Htsguy

This is why we hear nothing but vague promised regarding the redevelopment of Tower City. Crain's is reporting that Gilbert is looking to sell his entire casino portfolio (which is kinda hilarious giving all the effort he put into the initial ballot issue). This clearly is not good news for TC. Even the most optimistic forum member has to believe he will have less interest (maybe even no interest) in TC's redevelopment even though he owns many of the surrounding buildings. Actually, the fact that he does own those buildings may be the only hope that something is eventually done but no doubt any redevelopment is not going to be vigorously pursued, as we have already seen, dispute the occasional spokesperson propaganda. Of course we still can looking forward to all the redevelopment of the riverfront property where the casino was suppose to go in the first place ;)

^yeah I take my post back. I just check the siting again and saw the tower is planned to be closer to 4th than I remembered. I had thought it was more mid block.

^I don't think so. I think the tower part of the development would be located more behind Beacon in that picture. You would be able to see it behind Beacon due to its current proposed height (but maybe not if the height is decreased as suggested by some in the Nucleus thread).

^I am surprised Hemingway did not/has not bought the buildings. Maybe they feel they currently have too many balls in the air.

OK, I'll play. I'll take every surface lot between the river and University Circle filled with 5-6 story buildings and I'll willingly forego any tower anywhere.

I missed this posting. Does anybody know if money is in hand to do this work? That area could use a major touching up.

^IIRC no plans right now...just a campus green space for the foreseeable future

^A couple of weeks ago I was driving down Mayfield and saw a sign on the side of the Primo Vino building read Via 126 with an arrow pointing down the street and was confused. This development, (the three very large single family houses) is apparently what the sign was referencing. The reason I am confused is I believe XYZ is suppose to build condos on the site of the now closed Primo Vino and I thought that this was the Via126 project. I wonder what the status of the Primo Vino condos is?

Weston may have underestimated the demand for bigger apartments in the Standard Building. IIRC, another Crain's article several months ago reported that the building is about 50-50 1br vs 2br units and that the 2br units were renting MUCH better than the 1br. I am also wondering if maybe we have reached a point downtown where your project better be loaded with amenities and/or be a super cool space in order to compete. The Standard Building is nicely done but not incredibly unique, whereas both Worthington and the Halle Building are pretty neat spaces, less run of the mill.

Great pic. Less than 30 years ago everything from the apartment building to the stadium was a big gravel parking lot. It takes a while but things do progress in town.

^that really doesn't answer the question when it was allegedly changed and why and what is the new concept (in terms of retail) that is replacing it. I could have missed it but I just don't recall the change (not that it could not have happened at some point given the tortured history of the project). Lack of funding at this point for such a change does not make sense to me (unless the concept is being challenged by purported lenders). If there was a change (again I don't know) it would seem that a more logical reason is perhaps a difficulty signing up retail tenants and/or negative market studies for the concept we don't know about.

^^I was wondering the same thing when I read that post. When was it nixed and what is the new concept?

^Actually KJP do you know the status of the trains someday going into the Transit Center? I was chatting with a guy from SF this past weekend and he indicated that the final one mile or so from the current Cal Tran Station at 4th and King to the Transit Center will cost 6 billion dollars (more than the whole center itself) and is not currently funded. He said the news media in SF keeps calling Transbay the worlds most expensive bus station.

what about the school board vote? Did they every vote? Wasn't it like Sept they were supposed to decide and then because the mayoral election in November, they delayed it--did they ever actually vote? My understanding is that all efforts seeking local subsidies (from the county, city and school board) were put on hold while Stark focused on this new tactic (the state tax credit legislation). If the state bill is passed I am sure they will do the math and then go back to the local entities to see what they can get from them as well. Originally, almost a year ago, the school board was to vote, but that was put on hold when they realized Stark was also meeting with the city and county and the board wanted in on those negotiations as well. Again all the local stuff seems to have been put on hold for the time being (I am guessing) but I imagine there are still some type of informal discussions going on (or at least there should be) My take from all the reporting and being an outsider reading between the lines is that Stark absolutely needs the state tax credit to make this deal work and that local subsidies alone are not going to be enough.

^My take away from that article is not as positive as yours. It seems at this point that they really don't have any idea what they want to do with the mall and whether what they are brainstorming will actually work. I thought after two years of ownership they would be further along in their planning process.

Thanks for the tour. One question....what in the hell did they do to the base of the Huntington Bank Building?

Ok I can understand not revealing the renderings until the appropriate time but why all the secrecy regarding the developer? Is it actually a firm that gets thinks done. This will be a difficult location to develop for a number of reasons, not the least of which you have an almost completely full shopping plaza with multiple pending leases.

^It is the site of the strip shopping center across from the West Side Market,

Well that is huge news. Cannot wait to hear who the developer is. Hopefully it is somebody who can move things along faster than Brickman down the street.

I've seen the renderings ;) It looks good. I am a bit confused. Are you saying the Southeast corner of Lorain and 25th is back is play (after the RTA aspirational concept from way back) or are you just using that old rendering as an example for a project in another location?

Contemporary design has been around longer than 10 years already. Just not in Cleveland. Take a look around Columbus. Also, these homes will always look better than the "home" that is to the left of the new townhomes at the corner of Freeman and Columbus above. Really? My townhouse in Cleveland Hts which is of similar contemporary design is approaching 18 years and prior to purchase I had been looking at similar type townhouse in town for at least 10 years before that.

Even with the ground breaking I imagine nothing will happen until the Feast is over.

KJP you are like a fountain of information 8)

Does anybody know if the lot clearing for the Perotti project has re-commenced and if not what the problem is?

^Irishtown Bend absolutely has to get done with none of the usual delays. It is a transformative project for Cleveland that will result is so much spin off, both in the Flats and in Ohio City. The price tag is high for Cleveland but the $$$ has to be found. While I hate comparing us to other cities (especially large ones with more resources) as others tend to do on the board, this is the type of project which would get done in Chicago in a blink of an eye.