Mwd711

Comparing this to the Plums in Michigan is a mistake. While Plum does operate a couple similar locations to this, the Cleveland location won’t be one of them. Bon Appetit is the campus food provider. They license the Plum name and have put Plums at a few colleges. It will likely be similar to this location at Butler University. Students there have been unhappy with how expensive it is. https://thebutlercollegian.com/2019/11/butler-students-react-to-plum-market/

Matt was also the CEO of Rock Gaming. He helped lead the campaign to get the casinos passed and developed them.He’s always been a minority investor and has a very high profile in Detroit. He and Gilbert are basically switching roles while Matt is also leaving Gilbert’s Bedrock firm to focus on the casinos. Bedrock’s COO also left to join Cullen in running the casinos.

Bravo Brio has closed 71 locations. They might reopen but it’s up in the air. https://www.nrn.com/casual-dining/ceo-brio-and-bravo-casual-dining-brands-says-71-closed-restaurants-might-not-reopen-if

His heart might be in NYC but he bought a Mcmansion out in Bainbridge. I don’t think he’s going anyplace anytime soon. That said, he does have financial issues and has had multiple lawsuits filed against him. I’m going to be a dissenter on Sawyer’s. I ate there last month and it was an unmitigated disaster. His restaurants have been on the decline for several years now.

The Inner Harbor area itself isn’t necessarily doing bad, it’s just much of the traffic has moved down to the Harbor East development. As Harbor East exploded with upscale shops and hotels, it sucked the life out of the Harborplace Pavilions and mall. Harbor East is more a true neighborhood than what Harborplace ever was. I think that’s one reason Harborplace has struggled to stay relevant. The Power Plant on the Harbor has a few vacancies but is still hopping most days. Some new residential and office has been built there to make it more mixed use. Trying to just attract tourists is a dangerous way for a development to survive long term. Hopefully, Cleveland realizes that and anything down on the water will be made more sustainable.

The NBA has multiple marketing deals with gaming companies. They are no longer anti-gaming. MGM Resorts owns an entire WNBA team and Vegas hosts summer games. Even before that though, they allowed casino operators to own teams. Most notably, the Maloofs owned the Kings and were allowed to offer sports betting just not on the Kings themselves. https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=3661587

But Gilbert will still operate the casino. All that’s changing is he now has a landlord. Leasing back casinos has become all the rage. Even the Bellagio was sold but MGM is still the operator. I do wonder about this over the long term. Hard Rock is leasing back Jack Cincinnati from VICI. It’s possible JACK continuing to operate in Cleveland is a short term play and they will look for new management down the road.

Current is no longer owned by GE. A private equity firm acquired it a few months ago. At some point, it will drop the GE name. For now at least, it still has offices at Nela Park and is still hiring. GE Lighting is sill for sale and they are actively looking for buyers. The European lighting operations were jettisoned last year.

It’s not completely out of the norm for WWDTM to visit outdoor amphitheaters. They’ve played Wolf Trap, Tanglewood and Red Rocks just to name a few. I was surprised it’s taken them this long to visit Blossom since it’s home to such a well known orchestra and it’s in a national park. As mentioned, it usually plays at Playhouse Square. An arena like Wolstein doesn’t fit the setup for the show at all.

The VGTI went out of business. Port St. Lucie owns the building and has been negotiating with the Clinic to take space in the building and to open a research center there. Vaxine is an Australian company that would occupy space with help from a state grant. As part of this, Vaxine would work with the Clinic and other occupants on research.

The Western Reserve Land Conservancy owns a good chunk of land in Hunting Valley. Its around 300 acres. The village itself owns over 100 acres. The village also has agreements with a bunch of owners under a conservation easement. I'm not sure how you could group them into one entity but I agree with you. At least the village has been proactive in protecting the lands in the area.

I get your point about the leases but Namdar got the place for nearly nothing. Anything they make is pure profit and they don’t care about the long term. When Home Depot renewed, that gave them an attractive asset, one they could sell for more than what they spent for the entire complex. Whether anyone buys it is another story, especially since the rest of the center isn’t up for sale. Anyhow, revenue doesn’t seem to be much of a concern for Namdar. Its controlled by a group of shady families that play a bunch of accounting games. Namdar likes to hold onto properties until the bitter end, watching them decay and by then you are left with a rotting shell. Some flat out close. I suppose Namdar could change strategies or the area becomes such a hotspot they get a big offer but that seems really optimistic.

Namdar isnt in the development business. They are only a landlord and a lousy one at that. Just check their history around the country. Namdar/Mason (an affiliated company) and Kohan Realty have bought tons of distressed malls across the country and do not improve them what so ever. In some cases, they even fail to pay taxes on them. The only time a Namdar/Mason or a Kohan property improves is if someone owns another piece of it. Richmond Town Square is an example of this as DealPoint Merrill bought up the Sears and Macy's and is converting it to a Cubesmart and apartments. Dealpoint tried to takeover the vacant Walmart and CH officials rejected them. I don't know if DealPoint would've proposed something similar in the Heights but that rejection doesn't look like a great idea at the moment. Namdar is trying to sell the Home Depot site at severance as HD has a lease that runs for another 15 years.

Fox Sports Grill makes sense because the owner is a graduate of BGSU. That said, I don’t see how that’s replacing Cordish’s Live concept. The Live concept is a multi tenant venue. That part might be dead but I don’t think it’s comparable except for the fact that many Live locations included an ESPN Zone or a similar sports bar.

I think the owner overextended himself when he opened Sammich in North Collinwood. It was a disaster and only open a few months. That had to set him back quite a bit. I think this was mentioned in another thread but we should note Trentina's closure. Trentina had a fairly high profile and had national praise so its a big deal for it to go away. It was also one of the more formal places in town.