Wow, nuts.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Real-Estate/2016/09/22/ProMedica-confirms-downtown-purchase.html

 

Promedica confirms downtown purchase of Fort industry square

Flurry of work at ProMedica Plaza

 

http://www.toledoblade.com/gallery/Flurry-of-work-at-ProMedica-Plaza

http://www.toledoblade.com/Real-Estate/2016/10/02/ProMedica-s-downtown-boom-could-take-buildings-off-tax-rolls.html

 

Promedica's downtown boom could take buildings off tax rolls

Will get some pics of the parking garage progress sometime this week,.. it's well out of the ground n I think that warrants some update on here.. may need help posting

Sure, just shoot me a message if you need help.  Can't wait to see pics.

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2016/12/15/It-now-is-an-inside-job-for-ProMedica-headquarters.html

 

It now is an inside job for Promedica HQ

http://m.wtol.com/toledonewsnow/db/347256/content/dcURZsnA

 

Promedica officials give tour of new HQ building

The new smokestacks look great! I saw them over Christmas holiday and was impressed with how well they turned out.

 

But the parking garage is truly hideous (actually much worse than renderings). Promedica got pushback for a reason. That's a prime real estate site on Summit Street that should have low-rise or mid-rise infill, not an ugly parking garage. Does the new garage even have space for street-level retail? At least the Fiberglas Tower garage has retail spaces.

Does anyone have recent photos?

Not yet... the parking garage is nearly complete, I haven't seen much of the actual steam plant in a while... I'll take pics next nice day l, buy might need help posting

Here is the Promedica parking garage from Christmas week. My big beef with this is that it is really ugly (especially for this era since parking garage facades have improved a lot), and I don't think there is any space for street-level retail. The Fiberglas Tower garage is right across the street from this (far left of photo) and still has street-level retail spaces despite being built in the dark ages of the late 1960s. This is right at the intersection of Summit and Jefferson, two major Toledo streets, so more should have been done with this site. On the plus side though, there is still a lot of public access park space between the garage and Maumee River waterfront. This garage literally looks like something you'd see at Toledo Hospital, which is on the far west side of the city, where such a garage is less offensive. I really am sad about how this garage turned out...hopefully some mid-rise mixed-use infill can go on the lot next to it to help soften the blow of so much dead space on this part of Summit Street. These couple blocks of Summit were renewed in the late 1960s to 1980s (part of the big Seagate redevelopment project), and they still feel like a car canyon. These are the least pedestrian-friendly blocks of Downtown Toledo and they are almost as dead as Downtown Oakland.

 

*Ironically, Downtown Oakland's "Kaiser City" area looks almost identical to this section of Toledo and is equally bad. Just replace the Maumee River with Lake Merritt. It's almost like Oakland took Toledo's mistakes and made them even worse. The structural parallels between the two cities are insane, but Toledo is a vastly superior city with much better people and more beautiful historic architecture. Culturally, Toledo is also far superior to Oakland. Toledo has way more talented artists and no trust fund hipster douchebags pretending they're "professional" (not to mention Toledo's major arts institutions rival or beat San Francisco's, and basically anything you can find on the West Coast outside of LA). Toledo property is priced about 1/10th of what it is in Oakland for similar urban amenities. This is why I'm banking on Toledo being one of America's next hot cities. All the pieces are in place and the momentum of the urban core is visibly accelerating like in big brother Detroit. But sadly like Oakland, Toledo is still repeating some mistakes of its past due to car culture. Though Toledo is more pro-urban than Oakland and vastly more pro-development in its politics, there is still too much reliance on cars, which I'm sure is what led to this parking garage disaster...

 

Lol at the toledo hospital comment!!

 

I guess it's better than the under utilized park that's prob just still gonna sit there....

^On the plus side, it does look like they're keeping most of the park on the waterfront blocks.

The majority of the park will still remain, probably  like 60 or 70% of it if I had to guess, though it's being redesigned.

 

I agree that it's not asthetically up to par and it's poor planning to allow such valuable (economically as well as civil-wise) property be wasted on car parking as opposed to mixed use development or public space. It does have a little bit of storefront space at the corner though which I belive will be a Panera Bread. That's better than nothing I guess.

My friend works for the landscape architecture firm that is designing the park and this is the progress so far. The black rectangle on the parking garage will be a video screen for the park!

An Inside Look at Newly Renovated Promedica HQ

During the last two years, ProMedica spent $46 million — including $5 million in state historic preservation tax credits — to renovate and expand the Steam Plant, which was originally constructed in 1895 to provide heat to downtown buildings.

In 2003, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The building, which reopened in August, had been vacant for three decades when ProMedica purchased it.

Architects incorporated dozens of small tributes from the Steam Plant’s history into the renovated structure. Much of the original brickwork remains. Exposed steel runs along interior surfaces. A massive steel beam stretches across the ceiling; in the mid-1900s, workers used the thick black beam to hoist heavy equipment across the plant.

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2017/10/19/An-inside-look-at-newly-renovated-ProMedica-headquarters.html

Some recent images from around the web of the new HQ:

 

 

From the just-reopened Renaissance Hotel just north of the HQ:

 

 

 

The Steam Plant looks great!

^Agreed.  Fantastic renovation.

Looks great!

I will give it to Toledo, was there for a wedding in September.  The downtown for a city that size was very impressive and there wasn't a baseball or hockey game going on, just a concert both nights on the river.  Bar scene was great, restaurant scene was great, accommodations at the Renaissance was great.  Kudos Toledo!

There have been improvements in three areas around downtown in the last decade:

 

Warehouse District picked up about 10 years ago;

Adams Street has filled in most vacant buildings in the last two years

Downtown has seen activity related to Promedica in the last year

 

Much like Detroit, the area has rebounded with the auto industry. At the current rate, most existing buildings will be renovated in the next 5-7 years. But it's not clear how that would be sustained, since a recession seems likely in the next 18 months or so. Toledo usually falls pretty hard in recessions. Nevertheless, there has been significant investment in the region's highways, infrastructure, and general upkeep in the last three years. If only it could be sustained for another ten.

 

 

Last summer jeep fest week

Posting here because these are developments by and in Promedica buildings on Summit Street. I don't have details about the projects, just found photos from a local economic development page. 

 

Fort Industry Square - first floor commercial, apartments above. 

 

New frontage for Starbucks and other retail. 

 

The skywalks over Summit have almost all been removed; the new frontage for Imagination Station is complete, Barry Bagels will open in the front of that museum; Summit street reconstruction is about halfway complete; Seagate Centre renovations on Summit should start soon.  

Edited October 18, 20204 yr by westerninterloper

Attached to what is now another Promedica building on Summit Street, Focaccia's will open an outdoor dining space with liquor service in Spring 2021. Part of the rapid revitalization of Summit Street after the opening of the Promedica HQ. 

A quick walkabout the reconstruction of Summit Street next to the Promedica HQ and the newly renovated entrance to the Imagination Station (COSI/Portside) in between the season's first snow squalls. 

Looking good!

I grew up in northwest ohio and always have a soft spot for downtown Toledo. Love seeing more buildings getting fixed up. Their downtown is a gem, in my opinion.