did anyone notice that Heartland is positioned themselves as "Cleveland's premiere urban builders"?

They need to build something in urban Cleveland before I'll consider them to be Cleveland's premiere urban builder. ;)

I wonder if that came from a play on the boss's name?  (Gordon Priemer)  People always mess up and call him Gordon Premiere.  Fools!

 

 

 

 

riveting

 

I know. Sometimes developer websites are so mesmerizing that they make you want to buy buy buy. I was just about to put a deposit down on three units until I snapped out of it.

 

out of curiosity, did you try clicking on the heartlanddevelopers.com link? even more craptacular than the nearly-nonexistent jaylofts.com...

It is true that Heartland really has done nothing much in Cleveland itself but they do focus on inner ring suburbs (primarily Shaker) which also have development challenges and I would imagine it is more costly to build in such areas rather than on virgin land in Streetsboro.  Also, while the architecture they are putting up in not cutting edge, it does fit the neighborhoods where they are building and it appears to me (at least from the outside) that they do quality construction using high end materials.  They certainly are no Ryan Homes.  In general I like there direction and wish we had more like them.

A snippet from Cleveland.com's Restaurant Row article by Bill Lubinger:

 

www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/restaurantrow/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1173173779293060.xml&coll=2

 

Light Bistro opens Monday in the former Parker's New American Bistro spot in Ohio City. Chef/co-owner Matthew Mathlage described his 20-item small-plates/tastings menu as "progressive American." Offerings include Kobe short ribs; Cuba Libre (a rum and Coke); braised pork belly with pineapple carpaccio and chipotle couscous; blue crab and shrimp cake with a green curry and honeydew sauce and yellow pepper ceviche; and pickled shrimp with chiles, lemon grass and chives served in a Mason jar. Among the 10 to 12 entrees are braised veal shanks over toasted almond fondue, and farm-raised trout. Small plates are $3 to $14; entrees, $15 to $26. Cosmetic changes, such as corrugated copper wall decor, create a more industrial, urban feel.

 

 

^they've been working constantly inside the old Parkers for a while now.

^^Here's their website:  http://www.lightbistro.com/

Friggin sweet!  I had no idea it was going to turn around this quickly!

 

On a side note, I went to a Chinese New Year's party across the street in the West Virginia last month and was very impressed with the two-story unit that my friend lived in.  Lots of exposed brick, two walk-out terraces and great views.  The Kitchen and living space featured nice updates and had a modern loft feel, with the brick offsetting the carpet nicely. 

^ you lost me at "carpet"

I'm telling you, though, you hardly notice it!

^ you lost me at "carpet"

 

I was thinking the same damn thing!

I've lived in the West Virginia for almost two years.  I have a two-bedroom unit, 1100sf, a view of the West Side Market from the east bedroom, and a balconey for let's just say a great price.  It was a bit dicey for the first year (a crackhead/dealer lived on the first floor) but he has since been evicted and I couldn't imagine a beeter place, or location to live.  Right across from Dave's, the 25 runs down bridge, bars a quick stumble down the street, and of course, the West Side Market just down the street.  Great place.

^ you should go over to the reloc thread and pass this on to the person who is looking (although they prefer a loft)

What do you think W28th?  Don't some of the bigger (top floor) units have that "lofty" feel with just the right amount of cozy classic apartment vibe to them?

Carpet is not always a bad thing. Usually it is, but not always.  Carpet adds just the right amount of coziness to my third floor (although I'd like to replace it with a berber style when I can justify spending the money).

 

I love the West Virginia building. What a great building for that location.  Anyone hear anything about the old West Side Community House? I thought that it had gone to city planning for conceptual approval a while back.

The actual west side community moved way west off Lorain (9300 block?)..so many of their clients were out that way and they are adding kiddo programs so that building was not working...but are you wondering what happended to the program or what WILL happen to the building?

The old building at 30th was purchased by a developer with plans to convert it to housing.

Yes, we've been talking about that since page one of this thread.  I know they've cleaned out a lot of stuff, but that may have just been WSCH leaving.  The last time I went to a block club meeting, the developers said they could start in the fall of 2006 if all went smoothly.  I'm guessing that it didn't, but I haven't heard another word about it progressing.

 

On a side note, there's a big old house that was for sale on Fulton, just west of Franklin Circle (parcel 003-33-002) that had a side lot for sale along with it.  It looks like Montlack has purchased both properties (Nov. '06), as they're adjacent to the large (yellow brick) building that we talked about earlier in this thread that they'll be converting to apartments.  Word on the streets is that the side lot will become more parking for the apartment building.  The house, hopefully, will stay intact.

Thanks for the update.

^^So is the side lot no longer part of the listing? 

What do you think W28th?  Don't some of the bigger (top floor) units have that "lofty" feel with just the right amount of cozy classic apartment vibe to them?

 

I've never been up in the units on the top floor, but I'm imagining mine with the space above, and I'd say those have to be great spaces.  The extra balcony on the upper units doesn't hurt either.  I wonder how much more those go for.

^Not sure.

 

BTW, Light Bistro's "friends and family" night was last night and the press night is tonight.  They'll be open to the public on Monday!

i hung out in OC for the first time in lord knows how long.

 

I had fun, thanks west side!

Dearest Pontiff and killer of brain cells, it wasn't any longer ago than Dec. 23rd when we were at Great Lakes Brewing Co. for the Urban Ohio holiday get-together.

i guess i should qualify my statement, its been the longest since I had a "night out" in OC

was hanging out in the OC last night myself before heading over to Parish Hall for one of the funnest nights out in a while... at 6:30, my party of six found Momocho booked up, a 30 minute wait at Great Lakes and a 15 minute wait at Johnny Mango.  We chose JM and saw crowds continue to wait at the door during our entire meal.  On our way out, we saw lots of action around Heck's as well...nice to see so many people out and the restaurants doing brisk business!

What is Parish Hall?  I first heard of it last night.

^Try this link below.  Some dialogue about it there.  I myself have never been there.  I wanted to go to last night's one year anniversary, but couldn't make it.

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2873.msg136769;topicseen#msg136769

 

http://www.millerweitzelgallery.com

I had my first "Old Angle" experience last night and very much enjoyed the Irish band that was playing.

^  love the place, but it was always so smokey. Are they enforcing the ban?

"^  love the place, but it was always so smokey. Are they enforcing the ban?"

 

 

No smoking at the Angle.

Crains has two good news articles for Ohio City today:

 

Reach for a rebound

Architect hoping revitalizion of Near West Side extends to area where he's purchased five buildings

 

By STAN BULLARD

 

6:00 am, March 12, 2007

 

Architect David Ellison was upset that demolition crews might raze a boarded-up, two-story brick commercial building erected sometime in the 1860s on the southwest corner of Lorain Avenue and West 41st Street.

 

So, the free-spirited operator of D.H. Ellison Co., an architectural firm specializing in providing historic detailing for new mansions, recently shelled out $110,000 to buy the building and four desolate, beat-up wooden frame buildings that came with it.

 

Mr. Ellison is betting on a section of Lorain that has yet to see a rebound that other parts of the lengthy street are experiencing. However, as Joe Mazzola, executive director of the nonprofit Ohio City Near West Development Corp., rides west past West 32nd Street on Lorain, he says, “This is next.”

 

Mr. Ellison plans to refurbish the main building’s architectural details, from arched windows to tooth-like bricks next to the roof, to use part of it for the office of his four-person firm, which now is in a storefront at 6403 Detroit Ave. next to Cleveland Public Theater.

 

“I want to walk to work,” Mr. Ellison said, as the site is just blocks from his Carroll Avenue home in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood.

 

 

Such a deal is striking for Lorain west of West 32nd Street. In his memoir “Hollywood Animal,” screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, who grew up in the neighborhood, described the buildings Mr. Ellison just bought as being in a “strudel ghetto” of Hungarian residents. The gritty, tough street has gone downhill since.

 

However, the area north of Lorain in Ohio City now is home to astonishing restored Victorian homes and a plethora of tony townhomes. South of Lorain, the Ohio City Townhomes a few years ago transformed part of West 41st Street near Mr. Ellison’s buildings.

 

In between, Lorain Avenue itself west of West 32nd Street remains desolate. There are stretches of boarded-up buildings and bumper-to-bumper used car lots. An occasional antique store or hardy small business punctuates some blocks.

 

Urban renewal

 

Mr. Ellison’s purchase of the buildings from Ohio City Near West indicates a change could be afoot. So, too, Mr. Mazzola said, do rumors about speculative purchases of buildings not yet visible in the public record plus plans for a nearly $2 million townhouse complex on the north side of Lorain near West 47th Street. Most of all, there’s the benefit of two recent projects in the area.

 

One is the Cleveland Environmental Center, a $2 million conversion of the landmark former Cleveland Trust bank building at 3500 Lorain as offices for multiple “green” nonprofits. Defining the other end of that segment of the street is Urban Community School’s new $12 million campus at 4909 Lorain.

 

Mr. Ellison’s project sits in the middle. Ironically, Mr. Ellison’s plans call for demolishing the four frame buildings surrounding the brick building he wants to save.

 

Demolishing the frame buildings will provide room for parking and landscaping and give prominence to the surviving building, Mr. Ellison said. The Ohio City Near West Design Review Board and the Cleveland City Design Review Board have approved Mr. Ellison’s plans.

 

Councilman Joe Santiago, whose Ward 14 includes Mr. Ellison’s project, said he supports Mr. Ellison’s intentions. He notes five prior plans to redo the corner fell through.

 

“That is known as a highly drug-infested area,” Mr. Santiago said. He said he hopes the new investment, plans to convert West 41st and West 44th streets to two-way streets from one-way streets, and attention to the area by Ohio City Near West’s security coordinator and police can help remake lower Lorain.

 

Mr. Ellison estimates he needs to spend about $500,000 for his project. He said he hopes to land tenants for the first-floor storefront and part of the 2,100-square-foot second floor, or simply gain more word-of-mouth design work, to help swing financing.

 

If he cannot, Mr. Ellison vowed to finance the work by selling his house and moving into a loft on the second floor next to his proposed office.

 

 

 

Sprucing up the corridor

 

Another breakaway project for the street that has won local design review and city approvals is Courtyard Homes, a nine-townhouse development at West 47th Street and Lorain by Robert T. Boothe Co., a shopping center development consultant and custom home builder in Gates Mills.

 

Robert Boothe, president of the namesake firm, said he hopes to build a model home in late spring or early summer for a model. His plans call for nine, three-bedroom brownstones each costing upwards of $185,000. He currently is negotiating for financing.

 

“It’s raw, but there are successful housing projects nearby,” Mr. Boothe said. “It’s not a 100-unit project, but it will mean something for the Lorain corridor.”

 

and here is the second one

 

 

Real estate brokers hope to bring $15M condominium complex to Detroit Avenue

 

By STAN BULLARD

 

6:00 am, March 12, 2007

 

Two former corporate real estate consultants who have carved a niche as investment property brokers want to add development to their profiles with a proposed, $15 million condominium project in Ohio City.

 

Dubbed One Charter Place, the project would consist of a six-story building and a connected four-story building at 3107 Detroit Ave. that would offer 55 condominiums for sale. The project would exploit views of Lake Erie that existing low-rise commercial buildings on that stretch of Detroit leave untapped.

 

“Knowing the Shoreway will be calmed to improve pedestrian access to the lake is a huge part of our decision to develop here,” said Brian Cook, who is a partner in the proposed development with Brian Koch and a silent investor the two declined to identify. The city of Cleveland is studying a plan to transform the West Shoreway to a smaller four-lane boulevard with traffic lights allowing for more pedestrian access and lakefront development.

 

Joseph Mazzola, executive director of the nonprofit Ohio City Near West Development Corp., said he is excited about the plan.

 

“What’s really great about this project is that it is not just this project,” he said. “A whole stretch of Detroit has lake views.” If Charter Plaza flies, it could open the door for other mid-rise development on the street, Mr. Mazzola suggested, although he and his board want to retain existing businesses.

 

 

The project gained an OK Dec. 7 from Ohio City Near West’s Design Review Committee. The developers plan to seek Cleveland City Landmarks and City Planning Commission approvals this spring.

 

“We would like to be in the ground this summer and hope to deliver units by the summer of 2008,” Mr. Koch said. They have not taken the plan to the city yet because they are obtaining final construction cost estimates. Neither would put an estimate on the price of two-bedroom and two-bedroom-and-office flats.

 

 

 

Being good neighbors

 

Through Ohio City Development Partners — the development group that includes Messrs. Cook and Koch — the partners shelled out $655,000 last July for the former Cleveland Yacht & Supply Co. building, according to Cuyahoga County land records. They also have commissioned drawings by Berardi Partners, a Columbus architecture firm, and have worked extensively with neighborhood groups.

 

“We talked to the neighborhood before we drew a line on paper,” Mr. Koch said.

 

Those talks account for much of the project’s form: Neighbors opposed a monolithic building blocking their lake views. The result was a two-building complex with a three-story connector at ground level, a stepped design as it goes upward and courtyards on Detroit and Church Street.

 

Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose Ward 13 includes that section of Ohio City, said Messrs. Cook and Koch worked closely with Ohio City Near West and the Franklin-Clinton Block Club and proved they want to be good neighbors.

 

“They got phenomenal feedback that made the design better,” Mr. Cimperman said.

 

The proposed development is an adjunct to Mr. Koch and Mr. Cook’s primary endeavor, a boutique brokerage called Bridge Partners in Brecksville. The brokerage sells commercial investment property, particularly smaller apartment buildings in the $1 million to $5 million price range, although Bridge also has sold some two-family homes and four-suite apartments.

 

“That’s what pays the bills,” Mr. Koch said.

 

As for the name of the Detroit Avenue project, it stems from the shared predilection of Messrs. Koch and Cook for double-entendres. Mr. Koch is the son of Charles J.”Bud” Koch, chairman of Charter One Bank and a board member of its corporate owner, Citizens Financial Group Inc. of Providence, R.I.

 

From the image shown, it looks nice.

So the Charter One building is proposed to go across from the Dog Bone Park (or whatever it's called) and also across the street from Club Cleveland, right?

 

 

You are correct. I believe its footprint stretches from the surface lots all the way to the corner.

Impressive.

Do you have a larger image, other images, or site plans?

 

 

Wow!  I'm loving all this talk and what seems to be honest action on these two projects.  My only concern with the Lorain project is the total demo of the wood frame structures for parking.  I thought he was planning to preserve the facades, if not the entire set of buildings?

Looks like the Market Square building that burned over a year ago will have National City Bank as its ground floor tenant:

 

http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/landmark/agenda/photo/030807/index.htm

 

As good as it is that we'll have another occupied storefront on W. 25th, I was still kind of hoping for more retail...

Not a fan of the demolition on Lorain, or the brick and metal fencing along Detroit on the rendering, and it looks like more noeclassical cornices and columns... sigh... hate that garbage...sigh...

But overall, good developments for the OC.

w28th,

 

i agree with you about the site plan, but i'm fine with the design. I tried to blow up the image and I don't really see any neoclassical elements. The thing that gets me is that the neighborhood requested the openness and courtyards. I'd rather have the building up to the sidewalk. All in all, this would be a huge improvement for Detroit and hopefully would be the first of many midrises on this street.

Does anybody know what the buildings on Lorain are like?  Yes, the architect guy that bought them, did so for the whole purpose of preserving the brick structure (fear it would some day be torn down).  Are the other buildings just junky?  Can they justify tearing them down?  Do they also face Lorain?

They do face Lorain. From the looks of them, they would probably need to be rebuilt, not renovated. I hope this guy gets his financing soon. This would improve an important gateway into the OC.

I'm a little mixed on both of these.  I don't know that the way to rebuild our commercial strips is to save one building in six and tear down the rest for parking and "landscaping to give prominence" the remaining building- basically the underlying theme behind suburban style development, there.  And I don't mind the architecture of the Detroit building itself, but *sigh* do we really need a setback and courtyard there?  More suburban mentality getting in the way of rebuilding our urban neighborhoods as Urban Neighborhoods.

Is the setback in the Detroit building along Detroit or along Church?

^Both. From what I understand, the site plan is sort of like a figure 8. The two buildings are connected in the middle by a three story connector. I just don't like the brick fence part. We'll see. I guess its not really that bad. Its not like there are a bunch of storefront buildings on this stretch of Detroit.

I suppose neoclassical was the wrong word, but can we get a building condominium building built in this city that isn't an hodge-podge of crappy materials (much like Stonebridge's earlier phases).  I mean, I do like the fact that we are getting things in the pipeline, but we need to have a higher aesthetic standard here.  These are structures that will hopefully be standing for 15 decades, is this the mark we want to have on the urban landscape?  Suburban fences, EFIS, thin brick and setbacks off the street ceratinly aren't going to attract me to buy into one of these things.  They might as well put a surface lot in front of the building and turn it into a Rockport Square while they're at it...

Just pull the f'ing buildings up to the sidewalk.  Is it really that difficult?  It shouldn't take an act of City Council for developers to know to have their buildings up to the sidewalk to create a solid streetscape.  Although, the architect needs to grow a set and inform the client of such a basic urban design gesture, or open a book to figure it out.  Unreal.

have any of us thought from a neighbors point of view or a developers point of view?

 

its very easy for us to say this from the arm chair position, but how many of us know what really goes on? from the acquisition of the land, to the input of neighbors/neighborhood development corps., or is it something that the developer really likes.

 

w 28th what is your definition of "crappy materials"?  Why do you think Stonebridges earlier phases are bad?

I certainly understand neighborhood pressure, which is why the developer says he pushed the building back some.  And while yes, a developer should work with the neighborhood on substantive issues, like preserving people's views, I don't see how the community or the development benefits from the setback and courtyard except that it sounds all pretty and nice.  It's not as if the buildings there now are not zero lot line.  It's not as if this isn't a traditional urban mainstreet of one of Cleveland's most urban neighborhoods.  So it comes across as somewhat silly to me that it has to follow a suburban form.