LlamaLawyer

Every neighborhood should do this. It will probably cut down on NIMBYism as opposed to making it harder for developers. It’s better to know expectations ahead of time, and I think residents and businesses will be less reactionary if they have put thought ahead of time into what they want to neighborhood to be like.

@KJPAt this point do we have any idea what speed the new Amtrak routes would be at? To me, some of the largest benefits of inter-city train travel don't surface until the lines are high speed. For instance, a Cleveland to Chicago Amtrak trip is a 6-hour train ride and a roughly $50 ticket for economy. So the trip takes longer than by car and is also more expensive than gas for the trip. If you don't have a car, the Amtrak route isn't a bad deal, but about 90% of metro Clevelanders and a slightly lower share of Chicagolandians do have access to a car. It seems like the future of rail has to be high speed if we want rail to beat out auto travel. I'm interested in your thoughts about how this would affect the construction of a new "mini-hub" at terminal tower too.

https://www.thelandcle.org/stories/centennial-project-aims-to-fill-need-for-workforce-housing-downtown Centennial developers hope to close on financing by the third quarter of this year. The impression I get from the article is that they are pursuing a TMUD credit but that it may not be critical for the project.

I think that terminal-tower-esque spire is pretty dope. I also think (unless you're going to tell me otherwise) that it's highly likely that whatever marketing/design person created this graphic has never seen a real rendering of the hq. Finally, in my legal practice, I'm surprised at how often people produce "redacted" documents that have some of the redacted information hidden in metadata.

This building is from the 1990s. Glass used in modern buildings has a very different and much cleaner look. That change alone would make a big difference.

There's truth to this, but the problem is that lots of residents do not actually understand what types of development create a thriving liveable area. It sounds paternalistic to say it, but it's true. A significant part of any legal practice is explaining to clients why what they want to do is a bad idea. For doctors, they often have to tell patients things they do not want to hear about lifestyle choices. It's the same way with urban planning. Opinionated and under-informed people have strong ideas about what they want, but that doesn't mean they actually know what they will want at the end of the day. To use an example from the same neighborhood, if a developer tried to build the Commodore Place building today (the one at the corner of Ford and Euclid; big old brick building), there would probably be outrage from many residents. "It's too big." "It will block all the light." "There's no new parking, and the garage across the street is already very busy." "It's going to attract the wrong kind of tenants." But with the building in place, it's wonderful, and I doubt anyone complains about it. It's because what people think they want is not necessarily what they actually want. I'm not saying I'm an expert on any of this either. I do not have an urban planning degree, and lots of others on this forum do not. But most people on this forum have spent a decent amount of time thinking about urban planning and what creates a vibrant community. As such, most folks on this forum do have a perspective that most local residents do not.

Well of course it's not a "sure thing." But NuCLEus fits the bill perfectly and Stark has had years to plan out its approach in addition to consulting with the folks who wrote the bill. Some other project in Columbus or Cincinnati could come out of nowhere and eat up credits, of course. I would just point out that: 1. Even though the credits will be competitive in a strict sense, Stark has an advantage over every other developer. 2. There are $80 million worth in credits for urban developments. That number is probably more like $160 million because June starts a new year. The credits must be no more than 10% of the project cost. That means to exhaust the money, there has to be $1.6 billion in development. Unless there is more than $1.2 billion in development that beats out Stark, Stark can still get its full $40 million if it's approved. So obviously nobody knows what is going to happen, but based on the above, I would argue it is more than 50% likely Stark will get a significant TMUD credit.

Look at it this way. The entire TMUD bill was created for this project--the 54 story version. Thompson Hine wrote the bill for Stark basically. Way back in summer of 2018, Stark released a press release about how great the TMUD bill was and how much it would help NuCLEus--the 54 story version. It may seem like NuCLEus has been in the works for forever. It kind of has since we're approaching seven years since the concept was first announced. But for THREE of those years, the TMUD has been churning through the processes it has to go through for Stark to get money. The bill/plan was probably in the works for months before then, so we can reasonably conclude that half of the time Stark has been planning NuCLEus it was working on the TMUD. The TMUD credit is what Stark has been hoping/waiting/working for for more than three years! The law is tailor made for NuCLEus, and it seems highly likely to me that Stark will get a credit. There are no guarantees about this project getting built in any form. But if you think about it, it makes a whole lot of sense for Stark to build the original plan. The shorter two-tower iteration was released during a time period when the TMUD was faltering. And the single tower iteration, I've always believed, was a compromise in case Benesch ever lost patience, never Stark's primary plan. Oh and by the way, Thompson Hine (who again, wrote the bill) believes the first credits will be awarded this summer for projects to break ground this year. https://www.thompsonhine.com/publications/ohio-establishes-transformational-mixed-use-development-tax-credit So my point is that when you reflect it's not crazy at all to think the Jenga NuCLEus could get built. Stark is probably about to get exactly what they've been working and hoping for for more than three years. If that doesn't allow them to build a "transformational" project, then what was the point of all this effort? EDIT: Also, both the for-sale and the rental market are bonkers compared to summer of 2018. Construction is more expensive too, but it hasn't risen nearly as much as rent and home prices. So if Stark thought this could work back in 2018 with apartments and maybe a few condos, the math is better for them now.

@KJPThanks as always for the update and excellent reporting! Sounds like there is a lot we don't know!

Well then what's the demolition on E. 90 that is already happening? Two big old apartment buildings are piles of bricks right now.

They could probably find a way to use money from the last stimulus on it frankly.

And just like that, the UO community’s typically peaceful sleep was replaced with the furious clacking of F5 keys.

https://www.crainscleveland.com/stan-bullard-blog/lumber-costs-pose-risk-new-affordable-housing Record-high lumber prices are making new construction difficult. Perhaps this is a good time for developers to look extra hard at developing Northeast Ohio's stock of dilapidated but salvageable single family, multifamily, and larger buildings in some of the oft-forgotten areas in the region. Or do retrofits and tear-out remodels require just as much wood as a new build? Interested to hear perspectives on this.

I too would have preferred Scooby Doo Ghost Town vibes. Alas.

^ I've got to confess I only skimmed through that article initially, and my very first thought was "there's no way this bodes well for the Dream Hotel." Glad to hear it's unaffected. Once the hotel gets built, maybe Live Nation will look back and feel some regret about trying to screw over TempleLive. How many concert venues are there that have swanky hotels attached? I can't think of many. If I were a touring musician or a manager, the immediate connection to a very nice hotel would make me a lot more interested in booking the venue.

I don’t think a developer typically knows what the pushback will be until the project is released. A lot of the time residents find very innovative and unexpected things to criticize.

Yeah, but no.

The IBM quantum computers they currently have would fit in a supply closet. I’m not sure how big this one would be as it would be 20x+ the number of qubits (like a bit, but quantum) as the current largest one that exists. If this thing gets built and works as researchers project, it will be the most important computer in the world. You can’t even imagine the things these devices may be able to do.

It’s been this way for a long time. The single-tower version never appeared on the website or any public marketing materials, which has led me to wonder in the past whether the single tower version has ever been more than “if all else fails, and Benesch says they can’t wait anymore, we’ll build this, but we’re still aiming for two towers.”

From @KJP's latest article: Have you heard specific rumblings to this effect, or is the prediction based on math about how much space Benesch needs and how much space Stark needs to fill? I for one would still love to see the original nuCLEus plan in its full, quasi-ugly, post-modern, downtown-changing glory.

They already look 50 years old tho.

I found the specific statutory text: Under Sub (3) it looks like the city could give the money to the RTA. So that's a big deal and I hope they go down that route with some of the funds. Also under (1)(A) the city can give direct aid to small businesses or nonprofits. So the countours of what guardrails are put on the fund distribution remains to be seen, but it shouldn't be hard to find a way to spend 100% of it. FInally, the distribution to various municipalities was based on some metrics of population, poverty rates, and economic development lag. In short, we got so much money because we have a 30% poverty rate. EDIT: just in case any city officials look at the forum, my comments are water cooler talk, not legal advice. If you make policy decisions based on something I write on this forum, you are an idiot.

As I understand, broadly, it can be used for broadband, water, and sewer infrastructure, for budget shortfalls, and for responding to negative economic impacts of covid. The real answer is probably no one knows yet. This is a massive piece of legislation, and people are still learning what’s in it. There will also probably be administrative rules made for how the money can be spent, and those rules don’t exist yet. But precisely what they say will be very important, because a lot of the descriptions I have seen are very, very amorphous. Responding to the negative economic impacts of covid could mean basically anything.

To further hammer the above home, I’ve looked at data for all major states and it appears the only cities* getting more money than Cleveland are: New York, LA, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, D.C., Baltimore. So we’re punching way above our weight in terms of stimulus money. I hope we can use it well. *By city, I mean city. Some counties are getting tons of money.

Wow. To quote our president, this is a big f***ing deal. Here’s a map where you can find what cities and states are getting what. https://www.openthebooks.com/maps/?Map=90043&MapType=Pin&Zip=33158 For a bit more perspective, Cleveland is getting the third most in the midwest, after just Chicago snd Detroit. We are getting more than Atlanta, Nashville, Miami, Seattle, Dallas—the list goes on. We are getting almost as much money as Houston! Houston! You know, the fourth largest city in the U.S. That one! Mind boggling!!