- both representing badly-needed, important TODs in a city whose rail system has been struggling to spawn them... ... add to this the fact that the Indians just landed one of the top power hitters in the MLB in Edwin Encarnacion ... all in all, some cool, early Christmas/Hanukkah presents for the Forest City.

The 3C proposal should have played this up more. As I recall, there was an unwillingness to even consider that service, let alone promote it as a reason to support the plan. I still blame 3C for giving us Kasich in the first place. Tossed him a whiffleball and he whacked it. What was so dumb is that taking the money blown on the Portsmouth Bypass (approx. $400 million) and adding it to the federal grant would have meant a pretty solid capital investment, i.e. brand-new trains, passing sidings where needed, and getting the Cincinnati station in DT Cincinnati instead of suburban Bond Hill. ... and lest us not forget that brilliant $330M Opportunity Corridor highway a-building on the east side of Cleveland, which Kasich not only went to bat for, he diverted Turnpike tolls to get it done... Now there's not only no 3-Cs, which would have not only modernized the state and bound it more together, it would have provided thousands of jobs, greater density, etc., ... now of course Kasich is pulling his pockets out when asked to up operating costs for the state's mass transit systems... ... and yet it's almost hilarious to consider how the media played up Kasich as this highly reasonable moderate compared to Donald Trump. If it weren't for the horrible fact that the country flushed itself down the toilet politically in electing Trump as president, a part of me is glad Kasich's grand scheme for the 2020 presidency has seemingly been derailed, at least for now... Couldn't have happened to nicer, phony-moderate guy.

I agree. Cleveland doesn't have a lot of 'sexy' modern apartment buildings ... but we're getting there (ie FEB, One-Univ Circle, etc).... Apartment buildings with balconies are sexy. While I would move the garage door from the front to the side, if possible, Mr. Kristosik's concerns about 'sidewalk balconies' seems, I'll be kind, woefully out of date.

The 'net gain' is the manufactured psychological advantage of having staved off the owner's moving the housed sports team to another city.

^Note: the cleveland.com article above says the Red Line is down due to "power issues" while the RTA website said it's a "mechanical issue." Which is it and what, exactly, does it mean?

Cleveland RTA Red Line out of service indefinitely, buses available By Kaylee Remington, cleveland.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on December 17, 2016 at 12:51 PM, updated December 17, 2016 at 12:56 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The entire RTA Red Line, both eastbound and westbound, is out of service due to power issues, according to RTA spokesman Jerry Masek said. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/12/cleveland_rta_red_line_out_of.html#incart_river_home

Cool Spaces: Former Sammy's restaurant now offices, penthouse overlooking Flats (photos, video) By Julie Washington, The Plain Dealer Email the author | Follow on Twitter on December 14, 2016 at 12:08 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the 1980's when Cleveland-area investor Joel Scheer drove through the Flats, he noticed a cool, historical warehouse-style building between West 10th Street and the Cuyahoga River. It was occupied by Sammy's, one of the hottest restaurants in the Flats at that time. http://www.cleveland.com/insideout/index.ssf/2016/12/cool_spaces_former_sammys_restaurant_now_offices_penthouse_overlooking_flats_photos_video.html#incart_gallery

The promotional photo is clearly of a 27 Coltman unit. Yes, this project is not built yet. Yeah, it's just interesting they'd use an existing townhouse elsewhere to promo this property as opposed to a concept drawing.

I actually do compliment many designs. I tend to be less critical of building designs because I know Cleveland generally is in catch-up mode and I believe more in function over form ... When Cleveland is creating density (esp TOD) and walkable neighborhoods, I tend not to squawk about design unless it's absolutely hideous. In this case, though, I'm disappointed in the much smaller/shorter scale of this final design as opposed to what was proposed. I feel more strongly since this is such valuable lakefront land planners have been lamenting for decades in terms of its lack of development.

I wanted a taller building, too. I'm less concerned about it overwhelming the Rock Hall. It's technically behind the RH as seen from the city, plus the Rock Hall is so tall and dramatic with its tall triangular shape, I seriously doubt any low slung apt building will overwhelm it especially given the gap between the two structures. Bottom line, I'm not thrilled by the 2-story, fewer-units residence.

The promotional photo is clearly of a 27 Coltman unit.

^Yep, another blue-ribbon committee where our voices will supposedly be heard. I'm sure officials will sing the platitudes of transit growth planning and higher quality service ... then disappear into the night where those plans will never be seen nor heard again... Meanwhile public officials are talking with no concrete plan -- if they are even talking at all -- about how to fill the gap when RTA suffers a huge ($17M?) shortfall due to the loss of the sales and use tax revenues from Medicaid managed care organizations -- $4.5M next year; $18M in 2018. The Clock is ticking; just 18 more days till 2017, the year when these massive RTA funding losses begin and, still, no serious public conversation about what to due. Meanwhile, meanwhile, Armond Budish and Frank Jackson have just dusted off plans for Cuyahoga County taxpayers to largely fund $140M in renovations to The Q... I love my sports, especially our championship Cavs, but come on, where are the priorities? So we're prepared to allow the transit system just die a slow financial death -- without seriously pressing the state or local corporate stakeholders, while reaching into the pockets of taxpayers -- taxpayers of a broke county -- to fund the rehab of sports facilities? ... where Dan Gilbert, alone, is worth $5B (as in a B for billion(s)) ... I guess $30M for the Browns rehab last year was a bargain ... oh wait, Browns stadium only hosts 10 Browns Games (including 2 useless exhibition games) per year -- 9 next year, as it was just announced that one of the Browns home games will be played in London, Eng. Meanwhile KJP is telling us RTA is wasting money when some "consultant" refuses to fix Red Line wires which, in turn damages train pantograhs and wires that must now be repaired to the tune of $50K... ... all this makes perfect sense ... to someone; somewhere.

Cavs' arena proposal offers taxpayers some hope and plenty to debate: Mark Naymik By Mark Naymik, cleveland.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on December 13, 2016 at 2:17 PM, updated December 13, 2016 at 3:01 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio - Set aside the glossy Photoshop images of the reimagined Quicken Loans Arena that depict glass-enclosed gathering spaces with modern inner curves and new amenities. As impressive as the preliminary designs appear, they are not as important as the financial details that will be at the heart of yet another debate over public financing of sports facilities -- this town's third in three years. We debated the issue in 2013, when the Browns asked the city of Cleveland for $30 million over 15 years to make repairs and upgrades to the city-owned FirstEnergy Stadium, a request backed by Cleveland City Council. In 2014, voters supported a plan to extend for 20 years a countywide tax on the sales of alcohol and tobacco to keep up our three publicly owned sports facilities, including the Q. http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2016/12/cavs_arena_proposal_offers_tax.html#incart_river_home

I'm sorry the Woodhill Supply/E.123 project is hung up. It is large, substantial residential project replacing an ugly industrial property.

I'm sure it could -- Montreal is planning to convert its electric Deux-Montagnes commuter rail line to an automated system... However, RTA and the State of Ohio are choosing to barely maintain the Red Line to keep it running. With the general indifference to transit in Greater Cleveland, I seriously doubt we'll see such an upgrade anytime soon.

It seems Michael Ford, and the other SE Michigan RTA officials, are somewhat optimistic and will be heading back to the drawing board for a future ballot attempt. As the article notes, the vote was really pretty close and that it was, as usual, Macomb County, home of those working-class angry Reagan Democrats who tipped the scales against the RTA tax and that, had this not been a polarizing presidential election year with all the fired-up angry white, pro-Trump Macomb voters coming out to the polls, RTA very well may have pulled it out. The message: get RTA on the next off-year election ballot. As totally dysfunctional as Detroit mass transit always seems, they actually are farther along the Greater Cleveland in the sense that they are already addressing the multi-county funding/service hurdle that seems impossible here. Obviously Cleveland and its inner ring suburbs currently has far superior mass transit service than Detroit due to our century-old head start in building, expanding and maintaining rapid transit service. But with Cleveland's deteriorating/disappearing RTA service and current state and local indifference to transit funding and future planning, coupled with Detroit's new Q-1 streetcar coming in along with the region's continued push for regional transit funding and planning (added to greater Detroit's already superior (and popular) Amtrak connection with Pontiac, Ann Arbor and Chicago), I could see Detroit actually moving past Cleveland transit wise, even within the next decade.