Yeah!

I'd look for an announcement in the next monthish :wink:

 

Torture!

Such a tease...

WHOHOO!!

I'd look for an announcement in the next monthish :wink:

 

Yep. You suck.

Probably Uptown, the large mixed-use development at Euclid-Ford-E.115 will announce... On top of the condos (Coltman & 118), along w/ CIA and MOCA (across the street) moving forward, we now, finally, have the Little Italy-Red Line stop getting Fed funding.  I just hope some of the other TOD projects, like Mayfield Lofts,moves forward too...

 

U.Circle may finally be on the verge of reaching its true potential as a great college/museum town +

^ This is the "Uptown" thread, so I think that is what McMayor was hinting at.

we now, finally, have the Little Italy-Red Line stop getting Fed funding.

 

 

Nope. RTA is only making a request for an earmark. Even the few projects that win earmarks don't get all of the funding their sponsors seek.

^ This is the "Uptown" thread, so I think that is what McMayor was hinting at.

 

True that.  Though there are other projects w/in Uptown other than the Euclid/Ford project.

we now, finally, have the Little Italy-Red Line stop getting Fed funding. 

 

 

 

Nope. RTA is only making a request for an earmark. Even the few projects that win earmarks don't get all of the funding their sponsors seek.

Wonder why RTA has has taken so long on the L'il Italy project?  ... more in the RTA thread, later.

 

 

Yo, don't forget to mention the new Indian restaurant (sub par) and a Luchita's Express (high hopes).. and umm, track lighting on the Uptown plaza.

^The track lighting is somewhat insipid in my opinion.  It could be much more extensive.

If anyone wishes to continue the Indian food discussion, do it here:

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,22582.msg471142/topicseen.html#new

Re-post: Is "the Triangle" going to be demo'ed as part of the Uptown plan?

I'm pretty sure that the residential stays, the retail in the one and two story buildings goes.

Not to draw us off topic (again), but I gotta defend Indian Flame. I think the food is actually really pretty good, particularly given that they haven't been open all that long, at least not compared to Cafe Tandoor and the southwesties. Their cashew sauce is to die for.

 

Slightly more on topic, both condo projects are looking relatively complete from the exterior. These are a really nice addition to the neighborhood, which seems to have some great momentum in light of the economy. Can't wait to hear the latest update!

Re-post: Is "the Triangle" going to be demo'ed as part of the Uptown plan?

 

I'm pretty sure that the residential stays, the retail in the one and two story buildings goes.

 

That's my understanding.  The retail building, on the actual triangle, is supposed to be the site of the new MOCA.

The rendering I saw of MOCA was a little bit more up to the street corner, but the retail compenent of the Triangle was gone IIRC.  Nobody is going to miss that uninviting structure I would imagine. 

The rendering I saw of MOCA was a little bit more up to the street corner, but the retail compenent of the Triangle was gone IIRC. Nobody is going to miss that uninviting structure I would imagine.

 

Hear Hear!

The rendering I saw of MOCA was a little bit more up to the street corner, but the retail compenent of the Triangle was gone IIRC.  Nobody is going to miss that uninviting structure I would imagine. 

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2007/09/regional_transit_authority_unv.html

 

 

^Wow, I can't believe it's already been 2.5 years since that piece...  To think, the real estate and banking world hadn't fallen apart yet!

Any update on the upcoming annoncement?  New hints?  Anything??

I'd look for an announcement in the next monthish :wink:

 

Not quite an announcement, but this blurb is in the Design Review agenda this week:

 

 

EUCLID CORRIDOR REGION DESIGN REVIEW

 

1.EC 2010-037 – Euclid Avenue between Mayfield Avenue and East 115th Street, Uptown Development Project, Ward 9

Project Representatives:  Josh Herman, Project Manager; Debbie Berry, University Circle, Inc.

 

http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/designreview/drcagenda/2010/040910/index.php

I personally think this a huge with just getting the ball rolling.  Maybe next design review we'll be able to see some renderings. 

I'd say going to design review is a good sign of an upcoming announcement.  :)

Aw yeah!!!

 

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/04/mrn_ltd_secures_financing_for_fir.html

 

Developer MRN Ltd. secures financing for first phase of Uptown neighborhood project at University Circle

By Michelle Jarboe, The Plain Dealer April 08, 2010, 4:03AM

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A long-discussed project at the heart of University Circle could break ground this summer, creating a residential backbone for the emerging Uptown neighborhood.

 

Cleveland developer MRN Ltd. has secured financing commitments to build $44 million worth of apartments, stores and restaurants along Euclid Avenue, northeast of Mayfield Road and Ford Drive. After years of planning, University Circle is poised to make a huge stride in attracting residents to a district known for its educational, medical and cultural behemoths.

That was a little less than a monthish... :)

 

This project is so important to get moving.

Double yay!, one for the project and one for the freeze on financing beginning to thaw! Hopefully we will start to see more of these projects on the drawing table move forward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Triple Yay! Lol, those renderings aren't bad either with the article... at least its not some generic brick facade.  Amen to that.

It IS a beautiful day.  And Summer 2010?!  Looks like full steam ahead.

 

Personally, I like how Phase I will take up both sides of the street.  Unlike the Avenue District, that if new construction stales immediately after(God forbid!), we'll at least have a sense of neighborhood, place, etc just from the first phase.

 

The surrounding property is immediately going to benefit from this project (right away thinking E. 118, Hessler, Little Italy, Wade Park even), giving UC a true retail and visible heart. 

 

My only request -- one fully-functioning grocery store please!   Little Italy and Case, CIA, and CIM students need something walking distance (or just something at all!)

Double yay!, one for the project and one for the freeze on financing beginning to thaw! Hopefully we will start to see more of these projects on the drawing table move forward.

 

well... not exactly.  The magic number I have read, and heard discussed in various circles is $50m.  Anything at or around $50m if you are really patient and creative enough you should be able to cobble together using a multitude of financing options (very complicated, but doable).  More than $50-55m... well... as they say, "good luck with that".  I think what is so great about this is that it shows how creative MRN is to be able to scale the project back to make it financially feasible while at the same time figuring out a way to get the most "bang for the buck" by completely reimagining what phase 1 would be while going on their own.

 

It IS a beautiful day.  And Summer 2010?!  Looks like full steam ahead.

 

Personally, I like how Phase I will take up both sides of the street.  Unlike the Avenue District, that if new construction stales immediately after(God forbid!), we'll at least have a sense of neighborhood, place, etc just from the first phase.

 

The surrounding property is immediately going to benefit from this project (right away thinking E. 118, Hessler, Little Italy, Wade Park even), giving UC a true retail and visible heart. 

 

My only request -- one fully-functioning grocery store please!   Little Italy and Case, CIA, and CIM students need something walking distance (or just something at all!)

 

I totally agree with you... when I first heard some time back that zremba was out and MRN was proceeding alone with just the apartments and no condos, for some reason I kept imagining only the south side getting developed.  I have never ever been so happy to be wrong.  I think it's incredibly important to begin working on both sides of the street.  I'm not worried about development lagging on the western edge of the project.  Hopefully by the time this phase is wrapping up the economy will be in better shape and we shouldn't have to wait too long for phase 2.

 

as for the grocery store, as I have always understood it, they are aiming to put the grocery store in the "lot 45" section of the project footprint, which is being run by UCI.

and more from litt...

 

New apartments designed by architect Stanley Saitowitz bode well for Uptown project

By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

April 08, 2010, 4:02AM

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Despite a punishing recession, the developer behind a major project to revitalize a dead zone in Cleveland's University Circle is still aiming high in design quality.

 

Even so, plans for public spaces and the main plaza at the project -- called Uptown -- are lagging behind plans for apartments and other major elements, including a new building proposed for the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.

 

Intended or not, those are two key messages that come across clearly in the revised (and somewhat reduced) plans for rental apartments that will form the armature of Uptown, launched six years ago in sunnier economic times by Case Western Reserve University.

 

 

more at: http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2010/04/new_apartments_designed_by_arc.html

A Trader Joe's would probably find lots of customers from the surrounding neighborhoods.

A Trader Joe's would probably find lots of customers from the surrounding neighborhoods.

 

Great call - I live in CH and am usually too lazy to drive out to Eton just to go to Trader Joe's.

Double yay!, one for the project and one for the freeze on financing beginning to thaw! Hopefully we will start to see more of these projects on the drawing table move forward.

 

well... not exactly.  The magic number I have read, and heard discussed in various circles is $50m.  Anything at or around $50m if you are really patient and creative enough you should be able to cobble together using a multitude of financing options (very complicated, but doable).  More than $50-55m... well... as they say, "good luck with that".  I think what is so great about this is that it shows how creative MRN is to be able to scale the project back to make it financially feasible while at the same time figuring out a way to get the most "bang for the buck" by completely reimagining what phase 1 would be while going on their own.

 

 

Mayor, thanks for the input. That makes the news of MRN going ahead with the project even better. They obviously believe that this will be successful.

A Trader Joe's would probably find lots of customers from the surrounding neighborhoods.

 

Great call - I live in CH and am usually too lazy to drive out to Eton just to go to Trader Joe's.

 

Maybe it's time for another mass request of Trader's Joes for University Circle/Uptown:

http://www.traderjoes.com/about/location-requests-form.asp

 

Wow, this is exciting!  I think I like the new designs much more than the older ones, but it's tough to tell from those tiny renderings on Cleveland.com.

 

I know it's a necessity to get something going here, but I am a little disappointed by the scale-down of the building sizes.  4-story apartment buildings really aren't that big for these sites, and 100 units is really not going to boost the residential population of UC so much.  I guess 5 story buildings would not have been that much bigger, so not really a big change, I know.

 

I worry too about all that open space.  I'm not a big fan of corner plazas, and that Euclid/E115th intersection is going to be lined with them.  I don't know if that's really what they were after or if these curving buildings are just cheaper to build for some reason (simpler double loaded corridors?).  But there's nothing wrong with some hard corners.

 

Finally, I'm just so happy MRN hired a top notch design firm.  One of my biggest worries about MRN is their taste.  I guess I just haven't gotten over that horrific entertainment totem thing at Prospect and E4th (below).  And at the unveiling a couple summers ago, they promised lots of new blade signs along the new entertainment alley.  Great.

 

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=41.498268,-81.69013&spn=0,0.013078&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=41.498306,-81.689921&panoid=4we6OZuiY_SD87lSO-wJnQ&cbp=12,5.98,,0,-5.28

 

But man this is exciting.  And I agree with everyone else how awesome it is that phase I includes buildings on both sides of Euclid.  At this stage of my life I would never consider renting a unit overlooking the proposed entertainment alley (been there, done that), but the units on the north side should offer a nice, quieter alternative.

My only request -- one fully-functioning grocery store please! Little Italy and Case, CIA, and CIM students need something walking distance (or just something at all!)

 

I would love to see a centrally located Trader Joe's. But I do think this would be the death knell for the Cleveland Food Co-op, which would be kinda sad. I'm the first to admit that the Food Co-op could use some major aesthetic and product enhancement, but it is a full-service grocery and it's a 42-year-old institution in the neighborhood. I would rather see one of the foundations step up and provide a grant to modernize the Co-op in either its current location or in a new space within this development. There's a major opportunity here to create something local and distinct, particularly if you could expand the co-op to have more of a community supported agriculture component (like Fresh Fork in Tremont). In my dream world, I would love to propose to Trader Joe's a fused space ... a standard Trader Joe's connected to a local food section that would be operated by the existing co-op. Could be a great opportunity for the business to test-market how local food could be incorporated into their model and make it a more distinct grocery.

 

Regardless, according to the Food Co-op's winter newsletter, UCI has or is extending a three-year lease to the co-op (since April 2009, the co-op was operating on a month-to-month lease and didn't know whether they would be staying or not). That means it will be operating in its current location for at least a year after the slated opening of Uptown. http://www.clevelandfoodcoop.org/newsletters/2010/foodcoop-connect-february2010.pdf.

^Yeah, the coop has always seemed left out of this discussion (the public discussion, anyway).  Many of the plans for the whole development area showed surface parking where the coop is now.  I've never been a a member or a regular shopper, though I have been inside the coop and it would probably serve most or all of my shopping needs.  I guess I'm revealing myself here to be on the crunchy side.  I don't know how nimble or flexible the coop's management is, but would be superb to see them integrated into all this new development somehow.

 

One more comment about the design of the new rental buildings:  Is the color palate too blah?  I think design review should require all architects to render their buildings with gray skies and light drizzle so we can imagine how these things are going to look for the other 6  months of the year.  On sunny spring days, even that dialysis building looks good.  OK, not really.

 

I'd like to visit the co-op, but I don't even know where it is.

 

I would think that if that co-op could be included as a ground-floor use in this project, that could be a huge boost their visibility -- assuming they could afford the lease!

Hi StrapHanger -

 

This is Michelle Jarboe, the real estate reporter at the Plain Dealer. I saw your mention of the too-small size of the renderings over at Cleveland.com. I just went into our blog software and made an adjustment so that you can click on each of the images to get a full-size version.

 

If it doesn't work for some reason, holler: [email protected].

 

Michelle

Hi StrapHanger -

 

This is Michelle Jarboe, the real estate reporter at the Plain Dealer. I saw your mention of the too-small size of the renderings over at Cleveland.com. I just went into our blog software and made an adjustment so that you can click on each of the images to get a full-size version.

 

If it doesn't work for some reason, holler: [email protected].

 

Michelle

 

Now thats what I call service!  Just kidding Michelle.

Oh wow, thanks, Michelle!  It's working perfectly.

Maybe it's time for another mass request of Trader's Joes for University Circle/Uptown:

http://www.traderjoes.com/about/location-requests-form.asp

DONE!

I mentioned I used to shop at the Trader Joe's in Crocker Park until Whole Foods opened a store much closer to UC.

Hmmm...I'm generally not impressed with height for height's sake, but I worry that these long, low blocks might cut a pretty dull silhouette when viewed from the sidewalk.  I like the habitable cut-out that breaks up the block, but a couple 6-story "towers" might have differentiated the bays a bit too.

 

http://media.cleveland.com/business_impact/photo/euclid-avejpg-d16728a54c2a0fb9.jpg

 

I wonder if the roof will be finished.  Green roof?  Garden plots available on green roof?? 

 

I know, I'll be patient and wait for more info.

 

KJP, the coop is located on south side of Euclid just east of CIA: http://www.clevelandfoodcoop.org/

 

 

Hi StrapHanger -

 

This is Michelle Jarboe, the real estate reporter at the Plain Dealer. I saw your mention of the too-small size of the renderings over at Cleveland.com. I just went into our blog software and made an adjustment so that you can click on each of the images to get a full-size version.

 

If it doesn't work for some reason, holler: [email protected].

 

Michelle

 

You're the best Michelle.  Thanks.  BTW, the term is holla'

http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2010/04/euclid_corridor_design_review.html

Euclid Corridor Design Review Committee approves Uptown architecture, but hammers developer MRN Ltd. for lack of detail on landscape and public space

 

By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

April 08, 2010, 1:24PM

 

There's no question that Richard and Ari Maron, father and son, are among the best local developers in Cleveland. They know as well as anyone that good urban development requires more than hiring an architect and designing buildings. You also need landscape architects and urban designers to shape the public realm around the buildings.

 

It's been obvious for many months, however, that landscaping and urban design for the Uptown project in University Circle, for which the Marons are developing a crucial pair of apartment buildings, has been lagging.

 

Today, the Marons got hammered for it publicly.

 

 

I love Hessler, but it is an unwritten rule that someone absolutely must be a smug, self center pr-ck to live there?  You'd think they're rather have an attractive urban development behind them than a big dirt lot.

I feel like there are too many important players and groups who are willing to pull out all the stops to make sure this project happens.  Hasen't there has been too much of a recent history of projects stalling for this one to follow suit?

 

Although I do admit, I wish this town would put more thought into landscaping/streetscaping intially; however, Parkworks is already said to on it, so I don't doubt that.  As for the Hessler crew--they just seem to be a loud minority.  Hopefully an easy compromise can be made, such as keeping a high number of bordering trees, but I'm guessing they'll want more.

 

Bottom line -- I have faith there are enough people on this that this will get built.

If those A-holes on Hessler f@#$ this up again, I will be more than pissed.  What is wrong with them!

 

"Cogger and other Hessler residents, including Holland, said they're exploring whether they could use legal means to block the project, based in part on an option residents were offered nearly 20 years ago -- and didn't exercise -- to buy a small portion of the Uptown site."