Htsguy

Looks like an announcement regarding TMUD awards will not happen until March at the earliest. According to Michelle Jarboe's article in Crains Cleveland regarding the Tower at Erieview, the 5 member Ohio Tax Credit Authority must meet to review all the applications and apparently the body only meets once a month, on the last Monday of the month, which is Feb. 28. Hopefully they actually take care of the applications at this upcoming meeting. If not, we would be looking at April for award announcements, which is starting to get ridiculous, especially since development companies should be gearing up for the new construction season right now. As a side note-I am always amazed how Michelle's articles are always so jam packed with information. What a great reporter.

My God Cleveland Heights has more parks than they know what to do with,

^The reason I asked...could this just be sore grapes after losing/being ignored in connection with Top of the Hill? And is she slyly using this "park proposal" to whip up dissent to this or any development in general because the less engaged might swallow this type of rhetoric more easily. In other words does she really care one way or another whether there is a park here or is it her clever attempt to stick it to the city because they don't follow her leads. I imagine she was one of those who wanted three story Tudor buildings at Top of the Hill. She is clearly not a neighborhood resident who would use this waste of urban space and feels strongly about it because it is in her backyard.

I wonder if anybody could answer these two questions. What street does Fran Mentsch live on and was she one of the "citizens" who would also stand before council time and time again in opposition to Top of the Hill or was she part of the late forming committee that opposed it?

^yeah the city has to cover the $18,000 even though council voted against accepting the initiative legislation. And as I understand it council wanted to act quickly to reject the legislation so the petitioners could take the necessary steps (which they will) to put the legislation on May primary ballot. I think the deadline is sometime in early March. If council did not act and get the ball rolling on this, the petitions may have missed the deadline and then a special election would been necessary which would have cost the city well in excess of $100,000.00. Bottom line...even though the council rejected this there is no mechanism for them to prevent it from going before the voters if the petitioners insist. Best outcome would be a defeat at the ballot box just to end it but if it does pass litigation will be the next step which of course would delay the project.

^If the Westin were developed today that design feature would be an automatic...practically a requirement.

I would imagine that this issue is not even a blimp on the radar in New York with all the other problems the company has so Joe on the 10th floor is not devoting a lot of time to this.

I am very curious to see the reaction of Landmarks-my favorite municipal board-to a Little Italy CONCEPT PLAN being presented this Thursday. While it only involves a small single family (I am guessing that although like much of Little Italy it could be a divided up into multiple shabby apartments) the reaction could be telling for the future of the whole neighborhood. The developer, WXZ Development, the same group seeking to demo and build condos on the Primo Vino site, is apparently looking to demo the house located at 12405 Fairfield Court and erected something new. It might be in conjunction with proposed nearby renovations on Mayfield Rd. also being presented conceptually on Thursday. The reason I believe this presentation and it reception could be very important is the house that they are seeking to demo is one of those classic Little Italy sh*t holes you find over and over on the side streets. Poorly renovated over the years with inappropriate materials so that you cannot even tell what it originally looked like. Classic Little Italy chain link fence in the front yard but even better-just the frame of the fence-all the links are gone. I can go on and on but you get the picture-we have seen it over and over in this "historic district". Bottom line...there is nothing historic about this house and probably nothing worth saving. Cannot wait to see the inside during the presentation. My point is if that Landmarks does not raise a stink and finally recognizes that much of the housing stock, such as this building, is not historic and not worth saving, the tide might turn in Little Italy and developers will look for more tear down opportunities where warranted, replacing it with new quality single and multiple family buildings.

Something like a Shake Shack new to a region is a destination draw for 5-6 months. After than it is just another restaurant.

What time does the guy who first proposed Liberty Center begin his new janitorial shift at the company?

When I first posed the question above I was thinking more in the line of business losses from SA that they could use to offset other investment gains... but again don't have a clue how things like that are/can be structured. Again, just an uneducated speculative thought. Could be they are just irrational a...holes.

I'm no expert but I wonder if the shareholders are holding on to the land for some sort of income tax reason. Maybe they and their advisors have structured their various holdings over the years in a manner that the SA lands are valuable for only that reason. I cannot imagine the actual income from leaseholds on the land is that great, especially given the age and condition of many of the buildings. Of course I am sure the company does not spend much in the way maintenance but there are administrative costs and property taxes. Again just throwing this out as speculation.

I am pretty sure at this point, per the casino vote way back when, the only place a casino can go is behind Tower City.

I agree completely with your post except the last point. Since it is an NRP development I don't think there will be many expensive cars. Just cars.

I didn't know where to put this so...my nephew, a college senior, just received a job offer from a company know as Cleveland Research Co. I had never heard of them so I checked out their website. It starts with a really cool drone shot of downtown Cleveland. It is centered on One Cleveland Center, its headquarters, but takes in a good portion of downtown from a unique point of view. Check it out. It is about 2 years old as Beacon was still under construction. I kept imagining the shot with the SHW tower. By the way, it appears to be a pretty young company, maybe 15 years old, but it appears to have a national rep with many large corporate clients. I liked the fact that when they decided to start up a company that was going to try to attract large clients from across the country that they decided to name the company after Cleveland.

and Halle

Getting rid of a two acre surface parking lot in the center of the business district shouldn't scare you.

Has anyone actually domed an original outdoor stadium to date? I am racking my brain and I cannot think of one. It doesn't have to be pro.

Does anybody know what stage the developer is at. Is he dealing with block club at this point? Is that where this rendering came from? I don't believe anything has been submitted to the city yet as far as I can tell.

Since same developer of Electric Gardens, I can see why they would be encouraged to keep on going in Tremont. If I am reading their website correctly there are only 2 studios currently available for lease and the building is not that old. For what it is worth-since I am only going by renderings on the website-I like the interior finishes and details a lot better than many of their rectangular competitors. Seem a bit more upscale, but again, have never seen the apartments in person.

Street?

I know this should probably go in the Duck Island thread but since it is nearby to Treo...any one know what is going on with The Pearl? Are they still trying to get the blessings of the block clubs before submitting it to the city?

I have a vague recollection of the Climaco law firm building new offices on top of Cowell and Hubbard. I think there might have even been renderings floating around. I cannot remember why that fell through.

It has actually been posted a while ago and discussed at length I believe in the Lorain thread

jail