markymark

One might say it belongs in "the flats"

That's my city. Over promise, under deliver lol

Sadly, this apartment block will be an island. Could be 5-10 years before anything gets done around it, if ever.

Any updates on this project? Such a critical piece to downtown

The city needs both. But yes, we still haven't fully recovered from the 70s when this city was more bustling and built for the traffic. They need to do something about Superior, BADLY. I know they had some kind of plan but I haven't heard updates on it in awhile. Reaaally hoping SHW brings in more staple buildings, tenants, to the square and warehouse district, which should naturally help the streetscape. But getting less and less optimistic by the month. The unfortunate thing about SHW is that it doesn't really bring new foot-traffic in itself, just relocating across the street. And hoping to God Cliffs doesn't leave. That would be another tragic decimation to foot-traffic, following Med Mutual. :(

There's certainly a lot of space down there but good luck getting ahold of it for redevelopment. It's held by many stubborn groups who have no intention of selling as they haven't moved for decades. So for the foreseeable future this will be difficult to see as more than an island. I hope for the best.

This is what I've been saying. Not only did they just cap the population there, it also blocked prime real-estate just for generic housing that is not integrated at all into the surrounding area. It's better than nothing and short-term looks cute, but long-term it's a housing island that just privatized what should have been public spaces imo. We shall see

The shack truly is a shame but the real issue with the square activation is tower city and that casino. That whole corner outside Jack is a homelessness encampment (this is not an exaggeration you guys know very well what I mean lol). Until they get that cleaned up and activated nothing really matters. Hopefully Bedrock will be the shove that get's the square back on track. I also did like the museum of illusions addition, a good draw off east 4th. But SHW did the square no favors (for now) except for covering up an embarrassing parking lot and visual appeal. Bedrock is the key to it all baby, because that will make people come off east 4th and expand out. Watching closely.

The main issue is just too much industry down and all around downtown that's festered since WW1 - WW2. Incredibly hard to flip to attractive neighborhoods. That's why the going is painstakingly slow. Unfortunately it will continue to be, but I'd say the worst is over. It's not like a Columbus or Charlotte where there's room to build out and expand. City was built on steel and died by it. We will get there! But I need Dan boy Gilbert to get his pick axe out in full force lol

How much more readily available land is down there on Scranton to fill in the area, outside of the GLB block? I know everybody gave me a hard time about my warzone comment (ok you guys were funny I have to admit lol) but cmon if you've been down carter road recently you would know it's not far from the truth. It's a still a mess, you've got at least 10 vacant buildings that need to be razed, you've got empty plots overgrown and scattered with railroad tracks. It does kinda look like there was a battle for Brewdog (been a few times, it's worth the trek through the trenches lol). But that's ok, the area has been through alot of neglect over the years. And it's starting to come back!! The new apartments look great no question,, but should that have really been the lead development in the area? While hey its better than nothing, I feel the city has got to stop allowing these developers to take a potentially prime block like that, privatize it and then lay down quickly built apartments - Just to grab revenue. Just like all the Zaremba brothers townhomes they built off superior. Sure, there was nothing there before, but it's right off east 9th and the budding arts district, you took up all that space for 100 units maybe? If superior ever gets that facelift, this could have been a prime spot for a 20-25 story apartment building, or hotel, or prime office and retail,, I mean virtually anything but what they built. They had to shutter the CVS down there because it saw no foot-traffic. we are not Chicago I get it you have to be realistic - the city needs to start somewhere,, but I mean lead with a major development or wait for Bedrock (or GLB) to roll out. Am I crazy????

I agree. Will become a very valuable piece of land over the next decade if even 25% of that Bedrock gets developed, so you hate to see just a handful of floors. It will be incredibly interesting to see how quickly these lease out. But I'm not complaining, certainly refreshing to see neighborhood life coming to the area. It's a needed step.

I've been reading this forum for a longtime and am a huge fan of NEOTRANS. Read everyday, thanks KPJ!. The development at Scranton is great. There's no question about that. Only concern I have is you really are on an island down there, especially concerning safety. I know in all the renderings of the parks: Irishtown bend, revamped Canal Park, Wendy Park, there's families and kids, but I mean we all know 60 -70% (it's slowly decreasing) of the flatland is a warzone. Any parent would not bring their kids down there much less live. It is certainly improving, piece by piece, but I fear it's still missing critical infrastructure to get to the next level. There's still too much immovable industry imo that will block many of those pieces. I know GLB is considering to build there, I know we got Dan Gilbert's big developments across the river in the next 15-20 years, but I feel the area needs more lighting (A LOT) and retail, not just downtown or in Ohio city up the hill, but in the Flats themselves. My concern, is that while the parks are phenomenal, we will soon be left with mostly parks and plants, that will produce big dark gaps in between that will kill foot-traffic and appeal (ESPECIALLY during winters). What do you guys think? I know I am being probably a bit negative, don't get me wrong - super excited to see how this all looks, incredibly needed. But I'm not sold these developments can survive long-term without a massive orchestrated effort by the city to move out (or minimize) a lot of the industry BEFORE the empty lots are bought and filled. What do you guys think?