Htsguy

I don't know who Angie Schmitt is but if she is going to take a completely gratuitous pot shot at boring old Ohio she should get her facts straight and note that while two coal plants figure into the equation, the legislation had more to do with a couple of nuclear power plants. By the way I would like to sign the petition. Any central place to go rather than wait for them to appear at my door step. Thanks.

While completely irrelevant to this thread, Toledo's MSA is smaller than Akron and Dayton.

The first time I say their ad on TV I thought this would make a great Saturday Night Live commercial parody.

If this is the senior Stark's current thought process, even if imposed due to circumstances, it is certainly ironic since during his Pescht phase he railed against the parking craters of the warehouse district.

Great idea. Now all you need to do is buy the property from Stark. Better break your piggy bank.

Even more amazing are the asking prices for some ugly chopped up houses with vinyl siding.

You are so right about the siding on La Collina. Cannot understand how that got pass Design Review. Also not crazy about the side elevations. I really do like Quattro, especially it's entry way and front façade. Hope it sells out quickly but they are pretty pricey. I am sure they are hoping for a run on the place by UH doctors.

Why do you guys continue to feed this person?

Maybe we should bring back George Forbes . He would give Richard Jacobs what ever he wanted.

People keep posting this sentiment with the further suggestion that another developer should take it over or come up with a new plan. However, before Stark came up with this vision I don't recall any other developers fighting over the property and putting forth grand plans. In fact I was pretty surprised when Stark came up the plan 5 years ago. The development of this property was not even on my radar. I always thought it was too valuable as parking for Progressive Field and "whatever that arena is now called"

I don't know what Ezra Stark's problem is? What is the city doing to impede Nucleus other than refusing to shower them with subsides.

I recall an article a while back where Wolstein suggested he could not go forward for Phase 3 of Flats East Bank (at least the apartment portion) until there was clarification regarding the bill. But they would be in the same boat as Stark...who says they would win a TMUD.

Clearly a result of Sherwin Williams newly initiated mis-information campaign in response to @KJP's blog post.?

This is my own amateur analysis of the situation, but Stark is really in a bind with the Herold Building and it is in many ways their own doing. The Building was dumped on them 5 years ago as part of their purchase of the entire parking portfolio of those California investors. At the time the building was in litigation and the city was winning over and over in housing court. I question if Stark did their due diligence at the time, inspecting and analyzing the cost of renovation but they probably did not care because what they really wanted were the parking lots (I have been naïve thinking that Stark had actually stepped into the whole mess at the time to save the Herold Building). Stark then "foolishly" ignored Herold for the most part as it focused on Nucleus. Maybe they thought the city was going to give them a pass on the building since they were investing so much in Nucleus (and it seems the city did as the housing court action seems to have magically disappeared with the change of ownership). They let the building further decay for 5 years and costs are doing nothing but increasing. The also may not be playing nice with their next door neighbor (Weston which also owns a vacant building). Clearly the cost to fix the violations and renovate do not make sense as Stark keeps stating over and over. Maybe the only way this works economically is for the owners of all three buildings get together and develop a larger renovation plan. This will of course take time and effort and the checking of egos at the door. It might help it Stark would contribute the parking lot on 4th as part of package project (although they keep saying that is part of Nucleus which confuses me since I am not aware of anything going on that lot as part of the project. Bottom line, Stark should not have ignored this ticking time bomb for so long.

They did not say that yesterday. It was going to be a grass lot with a fence until "further development".

Just another guess but they might be talking with Historic Gateway to see if they can help. Tom argued against the demo yesterday at Design Review and then right after the negative vote he made a bee line for one of the Stark reps as they were leaving the room, practically put his arm around him and they were discussing something. Of course if this is true Stark should have been having these conversations with Gateway all along.

So @KJP it is Gris and Co and not Fred Geis developing the spag house project you have been hinting at?

Didn't a division or subsidiary of Forest City have something to do with it?

Agree 100%. And what is even worst is that I don't think anybody is actually doing any maintenance or repair work. Doesn't Lakewood have exterior inspections on a regular basis? I know Cleveland Heights does (for what it is worth...doesn't seem like they have resources to enforce much of the time except for the worst cases).

I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when they were having the conversations on whether to go forward with this project, especially the self financing aspect. I am just curious what is the thought process risk wise, especially since, unlike Fred Geis, Geis and Company is not really into urban re=development projects. Maybe the son Conrad is driving this rather than Greg Geis. I imagine Fred has some input since he lives next door.

Read @KJP blog. Posted in the thread

By the way, the two Stark reps kept emphasizing the huge costs to correct the code violations and that in the end a renovated building could not be marketed to todays tenants (either residential or office) because of the small footprint and low ceilings. The architects were sympathetic but not many of the others, especially since they held the building for 5 years and did nothing. One member said that given the mission of Design Review it was not their problem it was Starks.

I do not view any thing happen today as a bad news for Nucleus just no news

It was my impression that Stark was claiming that the 6 million to address code violations not to renovate. They also said it would cost 1 mil to mothball to make it safe but this would not include addressing code violations. There were many numbers being thrown around and I don't know if I believed many of them.

Unfortunately during the two weeks they had they did not come up with much of a plan and were mildly criticized for this. It basically went from a gravel lot to a grass lot with a fence (in other words a weedy liter magnet) with a "promise" to incorporate the current façade in any future development (you know...right around the time we land a man on Pluto). The Board offered to let them table this again (they had to approve the tabling) in order to work with Historic Gateway (who opposed demo) on some tax credit senarios and they refused. The Board then voted.