LlamaLawyer

I missed this story until now, but looks like a lot of good news for the E. 55 and Carnegie area. Including *fingers crossed* some funds to finally get Warner & Swasey over the finish line. https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/07/a-cluster-of-brownfield-sites-in-and-around-midtown-cleveland-could-rejuvenate-a-left-behind-section-of-the-city.html

Does it still appear that work will begin this year on the Center of Infectious Diseases? I'm sorta surprised we haven't heard more about it.

What a weird and kind of insulting article. Here's the full quote from the earning call (emphasis added) And here's a quote from later on in the earning call (emphasis added). So a 75% of this $4 billion "reduction" is just accounting magic. They're only actually cutting $1 bil. company wide, and we have no idea whether any of those cuts relate to Ohio fabs. Within the $1 bil., a lot of the "reduction" is actually just a delay in equipment delivery. Intel is being offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to take advantage of billions of dollars on a silver platter and revitalize its floundering core business. Maybe they're stupid enough to sabotage that for a few quarters of extra pennies in dividends, but I really doubt it. That's all projection. What I actually see is a bunch of construction equipment actively digging and billions of dollars of federal and state money. They're going to build a huge [*insert choice expletive*] facility, and I won't believe otherwise until the digging stops.

There is no way they could use that crane for LL.

Yup, I missed that.

Employment is up YoY in every sector except financial activities. The 6% unemployment rate could just be noise or could be indicative of labor force re-entry slightly outpacing hiring rate, which is probably good in this environment. FWIW, unemployment higher than 6% is precedented in some healthy economic eras, such as the mid 1980s. I am just happy to see total employment numbers continue to climb, and as long as that continues, I'm not sure how much the unemployment rate really tells you unless it's something crazy. Also, I've variously observed things that make no sense in the BLS data for CLE metro. So I think those #s always have to be taken with a grain of salt.

@KJP Any further idea when we'll hear the final list of TMUD applicants?

Interesting part of this story to me is where it says "But lags on low-income growth" it only means that in terms of the state. Based on national average, Cleveland was above average in both low income and overall income growth and is the only Ohio metro for which that was true.

I think the idea is that this would be a spin off to enhance the area around CCM HQ as opposed to a part of the HQ.

This was one of my initial thoughts. In my mind a development seeking a TMUD is basically bad news for the development. It suggests the development positively DOES NOT have the capital to pull off the project. Does that mean every development that avoids seeking a TMUD has enough financing? Obviously not. But I was glad to see Into II isn't seeking one because it means (at least potentially) that Harbor Bay can pull the project off without a TMUD. The TMUD isn't meant to speed along viable projects. It's meant to allow completion of projects that literally cannot happen otherwise. For a viable, financed project to seek a TMUD would be like kicking a field goal on second down.

I'll say it again, the Euro is way down against the dollar. Wanna know what's not way down against the dollar? The Swiss Franc. Now take a look at their inflation rate.

This isn't stagflation, but it's not necessarily good either. Not to be the rain cloud here, but the rosy current picture here in the U.S. doesn't mean we're out of the woods. It may just mean we're not in them yet. This is what the dollar to Euro chart looks like: We're getting some benefit from the favorable exchange rates. As you can see from the chart, bad economic conditions since early 2021 are making people hoard dollars as a safer investment than the euro and other currencies (there are probably other commodity-related reasons for this too). It's good for us right now. Being the reserve currency pretty much means you get to legally rob the rest of the world. That works fine (and great for us) when there's enough money. But as financial hardship deepens across the world, it compounds international (but not domestic) inflation for dollar-traded commodities like oil. Many economists anticipate a cascade of bond defaults, particularly with developing countries. That eventually has to catch up to us as global demand for stuff we export declines. Interest rates are also still not that high, and so we get to ignore the fact that our debt to GDP ratio is the highest it's ever been. I'm not making predictions, just pointing out that in a global meltdown, this time around, we won't be the first domino to fall, and the first few dominoes falling may even look like a good thing for us.

https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/cuyahoga-land-bank-and-east-cleveland-plot-33-acre-redevelopment-near-university-circle I love every part of this except the fact that it's in East Cleveland, which somehow still exists as an independent suburb. I wouldn't trust the city government to manage a lemonade stand.

Do we get to see TMUD applications today or are they released later?

I have no inside information, but I suspect they’re related. IBM isn’t abandoning healthcare AI. It’s just moving to more cloud-based solutions. This in turn may be part of a long term plan to integrate quantum computing efforts with AI, which would work much better in the cloud.

Woah woah woah. Slow down here, that would make TOO much sense. Why go for the common sense low hanging fruit solution when you can try the complicated, innovative, and risky solution?

I find the whole concept a little head scratching, but that's how I've felt about most of what Bedrock is doing with Tower City. I'll withhold judgment until we see what sticks. I've said it again, and I'll say it before. The only way Tower City can be truly successful is if it has a good mix of attractions that you can't find at Beachwood Mall or Legacy or Crocker Park or Eton Collection. Because you're never gonna get enough people to go to Tower City for something they could just go to a suburban mall for. So hopefully this is just one part of making Tower City into a fundamentally different kind of mall from the others I referenced.

I get all the design criticisms, but just for context here's a view of Superior and E. 105. You can see the intersection in the background and this street view is what it looks like from about 50-100 yards east. I'm just so ecstatic anything is getting built here at all.

It sounds strange, but this sort of list is one of the biggest reasons I wish we had a consolidated city-county. Lists like this are so stupid and meaningless and we always end up near the top and get flak for it. (As an aside, you never hear people saying "Oh, are you sure you would move to Las Vegas/Kansas City? It's so dangerous!" Even though both cities have a similar murder rate to Cleveland. And Chicago gets a bad rep with less than half the murder rate of New Orleans.) Anyway, I just feel like negative perceptions are a big factor holding us back and so much of it is based on stupid metrics that result from our balkanization.

They’re small for a new build, but I bet they’re as large as or bigger than typical 1920s apartment building windows. It’s probably a cost-saving measure and I’m all for it if that’s what allows this project to be built. It just makes me so hopeful that a project like this is even considered at 105 and Superior. This is just down the road from some of the most blighted areas of the entire city.

I am endlessly curious to understand what happened here. I have no idea, but the most amusing idea to me is that @KJP's article pointed out something that MRN hadn't realized and they're now trying to approach their development a different way. All very odd.

Below is what the team's email said. I'm a little unclear what it means.

It was sad when the buildings are emptying (i.e. 1950-1990) but now it’s an opportunity. To bring it back to HBSE, how many cities have stadiums right smack in downtown with ample developable land nearby? It’s a major opportunity. We’re really blessed IMO.

Achem. Anyhow, moving on..