CleveFan

Thrilling overtime win tonight for the Cavs - on national TV - 2nd win against the Eastern Conference Champs in a week. On the telecast, Jeff Van Gundy said, “I’d love to watch these two teams play each other every night”. Good times and a very promising start for the Cavaliers. If we can stay healthy - could be a sensational season. Oh and, by the way, some nice downtown shots, including one looking up Euclid Avenue towards a fully lit Terminal Tower - and even some cars and pedestrians on the Avenue - sweet!

Our taxpayer-funded “Steering Committee”….

C’mon @KJPgive us a little something! We don’t mind if you have to be a little vague here and there!

Man, it feels good to have cranes over downtown.

Those writers - or media folk - are just showing they don’t understand Cleveland - it’s actually, by a number of metrics, a very cultural city. I don’t need to list the reasons Anyway - before we go way off topic…

We need more apartments/condos in that area along with more establishments that can draw people outside of theatre hours. Easy to say but it will take hard work, investment and people with vision and the means to make it happen piece by piece. With the number of new apartments coming on line in the last few years within a very short walk , I’m more optimistic about the possibilities.

So cool! Largest theatre district outside Manhattan - let’s do everything we can to highlight it and make the area even more of an incentive to visit and be in. I would LOVE to see more cool spots to dine in and walk through in the district - how ‘bout a piano bar? - and/or a jazz club (Think “Don’t Tell Mama” adjacent to Broadway’s Theatre row) “. Perfect for “after the show” to further activate the district. It would make sense because people are already in the area for the theatres and wouldn’t need to make a special trip to visit the smaller attractions. Playhouse Square is another example of what distinguishes Cleveland from other mid market cities. This is a town with big league attractions and culture. Let’s keep building on that. (And let’s hope for a Lumen 2 - eventually.)

@Ethanthanks for sharing that podcast - great listen, everybody. A couple cliff notes from the podcast- Intro, despite being significantly eclipsed in height by a building in Milwaukee, remains the largest mass timber building by area and volume in North America. You can’t help but be impressed with the pro-Cleveland entrepreneurial energy and savvy of Dan Whalen and his team. The top floor event space at Intro is all ready booked every weekend into 2024 and the new steakhouse, Jaja, sounds like a restaurant experience that everyone in the Cleveland area will want to try. Whalen acknowledges that an Intro 2 project is in the works and that it could be “big”. If you haven’t already, check out the introcleveland.com website for some way cool aerials of the completed project and it’s relationship to downtown - there’s no better views of Cleveland and the lake than from Intro’s top floor perspective - and the potential for further expansion of a 21st century urban lifestyle just outside downtown is really underscored by Intro. There’s zero doubt in my mind - build a quality urban experience for residents in the city - and they will come, quickly and in large numbers. What a great addition to the “landscape”.

Please stop complaining about people offering their opinions in not just the exact way that you think they should articulate them. Geez. If you can’t offer an on- topic opinion about a buildings design one time on this forum - then what fun is it? This is a forum, right? Ok one person likes it and someone else thinks it looks colorless and uninspiring, unworthy of the world-class aspirations of the Cleveland Clinic . We all have the right to express our opinions once and then move on.

@ryanfrazier- I agree with you. Great to see the large investment in the city and what really matters is the large number of people that will now perform life-saving work within it. Bravo. From a design perspective- particularly color-wise - could they have made a more depressing and impersonal (ironically) looking building? I hope the design committee pushes back on that. Just my two cents.

I had originally posted to ask about the status of leasing at Intro - but scrolled up the thread to see Michelle Jarboe’s report in mid August that 297 apartments were 95% leased- a figure even higher than I would’ve guessed. That sure sounds like the perfect data to encourage the move-ahead on phase 2 - I think we’re all dying to hear the news about phase 2 starting. Hope we get a bomb about that from @KJP before the year’s end.

I’m super happy to see the Cheers plan moving forward - and I really hope voters approve the lakefront park plan. I sat in via zoom call on one of the Cheers meetings which surveyed stakeholders on various versions of the plan and one really got the idea this committee was designing one of the smartest and most ambitious lakefront plans in the city’s history. Connectivity for communities on the eastern side of downtown was/is a main theme - along with the “softening” of the shoreline and an emphasis on incorporating natural resources and habitats to beautify the lakefront experience. Embracing and utilizing our greatest natural asset - Lake Erie - could dynamically improve the quality of life for future generations that live in the Cleveland area - hopefully the downtown lakefront will eventually be transformed as well. If we can do that, I really believe Cleveland’s long term future can be extremely dynamic. Most of our greatest cities are on waterfronts - and the cities that most successfully connect residents to their waterfronts have the best chances to prosper even if they are northern cities. It’s my great hope that Cleveland will begin to turn years and years of conversation and planning into reality and that perhaps, a new golden age for this great city is somewhere in the future. The Cheers plan could be a very large step in that direction.

This may not be the most popular opinion but I think any upset over SW not doing enough for the general public on its grounds is misplaced. There are multiple thousands of office buildings around the country that simply serve to advance their companies interest. In most cases, that process is, on its own, a great contributor to its city as it brings employees to its location, contributes to the tax base and benefits other businesses of all kinds in the community. The company’s business is its business and its not usually under the kind of scrutiny that this new SW HQ has been under. If there’s a well known and documented pattern of homeless people sleeping on park benches in the adjacent public square, then SW is wise to ensure that its own grounds are safe for its employees and not used for that purpose. The company has given excellent consideration to the aesthetics of its front lawn and to other aspects of its ground floor aesthetic - and the grounds in front of the Welcome Pavillion will be, most likely, extremely attractive. We can argue about sky bridges and the lack of retail on THEIR property, how tall they could’ve built and whether the tower is that special - but they are no different from most major companies in focusing on the design that they believe works for them. Cleveland will benefit immensely from the optics of their presence and the many direct and indirect benefits to other businesses in the city - for generations to come. I’m really good with that. Really good.

Man, that went up fast! What a great addition to University Circle - loved the shot with downtown in the distance (all great shots actually) . Proud to have this tower in town - hopefully, it fills up quickly and we can get yet another residential tower at UC!

@NorthShore647is photog of the year on the Northeast Ohio developments page! I’m licking my chops thinking how great of an addition SW will be to that skyline!

This baby is going to start rising quickly. It’s gonna be a dynamic look for downtown while this and SW start going vertical at roughly the same time. Love it!

To the main point, great to see life of some/any kind at Tower City - anytime. I just find it interesting that they set up the stage in front of “the park” display - strange spot considering seating for an audience.

Congrats Guards! An amazing unpredictable story - it would be equally amazing to see them win this first round in the playoffs! Go CLE!

Pretty scary - the opinion offered by commissioner Julie Trott and her sidekick, Michele Anderson - shaking my head Big Time! Do they think they’re living in Rootstown? (Sorry, not intending to pick on Rootstown - I’m sure it’s very nice there.) Bridgeworks would be a transformational project for that site in Ohio City I’ll be rooting hard for this project to receive TMUD money. Let’s keep building, Cleveland!

Oh my God. How many studies and master plans will there be before anything is ever done? Was hoping I could see something in my lifetime…….

And it should be noted that we have world class signage up!

I’m not concerned about a narrative that UC is passing downtown as a jobs or residential hub. University Circle IS Cleveland. Obviously, NEOtrans gives an eye-opening analysis comparing the downtown core with UC - and I bet many folks (myself included) didn’t realize just how close the numbers between jobs and residents in the two districts are. But the most important takeaway is how UC is a big part of the turnaround of a city that was a bit on the ropes not long ago. UC’s growth and vibrancy is a source of pride for the city and will only add to the perception of Cleveland as an attractive, vital urban center. And if downtown is motivated to up its game by UC’s dynamic growth - then it really is a win-win for the region. How successful (or not) downtown is in luring new employers will be fascinating to watch.

How likely is it that there will be a phase 2 tower?

Does anyone know how far along they are in the study/process of determining whether to renovate or replace the Justice Center? I have no idea why ( except that some people are getting paid while the proverbial can gets kicked down the road) but it seems to be a very long timeline.

It’s an uninspired project in a strategic spot - and that’s unfortunate - but at least it’s continuing a pretty amazing couple of years in Cleveland development - and the trend towards downtown residential. There’s room for more exciting projects yet to come - and I can’t wait to see what’s just over the horizon.