KJP

That's often a pretty good leading indicator.

Voss factory conversion comes into focus By Ken Prendergast / May 27, 2023 Legislation was introduced this week by several Cleveland City Council members to help finance the conversion of the abandoned Voss Industries plant, 2168 W. 25th St., in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood into a mixed-use complex. The projected price tag to carry out the redo is at least $62 million. While the property’s owner and developer MRN Ltd. has been kicking around various ideas for reusing the property for the last couple of years, none of those concepts have advanced as far as this stage of nailing down its financing for a specific program. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/05/27/voss-factory-conversion-comes-into-focus/

I've been asked to write a piece for the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. I'll probably cross-post it on NEOtrans. I'd like to publish it on Sunday but my son is playing in a soccer tournament this weekend. Priorities!

A presentation has been developed and meetings are just starting to be scheduled.

The connection to Cleveland RTA will now be every 30 minutes!

The connection to Akron Metro now will be every 30 minutes!

Then you'll hate Atlanta....

Hi @Ethan, got my answer yesterday. I scheduled a tour of the Terminal Tower apartments yesterday including the parking garage (nice apartments, BTW!). Turns out the ramp down to Terminal Tower parking for residents and office tenants would have to be moved. The ramp goes all the way down to track level where the parking is. The ramp is right next to the only remaining through track in the former Shaker Rapid station which would be used for all eastbound GCRTA trains through Tower City station. Once the ramp comes down to track level, the vehicle lane veers away from the GCRTA track to go around a newly added concrete block structure and utilities. To add a second through track for westbound Red Line and Waterfront Line trains (and whatever run-through service to the airport from the Shaker lines GCRTA might want to add), the parking ramp, utilities and several newly added support structures would have to be moved. To make this worth K&D's while, I have a suggestion... I found out in my apartment tour yesterday that only 100 spaces in that 350-space garage are devoted to resident parking and they have to pay $200 per month to park there. There are 300 apartments in the building and 362 residents currently. There is a waiting list of more than 30 people wishing to park in the Terminal Tower garage, also called North Garage. So 262 residents have to park elsewhere. Many park in the Tower City garage which is owned by Bedrock. It is called the South Garage. Others park in a surface lot owned by K&D and managed by ABM between Hotel Cleveland (former Renaissance) and the Terminal Tower parking ramp. Relocating the ramp will mean the loss of at least 20 parking spaces from that 47-space lot. My suggestion is to use federal funds to help build for K&D a new five-level garage in that triangle for 400 cars with a new ramp inside it, down to track level but away from the GCRTA tracks so that a second through track can be restored. I proposed a 400-car garage, lined with retail, a plaza at the corner of Prospect and Superior, and designed so that a structure can be built atop it. If a stick-built structure were desired with optimal floorspaces for apartments, a seven-story, 160-unit apartment building could be built atop this structure. A 12-story structure would be nearly identical in height to the Hotel Cleveland immediate east. K&D should be given first opportunity to develop atop this structure. BTW, the track that's visible in the first image is Track #7. In this view from 1980, from the corner of Superior and Prospect looking east, Track #7 is at far right. To its left is Track #6 which exists only from the closed Shaker station to the east. The ramp to Terminal Tower Parking now occupies the space previous occupied by Track #6.

Pure Physio, a massage therapy clinic, taking 1,122 sq ft at 2615 Detroit Ave. (The Quarter, Phase II). Vocon is designing the interior.

Not much new here but I did add a few tidbits later on in the piece Downtown project wins financing By Ken Prendergast / May 26, 2023 With financing now in hand, look for demolition and construction work to start this summer for the Residences at Bolivar, 1060-1124 Bolivar Rd., in downtown Cleveland’s Gateway neighborhood. The work was made possible by Chicago-based JLL Capital Markets arranging $38.5 million in construction financing and co-general partner equity in the project from an affiliate of another Chicago firm, Leopardo Companies. JLL Capital Markets announced the financing in a written statement this week. MORE https://neo-trans.blog/2023/05/26/downtown-project-wins-financing/

Brownhoist lifts a new future By Ken Prendergast / May 25, 2023 Some buildings are just walls, floors and a roof. Others have architecture, history and modifications that encourage visitors and tenants to crane their head or to look around each corner as they listen to their buildings’ curators tell stories and experiences about them. Its setting is among the reasons why the Brownhoist Building, 4403 St. Clair Ave., in Cleveland’s St. Clair-Superior neighborhood has become an idea-generating co-working space for artists. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/05/25/brownhoist-lifts-a-new-future/

One, I'm not sure. I hope to find out soon. Two, the Lakefront Bypass is something I developed 20 years at the request of Green City Blue Lake and the Cleveland Waterfront Coalition, with extensive engineering input, to determine what it would cost to reroute two different rail freight traffic patterns off the lakefront. One was to reroute only the non-intermodal through freight traffic which is slower and carries potentially hazardous materials. That was about 30-40 trains per day. The other was to detour all through freight traffic away from the lakefront, or about 70 trains per day, leaving only local freight access to the port and online shippers, plus Amtrak. However it is not something that is being currently proposed. To accommodate 24 daily passenger trains in/out of a lakefront station will require significant additional capacity enhancements to the Norfolk Southern mainline. Of that, 12 additional daily Amtrak trains (on top of the four currently operating each day, er night) are proposed. Could more. Could be less. But adding 12 daily passenger trains to the already congested NS mainline between downtown Cleveland and Berea would likely require an additional mainline track here -- a section where there is no room to construct additional tracks. Although the existing West Park Secondary track alongside the mainline could be upgraded to mainline standards with some additional parallel sidings in sections where there are more shippers. That could help alleviate existing congestion. But adding a dozen Amtrak trains will be more problematic.

Some back-of-the-envelope calculations...... Acquire from CSX 9.3 miles of ROW including purchase of 8.15 miles (last 1.15 miles reverts to city ownership) -- $8.15 million Upgrade 5.66 miles of track to FRA Class 3 from Rockside Road to Jennings Crossing @ $1 million per track-mile -- $5.66 million Jennings Crossing - Add ITS on CVSR & absolute signals on NS-CSX-CVSR. Construct new CSX at-grade crossing of CVSR -- $10 million Construct 2.5 miles of new FRA Class 3 track from Jennings Xing to 1,500' north of Cliffs Cleveland Works East turnout -- $12.5 million Wheeling Crossing -- Add ITS on CVSR & absolute signals on NS-CSX-CVSR tracks. Construction new NS at-grade crossing of CVSR -- $10 million Cuyahoga River lift bridge -- Placeholder for potential major structural repairs, equipment replacements, etc -- $10 million Construct 1,500 feet of new FRA Class 2 track from Cliffs turnout to new turnout onto CVSR -- $2.5 million Upgrade 1.4 miles of track to FRA Class 3 from new turnout to near Eagle Ave including siding, 2 turnouts -- $2.4 million Construct Steelyard Commons station (platform, shelter, lighting, vehicle pull-off lane) -- $1 million Construct Tower City/Flats South station (platform, shelter, lighting, vehicle pull-off lane, parking) -- $2 million Add/upgrade grade crossing safety at 14 roadway crossings (5 are public crossings) -- $3.5 million Subtotal $67.71 million Add 30% contingency $20.3 million Subtotal $88 million Add 20% professional services $17.6 million (FYI ranges from 20-35% of project costs -- I went with 20%) TOTAL $105.6 million If Positive Train Control is required, add $250,000 per track-mile (about $2.5 million) and up to $70,000 per locomotive operating on the same track as CVSR track. Although with these proposed infrastructure investments, I tried to limit the amount of track on which passenger and freight would mix.

One of the all-time greats

American cities used to have many more walkable, vibrant communities. So sad how we've destroyed so many great urban neighborhoods....

Please combine if this topic already exists

Trying to... Bedrock seems interested in getting CVSR extended to downtown. So why not put its station right inside Tower City Center? There is an opportunity to this in the coming years as GCRTA changes from a dual-mode rail (heavy- and light-rail) system a standardized light-rail fleet. GCRTA doesn't need such a big station at Tower City Center anymore. So why not use it for CVSR and move GCRTA's Tower City station into the old Shaker Rapid station (a light-rail only station) which is immediately north of GCRTA's existing dual-mode station? Convert the existing transit station into a railroad station. In fact, the eastbound through track at the GCRTA station used to be a railroad track. It can be redesigned as a railroad station with four through tracks and two platforms which would offer enough capacity to handle not only CVSR (six daily trains on most days), not only the existing Amtrak service (four daily trains) but also Amtrak's proposed Connects US plan that could add another 20 daily trains. Even with just the existing CVSR and Amtrak services, up to 200,000 annual passenger boardings would be added at Tower City. If the Amtrak Connects US plan comes to fruition, as many as 1 million annual passenger boardings could occur at Tower City -- equivalent to an FAA Small Hub Airport in the Central Business District. GCRTA's tracks and platforms are long enough to accommodate Amtrak and CVSR trains. The existing EB through track (the one that used to be the railroad track) can have 9 railroad cars on straight track next to a station platform to comply with ADA regarding level-boarding and minimum gaps between train and platform. The WB through track can accommodate an 8-car trains at the platform. If two more through tracks were added, they could also accommodate 8-car passenger trains on straight track next to a station platform. Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited and some CVSR trains are 10-11 cars long, including baggage cars and head-end power cars which don't need to be on the straight track. There are, of course, engineering challenges. The first is that Tower City's old Shaker station has only one through track and one stub-end track. It used to have more. To add a second through track means relocating that station's overhead access, plus parking facility support structures for the Terminal Tower apartments and the Renaissance Hotel Cleveland parking deck. It also means making sure that the Stokes Court House expanded plaza doesn't block this new westbound track from being relocated slightly, closer to West Superior Avenue. And, of course, the railroad tracks to Tower City are long gone. But CVSR could be restored to Tower City the "easiest." New track about 1 mile long with a 2 percent grade (pretty steep for freight but not for passenger trains) could climb from the CSX line, cross Canal Road below the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, and continue climbing up to Tower City track level where it would use former GCRTA track spaces into the Tower City Station. Another more expensive option, but one that would allow CVSR to travel faster (and possibly share costs with Amtrak access) and at a 1 percent grade would be go under Norfolk Southern tracks just east of East 9th Street Extension. That option would involve 2-3 miles of new track with curves engineered for 50-60 speeds. Getting Amtrak into Tower City Center would be harder, but not impossible. About 7 miles of new track on existing roadbed at about $5 million per mile would need to be constructed in addition to the CVSR track. A passenger-only track starting from near Clark Avenue and West 41st Street on the West Side to near Union Avenue and East 82nd Street on the East side would have to be constructed, as well as connecting tracks with new crossover tracks ($5-10 million each) on the double-tracked mainline railroads at four locations -- Clark/West 41st, Union/East 82nd, near the Main Post Office on NS and another one just east of Worden Road in Wickliffe. The biggest challenge may be the redesign of GCRTA's west approach to Tower City, as posted earlier in this thread. To do that would avail two track spaces between the GCRTA tracks and Stokes Courthouse Tower for railroad passenger traffic to reach a four-track railroad station. That would require putting the outbound/westbound Red Line track between the outbound Waterfront Line "chute" track and Superior Avenue. The inbound Waterfront Line chute track would have to stay near Carter Road level while it is curving into position next to a relocated inbound/eastbound Red Line track. Then it would start climbing to Tower City track level. It will likely cost tens of millions of dollars. But it could be paid for by Federal Railroad Administration funds, along with a new GCRTA Tower City station, and may not reduce GCRTA's federal formula funds for other urgent transit capital needs. Here's the kicker... If you had to expend the same or similar amount of money and effort to achieve two outcomes, wouldn't you rather expend it for the outcome that achieves the better result? To achieve the Amtrak Connects US plan for Cleveland, would you rather build the infrastructure necessary to return trains to Tower City Center or construct the Lakefront Bypass for freight to be able to run two dozen daily passenger to/from Cleveland's lakefront? Potential track construction/reconstruction necessary to implement the Amtrak Connects US Plan serving a station on downtown Cleveland's LAKEFRONT with CVSR extended to near Tower City Center (Dark Blue is Amtrak Connects US trackage, Orange is CVSR infrastructure and turquois is a Lakefront Bypass for most NS freight traffic including replacing the existing NS Cuyahoga Viaduct with a new triple-tracked bridge and movable span).... Potential track construction/reconstruction necessary to implement the Amtrak Connects US Plan serving a station at downtown Cleveland's TOWER CITY with CVSR extended into the same station in Tower City Center.

I thought we were done with the Cuyahoga catching on fire....

Passed through SP on Sunday evening, site of the old Republic Steel Upson Bolt & Nut Division steel complex. Federal Steel & Wire acquired the plant, shut it down and demolished it for scrap. First, a pic from the late 1970s courtesy of RealStill, looking southerly from near where Carter Road cross the remaining track of the Flats Industrial RR (close to BrewDog).

(Putting on old geezer hat) All this new-fangled computer technology sorta takes the fun and anticipation out of wondering what the tower will look like in its natural habitat when it's all done. When the tower is done, will we say "Yeah, I've been seeing that view of the skyline with the completed tower for several years now..."? BTW, gorgeous photo and rendering @Ray45aand @dave2017!

Tanks for nothing!

Mexico volcano!

Anyone in Ohio paying attention to this?

Not yet. Going to try to get them interested.

So much for that "southern hospitality"