January 13, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, Rustbelter said: Noticed this developer is trying to unload their project site for the townhomes on Madison. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/Madison-Lakewood-OH-44107/2053826350_zpid/ What the??? What's special HEART OF LAKEWOODMIXED-USE BUILDINGS-OPEN PARCEL-INFAMOUS DETROIT SHOREWAY-SHOPPING CENTERS
January 19, 20241 yr Griffin Cider House was bought by Buildings and Food Hospitality Group, the owners/operators of La Cave du Vin, the Old 86, Prosperity Social Club and Good Company. I never made it to Griffin, but given Building and Hospitality's track record I'm excited to see what they bring to the space. Buildings and Food Hospitality Group takes over Lakewood’s Griffin Cider House, promises new concept Kim Palmer January 18th 2024 Fans of the Griffin Cider House and Gin Bar have less than two weeks to visit the Lakewood hot spot before ownership changes hands at the end of the month. Buildings and Food Hospitality Group will take over the location at 12401 Madison Ave. in Lakewood with a plan for a “new concept.” https://www.crainscleveland.com/retail/buildings-and-food-hospitality-group-buys-lakewoods-griffin-cider-house
January 19, 20241 yr 14 minutes ago, Luke_S said: Griffin Cider House was bought by Buildings and Food Hospitality Group, the owners/operators of La Cave du Vin, the Old 86, Prosperity Social Club and Good Company. I never made it to Griffin, but given Building and Hospitality's track record I'm excited to see what they bring to the space. Buildings and Food Hospitality Group takes over Lakewood’s Griffin Cider House, promises new concept Kim Palmer January 18th 2024 Fans of the Griffin Cider House and Gin Bar have less than two weeks to visit the Lakewood hot spot before ownership changes hands at the end of the month. Buildings and Food Hospitality Group will take over the location at 12401 Madison Ave. in Lakewood with a plan for a “new concept.” https://www.crainscleveland.com/retail/buildings-and-food-hospitality-group-buys-lakewoods-griffin-cider-house These are the guys that closed Spotted Owl out of nowhere and screwed over the employees pretty bad. I've not been to Good Company of La Cav du Vin, but can say with 100% certainty that Prosperity is nowhere near as good as it was when Bonnie owned it. Any time the guy's name comes up the Cleveland subreddit loses their minds, pitchforks in hand.
January 19, 20241 yr 6 minutes ago, Ineffable_Matt said: These are the guys that closed Spotted Owl out of nowhere and screwed over the employees pretty bad. I've not been to Good Company of La Cav du Vin, but can say with 100% certainty that Prosperity is nowhere near as good as it was when Bonnie owned it. Any time the guy's name comes up the Cleveland subreddit loses their minds, pitchforks in hand. Welp, I didn't know that. I've only been to Good Company and Prosperity and really enjoy both (though I frequent Prosperity less often). That's disappointing... Fortunately, in this case, the Griffin owner sounds like he'll be taking care of his current employees. Edited January 19, 20241 yr by Luke_S
February 15, 20241 yr Work is underway in earnest on redeveloping the former Misencik Funeral Home (12500 Madison Ave) in Lakewood’s Birdtown neighborhood. Last I heard this is to become a Korean restaurant and market.
February 15, 20241 yr On 1/19/2024 at 4:23 AM, Luke_S said: Welp, I didn't know that. I've only been to Good Company and Prosperity and really enjoy both (though I frequent Prosperity less often). That's disappointing... Fortunately, in this case, the Griffin owner sounds like he'll be taking care of his current employees. I'm not really thrilled at all about this. Griffins was my spot when I'm back in the hood and I'll miss it. Plus I am not going to patronize places with a track record of mistreating employees. Why couldn't this dumb restaurant group just find another spot? Or better yet build on one of the dumb empty lots over that way. I wish the city or whoever did not tear down that huge house with the storefronts. Those would be something by now.
February 15, 20241 yr 39 minutes ago, WindyBuckeye said: The owner wanted to sell I'm seeing that now, well almost. I'm not paying for articles on Cleveland.com lol. I thought I'd read that the group approached the owner out of the blue with too good an offer to pass up.
February 16, 20241 yr 4 hours ago, Blimp City said: Work is underway in earnest on redeveloping the former Misencik Funeral Home (12500 Madison Ave) in Lakewood’s Birdtown neighborhood. Last I heard this is to become a Korean restaurant and market. Looks like the rendering shows a refreshed facade on the apartment building in the background. I assume this is just artistic license and not something that's part of this project?
February 16, 20241 yr 9 minutes ago, Rustbelter said: Looks like the rendering shows a refreshed facade on the apartment building in the background. I assume this is just artistic license and not something that's part of this project? I believe you are correct, @Rustbelter
February 16, 20241 yr Anyone else think the car in the rendering is a clever nod to the funeral home :-)
February 16, 20241 yr 25 minutes ago, Rustbelter said: Looks like the rendering shows a refreshed facade on the apartment building in the background. I assume this is just artistic license and not something that's part of this project? Yes they used the same license to remove the utility poles.
February 22, 20241 yr Lakewood Park Waterfront Access Plan Public Meeting Where: Auditorium at Lakewood City Hall, 12650 Detroit Avenue When: 6:00p Open House, 6:30p Presentation The SmithGroup will be presenting final renderings to the public for review. There will be an open house style session starting at 6:00p.m. and a presentation starting at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will take place in the Auditorium at Lakewood City Hall, 12650 Detroit Avenue. https://www.lakewoodoh.gov/lakewood-park-waterfront-access-feasibility-study/
February 29, 20241 yr Lakewood’s Madison Park master plan nearly finished Updated: Feb. 28, 2024 By John Benson, special to cleveland.com LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Roughly a year in the making, the Madison Park master plan is close to being approved ... The Madison Park master plan started last winter with the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission awarding Lakewood a $75,000 Planning Services Grant, which required a $10,000 match from the city. The goal was to create a community-driven plan that addresses the current and future needs for all users at the city’s second-largest park in an inclusive and equitable manner. https://www.cleveland.com/community/2024/02/lakewoods-madison-park-master-plan-nearly-finished.html
March 2, 20241 yr Pier and rock beach envisioned for Lakewood waterfront Updated: Mar. 01, 2024 By John Benson, special to cleveland.com Earlier this week, the city held a Lakewood Park Waterfront Feasibility Study meeting where residents were presented with the final study and concept plan. ... The unveiled project includes the construction of a pier with an adjacent cobble beach located east of Lakewood Park’s popular Solstice Steps. ... The plan includes a lakeside terrace in the middle area along the water’s edge. Farther east is where a pier will take visitors over Lake Erie. https://www.cleveland.com/community/2024/03/lakewood-presents-waterfront-feasibility-study-plan-for-pier-and-rock-beach.html Link to plan presentation: https://onelakewood.granicus.com/player/clip/2218 Edited March 2, 20241 yr by Luke_S
March 3, 20241 yr Lakewood is doing the unfortunate thing where they concentrate all of their energy into improving what is already considered two great parks in the region. Where are they on adding badly needed housing? Why has every development plan proposed fallen apart in this city?
March 3, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, noname said: Lakewood is doing the unfortunate thing where they concentrate all of their energy into improving what is already considered two great parks in the region. Where are they on adding badly needed housing? Why has every development plan proposed fallen apart in this city? On the small remaining sites that are available, the city should be focused on getting large, vertical residential projects. Population wise, the city is basically maxed out. There’s no where for any meaningful amount of people to move to within the city. They did this once before, as you’ll see a smattering of mid rise condo and apartment building all throughout the city.
March 4, 20241 yr 3 hours ago, noname said: Lakewood is doing the unfortunate thing where they concentrate all of their energy into improving what is already considered two great parks in the region. Where are they on adding badly needed housing? Why has every development plan proposed fallen apart in this city? The park improvements are public infrastructure projects and new housing would be built by private developers, so not driven by the same factors. To your point, I'm surprised that we don't see more infill mid-rise buildings along Madison and Detroit. So either the developers don't see the demand to make profits or they're put off by whatever processes they need to go through to build in Lakewood.
March 4, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, Rustbelter said: The park improvements are public infrastructure projects and new housing would be built by private developers, so not driven by the same factors. To your point, I'm surprised that we don't see more infill mid-rise buildings along Madison and Detroit. So either the developers don't see the demand to make profits or they're put off by whatever processes they need to go through to build in Lakewood. I think his point was the amount of red tape and hurdles Lakewood city hall puts up in front of anyone that wants to build anything within the city.
March 4, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, marty15 said: I think his point was the amount of red tape and hurdles Lakewood city hall puts up in front of anyone that wants to build anything within the city. Was it? What would improving parks have to do with red tape and hurdles to building housing?
March 4, 20241 yr 53 minutes ago, X said: Was it? What would improving parks have to do with red tape and hurdles to building housing? Priorities. If they wanted to make development easier, they could. They’ve chosen to focus their energy in other directions.
March 4, 20241 yr I'll pay devil's advocate for the city here. I'm not sure they're wrong to focus on their parks. Lakewood is still the densest city of over 10,000 people in Ohio, and while I haven't run the numbers, I'm guessing it would fall well below the national median in terms of area devoted to parks.* Given that, I don't think I can agree that focusing disproportionately on the two main parks is a mistake. If you don't have enough park area for your population (which I would argue is true of Lakewood) it makes sense to invest and make what parks you do have very nice. I of course agree that Lakewood could and should have more apartments up and down Lorain/Detroit, but I don't see that in conflict with having nice parks. Even in distributing effort, this seems like a walking and chewing gum situation. *The border does a weird thing to include part of the Rocky River Reservation, but even including that I think it's probably below the 15% of land area median value.
March 4, 20241 yr 8 hours ago, marty15 said: Priorities. If they wanted to make development easier, they could. They’ve chosen to focus their energy in other directions. Yeah, I hear there's like one guy running around doing everything down there, and definitely not separate parks, planning, and building departments.
March 4, 20241 yr 12 hours ago, Rustbelter said: The park improvements are public infrastructure projects and new housing would be built by private developers, so not driven by the same factors. To your point, I'm surprised that we don't see more infill mid-rise buildings along Madison and Detroit. So either the developers don't see the demand to make profits or they're put off by whatever processes they need to go through to build in Lakewood. That last part is my point— whatever the process is, it’s not working. There’s been ZERO new housing built despite incredible demand. There’s been developments proposed on vacant land that is still vacant and the project is dead (not just the pit!). Instead, they’re worrying about what they can do to increase property values of already well off folk who own houses near Lakewood Park. It is about priorities.
March 4, 20241 yr The Downtown Lakewood project is not dead ar all. Quite the opposite. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 4, 20241 yr Mayby it's as simple as low hanging fruit. It's easy to add something to an already established park while it's more difficult to deal with new housing in a city already built out. My Lakewood house was built in 1908 and while it's in pretty good shape one house next to me is falling apart because the widow living in it for the last 40 years can't maintain it. The house on the other side has a couple in it who are in their late 70's. Somehow, someway Lakewood needs new housing and younger homeowners.
March 4, 20241 yr 4 hours ago, X said: Yeah, I hear there's like one guy running around doing everything down there, and definitely not separate parks, planning, and building departments. There must be!
March 4, 20241 yr Lakewood must not have a traffic engineer either. The Lake Ave/Cove intersection continues to be a rush hour mess despite recent changes to the signal patterns. The journey on Clifton from W117th to Rocky River is unnecessarily long. Signals are excessively long on some of the north/south streets (Webb's 40 second light) when there is minimal cross traffic which delays Clifton heading east/west. This causes cars to speed up to catch the green light which can be dangerous. The Clifton Blvd, West Clifton and Lake Road is a nightmare that they have done nothing to resolve in years. They have compounded the issue by making Clifton from the bridge to Lakewood into a one lane road when there is almost no bicycle traffic to justify a full bicycle lane (which could easily be accommodated on a separate path along the road). Lakewood received funding for traffic sensor cameras to improve Clifton traffic flow but they appear to have been disconnected. I have heard that the City does not want to do anything to improve this intersection so that people will welcome one or more new traffic roundabouts at that intersection (the goal of the Clifton Beach residents). This will be an even bigger problem for anyone travelling through that area because the roundabouts will not be large enough to accommodate the large volume of vehicles and people do not know how to drive through them. There is no reason that the timing of some of the side street signals could not be tweaked immediately. It seems Lakewood's goal is to slow traffic to discourage people from driving the City but that is a large disservice to the locals who live there.
March 4, 20241 yr It's nice to have first-world problems. But we'd better stick to development discussions or this thread will get locked. And I'd hate for that to happen now because I hope to have a big Lakewood story by the end of the week. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 4, 20241 yr 8 hours ago, X said: Yeah, I hear there's like one guy running around doing everything down there, and definitely not separate parks, planning, and building departments. Why are they still doing trash collection when there are empty lots to develop???
March 5, 20241 yr This doesn't sound too good: Lakewood’s Studio West 117 Project Faces Financial Trouble Maybe the competency of local developers is also part of the blame for lack of new projects getting off the ground?
March 5, 20241 yr 3 hours ago, Rustbelter said: This doesn't sound too good: Lakewood’s Studio West 117 Project Faces Financial Trouble Maybe the competency of local developers is also part of the blame for lack of new projects getting off the ground? I have read some very unflattering portrayals about them today on social media. While I have no personal experience I have to say I've been worried there's been no visible progress with restoring the original buildings. They look awful. Also as we've all seen these huge "temporary" surface lots have this sad tendency to last for decades.
March 5, 20241 yr 5 hours ago, Rustbelter said: This doesn't sound too good: Lakewood’s Studio West 117 Project Faces Financial Trouble Maybe the competency of local developers is also part of the blame for lack of new projects getting off the ground? Click on the Buckeye Flame/Scene link in the above article and read that article. It pretty much shows that the developer Budish and his partner have no idea what they are doing.
March 18, 20241 yr Lakewood Eyes Expansion of Waterfront Access at Lakewood Park, Looks For Funding Mike Oprea - Scene - Mar. 18, 2024 "After eight years of embracing that water—and drawing, one estimate from Placer suggests, 200,000 visitors a year—Lakewood Park is once again on the city's mind. Late last month, after a year's worth of drafting up a trio of potential designs, Lakewood's development team came a notch closer to Solstice's second stage. ... Lakewood will be seeking funds through its own Capital Improvement Plan, along with state and federal grants. Stangland said that SmithGroup will fine-tune the drawings teased in late February after the project goes through its permitting phase. A design report will be finalized by late this week. An engineer could be hired for the buildout, he suggested, later this year or in early 2025."
April 9, 20241 yr The scaffolding is off on the commercial storefronts encompassing Scalish's adaptive reuse project for the former Trinity Lutheran Church site on Detroit. Last I heard these storefronts will contain a Cleveland Bagel Co location, among other tenants.
April 9, 20241 yr Well, well. I have been waiting for a westside Cleveland Bagel for a while now. Excellent.
April 9, 20241 yr Absolutely love their breakfast sandwiches. The one on detroit is always jammed packed weekend mornings whenever I go.
April 9, 20241 yr I was thinking Cleveland Bagel is the one on Carnegie by the Clinic. Is that Cleveland Bagel? That's the one l like. I For some reason l always l forget about the bagel shop on Detroit.
April 9, 20241 yr 3 minutes ago, buckeye1 said: Rising Star in Lakewood has Cleveland Bagels if you need a fix... Good to know. I love Cleveland Bagels.... but hate the wait time to get one most any morning. They need to ditch the hipster staff and bring in a crew of immigrant guys like you see in NYC! The kind where you are in and out in 30 seconds, still trying to put your credit card away while they are shoving a hot coffee and bagel in your hand! 😁
April 10, 20241 yr The homely 1970s building at Madison and Coutant that was a car rental place is all fenced off. This would be prime TOD and a good opportunity for Lakewood to reclaim some good urban form.
April 10, 20241 yr 6 minutes ago, surfohio said: The homely 1970s building at Madison and Coutant that was a car rental place is all fenced off. This would be prime TOD and a good opportunity for Lakewood to reclaim some good urban form. That's a Tony George property. It will be redeveloped as a medical marijuana dispensary RISE Lakewood. https://oh.risecannabis.com/dispensaries/ohio/lakewood-madison/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 10, 20241 yr 33 minutes ago, KJP said: That's a Tony George property. It will be redeveloped as a medical marijuana dispensary RISE Lakewood. https://oh.risecannabis.com/dispensaries/ohio/lakewood-madison/ Isn’t there already a brand new Rise dispensary next door?
April 10, 20241 yr Apparently this is a new and improved one! Woo hoo! "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 10, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, marty15 said: Isn’t there already a brand new Rise dispensary next door? not sure how Ohio will delineate between recreational and medical stores, but in Maine I've seen two storefronts or buildings next door to each other, one for medical patients and one for the general public.
April 10, 20241 yr - - Edited April 10, 20241 yr by ExPatClevGuy Please delete this empty comment. Thanks
April 10, 20241 yr 3 hours ago, marty15 said: Isn’t there already a brand new Rise dispensary next door? 😁 - "We met at Rise, but not the same Rise" Edited April 10, 20241 yr by ExPatClevGuy
April 10, 20241 yr 4 hours ago, KJP said: Apparently this is a new and improved one! Woo hoo! Oh okay. So this one will be for rec only I’m assuming?
April 10, 20241 yr 4 hours ago, marty15 said: Oh okay. So this one will be for rec only I’m assuming? Don't know. Not the kind of development I really pay attention to. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
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