ML11

I don't venture into the sports forum often, but great to see an informed soccer convo here. Cleveland is obviously a great sports town on a pound-for-pound basis, but I think we're a bit over-extended already with 3 major league sports teams. Cincinnati works for MLS because they only have 2 existing teams, but there simply aren't enough corporate dollars or people to go around to support a new MLS team in Cleveland at this point. The early 2000's bid was at a different time for MLS, when expansion teams joined for less than $10mil and the Rochester Rhinos were a serious expansion contender. THAT SAID, I think a USL team could still be a really good fit. A ~10,000 seater similar to Louisville's could be a really useful venue for downtown or inner Cleveland. A partnership with CSU and/or local high schools could see that venue host 50+ events per year. Cleveland is one of the largest markets in the country without a professional team in the first two tiers, so I think it's only a matter of time before a group comes together. My hope is that they have a plan based around a new central location, and don't go the lazy route of playing at Byers Field or Browns Stadium. As for Cleveland SC, I'm glad to see some new energy pumped into the local scene, but the location is a major bummer for me. It would be virtually impossible for me to convince a group of friends to spend a summer weekend night at a game in the middle of a residential east-side suburban neighborhood.

An "Urban Ikea" would be ideal, and there is plenty of prime space downtown for it. I wouldn't be surprised if traffic is down a bit to their suburban super-stores. Who wants to spend a day wandering through that maze/hellscape when comparable products can be ordered and shipped online from Wayfair or a million other alternatives?

Lucky's was packed last night around 7pm. Despite the crowd and it being 1 week old, I thought the operation was really smooth, and as long as they keep the prices reasonable, that'll be my new default grocery store. While I selfishly would love a Cava (mediterranean fast-casual that's rapidly expanding from the D.C. area), I'm not sure if the parking lot can sustain Lucky's, Chipotle and another restaurant around rush hour / dinner time.

Nice, haven't seen this reported anywhere. Hoping some places can stick in the area as more density is added.

Happy weekend all, Millennia Cos officially buys 925 building: http://realestate.cleveland.com/realestate-news/2018/05/millennia_buys_downtown_clevel.html

There is no chance the Haslams (or any other prospective Browns owner) would pay for this themselves. I agree that opening up the lakefront would be ideal, but it depends on what the terms would be, and I'm highly doubtful they would be favorable for Cleveland. Meanwhile, if you look closely at the Lucas Oil schedule, it's mostly minor league soccer games and parties in the club level. The additional events you could potentially host with a mega-dome in Cleveland: Super Bowl (one time), Big Ten Football championship (once every 5-10 years), Final Four (once), College Football Championship (maybe once), large winter concert (maybe once per year), large convention (maybe once every few years).

Unlike ballparks and arenas, a football stadium's use is limited to (at best) 15-20 events per year, and even those events are just incentives to leave seas of parking around the stadium. Even though that is the case in Cleveland, we actually have one of the best-connected stadiums in the NFL with some spillover to Warehouse District, East 9th and downtown hotels. I'd welcome some additional development around Browns stadium, but i'm skeptical that A) a football stadium can help "anchor" anything, and B) that lakefront development can be successful without resolving the Shoreway issue. The problem with adding a roof (other than cost and losing your team's local character), is that there is no guarantee it would actually make the facility more useful. There are so many NFL-sized indoor venues now that competing for events with established northern venues in Detroit, Indy and Minneapolis would be no slam dunk.

Great news if this is indeed moving forward. Have to imagine that this project would also inject some life into the 925 deal. Amazing to think of what this block could be in 5 years if JHB, 925, and the CAC project are all completed.

That whole corner surrounding Detroit/Lake is a challenge. You have the BK / Lucky's pizza parking lot complex, then across lake you have a beaten down gas station, and then two empty fields on opposite ends of the Blazing Saddles block. It'll be a major turning point if any of these spots see some new investment.

American's prices to Philly are insane, even with 5 daily weekday flights. I assume it's mostly business travelers, but for a 1-hour flight I have never seen prices lower than $550 round-trip, and they are almost always $700+ in my experience.

Good news on the Savannah flight additions. That area (including Charleston) is great to visit in the colder months, but painfully difficult & expensive to get to from Cleveland for a shorter trip. As consistently terrible as United's service is, I still hate to see us lose multi-airline routes. Need the competition to keep prices reasonable.

Disappointing, especially after some early rumors had grocery store chains looking into the location.

Can confirm that the Smallman Galley in Pittsburgh is an awesome place. I try to go almost every time I'm down there. Great addition to the neighborhood/city.

I can't believe they're going to spend $6 million on a bridge in that location.

I know the location isn't as close to the stadium district, but with Nucleus very much in the air, why wouldn't Gilbert try his own "LIVE" concept in Tower City, and turn a big part of the space into a mixed entertainment destination? I'm not crazy about these in other cities, but it seems like a few adjustments and renovations would allow for this to exist in the southern end of TC. There is already the tunnel from TC to the Q, so he could tie it into all the events at the Q AND the casino. If I know anything about @CavsDan, he wants to grab every last dollar that his events generate (see: flashseats). Plus, if he has any ambition to have more than parking along the river, then this could be a made into a solid year-round destination. And if it's able to attract additional foot traffic, it would only push up the value of the remaining retail space.

This was a nice little cafe/bar with a mini-market in the back. I stopped in a few times, but unless you were is a huge rush, there wasn't a great reason to visit the market portion. It seemed to be stocked inconsistently, and there wasn't a huge variety there. As a beer/wine store, you have much better selection up the road at Banter or (slightly further) Astoria. These neighborhood market concepts seem to be tough to launch - even the market selection at Astoria was scaled back pretty early on in favor of more tables. Hopefully some added density around BP will make it more feasible for neighborhood businesses to succeed in the future.

According to this article in Scene, turnout was cut in half between 2001 and 2013 (and I don't see any signs it'll be up much from 2013 this year): https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2017/11/07/in-frank-jackson-era-voter-turnout-for-mayoral-elections-has-plummeted Really highlights the bad options Cleveland voters have available. I think Jackson has been OK, and I'll vote for him over a candidate like Reed, but it's sad how no legitimate challengers have risen. I'm wondering if some of the people who stayed on the sideline (Ronayne, Zone, etc.) are wishing they'd taken a chance now that Jackson looks somewhat vulnerable. Hopefully someone can arrive on the scene by 2021 who has substance, and actually energizes people to vote at better than 20% turnout.

Riding my bike around the neighborhood on Friday, I ran into a couple guys who were cleaning out the old Anthony's Hardware building on Bridge and 47th. There were a few small signs up in the window promising a new store, and they said they're planning to open a new market that would have specialty African and Caribbean grocery items (as well as traditional American staples.) Needs a decent amount of work, but could be a nice addition to the neighborhood, and glad to see someone revamping that building.

The $100 million estimate seems optimistic based on the size of what they're proposing, but I'd rather wait and spend significantly more on something (potentially) transformative to this part of the lakefront, than settle for a 14 foot-wide bridge.

I took WOW from Boston last summer (connecting on to Germany) and had a decent experience, but there was definitely a "low-cost" element to it. It was certainly a cool experience to land in Iceland at 3am local time and watch the airport come to life as more and more connecting flights landed between NA and Europe. Seeing the sun up around that time was also pretty sweet! The major advantage to IcelandAir is that although it's relatively low-cost, it generally flies into Primary airports in Europe, as opposed to the B or C airports that many of the cheapo airlines (like Wow and Norwegian) fly into. I'm curious to see what the pricing will look like for this. Although there is no direct competitor to Europe from CLE, they'll also be competing with people who connect through Newark or Chicago or Toronto instead of Keflavik. I generally try to use miles for bigger trips, but if the price is right I would absolutely consider this option.

As long as Reed and Johnson both stay in, I think they'll fight for the same votes to the left of Jackson. Despite the DUI's, Reed does seem more viable and thoughtful than Johnson. (Although his "Safety First" campaign slogan is hilarious in that context.) I think Frank would also be vulnerable in some of the western half of the city, but I don't see anyone consolidating the opposition to him in those areas. At the end of the day, the more people on the ballot, the better it is for the Mayor. And the establishment support will probably be enough to put him over the top in a 9-person primary.

Ugh, losing Parkview would be a huge bummer. It's places like Parkview that make the neighborhoods worth living in in the first place. If it's replaced or "moved" into a bland modern building, you might as well just open a Bar Louie.

Looking at the 2nd of the 4 renderings above, it looks like the main car access will be a driveway extension from Frascati, at the corner of W70th. If they do punch through a street between 70th and 73rd, I imagine that would take some traffic away from the intersection at 70th & Detroit (which has a light), and then maybe the light could move to 73rd. Having lights at both would be a mess IMO.

Interesting as I thought there was some talk of a higher-density project going in that space. I think it could certainly handle it with the ramp to the 73rd street shoreway entrance being in the front yard, although that would probably not please some Battery Park and West 70th Street residents. My secondary question would be whether this would involve punching through Herman (or any other street) to link the northern part of Gordon Square with Battery Park and the 73rd St. ramp?

Unfortunately it's a tough market to be attracting new retail right now with major store closings happening all over the map. This article tells part of the story, but basically retail has been way over-expanded for decades, and the internet has only accelerated the industry's issues: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-24/u-s-stores-are-too-big-too-boring-and-too-expensive There are still a few exceptions that could move the needle, but it's going to be tough to convince a lot of major retail brands to expand when there are stores closing all over the map. An Apple Store would be an obvious boon (have to drive to Crocker Park or Eaton currently), or luring some form of an Amazon Store would definitely be a draw. Otherwise, I think it's all Food/Bev until downtown gets to at least 25K residents, and eventually the Food/Bev dollars have to run out.