6 minutes ago, KJP said:

 

As in, by the end of the month. But you don't have to wait that long. I will tell you all this afternoon. Writing the blog now.

 

The surprise is the R&D site. It's a site that hasn't been mentioned by anyone during this whole process.

 

And forget the building height for crying out loud. Think jobs, people. The most important part about any of this is the thousands of jobs and the spin-off development that will result.

 

Back to writing....

^R&D site is going somewhere on the near East Side. I am calling it now...Midtown or Opportunity Corridor

Midtown or Scranton are my guesses 

23 minutes ago, WindyBuckeye said:

Midtown or Scranton are my guesses 

 

My thoughts were perhaps HQ on the Bedrock site with R&D being built on Scranton.

28 minutes ago, HGRHS said:

 

My thoughts were perhaps HQ on the Bedrock site with R&D being built on Scranton.

The more I think about it the more sense this makes.

With all the speculation going on, I’ll go with Bedrock for HQ and R&D at collision bend around where amphitheater was.  Perhaps keeping the newer section of Breen as well. 

1 hour ago, YO to the CLE said:

^R&D site is going somewhere on the near East Side. I am calling it now...Midtown or Opportunity Corridor

WRONG

R&D on nuCLEus site?   ?

14 minutes ago, skiwest said:

R&D on nuCLEus site?   ?

Brecksville? It would be disappointing but #1 is that the headquarters remains in Cleveland.

2 minutes ago, Florida Guy said:

Brecksville? It would be disappointing but #1 is that the headquarters remains in Cleveland.

That was already mentioned before for R&D facility though so will be ruled out 

3 minutes ago, Florida Guy said:

Brecksville? It would be disappointing but #1 is that the headquarters remains in Cleveland.

Nope. It's a site that "hasn't been mentioned by anyone during this whole process."

2 minutes ago, tykaps said:

Nope. It's a site that "hasn't been mentioned by anyone during this whole process."

Thank you I was so excited I read it but it didn't compute. ?

5 minutes ago, tykaps said:

Nope. It's a site that "hasn't been mentioned by anyone during this whole process."

Okay, so not Atlanta, Dallas, or Charlotte then either. I guess 'noted site selection consultant' John Boyd was wrong on this one, folks.

Nice work Ken!!!  Now what will happen with the old R&D facility?  

It seems odd to move their research center across the river when they already own some land along the river. I wouldn't be surprised if they sell it to the county for the new justice center. 

Good article.  No love for Brecksville.  For some reason, I thought they'd peal off a piece of this project to the Valor Acres site.  But apparently not.

A great outcome indeed. My one request of Sherwin is to please make sure the riverfront portion allows public access. I know it is R&D and may require some sort of screening, but it would be such a wasted opportunity if it remains private!

Very Good news. Does anyone know what currently is on the 9 acre Scranton land

that the R &D center will go on? From the pictures it appears to be some small buildings.

Just now, simplythis said:

Very Good news. Does anyone know what currently is on the 9 acre Scranton land

that the R &D center will go on? From the pictures it appears to be some small buildings.

Mostly marine/boating repair and storage if I recall correctly.

Just now, MayDay said:

Mostly marine/boating repair and storage if I recall correctly.

Thanks

Ken,  any word on improvements to connecting the new R&D to downtown?  Like maybe refurbishing the lift bridge by the firestation?  Thats gonna be 1000 people who will want to grab lunch and are kinda stuck

4 minutes ago, mack34 said:

Ken,  any word on improvements to connecting the new R&D to downtown?  Like maybe refurbishing the lift bridge by the firestation?  Thats gonna be 1000 people who will want to grab lunch and are kinda stuck

 

I've wondered about that. I fully expect some sort of mixed-used development to start popping up on Scranton Peninsula. People working at the Avian office building (picture below) at the intersection of Carter-n-Carter that's now under construction (renovation?) are going to need some place to eat/snack/get caffeinated. Ditto for the hundreds of people living at the NRP apartments. The GLBC tasting room might help, but that's a bit far south for the offices/R&D at the north of SP and it's only one place.

 

11 minutes ago, mack34 said:

Ken,  any word on improvements to connecting the new R&D to downtown?  Like maybe refurbishing the lift bridge by the firestation?  Thats gonna be 1000 people who will want to grab lunch and are kinda stuck

I could see the R&D development having it's on cafe with seating along the river.

1 minute ago, Firenze98 said:

I could see the R&D development having it's on cafe with seating along the river.

I'm sure it will, but I'm in those labs a lot now making calls....It's nice to at least be able to walk up and thru to Tower City if your taking SW people to lunch.  That won't be an option now

4 minutes ago, mack34 said:

I'm sure it will, but I'm in those labs a lot now making calls....It's nice to at least be able to walk up and thru to Tower City if your taking SW people to lunch.  That won't be an option now

 

ZIP LINE!!

 

 

I don't think there will be much foot traffic between R&D and the new headquarters (per an earlier comment). There never was a huge footpath connection between the existing R&D and headquarters (separated by quite a difference in elevation) and other facilities. They essentially operate as two separate entities and working out of platforms such as Teams makes any physical connection that much less important.

 

I think this is the best possible outcome for those parking lots. I'm curious as to what a possible 30-story tower would look like in the skyline, even if its a generic blob superimposed on an image.

@KJP

 

Were you in fact standing on the site chosen for R&D when you did your WKYC interview?

Edited January 10, 20205 yr by sizzlinbeef

14 minutes ago, sizzlinbeef said:

@KJP

 

Were you in fact standing on the site chosen for R&D when you did your WKYC interview?

 

Yes I was! It wasn't a premonition or anything. We just picked it because it had a good view of the existing HQ and R&D facilities.

 

Imagine... a mere five years from now when you take a cruise on the Goodtime III or the Nautica Queen and you round Collision Bend, heading north back to the lake, you'll have SHW's new R&D facilities and the rapidly expanding Thunderbird development to your left, a new CityBlock hotel/office building plus an apartment tower on your right, followed by a Landmark Building renovated into apartments, then a new Justice Center Courthouse tower, plus the old SHW R&D facilities renovated into law offices with a publicly accessible park along the riverfront at least on the Tower City side, followed by the Canal Basin Park and, who knows, maybe we'll even see some low-rise housing along Columbus Road at the intersection of Center Street? It blows me away that this site remains a parking lot. Maybe the activity I just summarized would spark that site, too.

 

BTW, my tweet announcing my NEOtrans article yesterday just passed 1,000 likes. I've NEVER had a tweet of my surpass 1,000 likes before. And in less than 20 hours, the article itself has surpassed 20,000 views. Thanks everyone!

 

 

Edited January 10, 20205 yr by KJP

Great article and work, Ken! Thanks for all the insightful reporting.  I don't expect much from the PD but I was curious about the Minneapolis angle because of this line in your story:

 

"The R&D facilities alone could account for nearly 1,000 jobs. Not only would about 400 employees from... the Breen Center be relocated there, but also another 400 Valspar R&D employees from Minneapolis..."

 

but, checking the startribune website, I didn't see anything, at least not yet.

 

This is great that they are bringing new jobs into the city from outside the metro area---a real win for the city, even if we don't get a 200-story tower!

 

 

Regarding the proposed R&D site on Carter?, will the Towpath Trail be between the SW construction and the river bank, or will it be on the street side?

Edited January 11, 20205 yr by urb-a-saurus

I really like the decision to put R&D there. This gives a vital anchor and catalyst to Scranton that’s really needed to jumpstart development down there. Will make a nicer view for all the future apartment dwellers that take over the Landmark building as well. Just hope it won’t be a gated complex with no street interaction.

Edited January 10, 20205 yr by marty15

Just wondering why they need to move R&D there. Do they not have enough space to expand on the existing site?

1 hour ago, urb-a-saurus said:

Regarding the propsed R&D site on Carter?, will the Towpath Trail be between the SW construction and the river bank, or will it be on the street side?

Towpath will be on the street side

2 hours ago, skiwest said:

Just wondering why they need to move R&D there. Do they not have enough space to expand on the existing site?

 

Yes there is, but it would have taken longer and cost more because they would have had to do it in stages. SHW would have had to move the parking to the greenspace and tennis courts by the river and/or west of Carter Road bridge, build a new R&D facility on the parking lots, relocate Breen's existing staff into it, rehab/demolish at least Breen's 1948-built R&D facilities, rehab the 1993-built portion, and build a parking garage, then rip out the parking lot that was built on the greenspace/tennis courts. That would have taken about 5-6 years and cost more money than if SHW built a totally new R&D facility in about half the time.

Edited January 11, 20205 yr by KJP

Any word on what they're going to do with the current research campus land?

30 minutes ago, KJP said:

 

Yes there is, but it would have taken longer and cost more because they would have had to do it in stages. SHW would have had to move the parking to the greenspace and tennis courts by the river and/or west of Carter Road bridge, build a new R&D facility on the parking lots, relocate Breen's existing staff into it, rehab/demolish at least Breen's 1948-built R&D facilities, rehab the 1993-built portion, and build a parking garage, then rip out the parking lot that was built on the greenspace/tennis courts. That would have taken about 5-6 years and cost more money than if SHW built a totally new R&D facility in about half the time.

Why didn't they decide to build the R & D on the Weston Superblock, it definately had enough space for it and

it would have made a denser campus.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but there is an excellent "aerial" 360 degree photo, from 3/2019, on Google street view of the Flats that includes the proposed R&D site on Carter Rd, as well as everything around it, including Thunderbird, the river, and downtown Cleveland.  (The Beacon beckons, but the Lumen is not yet looming).  The photo's dot is between Carter Rd and the FIRR/Big 4 tracks.  Maybe this link will work.  Oh, the spot for the HQ is also in the photo.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4903069,-81.6965179,3a,30y,238.41h,79.81t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMkt34_L7mUj5vpcsoyLIlR_HDPQfz2YY_D7K16!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMkt34_L7mUj5vpcsoyLIlR_HDPQfz2YY_D7K16%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya129.07343-ro-0-fo100!7i8192!8i4096?hl=en

Edited January 13, 20205 yr by urb-a-saurus

13 minutes ago, urb-a-saurus said:

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but there is an excellent "aerial" 360 degree photo, from 3/2019, on Google street view of the Flats that includes the proposed R&D site on Carter Rd, as well as everything around it, including Thunderbird, the river, and downtown Cleveland.  (The Beacon beckons, but the Lumen is not yet looming).  The photo's dot is between Carter Rd and the FIRR/Big 4 tracks.  Maybe this link will work.  Oh, the spot for the HQ is also in the photo.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4903069,-81.6965179,3a,30y,238.41h,79.81t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMkt34_L7mUj5vpcsoyLIlR_HDPQfz2YY_D7K16!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMkt34_L7mUj5vpcsoyLIlR_HDPQfz2YY_D7K16%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya129.07343-ro-0-fo100!7i8192!8i4096?hl=en

 

Not so fast....I've got another article coming in the morning.

52 minutes ago, KJP said:

 

Not so fast....I've got another article coming in the morning.

Something to be concerned about?

 

MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2020

Cleveland's industrial past may shun Sherwin-Williams R&D; but HQ is safe

 

In an old, post-industrial city like Cleveland, toxins from its manufacturing past exist below the surface and slow the city's efforts to revitalize. The latest project affected is Sherwin-Williams (SHW) proposed site for its new, consolidated research facilities.

While the downtown headquarters site SHW picked is secure, the near-downtown research and development site and as many as 1,000 jobs may not be. Instead, the jobs could land on a newly cleaned property in suburban Brecksville, according to two sources.

The sources spoke off the record because they were not authorized to speak publicly about SHW's pursuit of a new headquarters plus research and development (HQ+R&D) facilities.

SHW planned to announce its HQ+R&D decision next week, another source said. It isn't known if SHW's last-minute discovery of polluted land at the favored R&D site will delay the global coatings firm's announcement.

 

MORE:

https://neo-trans.blogspot.com/2020/01/clevelands-industrial-past-may-shun.html

Dang. It would be nice to have those 1,000 jobs in the city of Cleveland. 

Why not put the R &D in Midtown or Opportunity Corridor instead?

Well this sucks

On 1/10/2020 at 10:07 PM, simplythis said:

Why didn't they decide to build the R & D on the Weston Superblock, it definately had enough space for it and

it would have made a denser campus.

Can someone explain to me why they can't build this on the weston superblock as it was originally

mentioned by kjp.

Its tiem for Cleveland officials to earn their pay. There is alot of undeveloped land of Cle. Im sure froma business decision it would make sense that the RD center beas close as possible to the HQ. This can be resolved the city needs to do a full court press. As much as I want it go on the scranton peninsula how many other projects in the city could use an anchor of this magnitude e.g midtown (could be huge for connecting/development btwn midtown and downtown) opp corridor, lakefront w/ new apts, etc..

^Dang, that's a tough break for CLE. Let's see how the city reacts...They can still make this work with a little willpower. Plenty of other available space still in the Flats, and a lot of it owned by the city too.

27 minutes ago, KJP said:

 

MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2020

Cleveland's industrial past may shun Sherwin-Williams R&D; but HQ is safe

 

In an old, post-industrial city like Cleveland, toxins from its manufacturing past exist below the surface and slow the city's efforts to revitalize. The latest project affected is Sherwin-Williams (SHW) proposed site for its new, consolidated research facilities.

While the downtown headquarters site SHW picked is secure, the near-downtown research and development site and as many as 1,000 jobs may not be. Instead, the jobs could land on a newly cleaned property in suburban Brecksville, according to two sources.

The sources spoke off the record because they were not authorized to speak publicly about SHW's pursuit of a new headquarters plus research and development (HQ+R&D) facilities.

SHW planned to announce its HQ+R&D decision next week, another source said. It isn't known if SHW's last-minute discovery of polluted land at the favored R&D site will delay the global coatings firm's announcement.

 

MORE:

https://neo-trans.blogspot.com/2020/01/clevelands-industrial-past-may-shun.html

 

I sure hope powers that be are leveraging GIS to find a good site IN the city. It'd be a relatively simple analysis to locate something like this within the city (looking at utilities, land needs, safety, etc.), but only if they're given the proper information and data. I'd hate to see this end up in Brecksville.

1 hour ago, simplythis said:

Can someone explain to me why they can't build this on the weston superblock as it was originally

mentioned by kjp.

It seems like that would be the idea location for R&D, unless there is some kind of environmental concern. There appears to be plenty of space and it would be right next to the HQ. Of course it might require the HQ tower to be a little taller than 30 stories.  ?

Edited January 13, 20205 yr by skiwest

If this land is so polluted that a company with the resources of SHW is running away from it I cannot see this land EVER being developed without the city and other governmental bodies stepping in, and we know how fast they move.  If SHW punts this land may be what it is for years to come and could stifle the development of the entire peninsula to some extemt which is probably just as big a concern as SHW locating the research facility in Brecksville.

Edited January 13, 20205 yr by Htsguy

I'm confused as to why they would pick a site without checking soil.  Considering all the work they did on the superblock, why would the same due diligence not be done there?

4 minutes ago, Htsguy said:

If this land is so polluted that a company with the resources of SHW is running away from it I cannot see this land EVER being developed without the city and other governmental bodies stepping in, and we know how fast they move.  If SHW punts this land may be what it is for years to company and could stifle the development of the entire peninsula to some extemt which is probably just as big a concern as SHW locating the research facility in Brecksville.

 

Somebody wake the mayor!  ?

 

You're right.  This is a chance in a lifetime to put a big development down there.   There should be a full-court press from city leadership to find federal funds to clean it up!