Maybe. I'll wait for more substantive information before getting excited.

I heard Trump plans on building a tower on public square. Everybody wants to get in on the game. Just kidding though lol.

That would be pretty big news. Care to share where you heard this info or how reliable the source is?

 

3231--I can't reveal a source and I'd guess 55-60% on the reliability. (If it were under 50%, I would not have mentioned it.)

It may be a situation where the first one to build wins. 

Another reason why I like the fact that the CC was not specifically built with a designated hotel attached. 

Lakeside is officially a bridge now

http://www.cleveland.com/medicalmart/index.ssf/2011/03/medical_mart_spending_adds_up.html

 

Medical Mart spending adds up to $35 million, so far

 

This article has some great photos of the medical mart and convention center construction site. The photos were  from the press day tour on tuesday ,March 29th.  It also lists the contracts awarded so far. I am glad to see the county is being transparent on how the money is being spent.

 

Well I know people have been chattering about rumors of a new hotel on St. Clair; I came across this on a google search for "Cleveland medical mart hotel"... looks pretty sleek if you ask me. The website said something about Westin but it was in Flash so I couldn't just grab the text:

 

Pretty slick. The Justice center looks huge in this pic, is that just a trick of perspective?

 

Counting the bars on the facade of the rendering, it looks like a 20-ish story tower.

I noticed that many of the vendor's locations include the mention of a home office out of state and then a secondary "Cleveland office".  I wonder how many of these are legit company locations, or merely a temp thing so they can lay claim to using local contractors?  I'd obviously love to keep as much of our tax money here at home

Mayday, you are always on top of things, like that press release you shared with us on the new Erieview facade or Forest City's alternate convention center site on the Scranton Road Peninsula a couple years ago.

Pretty slick. The Justice center looks huge in this pic, is that just a trick of perspective?

 

Good point.  The justice center looks particularly offensive in this picture.  What a piece of crap. 

 

In the meantime, that new hotel is SWEET!  Straight from the streets of NYC or CHI.

Please make it happen CLE!

 

Well I know people have been chattering about rumors of a new hotel on St. Clair; I came across this on a google search for "Cleveland medical mart hotel"... looks pretty sleek if you ask me. The website said something about Westin but it was in Flash so I couldn't just grab the text:

 

 

Mayday your slipping.  This was a bit too noticeable.  Better to go with a nice rendering of the WHD parking lots that would get everyone in a tizzy. 

Yep, he's up to his usual tricks. Check the date today, folks.

Bad, BAD MayDay!!!

^ Aw crap. I bit... Now let's see if the PD picks it up...

 

Nice write up about the progress and a pretty sweet slideshow of the contruction from the Media Day on March 28(?)

 

Article:

http://www.examiner.com/commercial-real-estate-in-national/cleveland-medical-mart-digs-in

 

 

Slideshow:

http://cpsc.zenfolio.com/p571218352/slideshow

 

I was gonna say HE'S NOT GETTING ME THIS YEAR! 

Good one.  The justice center is still a piece of crap, tho...no joke there.

Good one.  The justice center is still a piece of crap, tho...no joke there.

 

May you never spend a night in that hotel....

y'all suck.  WE HAVE NEWBIES!!!!  Mayday is fun only one day a year, seriously.  Next year, keep your yaps shut!!

 

 

;)

 

For the record gotribe spotted the deception first, but I deleted his comment and explained why in a PM

It wouldn't be April Fools if I didn't :-D

Okay, no April Fools, just some update pics:

 

Noticed that they were using a "chopping" tool instead of a wrecking ball...

 

They must have hit a critical joint at the time I snapped this - see the how the upper corner has buckled?

Beat me to it, I was down there today watching also & took a few pics.  Definitely worth checking out.  I was surprised to see so much activity on a Saturday...

I also checked it out yesterday lol. No pictures though :(

 

You should share you pictures as well!

Great pics, MayDay. I especially like the "action shot" in the second one, with the peaceful, everyday setting in the foreground.

That building looks very much like a cladded historic building. Does anyone have any images of the original facade or knowledge?

 

I assume you realize that the building in the first four pics is not the same building depicted in the last pic.  Anyways, no.... it is not a cladded historic building.  113 St. Clair was simply an exceedingly "blah" structure on a prime parcel.  I don't think anyone has or will shed a tear.

 

Oh, yes, I know they are two buildings. 113 St. Clair is the building I am wondering about. If you look at the north wall, it appears to be four courses of common brick, this is an older construction method, replaced by cinder block and/or steel construction/spandrel panels/etc.  Also, the second and third photos show some yellow brick underneathe the exterior material. I'm not suggesting it was anything spectacular or worth keeping, but it would be interesting to know what when the building was constructed and what it looked like originally, if different that what we see today.

I knew what you meant ink and was wondering the same thing.  It certainly seemed as though it was reskinned at some point, I just havent found anything anywhere indicating what was underneath. 

It wouldn't be April Fools if I didn't :-D

 

The Progressive Tower was the best/most painful.

I was also downtown over the weekend and was surprised, but happy, to see that they were working on a Saturday!!!  Hopefully that schedule will continue as the construction starts on the MM & CC.

It wouldn't be April Fools if I didn't :-D

 

The Progressive Tower was the best/most painful.

 

Have a link to it?

well they are at it...smakdown that gawd awful justice center eyesore too!

 

The Progressive Tower was the best/most painful.

 

Have a link to it?

 

Go to ClevelandSkyscrapers.com for some pics of existing, former and never-were buildings.

A virtual tour was created for the proposed Lastville Medical Trade Center.

 

An Introduction to the Nashville Medical Trade Center

 

A virtual tour was created for the proposed Lastville Medical Trade Center.

 

An Introduction to the Nashville Medical Trade Center

 

Will there be two ladies rooting through their purses at the entrance every time you enter?

A virtual tour was created for the proposed Lastville Medical Trade Center.

 

An Introduction to the Nashville Medical Trade Center

 

Will there be two ladies rooting through their purses at the entrance every time you enter?

 

LOL. The maintenance on this place is going to be astronomical if they keep running through the walls like Kool-Aid.

They've finished knocking down the 113 St Clair building. At least temporarily, it's opened up some new vistas when going west on St. Clair.

 

Since it was pouring down rain, didn't stop to take pictures.

Of the Justice Center no doubt.

Really chugging along now....

 

The South end of Mall B and the former :) site of 113 St. Clair

 

Mall C and the North end of Mall B:

Love the pics Hts121!!!  Looks like they made fairly quick work of the majority of the deconstruction.  Hopefully some warmer\dryer weather will keep things moving along at this pace.  I'm lookin forward to seeing some new structure rising from the ground.

Do they have a definite design for the two malls yet? All the ideas tossed around, it was hard to keep up with what they are actually planning on doing. If they do anything less than a millennium park like design I'd be disappointed. They need to have an attraction, not just be a big patch of grass.

Looks like they got a little water in their hole...

That assembly of trailers always looks so perilous.

It would be kind of cool if the entrance of the Convention Center was on St. Claire, making Mall A completely surrounded. Also Mall B and Mall C would get to tie in together better. And it would be closer to the Medical Mart.

Do they have a definite design for the two malls yet? All the ideas tossed around, it was hard to keep up with what they are actually planning on doing. If they do anything less than a millennium park like design I'd be disappointed. They need to have an attraction, not just be a big patch of grass.

 

I don't believe so, what they have is an idea of what the Malls have to look like in a general sense to accommodate the Convention Center.  The designs are open ended, though.

Cuyahoga County Council to host public medical mart updates

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County Council will host monthly public updates on the $465 million, taxpayer-financed medical mart and convention center.

The first update will be May 3, at 4 p.m. in the Council Chambers on the first floor of the Justice Center as part of a council work session. The county's pointman, Jeff Appelbaum, will present the latest on the project budget, contracts and schedule, as well as agreements to lease space in the mart and book shows in the convention center.

 

Dates for future updates have not been set. Agendas for council work sessions and meetings are posted on the council website.

 

"The Medical Mart project is a massive investment of public dollars upon which the county has pinned its hopes for economic revitalization," county Council President Ellen C. Connally said in a news release. "While we anticipate a highly successful project, Council intends to exercise its due diligence in monitoring the progress of this important venture."

 

http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-county/index.ssf/2011/04/cuyahoga_county_council_to_host_public_medical_mart_updates.html

I really wish these elected leaders would quit making it seem like every tax-payer funded project is a Silver Bullet.  I don't think there's a question that this is a vital piece of what Cleveland needs economically, and will do great in the rebranding of Cleveland's tarnished image.  But Silver Bullet?  I don't think so.   

Quite frankly, I have always viewed the medical mart as simply the solution to getting a new convention center, which Cleveland sorely needed, and nothing more.  In my mind the MM was always just the "cover" for the tax increase for the facility which was the only way it was going to get built and which nobody had the balls to propose (for years and years).  I don't even view it as a convention center for out of towners, as there are so many more larger and shinier facilities throughout the country...it is something for us.

Wow that Connolly quote is lame.  I hope that was throw-away language for a press release, not how she really feels.

Well, given the number of dollars involved, it almost has to be a silver bullet to some extent.  There needs to be a signficant and measurable payoff or it will be judged a pretty disasterous waste.  Nobody would have supported raising the sales tax just to renovate the CC.  The expenditure was premised on creating a substantial economic driver.  In that sense, Connolly is just admitting the reality of the situation.

There is a difference between being a 'substantial economic driver" and a "silver bullet"

 

As to the cost, there are several publicly funded projects which cost as much and none are silver bullets.  I can't think of a public project that ever has been a silver bullet..... anywhere.  Other cities build stadiums, CC's, casinos, bridges, tunnels, mass transit, etc.  They don't consider them failures because they don't single handedly jumpstart an economy.

Well, given the number of dollars involved, it almost has to be a silver bullet to some extent.  There needs to be a signficant and measurable payoff or it will be judged a pretty disasterous waste.  Nobody would have supported raising the sales tax just to renovate the CC.  The expenditure was premised on creating a substantial economic driver.  In that sense, Connolly is just admitting the reality of the situation.

 

The Merch Mart people were very explicit that this was about jump-starting Cleveland's hospitality sector.  Broader "reputational" spin-offs are welcome, but the immediate impacts here are going to be temporary construction jobs, increased hotel stays and restaurant meals, a few hundred low paying hotel and restaurant jobs, the sales tax, income tax and added property tax those spin-off, and a more attractive and vital downtown.  Definitely measurable pay-off, but if folks are expecting more than that in the near term, I think they're going to be disappointed.

 

EDIT: this is what was promised by the Merch Mart:

 

"The goal, in its simplest form, is to convert Cleveland's unassailable global leadership in the medical field into a hospitality-driven economy focused on trade shows and conferences in the medical field," said Christopher Kennedy, president of Merchandise Mart Properties Inc.

http://www.cleveland.com/medicalmart/index.ssf/2009/03/mart_backers_goal_make_clevela.html