That's awesome, hope it's legit. That parking lot is part of former Sammy's space that was bought by Joel Sheer in 2014, which is now renovated office space.

 

http://www.cleveland.com/insideout/index.ssf/2016/12/cool_spaces_former_sammys_restaurant_now_offices_penthouse_overlooking_flats_photos_video.html

 

edit: The above article mentioned that Dimit was the architect for the building renovation, so they have a relationship with Sheer and this property. Who knows, it could still be nothing.

Also the developer of Settlers Point Joel Scheer is also the one who recently purchased all of that property at Stones Levee.

 

http://www.jscheer.net/featuredprojects/

Also the developer of Settlers Point Joel Scheer is also the one who recently purchased all of that property at Stones Levee.

 

http://www.jscheer.net/featuredprojects/

 

Welp, he definitely intends a tower to be built there....

 

Crap  your right...how'd I miss that...

Crap  your right...how'd I miss that...

 

Don't feel bad. I'm on a roll today. :)

I cleaned up the rendering a bit....

 

Flats-residential tower-West10th-Dimit-2017Rs by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

Nice detective work,Ken!!  Hopefully this gets announced soon......although most impressive thing in that pic is that the fountain is actually working!

I really like that design, and the scale of the project.  The little restaurant terrace should be a nice place to while away an evening.  I hope we see more of these relatively small scale infill projects pop up.

 

As an aside, I love "architectural rendering people".  Is that lady by the fountain walking her dog while riding an invisible bicycle?

^^^ Love verticality and this one has balconies, no less.

Sure is a nice tower.  It is perfect for that in-fill parking lot.

I agree the scale and layout is perfect. I hope we get 5 more of them scattered around the flats and warehouse district.

It's very Vancouver-ish.

Great project. Terrible rendering.

Not to be the Debbie Downer... but this rendering is nothing more than that as of right now, right?

This project blends in well with the River Bend condos next door which, at about 36-years-old, still look good imho.

Not to be the Debbie Downer... but this rendering is nothing more than that as of right now, right?

 

Correct, and we have the owner's site plan saying his intention is to build a tower there. But nothing has been announced and no formal plans have been submitted to the city. But that doesn't stop us here at Urban Ohio from generating at least two to three pages from a rendering that was posted on a Facebook page. I don't know if you were here for the Ferrari Tower and the several pages of buzz that created here over a premature posting of a rendering.

Great project. Terrible rendering.

 

Are you commenting on my clean up job? If so you do remember that I am not an architect nor do I pretend to be one. :)

 

A few years ago I was one of the judges at the Urban Design Center for a contest among architectural students to design new train stations. I was struck at how brutally impolite the critiques were by their architectural professors.

 

And it made me wonder how these people would react to seeing their children making drawings of buildings and cities for the first time. Perhaps they would rip their toddlers for not acknowledging proper programming, context and engineering design techniques! ;)

A few years ago I was one of the judges at the Urban Design Center for a contest among architectural students to design new train stations. I was struck at how brutallyrics impolite the critiques were by their architectural professors.

 

Scientists get pretty nasty with peer reviews, too, although they call it being direct.  They say it saves time and interpretation.

That hypothetical future high rise in the Flats as updated by KJP would be perfect on that site - it does look very "Vancouverish". Hope that gets built in the near future and more like it along the river.  Imagine what that neighborhood could become!  Cleveland is developing some distinctive neighborhoods and areas for tourism that are really attractive and I hope those with big plans and dreams keep pushing ahead to make the reality.

Great project. Terrible rendering.

 

Are you commenting on my clean up job? If so you do remember that I am not an architect nor do I pretend to be one. :)

 

A few years ago I was one of the judges at the Urban Design Center for a contest among architectural students to design new train stations. I was struck at how brutally impolite the critiques were by their architectural professors.

 

And it made me wonder how these people would react to seeing their children making drawings of buildings and cities for the first time. Perhaps they would rip their toddlers for not acknowledging proper programming, context and engineering design techniques! ;)

 

The cleaned up version is better for sure. KJP, you're an artist!

An autist, you say? Why yes! :)

Crazy with these things on the horizon that the Samsel building hasn't been sold off for big bucks to convert.

If the owner isn't motivated to sell, he/she isn't going to sell. In a related example, there's a self-storage business next to the West 117th Rapid station that's been approached by many, many suitors who have made good offers for the property. But the owners just aren't interesting in selling. A self-storage business is a low-cost, steady-revenue business that provides a long-lasting income. I suspect Mike Samsel and his co-owner sister Kathy Petrick aren't in it just for the money. So it would take a lot of money to get them to walk away. And despite all of the development activity in Cleveland, the rents still aren't high enough to get people to sell off something that has sentimental value as well as financial value.

 

Besides, the intermixing of light industrial activity, shipping and other old-school gritty Cleveland stuff with luxury apartments, shops and restaurants is one of the things that makes the Flats the Flats.

I would rather Samsel sell and have that building converted into apartments. Ideally Samsel could convert to general hardware and occupy 1st floor retail in such a building... As it is now, you have a ugly, hulking building that sits right in the middle of a hot residential and entrainment district.  The industrial products Samsel sells is generally of little interest to the residents and patrons of FEB. That doesn't make the Flats cool imho.  The giant ore boats squeezing up and down the narrow river amidst the pleasure boats, absolutely does... but not Samsel Hardware.

I would rather Samsel sell and have that building converted into apartments. Ideally Samsel could convert to general hardware and occupy 1st floor retail in such a building.

 

As far as I know they are already a neighborhood outlet for hardware items.

 

Samsel is cool though. They have a really neat role in the history of cleaning up the river back in the day.

 

Cuyahoga River fire - Frank Samsel

 

Frank Samsel -- and his 56-foot boat, the Putzfrau -- played a large role in the river cleanup.

 

Now retired, but owner of Samsel Supply Co. in the Flats since 1958, Samsel and his crews on the Putzfrau -- German for "cleaning lady" -- began first by picking out large debris and then sucking up flammable and chemical liquids.

 

Samsel said he wasn't surprised to hear the river had caught fire -- and remembered a later incident that could have ended worse.

 

"Are you kidding? We once cleaned up a 164,000-gallon gasoline spill," he recalled recently. "I mean this was bad, this stopped all railroad and marine traffic, but we didn't tell anyone about it because we didn't want some nut coming down there smoking a cigar."

 

Samsel said pollution was so pervasive on the river that his crew wasn't even called out unless there was an oil slick or other known industrial spill of more than 2,000 gallons.

 

"The river was always dirty, that was the way it was," he said. "And it never froze, there was so much heat in the water coming from the cooling waters of the steel mills."

 

But the Putzfrau began to make a dent in some of the surface pollution on the river.

 

"But in a 16-hour day, we could pick up 100 cubic yards of debris and 15,000 gallons of oil a day," he said. "And we had spills that would take four or five days, so there was a lot of stuff on that river."

 

That "stuff" included everything from fats and grease from slaughterhouses and rendering plants along the river to acids used in steelmaking or dyes from paint plants -- along with much of the raw or partially treated sewage from the entire Cleveland-Akron area.

 

But Samsel said that debris collecting at the mouth of the Cuyahoga wasn't all industrial waste.

 

"When spring floods would come, picnic benches, screen doors and automobile tires would come down and mix in with the industrial waste," he said. "The industrial got blamed, but it was like the old Pogo comic strip said: 'We have met the enemy -- and it is us.' "

 

 

Where is this boat today? It should be on display in FEB, to celebrate the history of the river and of the environmental movement.

^thats a very cool story!

I tend to agree with KJP that stuff like Samsel is what makes the flats the flats. And if they still run a viable business out of there, then even better. It would be nice on the eyes though if they replaced the corrugated steel with some windows. Also maybe they can work with a developer to build on their surface lot?

^^Fixing up Samsel's building would be a start even if they are to stay there.  It's currently hideous looking and a visual turnoff to the attractive adaptively reused buildings across the street, including where the Watermark was and Collision Bend now is.

That was always my thought about the windows on the Samsel building. They can stay there another 100 years just unblock the windows and give me some uplighting. Not asking a whole lot.

I second the sentiment that Samsel belongs in the Flats. Also I use it periodically and it's convenient.

 

On a more practical note, Samsel is still pretty unique for the area as far as what they have in stock. I'm not sure exactly what shares of their business come from which customer demographics, but the location is still logical because of proximity to Great Lakes Towing, the bulk terminal, and the Port of Cleveland. It probably wouldn't make a ton of sense, logistically speaking, to move the store.

I second the sentiment that Samsel belongs in the Flats. Also I use it periodically and it's convenient.

 

On a more practical note, Samsel is still pretty unique for the area as far as what they have in stock. I'm not sure exactly what shares of their business come from which customer demographics, but the location is still logical because of proximity to Great Lakes Towing, the bulk terminal, and the Port of Cleveland. It probably wouldn't make a ton of sense, logistically speaking, to move the store.

 

I don't know--it's not like ore boats are stopping along the river while the guys jump out and run over to Samsel to stock up on marine gear.  At some point they put stuff in cars or trucks to get it to the end user.  I don't think a brand new facility further up the river would hurt them.  Plus we could put them on the new truck route to 490 that I dream of!  :angel:

I don't know--it's not like ore boats are stopping along the river while the guys jump out and run over to Samsel to stock up on marine gear.  At some point they put stuff in cars or trucks to get it to the end user.  I don't think a brand new facility further up the river would hurt them.  Plus we could put them on the new truck route to 490 that I dream of!  :angel:

 

I'm sure they'd be fine, but I think the fact they do a decent amount of local business and also have no need to relocate means that it isn't necessarily in their interest to move for now. I'd still be interested to know how much business they generate as a result of proximity to Great Lakes Towing and the Lafarge/other bulk terminals that connect directly to the Flats. A fair amount of vessels discharge at these locations and don't move further up the river.

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not talking about simply running the Samsel's as some sort of worthless business.  Quite the contrary; my family has done business with them for years and they are very nice people.  I just thought, perhaps, a relocation could be in both party's (FEB and their) interests because that location, with all the restaurant-ers, loss of parking etc., doesn't seem to help them... I'm happy with Samsel staying, but I do wish they would fix up their building in line with those across the street on ORR.

Yeah, I'd love to see more done with the upper floors.

 

Any idea how much of that space is utilized in some capacity (storage, etc.)?

Since Samsel is not a part of any planned redevelopment, lets get back on topic.

Board of Zoning Appeals

 

AUGUST 28, 2017

9:30

Calendar No. 17-220: 2111 Center Street Ward 3

Kerry McCormack

74 Notices

Tenk Center LLC., owner, proposes to change use to entertainment, warehouse and retail in a B3

General Industrial District. The owner appeals for relief from the strict application of section 349.04

of the Cleveland Codified Ordinances which states that a total of 83 parking spaces are required (2

space for warehouse, 9 spaces for retail, 72 spaces for entertainment) and 47 spaces provided. (Filed

July 20, 2017)

 

http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/bza/agenda/2017/crr08-28-2017.pdf

Seeing a lot of workers toiling around the 1897-built Baltimore & Ohio railroad station in Cleveland's Flats. There were rumors that Sherwin-Williams, which owns the property, would sell it to the Cleveland Metroparks for some sort of cultural heritage center. But Cuyahoga County property records show that Sherwin-Williams still owns the depot which hasn't seen a passenger train since 1934 (minus a few excursions) but was used by the railroad as a freight sales office for a few decades. Anyone know what's happening?

 

 

^I'd heard rumblings of the Cultural Heritage Center.... along with a couple people asserting that it might go residential -- the latter of the two sounds too far-fetched for me to believe.

 

Additionally, if Sherwin makes the improvements on their own, would that not increase the tax deduction they would receive if they donated the land to the Metroparks?

A Cultural Heritage Center would be an excellent use of this property.  It's such a handsome and, obviously, well-built building.  I would love to see it go into Metroparks hands.  Most everything they touch turns to gold.

^...also a Cultural Heritage Center could  stimulate activity in a pretty dead section of the East Bank.  It's mostly a spot cars drive by, either short-cutting to Ohio City, Duck Island, Tremont or other West Side nabes.  It was the main auto route to FWB until the Center Street Bridge (once again) closed for repairs.

We should see work starting next year on Canal Basin Park, which would be the End, (or Beginning) of the Towpath Trail.  So I'm sure the MetroParks would incorporate the Cultural Center into that.  That will be a fantastic corner when all done

If that was an old train station, it probably has a beautiful interior.  I'd love to see it with a restaurant on the ground floor and residential above it. And that will inspire other development. A cultural center will likely be open only 9-5---limited in supporting transformation.

If that was an old train station, it probably has a beautiful interior.  I'd love to see it with a restaurant on the ground floor and residential above it. And that will inspire other development. A cultural center will likely be open only 9-5---limited in supporting transformation.

 

Second hand confirmation about the beautiful interior. And in good shape, from what I heard. 

Searching for photos of the station interior just now, I learned that the B&O's "Cleveland Night Express" train ran between DC & Cleveland from 1915 until 1961. It must have deposited passengers here, since Cleveland Union Terminal didn't open until years later.

 

I'd love to get my hands on an elegant "Trainmaster" watch made by the Swiss Ball Watch Co., and named for the train:

 

https://www.ballwatch.com/global/1/collections/trainmaster---16/cleveland-night-express---nm3038d-ll2j-wh---1831.html

 

(route of the Cleveland Night Express is shown in orange.)

From 1915 to 1934 it did. After that, the Cleveland Night Express ran into Cleveland Union Terminal as did all B&O trains. It required a Switchback maneuver to get down into the valley from the CUT tracks just east of the terminal. In fact, the last time I checked satellite maps, the switchback track was still there. By the way I'm pretty sure the Cleveland Night Express mran into 1962.

Coast Guard Station update.

Anyone know what this is about?

 

Cleveland Planning Commission

Agenda for January 5, 2018

ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS

Lot Split for Proposed Carter Road Subdivision

Project Location: Carter Road and Columbus Road

http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/designreview/drcagenda/2018/01052018/index.php

 

I assume this for the area near Hooples Bar, at the bottom of Columbus Road hill by its lift bridge. This is next to Brickman's development atop the bill, apparently on land bought four months ago by Lake Link LLC (in turn owned by real estate investors/brokers Earl Walker and Keith Brown), am I correct??

Yes

What's their plan w28th[/member]?