Pete

Construction on the steel sheet pile bulkhead will begin in November/December and run through April. Upon completion of the bulkhead, the boardwalk construction will begin. The boardwalk should be completed by the end of summer.

Jerry: What's up with the escalator at the W. Blvd Redline station? It has been inoperable and blocked off for a quite a while now. Closing it causes people to miss their ride because the stairs are only wide enough for people to move in one direction at a time. Can the RTA at least open the escalator for use as stairs regardless of whether it moves? Thanks.

If he returns the money, Kasich & Kucinich will have something in common: returning a huge sum of federal funds for a rail project (the Urban Mass Transportation Administration People Mover and Ohio 3-C). Maybe somebody should tell Kasich that liberal Rep. Kucinich is anti-rail and that being anti-rail is a liberal ideal?

Litt's philosophy is basically that the further from Cleveland, the better the architect. He likes Gwathmey but can only tolerate LBBJ because they are from New York versus Ohio. He didn't like the old building, because the architect was local. And he loves the fact that an architecture firm from Norway that is designing a building at BGSU. The merits of the buildings themselves don't always matter to him. He should ask does it function well, provide ammenities that students want, fit into the context of it's surroundings, was it within budget/schedule, etc. But instead it's more important to him that a famous name from somewhere else designed it.

The renderings for Options A & C show only the westbound bridge, a condiiton that will never really happen except during construction of the eastbound bridge several years later. Option B at least gives the general public some idea of what their bridge will actually look like, both with the existing truss (the immediate condition) and with a future twin (the long term condition). The perspectives of these renderings are all pretty bad. What will it look like while driving on it? What will it look like from Progressive Field? From the Lorain Carnegie? ODOT asked for specific renderings, so apparantly they only asked for mid-span perspectives. The reason that this bridge looks unimaginable in all three proposals is pretty simple. ODOT's technical scoring criteria is available here: (http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/D12/Deputy%20Director/News/Pages/EvaluationBeginsonProposalstoBuildNewInnerbeltBridge.aspx). Bridge aesthetics is worth 5 of 105 possible points. Proposed Design is also worth 30 points, but may take into account dozens of other items, such as maintenance of traffic during construction, impact on the design to future maintenance, etc. So Bridge Aesthetics is worth less than 5% of the technical proposal. But then the technical proposal is merged with the cost proposal, weighted at 30% and 70%, respectively so the result is that Bridge Aesthetics is worth less than 2% of the total score. So if one team scores a 5 (unlikely) and another scores a 0 (also unlikely) the difference is less than 2% of the total score.

Living on campus is not necessarily more expensive. Living on campus means that you don't need to purchase a car, auto insurance, or gasoline and you can get anywhere you want for $25 via the U-Pass. To buy a $10,000 car, throw in gas and insurance, and it will cost somewhere in the $15,000 to $25,000 range for 4 years of school (assuming gas doesn't go back up to $4+. I wish CSU would build more dormitories versus more parking garages.

Shortly after Jackson was elected, I heard Ken Silliman (Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson's Chief of Staff) say that Frank supports annexing East Cleveland, however, Cleveland will not initiate the annexation. East Cleveland voters/gov't have to initiate the process. Jackson isn't much of a go-getter and East Cleveland officials are so dysfunctional that it'd take a miracle for annexation to happen.

Do these "experts" recommending Tower City shop or dine at Tower City? I'm pretty sure their answer to this question would be the same as most Clevelanders: "No. Tower City sucks." But yet they recommend it for others. Tower City is a beautiful monument, but as shopping mall retail goes, it does kind of suck to people who knew how great it used to be. It's a better market for Dunkin' Donuts than for Coach. I cannot see how a TC connection to McDonalds and the Renaissance is really that much better than a Mall connection to Public Auditorium and the Marriott.

Is there a feasible market for this building, as a theater? Shaker Square and the Cedar Lee are stiff competition within the market area, and the theater at Coventry has gone through several iterations, seemingly struggling to make a go of it. The Play House and university theaters probably don't leave much market for a live theater. The neighborhood might want to consider restoring the facade to its' former glory but demolishing the rest of the building and constructing a parking garage, disguised from the street as a theater with vehicular access from the alley at the back. I have no idea if the theater is worth saving/restoring or not. A new Mayfield RTA station will be great, but the neighborhood businesses would do much better with more plentiful parking available. This building is long and narrow, tucked up closely to other buildings. There is little opportunity to provide decent views, so a residential or office conversion might not have a lot of selling points. Reliable parking is quite possibly the limiting factor to neighborhood growth in Little Italy, both from a commercial and residential standpoint. Without the reliable, convenient (yet somewhat hidden) parking decks, Coventry & Cedar Fairmount would not be what they are today. A parking garage is probably a more reliable way to pay for itself than a theater restoration. The conversion to a parking deck could help reinvigorate the rest of the neighborhood - potentially a palatable trade off.

MRN (E 4th developer/owner) despite doing great things to this street is one of the worst property owners downtown at shoveling their sidewalks. E. 4th itself is not a problem but once you turn the corner onto Euclid or Prospect and it's always a sheet of ice but its free of snow/ice at Colonial Marketplace, BP or 515. It's almost like they are trying to force people to use the valet when they drive in for dinner. Can the city make them shovel/salt? Why don't they have enough respect for patrons and tenants to shovel the dang sidewalk? The coffee shop is starting to look like a coffee shop, but you'd better not get it to go or you'll slip on your @$$!

I like what RTA, University Circle, and the City have come up with here. I am curious about a couple of things. First, this tangle of streets, transit stations, the BioEnterprise Building, and the railroad run right through the middle of the underlying asset that makes University Circle so great - the park! This whole mess goes right over the culverted Doan Brook. It feels like the southern boundary of the park lies at Carnegie. But jump to the other side of the railroad tracks (which have been there as long as the park) and Ambler Park runs all the way to the Shaker Lakes through a deep and surprisingly scenic valley where one can actually see the Doan Brook, a forest, deer, an ugly dam, old stone quarries, old stone formations, and even a waterfall. This is true greenspace, albeit somehow nearly forgotten and desolate. Cleveland owns Ambler Park but much of it is in Cleveland Heights & Shaker Heights. Access to the park is very poor at best. Now would be a great time for University Circle to consider the extension of the multipurpose path that ends at Carnegie. Since park paths are out of the scope of what RTA does, UCI could provide funds for a direct crossing for walkers/joggers/bikers and provide a nice pathway along MLK and under the RR bridges to reunite these two sections of park. There should be a continuous path from the Shaker Lakes to Lake Erie. Even though the parks have been there since the late 1800s, somehow we've never found a way to connect these huge greenspaces separated by a mere 300 yards. Now IS the time to do it. RTA's slides don't address this linkage at all, but it could be accommodated. Second, any thoughts on how RTA will lessen the "get me out of here" feeling that comes along with walking underneath dirty old railroad bridges? Painting a mural on the wall is just not enough. They better have a lot of bright lights, not those dingy orange tinted things, and they better be prepared to clean the sidewalks sometimes. RTA's track record is bad: walking under the tracks adjacent to the Euclid/E. 120th Station in the middle of the day is disgusting and somewhat scary, and in its' current state this one at Cedar is pretty bad too. Hopefully, there will be quality under-bridge pedestrian treatments used here that can be used for the above mentioned underpass to connect the parks at MLK just to the south of the Cedar Station. Last, what are the plans for the old transit loop, labeled on slide 11 of the RTA presentation as "open space"? It isn't very accessible and will lie sandwiched between wide streets and the RR tracks.

The biggest problem with the Tower City site is Forest City and the image of corruption that they have garnered. Forest City is so active donating to politicians that it is difficult, even for our less-than-clean commissioners, to back a site that provides vast monetary advantage to one company/land owner versus another site that will likely benefit dozens of surrounding property owners plus rehabilitating a city landmark. The Marriott is across the street and the Sheraton and Hyatt are a mere block away from the mall. Recommendations have included a major hotel connected to the CC, so that will be 4 hotels within a block. And the "connectivity" of an airport RTA link is almost a moot point because it is very unlikely that people staying at the Ritz or Renaissance will take public transportation to save $10 versus a cab when their company is providing them with a $200+ per night luxury hotel room. The summary of statements of the guy from Twinsburg given in the PD has a lot of holes. The political influence Forest City wields is not just local matter either. Remember Bill Richardson? He was just nominated for Commerce Secretary by Obama but withdrew the nomination since the FBI is investigating him for giving favors to a large donor (not Forest City). Richardson changed a New Mexico state law to allow Forest City to purchase 3,000 acres in Albuquerque from the state for a mere $3,000 per acre (and $290,000 in campaign contributions from Forest City and the controlling family). This recent NY Times article explains the situation and casts a shadow of corruption onto Forest City's dealing with Richardson. It's not hard to imagine Forest City being implicated with a politician under FBI investigation for taking bribes in the form of campaign donations. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/us/11newmexico.html?ref=politics&pagewanted=all This matters because Forest City donates to nearly every local politician. They do not want to develop Scranton Peninsula. They have not proposed putting up any of their own cash for this project, and they probably can't even afford to borrow to do so now. The Tower City site isn't altogether bad. But it isn't clearly better to a such a degree to overcome the "corruption" image that Forest City brings with it that the commissioners desperately need to avoid.

Musky, I hate to tell something that you probably already know, but CSU still owns Fenn Tower. The University and developer struck an agreement (i.e. formed a partnership) and the developer turned Fenn into a dormitory. The University didn't run the construction or operations, but they obviously have had some input into the project. This past agreement is a similar type of partnership with a private developer that will be/has been formed for future residential construction on campus. Thus CSU and a private company are partners in building more housing on campus on land that CSU owns, but the developer will build run the project. American Campus Communities (NYSE: ACC) (they may have done Fenn) is one of the largest campus housing companies. Their stock has lost more than half of its' value in the last 3 months despite only moderate losses. Encouraging future demographic trends aren't enough to overcome the lack of investor confidence in campus housing, much like the broader market. In the current economic climate, when you are highly leveraged as real estate companies tend to be, banks are less than eager to lend. Significantly more capital is required for financing than two years ago. Schwartz has done a phenomenal job and hopefully his successor will make sure that projects such as this continue but don't expect to hear about secured financing any time soon. They've got some time before the bookstore moves anyway, so hopefully lenders will resume "normal lending" by then.

A source told me that the ability to finance this project does not exist right now because it's not available with the university's bonds or with the private sector developers the university was counting on. It's not being tabled, but "normal" lending will need to resume to start construction. CSU needs a private partner/developer to do this project because the university is not able to access additional credit (maxed out on bonds from building rec center/ student center/ several parking garages, etc.). Also, that siding looks dreadful. Once funding is available, pray for a spike in vinyl and aluminum prices!

My point is that I would not rent from a slumlord and expect that they are somehow going to change their ways. If the owner showed an effort to clean up their property, then they might be worth doing business with. As they conduct themselves right now, I would not do business with them. Since this building has one of the highest vacancy rates in the CBD, most companies agree and have therefore chosen to rent space from one of the dozens of more reputable landlords downtown. I admire your vision MTS, and if the landlord conducted their business in a more professional manner this could be a fine spot for a restaurant or other first floor retail. Now, if I were to own this building (and attached garage with a footprint 2x the tower) I would be exploring all options to convert this building to residential use. The building needs a new life and a new function. Other low occupancy buildings (Rockefeller, Galleria) are treated with far greater respect and kept clean, so these guys could do it too. One of the reasons for the Downtown Cleveland Alliance is its' "Clean" program. These guys powerwash sidewalks, clean trash, etc. that most landlords do on their own. But the downtown property owners were willing to charge themselves an additional fee to pay for providing these services around other buildings (like East Ohio) that don't do these things and have a negative impact on the greater community. Someday EOG will be worth investing in from a tenant's perspective, but it needs some investment, or at least commitment to investment, from the landlord first.

Go stand on that corner for a minute. It smells of urine, as do all of the entrances to the building. There are a bunch of steam manholes along Superior making it one of the favorite places for the homeless to hang out. This is one of the LAST places I would ever open a retail chain (the problems could be solved if the owner really cared, cleaned his building/sidewalks, etc. but such is not the case). Creepy fluid stains all over the sidewalks plus smells that make your stomach queasy aren't a good appetizer to a burrito or any other type of food. Possibly a better location for Chipotle is the lone vacant retail spot in the Amtrust building on E9th just across Walnut from this EOG building.

I agree that the sidewalk patios sprouting up all over are growing to immense proportions! Theresa's Pizza (a few shops away) has a patio that takes about 2/3 of the sidewalk. Pedestrians are getting the squeeze! I like patios on the sidewalks but they should be limited to only about 1/3 of the sidewalk's width.

About a month ago I noticed that there was an eviction notice for the I-forgot-the-name Tavern LLC in the window on the Windsor Building (i.e. Blackfinn spot) and that the signs touting the space as the future home of Blackfinn disappeared. I don't know anything concrete, but I suspect that the deal may have fallen through. I'd rather see a grocery type store or something like Presti's or Aladdin's vs. yet another bar. Some ATMs on E 4th would be handy too.

They do pretty good business at lunch time, like most places downtown, and could probably survive on work-day hours only like Vincenza's or the food courts. Alcohol is not their staple like many of ther other places on E 4th, so night time business is slower. The food is pretty good, but a little below #1 Pho which is great.

Since when do conventioneers park at local parking lots. I sure don't. i walk from the hotel (if not already attached) to the CC... no matter what city i go to one in. Did you know San Fran's Mascone Center does not even have a parking garage/lot? From the August 19, 2008 PD article "Forest City officials support Medical Mart but want fair deal", "Forest City CEO Charles Ratner acknowledged that Tower City will get a boost with a medical mart and convention center on the site. But selling the land will create other expenses for the company, including a new, $25 million parking facility to replace spaces lost through construction of the project." http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/08/forest_city_officials_support/print.html At a cost of $15k-20K per space, Forest City therefore plans to build about 1,500 spaces in a garage. That is a lot of parking. Also, people staying at the as-yet-to-be-announced attached hotel will be parking at TC. People staying at the Ritz and/or Renaissance will park at TC. The new hotel will also be leasing and/or buying the land across the street from MK, next to the Fed courthouse. I did consulting for FC on this project and I know that they intend to generate additional revenues from parking. Look at the way Ratner phrased it. He makes it sound as if selling a chunk of land for $40 million is an inconvenience since it will "create additional expenses" for the company! FC is taking advantage of their resource (land) and selling it for cash to somebody (the county) that will hope folks from out of town use it and stay at TC's hotels, eat at TC's restaurants, shop at TC's stores and pay to park in TC's garages which are conveniently located adjacent/underneath all of that other stuff. FC should pay the county for putting a convention center there. Also, MMPI gets to lease their space in the Higbee building for $1 per year, but since the value of commercial buildings is basically based on their ability to produce income, the space that MMPI would occupy is therefore "worthless." That will be the argument to Frank Russo come tax time. Sweet deal. Since Key is not going to bring a publicly-subsidized half-billion dollar building with them when they leased space at Higbee's, they have to pay a lot more for the space which will pay taxes, of course. I hear you about San Fran, but if you go to C-bus you can park in the lot right across the street from the conv. center like I did last time I was there for a convention. Parking is a source of revenue the county will be handing to FC to provide since the county isn't intending to do it themselves. If they are really interested in benefitting the public with walkways, they could build one over/under Ontario /Huron intersection where it is an 8-lane wide pedestrian nightmare from the publicly subsidized Gateway garage north of Huron and attach that to the convention center.

Tower City may indeed be cheaper, however it will also collect less revenue. Forest City will collect all parking revenues at Tower City. The taxpayers would collect the revenue from parking at the Mall site. Parking revenues can easily add up to several million per year. Only some folks will be coming to town via the Rapid/Hopkins. Millions more will be driving. The parking revenues are going to account for far more cash for FCE than the additional revenues they reap from their mall. I hope that somebody in the media picks up on this. FCE wants $40 million for the air rights to build above their land and they want to build their own additional parking garages underneath the convention center. That is a poor deal for the county.

That is not going to happen any time soon. Within the past year I heard one of the Ratners speaking at CSU. He raised the issue that Tower City struggles and the fact that it's a drag on the bottom line. He volunteered this scenario: presented with the same situation today as they were 20 years ago, FCE would not build a large scale project in Cleveland for portfolio diversification issues more so than strictly looking at the bottom line. Population growth is one of the largest demand generators of real estate development. FCE (Albert Ratner) is really into statistics, so they aren't going to do anything in a slow growth place like Ohio where they already own a lot of real estate.

I'm glad that Caddy Ranch is going to be built. The alternative to Cadillac Ranch is a dirty building with boarded and/or grimy windows. I'd rather have a clean restaurant that smells like cheeseburgers, employs people, and doesn't look like Beirut and smell like a urinal. And maybe if the retail spaces are successful the owner might actually be able to convince tenants to move into the spaces above once Key moves across the street to the Higbees Building. This building's upper floors are still going to be hard to lease. Above the awning the building is attractive, but not very good for offices or residential. Also, I'm glad that it isn't like Tower City! Not intending to get into a TC discussion, but when standing outside of TC from any location, one cannot even tell that there is a mall inside! TC is beautiful, but more of a monument than a properly designed/functional retail space. The attractiveness of the Caddy Ranch design can be questioned, but the design appears that it should be able to accomplish its' purpose: to draw attention to itself and help make the business successful (example: Corner Alley, Winking Lizard) versus the TC/Galleria retail model of attractive architecture hiding it's contents from the world that clearly does not work. Are they going to do anything to improve the Prospect side of the building? It is pretty nasty looking right now.

A possible source for the large ship: I heard today that Timken was receiving a delivery at the Cleveland Port of a 100+ ton piece of machinery from Germany. They are going to unload it in Cleveland and drive it to their factory on a truck with 40+ axles.

Doctabroccoli, that is amusing to me. Your CWRU CivE TA is a friend of mine :) I believe she was researching foundation materials to reduce vibrations and noise on railways. However, I would NOT recommend that men go to CWRU to find women. Trust me on that one guys. CSU on the other hand... Moderators, sorry this is so far off topic of Ave. District, but guys need to to be warned about such misleading statements. That particular TA is not the norm :wink:. If you must go looking for women at CWRU, avoid the engineering school and try the nursing school :-o or college of business.