KJP

Rock Ventures: First Detroit, now Cleveland By Ken Prendergast / January 24, 2023 Billionaire Dan Gilbert can ride up and down Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit and admire his work like no one else can. He can point at buildings like a kid checking out baseball cards in a collector’s showcase and say “got it, need it, got it, got it…” Perhaps he and his real estate company Bedrock might have the opportunity to do that soon in downtown Cleveland, too. And while Euclid Avenue is our main street like Woodward is Detroit’s, most of Gilbert’s acquisitions in Cleveland are along Prospect Avenue and Huron Road. There are some other differences as well, which may offer the opportunity for seeing some more construction workers and cranes in downtown Cleveland. Thankfully, Gilbert can count his properties and his blessings as he is almost fully recovered from a 2019 stroke. MORE https://neo-trans.blog/2023/01/24/rock-ventures-first-detroit-now-cleveland/

Fascinating! These tax credits may be able to help finance real estate projects near transit, as well as help fund transit projects themselves.... https://www.metro-magazine.com/10190655/how-new-clean-energy-tax-credits-can-benefit-transit-systems

Commission OKs Tremont rezoning By Ken Prendergast / January 21, 2023 A nearly 25-acre area of land on a hillside at the north end of Tremont was recommended for rezoning by the City Planning Commission yesterday to allow more development closer to the Cuyahoga River. But the rezoning, primarily from general industry to general retail to accommodate new residential, neighborhood shops and restaurants, was opposed by the industries currently using those properties. Planning commission members responded that the rezoning allows existing uses to continue and that the rezoning is consistent with the city’s land use plans, namely its Vision For The Valley. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/01/21/commission-oks-tremont-rezoning/

The Benderson lease said 3 pancakes. Maybe that includes one below street level?

Turns out that's exactly what J Roc did. Article coming.

I haven't checked out the floor height difference or heard what GCRTA intends to do about it. I suspect that's going to be covered in the station redesign RFP. If it's 10 inches of vertical gap, then GCRTA is going to have to raise the tracks at Red Line stations. At most stations, this is easily fixed by adding ballast (the small rocks in which tracks are placed) and tamping (ie tucking) it under the tracks. At others, like the airport or Tower City stations, it means making structural changes... likely using only the light-rail side of the Tower City station and raising its platforms. At the airport, either the tracks are going to have to be raised or the platform lowered.

Yes, they're doing a tower crane for the parking garage. Read it in an article somewhere.... And did someone say "short stack"?

Since the development threads get more attention, I'm posting this quote here. But please comment there....

Here it is. The big news!! You're right @Boomerang_BrianGood guess!! Sneak peek at GCRTA’s new trains By Ken Prendergast / January 20, 2023 When the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) acquired new Italian-built Breda trains for its Blue and Green light-rail lines linking Shaker Heights and downtown Cleveland, Jimmy Carter was still in the White House. It was only a few years later, in Ronald Reagan’s first term, when GCRTA received new Japanese-made Tokyu trains for its heavy-rail Red Line between Cleveland Hopkins Airport and Windermere. GCRTA is still relying on trains that predate the mullet. To say that these trains are due for a replacement is an understatement. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/01/20/sneak-peek-at-gcrtas-new-trains/

Incoming!

The rezoning was approved, but it wasn't a gimme. Turns out there's a lawsuit against the property owner Emerald Dock by lessee Shelly which runs the asphalt plant. Shelly says they have first right to purchase the property and plan to continue operating the asphalt plant indefinitely. I'm surprised J Roc didn't do an entity sale instead.

Not a good comparison. Growing cities tend to have more resources for providing new amenities than stagnant or shrinking cities.

It's going to be several years before construction on the Neuro building is done. Therefore it's going to be several years before the former Play House site is developable. Canon seems to want to move forward a lot sooner than that. And yes, Canon is a competitor to GE.

Oy vey.

I don't remember.

This is a small patch of grass at 8400 Euclid. There was a ghetto grocery store here until about 2007 when it was demolished for a wider Euclid Ave to accommodate the HealthLine. RTA had to go to eminent domain to get a small sliver of land for about $19,600 from the owner of 8400 Euclid LLC, Si Elias Harb. He wanted RTA to buy the whole half-acre but RTA refused. So he's still stuck with a piece of land that he thinks is going to make him rich. Instead, his trust's attorney and *maybe* his family is probably going to get paid after he dies and his estate is dissolved. So for there to be a market, there has to be a transaction. For there to be a transaction, there has to be a mutual agreement between a seller and a buyer. If a seller wants much more money than what one of the most deep-pocketed organizations in the city is willing to pay, then there is no mutual agreement, no transaction, no market. Just one side who is halting commerce and public benefits from occurring. This city is filled with property owners who are waiting for the good times to return, not realizing they are the ones who are preventing it from happening by sitting on neglected properties because they somehow believe if they can wait and live just a little longer, they can get that big payday.

See my last article on the Clinic: https://neo-trans.blog/2022/12/29/cleveland-clinic-sees-a-busy-2023/ I also wrote this piece about the property's potential future: https://neo-trans.blog/2022/09/18/the-future-of-the-cleveland-play-house-site/ While the Clinic doesn't have a formal plan yet for this lot, it's big enough that it can do many things here -- new housing, new police station, new steam plant, big parking deck, etc. And that's not necessarily a list of choices. Its considering putting all of those uses on this lot and would still have room left over for more To put it into perspective, the Fairfax Market property is just under 3 acres. Or the Circle Square development is 6 acres. The ex-Cleveland Play House site is 11.3 acres and could grow to 11.8 acres after Mr. Henderson Nevada, age 77, stops trying to get his big payday from the Clinic from selling his property, once the site of a ghetto grocer. So it has the potential to be four times the size of the Fairfax Market development. Or twice the size of Circle Square.

I remember that interchange very differently. And when I lived near Geauga Lake 1978-93, we drove I-271 South to 422 West often. It was usually backed up with traffic in the afternoons, sometimes all the way to Chagrin. Anyhoo... Did everyone notice Chris Ronayne's tweet from today?

I was talking about this project to a locally active developer whose first question was if J Roc was taking on this large site all on their own.

"The real estate broker for Morgan Linen Services is calling on Line 2...."

There's definitely some of that. Turns out J Roc wants the height limit increased to 250 feet!

Article updated. Apparently there is opposition to the proposed zoning change.