Cleveland VA Medical Center launches major construction, renovation to keep pace with private competition

 

By SHANNON MORTLAND

 

6:00 am, August 14, 2006

 

 

 

Once a white-washed, drab hospital in University Circle, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center is getting a $250 million face-lift that will affect its services across much of Northern Ohio.

 

In addition to its plans for a 240-bed hospital tower on the Wade Park campus, the medical center this fall will break ground on a new parking garage, a home for 122 homeless veterans, and an administrative office building across East 105th Street from the University Circle hub, said William Montague, director of the medical center.

 

Plans also are brewing to expand or consolidate outpatient centers in eight geographic areas in the Northeast quadrant of the state, all while continuing the $110 million renovation of the existing 800,000-square-foot Wade Park location, he said.

 

“We consider our competition to be the local private hospitals, not other VAs, so we expect it to look every bit as nice,” Mr. Montague said.

 

Following current trends in private hospitals, the veterans medical center slowly is replacing the white walls, tiles and drop ceilings with more home-like features, such as wood floors and wood accents along the hallways. A two-person interior design team now chooses art for the hallways and patient rooms to soften the sterile environment hospitals are known for.

 

 

The spinal cord injury area that once housed 16-person wards has been converted to rooms with two beds each, Mr. Montague said. Veterans with spinal cord injuries tend to have much longer hospital stays than other patients, so they prefer to have someone else in the room to keep them company, he added.

 

 

 

Doing more, doing it faster

 

But the Stokes center won’t just let construction happen around it; some will pitch in to help. The hospital on Oct. 1 will launch its own construction company to renovate the basement and first floor of the existing hospital grounds, he said.

 

The Stokes center is hiring 60 employees to staff the construction firm, which has been funded for four years and will be given $10 million a year for renovations, Mr. Montague said. A design for those two floors already has been completed, and construction will begin this fall, he said.

 

Doing some of the work itself was easier on the hospital than trying to manage so many projects being done by numerous construction firms at the same time, he said.

 

“We’ll end up spending the same amount of money in the long run, but it’s getting a lot more done a lot faster,” Mr. Montague said.

 

In another first for the hospital, the Stokes center will wade into the public fundraising pool to build a Fisher House on East 105th Street, Mr. Montague said. The Fisher House serves as a home away from home for families of veterans who are staying at the hospital.

 

Run by the nonprofit Fisher House Foundation Inc., VA hospitals are required to raise a portion of the funds to build the home, which averages 5,600 square feet and typically costs $1 million to $1.5 million to build, said John Gennaro, facility planner with the Stokes center. Congress has appropriated funds for the rest of the projects on the Stokes campus.

 

“Philanthropy is normally something we don’t get involved in, but they do expect the local VA hospital to generate significant local interest before they bankroll the whole thing,” Mr. Montague said.

 

 

 

No more drips

 

As construction begins on the Wade Park campus, the Stokes center is preparing to raze 40 structures on its 102-acre campus in Brecksville, he said. The land, which has been rezoned for office/laboratory space, has been leased to the city of Brecksville for 75 years, but the fed-eral government has an option to sell the land during that time, he said.

 

Services at the Brecksville campus will resurface at the Wade Park campus’ new 280,000-square-foot hospital tower, which will open in 2009, Mr. Montague said. Construction will begin next spring. About 1,000 of the 1,300 jobs at Brecksville will be transferred to Wade Park, he said.

 

The consolidation will save the Stokes center about $28 million a year, mainly in transporting veterans between the Wade Park and Brecksville campuses for various treatments and programs and in heating, ventilation and air conditioning, Mr. Montague said. The Brecksville hospital was cooled with window air conditioning units, and its windows and roof leaked, he added.

 

In the next few years, eight of the Stokes center’s 14 outpatient centers in Northeast Ohio will be expanded or combined. For example, a 60,000-square-foot center will open in 2008 in Parma, and the Stokes center is proposing to consolidate two locations in Painesville, Mr. Gennaro said.

 

 

 

A dose of charm

 

The physical projects are the latest in the Stokes center’s improvement efforts. Like many VA hospitals, the Stokes center had a long-standing reputation for substandard care and poor patient service, Mr. Montague said.

 

“The VA did have some negative factors from days gone by, (such as) shabby old buildings,” he said.

 

“Patient satisfaction didn’t have the standard it should.”

 

Mr. Montague now sends all employees to “charm school,” a nine-week program during which they’re reminded to do things such as smile and offer help to patients and visitors, he said. The hospital also has improved surgical outcomes by adhering to the same quality measurements that public hospitals follow, he said.

 

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve shown significant improvement,” Mr. Montague said. “The hospital is now extremely clean, and it wasn’t always.”

 

 

 

Great news all around.  I walked through their campus from E. 105th to E. 108th yesterday and it was like night and day.  On the west side, boarded up buildings and mounds of trash.  On the east side, the beautiful old homes on Magnolia and the "cold shoulder" corner building of the Western Reserve Historical Society.  This article brings to light the plans for the west side of E. 105, though.  It looks like the old buildings are sitting vacant because the VA plans to tear them down and build there.  Sad as that may be, this is much better than the current state of things.

 

I'll have pics later!

Just about the entire block will be torn down. That pretty retirement home that overlooks RockPark will stay (thank god).  The building at 105 and Wade Park is where the fire killed four kids earlier this year. 

^Wow...didn't realize that.

 

And yes, the apartment building at E. 105 and East Boulevard is beautiful... we could use a few more of those!

The article referred to "Wade Park campus’ new 280,000-square-foot hospital tower" -- how tall will this tower be?

^ 15-20 stories??

From some very ugly renderings, my guess is that it will be 8-10 stories.  The city will be vacating the final portion of East Blvd to allow for this expansion (the portion that is between E.105 and "suicide circle").

renderings?  ah well... id say 8-10 would not really be much of a "tower"

The renderings aren't public yet. Bed tower is sort of a generic hospital term.

Great news all around.  I walked through their campus from E. 105th to E. 108th yesterday and it was like night and day.  On the west side, boarded up buildings and mounds of trash.  On the east side, the beautiful old homes on Magnolia and the "cold shoulder" corner building of the Western Reserve Historical Society.  This article brings to light the plans for the west side of E. 105, though.  It looks like the old buildings are sitting vacant because the VA plans to tear them down and build there.  Sad as that may be, this is much better than the current state of things.

 

I'll have pics later!

 

I look forward to the pics...my recollection is that some these old apartment buildings are pretty nice structures (albeit in frightening disrepair).  I'll be bummed to see more old brick buildings replaced by what I expect to be bland/ugly institutional mass in what should be our premiere 'hood.  I wish that scary long winding concrete bunker of an apartment building north of Wade Park would be knocked down instead...

 

Wim, when you say the whole block is being demoed (minus the nice big one- a real beaut'), does that include the other apartment buildings overlooking Rockefeller Park/facing East Blvid?  Those seem particularly sad to lose given their prime location (i.e., I could actually realistically envision renewed interest in these in the not-too-distant future).

 

^sorry, one correction. There is one apartment building that faces East Blvd that will remain (as well as the pretty senior housing). It is the one closest to Wade Park Ave.  I believe that two vacant and greatly decaying apartment buildings that face East Blvd will be torn down.  Everything that faces E105 will also be torn down. Everything that will be lost currently is a serious blight on the area.  Someone (city, council ??) found hard to get the VA to include retail on the first floor of the new parking garage. This retail will front 105. I believe, but I'm not sure, that the new 2000 car garage will have an entrance onto East Blvd.  (there are so many things wrong with this expansion, but there are some positives too).

 

To

I look forward to the pics...my recollection is that some these old apartment buildings are pretty nice structures (albeit in frightening disrepair).  I'll be bummed to see more old brick buildings replaced by what I expect to be bland/ugly institutional mass in what should be our premiere 'hood.  I wish that scary long winding concrete bunker of an apartment building north of Wade Park would be knocked down instead...

 

I think that's called Park Place. And yeah, it's hideous.

 

How many apartment buildings are being demo'd? If I recall correctly, there are only a couple left south of Wade Park. (The one closest to WP, by the way, is being used as artist live-work space.) The best-preserved row is located north of Wade Park on East Boulevard, facing the park. If there were plans to so much as lay a finger on those, my knickers would be in a serious twist.

As far as the vacant buildings being a blight on the neighborhood, I'm not sure the VA will scare any fewer people off, ya know? The current campus is the terror of Brecksville (agreed it doesn't take much to scare Brecksvillians, but still). In my view, this whole plan is just another example of the poor and disabled being barred from the suburbs and concentrated in the city.

 

How many apartment buildings are being demo'd? If I recall correctly, there are only a couple left south of Wade Park. (The one closest to WP, by the way, is being used as artist live-work space.) The best-preserved row is located north of Wade Park on East Boulevard, facing the park. If there were plans to so much as lay a finger on those, my knickers would be in a serious twist.

 

Yeah, I hear ya, I don't mean to make too much noise about this set- it's nothing like the group north of Wade Park-but it probably was (albeit smaller) 50 years ago.  Googlemaps confirms my recollection that there are three other buildings (not including the big one on the south end of the block) facing Rock. Park which, if structurally sound, could be pretty cool.  Maybe some photos could convince me otherwise (I'm going off very rusty memory here).  The thing about this location is that unlike some nice old brick commercial building deep in Hough or on Broadway, this nabe could actually attract some private dollars sometime soon to reinvigorate buildings like this...it's not just knee-jerk preservation.  To repeat an earlier rant, I think expansion of VA and UH hospitals are great for the City (tax dollars and attracting residents) but lousy for University Circle as a neighborhood.

 

PS: I've always liked the random little retail structures at the southwest corner of Wade Park and E105 but I take it that's where the fire was so I won't squawk about demo-ing those.

^two of the three apartment buildings will be torn down.

 

And, yes, the retail structure is where the fire was.

Ok, I'm still promising pictures, but it'll have to wait for tonight!  I'm looking at Google Maps and recall that there are four classic East Blvd. apartment buildings on the western side of the block overlooking Rockefeller Park.  If memory serves, the northernmost one was occupied and the other three were in bad shape.  My girl and I looked at them with great hope, though, citing their prime location next to the park and jobs.

 

So, the story is that the VA will be occupying most of this block?  Are the buildings you're talking about (Wimwar) the ones on the eastern side (E. 105th) of the block or on both sides?  I really had no idea that the were expanding in this direction!

 

So, the story is that the VA will be occupying most of this block?  Are the buildings you're talking about (Wimwar) the ones on the eastern side (E. 105th) of the block or on both sides?  I really had no idea that the were expanding in this direction!

 

Yeah, isn't it great!  :drunk: I love that they're builidng a parking garage that will overlook Rockefeller Park.  God love the federal government.    :wtf:

 

OK, the VA will be taking the entire block that is bounded by 105, Wade Park and East Blvd.  The senior housing and the northern most apartment building stay. The rest is coming down.  The 2000-car parking garage will go just north of the senior housing and will extend from East Blvd along the park all the way to 105. The 105 portion will have street level retail. (the city fought hard for this. the city, the VA and the councilwomen had some tough negotiations. i don't really understand what leverage the city had as the feds can do whatever they want to). There will also be some sort of office structure, a residential hotel for the families of the vets, and ?? I think that there might be something else on the west side of 105. I can't remember exactly. On the east side of 105, that is where the new bed tower will go. And boy, its a real beaut  :whip:  :drunk: :?

 

In the end, the bright side is that the city will gain 1000 jobs. City Architecture did a lot of work on the project. And now Montague (VA chief) hates Volpe.  There are a lot of interesting side stories to this entire project.

Wow, Wim, I've never seen you so emotional!  This is very disappointing news...  I'm going to do some digging today.

^Wow, again, thanks for the inside look, Wim.  And wow, it is so, so, so much worse than I first understood.  I'm happy the city is getting its retail on E105 but unless that garage is hidden on the park side behind that residential hotel (fat chance), this is really attrocious.  Stupid federalism.

Yeah, I hear ya, I don't mean to make too much noise about this set- it's nothing like the group north of Wade Park-but it probably was (albeit smaller) 50 years ago. ... The thing about this location is that unlike some nice old brick commercial building deep in Hough or on Broadway, this nabe could actually attract some private dollars sometime soon to reinvigorate buildings like this...it's not just knee-jerk preservation.

 

Strap, you know I'm with you 100% -- I'm against any demo of classic brick buildings like this, especially in such a prime location. It's sad that we must choose our battles so much in this city, but such is reality.

 

Just imagine how much better things would be if we could significantly invest in additional public transit. No more worrying about parking garages fronting on our premier urban park.

Seriously, for a city with sooooooooooooo much underused land (including along its future BRT), it is a pretty sad coincidence that all this job growth (which is very welcome!) has to be at the expense of one of the few neighborhoods with potential for signficiant near-term population growth.  In that respect, I am really quite happy the Clinic is located a few blocks west...

First, to give you a sense of what an intact block of East Boulevard looks like:

 

Just south of Superior on East Boulevard:

 

 

 

 

Some of the most atrocious public housing design I've ever seen:

 

 

The block in question - south of Wade Park on East Boulevard - begins with this beauty... the power's on and we're thinking she may be salvageable!

Broken windows spells trouble for these three:

 

 

 

She stays:

 

 

 

The view across the park:

 

Down below, the always popular tennis courts and some tailgating!

 

Turning the corner on E. 105th, directly across from the VA's entrance:

 

 

 

The VA...wait, are we in Brecksville or Glenville?  Do they do anything other than provide parking for veterans???

 

That was some of the most desireable housing in Cleveland for years.

 

My dad (who scans this board  :wave:) said that when the neighborhood was at rock bottom housing on this street was on the list of "must have" as East Blvd. is one of Cleveland most desireable streets to live on.

 

Although, he said there are street off of East blvd., Wade Park or Hough that the housing is just breathtaking.  thats why in the (eastside photo thread) if that was the Alhambra apartment building. 

 

I can't imagine what this area looked like in the 50's/60's it must been fabulous.

That first building south of Wade Park was purchased by a woman who's turning it into live-work space for artists. That's why it's staying. Information available from Artspace Cleveland.

 

MTS, I also heard that Park Place was originally built as market-rate housing, and that it was hot property when first completed. I think it's all Section 8 now?

Concerning the VA:

 

Well, I saw an "updated graphic" today. This one kind of hides the garage. The domiciliary would front on East Blvd and the park. The garage would go behind it.  The garage would still front on 105, but it will have the street front retail. Also, they graphic suggested that the building at 105 and Wade Park would be renovated.

That sounds much better.  It sounds more like what I wanted to see happen there.  I'd love to see the graphic.

There will be an image, along with an article in the debut edition of Full Circle, the magazine for University Circle Incorporated!

I said I'd post this when it came out:

 

full Circle is UCI's new quarterly magazine

 

http://www.universitycircle.org/ASSETS/0E86301B032F405294B56E416761DB47/Full%20Circle-Magazine.pdf

 

The article on the VA expansion is on page 2

I see this item in my Crain's Top Stories e-mail, but what's it all about?

________________________

 

Another piece added to VA puzzle

Doan Pyramid Electric LLC is taking on the financing and construction of a $120 million office tower and parking garage that will support the planned hospital expansion of the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center at University Circle. 

piece added to VA puzzle

Electrical contractor plans $120M project with large office building, parking garage

Related Links 

Doan Pyramid Electric LLC

Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical

 

 

 

By JAY MILLER

 

6:00 am, November 6, 2006

 

Doan Pyramid Electric LLC, an electrical contractor, is growing into a developer.

 

The company is taking on the financing and construction of a $120 million office tower and parking garage that will support the planned hospital expansion of the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center at University Circle.

 

Veterans Development LLC, which is led by Doan Pyramid president Michael Forlani, is putting together a project that would cover most of a block along the west side of East 105th Street between Wade Park Avenue and East Boulevard across from the main hospital complex.

 

Plans call for the project to include a six-story, 175,000-square-foot office building for VA administrative staff, a 122-bed residence for homeless veterans and a 2,000-car parking garage. Also planned is an undetermined amount of retail and rentable office space in a two- or three-story building along East 105th.

 

The entire office building and most of the parking spaces will be leased to the VA medical center, which is undergoing its own $170 million transformation that will merge its hospital in Brecksville into the University Circle complex. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates the consolidation will bring 1,000 jobs to University Circle.

 

 

Veterans Development would finance its project with bonds issued through the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority. However, Mr. Forlani told a Cleveland City Council committee last week that the VA’s lease payments would cover only about 80% of the debt service on the project. He said he would be asking the city to approve a tax increment financing plan to bridge the financing gap once final agreements have been reached among the parties.

 

The VA consolidation in Cleveland is mandated by a change in strategic thinking at Department of Veterans Affairs, which is merging facilities nationwide to save money and improve care.

 

 

 

A complex arrangement

 

Congress appropriated $170 million for the consolidation of the VA’s hospitals in University Circle and Brecksville. The key part of that capital improvements package is a new, 240-bed hospital tower at the Wade Park campus.

 

However, the $170 million covered only part of the consolidation plan devised by the VA’s regional administration. Congress, though, left VA hospitals a financing back door called enhanced-use leasing.

 

A private development partner, unlike the VA, could borrow money, so it could build a facility that the VA could lease.

 

Hospital director William Montague and his staff decided they could lease the 102-acre Brecksville property to a developer and could use that revenue and the cost savings they anticipate from the consolidation of the Cleveland and Brecksville operations to finance the additional facilities.

 

After advertising for a private developer, Mr. Montague settled on Mr. Forlani and his group. LDV Inc., a minority-owned firm in Cleveland that has contracts for other VA projects, will be assisting Veterans Development.

 

Several hundred administrative support jobs will end up in the office building on the west side of East 105th.. The office/retail building will allow stores such as a barbecue restaurant and a barber shop that long have operated on the block to remain.

 

Mr. Montague said the plan is for Veterans Development — likely in a joint venture with the city of Brecksville — to take a long-term lease on the Brecksville property for a redevelopment that would follow completion of the consolidation of VA programs at University Circle.

 

The complicated network of deals also includes the Famicos Foundation, a community development group, and the Volunteers of America. The latter would operate the residence for homeless veterans.

 

Famicos would run University Towers, a federally subsidized high-rise apartment building on the same block as the new project. Veterans Development last December purchased the high rise for $3.2 million from a partnership that includes Associated Estates Realty Corp. CEO Jeffrey Friedman and members of his family.

 

That deal principally was made by Veterans Development to gain control of a surface parking lot and other undeveloped land around the residential building that it needed for the VA project. Mr. Forlani said while his group wanted to maintain the residents in their homes, it did not want to be a landlord. So it is giving Famicos the building.

 

In total, Mr. Forlani said his group already has spent $7.5 million to acquire the land it needs to move forward with the project.

 

 

 

Confident developer

 

Mr. Forlani said he has ventured into the development arena before with smaller projects. But he said his company is a longtime VA contractor and he’s confident about taking on this project.

 

“Our company is a $180 million company,” he said. “This is work we know how to do.”

 

When Mr. Forlani laid out his plan before City Council last week, he said he hoped the city would agree to approve the tax increment financing. If it does, taxes on 100% of the increase in the assessed value of the property would be diverted to help cover construction costs.

 

That’s a hefty tax break, more than the city would grant in a tax abatement, but Mr. Forlani argued that the financing structure of the deal and the nature of the project justify it.

 

“The market rents wouldn’t support the project without some incentives to reduce the capital cost,” Mr. Forlani said after the City Council hearing. “And if the VA had the money to do the project itself, it would pay no taxes.”

 

Under a tax increment financing arrangement, the county auditor would bill the project for its full tax payments. However, the bulk of the tax money collected would be diverted to pay off the port authority bonds rather than be sent to the city or to the Cleveland Municipal School District.

 

Mr. Forlani told City Council he is negotiating with the Cleveland schools to make payments in lieu of taxes and would give the school district a portion of the tax revenue.

 

An analysis of the project by the city’s Economic Development Department describes the entire VA expansion as bringing 1,200 jobs to the neighborhood, in large part by creating a hospital complex that employs 2,700 people. The analysis estimates the new jobs will bring in $1.6 million a year in city income taxes at current salary and tax levels, and it projects a total of nearly $80 million over 30 years.

 

Mr. Montague of the VA said he’s optimistic that ground will be broken for the projects on both sides of East 105th by early summer. Completion is not anticipated until 2009.

 

 

 

At first, I was confused as to why the VA was going to ask for a TIF. Its a federal project, why the well are they asking Cleveland for cash?? But then thinking about it...its great that a private developer will be the owner of the expansion. This means that the land will be paying taxes. 

 

Just had to say that outloud.

Here I was all excited that an office tower would be built. How does six stories constitute an "office tower?" Geez, I don't think folks in Coshocton, Canfield or Conneaut would consider six stories a tower.

There will also be a "bed tower" as part of the project. I think that it will also be 6 stories.

Plans are being finalized for the VA's new buildings in University Circle to prepare for their move from Brecksville.

As you will see, it is nothing amazing architecturally - but that is just my opinion. I will let the negative spew come from those much better at doing so then I am..

Here are images from the plans submitted to the Cleveland Landmarks Commission for their meeting today at City Hall:

 

If you cannot see the whole image scroll right -> -> ->

Or you can visit the Flickr set to view them in different sizes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/muscatello/sets/72157601598625238/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, another structure that looks like the Avenue District.

Overall, blah, blech, and bland - and looky, a worthless setback (aka strip of grass)! :roll:

 

To their credit they're keeping some of the elements from the dilapidated apartment buildings and incorporating them into the design. Okay, I'll say something else positive - there will be great photo vantage points from the top of that nine-story parking garage.

I actually really like this. It's not groundbreaking or memorable, but it's definitely not bad, either.

 

The major problem I have with it is the parking structure. I friggin hate standalone parking structures like that! It's such a waste of space and bleak, in my opinion.

^That and it's probably three times the size of the administration building. The word 'leviathan' comes to mind.

Sigh. No kidding. I never knew a building could piss me off so much.

I can not believe the amount of parking structures that have been built in UC in the past 5 years.  It seems as thouhg the city should have built a massive centrally located structure to appease the needs of the surrounding institutions.  It is as if each institution is taking up tons of space on their campuses for parking. 

Once again. No kidding. Now UH is supposed to be building a parking structure for its campus as well. Can't they at least bury them UNDER their new buildings??

Or at least bury a portion of it?

On the bright side, this is a great new development for the fringe of UC bringing many jobs to the city.  It's a HUGE improvement over what we have there now. 

Yes. I just don't understand why all these parking structures are these standalone, waste-of-space things. UC especially deserves better than that.

They don't have to bury them (remember Clevelands ground water table and the large amount of sand in U Circle), but they could atleast put their structures on top of them. 

Any of the above, quite frankly! :)

For all the crap that it gets, Case does a good job of partially hiding their parking.  There is the underground lot below the library, student center, & Severance Hall as well as the new parking garage on E. 118 that doubles as the grandstands for the football stadium on one side.....no comment about the other side.

i thought this would piss me off a lot more... whats that weird facade of one of the apartment buildings for?  that looks so strange in the rendering...

One good thing about the parking garage's setback is that it is large enough that they could conceivably add a building between the garage and sidewalk if they expand again in the future.  Think an office annex, wrapped around the garage similar to the Clinic's new garage.

One good thing about the parking garage's setback is that it is large enough that they could conceivably add a building between the garage and sidewalk if they expand again in the future.  Think an office annex, wrapped around the garage similar to the Clinic's new garage.

 

That's part of the deal.  They're going to look for an opportunity to add a retail front to E. 105.  I don't know how much of a commitment they've made, but it's in some of the drawings I've seen.  As for the East Blvd. side, the attempt to come down to scale with the two-story domiciliary falls a bit short, considering the 9-story garage.  I'm not sure who exactly will notice, as Rockefeller Park is immediately across East Blvd and there's a significant drop down to MLK from there.  There aren't many neighbors left, though University Tower (senior housing) and the one remaining East Blvd apartment (now co-op) building will remain. 

 

The biggest problems I see are with the traffic on East Blvd and the pedestrian bridge to nowhere!