KJP

Sinito overpaid for this property. Add to that he's hamstrung by not being able to do any new business with the federal government for five years (until 2029). So 925 Euclid could really benefit from the closure of the AJC Federal Building and its redistribution of tenants. But under Sinito's ownership, it cannot.

Thanks @marty15. However I try to keep the coverage focused on Cleveland and its inner-ring suburbs.

Not unless northeast Ohio rejoins Connecticut. 🙃

Not if you pay cash! The existing Shoreway Apartments already blocks views to the west, including of the soon-to-rise Shoreway Tower. Although you might be able to see from the rooftop deck of 7541 Fr. Frascati. This is the view to the west as of Aug. 2024... Which is a lot better than the view in Sept. 2009 -- then, of course, there was no townhome at 7541 Fr. Frascati yet...

Here's what I proposed 20 years ago. Let's discuss at the Cleveland Transit Ideas thread to keep this one more focused....

Then this was the idea that I brought to GCRTA and ODOT (back when NEOtrans was a consultancy of the Ohio Association of Railroad Passengers -- OARP is the parent company of All Aboard Ohio)..... https://neo-trans.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/OpportunityCorridorRapidREV.pdf

I looked back into the early days of this thread and realized that I never posted my idea from the 2000s to reroute the Red-Blue-Green Lines down the median of the Opportunity Corridor (then-called the University Circle Access Boulevard). I proposed it a decade before the OC was built. It's the idea that ODOT like but then GCRTA GM Joe Calabrese didn't like. Why? Because he didn't think he could get funding for it. He also put off replacing the rail system's rail cars because he didn't think he could get those funded either until I got local media to shame him into it. So this idea morphed over time. This is was my first idea -- to build the boulevard and move the Red Line to where the NS line is and move the NS line to where the Red Line is. The primary goal was to put the Red Line closer to the action in University Circle and use the new roadway to help make it happen. It would also help make a faster, better routing and connection between NS lines for the lakefront freight bypass. And it would put the transfer point between Blue/Green line trains with Red Line trains closer to UC.

I rode LA's Red Line two weeks ago. I was surprised at how badly their trains are deteriorating. Our Red Line trains are 10 years older and, cosmetically, appear in much better shape.

I was talking to one of Cleveland Clinic’s real estate guys about their HQ situation, and he said he didn't even know where Mihaljevic's office was!

Build a BRT along and parallel to an already under-performing rail transit line that's about to get $400 million in new rail cars? Why? Twenty years ago when the OC was a Clinic-brainchild called the University Circle Access Boulevard and I was executive director of All Aboard Ohio, I urged GCRTA and ODOT to include rerouting the Red Line (and the Blue-Green lines) in the median of the new boulevard. Came up with some cool maps, graphics and persuasive data. ODOT was supportive. GCRTA (aka then-GM Joe Calabrese) was not. Another idea died.

Cavs, Clinic extend partnership at riverfront center By Ken Prendergast / April 2, 2025 The Cleveland Cavaliers pro basketball team and Cleveland Clinic healthcare system have finalized a 25-year extension of their partnership, lengthening the relationship to more than 55 years altogether. That makes it one of the nation’s longest continuous partnerships between a professional sports organization and a healthcare provider. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2025/04/02/cavs-clinic-extend-partnership-at-riverfront-center/

Yes

@Geowizical noted here https://neo-trans.blog/2025/03/17/where-clevelands-job-ready-sites-are-assembling/ The city also has an end user for the National Acme site in Glenville/Collinwood. It will be revealed on Friday.

CAROL M. SKUTNIK ACTING UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Former Cleveland City Council Member Sentenced to Prison CLEVELAND – Basheer Jones, 40, of Cleveland, Ohio, has been sentenced to 28 months in prison by U.S. District Judge J. Philip Calabrese, after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud by using his role as a public official for personal financial gain by seeking to defraud multiple community stakeholders out of more than $200,000. He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release after imprisonment and pay $143,598.47 in restitution to local nonprofits. According to court documents, from about December 2018 to June 2021, the former Cleveland city councilman for Ward 7 persuaded several local nonprofits to enter into arrangements that benefitted Jones and his romantic partner and co-conspirator. Jones sought and obtained funds from the nonprofits under the guise of working on projects to redevelop Ward 7. Throughout the scheme, he took steps to ensure that his personal connection to his romantic partner, through whom he benefited from these arrangements, was not discovered. “Mr. Jones used his position to dishonestly line his pockets with tens of thousands of dollars,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Carol M. Skutnik for the Northern District of Ohio. “He betrayed the city of Cleveland and its citizens, who elected him to serve as a leader in our community. With his deceptive actions, he also violated federal laws. Anyone who thinks they can use a public office to defraud nonprofits and obtain bribes will face consequences and pay the price for those decisions, and my office will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.” The defendant’s schemes worked by convincing nonprofits to make payments toward projects they believed were for Ward 7 revitalization projects, including to buy real estate from purported third parties. Instead, the money went into bank accounts that his romantic partner controlled. Jones then instructed her to divert those funds to herself, to himself, and to others he chose. Jones also convinced a nonprofit to make payments to an entity controlled by his co-conspiring partner, all while knowing that the funds would flow back to himself. Jones recommended that the nonprofit should hire a consultant for community outreach. Unbeknownst to the nonprofit, the consultant was actually Jones’s romantic partner. She submitted invoices to the unsuspecting nonprofit and was subsequently paid through her consulting business. Jones later defrauded the same nonprofit out of an additional $50,000, again through his partner’s consulting business. Jones claimed that he needed $50,000 to plan a community event, which included buying backpacks for schoolchildren, and falsely promised that the city would reimburse the organization. Instead, after the funds were paid, no event was held, and Jones again directed his romantic partner to divide the money amongst herself, Jones, and others Jones chose. “Public corruption at any level of government will not be tolerated. Jones abused his position of trust for personal gain while scheming against the people he was elected to serve, including non-profit entities and well-meaning leaders,” said FBI Cleveland Acting Special Agent in Charge Charles Johnston. “Elected officials who demonstrate a reckless disregard for violating the oath they swore to uphold is detestable. Today’s sentence underscores the FBIs commitment to ensuring that those who engage in fraud and corruption will be investigated and held accountable. We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to root out corruption and ensure elected officials are serving with honesty, fairness, and integrity.” Some of the projects Jones pushed included seeking community funding to rehabilitate certain distressed properties while concealing his financial interest in them. In one instance, Jones devised a bribery scheme under which he arranged for co-conspirators, including his romantic partner, to acquire a dilapidated property on Superior Road, and used his position as councilperson to pass ordinances allocating city funds to buy that property from them. Jones arranged for a co-conspirator to buy the property a minimal cost. After asking a nonprofit to purchase and rehabilitate the property, and promising city funding, Jones sponsored an emergency ordinance to fund the nonprofit’s purchase and renovation of the property. When Jones was unable to convince the nonprofit to proceed, he arranged to transfer the property to his romantic partner’s consulting business, with the understanding that she would share the proceeds of the sale with him. After sponsoring another ordinance to reauthorize city funding for the same project, Jones sought to finalize the nonprofit’s purchase of the property from his partner’s entity for $80,000. Ultimately that scheme failed when the nonprofit decided not to proceed with the purchase. However, Jones and his romantic partner did succeed in obtaining funds for the sale of a different property to another nonprofit. He misled them to believe that he was assisting with the acquisition of the property from the original owner. Instead, he was simultaneously arranging for his partner to acquire the property from the original owner in the name of another business entity, and then immediately to resell it to the nonprofit. Jones and his romantic partner arranged to purchase the property for only $1, promising to pay a $40,500 city demolition bill. But without paying that bill or disclosing it, Jones’s romantic partner immediately re-sold the property to the nonprofit for $45,000. “Basheer Jones abused his position of trust by deliberately engaging in fraudulent schemes to divert HUD money – funds meant to improve the community— for his own personal gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Shawn Rice with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG). "HUD OIG will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and law enforcement to investigate and hold accountable bad actors who exploit HUD-funded programs for their own benefit.” This case was investigated by the FBI Cleveland Division, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General, and the IRS – Criminal Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erica Barnhill and Elliot Morrison for the Northern District of Ohio. ###

Browns may not score enough votes for stadium win By Ken Prendergast / April 1, 2025 Two extra years on the stadium’s current lease could have offered at least a cushion. The lack of that plus a potential gubernatorial veto and a lack of legislative override votes may be the biggest threats to realizing a $3.6 billion sports-entertainment district planned in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2025/04/01/browns-may-not-score-enough-votes-for-stadium-win/

** NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE ** Construction starts on Shoreway Tower By Ken Prendergast / April 1, 2025 Nope, it’s not an April Fool’s Joke. Construction work is getting underway this week for Cleveland’s next new high-rise residential building. But it’s not rising downtown or in the University Circle area. Instead, crews are assembling equipment, materials, portable toilets, utility relocations and more on a bluff overlooking the Shoreway boulevard and Edgewater Park. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2025/04/01/construction-starts-on-shoreway-tower/

I asked the congresswoman's staff for a breakdown of the $175 million but they didn't have it either. That was a figure from the GSA and they didn't respond to my inquiry. If it's a legit number, I suspect it's more than just the plumbing, but the whole M-E-P (mechanical - electrical - plumbing) mix. And this apparently doesn't include the $72 million non-MEP renovation planned in 2019. I can't find any records to indicate that work was ever done.

It is. But this federal building situation *could* be a positive. Not saying it will. But it’s possible.

Correct -- to be called Med Spa. A $150,000 renovation for a 2,400 SF space.

That's definitely a concern here

I posted this in the Random Developments thread because this is no longer just about the federal building. It's about multiple buildings downtown.....

Federal Building to be closed, agencies moved By Ken Prendergast / March 31, 2025 More than 4,000 federal employees based at Downtown Cleveland’s Anthony J. Celebrezze (AJC) Federal Building, 1240 E. 9th St., are reportedly going to be moved out of the 32-story office tower to privately owned office properties downtown in the next three years, followed by AJC’s closure, according to a spokesperson for Congresswoman Shontel Brown (D-11) who opposes the sudden move. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2025/03/31/federal-building-to-be-closed-agencies-moved/

Two booms! One today and another tomorrow.......

The proposal was not accepted and nothing has been heard since.

My wife was driving our son to school on Lake last fall and was hit by another car turning left just after she went under the railroad bridge. Police were called and showed up a few minutes later. Even more impressive, he called for a tow and stayed until the tow truck arrived to remove the one car. My wife's car was still drivable. I arrived and thanked the police officer for staying.