Htsguy

It was suggested at the City Council Planning and Development committee meeting today that Balaton leaving Shaker Square is not a 100% certainty. Is was also suggested that part of the problem with a potential lease extension is that the receiver is not being pro active to get it done (return calls and the like) but is more focused on the more mundane aspects of his duties.

Hmm

Really well done article Ken. There is nothing like a "news" article overflowing with facts rather than opinions disguised as facts. After reading the article I recalled a Crain's article from a couple of days ago which has left me bit confused, especially given all the future construction projects we having been focusing on in the forum. The article was a re-cap of a local construction industry survey conducted by Crains and it showed a strange increase in the percentage of contractors who feel it will be more difficult to find work in the future (I believe the survey period was like last year compare to the upcoming year) and that they are finding themselves, on average, competing against more firms when they bid on projects now (something on average of 10 versus say 6 before). Given the number of huge projects downtown and in University Circle as well as many smaller ones all over the region (but still in the millions of dollars), I wonder how this can be explained. Maybe just middle aged white guys being pessimistic as is their nature.

Texas Rangers new ballpark was something like 20 years (if that) and they built a new one right next door.

I guess it would depend if you want to build it in a farm field in Medina or within the city of Cleveland (the cost of course being higher in Cleveland), Atlantas new non dome stadium which is now a couple of years old and is in Cobb County cost about $625 million. Given inflation and rising material costs since then I would guess a dome would be something like $800 million in the hinters lands (probably more) and approaching 900 million in the city.

Both City Council Planning (last week) and Finance (yesterday) committees have approved the Progressive Field renovation legislation and it is up for final vote before the full council next Monday. Lots of the usual blah, blah, blah during the hearings. One of these day somebody is going to come up with something new and interesting, both pro and con, when debating these types of issues. Oh well I guess a record has to be made. The Cuyahoga County Council has already passed companion legislation for its share. Sounds like some of the renovations may start as soon as early next year although apparently many of the larger fixes are still in the conceptual/development phase.

Newer members to the forum must be scratching their heads with all this "world class signage" discussion. It is definitely one of the Cleveland forum inside jokes that is starting to show its age. But it is nice to see a picture of it genesis

I am not in the biz but I imagine that covers the initial construction document review in order to issue the permit (which is extensive and may be farmed out) as well as cover the cost of the regular building department inspections as the work proceeds. I bet some of these inspections are contracted out by the city to third parties where their is no department in house expertise for a particular item.

I always thought it was a stupid name but thought it was just a place holder. Guess not for now.

Does anyone know if the revised version of Silverhills went to design review (or even has to)? I recall the first version was semi-savaged in its first go around in design review.

This Fridays Planning Commission agenda is huge again, primarily because they have to deal with a number of items they could not get to at the last meeting as they lost a quorum a little after noon. With this agenda they could easily go past 2:00 PM unless they take steps to speed up presentations, which really is not that great of an idea. I hope the chairman can take some time in the next couple of days (you know...between his many phone calls with Tony George) and get members on board to clear their calendars.

^^by the way, it is an idea that they apparently just came up with because they were in front of the Board of Zoning Appeals just this week for garage variances and now they have to apparently go back to the Board due to this new change. Again the result of a negotiations with a developer that just happen or could it be that one arm of the development team does not know what the other arm is up to.

I am a bit surprised by this move and I am wondering if this expansion of the St. Clair depth is just a common sense idea which finally struck a cord with the SHW planners or whether the impetus was due to some actual negotiations with a possible developer.

I cannot recall, is there a time limit for starting construction before you lose the tax credit?

Tom Yablonsky, Executive Director of the Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corp., testified today at a very lengthy City Council Planning Committee meeting regarding Progressive Field. Initially, it blows my mind how knowledgeable, articulate and passionate he is. We are lucky to have him on "our side". Anyway, as a side note during his presentation he stated he had great confidence that Centennial was going to win a TMUD grant.

I was actually viewing it in a Crains article I accessed with my Cuyahoga County Public Library membership but you can see the river view I mentioned on page 122 of this thread. First picture on the page (although a bit fuzzy).

I was admiring the rendering of the tower as seen from the river for the 1,000th time and it kind of hit me. Given the design of the building, the purported Phase 2 expansion really cannot be more than 13-14 stories without taking away from many features of the design (at least in my un-expert opinion). By the way, I say "purported" because in my negative heart of hearts I think that plot of land is going to be a "temporary" surface lot for a very long time.

Great density in most parts of the city except around its three major sport venues which are surrounded by seas of surface parking. United Center in Chicago is just as bad. Strange for two dense, walkable cities.

Did the article say anything about them adding a foot in height to the retail level of the parking garage? I cannot remember if it was a PC or Landmark representative but somebody basically told the architect they would never be able to rent out the retail (for some sort of sensible build out reason I cannot recall) if they did not have at least nine feet ceiling heights.

Maybe SH-W decided it wasn't a "gook look" to have a ground breaking before final approval no matter that final approval is a foregone conclusion.

It is November 30

The SHW project is on today's Board of Zoning Appeals agenda seeking a couple of necessary variances for construction. Also on the agenda is somebody who wants to construct an 8'x12' shed on a vacant lot. Only in America.

I just hope that when they finally do have plans for the property it isn't for one of their huge ugly parking garages.

Shadows are yesterdays irrational moan and groan. The current grossing is that the dog walking area is to close to the condo building.

Ha. It is my experience that nobody is well dressed on airplanes any longer. Especially Americans. I really love being squeeze next to a guy wearing a tank top who constantly raises his arm to adjust his airflow with his pit two inches from my head.