Yeah, I forgot to ask the county PR guy what they plan to do with the vaults.

^Breuer debris. 8-)

Those who are pro-Breuer tower, don't ask the county PR guy about it haha.  Needless to say he doesn't think too highly of it.

 

I posted pictures of the inside in Ohio photos.

"Those who are pro-Breuer tower, don't ask the county PR guy about it haha.  Needless to say he doesn't think too highly of it."

 

Well I don't think too highly of that atrocious salmon-pink shirt he was wearing but you don't see me spending taxpayer money to shred it, do ya?!?

How was the turn-out?

Decent at lunch time - I'd say a few dozen people were there.

I was there late in the afternoon, around 3:15 or so, and there was probably 15-20 people there, but most were leaving when I showed up.  There were only a handful as they were closing down for the day.

What's going on there today??? Asbestos removal? 

Looks like it.. They're closing off the entire eastern stretch of sidewalk of E9th along the tower to pedestrian traffic and a  trailer has been parked in front.

Probably the last looks at the best lobby articulation in the city.  Sad days...

That's debatable.  I wasn't particularly impressed by it when I looked around at the recent open house.

Ummm the Trust Building is gonna be just fine.. the Ameritrust tower lobby is nothing special what so ever.

w28th, what exactly do you mean by lobby articulation?  Might as well learn something on the board other than public transit :)

With building plans in flux, county could sell key site

By JAY MILLER

4:30 am, October 8, 2007

 

“Of course it makes sense, but I don’t know if anyone wants the site,” Mr. Ferchill said. “They should get the (Ameritrust Tower) building torn down and then decide what to do.”

 

That concerns me a bit.  The pluses of this could as well become negative

That story is, I think, illustrative of what the problem is around here. You could explain the whole history of Cleveland by getting someone to read the news stories about this building.

I was by the tower yesterday...They had it fenced up and there were a lot of workers around doing worker things...Does anyone know what they are doing?

I was by the tower yesterday...They had it fenced up and there were a lot of workers around doing worker things...Does anyone know what they are doing?

 

asbestos abatement (which has to be done anyway)

 

Well that's my guess.

Thanks...

This is an embarrassment. What can we do?

This is an embarrassment. What can we do?

 

vote for a competent alternative

as someone else alluded to earlier, this project demonstrates evrything wrong with local governement

Yes, this is an embarassment.  The best thing to come of this would be for the county to just sell the complex.

I, for one, am happy that the county is getting out of this.  As noted over and over in this forum, this was a botched effort from day one.  Here's to a fresh start with a renovated tower!

I'm pissed off that they pissed millions of dollars into the wind.

I'm happy the building may be saved but what a circus.

No kidding. Idiots.

 

"Hmm. We don't think it's a good idea anymore. The taxpayers won't mind that we spent 72 million already. It's not like poverty's a problem. Let's just not do this anymore."

I don't look at it that way. Two to three years ago, it's quite possible that redevelopment of the Ameritrust Tower by private enterprise was not viable, given the amount of asbestos removal and possible need for demolition of the Prospect and Huron buildings. Instead, look at it this way: the county has removed the financial barriers to the redevelopment of the site by private enterprise.

 

Who knows if any private developer would have been able to make the numbers work several years ago at this site. And if one had approached the county in 2004 with a request that they (the county) pay for the asbestos abatement and demolition of the Prospect and Huron buildings to avail clean development sites, I wonder if the county would have gone along with that.

 

Now if the county sells the Ameritrust site for less than what the county paid for it, THAT would be an embarrassment.

I dunno. The whole thing reeks of typical government irresponsibility to me. It definitely won't make the county look good in the eyes of many.

Let's see how it turns out.

Please, SAVE BREUER!

They should have built the damn thing btw W.3rd & W. 9th adjacent to the Waterfront Line and in the County complex near their old site.  This was the 1st site talked about.  It could have drawn energy from/given to Wolstein's East Bank.  If they'd gone ahead and done this, the building would be nearing completion.  Instead?... This is a classic  example of too many pols getting their fingers in this thing.  Now we have potentially wasted $millions as well as years. 

They should have built the damn thing btw W.3rd & W. 9th adjacent to the Waterfront Line and in the County complex near their old site.  This was the 1st site talked about.  It could have drawn energy from/given to Wolstein's East Bank.  If they'd gone ahead and done this, the building would be nearing completion.  Instead?... This is a classic  example of too many pols getting their fingers in this thing.  Now we have potentially wasted $millions as well as years. 

 

On this, I can't complain about your bitchin' or bitchin' style! 

 

I would love for this to become a hotel and move this project into either Starks development or FEB connected to the RTA loop.

^btw, I agree that the 'best' part of this failure is Ameritrust Tower will be saved.  Now, we have to find investors to go in and fix this important building and get tenants into its prime location.

It's far from certain that the Ameritrust Tower will be saved. As the article states, the County is now accepting demolition bids. Ferchill, one of the interested parties, said in a previous article that he advocates the site be cleared to make it more attractive to private developers. If Frangos got it, it might be saved. (Ironic, since he's one of downtown's biggest surface parking mavens, directly or indirectly responsible for many demolitions over the years.)

What will be interesting to see will be the plans that the two developers have for the complex... we'll see.  The way the article is written, it seems as though the county will NOT be tearing the tower down.  Definitely good news.

Reading it again, it seems as though K&D would opt for demolition... dammit...

 

"The K&D Group Inc., the Willoughby developer of downtown's Stonebridge residential complex, is interested in building housing, a hotel, an office tower and retail, according to an e-mail to the commissioners from K&D Chief Executive Officer Doug Price."

 

Too bad they've already bulldozered through the lobby facade.  Excellent planning.

Yeah. They've had no consideration for architectural preservationists from the beginning. It's ridiculous. I understand that they wanted a wider, larger floor plan than the Breuer could give them. But the least they could've done is proceed with caution so that the building doesn't get messed with if someone else wants to take it.

Selling the property would allow commissioners to postpone plans for a headquarters and look elsewhere for a site. Dimora suggested buying downtown's Halle Building as an option.

 

Hopefully the Halle Building isn't next on their "hit list."

"Selling the property would allow commissioners to postpone plans for a headquarters and look elsewhere for a site. Dimora suggested buying downtown's Halle Building as an option."

 

Are they sure that the Halle Building complies with the neccessary earthquake levels?  Because if it doesn't they should just tear it down.

Also of amusement is now that the money isn't really there for the project, they are tightening the plans.  Why the hell wasn't financial efficiency part of the original process?  Hagan and Dimora have to go.

It's about damn time an article like this has been written.

 

I agree with KJP, it won't be a true fiasco until the site is sold and the county loses a significant amount of money (including time-value of money considerations).

Also of amusement is now that the money isn't really there for the project, they are tightening the plans.  Why the hell wasn't financial efficiency part of the original process? 

 

Exactly! That's what makes me angry about this whole thing! What, like no one sat down and actually gave the budget any consideration before proceeding? Like they didn't give asbestos removal consideration into the project cost? I dunno. It just appears like idiocy to me. Maybe I'm missing something.

If the county breaks even on this, fine, no problem..

 

However, I still fail to see how this is such an important building in downtown Cleveland, when a large portion of the people on this forum bitch and moan on the Jacobs Public Square lot thread that they should build a series of smaller, more street level friendly buildings..

Maybe some appreciate preserving historical structures regardless of time period in a city that has already demolished so much. 

Why continue making mistakes?  Many structures in the Warehouse District sat vacant for decades, contained asbestos, had small floor plates, and were viewed as ugly by uninterested eyes, and now the ones that survived the rape between the 60's and 80's may serve as the ignition of a billion dollars of residential, retail, and office development.

Demolition of significant structures obviously takes away the chance of reusing the past for possibly better future uses.

Not sure how you fail to see that.

i dont know who Marcel Bruer is, nor do I care...frankly, that building is a tremendous eyesore and I'd rather have nothing there than anything at all...historical posterity be damned...keep the rotunda, tear down the concrete cheese grater...

^Tim Hagan, back to work doing whatever it is you do.

^Tim Hagan, back to work doing whatever it is you do.

 

w28th......that made giggle!

thats b/c you are a girly man

^Tim Hagan, back to work doing whatever it is you do.

 

w28th......that made giggle!

 

that's my line!