Willo

True. There are no trophy corporations wanting to move downtown - other than those directly tied to the UC EDs/Meds. Those that are fleeing other areas are going to Nashville and Charlotte in droves and then followed by cities like Indy, C-bus and Pittsburgh to a lesser extent. I am all for boomeranging any of those that moved to the Cleveland burbs since the 70's and even the recent ones we let go without a even a pinky fight such as Eaton and Progressive. Just those 2 corps built suburban footprints that would have been 30 or more stories each downtown if we would have had agressive leadership to make them offers thery couldn't refuse. So, keeping and growing with the Browns Downtown is the equivalent of keeping/luring a traditonal trophy corporation - as we did with Sherwin Williams. So,we need to reframe it as such and then hold our nose to find a way to make it happen with the slimy HSG Clampett family. Also, all of these back of napkin direct dollar comparisons are only one aspect to consider - but there are so many qualitative intangible benefits that are not easily measured of having a Downtown venue and spin-off development. Until then, It's not over until it is. While Cleveland has made big strides to lay down a modest baseline for future success - let's be honest - we have a long way to go. So, losing the Browns to a forlorn highway-adjacent industrial brownfield (no pun Browns Field) is not the answer we need at this critical point in time and the BP parking lot brownfield is not worth one dollar of local, county, or State public funds. Talk about opportunity cost lost. Let's reframe a new or renovated Browns building Downtown as the equivalent to retaining Sherwin Williams and preventing them from moving (at least in part) to Atlanta or Charlotte as planned before we opened our public wallets to Sherwin.

I admit I had to look up MOCAP. Looks like they do all of the day to day heavy lifting for the city hall show ponies and need high quality people. Without knowing what you mean by shenanigans - whether just incompetence or if impropriety - tread lightly id you need to maintain your confidently and your job. If of a serious nature consider a feeler call to a hotline at the State level in C-bus such as the Auditor of State, BCI or AG. Otherwise hang in there.

Thank you. At least the front half has sidewalk level glass while the back half with the air vents/beige wall is not too attractive. Hopefully the graffiti artists who are likely to tag that sidewalk level beige wall will use Sherwin Williams/Valspar paints. Fahrenheit will definitely need to add some destination signage and lighting. At least the shortened Frankfort avenue will allow easy drive up valet parking for restaurant patrons or visitors to residents of the 55 building. Speaking of 55, I see they wisely engaged Ukrainian design firm Dion Art (Cleveland office) for their place making art: Per news story: A tetradecahedron (14-sided polygon) with the 55 emblem greets residents and visitors outside K&D Group's recently renovated 55 Public Square, which now offers more than 200 apartments. Fahrenheit should reach out to Dion Art for a creative solution: https://www.dion.art for that matter so should the planners at the Lakefront, Riverfront, Peninsula, Irishtown Bend Park…see Dion’s website they go amazing work.

that really explains the assembly line look. Is DiGeronimo dropping these mirror-image developments in other areas too?

look no further than the last mayor who snoozed as the longest serving mayor and rode the breaks hard during our slow but steady decline for 15 or more years (that we wish we get back for a do over) while other peer cities/regions pushed their pedals to the metal. Like Pittsburgh which cooperates on a 10 County basis while we are lucky to get 1 or 2 counties to play nice with us - at times. The only upside to being behind PIT and CMH in rebuilding our airport is we can copy their homework and get ours done quickly since both have already studied the ideal airport needed for the near future. Now if we could get regional cooperation like in the greater Pittsburgh and C-bus regions - ideally with help from businesses who belopng to the Greater Cleveland Partnership - maybe it would get done quickly (rather than having the the Greater Cleveland Partnership diverted by its Executive Board member Dee Haslam pushing her Jimmy World dome and parking lot next door on land adjacent to CLE that should instead be appended to CLE for the needed top to bottom refresh.

Looks strangely similiar to Jimmy and local partners' renderings for Berea. They are all starting to look the same. We need a new generation of architects and planner people to shake things up.

Found them in Grey Gardens with Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale (nee Scranton Averill).

If we squint and try to visualize the future…I think the dominoes will fall and all the sideline lurking developers will dive in once these 2 apartments communities are finished, if the neighboring 12 hillside million dollar homes happen (we saw the foundation started for the first one) https://neo-trans.blog/2024/02/05/flats-luxury-finally-coming-home/ and if the Irishtown Bend park is finished anywhere close to the design renderings. Also, imagine completion of all of the Metroparks work throughout the Flats basin, Bridgeworks to the north and the Bedrock Riverfront to the south of the peninsula (even the soccer stadium below that)..a drone will capture an impressive near continuous line of investment that 10 years ago would have seemed unimaginable. These are hopeful signs. Let’s try positivity - which is not a naturally occurring Cleveland trait - as Jameis Winston emoted on our behalf in the Thursday night snow globe game.

And would still be faster than the Healthliine BRT

Probably a lot more foot and car traffic on all sides of two historic structures next the 55 public square restaurant. I hope the shack at least offers a bright face of glass and not a solid wall.

Looking good from this angle - lots of needed light and life facing the Square! Curious how much of Fahrenheit is blocked by the paint shack? Seems like the shack swallowed it whole. They may need to add some directional signage that could be seen above the paint shack - maybe something like this with Fahrenheit branding, that way it will be also be captured in photos of the hq and shack

That's it. Thank you! We can't figure out why that land wasn't snatched up (though it has not been the most well run airport for a looong time). We have been told for many decades how land-locked the airport was and then crickets when this land - while not virgin fresh farm land - is cleaned and available and would provide some CLE operations breathing room. Now we are seeing the curtain being slowly pulled back thanks to the PD's Brent Larkin story how the Greater Cleveland Partnership - who we would have expected to take a regional lead on such an effort - go radio silent. We are sure there is no relation to Dee Haslam being on the Greater Cleveland Partnership Executive Committee as Brent Larkin exposed. The Greater Cleveland Partnership should just change their name to Greater Cleveland (Sans Cleveland) Partnership and move on.

We seem to have a cadre of forward-thinking leaders for the first time in many decades - Bibb, Ronayne, Huang...

I don't think they were winning before that magical TNF game as we too admittedly jumped on the negative frustration bandwagon blaming everything in sight before this game. However, this snow globe game seemed like divine intervention to give us a moment of much needed joy and remind us to not wrap the remaining players who are left and trying into the sordid Haslam/HSG saga. We will try to keep our criticism focused soley on where it belongs - HSG and the greedy NFL.

They are probably pushing the market to max to see how it responds as they were one of the few to hang in there post Covid and supply chain crisis eras and plow ahead with construction. Especially since they are rushing to get a small part of the market now for cash flow while the rest is still under construction. We wish them well. The first tenants could probably extract some good concessions at the onset.

Agree with Brent Larkin in general, especially if funding a new or refurbished stadium in Cleveland can be tied to addressing any debt owed on the stadiums used by our 2 pro-Cleveland franchises. We were surprised to see that Dee Haslam is on the Exutive Board of the Greater Cleveland Partnership - dang those Haslams are shrewd - or Grinches given the Holiday season. The Greater Cleveland Partnership’s waffling on this issue is a total abdication of corporate responsibility. Not all parts of a region are equal. And without a vibrant downtown, all of Northeast Ohio suffers. If the GCP lacks the courage to defend its most vital neighborhood, businesses who pay dues to support it are wasting money that could be better spent elsewhere. Dee Haslam is a member of the GCP’s executive committee. On Nov. 14, the GCP offered up this nothingburger to me: “GCP is committed to both a world-class lakefront and a world-class stadium. We are actively engaged in discussions with public, civic and private leaders towards a solution that delivers long-term and lasting benefits to downtown, the city, and the region.”

I wouldn't have agreed with you until we explored the whole area last month and you're right, on a pinpoint map the peninsula is really the sweet spot to everthing on both sides. We were amazed as we sat at the bridge facing the peninsula, while it was up for passing river traffic, how all of the surrounding uphill areas on all sides appear really close from that river low point (seems like you can reach out and touch Bedrock Riverfront final phase next to the B&O RR historic station). During that wait at the bridge we were iniyially shocked within 5-10 minutes as 2 separate young ladies on foot approached to wait for the brige to be lowered. They seemed focused and aware of where they were going - not tourists - in their workout or yoga outfits with backpacks. Given that postive sighting, I think the peninsula will be a huge success even with the higher $ entry point (I am sure there are incentives to expedite leasing).

Follow- up: So, Did Weston since sell or option all of that land they controlled? Any records filed? That land had to be of some interest to many given its proximity to the paint company HQ.

Should have been a day of sorrow with protests but Big Oil/Oil/Car/Bus ruled the day and controlled our politicians - and our citizens becasue of the jobs - to then direct considerable government resources to instead only build highways, tear out all tracks and buy buses as a poor alternative. Funny how all of those companies still thrive - but elsewhere than Ohio - we should seek reparations for the carnage they caused. In hindsight we all now know that they both could have co-existed as the sprawl inevitable anyway. Interesting that our streetcars were bought by Toronto who used them for many more decades. We get the sads when we see Toront's meteoric rise (many reasons) since then in comparison to our almost purposeful managed decline for all of those decades. https://www.blogto.com/city/2016/08/how_toronto_saved_the_north_american_streetcar/

Thanks for the update. Still standing by for more details on who is proposing two separate Skyline Changing projects tick tock tick tock. …

Toronto just remodeled their 30 year old Skydome (now Rogers Centre) for $300 million or so - though they say the Populous redesign will extend its life 10-15 years. Interesting. A Toronto news story said it was built in 1989 for about $500 million or approx $1 billion currently. They did get a retractable dome that still works 30 plus years later at that price - closes in 20 minutes. Why can’t we get either a retractable or permanent one with roofing fabric being used at SoFi and other stadiums around the world, Jimmy doesn’t want us to see the lakefront plans for some reason. Let’s remodel the current stadium and agree to a new one next door at Burke or elsewhere in 15 years. https://populous.com/article/toronto-blue-jays-partner-with-populous-on-300-million-rogers-centre-renovation

If it’s Weston I wonder if their joint venture proposal from 2020 that KJP reported is moving to the front burner.

Buses Really Tardy

Nice crowd pic but West 3rd needs an upgrade.Hope the Warehouse district skyline changing tower comes soon to enliven this area. Until then these buildings should all be lit otherwise this gives a Game Of Thrones nightwaker vibe:

The more we learn to more find that it isn’t 50/50. The story says he will borrow against future tax revenues and rely on government agency bonds to be used. If true we are already above and beyond. Why not borrow from the NFL Jimmy. Jimmy needs to stop this bum rush, slow down, and come back to the table. Expecting $1.2 billion from public sources should come with a non-negotiable mandate for Cleveland only. Why not other locations such as Gordon Park bluff or maybe even East Cleveland (if enough land can be assembled near the redline trains and Healthline BRT terminus and the State can help force the EC merger with Cleveland - something the State should be able to rally around as a long term fix to the sad EC situation). For a public $ 1.2 billion match surely we can reimagine and also permanently fix any issues with the current stadium or build next door at Burke.