Sure, here you go

Thanks. I took that to mean he wasn't ready to say it's likely. I think he is managing expectations in the face of other indicators.  Tower City is his preferred site, and when Moreno shared my tweet about the county executive discussing CityBlock at Tower City, he effectively confirmed that it's his favored site. When I asked him if he could talk about it for my blog, he said he wasn't ready yet. So it's also apparent that tech companies aren't going to be moving into Tower City anytime soon. Some of the other indicators are intriguing, like the construction office next to mine at Tower City and the conversations with tenants and construction workers converting stores into offices. I don't think it's time to be disappointed or excited, but it is a time to be intrigued, at least for me it is.

Has security changed at Tower City?

 

I had an issue very recently where I was on the sidewalk out front, taking photos of the exterior looking upward to the sky, and had a security guard roll out within minutes and rather rudely tell me to leave Tower City. I've been shooting photos of Tower City, inside and outside, from the public sidewalk and elsewhere, for years with never any problem. I raised this up with management and received an apology, but this happened to another photographer recently, too.

36 minutes ago, seicer said:

Has security changed at Tower City?

 

I had an issue very recently where I was on the sidewalk out front, taking photos of the exterior looking upward to the sky, and had a security guard roll out within minutes and rather rudely tell me to leave Tower City. I've been shooting photos of Tower City, inside and outside, from the public sidewalk and elsewhere, for years with never any problem. I raised this up with management and received an apology, but this happened to another photographer recently, too.

 

A co-worker was with his wife recently and she was taking pictures inside of TC and got asked to stop.  They figured it was because the workers there were worried she was taking pictures of "unsafe working conditions" or repairs that weren't being completed, etc.  But she was just getting some shots of the architecture, etc inside.  Kinda strange?!?!?

Too many rent-a-cops act like they work for the CIA/NSA/MI6.

On 4/26/2019 at 2:29 PM, Terdolph said:

I feel bad about this.  I think that blockchain is largely a scam.  I hate to see the TT dissembled for this.  It could do fine if the city would pony up the cash, like lots of other cities have done to put an anchor department store at Tower City.  

 

Also, I think that the apartments are a bad idea.  The city needs some decent Class B office space too.

I have 3 questions.....

#1 Why does downtown Cleveland "need" an anchor department store in Tower City?

#2 Why are the apartments a bad idea?

#3 Why does it need more B class office space? Theres plenty of it already sitting around vacant in numerous locations throughout downtown if it was truly needed. 

1 hour ago, Terdolph said:

I have three answers.

 

1.  No mall can survive without at least one anchor tenant.

2. The apartments are a bad idea for the same reason that apartments are a bad idea in the Standard Building, no parking.   Also, office space on Public Square is still desirable and rare.  All the PS office space is leased-vacancy rates in those buildings is below 10%.

3.  There is almost no class B office space available in the business district anymore.  It is either all off market or converted to apartments.

If parking is a concern for potential downtown residents, they shouldn't live downtown.

Nearly 30 percent of the CBD's Class B & C office market is vacant. 

11 minutes ago, KJP said:

Nearly 30 percent of the CBD's Class B & C office market is vacant. 

Does that percentage not include buildings set to be converted but not officially converted into residential yet? If so, than is that number truly much lower? Or did you already lower that number because you took that into account?

It probably includes some zombie office buildings. I wrote an article about that in late 2017 but some of the zombie office buildings have since been converted: http://neo-trans.blogspot.com/2017/09/zombies-say-start-building-downtown.html?m=1

10 hours ago, GISguy said:

If parking is a concern for potential downtown residents, they shouldn't live downtown.

Ummm..... I live dowtown, and I'm in outside sales.  I drive to appts all over the state and still want to come home and park my car and walk to everything downtwon has....parking is a concern.  That being said, Tower City has a parking garage attached to it.  

1 hour ago, mack34 said:

Ummm..... I live dowtown, and I'm in outside sales.  I drive to appts all over the state and still want to come home and park my car and walk to everything downtwon has....parking is a concern.  That being said, Tower City has a parking garage attached to it.  

 

If you try to limit it to people willing to give up independent private mobility, you're not going to have enough people to populate a viable downtown.

7 minutes ago, E Rocc said:

 

If you try to limit it to people willing to give up independent private mobility, you're not going to have enough people to populate a viable downtown.

 

Increasing numbers of people view using transit, biking and walking as freedom -- from the tyranny of the car. But we're drifting off topic -- again.

Some active construction going on in the large vacant storefront next to Footlocker. No coming soon sign so must be office space.

On 5/7/2019 at 1:31 PM, MyPhoneDead said:

Some active construction going on in the large vacant storefront next to Footlocker. No coming soon sign so must be office space.

 

Not neccesarily.   Some stores don't like to telegraph their moves because they feel it helps the competition.

6 hours ago, E Rocc said:

 

Not neccesarily.   Some stores don't like to telegraph their moves because they feel it helps the competition.

One of the cleaners that work in the mall (Take it with a grain of salt I guess), said it will be a space for guest services. 

Anyone know what’s going on with all the shuffling offices going up in the train station? They’ve put up a new customer service booth only to knock down the old customer service booth only to build what looks to be the exact same booth where it used to be? Not to mention the unused glass booth by the red line turnstiles?!

 

Confuses me every morning...

GNC is now closed

Slowly clearing out the mall. One step closer...

Honestly hate this plan

5 hours ago, MyPhoneDead said:

Honestly hate this plan

 

Same.  I'll never understand the city or its developers.   We have a dying retail space--so we're talking about putting a suburban shopping mall up near the lake front instead of remaking this perfectly good retail space.  

KJP, one step closer to what?

Tech hub

1 hour ago, sooner said:

KJP, one step closer to what?

@sooner, Google it.....?

14 minutes ago, CleCaneFan said:

@sooner, Google it.....?

?

21 minutes ago, CleCaneFan said:

@sooner, Google it.....?

Yeah, that was bad. Carry on

Were any of these stores that have closed doing well enough to relocate to one of the many retail spots available throughout downtown... especially on Euclid Ave.?  Its a shame if we are losing all of these permanently ... 

20 minutes ago, mrclifton88 said:

Were any of these stores that have closed doing well enough to relocate to one of the many retail spots available throughout downtown... especially on Euclid Ave.?  Its a shame if we are losing all of these permanently ... 

 

And what is the city and Downtown Cleveland Alliance doing to keep them?

Out of curiosity because I honestly have not been keeping up,  what closed stores would have been worth keeping downtown?

7 minutes ago, KFM44107 said:

Out of curiosity because I honestly have not been keeping up,  what closed stores would have been worth keeping downtown?

Victorias Secret, GNC, Bath and Body Works (leaves this upcoming April), FYE, Lids (For sports memorabilia) just to name some of the top of my head. They all have national name recognition and are all the top brands in their respective categories. 

9 minutes ago, KFM44107 said:

Out of curiosity because I honestly have not been keeping up,  what closed stores would have been worth keeping downtown?

From the perspective of a downtown resident, all retail loss hurts– we already have so little and so many empty retail spaces. 

It's really bad when the only convenient, useful places to shop downtown are CVS, Heniens and Constantinos. We need retail options. Food, beer and deodorant are great but I'd love to pop into a Target, Marshall's, J Crew, etc. all by walking down the street. Hopefully we can hit that 20,000 people living downtown mark soon so some of those places consider joining downtown.

6 minutes ago, downtownjoe said:

From the perspective of a downtown resident, all retail loss hurts– we already have so little and so many empty retail spaces. 

It's really bad when the only convenient, useful places to shop downtown are CVS, Heniens and Constantinos. We need retail options. Food, beer and deodorant are great but I'd love to pop into a Target, Marshall's, J Crew, etc. all by walking down the street. Hopefully we can hit that 20,000 people living downtown mark soon so some of those places consider joining downtown.

I honestly think a City Target itself would handle most of the retail void. 

Uh oh, it's becoming another retail thread.... ?

18 minutes ago, downtownjoe said:

From the perspective of a downtown resident, all retail loss hurts– we already have so little and so many empty retail spaces. 

It's really bad when the only convenient, useful places to shop downtown are CVS, Heniens and Constantinos. We need retail options. Food, beer and deodorant are great but I'd love to pop into a Target, Marshall's, J Crew, etc. all by walking down the street. Hopefully we can hit that 20,000 people living downtown mark soon so some of those places consider joining downtown.

I'd like a Marshalls as a worker downtown.  It'd be nice to do some shopping during lunch.

Maybe an IKEA for good measure

maybe throw in some shoppers....???

What surprises me about the direction Dan Gilbert seems to be heading. With all of these big events coming downtown (Indians ASG, Cavs ASG, Browns Draft etc.) in back to back years, beefing up the TC retail would be a no brainier, especially with Progressive Field and The Q attached. 

It's my understanding that they're doing a full gut of tenants so that they can start from scratch.

2 hours ago, KFM44107 said:

I honestly think a City Target itself would handle most of the retail void. 

A good sized City Target would certainly cover a lot of things.  However, these City Targets have a decent to large grocery section; I don't think Heinen's can handle a low cost competition grocer downtown yet.

Edited June 14, 20196 yr by Oxford19

On 5/2/2019 at 7:34 PM, Terdolph said:

I have three answers.

 

1.  No mall can survive without at least one anchor tenant.

2. The apartments are a bad idea for the same reason that apartments are a bad idea in the Standard Building, no parking.   Also, office space on Public Square is still desirable and rare.  All the PS office space is leased-vacancy rates in those buildings is below 10%.

3.  There is almost no class B office space available in the business district anymore.  It is either all off market or converted to apartments.

As to point 3 you are certainly not correct.  My office is in the Superior Building.  It is 50% vacant.  Same owner of the City Club Building, which is also at least 50% vacant.  There is still a good inventory of class B space available.

6 hours ago, CleCaneFan said:

@sooner, Google it.....?

You had to go and raise our curiosity again ?

 

Ari Lewis touches on City Block in the below blog from Crain’s.  Do we really expect Google to have a major stake in Blockland?  

 

Side note, I wish Cleveland had 100 more Ari’s.  Guy brings some real energy.

 

https://www.crainscleveland.com/young-professionals-blog/why-im-bullish-clevelands-tech-sector-and-you-should-be-too

I understand that pessimism doesn't die easily after the the decades that Cleveland has gone through. But if you don't think things have changed, then you're probably still looking for evidence of life in places that haven't breathed since the 70s.

I just miss Tower Deli. That hot sauce concoction they used was stupendous. 

14 hours ago, Oxford19 said:

A good sized City Target would certainly cover a lot of things.  However, these City Targets have a decent to large grocery section; I don't think Heinen's can handle a low cost competition grocer downtown yet.

 

In my travels I've seen varying offerings at City Targets for groceries, probably dependent on their square footage.  

IMO a City Target in conjunction outlet mall collection would be the way to go at TC.   It would serve downtown residents and casino patrons equally.  

If City Block does find a home at Tower City, I can picture it meshing very well with retail in a perfect blend of European train station and the French tech campus alluded to a few weeks ago (Station F?). 

 

Imagine Google, Visa, and Microsoft (edit: I made these up, I don’t have any intel that you all don’t) among smaller start ups lining the walls, interspersed with retailers and food and a modern-style pop-up food hall. 

 

Add in in some interactive features like giant chess and giant jenga. Maybe open a beer hall in the giant open area with where Chik-Fil-a now sits. Have some of the retailers/restaurants take advantage of the mall’s common area though “outdoor” seating or outdoor displays. 

 

Make le the Avenue feel like a true avenue, lined with commerce and life—populated by an ever-present and diverse community of transit pass-throughs, techie employees, Terminal Tower residents, and casino and hotel patrons.

 

The tech hub could be just what’s needed to enliven Tower City into a well-rounded destination. 

 

Sorry—woke up feeling optimistic today. ?

Edited June 15, 20195 yr by Clevecane

1 hour ago, Clevecane said:

If City Block does find a home at Tower City, I can picture it meshing very well with retail in a perfect blend of European train station and the French tech campus alluded to a few weeks ago (Station F?). 

 

Imagine Google, Visa, and Microsoft (edit: I made these up, I don’t have any intel that you all don’t) among smaller start ups lining the walls, interspersed with retailers and food and a modern-style pop-up food hall. 

 

Add in in some interactive features like giant chess and giant jenga. Maybe open a beer hall in the giant open area with where Chik-Fil-a now sits. Have some of the retailers/restaurants take advantage of the mall’s common area though “outdoor” seating or outdoor displays. 

 

Make le the Avenue feel like a true avenue, lined with commerce and life—populated by an ever-present and diverse community of transit pass-throughs, techie employees, Terminal Tower residents, and casino and hotel patrons.

 

The tech hub could be just what’s needed to enliven Tower City into a well-rounded destination. 

 

Sorry—woke up feeling optimistic today. ?

 

Just remember that the 20,000 population figure does not hold true for retail. Stores will not open once we reach that number, so don't get too excited. For example there is one Target serving over 125,000 residents in the heights. Lakewood has 50,000 residents and a vibrant bar and restaurant scene but very little national retail. Downtown is disconnected from the neighborhoods and borders a lake, so its not a natural retail center. And in todays world of cars and free parking lots, and Steelyard Commons funneling away shoppers, it will be that much harder for a retail scene to develop. Go to googlemaps and type in any major retail store, I think I remember reading Marshalls or Old Navy earlier in this thread. Look how spread out they are and how large of a population they serve. They are also all located in retail hubs, surrounded by other major retailers. Nationally retail is struggling. Getting a store to locate almost alone in a current retail space isn't going to happen. You need something like a massive warehouse district project bringing retailers in all at once, and even then the market is still not great for it. Tower City tried it in the 90's and it failed. I know many of you will say that the market is better now, that there are more residents downtown. While there are more downtown residents compared to when the Avenue at Tower City opened, there are far less workers, way more competition with new major retail malls and centers, population has continued to sprawl out of the county, and nationally the retail scene is much worse off now that we have online shopping.

 

Plus the current 17,500 population figure is inflated. 

One week from today...

Edited June 24, 20195 yr by KJP

17 minutes ago, KJP said:

One week from today...

You are such a tease!!!

?Not nice. At all! Just a hint, maybe ...?