mu2010

We have watched major local developers who made fortunes in the suburbs turn their attention to the City. We have watched suburban mall magnate Scott Wolstein build Flats East Bank. We are watching the developer of Crocker Park run around the Statehouse trying to get a law passed to make NuCLEus work. We watched the developer of Legacy Village build Steelyard Commons. We watched Weston, a suburban industrial developer, do the Standard Building. We watched Frank Sinito do Statler, Key Tower, now Union Trust. Etc etc etc. These projects are hard to do and those doing them and trying to do them deserve credit. What conclusions can we make about why this piece of land (and also the Nautica parking lots) is undeveloped other than the Jacobs family are lazy and don't care about Cleveland? I get it, the math doesn't quite work yet, but Stark isn't letting that stop him, why do we give a pass to Jacobs? Math doesn't work so guess what? Bob Stark tries to change the math. It's funny, I have mostly referred to Progressive Field as Jacobs Field since the name changed, but I've been catching on to their suckiness and so now I'm proudly calling it Progressive.

Have you guys seen this? Future of Ciao Bistro in Ohio City Unclear after Facebook Comment Labels Neighbors 'liberal white c*nts' https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2018/10/25/future-of-ciao-bistro-in-ohio-city-unclear-after-facebook-comment-labels-neighbors-white-liberal-c-nts https://fox8.com/2018/10/25/ohio-city-restaurant-owner-apologizes-for-offensive-facebook-post/

A branding update in general would be nice. The City of Columbus rolled out a new brand and logo (https://brandcolumbus.com/) during the final years of Mike Coleman's tenure as mayor. This logo is not only being used by the city, but also a modified version by the tourism board. Destination Cleveland has done a wonderful job with the script logo - why wasn't that rebranding coordinated with city hall? And even some city subdepartments such as water, power, etc, have their own brands? It should be the same. My experience with branding comes from exactly one marketing intro online class from Tri-C circa 2007, and I learned pretty clearly then - consistency is key. It ain't that hard.

Good presentation, @KJP - very succinct summary of the benefits of TOD and a "low-mileage lifestyle." I've been an advocate of a "low-mileage lifestyle" for years but I've never heard that terminology before right now, and I like it.

A lot of that in Cleveland and similar places was due to the fact that industrial cities were disgusting to live in. We can have density today in a much cleaner and more sanitary way, which is why cities are coming back, starting with the coasts 20 years ago and now finally creeping into our corner of the world.

Great picks, I have visited both! Lisbon is an absolutely stunning place. I was there in the height of summer and I just remember blinding sun and bright colors. Deep blues in the sky and the water, buildings pained with reds and yellows and pastel blues, green trees, sidewalks made of slippery white and black tiles with designs in them (a Portugal tradition apparently) and amazing views. Great beaches and even surfing in the south of the country too, Portugal in general is an incredibly underrated destination by Americans.

Looking good!

I actually think downtown Mansfield is kinda nice... cool public square area... and has some potential. It's definitely rough though.

Kind of a smart business decision by Mr. Haslam, a power move as the Bengals, Browns, and Steelers continue to fight over Central Ohio. But his plan won't work unless he can get both teams to WIN.

Yeah, the key for all of those towns is their location within commuting distance of large metros. Mt Vernon also has a couple of universities, (Kenyon in nearby Gambier and MVNU aka "the Naz") which never hurt.

I would actually go so far as to say it's global, it's definitely happening in other countries as well.

I would say in the context of rural Ohio, drugs are more the symptom of decline than the cause.

You would need to divide each of those by county population to find out where the problem is biggest.

This is hilarious. Why would someone sit on the corner of a busy intersection? A busy intersection in the boonies, as depicted. Welcome to the only "Development Strategy" whose goal is no development at all. I don't mean to say we shouldn't be aspirational, but I think this is overly negative. It's an overpass. What do you want them to do? A twenty story residential tower built over the air rights of the RTA tracks with a Shake Shack on the ground floor? You have to start somewhere. Unfortunately our rail system was built on a freight rail corridor and it's inconvenient to get to. Nicer alternatives to this (like a cap) are very expensive.

I don't mind these lawns and driveways. I agree that the mixed use aspect needs to be larger but unfortunately retail is a four letter word these days. A small grocery subsidized by the rest of the development profits (such as the one that opened today at 25th and Detroit, but bigger) would be great. And a few neighborhood restaurants.

^Beautiful, great photo!

I think the $40 number includes the City of Cleveland TIFing the 40% share of the property taxes - the schools still get their 60% and all indications show that politically that is how it's going to be. Port Authority/tax exempt debt, if available, I would guess could inch down the required rents by a dollar or two. Keep in mind, land costs are a wild card. I haven't seen a ton of speculation on how opportunity zones are going to change things, but just on my own reading of the statute, it's going to be huge. With Downtown Cleveland being an opportunity zone, for office specifically, that's a big playing-field-leveler between Downtown and a greenfield office park. This is exactly what public policy should do. There also is the nuCLEus bill which you mentioned, and also I've heard the state is looking at creating an opportunity zone bill which gives benefits for state taxes as well as federal for the same investments. All of these things could finally push us over the edge.

Based on some back-of-the-envelope math I've seen, if those $32 'trophy' rents can get up closer to $40, we will have our new office tower... without touching school district $$. Vacancy is tightening so we will see what happens with those rents.

^ we should make a thread about this. I haven't listened yet but I've been reading recaps from the first few episodes. One of our esteemed judges did not come off well in one of the episodes.

At a certain point you'd think money would start to talk for these guys. Classic example of business needing to keep up with the times.

As somebody just entering the industry, if the last boom was when they built Gates Mills Towers, I really hope there isn't that much time in between now and the next boom :D

Care to elaborate TPH2[/member]?

A car dealer even mentioning we need more investment in public transportation. Pretty cool.

Create a citywide Transit Oriented development corporation to act basically as a citywide CDC for all areas along major transit corridors. The mission of this organization will be to maximize the use of land around RTA stations and drive ridership.