Larry1962

With Turn, Ritz-Carlton puts new spin on 'hotel restaurant' Chef Richard Arnoldi of the Ritz-Carlton Cleveland refuses to think of his realm in the conventional terms of a "hotel restaurant," he said. His perspective is thoughtfully grounded, more than a culinary flight of fancy. That makes sense, considering that about 70% of the Ritz-Carlton's dining guests are locals, Arnoldi said, quickly substantiating that surprising number. Some locals are drawn simply by curiosity. The Ritz-Carlton marquee carries a certain mystique, after all. Remember, too, that during the decades leading up to Cleveland's restaurant renaissance, many of the city's hotel dining rooms ranked among their era's foremost destinations: the Kon Tiki at the Sheraton-Cleveland, Marie Schreiber's Tavern Chop House at the Hollenden House, the Keg and Quarter at Jim Swingos' Celebrity Inn, the French Connection at Stouffer's Inn on the Square. More at: http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20180401/news/156656/turn-ritz-carlton-puts-new-spin-hotel-restaurant

The 15 Ohio counties with the most (and 15 counties with the least) grocery stores per 1,000 people The United States Department of Agriculture tracks the number of grocery stores in every county in the United States and compares those figures to the population of those counties using the latest census figures. Using the USDA’s most recent data from 2014, we came up with the 15 counties that boast the most grocery stores per 1,000 people, and the 15 that have the least per 1,000 people. The government agency defines a grocery store as a supermarket with a variety of departments and products, disqualifying small convenience stores and gas stations that sell snacks. # 13. Cuyahoga Population: 1,280,122 Grocery stores: 294 Stores per 1,000 people: .23 Just because Cuyahoga County is high on this list doesn't mean that everyone here has easy access to a grocery store. Cleveland, for example, has a number of food deserts, and research suggests that a significant portion of the city's population is food insecure. A map of the county's food deserts (which are defined as low income areas in which the majority of residents live at least a half-mile from a grocery store or supermarket) compiled by the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission found that such deserts are clustered in neighborhoods like St. Clair-Superior, Old Brooklyn, Glenville, Collinwood, Hough, Fairfax and Cudell. Even suburbs like Bedford and Cleveland Heights have food deserts. "The lack of supermarket is litmus test for inequity," said Case Western Reserve University Associate Professor Darcy Freedman, whose research involves reducing inequity through healthier communities. "It doesn't just mean you don't have a supermarket, it means you don't have the infrastructure to support one." Around 61 percent of Cleveland lives below 200 percent of the federal poverty rate, which qualifies them for food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Freedman said. Cuyahoga County's low income residents are often "underpaid and underemployed," Freedman said. "And with many of the jobs available, even if you work full time you would not have enough money to support your family and cross the threshold" of 200 percent of the federal poverty level. According to data from the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, 456,000 county residents live more than a half-mile from a supermarket, and 193,000 live more than a mile from one. That distance is particularly vexing for the elderly and people who don't own cars, said Roger Sikes, a program manager for the Creating Health Communities program at the Cuyahoga County Board of Health.

Glad to see this development fill up quick! Just with all of the talk on UO about out of state people moving into the CLE area, are you one of them?

Ohio capital budget includes $58.4 million for Cuyahoga County projects out of total of $147 million for community projects for the state. In 2016 only $160 million was given out state wide, but greater Cleveland received more than $30 million. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/03/263_billion_ohio_capital_budge.html http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/12/rowing_center_rtas_brookpark_s.html

With this new tower they think that it will over time help to increase property values of their other buildings and also with the increase of high end residents, it will help to get more retail and restaurants to PHS!

More CONDOS!

This is the three floor old furniture store at W25 and Chatham that he's redoing the third floor for his home with a nice penthouse/decks added to the roof of the building. He's trying to get retail, office, and or a restaurant on the first two floors.

^ The City of Cleveland Authorizes the Sale of Property Adjacent to The Great Lakes Towing Company Headquarters for the Expansion of Great Lakes Shipyard in Order to Operate at Full Capacity Year-Round 06/22/2016 The City of Cleveland unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing the Directors of Economic Development and Public Utilities to enter into a Project Agreement with The Great Lakes Towing Company for the sale and development of property located generally at Crescent Avenue and West 53 Street adjacent to Great Lakes Shipyard at 4500 Division Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio. The land acquisition consisting of Parcels A, B & C will take place in three (3) phases. The expansion of Great Lakes Shipyard will include an approximately 68,000 square foot facility that will accommodate the state-of-the-art 770-ton mobile Marine Travelift crane (the 3rd largest in the world and largest on the Great Lakes) in order for the Shipyard to operate at full capacity year-round. The expansion will also include relocation of the current parking lot to make way for reconfiguration of the company’s existing site, to further increase efficiencies and capacity. Damen Partnership The Great Lakes Towing Company & Great Lakes Shipyard have entered into a partnership with Damen Shipyards, in which Damen will provide engineering for its proven designs and Great Lakes Shipyard will receive full construction, design and engineering support from Damen. Great Lakes Shipyard plans to build two (2) new Damen-designed tugboats each year for the next five (5) years at the Shipyard’s facility in Cleveland, Ohio. Additionally, Damen will provide design and engineering services for the expansion of the shipyard and new 68,000 square foot facility. http://thegreatlakesgroup.com/2016/06/22/the-city-of-cleveland-authorizes-the-sale-of-property-adjacent-to-the-great-lakes-towing-company-headquarters-for-the-expansion-of-great-lakes-shipyard-in-order-to-operate-at-full-capacity-year-round

^ It would be nice with KEY TOWER redoing their mall plaza area for them to buy the eagles and add it to their design layout since they was located at that site!!!

Per Google Flight: WOW is seasonal with their last flights in October. Icelandair is year round, I found their scheduled flights thru next Feb 2019.

GREAT!!!

^ Did some more research and found out that they out BOTH SEASONAL SERVICE ONLY..... https://www.inspiredbyiceland.com/plan-your-trip/travel-to-iceland/flights

IS the new Wow air and Icelandic air seasonal service or year round?

Collision Bend Brewing Co. named best brewpub in U.S. Collision Bend Brewing Co. - which has been opened just less than a year - has been named best brewpub in the nation in USA Today's 10Best Readers Choice competition. The media organization operates voting-driven contests annually in various categories, including several beer-centric ones. Beer experts nominated 20 entries in each category, but voting was up to the public. Collision Bend Brewing Co. grabbed the top spot among best brewpub hopefuls and never looked back. Great Lakes Brewing Co. was nominated in two categories. The Ohio City brewery finished in fifth place in the best beer label contest for Nosferatu, its Imperial Red Ale (Space Lettuce from Monday Night Brewing in Atlanta won). It came in sixth for best brewery tour (New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Asheville, North Carolina, won.) The city of Cleveland finished fourth as best beer scene in the country (St. Louis won). The contest aimed to restrict people to one vote per person per day per category. Voting began in February. Collision Bend brewer Luke Purcell called the win "a neat thing." He said the brewery encouraged people to vote, and even had a promotional push for votes at the recent Winter Warmer Fest , which was held this month at Windows on the River in Cleveland.

Forest City board gives itself a breather -- for a week Forest City Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: FCE.A) announced Wednesday, March 21, after the stock market closed that it has extended its deadline for nominations of directors to its board for another week, to 5 p.m. March 28. The board had previously said it would abandon the search for additional investments and alternatives by the March 21 deadline. However, the company had not spoken to the status of the review of alternatives by 4:50 p.m. Wednesday, March 21. Forest City's board is on a quest to increase stock value for its shareholders. The company's current book value is about $5.5 billion, while the company itself values its assets at $8.1 billion. The company is principally engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition of office, apartment and retail real estate throughout the United States. Of late it has styled itself as a developer of mixed-use office, residential and amenity retail properties. Bloomberg had previously reported that Forest City was in talks with Brookfield Property Partners, the real estate unit of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management, to buy the Cleveland-based real estate titan. If the two had been able to strike a deal, final consummation of the transaction might not occur until 2021 due to federal tax reasons associated with Forest City's conversion in 2016 to a real estate investment trust. Brookfield Property Partners is one of the world's largest commercial real estate companies, with approximately $68 billion in total assets. Brookfield Asset Management is a global alternative asset manager with more than $285 billion in assets under management. http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20180321/news/155686/forest-city-board-gives-itself-breather-week?CSAuthResp=1%3A%3A136317%3A24%3A24%3Asuccess%3A28C382166946FEE9EA45535F086EAEB1

If this building leases out pretty quickly, watch for Playhouse Square to take on another development project that may be of lesser scale but still exciting. In late 2016, PHS Foundation bought the parking lot across Chester from the Greyhound station, which will likely become a development site someday. And I've often heard that the Cowell & Hubbard building and/or the Sterling Building were built so it could be topped by a taller building. The C&H building is owned by PHS Foundation while the Sterling and the big parking lot behind it was bought two years ago by Sterling Linder Holdings LLC, which is affiliated with a tenant, BlueBridge Networks. There's going to be a "next expansion" of PHS. Question is, where and what will it be? Lot's of city owned land by Greyhound too. There were some rumors of the Greyhound station relocating at one point. This is from a Apr 15, 2016 Michelle Jarboe story in The Plain Dealer: Parking-lot deal near Playhouse Square sets stage for mixed-use development A lease deal approved this week at the edge of Cleveland's theater district sets the stage for mixed-use development to supplant another downtown parking lot. Cleveland City Council signed off Monday on an agreement to lease and eventually sell a publicly-owned parking lot to the Shaia family's Victory Properties, Inc. The surface lot, at 1325 Chester Ave., sits north of the Playhouse Square theaters, between the Greyhound bus station and the Reserve Square apartment complex. Paul Shaia, vice president at Shaia's Parking and Victory Properties, said his family will resurface and spruce up the 140-space lot, adding lighting and landscaping. He expects that work to be finished before mid-July, when crowds are scheduled to converge downtown for the Republican National Convention. But Shaia has bigger ambitions for the site, a 1.2-acre piece of pavement flanked by other real estate that could be bundled together and built on. "I hope we have something exciting to talk about in a couple of years - or sooner," said Shaia, whose family operates downtown parking lots and has owned nearby properties for decades. Cleveland flagged the Chester Avenue lot as a development site in 2014, when the city solicited proposals from potential buyers. Victory Properties was the only bidder, but it still took almost two years to hash out a deal that involves a five-year lease and a purchase option. From the start, the city asked for long-term plans involving at least 250 parking spaces, street-level activity instead of blank garage walls and either retail, offices, residences or service businesses - or a mix of those uses. Victory will study those development possibilities, but the company doesn't have a firm plan yet. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2016/04/parking-lot_deal_near_playhous.html

More cranes! More cranes!

Techstars doles out tough love for Cleveland's startup community Contrary to popular belief, Northeast Ohio doesn't really need more venture capital to take its startup scene to the next level — at least not according to Chris Heivly of Techstars, which runs business accelerators all over the world. What it really needs, in his view, is a cultural shift: People in the local business community need to do whatever they can to help entrepreneurs succeed — even if they might not benefit from it. "The new rule is, we're 'give first,' and that's all there is to it," he said. Techstars has been analyzing Northeast Ohio's startup scene and working on a plan to improve it — a plan paid for by a group of local entrepreneurs who so far have raised about $40,000 in online donations. Heivly laid out that plan in detail at the City Club of Cleveland on Tuesday, March 13. After interviewing dozens of local entrepreneurs and people who work with them, Heivly said he learned that there's a decent amount of early stage entrepreneurial activity in Northeast Ohio — but he got the sense that it's been stuck at roughly the same level for three to five years. How strong is Cleveland's startup community? It earned a 3 on a 7-point scale created by Techstars. http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20180314/news/154916/techstars-doles-out-tough-love-clevelands-startup-community

Dyngus Day 2018: Schedule announced for Cleveland's Polish street party and parade Get ready to party in the streets, Polish-style. Plans for Cleveland's annual Polish street party, aka Dyngus Day, have been announced. The Polish day of revelry meant to throw off the restrictions of Lent takes places on Easter Monday, April 2 this year. Since it was imported to Cleveland from Buffalo in 2011, the event hosted by DJ Kishka has brought thousands of revelers to the Gordon Square area. Last year's festivities brought an estimated 40,000 people to polka, party, eat pierogi and drink pivo. In Poland, the holiday known as Smigus-dyngus is celebrated by playfully whipping wet pussy willows at friends and family. In Cleveland, it's celebrated by feasting on Polish food and beer and taking in the Dyngus parade and pageant. The Eighth Annual Cleveland Dyngus Day continues to grow. It will be held from 10 a.m. - 2 a.m., headquartered in the Detroit Shoreway Neighborhood with festivities in Tremont, Hingetown and Ohio City. Free trolleys will run between the areas from 2 - 8 p.m. Dyngus Day in American took root decades ago in Buffalo. It began in Cleveland in the Detroit-Shoreway area when DJ Kishka (aka Justin Gorski), Happy Dog owners Sean Watterson and the late Sean Kilbane, and Parkview Tavern owner Norm Plonski imported the idea from Buffalo. http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/03/dyngus_day_2018_schedule_annou.html http://clevelanddyngus.com/

IHeartMedia, owner of 12 radio stations in Northeast Ohio, files for bankruptcy IHeartMedia Inc., the biggest U.S. radio-station owner, filed for bankruptcy with a plan to halve its debt load of more than $20 billion, the legacy of a leveraged buyout that hobbled the company as the digital era spawned new rivals. IHeart, with about 850 radio stations and 17,000 employees worldwide, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Wednesday in Houston, a move that allows iHeart to keep operating while it tries to cement its turnaround plan. The deal still needs approval from the court and some holdout creditors, and the company could hear again from John Malone's Liberty Media, which has said it wants a stake in the reorganized media giant. IHeart owns 12 radio stations in the Cleveland and Akron markets , according to its website. In Cleveland, the roster includes Majic 105.7-FM, 106.5-FM The Lake, 96.5 KISS FM, 99.5 WGAR-FM, 100.7 WMMS -- The Buzzard and Newsradio WTAM 1100-AM.The Akron stations are WKDD-FM/98.1, WHLO-AM/640 and Fox Radio 1350-AM. The Canton stations are Rock 106.9-FM, My 101.7-FM and 99.7 FM. http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/03/iheartmedia_major_us_radio-sta.html

Young entrepreneurs to make pitches for $50K in prizes during Morgenthaler-Pavey competition Six startups will compete for $50,000 in prizes Thursday as part of a program at Case Western Reserve University that honors legendary investor David Morgenthaler. Each of the contestants competing in the first-ever Morgenthaler-Pavey Startup Competition have at least one current CWRU student or recent alumni on board. The cash prizes, provided primarily by JumpStart, are $25,000 for first place, $15,000 for second and $10,000 for third place. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2018/03/young_entrepreneurs_to_make_pi_1.html

Which Ohio counties have the most fast-food restaurants per 1,000 people? You probably don't need this post to tell you that fast-food restaurants are everywhere, but they're more prominent in some parts of the state than others. So where are the most fast-food restaurants in Ohio? To answer that question, we looked to a USDA survey of restaurants and grocery stores. The agency tracks the number of fast food restaurants in every county in the United States and calculates the number of restaurants per capita in each, using census data. The department defines a fast food restaurant as any limited service restaurant in which customers pay before receiving their food. Restaurants that deliver, such as Jimmy John's or Pizza Hut, are included in USDA's fast food figures. One imagines that enormous counties like Cuyahoga (home of Cleveland) and Franklin (home of Columbus), which have thousands of burger joints between them, would have the most per capita. But the numbers say otherwise. Rural counties, with mid-sized cities at their centers, actually top that list. Eateries like McDonald's and Wendy's are sure bets in cities like Norwalk and Washington Court House - which both have populations under 20,000 - said Sam Oches, an Athens native and an editor of the restaurant trade publication QSR. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/03/post_380.html

Philips Healthcare laying off at least 65 Ohio employees, it says in letter to state Philips Healthcare, which moved its nuclear medicine headquarters to Northeast Ohio from Silicon Valley and qualified for millions in state money seven years ago, has told the state it is permanently laying off at least 65 employees. The company told the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services the layoffs are due to a business reorganization. The company didn't say who was being let go but identified positions that were being eliminated - from assemblers to technical writers. We anticipate that there will be further layoffs throughout 2018 and we will update this notice as appropriate," the company said in the letter dated Feb. 20 . Bret Crow, a spokesman for Job and Family Services, said the agency hasn't received any updates about more jobs going away since it sent the letter. Last month, the company announced on its website that manufacturing would stop at its Highland Heights facility in the second half of the year. It said that in its place, the Cleveland-area location would become a research and development facility for Philips' computed tomography and advanced molecular imaging. http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2018/03/philips_laying_off_at_least_65.html

Bac Asian American Bistro & Bar and also the Ninja City Kitchen & Bar announcing they are moving into the Old City Libations spot in Cleveland's Gordon Square neighborhood. The restaurant signed a lease with the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization and is expected to open at 6706 Detroit Avenue in late spring or early summer, the group said in a release. The location was recently occupied by Old City Libations, which closed in mid-September. The restaurant and bar is owned by Bac Nguyen and Dylan Fallon. When reached Friday afternoon, Nguyen said he is excited about the opening, and the restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner. Ninja City, which will be in a building that dates to 1917, will feature "creative interpretations of Asian classics, combined with American comfort foods/pub fare with an Asian twist," the DSCDO said in the release. The lease deal doesn't just forecast the opening of a restaurant, it signals a vested interest Nguyen has in the area. Adam Rosen, economic development marketing director at DSCDO, said Nguyen is enthusiastic about The Hire Local Initiative. DSCDO launched that effort in 2017 with The Centers for Families and Children. It aims to match neighborhood residents to jobs with local businesses. http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/03/trio_restaurant_to_move_into_b.html http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/03/ninja_city_kitchen_bar_signs_g.html

Trio restaurant to move into Bac Asian space in Tremont Trio - the new restaurant from 111 Bistro owners Meghan Pender and Anthony Scolaro - will be located in the space occupied by Bac Asian American Bistro & Bar, chef Anthony Scolaro said Wednesday. The move is part of a recent restaurant shift, with Bac Asian announcing it is moving into the Old City Libations spot in Cleveland's Gordon Square neighborhood. Scolaro said Trio is expected to open in "early to mid June." Scolaro and Pender - graduates of the University of Akron's hospitality management program - have owned 111 Bistro in Medina for four years. They have envisioned a chance to stretch their culinary boundaries for some time, but the Tremont expansion came up quickly, he said. "It was kind of something we didn't necessarily see coming," he said. "We kind of had this opportunity come up. We were involved in a whole other project when we got the phone call to check this place out." https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/03/trio_restaurant_to_move_into_b.html