smimes

With Breen Technology center moving, this is the perfect opportunity for CVSR to make this a reality.

To me, these numbers are the square footage of office/lab space and do not include the parking components. It simply wouldn't make sense to say the "R&D Center + Parking" is 500,000 sq. ft. Extending that to the HQ, they likely are saying the actual office square footage is 1,000,000 sq. ft.

I have to drive to the steelyard Marshall's or Target. If we're getting fancy, I have to drive out to Beachwood for the mall/Legacy Village. Having the outlet mall at least close to downtown gives a much wider variety of options without having to drive 30 min to the burbs.

Saw crews drilling into the pavement yesterday on the northeast side of the parking lot. I presume it was related to the outlet mall. Sorry, I couldn't get a pic in time.

Come on, show me City Target!

Especially those with buildings over them. I have no problem with parking garages with buildings over them because they activate the space (pending some kind of street presence).

I toured one of these last weekend while they were having an open house. It was super nice. The top floor has two rooftop decks, one facing either side, with a kind of "four-season" room in the middle, which was a really cool part of the house. They are having a "model opening" party tomorrow night to attract buyers. $515,000 was a little steep for us, but when you factor in the 15-year tax abatement, it's comparable to buying a non-tax-abated property for around $350,000.

From the article:

WCPN interviewed the Director of Canalway Partners Tim Donovan and his replacement, Mera Cardenas on a recent episode of The Sound of Ideas. No specific time frame, but it sounds like as soon as Mera gets started, her focus will be canal basin park. https://wcpn.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-ideas/canalway-partners-changes-leadership

I agree that the hyperloop is a scam and wanted to let NOACA my thoughts on the project. So, I commented something along the lines of "Why not just fund high-speed rail instead? A high-speed rail line would get you from Cleveland to Chicago in 1hr 45 min with a technology that actually exists." Their response: Thank you for your comments Robert. NOACA is the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the Cleveland, Geauga, Lorain, Lake and Medina county areas. We are the leading transportation and environmental planning agency that studies and provides analysis for transportation infrastructure projects, systems and mobility access within our region. Due to our planning efforts, NOACA was able to fund 99 local projects totaling $161 million this year alone for transportation improvements to highways, roadways, bridges, trails and access for pedestrians and bicycles. Just as we planned for the appropriateness of the above projects, our focus as a feasibility partner, is to see if the Hyperloop is appropriate for our region. If the feasibility results show that Hyperloop would not be effective, including fare, operations, station locations, environmentally unstable, we will not recommend this system. The feasibility results will be released next month. No federal or government funds have been used toward the feasibility study. System technologies, including magnetic levitation (MAGLEV) that operates like rail, is not new and has been around for decades. This system has been proven to be less expensive and environmentally sustainable over high speed rail and is the reason you do not hear more about funding rail. Areas in Asia, Europe and in the U.S. have operated and created MAGLEV systems that have run within dedicated areas with short distances (ie cross local use and airports). This technology does exists. The U.S. Federal Rail Administration (FRA) will be reviewing grants next month on funding MAGLEV systems because this technology has proven to be sound, effective for passenger travel. The Hyperloop system looks to elevate the travel experience through a more advanced MAGLEV system that will transport cargo and passengers regionally. Yes, the advance of this technology is new and testing tracks have been built by several companies such as Virgin One, Hyperloop One and our partner Hyperloop Transportation Technology (HTT) to ensure system safety based on the speeds of 750 + mph. Hyperloop will be funded primarily by the private sector, while standards, safety policies, regulations would be funded by the public sector. Pricing, fare structures, and fixed guideway structure should not impact public transit funding for other projects. We appreciate your comments and hope that we are able to continue providing more information and results of the study. Please visit our website at www.noaca.org Best, NOACA

Way to break the news Ken! Does this also include the northernmost plot, the site that was formally Stark's HQ? It would be such a shame if they had to build around it. Also, I guess I need to find a new spot to park my car. But that's all right, I'll take filling in those craters any day.

This is the most interesting thing to me. Does Bernie know something we don't? This is the current SW property... Also, I don't know if I'm sold on completely closing down Prospect? Narrowing the street, adding more sidewalk and improving the streetscape would be great, for sure. But, just look at the utilization of public square. It's great in the summer and pretty fully utilized, but not really once the weather turns. I just don't know if there is enough pedestrian demand for Prospect to be completely closed, especially in the winter. I would much rather see pedestrian improvements to both Prospect and Huron before completely closing down Prospect.

Bud. I live on Ontario.... And what you discuss is exactly why that area needs to be revitalized rather than bypassed.

Reno has a bunch of these pedestrian bridges leading straight from their parking garages into the casinos. Want to guess what the livelihood of the street was? Almost none. That stretch of Ontario is one of the most pedestrian-unfriendly roads in all of downtown. This pedestrian bridge is just a way to hide the problem from the casino's patrons instead of actually investing in the future of the area.

If it's anything like the Badeschiff in Berlin, that would be incredible. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Badeschiff/@52.4978644,13.4515841,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x47a84e55b3f927d9:0x1d3d804d4ffad2c8!8m2!3d52.4978612!4d13.4537728

I agree that adding another restaurant, bar, and maybe a coffeshop would be ideal. But, this isn't a bad development. It's a great development. Not every neighborhood needs retail. It adds 545 apartments and 85 townhouses to the lakefront. At 1.5 people per residence that's an additional 945 people living downtown on the lakefront on approximately 16 acres. This is an excellent amount of density. It also has a mix of uses including residential, commercial and a hotel.The hotel is planning on having a restaurant and, with the pedestrian bridge, it's only steps away from Nuevo. And to echo KJP, waterfront restaurants/bars, including the flats, are almost empty in the winter. People just don't get out to these places as much when it's cold. Having a quaint little neighborhood on the water can itself be an attraction. I'm thinking like how people walk around Beacon Hill in Boston. Additionally, this development will be the first thing people from the cruise ships see when they get off, rather than an abandoned sea of parking.

You must have missed the new public STEM school, and the park, and the playground, and the superman statute, and the hotel, and the restaurant.

Just got lunch at Otani Noodle and sat next to three people speaking German. They each had a noodle bowl and a beer. I presume they were from the cruise ship. ?

I know two people who work for SW. Their impression is that SW wouldn't leave the Cleveland region because that would mean uprooting all of the employees and a lot of employees would leave the company to stay with their families, which would then set the company back in terms of institutional knowledge. They think that the headquarters will be downtown to continue to attract talent, but that R&D would be in the suburbs. Apparently the R&D component requires freight truck deliveries which they couldn't see happening downtown. They also said parking is a huge deal for the downtown employees. Apparently if the employee's office is downtown, they have to pay for parking. But if the employee is based out of another office and just visiting the HQ or the Breen Tech Center then parking is complimentary, which apparently is annoying to the people who work downtown every day. My takeaway is that available parking is a big concern for the employees commuting into downtown.

Says it's the Hamburg passenger ship. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/photos/of/ships/shipid:370605/ship_name:HAMBURG

Will this require a bridge tender? It would seem like a safety issue to have this fully automated, but would also seem weird to have someone to sit out there all day to operate this.

I totally agree that the current proposal is completely beefs it. Density can coexist with parking. Here's my ms paint version of what this development should be. The superimposed apartment building is the Westchester Rockville Station Apartments. https://www.equityapartments.com/maryland/rockville/westchester-rockville-station-apartments https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0792566,-77.1391146,274m/data=!3m1!1e3

To provide a healthy walkable neighborhood, you need density. So in that way this plan is a plus. However, small inner courtyards like this are basically a waste of space and detract from neighborhood vitality. That plus the surrounding sea of parking makes this an incredibly inhospitable place for pedestrians. A building surrounding an inner parking garage is second only to underground parking. But, underground parking is exceedingly expensive and probably not viable lower than the river level. Expand each apartment to where the parking is now and surround with walkable greenspace. On the inside, put a multistory parking garage to hold the same number of spots. Ideally, cap the garage with a large greenspace. For an example, look at Flats East Bank. Keep the townhomes, they provide sufficient density and they hide the parking spots inside of them.