Potamus

I like the E 90th one but am disappointed they're leaving the parking lot facing Chester.

Isn't Vici just acquiring the buildings and then leasing them back to Bedrock/Jack?

That's a really terrific shot

The amount of nonsense that's accompanied this one building has been ridiculous.

I wasn't at the meeting either, but, thankfully, it looks like it was approved. Top of the Hill detailed design clears Architectural Board of Review CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The city’s Architectural Board of Review on Thursday (Oct. 10) approved final design drawings for the Top of the Hill project, effectively clearing the way for construction to begin in early 2020. It was developer Flaherty & Collins Properties’ fourth appearance before the ABR. The last one was held on July 10, when the three-member city panel signed off on the overall conceptual design, including the 10-story apartment building at the point of Cedar Road and Euclid Heights Boulevard. https://www.cleveland.com/community/2019/10/top-of-the-hill-detailed-design-clears-architectural-board-of-review.html

Let's hope so. I'm not sure the proximity to the Crazy Horse is exactly a selling point for these kind of condos...

To a certain extent, whether SHW builds a skyscraper or several smaller buildings may be less important than what they do at the ground floor. Is there any publicly accessible retail or services or is it all closed off just for their employees? Even if it's not publicly accessible, will it have visible activity or just be relatively blank walls? I'd imagine a lot will be inaccessible, so if they did take the whole super block, it'd be pretty dead at night. So, in the end I'd probably prefer a middle ground - not a single super tall which tends to limit activity on the street, but not many many low rise buildings with lots of blank walls either. Ultimately, and this probably guess without saying, the design will be important regardless of the form.

That's a very positive article but it's "sponsored content", i.e., completely written by, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, so it's probably not the most objective article.

If I remember right, NOT having entertainment was part of Gilbert's promise when he put the casino in that location so it wouldn't compete with local venues.

SHW doesn't list him as a director - I'm guessing he used to be but isn't anymore. https://investors.sherwin-williams.com/corporate-governance/board-of-directors-and-committees/#Directors While Sherwin has some Cleveland folks and some others from around Ohio on their board, there are many who seem to based elsewhere, too, which is typical of a fortune 500 company. While there may be some discussion of the effect on Cleveland if they were to leave, I would expect far more attention to be paid to the comparative effects of staying vs. going, most of which have been described elsewhere in this thread. For me, I have a hard time seeing them leaving. The costs and distractions of doing so just seem too great.

Per this article from Reuters, Ford owns about 10% or a little less of Rivian. Rivian's not public so knowing their valuation can be tricky unless they publicly announce it and even then it only represents a point in time. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rivian-ford-motor-idUSKCN1S01LD

Stadiums are expensive but they don't cost $5B. The most recently built stadium was Mercedes-Benz stadium in Atlanta which cost $1.6B in 2017. The Niners stadium opened in 2014 and cost $1.3B while Minnesota built one that opened in 2016 for a little over $1B. AT&T stadium in Dallas was $1.2B back in 2009. Point is, stadium costs are crazy enough - you don't need to exaggerate by tripling them.

^now they just need to weld the can on top pouring paint all over it.

I don't think he ever says that in the original post.

Honestly these look like they could be a cookie cutter Hilton Garden Inn anywhere in the country... Not offensive, just bland.

From some Minneapolis news reports from last year it sounds like Valspar had 400-600 employees in downtown Minneapolis. That said, Crain's reported back in 2016 that SHW had 2,800 people in the Landmark building. That gets you to about 3300. There's likely been some growth since then and maybe those numbers don't include the R&D facility or employees in suburban locations? It seems like the transformational aspect if this really boils down to (a) not losing SHW to the signs or another city, (b) adding 400-600 workers from Minneapolis and others from other parts of greater Cleveland and (c) getting rid of the super block of parking lots which would open the Landmark building for development. Parking needs would still be pretty large you account for the incremental employees and to make up for the spots lost when these surface lots go away.

Biggby is a Michigan-based franchised chain with locations in 8 states.

IIRC they use it for the shared valet parking that they offer. I agree that's it's pretty apocalyptic-looking especially compared to the new building next door. I don't know if there are any plans for it though.

Acknowledging that I don't know all the discussions that might have taken place being the scenes, the developer seems pretty naive here. They tried an approach that hasn't been used for this sort of development before (certainly in Cleveland, maybe in the state) and that would create a much larger abatement than is typically awarded and didn't seem to get their ducks in a row with the affected parties beforehand. While the specifics are different, if they followed the Nucleus discussions they would have known that this would be contentious. I really like this development and want to see it move forward, but feel like the developer has made some pretty obvious mistakes in how they went about this.

Recent article in the PD about library construction plans mentions that they'll have it to design review in the fall. Not sure if that's just the library or the whole building. Phase 1A also includes construction of a new Martin Luther King Jr. branch on Euclid Avenue east of East 105th Street in University Circle, on which the library will spend $10.1 million. The library board last year chose the New York architecture firm of So-IL to design that branch, in partnership with Cleveland architect Jonathan Kurtz. The branch will be built as the ground-level portion of a five- to 10-story apartment building to be built above it by Midwest Development Partners, which will contribute more than $5 million to the branch, said Jeremiah Swetel, the library system’s chief of operations. The design of the combined project should be ready for review by city agencies this fall, he said. https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/08/cleveland-public-library-to-kick-off-10-year-100m-project-to-improve-27-neighborhood-branches.html

I'm glad this is moving forward for the density it brings, but I hope it looks better in real life than it does in the renderings. Seems pretty blah...

Financing apartment and office buildings seems to be outside the scope of what OAQDA was intended to do and what it normally does. From the OAQDA website: The role of the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority is to provide for the conservation of air as a natural resource of the state to prevent or abate the pollution of the air, to provide for the comfort, health, safety and general welfare of all citizens of the state and to assist in the financing of air quality facilities for industry, commerce, and research. The Authority’s power is drawn from its enabling legislation, found in ORC Chapter 3706. OAQDA has the authority to: 1) issue air quality revenue bonds, notes and refunding bonds; 2) make loans and grants to governmental agencies for the acquisition and construction of air quality facilities 3) make loans for air quality projects for industry, commerce, distribution or research, including public utility companies; 4) acquire, construct and operate air quality facilities itself; and, 5) engage in research and development with respect to air quality facilities. Its primary purpose is to contribute to cleaner air in Ohio by assisting Ohio businesses to invest in air quality through the provision of conduit financing for the purchase, construction and/or installation of air quality facilities. Most of their grants are to relatively small businesses: lots of grants to buy new paint booths at Auto body shops, grants to replace old HVAC equipment, etc. Based on that and the resultant long term tax abatement I can see why this is causing a lot of pushback. You wonder if the developers are just being opportunistic or if this approach was key to the development...

I wasn't the person that gave the down vote, but their page on the cultural gardens website gives an explanation of how the design is supposed to relate to the African-American experience. https://www.clevelandculturalgardens.org/gardens/african-american-garden/

Cafe chairs, tables return to popular popup street park on Market Avenue in Ohio City https://www.cleveland.com/cityhall/2019/08/cafe-chairs-tables-return-to-popular-popup-street-park-on-market-avenue-in-ohio-city.html

^someone said upthread that, based on the renderings, the columns will not be left yellow.