blinker12

^^The space pope is talking about is the Theresa's. Bang & Clatter will be in the brick building pictured on the previous page of this thread. Oompa, I think the "alley" is going to be inside the restaurant... That is my interpretation anyway. Meanwhile, Wonder Bar wants to open in May. Probably optimistic, but they're working hard on it. (This is the building on E. 4th with the round window on the ground floor.)

Though keep in mind KJP's (and our) curiosity might have induced Stark to talk before he otherwise might have. I don't think you can look at December 2005 as any kind of official announcement of Pesht -- it was still very much in the planning stages. In fact, we still haven't gotten any kind of official announcement. I'm not worried about the Port cooperating; they seem to be behind Stark 110%. I'm a little more concerned about the TIF issue, which seems to be the bigger sticking point right now, and the holdout property owners at the two corners of the superblock. I remain convinced that Stark is still very serious about this project.

Yes, the other two wooden buildings just west of the brick building. But those, as I said, are beyond repair (and I don't say that much).

This is easy -- stay at the Hyatt Arcade. Can't beat the building or the proximity to nightlife.

Whether people will actually use the bike park, however, is highly questionable. Certainly now, there's little to draw anyone there apart from its location halfway between University Circle and Downtown. Maybe when the ECP bike lanes are done, but again -- highly speculative. Knocking down historic buildings for such an unproven use seems wasteful to me. I might be convinced by some kind of market analysis, but even then, as others have noted, there is already an abundance of vacant land on Euclid, Superior, Payne, Carnegie, Chester, etc etc etc.

Someone posted this listing in another thread, but I think it could be perfect for you: http://www.montlackrealty.com/Searchresults.asp?BuildingId=16&CityId=1 It's an older building but immaculately maintained and secure. Right in University Circle, so you could walk to Case. The Red Line Rapid (which is the one that goes to the airport) stops at two places in University Circle. You could also check some of the other listings from this company. Ohio City would also be a good option for you. It too is on the Red Line, just west of downtown -- so you'd be closer to the airport but would have to commute to work. Check the real estate listings at http://www.freetimes.com for apartments in this neighborhood. Downtown, as you say, would also make sense. I'd come to Cleveland and check out some of the downtown apartments yourself before you write them off -- many are very nice. I think the finishes are a little hipper and more modern on East 4th Street than in the Warehouse District, but that's a matter of opinion. Check out http://www.east4thstreet.com/

Sizing up an opportunity After hooking up with plans to consult nonprofits, the partners of Great Lakes Resources move on to their biggest development project By STAN BULLARD Crain's 6:00 am, March 19, 2007 Wearing brightly polished shoes, grey suits and white shirts with collars buttoned down over conservative ties, Mark Jablonski and Jay Romer look more like ’70s-era IBMers than developers undertaking retail projects in some of the toughest neighborhoods in the nation’s poorest city. Their pedigrees also are unlikely for their task: Mr. Jablonski is a veteran of Ernst & Young’s real estate consulting unit and Mr. Romer a seasoned real estate lawyer. After slugging away as Great Lakes Resources of Cleveland for seven years, the two built a record of accomplishment through developments distinguished by gritty perseverance, if not by size. Now they’re tackling a project of scale. Their latest and biggest project is the repositioning of Greenlite Shopping Center, a 68,000-square-foot shopping center at 18235 Euclid Ave., into a multimillion-dollar, mixed-use property. That repositioning includes changing the name from Greenlite. “There was a real stigma attached to the old name,” Mr. Romer said, referring to how beat up the property used to be. The new name is Village Green Shopping Center, a word play on adjoining Green Road and landscaping the partners have added. They bought the property in 2005 from Kimco Realty Corp., a big real estate investment trust. In doing so, they took on a shopping center where the supermarket that once anchored it was lost to demolition in the 1980s. The remaining space was just 70% occupied, so they tore down 21,000 square feet to make the property more marketable. Besides new electrical systems and repainting the peeling exterior, they brought in tenants such as national tax preparer Jackson Hewitt and retailers from other city neighborhoods to complement an Aldi store, the center’s backbone. Messrs. Jablonski and Romer estimate their company has spent as much on improvements as it paid for the center, $850,000. Just 7,200 square feet — enough for two stores — remains empty. The biggest challenge was how to redo the rear of the site where the supermarket once stood. Following their own market study and the wishes of both neighborhood residents and Cleveland City Councilman Roosevelt Coats, whose Ward 11 includes the site, Messrs. Jablonski and Romer decided senior citizen housing was the way to go. Plans call for their company to sell the empty five acres this fall to NRP Group of Garfield Heights, an urban housing specialist, for a $10 million, 100-unit age-restricted community. J. David Heller, NRP Group CEO, confirmed the transaction, contingent on winning federal housing tax credits administered by the state. Mr. Coats acknowledged that the transformation project hasn’t been easy. “It’s one of the older plazas in the city,” Mr. Coats said. “There were real problems there: no security, poor lighting and several problematic buildings nearby that attract undesirables.” The center’s quick turnaround amazes experts familiar with it. Among them is Russell Berusch, vice president for commercial development at Case Western Reserve University, who said he weighed buying Greenlite when he worked at Village Capital Corp., a nonprofit development concern in Cleveland. He did not because he could not figure out how to redo it. 'Not done in Cleveland' Ironically, Messrs. Jablonski and Romer did not plan for Great Lakes Resources to undertake developments. They initially intended to provide consulting services to nonprofit development groups and real estate developers in city neighborhoods. However, Tony Brancatelli, now councilman in Ward 12, changed their direction in 2002 when he was executive director of the nonprofit Slavic Village Development Corp. After Messrs. Romer and Jablonski tried to convince him to commission a real estate study for a bowling alley on Harvard Road that had been empty 14 years, Mr. Brancatelli suggested they just buy it. They did. Today, Great Lakes Resources has completed 200,000 square feet of projects, about 80% of them in Cleveland. The company last year built a Family Dollar store at Kinsman Road and East 143rd Street it sold to an out-of-town investor; it’s now building another on Union Avenue near East 93rd Street. Mr. Jablonski said Great Lakes Resources currently is juggling 25 potential deals in Cleveland or outlying areas, such as Lorain or Tuscarawas counties. However, its city focus remains. “We’re not done in Cleveland,” Mr. Jablonski said. “There’s a lot to do here.”

A deal for the ages IT unit of Virginia economics firm moves to top floor of 78-year-old architect’s Huron Road site; Fleischman stays put on bottom two floors By STAN BULLARD Crain's 6:00 am, March 19, 2007 Architect Richard Fleischman and his wife, stockbroker Helen Moss, have helped bring a new business to downtown Cleveland after selling the Theater District office building that housed his well-known design firm for nearly 20 years. The two-story building was acquired in January by a limited liability corporation formed by executives of Chmura Economics and Analytics Inc., a Richmond, Va.-based consultant that does economic development impact studies and sells related proprietary software. John Chmura, the firm’s director of information technology and a member of 1025 Huron Road LLC, which takes its name from the structure’s address, said the company is using 1,800 square feet on the building’s second floor for its Northeast Ohio office. The architecture firm will remain in place on the first floor and in the building’s basement because it has leased back the space from the new owner. Mr. Chmura said he didn’t want to move to Richmond from his Broadview Heights home, so the company allowed him to establish its information technology offices here. Christine Chmura, his aunt and founder of Chmura Economics, made him an “offer he couldn’t refuse” 18 months ago to head the company’s IT unit as he earned a master’s degree in computer science at Case Western Reserve University. “Originally we were only going to have IT staff here, but we have hired two economists here,” Mr. Chmura said of the Cleveland office, which employs four, including himself. “We were looking for an office condo, but this worked because (Mr. Fleischman) is willing to keep his office here for a few more years.” Mr. Fleischman, 78, said “only age” accounted for the sale, and he has no plan to retire from his practice. He said he and Mrs. Moss are at an age where they want to move to liquid assets from real estate. Mrs. Moss, a Merrill Lynch vice president, is 70. His 20-person practice, devoted to his trademark pursuit of spare, glass-covered Modernist designs, remains strong, Mr. Fleischman said. The two sold the building for $690,000, according to Cuyahoga County land records, a healthy gain from the $250,000 they paid for it in 1988. Even with improvement costs, Mrs. Moss said the building was a good investment. The two-story building reeks of the Fleischman design sensibility. It dates from 1925, but on the inside has contemporary open offices with bright white walls, tall ceilings and openings on the first floor’s street side allowing sunlight to reach basement offices.

Yeah, University Circle seems to make the most sense. Midtown might also work, once the Euclid Corridor is done.

Struggling East Side Market to close March 31 Glenville facility failed to attract tenants Saturday, March 17, 2007 Olivera Perkins Plain Dealer Reporter The East Side Market opened nearly 20 years ago with the hope of turning the Glenville corner of East 105th Street and St. Clair Avenue into a thriving retail and business district. But the city-owned market will close March 31, after at least a decade of struggling to attract more tenants and customers. More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com

I visited Visible Voice yesterday. (Exact address 1023 Kenilworth.) Anyway, *great* bookstore -- I completely agree with theguv. Although the owners bought the old Charing Cross on Detroit, which was antiquarian, they have almost completely shifted their focus. Most of the selection is new books, including a wide fiction selection and lots of nonfiction (including a local interest section). Awesome magazine selection, too -- Believer, No Depression, etc. It's not huge, but it's big enough that you could easily lose a couple hours there browsing. And they did a great job on the space. It has a nice, bright atmosphere but just cozy and cluttered enough. They've got some tables and chairs for reading. And it looks like they already have some readings scheduled... there were flyers near the front door. By itself worth a trip to Tremont if you're at all interested in books!

I *think* a local developer was interested in buying them. It means they would have exclusive rights to build additional stories on the arcade, if/when the neighborhood gets "hot." I'm not sure how this would work, though, considering the Arcade is currently affordable housing for seniors and probably must remain so for a while (considering it was just renovated using low-income tax credits).

8SOG, where are those stats from? NEOCANDO?

I just came back from a trip to the East Coast, where I spent some time in Jersey City and New Haven in addition to NYC. It's striking how much the architecture of the old Connecticut industrial cities (Bridgeport, New Haven) mirrors Cleveland's. Not surprising, though, given our history as a Connecticut province. ;) New Haven has an almost identical mix of doubles, detached Victorians and scattered rowhouses. My friend who lives in New Haven, and who has visited me in Cleveland multiple times, remarked as we drove around "It looks a lot like Cleveland." I had to agree. (And before anyone makes jokes, we were in the nicer areas of New Haven.) Places like Poughkeepsie, N.Y. also remind me a bit of Cleveland in their housing stock. In other words, East Coast housing stock doesn't necessarily = only masonry rowhouses. Especially in New England and upstate New York, there's lots of woodframe. Great thread by the way.

peabody, No, the diner I'm talking about has been long closed. It's not Nicks. It's on the south side of Lorain, attached to the buildings discussed above at 41st and Lorain.

This may have something to do with easements. I believe DSCDO wanted to sell conservation easements for the air rights over the Arcade, to help finance the movie theater. Maybe this upzoning was needed to allow air rights to be sold, which seems a byzantine maneuver!

I agree the bike park is a terrible idea. Something like that would only do well in an area that already has other things to attract people. It is an amenity that can help reinforce an already successful area, but on its own, surrounded by empty lots, it won't have any pull. Why would anyone ride choose to ride their bike on this profoundly depressing site, scarred by a history of abandonment, disinvestment and demolition?

I was in the four buildings that Ellison bought at W. 41st and Lorain last year. The brick building is a beauty, though the interior is in shambles. As for the wood buildings, the two west of the brick building could not be salvaged, in my opinion. They suffered a major fire a few years ago and are mere shells. There's almost nothing to save. However, the wood building right on the corner of W. 41st was in decent shape and deserves to be saved. There's an apartment upstairs, and on the ground floor is a nearly intact 1950s-era diner. I'm disappointed Ellison is tearing it down. I wish the city had already enacted form-based zoning for Lorain Avenue (currently in the works, but unlikely to go before council for another year or two). That would prevent Ellison from building surface parking lots fronting Lorain.

Awesome! The coming of spring is always a great feeling in Cleveland.

In other news, Target is scheduled to open this Sunday.

^^You're right, it's the urban design master's program that's already entirely in Cleveland. There are only about 8 students in that. FrqntFlyr, love that idea. They'd need to partner with a developer that had supplementary plans for the building though (e.g. housing) -- it's gi-normous.

Wasn't Fong talking last year about relocating the entire architecture program here, though -- not just the master's program, which is already largely in Cleveland? Still, good news. It would be cool to have them at Tyler Village, as long as they had a strong street-level presence. That would be a very inspiring building to be in as an architecture student. I also like the idea of the school being on the Flats East Bank, if for no other reason than to ensure that we get some cutting edge architecture down there. (I'm sure the school would want to be involved in the design.)

These companies should both have showrooms in the DoD. From Crain's. Swept together Hoover, Dirt Devil standoff dissolves as a single owner bonds the two and readies to refocus the brands By JOHN BOOTH 6:00 am, March 5, 2007 Theirs is a brand rivalry with Northeast Ohio roots stretching back nearly a century. But now that Hoover and Dirt Devil are corporate siblings, their newly named parent company must get the iconic vacuum cleaner brands to play nice in the same room. “This isn’t about reinvention. This is about refocusing,” said Dave Schiever, vice president of marketing for TTI Floor Care North America, which officially was formed Jan. 31 when Techtronic Industries Co. of Hong Kong finalized its $107 million purchase of Hoover Co. from Whirlpool Corp. “Over the next few months, our immediate attention is establishing that clear and distinct position for both of those brands,” Mr. Schiever said. Techtronic bought Dirt Devil maker Royal Appliance Manufacturing in May 2003. Royal’s Glenwillow headquarters will become TTI Floor Care’s center of operations. Hoover, founded in 1908 in North Canton, built its reputation on upright and canister-style vacuums and carpet scrubbers. Royal, which dates to 1905, introduced the Dirt Devil brand in 1984 with the Dirt Devil Hand Vacuum. Both brands, though, have expanded their lines and put their products head to head over the years. Mr. Schiever said those crossover efforts may have weakened the name power of both brands. “As they’ve broadened their reach as it relates to product offerings, they’ve kind of gotten away from what the brands mean to consumers,” he said. “When that happens, you open the door to competitors.” While Hoover and Dirt Devil have competing products across the board — both sell uprights, canisters, hand-helds, carpet scrubbers and stick-style vacuums — each still has bet the most chips on its historically strongest hands. Dirt Devil’s biggest product launches over the past few years, for example, have been the hand-held Kone vacuum and a reintroduction of the Broom Vac, emphasizing its quick-and-easy philosophy. And though both brands sell uprights, Dirt Devil’s uprights are mostly cheaper models than the $150 to $300 category-leading models upon which Hoover has built its reputation. Carpet steam cleaners and scrubbers also have been a Hoover stronghold. Mr. Schiever doesn’t see either brand exiting a category outright as a result of the Hoover purchase. “There’s a pretty clear differentiation in terms of where each (brand) has its strengths,” Mr. Schiever said. “When you look at today’s marketplace and the ratio (of Hoover and Dirt Devil products) on the shelves, there’s not an enormous amount of overlay. We believe there’s a way to position these products so that they are complementary to one another in growth, but also meaningful to broad segments of purchasers.” While Mr. Schiever said boosting the brands will require “an investment in aggressive marketing,” it’s unclear whether the creation of TTI Floor Care will mean a shift in local advertising accounts. Akhia Public Relations in Hudson and Wyse Advertising in Cleveland both do work for Royal and Dirt Devil, while Hoover’s agency of record is TWBA/Chiat/Day in Los Angeles, with retail marketing work handled by the Pittsburgh office of agency Ten United. “Over the next few weeks, we’ll assess our opportunities from marketing and sales standpoints and look at our resources,” Mr. Schiever said. “Will there be (agency) changes? I don’t know.” Two brands, one booth The impact of the Hoover purchase also will be seen in an expansion at Glenwillow. Hoover’s research and development, currently handled in North Canton and overseas, will be moved alongside its Royal Appliance counterparts in a new R&D center that will house TTI Floor Care’s product designers and engineers. It is unknown how the move will affect Hoover’s North Canton work force, which includes 1,000 employees in research, manufacturing and distribution. At this month’s International Home & Housewares Show, which begins March 11 in Chicago, the Dirt Devil and Hoover brands will be represented at a single booth. “It’s really our first opportunity to sit down with our customers and some of the buyers’ management and shed light on what TTI intends to do with these brands,” Mr. Schiever said. “It’s certainly a much bigger task than what we’ve had in the past.” For all the talk about Hoover and Dirt Devil meshing, though, TTI won’t take the step of creating a floor-care mash-up. “There’s undoubtedly going to be some challenges in sorting through and making sure that what we end up with as a brand proposition is something that can remain differentiated between the two,” Mr. Schiever said. “You’re going to see the brands maintain their separate identities. They do stand for different things, and I think it would be a travesty to try and bring those two things together.”

After reading all the above posts, I'd say live on or just off of W. 25th Street between Lorain and Jay. From there you'll be able to walk to the Rapid, the West Side Market and lots of great restaurants. Many bus lines go through to downtown as well. The one drawback with Detroit Avenue Lofts and Stonebridge is that they're removed from the coolest part of Ohio City, and the walk (15 minutes) isn't pleasant. I have heard the apartments there are great though.

This was posted in the Great RTA thread, but I thought it belonged here too. RTA to sell Euclid Ave. sites to rev development By JAY MILLER 6:00 am, March 5, 2007 .........