LOL, Just wondering, is the IX center tall enough to play football in? 🤣

14 hours ago, simplythis said:

‘Grave concern’: Not everyone sold on I-X Center transformation plan

“The income tax—we have to share with Brook Park, who are trying to take our Browns as we speak,” he added.

https://fox8.com/news/grave-concern-not-everyone-sold-on-i-x-center-transformation-plan/

So have zero benefit from a Fortune 100 company because you don't want to share a percentage of income. Got it.

So just to confirm then, this was still approved by council 13-2 right? And the articles are just saying that some members were opposed to it but it ultimately passed?

Seems great to me.

Like it or not, the future belongs to data centers and people who own them. It would be nice if they provided more jobs than they do, but I'd be very, very, very worried if we don't continue to have lots of them developed here. Thankfully, we're doing well so far.

Doing a quick search, it looks like Ohio currently has 181 data centers, which places it 5th nationally. Sounds like it's poised to keep growing too.

18 hours ago, LibertyBlvd said:

I assume the 225K of exhibition space at Huntington does not include the grand ballroom. If the grand ballroom could be converted to exhibition space, that might allow Huntington to handle bigger shows currently using the IX Center. There is another ballroom in the Global Center, albeit a smaller one.

Don't forget Public Hall use to be included in many of the shows. I have pictures from one of the Home and Flowers shows way back when they built the gardens in Public Hall, and just the vendors were located in the main exhibit space of the convention center.

8 minutes ago, Gnoraa said:

Doing a quick search, it looks like Ohio currently has 181 data centers, which places it 5th nationally. Sounds like it's poised to keep growing too.

115 in Columbus???? Jesus christ.

Getting back 69 acres of land that could be advertised for development seems like a big win. Maybe if that had been available when Blue Abyss came looking, it could have ended up in Cleveland instead of Brook Park.

I hope they're able to leverage the presence of the data center into a complementary use. Data centers obviously generate a ton of waste heat, which could be appealing for an industrial use or even residential for winter heating (though the demand for residential between a data center and airport is probably minimal).

This is also supposed to be a site for one of Cuyahoga County's micro-grids (although the federal money for that might have been clawed back...), which could be another selling point to attract industrial users. Cheap heat, reliable and renewable power and a large tract of land with no buildings to remove seems like a good pitch to potential buyers.

Under a deal struck in 2008, Brook Park receives 2% income tax and admissions tax from any jobs or events at the I-X Center. Cleveland, with higher income taxes and admissions tax than Brook Park, gets a half-percent of income tax and any additional admissions tax from events at the building.

Sounds like there isn’t really a big win to be had here since with this idiotic deal Brook Park gets most of the income and admission taxes.

So, employ a few people (minimal income taxes), move your events downtown to capture all of the admissions taxes, and (probably) increase property value.

Seems like a win-win-win to me.

Edited June 4Jun 4 by Enginerd

1 hour ago, MyPhoneDead said:

115 in Columbus???? Jesus christ.

The few people they have working there may be from The Ohio State University and/or they are doing government work.

4 hours ago, urb-a-saurus said:

LOL, Just wondering, is the IX center tall enough to play football in? 🤣

IIRC the Browns practiced there a few times a long time ago.

2 hours ago, LibertyBlvd said:

IIRC the Browns practiced there a few times a long time ago.

Yeah, but is what they do legally able to be called "football"?

6 hours ago, Enginerd said:

Under a deal struck in 2008, Brook Park receives 2% income tax and admissions tax from any jobs or events at the I-X Center. Cleveland, with higher income taxes and admissions tax than Brook Park, gets a half-percent of income tax and any additional admissions tax from events at the building.

Sounds like there isn’t really a big win to be had here since with this idiotic deal Brook Park gets most of the income and admission taxes.

So, employ a few people (minimal income taxes), move your events downtown to capture all of the admissions taxes, and (probably) increase property value.

Seems like a win-win-win to me.

Who negotiated that terrible deal. Lose NASA but gain IX without any income tax benefits. They could've taken IX through eminent domain and held onto NASA.

5 hours ago, freefourur said:

Who negotiated that terrible deal. Lose NASA but gain IX without any income tax benefits. They could've taken IX through eminent domain and held onto NASA.

The grift that keeps on giving, Mike White.

Cleveland Scene

The Sweetest Deal

Mayor White's friends made millions on the I-X Center. Cleveland got screwed for years to come.

Edited June 5Jun 5 by GISguy

12 hours ago, acd said:

Getting back 69 acres of land that could be advertised for development seems like a big win. Maybe if that had been available when Blue Abyss came looking, it could have ended up in Cleveland instead of Brook Park.

I hope they're able to leverage the presence of the data center into a complementary use. Data centers obviously generate a ton of waste heat, which could be appealing for an industrial use or even residential for winter heating (though the demand for residential between a data center and airport is probably minimal).

This is also supposed to be a site for one of Cuyahoga County's micro-grids (although the federal money for that might have been clawed back...), which could be another selling point to attract industrial users. Cheap heat, reliable and renewable power and a large tract of land with no buildings to remove seems like a good pitch to potential buyers.

What's amazing is how much land is still being given over to parking for 25 people. There's entire development sites worth of parking lots being left on the table.

22 hours ago, MyPhoneDead said:

115 in Columbus???? Jesus christ.

And because of this, Greater Columbus is anticipated to use as much electricity as Manhattan.

50 minutes ago, KJP said:

And because of this, Greater Columbus is anticipated to use as much electricity as Manhattan.

That is an INSANE statistic.

Greater Columbus and Manhattan have fairly similar populations, no?

I bet the Dispatch would say so 🤣

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2024/07/11/columbus-outdraws-la-and-vegas-a-dive-into-surprising-tourism-figures/74285248007/#:~:text=Columbus%20outshines%20major%20cities%20in,to%20their%20respective%20tourism%20bureaus.

Can we not turn this into a Columbus thread

It's been reported on by Crain's this year that as other metros become over-saturated with data centers, they are starting to look to Cleveland as the next boom place to develop them in Ohio:

https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/northeast-ohio-poised-data-center-expansions

On 6/3/2025 at 9:00 PM, marty15 said:

It’s a pretty significant drop from the top rail looking down. I’m certain it’s workable. The farm is well below the CC floor, at its at grade to the tracks.

Well, if it is workable and with the IX center going away, perhaps it might make sense to revise the land bridge plan to include extending Huntington CC under it to allow for more exhibition space. Windows could be placed on the east and west sides of the extended space.

Edited June 6Jun 6 by LibertyBlvd