pcforsgren

Hot off the blogwire: http://www.brewedfreshdaily.com/2005/09/06/secret-revolution-uncovered/ Seems BFD found a "confidential" plan by local firm Thomson Hine to begin capitalizing on Cleveland's newly forming technology prowess. Here are some highlights: * Circulate a "hymn sheet", a fancy buzzword that means everyone would have the facts on the tech aspects of Cleveland, the Intel Digital Cities initiative, and what all this means to the area. * Pull together all the aspects of Cleveland that are being touted and create an overall brand for the city and its new technology sector.

wha? They randomly put Tower City back into the mix... oook. Forest City is about the hardest company to figure out I've ever seen. Maybe them getting the Case West Quad project hightened their interest in their home city again. Will be interesting to hear what caused the change.

well as much as people dislike Forest City Enterprises sometimes for a lack of investment in Cleveland (true or untrue), this is something they have good experience with, and FCE does create some damn nice buildings - see Tower City Center, etc. I think they'll do this one right.

sweet! this is a great win for the cleveland area. glad to here this, this made my day. :clap:

yeah that is the story of the area... we'll have a week where officemax leaves, and then in the same week, be designated a digital city by Intel. Fortune changes around here about as often as the weather :-D

great news to end the week on, some real positive steps towards becoming a tech hub. we'll be watching this one for sure. the CVB and Greater Cleveland partnership REALLY need to play this sort of thing up to tech companies looking for a home.

ColDayMan is right, people. The best thing to do now is to give it a rest and get back to work on local economic growth. Instead of bemoaning another large company lost, let's do what it takes now to create the next fortune 500 company right here in Cleveland. The best way we can recover from this is by breeding high tech jobs and companies that have the tools they need to succeed and become large, successful companies. The corporate headquarters left in Cleveland aren't there by accident. They are home grown companies that made it big. We had them in the past, we can haev them again, if the attitude is right and the support is there.

not to mention the fact they make damn good beer. Dortmunder Gold is calling my name...

re: progessive tower Mike White's, for roadblocking one of the best things to hit the city in years. We'll be feeling the pain of that one for a looooong time. Never liked him as mayor, even less now that I know he's a corrupt SOB.

Very good points, CMH. Northeast Ohio needs to look in the mirror and realize that it's not Columbus' fault that the region is facing a bleak future. It is a complete failure to change with the times and stop relying on the old way of doing things. The reason a lot of Clevelanders moved to Columbus? oh thats right, they have jobs there and aren't stuck clinging to an industrial heritage that frankly is gone and is never coming back. The population needs to educate themselves, foster a business-friendly climate, paticuarly to startup businesses, and use its healthcare, cultural and educational assets to attract outsiders to the city. There is no silver bullet, it's a long, hard road back to the top, but for christ's sake, if not now, then when? When the census report reads Population: two guys and a donkey? If there was ever a time for regionalism, the time is now. The region WILL DIE if Cleveland continues to self-destruct, and the suburban morons have got to realize that as well. No region can be successful with a crumbling, decaying inner city that bleeds jobs away like no other city in the country save Gary, Indiana. All the denizens of Cleveland, both city proper and suburbs, must realize that it put up or shut up time for metro Cleveland.

agreed, KJP. i too am tired of the moral victories. My point was not to overlook the fact we lost, but merely to state that if the region cooperated like this more often, we would have a few more victories to talk about. That being said, this sucks, and I realize it. This area is still bleeding jobs nonstop, like it has ever since the manufacturing era died, and it just never seems to stop. We hear one piece of good news and then "oh look, 2,000 jobs are leaving tommorow! happy day". Until the city and area gets their head out of their ass, this will continue. Until we are willing to stop wallowing in self-pity, pining for the industrial past, and wake up for the future, Cleveland will continue heading down the Youngstown path, and perhaps further into destruction. Honestly, Cleveland is reaching its final point. Will this city let its job, population, and influence bleed away for good, or does it finally take this as a wake up call to stop crying, shake off the dirt, and fix these damn problems once and for all. Time will tell, and for northeast ohio's sake, I hope they choose the latter.

on that note, the worst thing we could do is chalk this up as a failure and not try again. The region has had some success with cooperation, we just need to land that one big fish to prove we can compete as well as anyone. I am hopeful that will be the case.

yeah it was basically a done deal that they'd move to chicago. The cool thing is that we were able to make it a two horse race, which shows we can compete with any region when we work together... Cleveland and SH need to work together to convince a company to replace OfficeMax.

damn, i was hoping against hope that they would consolidate here. Well on the upside, Cleveland and Shaker showed promise of working together and regionalism, which WILL pay off in the future if we keep it up.

TRUE Regionalism at work here, finally! This is something northeast ohio has needed for a long time. Cleveland and a prominent suburb working together to keep a major company here, locate it downtown, and share tax revenue... unbelievable. If this sort of thing becomes a trend, we may be on our way to a healthier, successful in the 21st century Cleveland metro area. :clap:

haha, it always blows my mind... who would have EVER thought 10-15 years ago that the city would be leading the metro area in home construction? I would have been laughed out of town for thinking so...

kudos to the city in standing up and saying the logo is hideous. They need to make sure we don't destroy what's left of the Gund's character with a tacky logo like that.

mixed feelings on this one, honestly. Bennett did accomplish great things - doubled the graduation rate, improved test scores, 70% of graduating students going to college. All admirable things she and her staff did. But they just couldn't convince the citizens of Cleveland that their schools were worth investing in, and that is her major failure. The schools chief was polarizing, to say the least, and was certainly a "love her or hate her" sort of woman. That being said, I certainly hope that Mayor C takes this opportunity to think about who would best lead a school district into the next decade and who can make Cleveland WANT to make its schools successful again.

she has made a remarkable turnaround since Ronayne came on board. The amount of projects announced in the last few months has been pretty spectacular. If this keeps up, she deserves another term to see what else she can do.

I too was amazed that the PD/Scene/FT/anybody hadn't mentioned these improved numbers, but then I remembered the "woe is us" Cleveland media could never print positive news without somehow spinning it into the death of the city. Thanks, KJP, for bucking the trend of doom and gloom and showing people that good things ARE happening here. If we (and indeed, the nation) heard more about these good things going on, Cleveland's can't-do attitude could be slowly reversed.

man one of these days we gotta get KJP in charge of transit and planning in this berg.... something other then the same old same old would be such a refreshing change.

I agree wooley, I'd like to see if Cleveland finally ends its population decline by 2010. I am honestly hopeful that the city will gain population by the next census, or at least in some of the more revitalized areas (downtown, OC, tremont, shaker, etc).

my thoughts exactly, this is a solid set of positive news for the city. CBRE also mentioned several possible major moves into downtown (probably OfficeMax and such) that would be a sizable drop in vacancy. The rebound is at hand, folks, it just took a little longer then we thought.

From CB Richard Ellis: Local unemployment rates dropped sharply during the quarter from 7.1 % to 5.4%. Ohio had a slight drop from 6.4% to 6.1% and the national rate declined as well to 5.1%. In the Cleveland MSA, more employment was seen in service-providing industries, with a boost of 6,100 jobs. There was also growth in the goods-producing sector with an additional 3,700 jobs since May 2004. Manufacturing and Educational and Health Services sustained slight losses in employment. The effect of these declines is unknown, as it is questionable how these changes will affect real estate markets. Cleveland’s Central Business District (CBD) appeared to stabilize in the second quarter after 170,000 square feet was vacated by ICI Paints in the first quarter of 2005. A handful of sizeable occupancies contributed to the second quarter rebound, while a number of signings and rumored deals, combined with renewed interest in the improvement of the downtown area have poised the market for a solid performance in the next 12 to 18 months. Overall, the CBD had a slight decrease in vacancy dropping from 22.04% in the first quarter to 21.07% in the second quarter. Class “A” vacancy fell a half percent to 17.38%, which was mainly driven by the US Department of Health and Human Services leasing 35,000 square feet and Wells Fargo leasing 9,200 square feet in 200 Public Square. Likewise, class “B” vacancy rates declined as blocks of space in the 2,000 to 15,000 square foot range were occupied. Realty One’s relocation from the South Suburban submarket to 31,000 square feet in the CBD occurred in the second quarter, which helped to improve class “B” vacancy and absorption. You can see the full PDF report here: http://gkc2.cbrichardellis.com/GlobalMarketReports/us/cleveland2q05ofcdt.pdf Great news all around, especially that unemployment rate. I think we are beginning to see the fruits of Cleveland's efforts to turn the regional economy on again.

X - good point, credit is due for the lakefront plan and other initiatives that were "in the works" throughout the past few years.