Htsguy

They better be retaining a marketing genius to promote the area once everything is open. With so many restaurants and bars (and little else in the way of retail) I hate to see what many of those places are going to be like one a Monday or Tuesday night in January, especially with so many other growing restaurant downtown and in the near by neighborhoods.

How many restaurants have been in that spot starting with the Tavern of Richfield in the mid 90s?

I have always been a bit skeptical about the purported speed of this development and after reading Michelle's recent long article reporting on the Fitzgerald new conference held today on Public Square relating to casino money being awarded to various downtown projects, including this one, I am even more skeptical. Maybe it was just the wording of the article but Michelle reiterated all the public funding sources that are being sought for this project (and it seems that they are important for it to go forward) and it just seemed like it is going to be a long draw out process. From my observation none of this public support ever seems to move fast (and probably rightfully so...there should be a through review). Some of the public support being sought is a loan of casino money (approval by the Council), TIF, tax abatement for the residential portion and unspecified state support. I would imagine that private financing (which is always a long process) is contingent on obtaining most if not all of the above). Again I am not saying that this project will not get done, I am just not as opitomistic as some on the board that this is going to happen with lighting speed. In my mind there is just a layer of too good to be true about all of this (again, at least the speed component).

Michelle just posted a long article reporting on Fitzgerald's new conference on Public Square today regarding his plan to devote casino money to various development projects including the May Co. Building. In the article she discussed the bigger state tax credit being awarded in December and she seemed to suggest that if the May Co. project did not get the award if might not get done. I was surprised by this since I believe they already were awarded a 10 mil tax credit (which I believe they have to give up if awarded the 25 mil credit) I would have hoped that that award would have moved the project along in any event (even though they would of course prefer the larger credit), just perhaps made it a bit more difficult. I hope I am reading more into it, but I thought it was a pretty negative statement on Michelle's part.

^Because May Co. has a proposal and plans and has been in the works for almost two years (not to mention tax credits in hand and possibly a larger tax credit when the awards are announced in December). As far as I am aware nothing has been announced for Huntington (not even unfounded rumors which we are so fond of on this board).

My guess that it would also have to do with Public Square, especially given the location of the news conference. I don't know why Jackson would be making any announcement about the casino money proposal since that is County money (and at this stage is just a proposal and still would have to be considered by the County Council).

Hopefully this development with be nothing like the Ren Cen which is basically a disaster of urban planning. It is cut off from the street and the rest of the city for the most part. Those huge things at the base of it (I think they have something to do with the air conditioning) make it seem like a fortress. A 70 story building does not make up for that mess.

Interesting article. Really surprised at the stated speed of this thing (something that really has had me a bit skeptical about the whole project (as well as Stark's previous adventure downtown) because generally things really just don't work this way in Cleveland (or for that matter any where) on big projects like this. The quote that most interested me was "speed is essential on Nucleus in order to make the project's financing work". I wonder why that is. All I could think of was a fear that construction costs will rise in the future. Could there be any other reason?

Thanks for the update. I cannot even keep track of all the stuff going up in NYC.

^the necessity for it is explained in Litt's article.

Don't quite get what you mean? Stark has nothing to do with Toby Keith's. It is almost a mile away in the Flats East Bank.

^I don't think this is any out of the box thinking. The "spokesmen" have already said in the past that this is what the development will be (if the casino is built at all...as I have posted before...I was never skeptic but unfortunately have become one more and more as the months go by, other facilities come on line and casino revenues continue to stagnate or go down).

^and was this "point" made clear to the voters when the casinos were being promoted.

Let's start with the fact that I have absolutely no knowledge of securities and SEC regs....with that....any idea why the offering is so small on such a large project? Will there be future offerings? If yes, why multiple offerings? Like I said I have no clue.

Isn't Golden Gate getting a makeover from a new owner?

^Clearly the tennis courts should be built to the street and have first floor retail :wink:

I have expressed on prior occasions that I am nervous about what they are going to come up (especially since now it seems like they are rushing and limited funding) but I am at least willing to wait and see the design before I slit my wrists.

My wish of wishes....that it does not look ANYTHING like Cincy's Banks project...what a major missed opportunity down there.

^I bet one of those proposals was the second office building in the Flats East Bank. Would have been nice if they had gone there as it would have jump started the construction. Wonder what the other building was? Could it have been Stark Nucleus?

^Are you talking about Brickman's Duck Island project and did you mean Lorain rather than Detroit?

^I confess I did exactly last month. I wanted to go to Nates on a Saturday about noon and could not find a spot anywhere. I did not have a ton of time for lunch so just ended up in Lakewood.

^It is never cheap to develop a former gas station site.

I believe that is going to be Flip Side Burgers

^My thoughts exactly when I first read Sooner's post (the fact that he actually owns the property this time at great expense).

Any chance Stark might at least tackle renovation of those buildings on Prospect involved in that protracted litigation as he tries to get his ducks in order for the big show on the parking lot?