KJP

As promised, here's a few graphics from the Historic Warehouse District's revised plan, from 2002:

I think the $100 million Prudential loan is significant, foremost because it is the largest such long-term loan given in this area for a new project. But, secondly, Stark is building a solid track record, which lenders naturally look for when issuing new debt. In the second article, you'll read the occupancy rate for Crocker Park and the leasing rates in comparison to the immediate market. They're pretty significant figures. This still is all a concept for Stark. Until he submits a plan to the city, it really is just that, a concept. He made his pitch to Frank Jackson only last week (I think it was on 21st or 22nd), though Cimperman has seen Stark's plans. To my knowledge, he's the only one on the City Planning Commission who has. BTW, welcome to the forum, unbriacone!

Discussion of the convention center never came up. Some of his wide-view renderings that show the Tower City area, shows the convention center located there -- or at least it's some structure large enough that I couldn't imagine it being anything else!

I don't think the Innerbelt has to be shut down at all for a new bridge on the southern alignment. If it does, it's for a brief period in the middle of the night while lanes are shifted, in which case the I-490/I-77 detour would go into effect for a matter of hours, not weeks or months or worse. I suggested as much in a series of renderings I posted on this site, at the west end of the bridge. I suggested the bypass roadways be built on the east flank of the Innerbelt, but they could just as easily be built on the west side, away from the church. But that would require demolitions, yet give ODOT more space to work with. Besides, ODOT is planning on tearing down those buildings on the west side of the highway anyway. But I would prefer to limit the demolitions as much as we can.

I do remember in 1998-99 that there was a shortage of available local contractors and skilled laborers, owing to the simultaneous construction of Browns Stadium, Federal Courthouse Tower, and a couple other large projects which I can't recall right now. That prompted Westlake to delay seeking bids for its new recreation center so it could get a better price. With the unemployment here, there is a labor pool, but I wonder how skilled it is. And, don't forget the Fannie Lewis Law which requires a certain number of Cleveland residents to be employed on certain projects. So, only after those quotas have been met, would outside labor and contractors be able to come in. It will be interesting to see what impact the Fannie Lewis Law might have on all this.

No, of course not! :wave: Of course, one week does not a year make (I hate that cliche)

my 2 ¢, That's the Warehouse District's plans, not Stark's, or at least to my knowledge it isn't. To make this plan marketable to lenders, he's got to have a significant parking component. But Stark was VERY interested to learn about the Lake Shore Electric Inc.'s (former Trolleyville USA) plans for a heritage trolley circulator downtown. I passed along the contact info to him.

That's just what Stark unofficially calls what he has in mind for the lakefront. He has no name for the WHD project, and the only tag line shown on the architectural renderings was "Y Cleveland - Building Downtown Up"

In the Historic Warehouse District's revised masterplan (2002), it proposes for the block surrounded by W.3rd, W.6th, Superior and St. Clair (they call it Block 8 ) five buildings, a mid-block parking deck, plus an underground parking deck for an office building in the adjacent "Jacobs Block" on Public Square. Here is a breakdown of their proposal, per building: > 8 story building with five facing St. Clair, 346 housing units, 50,500 square feet of retail, 275 structured parking spaces; > three more buildings (plus interior parking deck) within block, 20 stories, 12 stories, and 7 stories with 5 facing the street, 242 total housing units, 9,100 square feet of retail, 760 structured parking spaces; > Hotel facing Superior, 10 stories, 430 hotel rooms, 66,000 square feet of meeting rooms, 59,800 square feet of retail. > Underground parking deck off Superior for office building in neighboring "Jacobs Block" and other uses - 1,600 parking spaces. The plan also has quite a few graphics, which I'll scan and post later. As for Stark and his anticipated opening dates, I don't remember what they were for Crocker Park when he first proposed it. But I do remember he hoped to have the whole thing done (including the townhouses surrounding the downtown block) by 2007. If he wants to have this Warehouse District project opened by 2008, I suspect he would have to get city approvals sometime in 2006.

The total, added, estimated residential population of the WHD and "Pesht" will be part of the second article. You will need to fasten your seat belts for that number. I never really took a hard look at that $1 billion figure, and it's my fault for taking it at face value. Upon further review, I think Stark is saying that building on all 21 acres of parking lots in the WHD would have a price tag of $1 billion. But when he pointed to his street rendering, he pointed to that one block in the WHD and said "This alone is $1 billion. You can imagine what kind of investment the whole thing would represent" referring to "Pesht" as well. One thing I wasn't able to get into in that article, and probably won't get into until I write follow-up articles in the coming months, is that Asher owns other properties in the Warehouse District. He's got the parking lot at the NW corner of W.3rd and St. Clair, and I seem to recall he's got one on W.4th, north of St. Clair. The rendering I posted shows more than just the block through which Frankfort runs, and isn't even centered on that block, but I don't know if that means anything. You may recall that a Los Angeles-based company bought the second-largest swath of parking in the WHD, southeast of the West 9th/St. Clair intersection, and was pretty far along in planning for an 11-story block of for-sale housing there. If I remember right, a holdout property owner wanted an obscene amount of money for his parking lot, and it killed the project. When I asked Stark what he would do if a property owner doesn't sell, he said "we'll make them partners." But don't be surprised if the port authority gets involved in this development, just as it has with the Flats East Bank project. It does have eminent domain powers, and parking lots can be considered as blight. One more thing: Stark got voter approval for rezoning in November 2000 for Crocker Park. He opened most of the downtown block in late 2004, early 2005. Yet, for Crocker Park, he had to clear the 75-acre site, grade it, install all the sewers, utilities and streets before he could begin construction on buildings. None of that is required in the Warehouse District before construction can begin. Even rezoning isn't required, but a number of variances from the planning commission and approvals from the Landmarks Commission will be needed. Also, the block surrounded by W.3rd, W.6th, Superior and St. Clair is outside the historic district boundary established for the WHD which will simplify the approvals process for Stark et al.

Not that I'm aware of. About FCE, one thing Stark said to me is he can take some risks that stockholder-owned companies like FCE cannot. Yet, Stark isn't stupid. He spreads the risk with partner firms who usually are not stockholder owned either.

Don't get too hung up on stuff like that. I saw one rendering developed for Stark that didn't include the historic Johnson Block, at the SW corner of W.6th and St. Clair; nor did it have John Carney's Water Street Apartments. Neither of those can be demolished, as they are protected historic buildings. When I asked Carney about it, he laughed and said that the architectural firm made a bit of an oversight.

Now that I've posted this first article, I'll give you a little history. During the election campaign, I heard that there was something afoot for this block in the Warehouse Distrct (hence, the reason why I took that picture of the parking lots while there were still leaves on the trees!). I was told that someone named Asher had already bought up most of the parcels in that block, and that would make it easier for its development to occur. But when I checked the auditor's Web site, it showed three or four companies had acquired the land in December 2004. I was disappointed. But I cross-checked the owners of those companies on the Secretary of State's website and found they were all the same -- T.J. Asher. The Ashers are big in commercial real estate development nationwide and in Canada, but T.J. Asher has been getting into residential development lately, namely with a luxury cluster housing project in Bentleyville. That project has proven to be a bit controversial (specifically, some earth-moving has nearby residents concerned), with some critical media articles done, including by Sun (not me!), and thus is probably why he never called me back! Asher also is on the downtown Business Improvement District steering committee, chaired by John Carney who is Stark's partner in building and financing Crocker Park. See the linkages emerging here? Before I became aware of Stark's involvement in all of this, I found an article in the Plain Dealer from about a year ago which had both Stark and Asher mentioned in it, in which they talked about the need to develop the surface parking lots in the Warehouse District. This whole thing has been brewing for a while. Since Asher hadn't yet acquired the last three parcels in that block, I held off on reporting the story. One of the three parcels has an old parking deck on it, and is owned by several partners, including the estate of Irving Chelm and another guy named Ed Kowit. The parking deck has been on the market before and, in the early 1990s, was the site for a 15-story office building designed by Richard Fleischman that got preliminary approval from the city. The office market soured and the plans were scrapped. Another parcel is within the parking deck, and was the former Hoty's restaurant, now a check-cashing business. It is owned by Ed Kowit. I spoke to Kowit, and he said he hasn't been approached by Stark or Asher yet. That also disappointed me, but then I recalled that Wolstein didn't have all the properties in pocket for the Flats East Bank proposal, and at least one owner (was it Samsel?) hadn't been approached by the time that project made the papers. I guess I was hoping all these owners were at least in negotiations -- and then again, perhaps they are and didn't want to say publicly! More than a month ago, someone (I won't mention his name unless he says it's OK) tipped me off that Stark was working on something big. Since I covered Westlake for nine years until this past fall, when I began covering downtown, I was very familiar with Stark (and Carney) as he was with me. I called him but he didn't want to explain his plans over the phone. He wanted to set up a meeting so he could show it to me visually. I also did other interviews with certain officials, which will be part of the next two articles, and are essential pieces of this overall plan. Stark confirmed he was working with Asher and had no problems with the news of the Warehouse District development being publicized. I was extremely glad to get that rendering from him, plus another that will be part of the second article. And, yes, it is Stark's intention to open for occupancy most of, if not the entire block in the Warehouse District in 2008. Like I said in the article, however, his plans have not yet been submitted to the WHD's design review committee, which must happen before it goes to the City Planning Commission. One downside is that Tom Yablonski (WHD director) was a bit perturbed that I, as a member of the media, had seen a rendering of Stark's proposal before he had. That's not good protocol. But he seemed to ease up when he learned it was to be built on Asher's properties, and Asher had already met with Yablonski to discuss development plans for that block. Anyway, that's how this whole thing fell into place. I will get into the market aspects, retail ratios and more of the "Pesht" part of this thing in the next installment. I'm glad you all find this exciting, just as I do. The funny thing is, people at the office keep asking me if I think this project will happen! If I knew that, I wouldn't be working at Sun Newspapers, or any newspaper for that matter. I'd be sitting on a beach, living off stock dividends.

^It was mentioned in Sun Newspapers. :-D

I can't believe no one, including me until now, noticed the billboard in the following photo by MayDay! This is why photographs should no longer be used in court as evidence

I agree, but I do like the second and third towers you've shown.

Phase 1 is "project" with a property, price tag, and a pending opening date. The rest is "proposal."

Since there is so much to describe, and lots of background to include, the full scale of this development won't become clear until the last of three parts to the series is published -- with one part per week. In fact, I'm finding that I'm having to leave out some things I'd really rather not, like that Stark considers Crocker Park a sort of laboratory experiment for what he's pursuing. And, he realizes that Crocker Park isn't new urbanism, but "new suburbanism." Perhaps I can get that into the third part of the series which I haven't written yet, but the subject for that part doesn't lend itself to that sort of discussion. Now, one thing I regret: I've teased you all and built this up so much that I fear many of you will be disappointed. I hope I haven't misled you all. But I am excited to reveal some of the details Wednesday evening, and I have no doubt that this will be a subject of discussion on this forum for a while.

Mine's smaller than yours, and damn proud of it.... My natural gas bill for this past month was $44, while my electric bill was $194. The electric bill is about the same for this time last year, while my natural gas bill is down about $100 (based on last year's gas rates). How'd I do that? In September, I installed two 6-foot-long cove heaters and one panel heater, both electric. A cove heater is a strip that mounts a couple of inches below the ceiling and a couple inches out from the wall. It's like a baseboard heater, but is out of reach of children or pets. It, like the panel heater, emits radiant heat, warming objects in the room rather than the air. Standing in front of it is like standing in a sun-lit room on a hazy day. The cove heaters also have a small convective component to them, as they are mounted away from the wall, so the air circulates behind them. See below for a side view of a cove heater.... This is what a cove heater looks like installed.... Panel heater have a larger convective heating feature than cove heaters.... Here's a link to some artsy versions of panel heaters (you can also get them in plain ol' white).... http://www.econo-heat.com/productspec_picture.html I put one cove heater in the living room/dining room and the other in my larger bedroom, which I've converted to an office. The panel heater, which has an undersea picture painted on it, is mounted in the middle of the wall in my smaller bedroom. The two bathrooms and kitchen are interior rooms, and need less heating. Each unit uses about as much electricity as a home computer. You can burn your hand on the cove heaters, and I suppose you would burn it on a panel heater, too, but you'd have to leave your hand on it for a while. I still have my furnance turned on, but the thermostat is set in the mid- to upper-70s, so it turns on only when it's bitterly cold outside. Even then, it stays on for only about 5 minutes at a time, and runs maybe once every half hour. But the furnace has become a luxury. Since it runs less, I'm spending far less on natural gas and I've traded the eletricity to run the blower for the electricity to run the cove/panel heaters on a 1:1 ratio. In other words, my out-of-pocket expense for the heaters will be paid for in one winter (or less, since I'm basing my savings on last year's natural gas rates). Cove and panel heaters are starting to make inroads at stores in the U.S., but they are more common in the U.K. and Austrailia. But you can order them from U.S. distributors. Just do a Google search on Cove Heater and Panel Heater, and you'll get some ideas on power requirements, size of heater for the space to be heated, warranties and, of course, prices. If you have any questions just ask me, as I've already installed them and learned some things to do and not do.

Isn't it great having America or Americans be among, if not the most ... > car-addicted, with more than 90 percent of all day-to-day trips by car > overweight > forced to spend nearly as much or more on owning cars than we do on housing > oil wasting > militant, as a result of the previous > polluting > destructive when it comes to our approach to our historic core cities > boring, when it comes to land use, as one community looks increasingly like every other > unsympathetic to our poor urban residents, who are locked into poverty because they can't access jobs > increasingly immobile by a decline in investment in urban bus and rail, plus intercity bus and rail, and reduced commercial aviation options in small-, moderate-sized airports > where commercial aviation does exist, we're forced to spend a king's ransom for fast, intercity transportation to/from small- and moderate-sized cities > pathetic commercial aviation systems in the civilized world, where airlines still cannot make money despite being lavished with huge subsidies You should know better than most Americans, Magyar. I'm disappointed that you don't know better about what's going on in the world when it comes to transportation. I know it's hard to accept the fact that America isn't the greatest country in the world anymore, and we no longer have the greatest transportation system in the world. But I can tell that you are having a hard time accepting this when you make an insipid comment like the one about Star Trek or the Jetsons rectifying our transportation system. Such a transportation system may seem like science fiction to you and most other Americans who are happily ignorant that such a transportation system exists in all but one civilized nation of this planet. It seems that you'd rather keep your head in the warm, comfortable sand, than pull it out and take a look around at how we're getting our asses handed to ourselves on the world's economic stage -- and transportation is a big part of that competitive angle that we've failed to address. I sure do miss the old America, where we believed we could do it better than anyone else, and usually did. Now, people like me get insulted when we suggest proven ways to regain lost ground. Now I see how far America has fallen, and how little chance it has of catching up.

I suppose. Someone of their caliber is alive at the present time. But I think they're all living in just about every developed or developing nation except ours, based on what they've been able to acommplish and what we have not. BTW, your response and many others like it that I've heard shows how little this country has come to expect from itself.

That story came from this link: http://www.wcpn.com/news/2005/10_12/1222innerbelt.html Here's the graphic which WPCN referred to:

! :wink:

In a manner of speaking, yes. But it's more stark than that.

Let me help you out a bit, since I sifted through a hundred or so pages just to gather this little synopsis, and even this got whittled down to just a couple of paragraphs for the article.... Budapest, the capital of Hungary, has a population of 1.8 million people. It has long been a major center of trade and mercantilism due to its location on the banks of the Danube River. The 1,771-mile Danube is an historic trading route between Europe, Asia and the Middle East. But there’s a downside to being on a major trading route — crusading armies found it equally attractive for transport. For more than 2,000 years, armies of the Celts, Romans, Mongols, Turks, Habsburgs, Nazis and Soviets alternated in building or sacking the three towns that in 1873 were merged into Budapest — Buda, Obuda and Pesht. For centuries, the three towns were popular for their public baths, made possible by the presence of natural thermal waters from the surrounding hillsides. As each occupying army came and went, the three towns became increasingly ethnic. One of the occupying armies, the Turks, established a provincial capital of the Ottoman Empire and remained in Buda, Obouda and Pest for almost 150 years. It wasn't until 1686 that the Turks were driven out following a destructive siege lasting a month and a half that virtually destroyed the trio of cities. The liberated Buda, Obouda (translated simply as "Old Buda") and Pest were mere shells with tiny populations, perhaps measuring only in the thousands. The towns would slowly recover over the next 100 years, but the Hungarians had not gained independence with the expulsion of the Turks. They had simply exchanged one occupier for another, the Habsburgs, who came downstream on the Danube, from Austria. Yet, this occupier was far more beneficial. Ultimately, they set into motion the start of Budapest's greatest era of prosperity, lasting more than 100 years. The spark that set the three towns afire economically, culturally and artistically began in the early 1800s. The Habsburgs took their experiences in modern city planning from the rest of Europe and began to set down grand boulevards. They lined them with opera houses, ornate parliament buildings, a national gallery, lavish baths, cafes and the finest high-density housing of that era. Much of the money they invested was poured into Pesht, long the unwanted stepchild of Buda. Pesht was a piece of land that Hungarians had long taken for granted, and had an untapped potential that was never utilized until the Habsburg Empire capitalized upon it. Pesht was rebuilt and expanded to such a degree, that a totally new city was essentially created. The scale of this development drew visitors out of curiosity and many liked what they saw. So much so that they stayed to start a new life. Over the next 40 years, Pesht grew into a densely populated city comprised of a wealthy mix of merchants, artisans and industrialists, drawing Jewish and Christian immigrants from throughout Europe and Muslims from the Middle East. A decade after Buda, Obuda and Pesht were merged into Budapest, the Habsburgs were driven out and Hungary became independent for the first time in more than 300 years. Few capital cities of Europe were as industrial as Budapest. Wood and other raw materials from the surrounding lands were brought to Budapest, where they were cut, processed or otherwise refined and then transported by boat or train to cities throughout Europe and Asia. More immigrants poured into Budapest to work in its thriving mills and factories. In all of Europe by the end of the 1800s, only Berlin had grown as fast as Budapest, with the united city's population eclipsing 1 million. In fact, observers at the time said Budapest was growing at an "American rate" not unlike that of Chicago. Budapest was now a leading city, and it began to teach the rest of Europe how to build and improve cities. It set up a Council of Public Works that established ring roads around Budapest, built the first underground urban railway in Europe, set the heights of buildings, established numerous green spaces and managed the city's growth extremely well. The city soon became known as "The Paris Of The East." It all came to an end with the rise of Hitler in Germany and an increase in anti-Jewish activities in Hungary. Many of the Hungarian Jews fled to the west. After Nazi Germany's armies overran Budapest in World War II and began a scorched-earth campaign in retreat from the approaching Russian army, Budapest was again heavily damaged. Though the Soviets rebuilt some of Budapest, they also inflicted their own damage in putting down a nationalist movement in 1956. More Hungarians fled to west, many of whom found their way to Cleveland. It wasn't until 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, that Hungarians regained their independence and began to find in their own land freedoms and the uncertainties that come with them. Did anyone notice "the spark"?