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Downtown Sandusky continues to impress - they just wrapped up a big streetscaping/road diet project for Columbus Avenue, it looks great! Honestly there's very few small Ohio cities doing as cool of things as Sandusky has been doing

It's kinda a neat building but it's also just a slightly revamped old IHOP building, so nothing too special. It's a pretty popular bar with students, so it is sad to see it go, but that corner has horrible landuse with that giant parking lot - These proposals not interfering with any actual historic buildings is a win in my opinion.

Hey everyone - I actually moved out of Ohio and am in Chicago these days. If there's any interest from people here, I was thinking of doing some occasional posts that briefly highlight some development news happening in Chicago! There's some good Chicago development news sources, but I wish they had a good forum like UrbanOhio! Anyways, here's some recent projects and some links to their Chicago YIMBY article in the titles (which is a great source for Chicago development news!) Plan Commission Approves 1333 N. Kingsbury Street in Near North Side This is a pretty exciting project in the Near North Side, by the former Cabrini-Green site. This 23-story 272 unit tower will be replacing a surface parking lot. This neighborhood has a ton of potential and is densifying a lot recently - it's right on the Chicago River, served by the North/Clyburn Red Line station, and a 10 minute walk to River North/Downtown. (It's the one in the foreground in this pic) Residential Mid-Rise Proposed For 227 W Chicago Avenue In River North This 10-story 56-unit midrise will be located right next door to the Chicago Ave. Brown/Purple Line station on a vacant lot formerly occupied by a one-story commercial building. This will bring some much needed infill to the western half of River North, which is oddly still full of parking lots or other low density buildings - there's a BP gas station right next to the site for example! New Plans Revealed For 1200 W Carroll Avenue In Fulton Market The West Loop/Fulton Market continues to expand further west away from the Loop. This project will bring a 30-story 398 unit tower to what is currently a vacant former industrial site. Previously, a 14-story office building was planned for this site in 2021, but fell through. Community Development Commission Approves Funding For Next Phase Of Southbridge Lastly, a 12-story 80-unit mixed-income building is coming to a very underdeveloped part of the South Loop as part of Chicago Housing Authority's Southbridge redevelopment project. This will be a great TOD located adjacent to the Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line station, an area which is currently full of vacant land. It's also a 5 minute walk from Chinatown and the more glamorous parts of the South Loop.

It's really disappointing because, although the freeway's annoying, it doesn't create a huge barrier for pedestrians using the Oak Street Bridge between OTE/Parsons and Downtown. Now, there's gonna be a new loud high speed intersection to cross with 3 new lanes of pavement... It's disappointing because I think the neighborhood around Topiary Park has a ton of redevelopment potential due to its walkability to Parsons/OTE, but this is gonna really emphasize the physical divide that keeps that area from really taking off like OTE has I also just lament the idea of putting a big road behind this otherwise quaint walkable corridor (Parsons), but if they successfully save the vacant building at Parsons & Franklin in the process, I guess I cant complain too much

If nothing else, it's a pretty good spot for a small greenspace to act as a gateway into the Trolley District

Developer's $12 Million Plan for Steubenville Sinclair Building Seeks Local & State Contributions https://wtov9.com/news/local/developers-12m-plan-for-sinclair-building-seeks-local-state-collaboration This is a pretty ambitious plan, and I'm skeptical that it'll get done, but it's really encouraging to see some plans being made to renovate one of Steubenville's historic highrises. The plan seems to be retail on the first level with market rate apartments above. It's a really beautiful building from 1915 - restoring it would be an amazing way to honor the city and the whole Valley's history. Apparently the developers only need to fill a $2 million gap in funding to get the project going - although, maybe I'm just pessimistic, but it seems too good to be true for a developer to take a leap of faith like this in a city like Steubenville Downtown Steubenville still has a long way to go, but it's seen a lot of reinvestment, particularly from people affiliated with Franciscan University. The annual Nutcracker Village Festival in particular has grown into a huge driver of tourism for the town in particular. Fourth Street has also seen a couple new businesses including Chesterton & Co. Cigars (which I think is drawing some people from around the wider region in) and Steubenville Grocery Box, which is a fresh food market with both programs for low income shoppers and people who want to purchase healthy local products.

I think it's interesting that there's a residential component planned - was that always part of the plan? I'm kinda surprised OSU would want to do that, but frankly the land use on West Campus is way too inefficient. Turning Carmenton into more of a mixed use neighborhood rather than an extension of campus that's only active from 9-5 is probably a better outcome. Especially with the planned NW BRT going through the area and the proposed transit improvements along Woody Hayes/Woodruff, I'm excited to see them go more with a mixed use model

I'd have to see the original design, but I guess my point is - is more greenspace really a good use of land in this area? We already have Dorian Green and the entire Scioto Mile within a block, and I'd argue both are already underutilized. I think that's enough greenspace personally, I'd rather see more density and perhaps some renovations to existing greenspace nearby to make it more neighborhood-oriented.

I have to really disagree here... Especially with no central greenspace. Dorian Green has integrated really well into the Scioto Peninsula and went from an award front yard for COSI to a proper neighborhood greenspace. It makes sense to me that Belle Street could become the main retail street in the area, centered around the park. As for "no commercial" I think it's far too early in the project to doom about that - plus, the peninsula already has Maudine's and the poutine window in the alley behind The Junto - I think there obviously is a lack of retail, but from a planning perspective, I actually really like the pedestrianized retail alley they built and think it, combined with access to Dorian Green, give it a huge amount of potential.

I really hope the commission pushes back against anything this bland. At a minimum, it needs to not have a surface lot facing High Street - in fact, the developer's argument that the parking lot would be a buffer against "High Street crime" doesn't even make any sense, wouldn't you want the cars further away from the "crime" anyways? This site currently creates a really big divide between Clintonville and Old North - a hotel won't bridge that gap that well, but it can be done in a way that doesn't perpetuate the two neighborhoods having a huge divide between their respective business districts.

I think Shaker Square is honestly going the opposite way that most of the city's neighborhoods are. While things are undeniably really bad there, even just a block away on Larchmere we can see a ton of new reinvestment. Plus, there's tons of small businesses popping up all over the Near West Side for example. I think the trajectory for Cleveland's neighborhoods is still mostly good but I'm not sure why the city hasn't gotten more serious about saving Shaker Square. Losing Edwin's is a massive blow.

Youngstown Council to Consider Downtown DORA https://businessjournaldaily.com/youngstown-council-will-consider-downtown-dora/ City Council has agreed to apply for DORA status for much of Downtown Youngstown, encompassing West Federal between Wick and Hazel, Phelps Street, and the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheater. I think this would be a great way to try to jumpstart a new revitalization of downtown and might give some businesspeople more confidence to reopen bars/nightlife downtown. An issue though seems to be that business owners aren't super happy about it, which I don't really understand. I think it comes from a lack of understanding of what a DORA entails and a general apathy towards the city's downtown improvement efforts. To my knowledge, this would be the only DORA in the Mahoning Valley besides Main Street in Columbiana.

I certainly think there's a market for millennial-oriented condos/townhomes in Boardman. Most of the condo options in Mahoning County feel like senior living communities currently. But this is a huge miss to me. The developer mentions they haven't seen any interest yet... yeah, maybe because no one wants to pay $250k to live next to a 5 lane road with a car wash literally in your backyard! It's not a bad location and if the township put in some sidewalks along South Ave, you could easily walk to grocery stores, bars, restaurants, etc. from here. But the site layout is just perplexing to me. It's part of a trend I've noticed where developers try to emulate urban living but end up creating a development with all the drawbacks of both urban and suburban living with none of the benefits of either

Insomnia Cookies & New Restaurant Coming to YSU's Lincoln Avenue https://www.wfmj.com/story/51179293/insomnia-cookies-latenight-bakery-coming-to-youngstown Not a huge amount of news here, but Insomnia Cookies is opening up a store on Lincoln Avenue, and another new restaurant (Bull and Bear Neighborhood Grill) will be moving in on the corner of Lincoln and Elm where Inner Circle Pizza used to be. I'm pleasantly surprised that a national chain is opening a store in Downtown Youngstown given how bad our post-COVID recovery has been. This is great news for Lincoln Ave/YSU in my opinion!

UHaul Purchases Ward Bakery Building https://www.wfmj.com/story/51124536/uhaul-purchases-historic-ward-bakery-building-to-construct-storage-units-on-property Speaking of the Ward Bakery Building, it looks like UHaul has purchased it and plans to convert the building into a 800-unit climate controlled storage facility. Luckily, they are going to renovate the building rather than tear it down and rebuild it - Hopefully they do a decent job. They also did an adaptive re-use in the old Isaly's Building across the street, so it's really cool to see them commit to saving another endangered landmark of Youngstown's industrial past! It's a shame for the artists living in there, but honestly the building looked to be on its last legs anyways, so I see this as a win.

I hate to spread more bad news, but wow... Youngstown really is cursed! We just lost an old commercial building on the West Side, which used to be an iconic music venue, to a fire - It used to house the famous Club Merry Go Round & Torch Club, which hosted artists such as Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. I know they're at least demolishing part of it, but I hope the more ornate 2 story building its attached to doesn't get demolished or isn't too damaged. But I don't have high hopes, especially since there's not much incentive to reinvest in old buildings in this neighborhood.

I assume Youngstown's Downtown design review committee or something can't stop this? Usually demolitions would have to go through that I thought

It definitely wasn't sabotage, but it looks like the city allowed the building owners to contract someone out to relocate the utilities for the SMART2 project themselves - They picked GreenHeart Corporation to do this, which is owned by the same people as the company that owns the building. It appears that they probably just didn't know what they were doing and caused a gas leak based on the preliminary NTSB reporting. It's wasnt a conspiracy by any means, but there's a good chance it was negligence

Not to mention the preliminary reports seem to suggest the owners of the building are quite possibly the ones that caused the explosion in the first place, so they probably aren't too excited about keeping the building around and having to pay for repairs if they're planning on getting sued into oblivion anyways

It looks like Realty Tower will be torn down. A huge tragedy for Youngstown.... I'm sure it's possible to repair it, but I also understand that the repairs would probably be far too costly for a building in Youngstown. Additionally, Realty Towers has been deemed to be at risk of imminent collapse, which presents even more danger to the buildings around it. Definitely a sad development that'll heavily set back Youngstown and leave a pretty big hole in its Downtown skyline. https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/youngstown-news/realty-building-to-be-demolished/

Some really bad news out of Youngstown today... Realty Tower, a 13-story historic high-rise had a gas explosion go off, destroying the Chase Bank branch on the first floor and possibly putting the entire building's future in jeopardy. There were also 7 injuries, and last I heard, someone still missing. I really hope this building can be saved as it's home to a couple dozen apartments and is an iconic part of Youngstown's skyline. The explosion also took out lots of windows in the area and threw debris around the whole block. Authorities have shut down the center of downtown to traffic out of fear of potential collapse. Definitely really sad news and a major setback for Downtown Youngstown

So they want to tear down a whole block of beautiful historic buildings when half of the riverfront is surface parking? That's incredibly disappointing.

That stretch of Lorain is really taking off! I visited Cleveland recently and it already feels so different than it did a couple years ago - I like that so much of the development in this area is local businesses doing historic renovations! I just wish it could connect better to W. 25th, but I'm not sure how that could happen so long as St. Ignatious exists

Youngstown Officials Looking to Convert Closed Downtown Street Into Stairs https://www.wfmj.com/story/50321136/youngstown-officials-looking-to-convert-closed-downtown-street-into-stairs Not huge news, but Youngstown wants to convert the closed section of Walnut Street on the hillside between Commercial Street and Wood Street into a public staircase. Currently, the street is being used as a pedestrian street, but it's in pretty bad shape and underutilized. Hopefully this will help connect Downtown to the YSU Campus better (and some attractions like Noble Creature Brewery, MVR, or Choffin). It will be the second public staircase in Downtown. One complaint I have is that it doesn't have a ramp or anything to make it handicap accessible, at least not from the plans I see. Other SMART2 Updates Thankfully, the bulk of the SMART2 project will be done before Summer 2024 - hopefully this will give Downtown businesses a much needed boost in visitors. Additionally, I'm hoping the city capitalizes off of all these infrastructure projects by heavily encouraging events and such in Downtown - I'm cautiously optimistic that Downtown could finally reach pre-COVID activity levels again if the city promotes these new improvements correctly. Federal Street is almost done - the main difference is that the diagonal parking has been replaced by parallel parking, opening up more sidewalk space for pedestrians or seating. Additionally, the landscaped median was expanded in a few places. New trees were also planted, but to be honest, it looks a bit barren because they tore the old ones out - but in a few years it'll look great! Also, the project added a few new landscaping beds, and if it's anything like Fifth Avenue, it'll look absolutely beautiful once Spring comes! Boardman Street and Walnut Street: Surprisingly, the city decided to go ahead and rebuild two of very few streets in Downtown-proper that haven't already gotten a road diet - I'm excited for this, but also a bit annoyed as it means even more closures for downtown businesses to deal with. One of the plans is to change this 5-lane divided stroad into a 2 lane road with landscaping and diagonal parking - to be honest, I kind of hate the diagonal parking design but the traffic calming will be nice. As for Boardman Street, the improvements are mostly curb bumpouts and crosswalks around Eastern Gateway: Lastly, there's finally talk of resurfacing Elm Street in the Wick Park neighborhood business district - it's frankly embarrassing that it's taken the city this long to support one of the few commercial nodes in the city that has any signs of life, especially since there's a large YSU student population in the neighborhood. I can't find specific details, but it looks like it'll narrow the road a bit, paint a center line, and add crosswalks in the area between Madison Avenue Expressway and Broadway Avenue. But apparently the city isn't planning to take on this project until 2027 which is really annoying as it's much more urgently needed than half the streets in downtown getting road diets. Over the summer, a group of YSU students painted temporary crosswalks and parking spaces/bike lanes in green paint to demonstrate the potential for this street - I'm hoping the city's ultimate design it close to what these students put in because it looked great! Also on Elm Street, the first (I think...) YoGo Bike Share station has finally been installed after quite a lot of delays at the new CycWard Bike Shop across from Wick Park. I still question the viability of the bike share system though - the locations are in pretty weird spots for the most part. There's none on the YSU campus or anywhere close to it, nor are there any in Mill Creek Park, which would probably have some demand for e-bike rentals like this (I know another small business already rents out ebikes in the park)

I'm happy for Warren but I can't lie, it kind of annoys me that at this point they're seeing more private sector investment in their core than Youngstown is. Sure, Youngstown's getting lots of great infrastructure improvements, but Downtown is beyond dead and has lost almost all its pre-COVID momentum. Warren's Courthouse Square on the other hand is super beautiful and vibrant. It just feels kinda weird to have Warren's downtown be healthier and more vibrant than Youngstown's. I'm hoping once Youngstown's road diets are done this spring that business will finally start to return.